The early gains of operation Raccoon
The reinforcements what Adenauer had requested arrived in Smolensk on 4th of August. This made the defensive position of Smolensk much stronger but the encircled 4th Army was the real trouble. If Chinese were able to transfer more troops to attack the city from the South, or were able to capture Elbrus passage and send in the Expeditionary Army from Lödöse, the 4th Army would be doomed. Adenauer was now convinced that dealing with the salient made by the Spanish troops would now have to be the priority.
In the North English 2nd Army was having more and more trouble reaching Vladivostok. The constant air raids and endless steppes that didnt offer any protection were exhausting the English soldiers. By 5th of August they had advanced over 100 km but were still some 150 km away from Vladivostok. In the city General Busse was not too alarmed about the English advance. Losing the River Vistula had been unfortuned but the 2nd German Air Fleet was now effectively mauling the English troops. Busse had not been given very effective land forces in his disposal, but for his fortune some panzer regiments were passing through the city on their way to France and Busse was able to convince the German High Command that the delivery to France should be delayed and that the panzers should be left in his command for the next week or so. The newly trained panzer troops would have their first battle sooner than they expected.
Adenauer was given the permisson from the German High Command to use his panzer reserves on 6th of August, although he did not unleash them until 8th of August. But when he did, the effect was shattering. The panzers struck with enermous strenght and speed to the left flank of Francos Army and immediately penetrated the weak Spanish defences. Francos Army had not been given any anti-tank weapons so the fighting was quite hopeless. For two days the Spanish resisted, but on 10th of August the panzers had cut trough the neck of the Spanish salient. Francos goal of reaching the Harsch Mountains was shattered and he was now encircled between Smolensk and Krasnoyarsk. The trap that the German High Comand had started to plan on June was now finally beginning to unfold.
In the North, couraged by the success of the Adenauers panzer attack, General Busse launched his panzers 10th of August. On the open steppe they easily picked off English troops and made deep strikes between the English formations. This effectively halted the English offensive and they started slowly to withdraw towards the River Vistula. Even though the panzers had shown devastating firepower, the Germans had also taken casualties. At this point of the war the panzers were still on short supply and the Germans didnt want to risk losing any of them. So after the initial success the panzers were halted and infantry was send in to keep the defense lines
The only couraging news for the Western Powers came from the South were the strong Chinese 6th Army cleared its way to Elbrus passage. General Archen had had to reduce the defences in his left flank due to supporting the panzers push from the North. Capturing Elbrus passage gave some hope to Franco who thought that if he could break out from the encirclement he would be able to make contact with the Chinese. This however proved wrong when the German infantry divisions from Smolensk begun their assault against Francos troops. Some of the Spanish troops managed to escape to East towarsds the Elbrus Passage but most of them never made it. It was a humiliating defeat and marked the end for the Spanish involvement in the Central Eurasia Campaign.
After capturing the Elbrus Passage, the Chinese made numerous attacks towars Krasnoyars in a desperate attempt to gain some success for the operation Raccoon. They were however all repulsed and finally when the panzers arrived from Smolensk the Chinese were cut off from the South and pushed deeper into the Elbrus Passage. The disaster in the South totally collapsed the morale of the English forces in the North and they were pushed beyond the River Vistula all the way back to Moscow. The operation Raccoon, which was initially launched to devastate the German western front, ended on 20th of August in total defeat for the Western Powers.
Even though the scale of the operation Raccoon had been a surprise for the Germans, the defensive posture which was adopted in June after the failure of the operation Sissle had worked beyond its expectations. The aftermath of the operation Raccoon was that it totally wrecked the Western Powers ability to launch any further major offensives. They lost the strategic initive and were never again able to retake it. For the Germans, the operation Raccoon meant a last major defensive battle.
The end of war in Eurasia
In the coming months the Germans would launch numerous offensives which would finally realize the Bismarcks ultimate objective of ruling the Central Eurasia. Lödose and Roskilde were taken on September after a fierce fighting with the Chinese Expeditionary Army. In October the Germans launched simultaneous assaults against St. Petersburg and Yaroslav and took control of the East and West bank of Lake Orel. In the far West the strong German Expeditionary Army assisted the French to liberate Avignon. Further operations in the West saw the whole Russian territory falling to the hands of France and German Empire. Americans were also pushed back and a firm defence line was established from Houston to Nottingham. In the East the remnents of the Viking Empire were crushed as Jelling and Sigtuna fell on November. At the end of November the Spanish tried to launch a liberating assault towards Sigtuna but they were repulsed and a counter attack by the Germans pushed the Spanish all the way to Santiago which was taken on December.
After more than one and a half years of fighting in Eurasia the war was finally over by January 1925. Peace treaties were signed in Moscow which in fact was still In the English hands. The war had been total and the destruction was immense. Large areas around cities like Stuttgart, Krasnoyarsk, Smolensk and Lödöse were decimated and the human casualties of the war were in millions. Bismarck had gained what he had wanted but the price had been terrible, not only for the Western Powers, but for the Germans too. The war had totally modified the map of the Eurasia as Viking Empire and Russia were wiped out. The German Empire was now the only power in the Central Eurasia. China, America and England had not lost significant territory in the war (actually England had gained territory) but their military and cultural power was shattered. China especially would fall into political crises in the future.