He was perfectly right in this prediction, but not in the way he had thought. In the statement of the attack order of April 15, he had made it clear that ‘the victory of Kursk must have the effect of a lesson for the world ‘. In the face of increasing doubts among his military leaders and an increasing feeling of badness, which advised him to better cancel the whole offensive, Hitler nevertheless decided to prepare everything until June 19. Since his army was to carry out the attack on Kursk from the north, Model repeatedly called for deferment until he was able to build up his troops sufficiently and in particular was waiting for a substantial allocation of the new Panzer V Panther and Tiger tanks.ĭespite objections from other German commanders, Manstein and Kluge in particular, who argued that how later Citadel operation would be deferred, the riskier it became and the Russians were given more opportunity to adapt, Hitler was on the side of Model, one of his own favored troop commanders. Not only did these discussions lead to delays, but also the wishes of General (later field marshal) Walter Model, the commander of the German 9th Army south of Orel, whose headquarters and staff had become available by the evacuation of the Rzhev bulge. In the following weeks, further offensive plans were considered, but not accepted. This was to enable the Wehrmacht to create a large mobile reserve that would exclude Soviet offensives in the east and crush any invasion in the west during 1943. This offensive was intended to regain the initiative in the East and thereby stabilize the entire Eastern Front. The most important part of these operations, however, was the Operation Zitadelle (Citadel), as the attack on Kursk was called.
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