It was finally decided to launch a pincer attack against the Soviet forces in the Kursk Bulge. His recommendation was not accepted due to Hitler's fear of giving up territory. The deployment of Army Group South threatened the Russian center which was forced to move four armies from the center to the south thus cancelling the planned attack in the center.įield-Marshal General Erich von Manstein, commander of German Army Group South, recommended learning from the previous success, to go onto the defensive at the operative level, and to take advantage of the vast South Russian spaces to wage mobile warfare - to retreat and pull the Red Army forces deep into the open territory and then to hit them again with a counter-attack that would go as far as the Sea of Azov east of the Russian Army and would advance eastward and southward, and then destroy the German forces who would be cut-off from their sources of supply and reinforcements. This success of Von Manstein had another achievement – disruption of the planned attack of the Soviet army against German Army Group Center. This operation allowed the Germans to reconquer large parts of the territories they had lost in the Battle of Stalingrad, following the Russian counterattack, including the cities of Kharkov and Byelgorod. This operation took place in July 1943 following Field Marshal Erich Von Manstein’s counter-attack on the Donets in February-March of the same year. The Battle of Kursk,” Operation Citadel” as it was called by the Germans, lasted eight days and was the final German offensive on the Eastern Front in World War II.

Tanks in the battle or kursk