I can recall Hitler wanted 1943 to be a year of production and healing. He also expressed his dislike of Operation Citadel to Guderian. So why did the operation take place?
Who told you that??? Hitler had to retain the initiative in the East for a number of reasons including a political one. He was already having problems in retaining the allegiance of his allies, namely Italy who was taking a drubbing in Africa and had suffered serious loss Stalingrad, ditto for Romania at Stalingrad too, and Finland who was stuck in front of Stalingrad with no end in sight after having fulfilled all it's objectives. Leaving the Soviets to regain their breath would allow them to recover more than enough to launch a big offensive on their own, possibly to sweep away the weaker allies. Anyway, that offfensive would be unpredictable by it's nature, which also removed the carpet from under the feet of the 'backhand manoeuvre' proponents, as it would be unfeasable to make available enough panzer reserves along the front to cover every eventuality. There were at the beginning several alternate plans for the German offensive, and the Kursk case was the one found to be more favourable and profitable one in the longer term, it just might have been somewhere else. This thread could be moved to Russia at war, and is young enough to be incorporated in the mother of all threads - Kursk by popular demand! , are you listening?
Good post Za Rodinu. Hitler had to maintain the initiative, both politically and militarily. By sitting back on the defensive Hitler would simply have courted disaster, since then the larger Soviet force could maneuver its forces and attack his own depleted forces at the place and time of its choosing. Plus, Hitler's natural instinct was always to go on the offensive. While for many the best defence is a good offense, with Hitler it seems as if going on the offensive was almost the only kind of defense he could countenance.
Hitler also thought that even if the operation failed, he would have bought time for another year as the losses on both sides would grow so high than in 1943 neither Wehrmacht or the Red Army could start another major offensive. Again wrong....
I suspect that the answer may lie in German supply shortages. The Kursk gig was predictable and I suspect was what German fuel stocks could achieve. The counterattack ploy of Manstein as mentioned above was far less predictable so could have risked German mobile forces becoming stranded. The fighting power of the German army was much less and that of the Red Army much higher by 1943 so while attractive I'm not surprised that Manstein was overruled.
The funny thing is that back in 1943 the Stavka considered the German operational phase only Pt 1 of the operation, not the whole operation. Once the Germans had used their troops and tanks hitting their head to the wall the Red Army would enter battle with fresh troops and tanks , just like they did, and that was the Pt 2 with the Germans running. It was a trap, and Hitler did not believe it (even if he had some stomach cramps).
Total Rubbish, it stuck like a knife into Hitlers ribs that bulge in the lines of the Kursk Salient, it offended him like a personal attack and he decided to cut of the bulge and hopefully kill of the Soviets once and for all, the problem with this was a reluctance by many of his field commanders to go on the offensive when they wanted to just dig in and slowly build up their strength for a 1944 summer offensive, one of the major problems of the failure of Citadel and it was conveyed to Hitler that if it failed it would be terminal for Heers Gruppen Mittel, and as it turned out was accurate, Heers Gruppen Mittel never recovered from that military disaster and Heers Gruppen Nord was not that better off, Hitlers pride got in the way of his better judgement.
The Generals Manstein incl wanted to make "Zitadel" as soon as the weather got better in the spring 1943 when the Red Army was still weaker and had not prepared that well for an attack. Hitler wanted to get the panthers etc in the attack and that lasted two months and then it was a bit too late to make any surprise attacks. Also the Soviets knew all the details of the attack and an hour before the beginning gave an artillery "surprise " to the German forces that were packed together waiting to unleash the attack. If that does not tell you the enemy knows you are coming then nothing will.
I wonder if one cause of the delay was the Battle of the Ruhr which amongst other things reduced German steel production, caused numerous transport delays into and out of the Ruhr and a 'components crisis' throughout German industry.
Well, at least the Panther´s teething problems delayed the Zitadelle, and if i recall correctly some 50 panthers out of 200 "spitted fire" during the Zitadelle and were out of action already before taking part in any battles. So panther was not even ready for action when Zitadelle begun and the two months Hitler waited for them total waste of time.
It's interesting that in recent years the 'efficiency myth' of the nazi regime has been challenged so that Allied failings have been put into a more realistic context. When I began to be interested in such things it was the British who were always derided for ordering tanks off the drawing board and lumbering the army with substandard designs.
May be Hitler hated the idea as he passes the comment, "It makes my stomach churn when I think of Kursk." But of course he other hand a nice big fat salient begging to be pincered off, how could Hitler say no? With all the military set backs in the Med and Stalingrad along with the crack pot idea in seizing Russian oil Hitler dare not show weakness. We shall win at Kursk and drive on to Moscow and finally win this war. In your dreams AH.
H. was worried because he was gambling with his best and strongest formations, 9th Army (Model) and 4th Panzer Army (v.Manstein). If things went wrong the army would be seriously weakened, and that's what happened as after the Soviet Kursk counter-offensives things only went downhill. No back-hand von Manstein slap this time or any time after that.
