"Prelude to Kursk: Soviet Strategic Operations ..." Topic

…February-March 1943 .

"Military historians have long credited German Field Marshal Eric von Manstein with staving off disaster on the German Eastern Front in the winter of 1943, when the Red Army was exploiting its unprecedented victory at Stalingrad. To do so, von Manstein had to overcome two seemingly insurmountable obstacles. The first was an obstinate Hitler who, failing to comprehend the magnitude of the Stalingrad catastrophe, refused to permit his generals to conduct a maneuver defense. The second was a Red Army, which, inspired by their Stalingrad victory, was poised to exploit that victory by attacking incessantly everywhere. Von Manstein mastered both obstacles, inflicted a stunning defeat on the advancing Soviet host and temporarily restored stability to the southern wing of the Germans' Eastern Front.

History has fairly assessed that von Manstein's feat was indeed remarkable and probably thwarted ambitious Soviet plans for achieving spectacular victory in southern Russia. New archival evidence, however, now indicates that von Manstein's victory was far more important than previously believed. The evidence indicates that von Manstein's victories in the Donets Basin (Donbass) and around Kharkov were far more significant than historians have previously supposed. This is so because Soviet strategic aims in the winter of 1943 went far beyond the defeat of German forces in southern Russia. Instead, the Soviet High Command (Stavka) sought nothing less than the complete collapse of German defenses across the entire Eastern Front.

A multitude of sound histories document Soviet strategic intentions in the winter of 1942-43 and the contributions von Manstein made to the restoration of German fortunes in the East1. These histories claim that the Stavka firmly believed they could exploit their Stalingrad victory, and they did so by conducting a winter campaign consisting of continuous offensive operations which endured from December 1942 to February 1943. Accordingly, the winter campaign developed in three distinct stages. First, in late November and early December, the Stavka tightened its encirclement ring around Stalingrad and successfully parried German attempts to relieve its forces beleaguered in the city. The Stavka did so by artfully maneuvering strategic and operational reserves (in particular, the 2d Guards Army) to block German relief attempts. Second, in mid-December, the Stavka launched a series of consecutive offensives aimed at clearing German and Allied forces from the south bank of the Don River and the southwestern approaches to Stalingrad. From 17 December 1942 through late January 1943, Red Army forces attacked and severely mauled the Italian Eighth, the Hungarian Second, and the German Second Armies in rapid succession. Although Soviet forces failed to seize and the isolate German Army Group "A" in the Caucasus region, they did savage German and Allied forces along the Don River and tore a gaping hole in German defenses in southern Russia. The Stavka began the campaign's third and culminating stage in late January 1943 by hurling massive forces (the Voronezh and Southwestern Fronts) westward into the Donbass and Kharkov regions. Their aim was to collapse remaining German defenses, reach the Dnieper River and Sea of Azov, and destroy German Army Group Don2. During the planning for this final stage, the Soviets added the city of Kursk to their formidable list of strategic objectives…"
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