On 30 March 1944, Manstein was relieved of military command, tantamount to being squeezed out of the German military core, at a time when the Soviet Campaign for Western Ukraine was not yet over, and Army Group South was undergoing a terrible rout.
After that, Manstein was idle at home with nothing to do, and after so much he was tired, unlike Guderian, who was dismissed from office and still had to find something to do, to serve as the technical director of the armored corps. At the time of the Battle of Berlin, Manstein was also involved in the evacuation of civilians, placing his family in the Allied occupation zone on the Western Front, and due to the depletion of German troops and resources, Manstein was unwilling to go against the responsibilities of the marshal, and there was not much he could do.
According to my investigation, when Berlin was fighting hard, the German Army Group Center was shrunk in the Czech Republic, there were still more than 900,000 troops, more than 1,000 tanks and more than 1,000 aircraft, from Berlin south through dresden railway to the Czech Republic, the commander was Field Marshal Schörna, Manstein has not considered taking over this force can not be verified, but I think with his prestige there is a chance to do something! For example, ending Hitler's command, gathering the remnants of the German army in Austria, the Czech Republic and Bavaria, and fully supporting the battle in Berlin, although it will not change the fate of Germany's defeat, it will at least make Berlin less bloody.
Despite the siege, Hitler's control was not to be underestimated, and he was still able to order the shooting of the fleeing SS commander Figleyn and even the arrest of Hermann Goering, so it was not easy for Manstein to successfully take over the German troops on the outskirts of Berlin.
After Manstein's departure, the Red Army's T-34 tanks rumbled westward to the point where the Germans launched the Barbarossa Plan three years earlier, in the Bug Valley, just a year after Manstein organized the Kharkov counterattack.
A year ago, the Kharkov counterattack was famous in history, and Manstein severely damaged about 300,000 Soviet troops in one breath, and this return to the horse gun can be called the most wonderful anti-defeat victory in military history! In one fell swoop, the German army was turned around in a major rout since the Battle of Stalingrad. But the gap in strength between the two sides did not change, with unparalleled manpower and material resources, the Soviet army mobilized 1.9 million troops and 5120 tanks during the Battle of Kursk, while the German army only had 780,000 troops and 3,000 tanks, in this situation of disparity in strength, the German army should not have launched an offensive, but Manstein firmly believed in his own judgment, Hitler launched the Battle of Kursk.
Hitler chose Manstein, who had repeatedly turned the tide, although he was not a member of his own small circle, and poured all the military forces of the Reich into a decisive battle in Kursk, but the result was that the German army suffered heavy losses and lost the initiative in the battle that was hard to regain. When the Red Army began to liberate Ukraine, Manstein could not believe his eyes, just after the Battle of Kursk in August 1943, the Soviet army suffered nearly a million soldiers and 6,000 tanks, but it was also able to organize a large army of 2 million people to kill the tired Germans, Rumanstein recalled, he had only 400 tanks and more than 700,000 soldiers, the only option was to retreat.
Manstein's request for a retreat infuriated Hitler, who knew in his heart that it had been a mistake to have listened to Manstein to launch the Battle of Kursk, which had dried up the blood of the German army and forced him to face a second total collapse! For the next 7 months, Manstein had been asking for a retreat, the Dnieper line, which averaged a few hundred meters wide, had not been able to hold it, and around Christmas in 1944, Army Group South experienced the "Cherkasy" siege, which was almost the second Stalingrad fiasco! This time the protagonist, General Stemoremann, did not surrender like Paulus.
By the end of March, the fighting had spread to the Bug River Valley, the German 1st Panzer Army dragged its tired body desperately to resist the superior Soviet forces, Manstein again asked for permission to retreat, knowing that the Bug River was the starting position of the Barbarossa Plan, and across the river was the unobstructed Great Plain, Hitler finally could not resist, he relieved Manstein of command, and Manstein, who had lost his honor and command, could not do anything.