As the commander-in-chief of the German side at the Battle of Kursk, Manstein did not actually advocate a main battle with the Soviets at this time. However, Manstein's opinion did not impress the stubborn Adolf, although Manstein had expected the battle to become the end of the German army, but he could only obey the order, and in the end Manstein replaced 900,000 Soviet troops with 500,000 German main forces, but germany from this point on, has completely lost the opportunity to win on the Eastern Front.
If Adolf had heeded Manstein's advice and not fought with the Soviets on the Kursk steppe, what would have been the direction of the situation in World War II? If we were in Manstein's shoes, how would he plan the next move for the Germans? In view of Adolf's strong desire to attack, Manstein gave him two suggestions, the first was to preemptively launch the next offensive description, tearing open the wounds of the Soviet army fighting in the winter, and the second plan was to retreat and advance, lure the Soviet army all the way to the lower reaches of the Don River, and then concentrate superior forces to surround and annihilate it.
Adolf chose the encirclement and annihilation tactics, Manstein planned a quick battle, but Adolf dragged his feet at this time, he hoped to eliminate the main Soviet army in a war, so he waited for two months to replenish the latest equipment such as Tiger tanks for the troops. Manstein was already desperate. Because the Soviet army had already assembled its troops in two months, even the deep defense line was repaired. \
In fact, we can analyze Manstein's real thoughts from his memoirs. He preferred to organize a defense in depth at the front line with Modell as commander and force the Soviets to attack. He himself led the main force of Army Group South, operated the Caucasus, appropriated the oil fields here, and turned the Caucasus into a German steel fortress.
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