After the defeats at the Battle of Moscow and the Battle of Stalingrad, the German army attacked the Soviet Union's most powerful army groups, Army Groups Center and Army Group South, suffered heavy losses, after which the Soviet army began a strong counterattack under the integration of Zhukov, and the German army was gradually defeated. But the Germans did not retreat blindly, and the new commander-in-chief of Army Group South, Manstein, was planning how to contain the Soviet offensive and planning a counteroffensive.
Under Manstein's command, the newly formed Army Group South won the first battle and won the Battle of Kharkov, a rare victory that filled the German army with confidence, and then Manstein planned a bold operation code-named "backhand strike", but the cautious Adolf did not adopt, Adolf chose a more traditional castle operation to crush the salient at Kursk (after the Battle of Kharkov, the formation of the salient centered on Kursk).
But in the face of the coming war, there are two completely different voices in the german military high-level, one is the main battle faction headed by Manstein and Kruger, and it has to be said that Manstein's genius mind, he put forward two plans according to Adolf's opinion, one is a sneak attack, the other is a defensive counterattack; Adolf chose the first, this first plan is about speed, quick attack, but Adolf repeatedly hesitated and postponed, and looked forward to the increase of his own strength.
But Germany was exhausted and embattled by this time, and how could the speed of reinforcements be comparable to that of the populous Soviet Union, which had great assistance from Britain and the United States? After a long wait, the total size of the German army reached more than 900,000 people, about 10,000 guns and mortars, 2,928 tanks, 2,110 aircraft, of which the Tiger, Leopard, Ferdinand and two new aircraft that Adolf had been waiting for had arrived at the front.
But the number of Soviet troops was even more terrifying, and while Adolf was waiting, the number of Soviet troops had reached more than 1.9 million, and the recovery of industry had arrived with British and American assistance, so the Soviet army had more than 25,000 guns, 5128 tanks, and 2792 aircraft; and it did not count the reserves of the Soviet army. And while the Germans had new equipment, the Soviets also had new equipment, such as the T-34 tank.
Therefore, from the overall scale, the Soviet army is far superior to the German army, which is a comparison of strength. Next, looking at the strategic and tactical competition, the German army adopted the plan of attacking from the center from the north and south ends, and jointly annihilating the Soviet army in the central salient. But the Soviet army adopted the second plan proposed by Manstein, a defensive counterattack, and although the Soviet army was far superior to the German army, it was still cautious and built a large number of fortifications.
Thus, before the official attack, Modell and Guderian had opposed the attack, but Guderian's opposition was purely due to the belief that the attack on Kursk would cause the tanks to suffer great losses and ruin his plan to reorganize the armored corps. But Modell's objection was very strong, and he sent a large number of reconnaissance planes to the Soviet side to reconnoiter, bringing with him a stack of aerial photographs, which showed that the Soviet army had built a large number of fortifications on the German planned offensive route.
Modell believed that the best time to attack had been lost, that the Soviet army had recovered, and that the "fortress" plan should be abandoned. Adolf also knew that if the Soviet army was prepared and above its own, the offensive would pose a great risk; just when Adolf hesitated, at the insistence of Kruger, Zetzler and Manstein, and confident in the "Blitzkrieg", the "Fortress" operation was finally determined to be executed.
What does it make sense for a lot of people to say so much? In fact, the preparations for the war were extremely important, or that the war competition was the layout and preparation of the two sides before the war, and there were very few cases of really reversing the situation during the war; at least this time, the German army did not reverse the situation, from a strategic point of view, it was completely abused by the Soviet army, not that Manstein was inferior to Zhukov, but in the end Manstein persuaded Adolf to attack also had a great responsibility.
The facts proved Modell's correctness, but unfortunately, even if It was proved that Modell was correct, there was no point, and in the end the German army was defeated; although through the tactical superiority of the local war, the Soviet casualties were much higher than those of the German army, but the Soviet army was more than a million more than the total number of German troops, and the Soviet army still had a steady stream of troops rushing to the front; and the German army lost 500,000, which was equivalent to 500,000 less, and it was difficult to be replenished. The defeat in this battle directly declared the defeat of the German army on the Eastern Front.
After that, Manstein gradually fell out of favor until he was later removed from his post; and Modell became more and more trusted and valued by Adolf, commanding the eastern army to fight and the western army to fight, and his ability was recognized by the world; but at this time, Germany was already in a state of twilight and immortals. Even though Modell had the opportunity to use his talents, he could not save Germany, and finally after the defeat at the Battle of the Ardennes, in order to avoid becoming a prisoner, he chose to kill himself.