This allowed the Germans to reassemble their best offensive weapon: tanks. The real start-up of the war economy (the famous Totaler Krieg of Goebbels’ speech of February 1943) organized by Speer was likely to reinforce Berlin’s optimism. In addition to protecting “Fortress Europe” (Festung Europa), Hitler planned to bleed to death a Soviet Union that he believed had been weakened by two years of war with a new successful offensive in the east. It’s crucial, first and foremost, to put to rest the horrors of Stalingrad ( Battle of Stalingrad), but it’s also important to bring back Germany’s struggling allies (be it Italy, Hungary, or Romania). Since most German resources were located in the east, it was only logical that the West German government would intervene against the Soviets.
It must therefore carefully plan its next offensive move if it hopes to succeed. In terms of raw resources and manufacturing capacity, Germany was staring down the barrel of an unwinnable war of attrition. Having possibly saved his regime at Stalingrad, Stalin was in a commanding position.
Since the Casablanca conference in January 1943, it had been impossible to negotiate with the Western Allies. The strategic options available to the Hitler Reich in the spring of 1943 were constrained. The context of the Battle of Kursk German Panzer IV and Sd.Kfz. Peaceful conditions improved to the point where the great liberating offensives of 1944 could be launched. The Soviet Union’s victory demonstrated to the world that the German Panzerwaffe was vulnerable to attack. More than 100,000 Nazi soldiers died in the final large-scale offensive attempt on the Eastern Front, and Adolf Hitler suffered irreparable losses to his armored divisions, which had been unbeatable up until that point. As the largest tank battle in history, it involved over 2 million men and over 3,000 Russian and German tanks. The Battle of Kursk, fought in western Russia from July 5 to July 13, 1943, was a defining moment of World War II. The Germans’ final great eastern offensive, at Kursk.
Two weeks to change the course of the war.
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