Editing Erich von Manstein (section)

===Operation Citadel===
{{Main|Battle of Kursk}}

Manstein favoured an immediate pincer attack on the Kursk salient after the battle at Kharkov, but Hitler was concerned that such a plan would draw forces away from the industrial region in the [[Donets Basin]]. In any event, the ground was still [[Rasputitsa|too muddy]] to move the tanks into position. In lieu of an immediate attack, the OKH prepared Operation Citadel, the launching of which would be delayed while more troops were gathered in the area and the mud solidified. Meanwhile, the Red Army, well aware of the danger of encirclement, also moved in large numbers of reinforcements, and their intelligence reports revealed the expected locations and timing of the German thrusts.{{sfn|Melvin|2010|pp=350–351}}{{sfn|Evans|2008|p=485}}

[[File:Kursk south.svg|thumb|Battle of Kursk: southern pincer]]

Citadel was the last German strategic offensive on the Eastern Front, and one of the largest battles in history, involving more than four million men. By the time the ''Wehrmacht'' launched their initial assault on 5 July 1943, the Soviet forces outnumbered them by nearly three to one.{{sfn|Evans|2008|p=486}} [[Walter Model]] was in command of the northern pincer, with the [[9th Army (Wehrmacht)|Ninth Army]], while Manstein's Army Group South formed the southern pincer.

Both armies were slowed as the tanks were blown up in minefields and caught up in combat on a series of prepared Soviet defensive lines.{{sfn|Evans|2008|p=487}} After five days of fighting Model's advance was stopped, with the Ninth Panzers suffering 25,000 casualties. By 13 July Model's forces were being drawn away towards Orel, where the Soviet army had launched [[Operation Kutuzov]].{{sfn|Glantz|House|1999|p=217}} Manstein's forces were able to penetrate the Soviet lines, causing heavy casualties. He reached, but did not enter or capture, [[Prokhorovka, Belgorod Oblast|Prokhorovka]], his first major objective, on 11 July, inflicting serious Soviet losses in the resulting [[Battle of Prokhorovka]].

However, on 13 July Hitler called off the failed Kursk offensive; the Allies had [[Allied invasion of Sicily|landed in Sicily]], so he issued the order for a withdrawal. Manstein protested; he felt that the Soviet forces had exhausted all their reserves in the area, and he did not want to stop until all his own reserves had been committed. Hitler, however, insisted on calling off the operation.{{sfn|Glantz|House|1999|p=218}}{{sfn|Melvin|2010|pp=377–378}} Although Soviet casualties were indeed heavy, modern historians discount the possibility of a successful German continuation of the offensive.{{sfn|Forczyk|2010|pp=41–45}}{{sfn|Murray|Millett|2000|p=298}}{{sfn|Glantz|1995|pp=160–167}}