Li Mo planned to adopt a careful and prudent strategy, so that the strategic retreat and tactical offensive were combined, and after dragging on for more than half a month, that is, in April, the Soviet Union had completely thawed, and the road conditions and weather were completely favorable to the German army. At the same time, the Soviets' principle of forcing an offensive regardless of losses would ultimately lead to their own consequences.

By February 1943, they had accelerated the pace of retreat, so the Soviet army followed in the footsteps of the German army in pursuit, and the German army retreated for about 300 kilometers. The Soviets then recaptured Kharkov and approached the Dnieper River. However, at the end of February, the Germans on the Southern Front, led by Limer, carried out a counter-assault, reoccupied Kharkov, and for a time debalanced the Soviet army. At this time, the Soviet army, like the German army in the early stage, stretched too far forward, stretched its own lines of communication, and kept tracking and pursuing, so that supplies could not be received for a while. The Germans, on the other hand, snowballed in the direction of their bases and supplies, thus recovering and strengthening their strength.

After Limer's troops recaptured Kharkov on March 14, the Soviet Southwestern Front and the Voronezh Front were retreating to the rear, and the Germans were in hot pursuit, tracking all the way and beginning to threaten the rear of the Central Front. The Supreme Commander of the Soviet Army urgently transferred reinforcements from the 21st Army and the 1st Tank Army, as well as the 64th Army. to stabilize the position. At this time, the German offensive also came to an end due to the limited use of troops. In late March, the two sides took a break and there was a temporary lull on the battlefield. At this time, the situation on both sides was as follows: the Germans had withdrawn from Rostov-on-Don, the entire southern front had been closed and straightened, but in the Kursk area, the Soviets had formed a huge salient wedged westward into the German front. It maintained contact with the Germans on three sides: north, west and south. The Kursk salient is 100 miles wide on the front, 150 miles deep to the north and 50 miles deep to the south.

Since then. The entire front formed a prominent state centered on Kursk.

After the Kharkov counterattack. Although the entire Eastern Front stabilized, the German High Command was in a dilemma, and the dangerous situation forced it to face two options:

1 retracted the front and pushed the troops back further. On the Eastern Front fully turned into defense.

2. Conduct some attacks with limited purpose. In order to weaken the offensive power of the Soviet army.

To this end, Limer proposed to Hitler two draft battle plans for the Eastern Front: First, he took the initiative to abandon the defense line on the Donets River and the Mius River. lure the Soviets into the lower reaches of the Don River, and then use the German armored forces assembled there in advance to attack the flanks of the Soviets and encircle them; The second is to strike first. Before the Soviets replenish their winter losses, launch an attack on the Soviets in the Kursk salient area, trying to encircle or inflict heavy losses on them.

Strictly speaking, both options have their own risks, and it is feasible to lure the enemy into the depths, but this does not mean to hand over the initiative to the Soviet army, and it is difficult to judge the direction of the enemy's main attack later. A preemptive strike can give the first opportunity for a surprise attack, but the problem is that the Soviet army's concentrated forces in the salient still have to surpass the German army, and if the German army cannot obtain enough assault forces, it will be difficult to guarantee a complete victory in the battle.

In this regard, Li Mo preferred the first plan, and pointed out that at this time, the German army needed to adopt the method of mobile warfare in order to achieve victory, so he suggested that the right flank troops should be withdrawn to the front line of the Dnieper River, and then counterattack from the Kharkov area to destroy the main force of the Soviet army in one fell swoop.

However, Hitler found it difficult to accept Limer's first plan, because he doubted the feasibility of this plan for the campaign, and the German Führer was more worried that the German retreat to the Severodonets River and the Sea of Azov would affect the political attitude of Romania and Turkey, and in the end, it was necessary to abandon large areas of great economic value, which was obviously difficult for Hitler to choose. Hitler decided to adopt a different offensive plan, and he tried to launch a decisive general battle before the Soviets launched the spring offensive to annihilate the main military forces of the Soviet army in one fell swoop. Because Britain and the United States were already actively preparing to land in France, there was not much time left for Germany, but it was very urgent.

Of course, there was another important factor that influenced Hitler and other generals who advocated the offensive, and that was that at this time, the production of the new German Leopard tank increased significantly, reaching the scale of mass production of more than 5,000 units, which was a medium tank developed to deal with the Soviet T-34 tank, equipped with the extremely powerful KwK-42 88mm L/70 gun. In addition, the development of the PzKpfw-VI and the Ferdinand tank destroyer has been completed.

Obviously, they believed that if new tanks such as the Tiger and Leopard were put into the Kursk, it would be enough to achieve a decisive victory and thus regain the initiative on the Eastern Front. Although the German General Staff Headquarters had high expectations for it.

……

In London, England, inside Buckingham Palace, Princess Elizabeth is meeting with US President Roosevelt:

"On behalf of Great Britain, I extend a warm welcome to you, President Roosevelt, and thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to visit Britain."

Although Elizabeth gave birth to a child, she was more beautiful and charming, and with Elizabeth's noble temperament, people did not dare to look up, and even Roosevelt, a cripple, couldn't help but be moved.

Roosevelt couldn't help but secretly slander in his heart: "Damn German Limer, he is really favored by God, such a beautiful and charming queen has been slept with by his dog, it is really a tyrannical thing." ”

On the surface, Roosevelt still had a calm face and responded enthusiastically to Elizabeth's greeting:

"Your Majesty, it is incumbent upon me to defeat the German fascists and maintain world peace! ……”

After Elizabeth and Roosevelt exchanged polite words, it was Churchill and Roosevelt to discuss specific military actions, and now Britain and the United States are completely divided into two factions, one faction will land in France when Germany launches the Battle of Kursk, so that the German guards can not take care of each other.

The other faction believes that it is not time to take risks, but to continue to support the Soviet Union with weapons, and let the Soviet Union and Germany fight to the death.

Neither view is right or wrong, and regardless of which strategy is used, the first point is that the Soviet Union will hold out and will not be destroyed by Germany this year.

If before, Germany on the Eastern Front was three army groups that did not match each other, but now, Britain and the United States have obtained a very frightening piece of information, and Hitler appointed the invincible Limer as the commander-in-chief of the former enemy on the Eastern Front.

Li Mo's record is obvious to the whole world, and it has not been defeated since the beginning of the war, and Germany, which already has strategic and weapon superiority, is likely to destroy Stalin this year under the command of Li Mo, and once Germany destroys Stalin, then Germany, which has freed up millions of troops, will definitely immediately take action against Britain and the United States, and this will be a disaster for Britain and the United States.

…… (To be continued......)