This article talks about a possible German offensive "in the center -- southwest of Moscow."
It also allows that Hitler "can no longer count on crushing superiority".
No mention of Kursk, which is directly south of Moscow...
BTW, what is CL Sulzberger's position at NY Times in 1943?
According to his wikipedia entry C.L. spent his entire career as a correspondent and never assumed a management position at the Times. His current stories have been filed from Cairo but have been on the subject of the Soviet Union, where he was last assigned. The bio also says that Drew Middleton and James Reston both reported to Sulzberger, which does suggest that he was a supervising correspondent of some sort.
According to his obituary, in 1943 C. L. Sulzberger is still just a columnist for the Times. In 1944 he will become the Chief Foreign Correspondent which is a position he will hold until 1954.
The two or three articles on the Russian Front are pretty accurate, although not completely so. Some specifics:
1. That the Red Army has artillery superiority over the Germans. Not entirely true. The Red Army has massive amounts of artillery, but it lacks mobility and flexibility. The Soviets lack the large numbers of trucks to give the artillery the mobility to shift rapidly from one sector to another, and in the case of offensive action, cannot keep up with advancing infantry and armored forces. We’ll see this in late July and August. Also, the Soviets don’t have many radios to establish a good artillery communications net. If you want a massive pre-planned barrage, the Soviets can do that. In the chaos of battle, when you need artillery cover here and now, the Soviet artillery cannot respond. Contrast the Germans, who, while not having the massive quantity of artillery, still have a fairly good amount, and all of it is linked together through a communications net that will allow forward observers in threatened areas to rapidly call down fire where it’s needed. It is not nearly as advanced as American fire control, but it is markedly better than the Soviets.
2. The Red Air Force is claimed to have parity in the air, and this is pretty much true. In fact, at Kursk the Red Air Force will start as underdogs but in the middle of the battle will win dominance over the battlefield. The Germans have shifted a significant number of aircraft to Italy and for the aerial defense of the Reich. Mostly FW190s and Me109s. The Germans will have plenty of Stukas flying close support this summer, but they will not have the fighter cover to keep the Stormoviks off the panzers. The Germans will also suffer from their perpetual bane: logistics. The Germans will not be able to fly as many missions because of shortages of aviation fuel at the forward airfields.
3. The Red Army ground forces are much better. In fact, they are using this lull in operations to train, train, and train some more. The Germans are in for a rude surprise in how much better the Soviets have become. Their operational proficiency is not yet nearly what the Germans have. There are a lot of deficiencies in their forces; T-34s have poor visibility and few radios. In straight up fighting, German panzer divisions are still qualitatively much better than the comparable Soviet tank corps. The lack of trucks for artillery applies to the mobile formations; there are not enough to supply a tank army on a deep penetration, bring up its supporting artillery, and most importantly, keep supporting infantry close.
4. Finally, despite the claims of improvement in the Soviet armed forces, and despite the other deficiencies noted, the article does not note just how much quantitative superiority the Soviets have over the Germans. The articles state that the 190 German divisions in the east are more than adequate for defense alone. The world is going to find out this summer and fall that those 190 divisions are not nearly enough.
The Russians were well aware of where and when the German's 1943 summer offensive would be and their objectives. Zhukov was waiting and the Wehrmacht was finished. That's not news you want the press to know.