[HenpeckedCon]

Kursk was irrelevant. When Hitler diverted Guderian’s Panzer Army to take Kiev instead of driving straight to Moscow, the Germans were doomed. Attacking a country with three times your population in a frontal assault on a thousand mile front was madness to begin with. The excellence of the German Generals and their superb soldiers might have been able to win a favorable negotiated peace with the Russians had they taken Moscow, but I believe Partisen’s would have been a thorn in the German's side for years.

[henkster]

Kursk was not irrelevant; for the Germans, it wasn’t about “winning” but rather getting an operational stalemate in the East. A draw if you will.

The main problem for the Germans wasn’t Kiev or Smolensk. The die had already been cast by then. The real problem was in the brain of Chief of the General Staff Franz Halder, who cast the die. He sold Hitler and his generals on the idea of defeating the USSR in one campaign season. A look at the map should have told them it was logistically impossible to project their power that distance in such a short time. Instead, they should have planned for at least a two-year war.