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Interesting article on the Germans building up their air defenses. Although the numbers are inflated in that there are not 1.5 million men manning air defenses, it’s pretty clear that the Germans have shifted a significant amount of resources to the aerial defense of the Reich.

The fighter planes will be sorely missed at Kursk, where the Soviets will finally win air superiority. Each anti-aircraft gun between the North Sea and the Ruhr is a 88mm, which could have been mounted in a Tiger tank or used defensively as an anti-tank gun. All of the men manning those guns could have been filling out the depleted infantry divisions in the East.

While the allies do not have ground forces on the Continent, Stalin should be happy that his army will not have to fight the men and material that would otherwise comprise several infantry and panzer divisions, along with supporting fighter cover. The Soviet margin of victory at Kursk was quite thin. That margin was provided by the “round the clock bombing of Europe.”

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.

Each anti-aircraft gun between the North Sea and the Ruhr is a 88mm

By this point weren't the Germans also deploying larger guns? I'd also need to look to see if they didn't have some 37mm and some old 75mm mixed in, as well.

Looks like I need to read through this:

http://usacac.army.mil/cac2/cgsc/carl/wwIIspec/number10.pdf