The Soviet version of Kursk began appearing with the multi-volume History of the Great Patriotic War in 1958 and Rotmistrov’s inaccurate memoirs in the 1960s. Paul Carell echoed von Manstein’s claims in his well-known books written in 1964–70 and he helped to shape the early historiography of Kursk with his contention that von Manstein had indeed been on the cusp of a great victory when Hitler pulled the rug out from under his feet.Ĭarell’s histories also helped to create a heroic mythology around the Waffen-SS troops involved in Zitadelle, which retains great credibility even today. Initially, popular memoirs by Guderian and Friedrich Wilhelm von Mellenthin depicted Zitadelle as a decisive defeat, but this view was challenged by von Manstein’s memoirs that complained about Hitler ‘throwing away a victory’ in his decision to cancel Zitadelle. In the 1960s, Kursk was not well known in the West. Rotmistrov was allowed to remain in command of 5 GTA until mid-1944 but afterwards he was kicked upstairs into various high-level desk jobs. Malenkov in charge of a commission to determine the reasons why the 5 GTA’s counter-attack had failed Malenkov’s report was sealed, but it concluded that the 5 GTA’s attack was a model of an unsuccessful operation. Instead, Stalin put Politburo member Georgy M. Initially, Stalin wanted to have Rotmistrov tried and executed, but eventually Vasilevsky softened his response. Right after the battle, Marshal Vasilevsky wrote an after-action report that attempted to conceal the truth about 5 GTA’s losses, but Stalin soon found out and was enraged. Part 1: The Meaning of the Battle of Kursk.
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