Germany began an offensive against the Soviet Union in 1941, but it failed.

Germany began a second offensive against the Soviet Union in 1942, but again it failed.

In 1943, Adolf Hitler ordered yet another summer offensive,

though few in the German military expected it to succeed.

Welcome to the history of the 20th century.

The 20th century.

Thank you. The The Episode 395, a definitive mistake.

Today I want to talk about Operation Citadel.

Operation Citadel was Adolf Hitler's planned 1943 offensive against the Soviet Union.

I've already said a little about the early planning for Operation Citadel in previous episodes,

most recently in episode 384. Operation Barbarossa was supposed to have defeated the Soviet Union before the

end of 1941. Plan Blue was supposed to have defeated, or at least crippled, the Soviet Union before the end of

1942. Neither of these operations succeeded in defeating the Soviet Union, neither of these operations

achieved their defined military objectives. The Soviet victory at Stalingrad had robbed Germany of that ineffable but vital military asset we call momentum.

For the first time since the invasion began, the opposing sides on the Eastern Front were more or less balanced.

It is at this moment in the conflict that the prospects of a peace agreement between the Axis and the Soviet Union were strongest.

Before Stalingrad, the only conceivable way this conflict could have been settled at the negotiating table was through a Soviet surrender.

At best, it would have been a Soviet surrender in which the Germans allowed

Moscow a few small concessions, some fig leaves, as it were, some shreds of dignity,

something like the armistice with France that would have allowed a Vichy Russia, as it were,

to carry on. The British Foreign Office had been worrying about the possibility of an armistice

virtually since the German invasion had begun, and the British repeatedly expressed this

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