Soviet Central Front Headquarters — KurskJanuary 20, 1942
The operations room was a hastily-dug bunker on the outskirts of Kursk, reinforced with railway beams and frozen earth sandbags. A flickering lamp hung from the low ceiling. Cigarette smoke formed a permanent haze among the men gathered there.
—They're coming —said General Konstantin Rokossovsky, his voice heavy—. The entire Reich war machine. Tigers, Panthers, Panzer IVs… They want to crush us here, at this salient. We know it. And we won't move.
A young lieutenant passed out copies of the latest intelligence report. Aerial photos, railway movements, logistics patterns: everything pointed to the massive German offensive focusing on Kursk.
—And what will we do, Comrade General? —asked an artillery officer.
Rokossovsky approached the large map of the region. He pointed to the bulge: the Kursk salient, the center of gravity for the Soviet line.
—We'll make them crash into us.We'll lay mines. Dig kilometers of trenches. Set up machine-gun nests, anti-tank guns, Katyusha batteries. Every village will be a slaughterhouse. Every hill, a trap.
—And if they break through the defensive line?
—Then we'll make them pay for every meter in blood. And when they're exhausted... counterattack. The biggest of the war.
General Nikolai Vatutin nodded from the back of the room.
—Do you think Falk Ritter will come?
—He'll come —Rokossovsky replied—. They need him. He's their hero. Their spearhead. And we'll make sure his tank bleeds at Kursk too.
A respectful silence swept the room.
—This will be the turning point —Vatutin said—. If we win here, we return to Moscow. And from Moscow… we go to Berlin.
—And if we lose —added another officer—, everything collapses. Stalin knows it. And so do we.
Rokossovsky closed the map. Slowly rolled it up.
—Then let the enemy know it too. Let them see there's no retreat here.Everything will be decided at Kursk.