Allright, by this I mean that they take a more indirect approach by swinging around the cities.
The point is, while staying out of city fighting will help, the fact is those cities have to be taken. Otherwise, the Red Army retires into them, and you are trapped between hammer and anvil when the USSR regroups behind the Urals and counterattacks.
The downside to this strategy (from the Heer's perspective) is this involves sacrificing their strategic mobility for street fighting *cough* Stalingrad *cough* while the red Army reforms behind the Urals. Either way, a no win scenario. Leaving out the insane directive hitler begins to issue (and by that I include many of his mre successful gambles; most of them were ludicrous on the face of it).
Also, here is the facepalm
I think they mean the picture of Patrick Stewart doing it. But that works.
And as for this, I still don't have everything done yet. Its still a work in progress
Let us help.