Russia wins the war in 1943

jeffking

Banned
How real was the Russian's chances of winning against the Nazis in 1943 if Zhukov's forces been able to take Rostov on the Don River, thereby sealing off Manstein's army group in the Caucauses? This almost in fact succeeded before Manstein realized the trap and evacuated all forces beyond the Don and left Paulus to his fate in Stalingrad.
 
Even trapping Army Group A wouldn't end the war. The Germans would manage to save a part of the force, at least manpower, through the Kerch Strait, in the worst hypothesis. The damage would still be crushing, and likely such as to forbid Manstein from waging its counterattack to Kharkov and Bielgorod. The former would remain firmly in Soviet hands. The red Army would likely reach the Dniepr, but would be repulsed with losses.
Germany wouldn't have the forces for launching a Kursk analogue and would, at that point, pu additional force sin the defence (and preemption) of Italy, which could make the battle for Sicily a nightmare - a single Panzergrenadier division moved from the continent, a couple more bomber squadrons woith those damn radiogliding bombs, could have made some of a difference, not so much on the final outcome, but in losses for both sides, sure, and the Western Allies had notoriously little tolerance for heavy losses.
The Soviets would have attacked by July with a deep battle scheme in mind, likley against the junction point of the central and southern German front, to ease pressure against the Allies in Sicily...
 
That chance did not exist, as Third Kharkov showed. The Germans were unable to win, though they had a chance to stalemate if the war's politics had gone differently.
 
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