TL brainstorming thread 10 rings

Soliciting the boards opinion on a tl based on the following:

Manstein in otl came up to the donetz river in early 1943 following his decisive victory at Kharkov. He pondered crossing the river and staying on the Russians heals, however, he feared the spring rains would ruin his supply lines and would strand him on the far side of the river, so he dug in where he was... in actuality, the rains came several weeks later than normal, and the russians where considerably more disorganized and exhausted than Manstein assumed they where and he could have made considerable advances

pod is manstein going for the gamble and sending the panzer corps over the river to follow on the heals of the defeated fronts from kharkov, his progress nets another 70ish miles past the river; but the big change is that due to the positioning and pursuit of manstein's forces, the Russians evacuate the Kursk salient fearing encirclement; allowing army group center to fill the void and straiten the line (making the line 150 miles shorter than otl and eliminating the obvious salient)

so I am looking for feedback on the pod itself but more importantly, what are Germany's strategic options with that obvious target for assault taken off the table
 
I knew you'd bring up Manstein again, BlairWitch!:p

What would the state of the Axis armed forces following such a move? I'm not sure the Germans could primarily remain defensive afterwards, but in any event, it's a higher butcher's bill for the Soviets.
 
I knew you'd bring up Manstein again, BlairWitch!:p

What would the state of the Axis armed forces following such a move? I'm not sure the Germans could primarily remain defensive afterwards, but in any event, it's a higher butcher's bill for the Soviets.

they (axis) don't really take more casualties since its just a pursuit instead of battle; the russians lose a bit of equipment from the salient but not much; so basically the line stabilizes by first week in april as the otl line minus the kursk salient
 
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