By August, the tremendous tank battle of Kursk had ended-and the German Army is now about 55,000 men shorter. The vaunted Tiger and Leopard tanks have not secured victory.
My question: despite the best efforts of Goebbels and the Nazi propaganda machine, there are now tens of thousands of wounded soldiers in hospitals in Germany, Word must have come back about how the best equipped army in the world has ground to a halt , fighting the Red Army. The German civilians are not fooled-they know that as the war drags on into its 4th year, Germ,any is not winning, How much did they know, and was there enough discointent to force the Nazis to start looking to make peace? Hitler was committed to the war-but outside of him and his fanatics, the Germans must have realized that things would only get worse.
Somebody want to explain the Gestapo to ralph?
For one thing, there was a lot tighter control over the media in Nazi Germany than we’re used to.
Second, they’d been at war since 1939, and in Russia for 2 years at that point- Kursk was a big battle to be sure, but I don’t think it filled up the hospitals or cemeteries much more than Stalingrad, the initial invasion, or the retreat from Moscow, at least from the perspective of the average citizen.
I think there was more than likely some feeling of unease among those paying attention that maybe they’d bitten off more than they could chew, with the US and British bombing, and the news from the Front, but nothing to suggest that a major turning point had been reached (Kursk was the point when the Germans lost the strategic initiative in the East).
I bet the Normandy landings are what really pounded home that things weren’t going too well- I suspect your average German knew the capabilities of the US and Britain, and put 2 and 2 together about the invasion.
Well, consider that 800,000 men had been lost at Stalingrad, Kursk was not so big-but to lose 55,000 front line troops in two weeks-that is a trifle disconcerting. Yes, the newspapers didn’t print this stuff-but returning soldiers (either wounded or on leave) must have talked about this.
Things were not going well in August 1943.