The second scrim will be SATURDAY at 19hGMTF|H Campaign #13 – Scrim #2Operation SuvurovBy the end of the Battle of Kursk in July 1943, the Wehrmacht had lost all hope of regaining the initiative on the Eastern Front. Losses were considerable and the whole army was less effective than before, as many of its experienced soldiers had fallen during the previous two years of fighting. This left the Wehrmacht capable of only reacting to Soviet moves.On the Soviet side, Stalin was determined to pursue the liberation of occupied territories from German control, a course of action that had started at the end of 1942 with Operation Uranus, which led to the liberation of Stalingrad. The Battle of the Dnieper was to achieve the liberation of the Ukraine and push the southern part of the front towards the west. However, in order to weaken the German defenses even further, the Smolensk operation was staged simultaneously, in a move that would also draw German reserves north, thereby weakening the German defense on the southern part of the front. Both operations were a part of the same strategic offensive plan, aiming to recover as much Soviet territory from German control as possibleThirty years later, Marshal Vasilevsky (Chief of the General Staff in 1943) wrote in his memoirs:This plan, enormous both in regard of its daring and of forces committed to it, was executed through several operations: the Smolensk operation, the Donbass [Operation], the left-bank Ukraine operation. Click on the picture to sign up Get the chance to rewrite history! http://www.forgottenhonor.com