Battle of Kursk The counteroffensive left a salient extending into the German area of control, centered on the city of Kursk. The heavy losses sustained by the Heer (army) since the opening of Operation Barbarossa had resulted in a shortage in infantry and artillery. Units were in total 470,000 men understrength. For the Wehrmacht to undertake an offensive in 1943 the burden of the offensive, in both attacking the Soviet defenses and holding ground on the flanks of the advance, would have to be carried primarily by the panzer divisions. In view of the exposed position of Army Group South, Manstein proposed that
Theotokos of Kursk Theotokos of Kursk The Kursk Root Icon of the Sign (also Our Lady of Kursk) (, Bogomater Kurskaya Korennaya, literally "Theotokos of Kursk, Found Among the Roots") is an icon of Theotokos of the Sign, apparently painted in the thirteenth century and discovered in a forest near Kursk ca. 1300. The icon was preserved in the Black Hermitage of the Roots ("Chornaya Korennaya Pustyn"), an abbey founded on the spot of its discovery. It was regularly brought from the abbey to Kursk in a great procession involving thousands of peasants and pilgrims. This ceremony is depicted in the famous painting