Giffard Le Quesne Martel the Head of the Military Mission to the Soviet Union. He assessed the effectiveness of the Soviet order of battle and tactics during a visit to the frontline in the Kursk-Oryol region between 11 and 19 May 1943. In his autobiography, Martel describes advising the Soviet High Command, Stavka, to allow the Germans to strike first at the Battle of Kursk. To what extent his advice affected the course of the battle is debatable since his first conference with Stavka did not occur until late May 1943 while the Soviet Western Front commander, Marshal Georgy Zhukov, had been advocating the
Church of Our Lady of the Assumption, Kursk Church of Our Lady of the Assumption, Kursk The Church of Our Lady of the Assumption () It is a Latin Rite Catholic Church located in the city of Kursk, in the Archdiocese of European Russia, headquartered in Moscow (and whose archbishop is Monsignor Paolo Pezzi). In 1859 the Catholic community of Kursk, most Polish or German origin, with more than a thousand faithful, asked permission to build a church. They previously met in a chapel. Once the funds were raised, it was granted permission and the church was begun in 1892 in neo-Gothic style. The church was under the