Following the recapture of Kharkov by the Germans in mid-March 1943, fighting on the eastern front subsided as both sides made preparations for further offensives. Hitler calculated that the Red Army was marking time before launching another offensive in the winter of 1943. The aim of the first German offensive would be to eliminate the huge Soviet salient north of Kharkov around the town of Kursk in the Ukraine. This had been created by Manstein's counterblow after Stalingrad