The closing statement in Hitler's order concerning the German preparations for
the Battle of Kursk was that winning the battle would be a fanal to the world
that Germany was still a great military power able to defeat communist hordes.
The German word fanal, usually translated as beacon, has a passive meaning in
English representing a warning light, such as a lighthouse. The Russians
translated the word as torch. The German fanal refers to a powerful light used
in signaling, for example, the system used in Europe in the mid-nineteenth
century before the telegraph. The blinking code of the lights was used to trans-
mit messages from beacon to beacon for hundreds of miles. Similarly, the
Battle of Kursk would send a message loud and clear to the world that Germany
was not beaten. Hitler was correct in anticipating the monumental significance
of the outcome of the Battle of Kursk, and that a victory would broadcast a
message.

Ironically the defeat informed the leaders in the West that the Eastern Front
was no longer a seesaw with Soviet victories in the winter and German victories
in the summer. Instead the Soviets had established a dominant position in the
East by the time of Kursk, and the German Army was no longer able to defeat
the Red Army during the summer. Prior to Kursk, the assumption in the West
was that the war on the Eastern Front would be indecisive with one side winning
battles at first, and then the other. The resulting bloody stalemate was expected
to weaken both nations in the same fashion that the young men of Britain,
France, and Germany had been slaughtered on the Western Front in World War
I. Just as the United States was able to end World War I with fresh divisions,
so, it was assumed, the Western Allies would tip the balance in World War II
after both Russia and Germany were exhausted. And, the slaughter would leave
both Germany and Russia weak in the post-war world.

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