After a two-year stalemate, both the Russians and Germans awaited major clashes that would define the momentum for both sides. Up to this point in the war, although the Germans had conquered many European countries and were advancing victoriously with their sharp tactics, such as blitzkrieg, and their powerful weapons, the battles on the Eastern Front seemed unwinnable. After a sad loss in the Battle of Stalingrad in early 1943, German morale was significantly lowered and the German forces finally realized the strength of the Russian troops. The momentum would finally be resolved with the decisive battle near the city of Kursk, a town on the Moscow-Rostov railway in southern Russia. The objective of the Battle of Kursk was to regain German morale and seize a major salient on the Eastern Front, which would make the Russians much more vulnerable to German attacks. Being such an important battle to the overall success of the Germans, they formulated several unique plans; however, due to a lack of common sense, these plans were doomed from the start. The Germans took an unrealistic approach in decision making for the battle. During the debate in the German High Command about what to do in the summer of 1943 two options were presented. The realistic option, supported by the best German field commanders and many soldiers, was to compensate for the large Russian numerical advantage by making full use of the superiority of the German commander and soldiers in tactics, command and combat, through a mobility strategy dynamics. defense that would have caused great losses to the Russians in a series of local clashes. This would delay the Russians and was a realistic objective as it was easily achievable. However, Adolf Hitler wanted to follow the enthusiastic-optimistic option of waging a major decisive battle against much of the Russian armor in order to destroy it. He thought that the most suitable place for such a battle was the Kursk salient, where the Russians had already established battle grounds. Indeed, aerial photos taken by German planes clearly revealed that the Russians had already built thick, deep fortifications on the Kursk salient to thwart an attack. Furthermore, it was evident that many Russian tanks had been moved deeper behind the front line. Finally, the Blitzkrieg tactic often used by the Germans would have to be changed.