Manstein portrayed the average Soviet soldier as courageous but poorly led. Depicting the Soviet officer corps as hopelessly incompetent, he portrayed the war on the Eastern Front as a German army vastly superior in fighting ability being steadily ground down by an opponent superior only in numbers. According to "The Myth of the Eastern Front" by Ronald Smelser and Edward J. Davies, that aspect of "Verlorene Siege" was self-serving, as it allowed Manstein to ignore several occasions, such as the fall of Kiev in November 1943, in which he was deceived and defeated by the Stavka.