Edited sentence: , whether Germany should attack at all, not whether the plan itself was sound.Guderian's objections were at the strategic level, i.However, there was no reason to doubt whether it would be successful.It is only in retrospect that the outcome seems preordained; at the time, most leaders on both sides expected that the German attack would probably succeed, at least in the breakthrough stage.Simply put, Operation Citadel embodied a limited plan.Until Kursk, no major WW2 German offensive had ever been defeated