3 May or shortly thereafter against the Kursk salient. Operation Citadel, which led to the Battle of Kursk, called for a double envelopment. Army Group Centre was to provide Model's 9th Army to form the northern pincer. Army Group South's 4th Panzer Army and Army Detachment Kempf would drive north to meet the 9th Army east of Kursk. As the planning and preparations continued, in late April Model met with Hitler to express his concerns about strong defensive positions being established by the Red Army in his sector. Hitler called his senior officers and advisors to Munich for a meeting on 4 May. A number of options were put forth for comment: going on the offensive immediately with the forces at hand, delaying the offensive further to await the arrival of new and better tanks, radically revising the operation or cancelling it altogether. Manstein advocated an early attack but requested two additional infantry divisions, to which Hitler responded that none were available. Kluge spoke out strongly against postponement and discounted Model's reconnaissance materials. General Heinz Guderian, Inspector of Armoured Forces, argued against the operation, stating "the attack was pointless". The conference ended without Hitler coming to a decision, but Citadel was not aborted. The operation, launched on 5 July, had misfired from the start. In the northern sector, the Soviet forces had completely halted the German advance by 10 July. On 12 July, the Red Army launched Operation Kutuzov, its counter-offensive against the Orel salient, which threatened the flank and rear of Model's 9th Army. On the evening of 12 July, Hitler summoned Kluge and Manstein to his headquarters at Rastenburg in East Prussia, where he announced the cancellation of Citadel. Amid heavy fighting, the Red Army entered Orel on 5 August and, on 18 August, it reached the outskirts of Bryansk, eliminating the Orel salient. With Army Group Center falling back on prepared defensive positions, the German resistance stiffened and it took the Soviet forces until the end of September to liberate Smolensk. On 27 October 1943, Kluge was badly injured in a car accident. He was unable to return to duty until July 1944. Field Marshal Ernst Busch replaced Kluge as commander of Army Group Centre. Western Front In July 1944, Kluge was appointed OB West (Commander of the German Army in the West) after his predecessor, Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt, was dismissed for remarking that the