Rzhev salient wasnt a reteat as such, it was a withdrawal, wasnt it. a straightening of the line to free troops for fall blau IIRC. What I am talking about is a retreat whilst under fire. The retreat to Bataan was just that, and it was done in a near perfect manner by Mac, once he finally realized he was losing the battle at Lingayen
I agree from the position that we can view things Kursk was not a war winner, but neither was the offensive in '42, more importantly, the Kursk offensive at the time WAS seen as the decisive battle. The Germans were convinced that the battles of 1941, 42 and early 43 had sucked the USSR dry of all excess manpower and materiel. They knew that they themselves were starting to hit bottom manpower wise, and that the russians had taken so many more casualties than themselves. On that basis they believed that one more push would break their back of resistance. Whilst it is true that there were some mutterings of protest about attacking for the third year, these were largely quashed by the promise of the new technology being introduced...the tanks, the aircraft and so on. The majority of German officers, as usual supported Hitlers decisions, though this was the period postwar when most of them cried foul and tried to say "I told him not to....i told him not to"