Marsch Marshal Georgi Zhukov claimed in his memoirs that the MARS offensive had the limited objective of holding German forces in the central theater while more critical Soviet operations were underway in the south, to wit: the main counteroffensive that smashed two Rumanian armies and sealed the western approaches to Stalingrad; and the larger Red Army encirclement of German forces at Rostov Zhukov’s claim is supported by other participants in MARS and by some Russian military historians, notably M A Gareev, who was both They contend that MARS was a diversionary action only In contrast, David Glantz has famously called the operation “Zhukov’s greatest defeat,” and argued that for many years after it the full strategic failure of MARS was closely hidden in Soviet and Russian official histories and memoirs The field is divided on the truth of that assertion, and awaits more archival evidence MARS should at the least be noted as a defeat for Ivan S Konev, who was relieved of command of Kalinin Front in February 1943 There is further speculation, not convincingly substantiated to date, that MARS was to be the lead-in to a much wider and greater operation code named JUPITER, which aimed to double-encircle and smash all of Army Group Center and clear the road to Berlin MARSCH A Wehrmacht marching battalion MARSHALL, GEORGE CATLETT (1880–1959) American general Chief of staff, 1939–1945; secretary of state, 1947–1949; secretary of defense, 1950–1951 As a young U.S Army officer Marshall saw antiguerilla action in the Philippines from 1902 to 1903 He served as a staff officer in France during World War I He was a key planner under General “Black Jack” Pershing during the American offensive at Saint-Mihiel on the Western Front in 1918 He handled his duties masterfully, and was named chief of operations for U.S 1st Army After the war he served with U.S occupation forces in the Rhineland Upon returning to the United States he served as an aide to Pershing until 1924 Marshall saw a tour of duty in China in 1927, then was an army instructor until 1932 In 1938 he headed the War Plans Division As chief of staff from September 1, 1939, he undertook all preparations for World War II, notably and rapidly expanding the U.S Army from a prewar strength of 200,000 until it fielded nearly two million men by the time of Pearl Harbor (December 7, 1941), and millions more in highly mobile and well-armed formations by the end of the war However, he does not escape criticism for the close-run decision by President Franklin D Roosevelt to commit resources sufficient to field only a 90-division Army Marshall was intimately engaged in all wartime strategy as the main advisor to Roosevelt on military affairs In that capacity, Marshall shaped grand strategy and key operational decisions in both the Atlantic and Pacific theaters Roosevelt deeply respected the cooly aloof Marshall, although their relationship was not more than cordial and never personally warm Marshall consistently supported a Germany first strategy as he oversaw early interservice and deeper political arguments over which theater emphasis should guide dispositions of still scarce military assets Within 712