However, their "outstanding achievements" are based on foreign aggression. Their loyalty to Hitler, their aggression everywhere, is actually very simple, all for the supreme honor of the so-called "Germanic nation." They wouldn't have thought that it was their battle that made Hitler build a huge and terrible black Third Reich, which destroyed countless lives and trampled on countries, cities and villages. They wouldn't have thought of it.
Of course, from a political point of view, they are absolutely fascist accomplices who help others to kill, commit unforgivable war crimes against other countries and are Hitler killers who endanger the world. From the military point of view, their excellent military quality and excellent military command art have had a great influence on the world military history, which is really worth learning by future generations. Compared with those Nazi German politicians and SS leaders who made the Holocaust, they were innocent as regular outstanding generals of the German Defence Force. Although they planned and directed Hitler's war, they opposed the Nazi policy of slaughter and extermination and did not participate in the massacre atrocities. Perhaps it is precisely because of this, coupled with their amazing military achievements, that they won the respect of the enemy and the objective evaluation of historians and military scientists.
"Lightning Sword"-Manstein
Manstein (1887- 1973) was a German field marshal. During World War II, he served as the chief of staff of the German A Army Group, the commander of the 1 1 Army Group and the commander of the "South" Army Group.
Because of his mastery of strategy and tactics, intelligence, quick response and superhuman military imagination, Manstein was recognized as the most capable commander in the German army, and some people commented that he was the best general in World War II. Even his notorious Nazi identity can't hide his military talent. He stood out among many German generals and even the whole forest of World War II, because he was both a military genius and a military generalist.
1887165438+1On October 24th, the10th child named erich Lewinsky was added to the family of artillery officer Edward Lewinsky. Shortly after the child was born, he adopted his uncle Major General Manstein and changed his surname to Manstein. This little Lewinsky was erich Manstein, who later became a German field marshal.
Manstein joined the Youth Reserve Officers Corps on 1900. After graduating from Grosslichfield Senior Military Academy, he was sent to the 3rd Infantry Guard Corps as a trainee officer in 1906, and was promoted to second lieutenant a year later. 19 13 was chosen to study in a military school. When World War I broke out, he served as the lieutenant's adjutant in the Second Guard Reserve, and was promoted to captain a few months later. When Hitler came to power, Manstein was the battalion commander of the Fourth Infantry Regiment. At that time, national socialism was very popular, and manstein was very dissatisfied with it. He strongly opposed Nazi intervention in the military, so he often clashed with the Nazis.
1936, after manstein was promoted to major general, he successively served as 1 army quartermaster and deputy of army chief of staff General Baker. Because Hitler was repeatedly warned to expand his army, he was transferred from the Army Staff Headquarters at the beginning of 1938 and became the division commander of 18.
1939 In the summer, Hitler prepared to attack Poland and established the Southern Army Group, which was composed of 14, 10 and the 8th Army. General Lundstedt served as Commander-in-Chief, and Manstein, who has been promoted to Lieutenant General, served as Chief of Staff. The task of the Confederate army was to set out from Silesia and annihilate the Polish army on the Wichita River. Although the attack plan has been made, Manstein hopes that the war will not break out at the last minute. He supported the Commander-in-Chief's decision not to bomb Warsaw and tried his best to avoid hurting Polish residents.
After the Polish campaign, manstein was still the chief of staff of General Lundstedt, who was then the commander-in-chief of Army A in the middle of the Western Front. Manstein's battle plan for the western front was praised by all parties, and he himself was also called "Shriven in the Second World War".
He put forward a modern battle plan focusing on the use of armored forces, with Army Group A as the main force, using concentrated armored forces to cut off the main enemy forces fighting in Belgium and the Netherlands through the long Ardennes Mountains where maginot line is located, and annihilate the enemy forces together with the reinforced Army Group B. Although the plan was supported by Admiral Lundstedt and tank expert guderian, the Army Headquarters refused to adopt it, thinking that the risk was too great.
1940 In February, manstein was transferred to Pomerania by Hitler as the commander of the newly formed 38th Army. Hitler did this because the plan put forward by manstein was exactly what he wanted. On the one hand, he described the plan as his own, on the other hand, he transferred the real maker of the plan and prevented him from sharing the honor after the success of the plan. When manstein saw that the attack on May 1940 was completely carried out according to his basic ideas, he was already an outsider.
Manstein's 38th Army belongs to Kruger's 4th Army. He kept calling for an attack to prevent the enemy from building a strong defensive position. Because of Kruger's indecision, precious time was wasted.
On June 5, Manstein shifted the direction of attack. Four days later, we arrived at the Seine River, June 19, and crossed the river on the 22nd. In the process of advancing, Manstein was often in the advance detachment, so that the troops were encouraged by his fearless spirit and marched forward bravely. Earlier, Manstein was promoted to infantry general on June 5. He was awarded the Knights Cross on July 25th.
194 1 At the end of February, Manstein was transferred to the commander of the 56th Armored Army, which was being formed, and his desire to command the rapid forces was realized.
At the beginning of the German-Soviet War, Manstein was assigned to the Northern Army Group under the command of Marshal Loeb, and was scheduled to attack Leningrad from East Prussia. From June 22nd 194 1, Manstein's armored troops have been hitting Solqi in the southwest of Ilmen Lake, breaking through the encirclement of the Soviet army and rescuing the besieged 16 army.
16 September, Manstein was ordered to take over 1 1 Schubert, commander of the South Army Group, who died in a car accident. The task of the group army is to repel the Soviets from the north of the Azov Sea to Rostov on the one hand and capture Crimea on the other. In order to carry out the task, the Romanian 3rd Army was assigned to 1 1 Army. Due to the lack of combat effectiveness of the Romanian army, it is extremely difficult to complete these two tasks at the same time. Manstein decided to capture Crimea first.
Despite the solid offensive and complex terrain in Crimea, manstein broke through several Soviet outposts on September 26th. 10 year1October 28th, after fierce fighting, the second Soviet blockade was broken. 165438+ 10/6 Except Sevastopol, the rest of Crimea fell into the hands of the Germans.
1942 February, Hitler promoted manstein to general. At this point, the Soviets successfully landed in Kerch and Feo Docia, which seriously threatened the German rear. After fierce fighting, the Soviet army was finally repelled. 1 1 army generals * * used 1 armored divisions, 5 German infantry divisions and 2 Romanian divisions, annihilated 26 divisions of 2 army divisions, seized 70,000 enemy guns 1200 tanks. With the cooperation of General Richthofen's Eighth Air Force, Manstein won an impressive victory.
On June 7, the Germans concentrated their fire on Sevastopol. Under the constant shelling and bombing of the Eighth Air Force, all the fortifications of this extremely dangerous and impregnable fortress were blown up, and the resistance of the defenders collapsed one after another. 1 year in July, manstein was rewarded by Hitler's telegram and promoted to marshal.
After the capture of the fortress of Sevastopol, Manstein visited Romania at the invitation of Romanian Head of State antonescu during a short break, and received the highest honor medal of Romania-"Medal of Mikhail Warrior" in Yall, Predi. When he returned to the headquarters in Crimea on August 12, he received an order from Hitler to lead his troops northward to attack Leningrad.
After Hitler's desire to attack and besiege Leningrad finally failed. 165438+1October 20th, manstein was transferred to the commander-in-chief of the Don River Army on the two wings of Stalingrad to rescue the besieged 6th Army. The situation was quite serious at that time. Especially unfortunately, Hitler dismissed the post of commander-in-chief of the A Army who commanded the attack on the Caucasus because of disagreement with Marshal Liszt, and he himself served as commander-in-chief. There is a gap of about 300 kilometers between the A Army Group and the B Army Group ... When the superior Soviet army broke through the B Army and defeated the Romanian army and the Italian army covering the 6 th Army, the 6 th Army fell into a tight encirclement. General paulus, commander of the group army, repeatedly asked for a breakthrough, but Hitler ignored it, resulting in paulus and his troops being captured by the Soviet Union.
After the rescue of the Sixth Army failed, the powerful Soviet army successively defeated the Italian, Romanian and Hungarian troops defending the Don River belonging to the B Army Group, in an attempt to cut off the retreat of the Don Army Group located south of Kharkov and the divisions belonging to the A Army Group. The situation was so critical that Hitler was forced to order a retreat. Therefore, manstein's army on the Don River undertook a dual task: to cover the retreat, to guard the ferries on the Don River and the Donets River, and to relieve the Soviet threat to the B Army Group of Kharkov and Kursk.
1943 In February, under the command of manstein, a new southern army group was formed. It is a very arduous task for the army group to attack and defend on the 700-kilometer-long front from the Azov Sea to Kharkov. On March 14, after hard fighting, the German front recovered to its position nine months ago. Manstein won the Oak Leaf Knight Cross for this.
Later, in the Battle of Kursk Arc, the Germans were forced to stop attacking and retreat because the allied forces landed in Sicily. The initiative of the campaign has always been in the hands of the Soviet Union, and the German army was exhausted and suffered heavy casualties. Nevertheless, while trying to eliminate Hitler's interference with the army command, manstein successfully repelled the Soviet attack on the front line of Mius River, held the Donets Valley, successfully established a new front from Kiev to Chaporos, and made contact with the A Army Group in Crimea from there to the south.
1943 10, the Soviet army broke into the depth of the German front near Kiev and dnipropetrovsk. The New Sixth Army was forced to retreat northward; The remnants of the Fourth Armored Army also retreated to the Polish border.
On March 30th, 1944, Manstein and Marshal Kleist, Commander-in-Chief of A Army, were summoned to Upper Salzburg. Hitler dismissed them from their posts and awarded them the Double Sword Oak Leaf Medal.
1945, Manstein was captured by the British. Four years later, he was sentenced to 18 years' imprisonment by a British military court and was held in Weil prison. 1952 was released due to health condition. 1955 published his own war memoir-lost victory and a soldier's life 1887- 1939 1958. From 65438 to 0956, manstein served as a consultant in an organization of the Federal Republic of Germany, cooperating with the western enemies of Germany in wartime to deal with the threat of the Soviet Union. 1June 1973 1 1 day, manstein died in Bavaria, West Germany, at the age of 8.
General comment: The British believe that Manstein was born in a noble family, received a good military education and was an excellent staff officer in his early years. He has his own mature ideas about tactics, campaigns and strategies. It is justified for him to be called a "great strategist" in Germany because he participated in formulating perfect operational plans such as attacking France, but other than that, his contribution to strategy and military thought is not noticeable. During World War I, Manstein only gained limited combat experience. In essence, he has always been an infantry, so during the period of great development of military technology such as World War II, the only contribution he can make is the "assault gun". It is worth studying that from 1942 to 65438+February to 1944 March, manstein fought hard for 15 months, and it was indeed a miracle that the southern army group he commanded retreated from the Don grassland to Galicia, so manstein was the most senior German general.
Americans believe that Manstein was the best German field commander in World War II.
"Desert Fox"-Rommel
Rommel was the most famous German general in World War II. Anyone with a little knowledge of world military history will know his famous nickname-"Desert Fox". Because of his amazing achievements in the desert battlefield in North Africa and the crazy propaganda of German media and allied media, he became a legendary soldier and an idol worshipped by Germans when they were alive.
Rommel elwin (189 1- 1944) participated in the first world war. 19 18, 1 1 month During the German bourgeois revolution, he served as the security company commander. 19 19, successively served as company commander, tactical instructor of Dresden Infantry School, battalion commander of Gosla Hunting Cavalry Battalion, faculty member of Potsdam Military School, principal of Vienna New Town Military School and captain of Hitler's base camp. 1940 In February, he served as the commander of the 7th Tank Division and participated in the war against France. In World War II, he recorded a detailed battle diary and kept a large number of documents, which provided a basis for future generations to study World War II.
Rommel was born in a middle school principal's family in Hayden, southern Germany. 19 10 joined the army after graduating from high school and studied at the Royal Danzig Officers Preparatory School. During the First World War, he served as a company commander and won three cross medals successively. After World War I, he successively served as a tactical instructor of Dresden Infantry School, a battalion commander of Gosla Hunting Cavalry Battalion, a teacher of Potsdam Military School, and a principal of Vienna New Town Military School. Because his book Infantry Attack caught Hitler's attention. 1938 was transferred to the guard captain of Hitler's base camp and accompanied Hitler to inspect Czechoslovakia.
After the outbreak of World War II, Rommel, as one of the commanders of the German high command, was highly valued by Hitler. 1940 In February, Hitler appointed him as the commander of the 7th armored division and presented him with the book Mein Kampf. From May to June, during the German invasion of Western Europe, Rommel commanded the 7th Armored Division to charge ahead, first to Belgium, then to alastair and Somme, and finally to the west coast of France, and was called "the devil's division" by the French.
1941February, Hitler appointed Rommel as the commander of the "German African Army" and went to North Africa to rescue the defeated Italian army. After he arrived at the front line of Tripoli in North Africa, he immediately conducted a reconnaissance flight and came to the conclusion that "the best defense is attack". So he changed the order of "keeping the line" and commanded his armored forces to brave the desert storm and move at full speed. The British army was caught off guard and lost ground. The Germans advanced on Alexandria and Suez. Rommel became famous in World War I, won the reputation of "the fox in the desert" and was promoted to marshal. Later, the German main force was confined to the Soviet-German battlefield, and Hitler refused to deploy troops to help the front line in North Africa, forcing Rommel to stop attacking and defend in aleman.
1942, 1 1 month, Rommel fought Montgomery's 19500 troops and 1029 tanks in aleman with only 50,000 troops and 550 tanks, but he was defeated because he was outnumbered. 1943 In March, Rommel was recalled to the German base camp. In July of the same year, he was transferred to the commander of army group B in northern Italy. 1943 to 65438+February to1July 944, led the army "b" regiment to organize defense in France and command the Normandy anti-landing campaign. Subsequently, the attempted assassination of Hitler occurred in Germany, and Rommel was implicated. 19441June14th, because Hitler sent someone to force him, he committed suicide in a car, and the news released to the public was "Marshal Rommel died of a stroke on the way".
When Hitler learned of Rommel's death, he sent a message of condolence to his wife. The telegram said, "Your husband's death has brought you great losses. Please accept my most sincere condolences. Marshal Rommel's reputation will always be associated with the heroic fighting in North Africa. "
Churchill once commented on Rommel: "Although we fought each other in the catastrophe of the war, please allow me to say that he was a cool and cunning enemy and a great general."
In western military circles, he is called "war animal" and his armored division is called "devil's division".
Soldiers of the German African Corps called their leader "the fox in the desert".
"Tank Grinch"-guderian
Heinz wilhelm guderian was born in June of 1888+07 in a German military family. During World War I, he served in the signal corps, infantry and cavalry. After World War I, guderian began to explore the theory of armored forces. His armored force theory originally came from British military theorists liddell hart, Fuller and other pioneers of armored warfare theory. He developed their theory into a specific tactical formula, put forward a brand-new tactical idea of using tanks on a large scale in war to achieve combat breakthrough and encirclement, and trained troops to use weapons to put this tactic into practice.
1933, Hitler became the chancellor of Germany, and Germany began to expand its army to prepare for war. Soon, at a performance of modern weapons development, when guderian's carefully arranged small armored forces quickly passed the rostrum, Hitler could not help shouting, "This is what I need! This is what I want! " As early as one year before Hitler came to power, Hitler put forward his theory of blitzkrieg, and guderian provided a solid theoretical basis for this theory of war. The armored forces he founded and trained became the material basis for Hitler to realize his blitzkrieg theory. So liddell hart commented: "It was guderian who helped Hitler rewrite world history with his armored thoughts and actions." . With Hitler's support, German armored forces developed rapidly, and guderian was even promoted. He has served as the commander of the 2nd German Armored Division, the commander of 16 Armored Army, and the director of mobile soldiers. 1938 10, guderian was awarded the rank of second-class general of 8 Jin Army.
1939 In August, guderian was appointed as the commander of 19 panzer corps, and took part in the Polish campaign a month later. The 19 Panzer Corps led by him, as the pioneer of the German Northern Army Group, advanced at high speed and in depth with the cooperation of the Air Force. It took Germany only 35 days to kill Poland. This is the first time that the theory of joint operation of German armored forces and air force has been used in war practice. This kind of strategy and tactics shocked the west, and soon a new term-"blitzkrieg" appeared in British and American newspapers, which made people tremble with fear.
1940 On May 10, the French campaign started, and guderian's19 Armored Army once again acted as an offensive pioneer. It took only two days to cross the Ardennes 100 km long canyon and capture Sedang. /kloc-in may of 0/4, three armored divisions in guderian crossed the Maas river. Then he pushes westward at a speed of 30-40 kilometers every day and night. The advancing speed of armored forces led by guderian not only caught the Allies off guard, but also made the German high command feel uneasy. His boss ordered him to stop moving twice, but guderian resigned without hesitation. After the lifting of the ban, he was faster than before. On May 20th, he swept across Amiens and arrived in the English Channel near Abbeville, completing a great siege that shocked the world, including all the allies in northern France and Belgium. On may 24th, guderian's 19 panzer corps has arrived in Brin, Dagra, which is 0/0 miles away from Dunkirk/kloc-0, and Reinhardt's 4 1 panzer corps has also arrived in the Al-Saint-Omer-Gravlin Canal on its right side. The two armored giants only need to work harder to completely eliminate the main force of the allied forces in the coastal areas. However, at this moment, they received an order from the Fuehrer himself to stop moving forward. So, guderian and Reinhardt had to stay put on the canal line, watching the Anglo-French coalition forces flee from Dunkirk. After the war, guderian, who was in a prison camp, was still worried about Hitler's order to "cut off his armored forces": "The great opportunity to capture (the British Expeditionary Force) was destroyed by Hitler's nervousness". 1940 In July, guderian was promoted to a first-class army general by Hitler because of his outstanding performance in the French campaign.
1941may, guderian was appointed commander of the 2nd armored corps. On June 22nd, the Soviet-German War broke out. Guderian's 2nd Panzer Corps and Holt's 3rd Panzer Corps, as two iron fists in the German middle road, successfully surrounded Minsk and Smolensk one after another, annihilating a large number of Soviet effective forces. He surrounded Kiev with Kleist's 1 Panzer Corps, which is a typical example of the successful surprise attack of armored forces in the history of modern war. 194 1 On September 30th, 2008, guderian's 2nd Panzer Corps first kicked off the "Typhoon" operation, and besieged the army of Subryansk in Bryansk until it reached the gates of Moscow, but the Russian winter made his offensive drop sharply. On February 4, 65438, the temperature dropped to MINUS 52 degrees Celsius, and the Germans could no longer fight. With a heavy heart, guderian decided to retreat first, which was the first time since his invincible armored regiment leveled Poland. Guderian was dismissed by Hitler because of this unauthorized retreat. Later, with the German army losing ground in the Soviet-German battlefield, Hitler used him as the director of armored forces and chief of staff of the army.
1945 In May, guderian surrendered to the US military and was held as a prisoner of war in Nuremberg prison. The Soviet Union wanted to sue him for war crimes, but the Western allies refused. After guderian was imprisoned for three years, the Nuremberg International Military Tribunal released guderian from the list of 1948 war criminals on the grounds that he was only the executor of the war in the Second World War and did not commit the crimes of abusing prisoners of war and slaughtering innocent civilians. After his release, guderian remained obsessed with tanks as always, and often exchanged views with British and American tank experts on tank issues. In order to reveal the development course of German armored forces and summarize the experience of commanding armored forces, he wrote a memoir "Memories of a Soldier" and a monograph "Tanks-Forward" to discuss the development and tactics of German tank forces (due to his untimely death, his friend menzel compiled and edited the materials collected before his death, and finally published them). 1954 On May 4th, guderian died at the age of 66. He was called the father of German armored forces by later generations, and the other was Rommel.