In the Soviet-German battlefield of World War II, in terms of commanding combat and conservative troop strength, no German general was better than Marshal Modell, and it was precisely because of his superiority that he became the only senior commander in World War II who commanded four army groups in the east and west battlefields. Today we focus on the Battle of Lezhev on the Eastern Front, the 13-month defensive operation of the 9th Army, how Modell won the title of "Master of Defense", and how he safely withdrew from the battlefield on the central front to the southern front.
The Wehrmacht 9th Army was formed relatively late in World War II, and was reorganized on May 15, 1940 from the Eastern Command of the Occupying Forces in Poland, which had been stationed on the Siegfried Line before the attack on the Soviet Union, and had neither participated in the Polish campaign nor in Western Europe, which was equivalent to a special preparation for a blitzkrieg against the Soviet Union.
After the outbreak of the Soviet-German War on 22 June 1941, the 9th Army came under the command of Army Group Center, which followed Hort's 3rd Panzer Group and launched an attack on Moscow with Guderian's 2nd Panzer Group and Kruger's 4th Army. Until 23 August, the 9th Army had been responsible for the security of the passage between Army Group Center and Army Group North, and its most important task was to close the 3rd Panzer Group and clear the soviet remnants, including the guerrillas, while fighting, and ensure the security of the Moscow passage.
In July, when Army Group Center easily occupied Minsk in a week, the Germans sent the 2nd Army on the central line, so that in the formation of the attack on Smolensk, Guderian commanded the 2nd and 3rd armored groups to move forward in tandem, while the 9th Army advanced in parallel on the left, the 4th Army in the center, and the 2nd Army on the right, and after the occupation of Smolensk at the end of July, Guderian was dissatisfied with the follow-up of the 3 armies, believing that their progress was too slow. Did not keep up with the rhythm of the attack of the armored troops.
On 23 August, the German high command abruptly issued an order to suspend the attack on Moscow, and while cooperating with the 4th Army to hold the existing occupied positions, the 9th Army was also tasked with supporting Army Group North, but the process was very short, and by the end of September, when the Battle of Moscow began, the 9th Army had become the top soldier attacking Moscow from the northern front, and had made a great contribution to the siege of Vyazma and Bryansk in October.
However, after the Great Soviet Counteroffensive in December, because Guderian's 2nd Panzer Group did not occupy Tula as required, affecting the entire German offensive, the 3rd Panzer Group suffered too many losses, causing the 9th Army to lose its armored cover, and by the end of the Moscow Campaign, the 9th Army had also lost more than half, and had to retreat to Lezhevschevka, 300 kilometers away from Moscow.
In this sense, the 9th Army was not too conspicuous before the Battle of Moscow, but after the Battle of Lezhev and the command of Modell, it attracted the attention of the Soviet Army, and became the focus of the Soviet army in the subsequent Battle of Kursk and operation Baghraten, but the 9th Army was miraculously reorganized and fought in Italy and Germany itself, and finally in May 1945 most of it was surrounded by the Soviet attack on Berlin, and the remaining 30,000 people escaped the Elbe river to surrender to the Allies.
All along, with regard to Modell's command of the 9th Army in 1942 to defend Lezhev, and Manstein's formation of the Don Army Group in November 1942 to reinforce the Stalingrad battlefield, Modell won the title of "Defense Master" and dismantled the "Mars Operation" that Zhukov had carefully prepared for more than two months, while Manstein lost the winter storm rescue operation, resulting in the encirclement and annihilation of Paulus's 6th Army Others say that Manstein should not have voluntarily withdrawn from the battle and should have been responsible for the encirclement and annihilation of the 6th Army.
In fact, when Modell took over command of the 9th Army, the German high command was also carefully considered. On the one hand, when Modell took office in January 1942, most of the generals of Army Group Center were dismissed, although 15 generals were more senior than Modell, but Adolf still liked Modell, who commanded the 41st Panzer Army, because he had made many achievements in the command positions of the division from the 2nd A group to the 3rd panzer group, especially in the operation of the 3rd Panzer Division, and in several encirclement battles after the war, this division was second to none. Moreover, when Guderian's 2nd Panzer Group attacked the Soviets in Kiev from the south, it was also the first of the 3rd Panzer Division to join the 1st Panzer Group, thus closing the encirclement on September 16, 1941.
On the other hand, Modell's battle in Kiev created the conditions for his continued promotion. From commander of the panzer division to commander of the panzer corps to commander of the 9th Army, Modell took less than half a year. So, how did Modell, when he became commander of the 9th Army, negotiate with the Soviets for 13 months?
It turned out that on the day Modell arrived, except for the group of people at the headquarters of the 9th Army, he himself did not expect that there would be such a mess in front of him. The formation of 260,000 people, after the First Battle of Moscow, only less than 60,000 remained, the formation of 165 armored vehicles, only 4 assault guns and 1 tank in front of the eyes, and the 9th Army held the task of the multi-line long point, and many defensive depths were breached by the Soviet Army. The operations staff officer thought that Modell had brought a lot of reinforcements, and asked him in doubt how many people he had brought. Modell calmly replied that he was alone.
Although this was a widely praised joke in the battlefield at the time, it also reflected Modell's attitude of not being alarmed. In fact, there was a reason why Modell dared to answer this way, and the German high command dared to use this person, which also matched his courage to make his position clear.
In order to defend Lezhev, the first thing Modell did after taking office was to fly directly to the "Wolf's Den" of the headquarters of the headquarters of the command headquarters, he not only quarreled with Adolf for command, saying that the current officer was not as good as the current management, he was the commander of the 9th Army, asked the headquarters not to interfere in the affairs of the front, and also asked the headquarters for reinforcements of 3 armored divisions, 1 SS motor rifle division, 3 infantry divisions and several security regiments, which were not only all in place within two weeks, but the Goering Air Force also sent him 5 anti-aircraft artillery battalions, and all of them were 88mm heavy artillery.
Therefore, some people say that Manstein did not dare to ask for equipment from the high command like Modell, and in the winter storm operation, if Manstein had two armored division reinforcements, Paulus's 6th Army would not have been annihilated, but the high command did not give him reinforcements, and it was also because Manstein did not want to be subservient, let alone three or four.
In this sense, during the 13-month Battle of Lezhevsechovka, the German high command gave him enough face, not only when he took office, but also gave him equipment, and when the battle in Stalingrad was at its most intense, Adolf also sent reinforcements to Modell, and he was also a strong SS armored division, so Modell's winning the title of Defense Master was closely related to the situation on the mid-line battlefield, not his own achievement.
From the above analysis, it can be seen that the 9th Army, under the command of Modell, was able to fight hard for 13 months in the Battle of Lezhev, which also had objective reasons. However, due to the reversal of the situation on the battlefield, it was necessary to withdraw from the battlefield in March 1943 through "Operation Buffalo". It can be said that Modell from the beginning of taking over the command of the 9th Army, he is the German firefighter, but every time he fights a battle, the German army is also a step backwards, following the commander of the 9th Army, Modell has successively served as the commander of the Northern Army Group, the Southern Army Group, the Central Army Group and the commander-in-chief of the Western Theater and the commander of the B Army Group, but he hopes that the greater the disappointment, the greater the disappointment, and at the same time he has made a lot of effort for the German army to delay the defeat, but he is regarded as a traitor because he ordered the disbandment of the troops in the Ruhr area defense operation. The end of a gunshot cut is also sad.
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