After the Allied landings in Normandy in 1944, the Commander-in-Chief of the German Army on the Western Front changed hands three times in a row, including three field marshals, Rundstedt, Kruger and Modell, who ended in suicide, with only Lundstedt surviving until 1953 after the war. Including after Rommel was forced to commit suicide because he was implicated in the "720 Incident", Hitler had pretended to be "state buried" publicly, and it was still Lundstedt who attended the funeral on behalf of the Wehrmacht and delivered a speech, saying according to the script: "Rommel's heart belongs to the Fuehrer."
Lundstedt
This is a great irony, not only because Rommel originally died at the hands of Hitler, but more importantly, after the 53-year-old Rommel went to the Western Front as commander-in-chief of "Army Group B", he used his favor and military power to have little respect for this 70-year-old military predecessor, completely forgetting that in the 1940 French Campaign four years ago, he was just a small major general division commander under The Commander-in-Chief of Army Group Lundstedt.
Geld von Rundstedt, often translated as "Marshal Rendezh" in Western military literature, was born in 1875 into a Prussian military family, and it is said that his family had a military career of up to 850 years, and by 1944, his personal service time was more than 50 years, and he was one of the oldest generals in the German army in World War II, known as the "old man" in the military. Promoted to major during World War I and became general in 1927, Hitler had just been released from prison not long after seeing the army general's legs go weak.
In 1932, before Hitler came to power, Rundstedt was already the commander of the largest military district in Germany at that time (the Greater Berlin Military District), and belonged to the backbone of the Wehrmacht, so the old protégés of the old dragon were all over the German military circles and had great prestige, which was the main reason why Hitler had to reuse him. Originally, in 1938, Commander Long had retired from active service due to his age, but on the eve of the Polish campaign, he was still re-recruited as commander-in-chief of Army Group South, and his chief of staff was Manstein.
Lundstedt was a purely professional soldier, basically uninterested in politics, neither innovative nor conformist in army building and operational thinking, and belonged to the decent German officers, such as the "720 Incident" that assassinated Hitler, Lundstedt believed that this was a rebellious act: "As a soldier, you must be bound by the oath of allegiance. "The traditions of the Prussian officer corps are well reflected in him, living a rigorous life, carrying out orders, and because he was in a high position very early and had a considerable strategic vision, he should be regarded as a first-class general if he had to be evaluated.
Raise your staff high
First of all, as an early military leader, Rundstedt was an important helper of Hitler's rearmament and expansion of the army, which was also the general ambivalence of a group of German generals at that time: they did not want to drag Germany into a new world war, but they were also grumpy about the defeat of the First World War, hoping that the German army would restore its former glory and be used by Hitler. By the outbreak of World War II, the German army could become a daunting military force, and a group of people, including Rondstedt, were instrumental, and it was obviously impossible without a considerable level.
Secondly, it showed a high level of command and execution in the Polish and French campaigns. When the "Yellow Plan" was implemented, Army Group South did not completely follow the battle plan of the Supreme High Command, but according to the actual battle situation, mobilized the 10th Army group to the north of Warsaw to intercept the main force of the Polish Army, thus encircling and annihilating most of the Polish Army. In the "White Plan" operation, Lundstedt's "Army Group A" completed a secret breakthrough from the Adden Stage and completely defeated the British and French allies, the quality advantage of the German army existed, the command of the commander-in-chief of the group army group also accounted for a large factor, and the organization, advance and operation of the large corps were themselves complicated, so they were appointed commander in July 1940.
group photo
Thirdly, the emergence of famous generals also proved that Rundstedt was capable, and the German marshals we know such as Manstein, Kleist, Rommel, Liszt, and Rhinehardt were all from The units of Rondestedt, including Guderian and Hoth, who were not appointed commanders. Some people think that he is not a first-class general, stemming from the frequent transfer of command to his subordinates, and some people say that he is the typical style of prussian officers, that is, not interfering too much in the command of subordinates, in fact, there is no need to argue, a low-level high-ranking general, it is impossible to bring out such a large number of famous generals, this is common sense.
Finally, he had strongly opposed war with the Soviet Union, and in the formulation stage of the Barbarossa plan, as one of the few insiders, Lundstedt made it clear that it was not advisable to fight in the East, on the one hand, the experience of the First World War made him have an instinctive sense of fear of two-front operations, on the other hand, he was full of unknown vertigo for soviet military strength, indicating that the old dragon's strategic vision was still relatively professional. Of course, in the end, he obeyed the order to become commander-in-chief of Army Group South and won a great victory in the Battle of Kiev, as for the defeat of Rostov at the end of 1941, it did not mean anything, when the German army was completely defeated.
With Rommel
Faced with Hitler's rant about the withdrawal from Rostov, he chose to offer his resignation and threatened to resign, only to be approved by the latter, and his successor, Reichenau, could only continue to retreat. He was reinstated as Commander-in-Chief of the German Army on the Western Front in March 1942, because Hitler still had to use his seniority and prestige, but after 1943 Rundstedt had been very depressed, and he passed the time every day by reading novels and teasing dogs, because he had a premonition that Germany would inevitably be defeated, and did not have a certain strategic vision.
At this time, Lundstedt was both in awe and dissatisfied with Hitler: "Without Hitler's consent, I cannot even transfer the guards at the front door to the back door."