In mainstream military history literature and the traditional cognition of military enthusiasts, the three famous generals of the German army during World War II were always Guderian, Manstein and Rommel, of which Rommel, known as the "Eagle of the Empire", was the least senior, and he and Modell had the same rank at the end of World War I, all of whom were captain officers. Although in the later stages of the war, Hitler's "firefighter" Modell performed very well on the battlefield, but in the end he was not selected as one of the three famous generals, and his name was never covered with "Desert Fox".
Portrait of Modell
In fact, in many cases, fame does not necessarily fully represent strength, Field Marshal Walter Modell was born in 1891, which is surprisingly consistent with Rommel's age, but he did not become Hitler's close attendant (the head of the chancellery guard battalion) as early as Rommel, so before 1941 it was completely step by step promotion, it can be said that compared with Rommel, it is "losing on the starting line". In addition, Modell was constrained by a variety of complex factors, resulting in a "prestige" that was inferior to that of Rommel of the same age.
First of all, both marshals were the "rising stars" of the senior German generals in World War II, and because of Hitler's relationship, Moder was even more behind Rommel - in the French campaign, Rommel was already the commander of the Panzer Division, and Modell was only the chief of staff of the Major General of the Army Group, when the Soviet-German War broke out, Modell was qualified to command the 3rd Panzer Division, and by this time Rommel had become the commander of the African Army.
Marshal Modell
Secondly, the Germans had invested a total of 153 army divisions in the early days of Operation Barbarossa, so Modell was only one of the 153 division commanders, a younger brother of Guderian's Panzer Corps, and there were several positions such as commander, army group commander and army group commander-in-chief, of course, without showing the mountains. It was not until October 1941 that Modell was promoted to commander of the 41st Panzer Corps and was awarded the rank of general of the Panzer Corps, which was not outstanding among the dozens of combat armies on the Eastern Front.
This was an important factor in Modell's so-called inferiority to Rommel's, because the number of German troops led by the latter, although limited, exercised full operational command in the North African theater, and single-handedly commanded hundreds of thousands of German-Italian mixed troops in a strategic direction. The famous generals on the Eastern Front, where Modell was located, could not sit in an important position for a while and a half, such as manstein was not mixed with the commander of the 11th Army until 1942.
General Moder
Modell and Manstein's resumes are similar, they are gradually transferred from excellent staff officers to military chiefs, and the excellent staff training system and command system inherited by the Prussian army have equipped them with considerable strategic vision and large corps command ability. At this level, Rommel, who has no resume as chief of staff and only "gilded" in the general staff for a short time, is actually inferior in basic skills and organizational ability to Modell, and it cannot be said that Rommel cuisine can only be said to be more dishes in front of the British army.
Third, on the brutal battlefield of the Eastern Front, Modell went from division commander and army commander to commander of Army Group North, and his excellent command skills were discovered little by little, and when he was promoted to field marshal, it was already March 31, 1944, at the end of the war. Therefore, It was only a little more than a year after Modell was crowned marshal until he committed suicide, and Rommel received the marshal's staff as early as June 1, 1942, so the "short-lived" appearance of Modell's position was also one of the reasons for his lack of fame.
Modell and Hitler
Modell did a good job as an armored division commander, and his 3rd Panzer Division carried out a large-depth and long-distance breakthrough in the early days of the Soviet-German war, first sealing the Kiev encirclement, and in the campaign "43381 prisoners, 408 tanks captured and destroyed, 56 armored vehicles, 738 artillery, 515 anti-tank guns, 1137 machine guns" and so on. There was also a special reason for Modell's rapid promotion, that is, in late 1941, due to the defeat in the Battle of Moscow, Hitler carried out a great purge of the front-line generals.
During this period, Modell was recognized by Hitler for his "active defense", and his ass was not hot in the position of commander of the 41st Panzer Army, and three months later he was promoted to commander of the 9th Army. The author's personal opinion is that Modell, as a "firefighter" on the Eastern Front, is well-known and knowledgeable, he did the "dirty work" of saving the troops in the case of a bad situation in the German army, and was a master of defensive operations, and many military history articles called him a "defensive genius" or "defense master".
Old photos
The focus of defense is to preserve the troops as much as possible and gradually retreat, and the number of annihilated enemies and the results of the battle are very limited. For example, his famous battle in 1942 at the Battle of Leverv, and the Battle of Oryol in 1943, etc., were all able to resolutely hold their positions when the Soviet army launched an offensive, and then used reserves to counterattack, and some people commented that "Modell has a unique talent in the organization of defenses in the loot reserves." ”
Rommel, on the other hand, in the early days of North Africa, was a great war of movement and an offensive war, beating the British to throw away their armor and capture a lot, which is more suitable for the German propaganda machine. In fact, Modell later performed more on the Western Front than on the Eastern Front, because at that time he really became the supreme commander of the theater of operations, and in the case of the German situation was almost desperate, in Falest, in Aachen or in the Netherlands, all of which inflicted heavy damage on the American and British Allies, and "Operation Market Garden" made Montgomery discredited, delaying the course of the war for almost a year.
Modell and Guderian
In fact, there is a final reason, that is, Rommel was finally characterized as an "anti-Nazi", while Modell was a loyal believer in Hitler, busy from the Eastern Front to the Western Front, until the Ruhr was defeated and exhausted, and died until the last moment, only nine days before Hitler's suicide. At the same time, in order to gain more command of the troops and gain enough trust, he even took the initiative to hook up with the Nazis, such as using SS members as aide-de-camps, so that many "clean" Wehrmacht generals were not ashamed.
This public character is cruel and rough, like a tyrant, commanding his staff and subordinates, and "unswervingly" implementing Hitler's scorched earth policy, which makes him criticized by many military historians and former colleagues after the war. Such a cold-blooded and die-hard German general was certainly not the object of the Allies' propaganda after the war, so he was "snubbed" by historians and historians.
On April 21, 1945, with only three officers and a few guards left at Modell's side, he committed suicide despite dissuasion with a gun and his last words: "I never believed that I would be so disappointed, because I was loyal only to Germany."
Modell on the battlefield