World War II, as the largest war in human history, gave birth to countless heroic generals, and as the initiator of the war, Germany also gave birth to dozens of marshals who made outstanding contributions to their motherland.
Among these marshals, I believe that the vast majority of them have heard of the name "Rondestedt". As Germany's first promoted field marshal, Rundstedt was quite famous in Germany.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > first, early life</h1>
In 1875, Lundstedt was born into a military family in Aschersleben, north-central Germany, where his father was a major general. Like other German generals from a military family, Rondstedt was influenced by his father from an early age, and he loved the affairs of the army from an early age and longed for one day to serve in the army.
So with the support of his family, Lundstedt entered the military academy very early and began to study military command and war theory.
In 1892, at the age of 17, Rondstedt graduated from the Higher Military Academy in Großlichfeld and was sent to the 83rd Infantry Regiment in Kassel as a probationary officer, and after a year of inspection, he was promoted to second lieutenant and officially became an officer, and then Rundstedt followed his millions of colleagues in the tragic First World War.
Compared with Marshal Fedor von Bock, who was also a german veteran, The promotion rate of Rondestedt was rather slow due to the lack of special opportunities and excellent performances. At the beginning of the First World War, Rundstedt was a captain's staff officer in the reserve 22nd Division, and by the end of the First World War, Rundstedt was the chief of staff of the Fifteenth Army on the Western Front, and By this time Bock was already the chief of operations of the Army Group group of the "German Crown Prince Army Group".
Some people say that "World War II is a continuation of World War I", and I think this statement is very reasonable. Because many German generals in World War II were deeply affected by The First World War, for example, Guderian advocated the mobile tactics of armored troops based on the experience of the First World War.
But the situation in Lundstedt is somewhat peculiar - as a soldier, Lundstedt did not have the experience of company and actual command in World War I. At the outbreak of the First World War, Lundstedt was a staff officer in the reserve of the Twenty-second Division, and in autumn 1916, Lundstedt was promoted to chief staff officer of a certain army in the Carpathian Mountains, and until the end of the war, Lundelstedt's position was chief of staff of the Fifteenth Army on the Western Front.
The experience of World War I undoubtedly influenced Rundstedt's military career for the following decades.
After World War I, Lundstedt joined the Weimar Defence Army as chief of staff of the 3rd Cavalry Division. In 1923, Rundstedt was promoted to colonel, and three years later he became chief of staff of the Second Army. In 1927, Rundstedt officially entered the ranks of generals and was promoted to major general, and by 1932 Rundstedt was already a general in the army, serving as commander of the 1st Army in Berlin.
During this time, Rondstedt's command style was formed and solidified.
Compared with later German marshals, such as Manstein and Modell, Lundstedt rarely intervened directly in the actual tactical command, but preferred to plan a general goal for his officers and then let his officers give full play to their subjective initiative to complete this goal.
This method of command has been deeply criticized by Rondestedt, and many military scientists believe that Rondestedt is not a good commander, and even called Rondestedt "Dragon No Matter" among the "German generals listed by netizens".
But these responsibilities ignore Germany's long-standing unique military culture, which has been practiced within the German army since the time of the moltkes, which requires superior officers not to give clear instructions when giving tasks, but to let their officers give full play to their initiative to complete the task.
Londstedt entered the German General Staff long before World War I, and was deeply influenced by the traditional German "task-style command method", rather than blaming Lundstedt for not personally intervening in tactical command, why not reflect on the tactical actions of a group of army groups personally interfering with one of his regiments, or even a battalion' tactical actions?
As mentioned earlier, Rondstedt was born in 1875, and when the Polish Campaign broke out in 1939, Rondstedt was 64 years old. For most service members, 64 means that their military careers are over and it's time to consider retiring from the military.
So in 1938, Rundstedt formally offered his resignation to Hitler. Considering Rondstedt's age, Hitler agreed to the request. If World War II hadn't broken out, the rest of Rondstedt's life would probably have been a rare moment of leisure in his life, but the outbreak of World War II completely changed Rondstedt's fate.
In 1939 Hitler had decided to take military action against Poland, but after much trouble over the commander, Hitler recalled Rondestedt and appointed him commander-in-chief of Army Group South to attack the Polish army from the south.
Out of a sense of honor for the German soldiers, Lundstedt accepted the appointment.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > II, the Polish Campaign and the French Campaign</h1>
On September 1, 1939, the Polish Campaign broke out.
As commander of Army Group South, Rondstedt took the lead in leading 3 armies with a total of 36 divisions across the Polish border and launching an onslaught on Poland.
Before the battle even began, Rondstedt had set their own objectives for his generals, and then let his generals do what they were good at. In World War II, the quality and equipment level of German soldiers were not the best, but the military talents accumulated by Germany over the centuries were world-class.
Under this free command of Rondstedt, all the officers of Army Group South were like tigers out of the mountains, launching a fierce attack on the Polish army in front of them, and in a very short time they broke through the Polish defense line.
It is worth noting that although it is customary to let go and let his subordinates do things the way they like, this does not mean that Lundstedt really does not care about anything.
As commander of an army group, Lundstedt would not only give his men a chance to fully display their military talents, but would also restrain them at the right time to ensure the smooth progress of the campaign plan.
On August 11, 1939, the 30th Division of the Northern Wing of the German Eighth Army was suddenly attacked by the Polish Army, and under the stubborn resistance of the Polish Army, the Eighth Army was forced to turn to the north to resist the Polish assault and request reinforcements from Lundstedt.
However, Rondestedt was not busy directly reinforcing the Eighth Army, but asked it to absorb the Polish army as much as possible, and at the same time ordered the Sixteenth Panzer Army, which had reached south of Warsaw, to cut off the Polish retreat to Warsaw from the east with the subsequent Tenth Army, and encircled the Polish army in the area. The fighting continued until the 19th, when the remnants of the Polish 19 divisions and 3 cavalry brigades, about 170,000 men, surrendered to the Germans under the leadership of the commander, General Boltnovsky, and became prisoners of the Germans.
On 28 September, the Polish army surrendered and the Polish campaign ended.
Hitler was overjoyed by his victory in the Polish campaign, so he awarded him the Knight's Cross of The Knights of Londstedt and promoted Himert to Commander-in-Chief of the Eastern Front, and then on 18 October 1939, Hitler dropped Rondestedt to the Western Front as Commander of Army Group A.
On May 10, 1940, the Germans launched a blitzkrieg against Western Europe, and Marshal Bork's Army Group B first fought in the Low Countries, drawing the attention of the Anglo-French coalition to Belgium and the Netherlands.
The task of detouring through the Ardennes Forest and interspersing behind the Anglo-French coalition forces to determine the direction of the war was given to Lundstedt. Lonestedt also lived up to expectations, and only three days after the battle began, the armored forces of Army Group South crossed the Maas River and appeared behind the Anglo-French forces, which were forced to flee by sea.
Then, on 9 June 1940, Rundstedt commanded Army Group A to launch a new offensive at Champigne, breaking through the French defense line on the Heine river in just two days, and then Rondestedt marched south, reaching Neville, and detoured to the east, encircling the remnants of the French army that had been defeated all the way between the Maginot Line and the German army, crushing the last resistance of the French government.
Because of his great achievements in the Polish and French battles, on July 19, Rondstedt was promoted to field marshal by Hitler, becoming one of the first generals in the German army to be promoted to field marshal.
< h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > third, the war against the Soviet Union</h1>
In March 1941, Hitler convened a meeting in Breslau and began to deploy military operations against the Soviet Union. In order to ensure the smooth implementation of the operation, Hitler transferred Lundstedt to the Eastern Front and made him the commander-in-chief of Army Group South, and in addition to the German army, he also had troops from Romania, Hungary, Italy and other vassal countries, with a total strength of more than 1 million people, more than 1,000 aircraft and more than 700 tanks.
However, the Soviet army in front of the Army Group South was not a good stubble - because of the fear that the German army would focus on the Ukrainian area, the Soviet army deployed heavy troops in the Ukrainian area, including 45 infantry divisions, 20 tank divisions, 10 motorized infantry divisions and 6 cavalry divisions, with more than 4800 tanks, and the Soviet army far surpassed the Army Group South in terms of mobile strength.
But even so, Rondestedt still created a miracle.
On June 22, the German army launched a full-line offensive, Lundstedt commanded the Army Group South, in the Uman area to encircle 100,000 Soviet troops, by August 24, the Southern Army Group had rushed to the mouth of the Dnieper River, breaking into the Soviet territory of more than 500 kilometers deep, in the process of Longestedt gave the Soviet army on the southern front heavy damage, the Soviet Union's proud tank force was almost completely destroyed.
By the time Guderian led his troops south, only a few hundred tanks were left in the hands of the Soviet Southwestern front and the southern front, and Guderian's armored forces could not be stopped. Subsequently, the German Army Group South, with the support of its Army Group Center, captured Kiev, eliminated more than 700,000 Soviet troops, and won the largest encirclement in human history.
But fate has made people, who would have thought that it would be the final victory of Lundstedt on the Eastern Front?
Due to the lack of supplies and the shift of the German strategic objectives from the southern front to the Moscow area, Army Group South was no longer able to launch a strong offensive against the Soviet forces in front of it, and the pace of the advance became very slow.
In November 1941, Lundstedt passed out of danger due to a heart attack at his headquarters due to overwork, and was rescued from danger.
At this time, the most frightening winter in the Soviet Union had arrived, and Rondstedt suggested to Hitler that the troops should be retreated 100 kilometers for the winter, but Hitler refused, so Rondestedt simply asked for his resignation on the grounds of heart disease, and handed over the command of Army Group South to Marshal Reichenau to recuperate.
But as one of the most senior generals in the German army, Lundstedt did not get much time to recuperate.
On 15 March 1942, Hitler again appointed Lundstedt as Commander-in-Chief of the Western Front for the Defense of the Allies. The position was an idle one, the intensity of the work was not great, and Lundstedt did not want to leave the army he loved so hastily, so he accepted the appointment.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > IV</h1>
On 6 June 1944, the Allies landed in normandy and launched a fierce attack on the German forces on the western front. Due to the allied superiority and the hard work of the German forces, Rondstedt constantly asked Hitler for reinforcements, but none of them had Hitler's consent.
On June 29, 1944, due to the grim situation on the front, Rundstedt and Rommel went together to see Hitler in an attempt to persuade Hitler to stop the war.
Hitler was furious, and on 1 July, Hitler appointed Marshal Kluge to succeed Rundstedt, and awarded Him the Knight's Cross of the Order of the Iron Cross with Silver Oak Leaves, forcing him to retire. As a pure soldier, Rundstedt did not say much, directly accepted Hitler's instructions, and handed over the command of the Western Front to Marshal Kluge.
But Kluge was not able to save the crisis on the Western Front, and Hitler then replaced Kluge with Modell, but Modell was better at commanding an army group than commanding an army group, and thus failed to save the western front that was on the verge of collapse.
In desperation, Hitler asked Londstedt to come out of the mountains for the third time on September 1, 1944, to take up the post of Commander-in-Chief of the Western Front.
Londstedt, on the other hand, had just returned, and in the Dutch area, modell severely damaged the Allied airborne troops, bankrupting Montgomery's plan to invade the German Ruhr through the Netherlands and delaying the war until winter.
< h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > five, the last time</h1>
On December 16, 1944, the German army launched the so-called "Rondestedt Offensive" on the Western Front, but in fact Rondestedt did not agree to this counter-offensive, or even did not care at all, but just let his men do their best, perhaps in Lundstedt's view at this time the overall situation has been decided, no matter how hard it is, it will not help.
Sure enough, although the Germans made great progress in the early stages of the counteroffensive, due to the lack of follow-up strength and the continuous arrival of Allied reinforcements, after losing a large amount of living force, the Germans were driven back to the starting position by the Allies.
On March 9, 1945, after the Americans crossed the Rhine, Ronderstedt was once again relieved by Hitler of his post as commander-in-chief of the Western Front and ordered to retire permanently.
Looking back at The life of Rondestedt, it is not difficult to see that his life was full of misfortune and luck.
His misfortune was that he fought two world wars, each of which ended in defeat, while his luck was that he not only fought two world wars, but also survived peacefully and got a fairly good ending.
As commander of an army group, Rondstedt undoubtedly fulfilled his duties, so it is no wonder that generals such as Manstein and Guderian respect Rondstedt so much.
In addition to these, another rare thing about Rondstedt is that he always looks at the problem from the perspective of a pure soldier, no matter how many contradictions other German generals have with him, but in the face of the infringement of German interests, Rondelstedt will still wholeheartedly cooperate with these generals and fight with them.
As we all know, Modell, as the favorite of the Führer, was quickly promoted to field marshal because of Hitler's special care, and as a traditional Lundstedt has always been dissatisfied with this, he believes that Modell is more suitable as an aide-de-camp than an army marshal.
In 1944, the Allies launched Operation Market Garden, and tens of thousands of Allied paratroopers jumped directly over Modell's head. After the initial confusion, Modell soon discovered the intentions of the Allied paratroopers, and Modell immediately decided to assemble his forces to launch a counterattack against the Allied paratroopers.
So Modell sent a telegram to Lundstedt, asking Lundstedt to immediately send reinforcements to support him. It should be known that at that time, Rondstedt had sent all the troops he could use to the southern front to block the attack of the American Barton, but after receiving Modell's telegram, Rondstedt replied to Modell like this:
"Reinforcements that can be sent are about to hit the road!"
Rondestedt then risked a breakthrough on the southern front by Patton and redeployed the German forces originally deployed to the southern front to the northern front to support Modell's operations. It was thanks to Lundstedt's strong support that Modell was able to hold the Allied armored forces to the brim and prevent them from merging with the British airborne troops far away in Arnhem, ensuring that the German deployment to eliminate the British airborne troops could be carried out smoothly.
Perhaps "a pure German soldier", I think, is the best assessment of Rundstedt.
Some of the pictures are from the Internet, and the infringement is jointly deleted!