He was the adopted son of a relative who had succeeded him, and his achievements and fame surpassed that of the general's adoptive father to become a famous commander of the Empire; he was elegant and personable in appearance, much like an academic tycoon, but in the battlefield world of smoke and gunfire, he was an invincible and invincible military god of war; he was talented and strategic, he was the chief staff officer of the "World War II" Nazi Germany victory over France, but he did not personally participate in the military operation to defeat France, but became a bystander who did nothing; he repeatedly performed military miracles in the eastern European plains. Known as Hitler's "firefighters" on the battlefield of the Soviet Union, he was eventually dismissed from his military post because he disagreed with the Führer and became an idle marshal who did nothing. So who is this marshal who is idle at home? What kind of wonderful performances he has had on the battlefield, why to this day, many of the battles he commanded will become classic examples in military textbooks in many countries today, and his name is still often mentioned by military fans around the world.
On May 10, 1940, when General Lundstedt, who was the main attacker in the middle of Nazi Germany, led Army Group A rolling forward, crossing the Ardennes Forest to bypass the "Maginot Line", forcibly crossing the Maas River, and attacking the Plain of France, the British and French allies were caught off guard, as if they were suddenly struck by thunder. Because of the unexpected attack on the defensive line, the millions of well-equipped Allied troops were suddenly stunned and confused. The two Commanders-in-Chief of the Allied Forces, Ganmarin and Wei Gang, were both staunch believers in the trench warfare of "World War I", but in the face of Nazi Germany's sudden "blitzkrieg", the two were also helpless. When there was no choice but to resign, Prime Minister Renault resigned, and the then 84-year-old Henri Philippe Pétain was put on the front of history and reorganized to deal with the crisis. However, this hero of the First World War has long lost the courage and courage to turn the tide in the "Battle of Verdun". At the beginning of his reign, Marshal Pétain declared Paris an undefended city and ordered the French to stop resisting during the battle, and after a brief period of consultation and bargaining, France and Germany signed the Armistice agreement on 22 June. The agreement stipulates that 3/5 of the territory of France on the Atlantic coast will be borne by the New French Government with German troops, 7 billion francs of garrisons per year, and the other 2/5 of the remaining water will be owned by the new Government, which is the so-called new Government of Vichy France. At this point, the French army, known as the first military power on the European continent, ended in complete defeat, and the French Third Republic, which had existed for 65 years, was officially overthrown.
We cannot help but ask: Why did the mighty French army, which has a long and glorious military tradition, hold out for only six weeks, lose so much that it surrendered with a show of hands? That's a long story. There are many reasons for the poor performance of the French Third Republic during World War II, but among these many reasons, there is one man who can be said to have played a great role in the military campaign to destroy France: he is the senior commander of Nazi Germany, an outstanding military scientist, strategist, one of the most prestigious commanders of the German Wehrmacht, together with Erwin Rommel and Heinz Wilhelm Guderian, who is known as the three famous generals of Nazi Germany during World War II, Erich von Manstein.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-center-line" > noble and well-established</h1>
Marshal Manstein was born into the Junker nobility, and if we call the rich three generations "born with a golden spoon", then Manstein simply fell to the ground in 1887 carrying the knight's sword. Manstein's biological father was the German Second Reich artillery general Eduard von Lewinsky, and his adoptive father was the Second Reich infantry general George Manstein, and at this point, we would certainly think that Manstein's family was already very prominent, but in fact this was only the tip of the iceberg, and among his close relatives, there was a relative with a more noble status and more powerful influence, that is, his uncle, the famous Field Marshal and German President Paul von Hindenburg.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-center-line" > generals and military school talents</h1>
The Junker aristocracy was the backbone of the Empire, and if nothing else, Manstein's future was in no doubt. Because according to the tradition of the Second Reich at that time, the younger Manstein naturally inherited the glory of his ancestors, entered the army, and gradually grew into a new generation of German generals, and then made a contribution to the grand plan of the empire to expand its territory.
At that time, aristocratic families often held salon gatherings, and the guests of the banquet were basically political and military figures, as the son of the general, he was very interested in the military, and the adults' conversations about military politics were often memorized and experienced with his heart. It should be said that Manstein's military talent began to be stimulated at an early age.
In 1900, at the age of 14, Manstein entered the Großlichfeld Military Academy, known as the German Military Academy at West Point, where he spent six years. In 1906, Manstein had the privilege of interning in kaiser Wilhelm II's Third Guards Infantry Regiment. On the eve of World War I, in 1913, Manstein was again sent to the Berlin Military Academy to study. The Berlin Military Academy was in Germany at the time, and it was definitely the cradle of imperial generals. At the beginning of the 19th century, the famous Prussian military educator Scharnhorst served as the first principal of the academy, and Clausewitz, the author of the Western military bible "The Theory of War", also served as the principal of the academy for 12 years. It was through the unremitting efforts of the two masters and apprentices that the Berlin Military Academy became one of the famous military academies in all of Europe. At this academy, a number of outstanding German military staff personnel were trained and then transported to their own countries and even around the world. Marshal Moltke, one of the three great heroes of the Second Empire, came from the school. It should be admitted that although Manstein was interrupted by the sudden outbreak of "World War I" shortly after studying at the Berlin Military Academy, this life experience is still of great significance to him.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-center-line" > the storm of the First World War, the baptism of fire</h1>
On June 28, 1914, three gunshots rang out on the streets of Sarajevo, and world war I officially broke out. According to the strategy devised by the genius military strategist Marshal Count Schlieffen before he stepped down as chief of the general staff in 1906, the main force of the German army would cross the neutral Belgium, enter French territory, and then turn the spearhead of the attack and attack Paris south to defeat France. However, after three months of fighting on the Marne, Paris could not be conquered, and the young officer Manstein was wounded by a bullet and was admitted to the rear hospital.
Marshal Hindenburg, who was famous during world war I, wrote to the hospitalized Manstein expressing greetings and concerns, and in the letter, there was a sentence that impressed the 28-year-old Manstein and will never forget. The phrase is that "the chance of being injured in a war with your brain is much smaller than that of a brute." Later, the "Battle of Verdun" and the "Battle of the Somme", which were more fiercely fought, manstein participated in and fought bloody battles. During the course of the operation, General Roseburg, chief of the General Staff of the Army Group, admired Manstein's staff talent and found that the young officer Manstein often drew up a more advanced battle plan than many senior staff officers of the army group. He was appointed chief of staff, chief of operations section of cavalry divisions, and chief of operations sections of infantry divisions. Throughout world war I, Manstein received the Iron Cross First Class Meritorious Service Medal and a Hohenzollern Royal Family Medal of Honor.
However, with germany's national strength at that time, the European and American powers were single-handedly, naturally incompetent and outnumbered, and after four years of hard support, in November 1918, Germany was finally defeated and surrendered.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-center-line" > defeated disarmament, your people help each other</h1>
According to the Treaty of Versailles, the newly formed republic could retain only 100,000 troops in the army, 15,000 in the navy and 1,000 in the air force. This is naturally not a boon for Germany, which has always had a militarist tradition. After the establishment of the Weimar Republic, the new Government entrusted the formation of the Wehrmacht to General Roseburg and General Seckert.
After the war, Manstein was lost in a daze and once lost his goal of life. However, thanks to the connections of his old superior, General Roseburg, he was soon absorbed into the Wehrmacht Preparatory Committee and participated in the reconstruction of the Wehrmacht, and it was through Manstein's fruitful selection and selection that a large number of outstanding military talents such as Rommel, Guderian and Dönitz were able to continue to serve in the army and avoid the fate of demobilization.
< h1 class= "pgc-h-center-line" > Nazis came to power and re-emerged</h1>
In January 1933, the Nazi demon Hitler was elected Chancellor of Germany. The newly appointed leader of the country, even in the entire history of mankind, is a rare military war maniac. In order to restore the so-called glory of the Empire in the past, Hitler did not hesitate to tear up the agreement, trampled on the peace treaty, first expanded the army by 300,000, and formed the world's first mechanized armored tank division, and secretly rebuilt the air force and navy.
From 1933 to 1939, during which time Manstein was appreciated by Führer Hitler for his involvement in the 1936 march into the unarmed zone of the Rhineland, he was promoted to a rank of lieutenant general on the eve of World War II.
< h1 class = "pgc-h-center-line" > polish battles, with outstanding merit</h1>
If General Rosburg was the first Bole in Manstein's military career, then The Nazi Reich's most senior Field Marshal, Lundstedt, was another rare nobleman in his life. On September 1, 1939, the German-Polish War broke out. In this campaign, the German army invested 5 army groups, plus reserves, a total of 62 divisions, 1.6 million people. Manstein was subordinate to Army Group South and served as chief of staff at headquarters, and the commander of Army Group South was General Lundstedt. Before the war, the German General Staff carefully drew up a "white plan" for polish operations, which can be said to be of epoch-making significance compared with the past, because this battle plan is a new mechanized mode of war.
The Polish Campaign was the first magnificent appearance of German "blitzkrieg" on the stage of human warfare, compared to the out-of-concept and crippled Polish army, the performance of the German army was simply perfect, on the day of the war, more than 800 old-fashioned aircraft of the Polish Air Force were destroyed at the ground airfield, thus losing air supremacy. Moreover, the Polish defense line belongs to the first-line defense, lack of strategic depth, after the German tanks broke through the Polish defense line, the entire Polish defense system collapsed rapidly, and then the German army used the high mobility of the tank armored units, interspersed with detours, the Polish army points were cut and surrounded by pieces, so that it was difficult for the Polish army to form a joint force, and then fell into the dilemma of fighting separately. At the same time, the Soviets crossed the Soviet-Polish border on September 17 and attacked Poland.
Under Manstein's planning, Army Group South continued to encircle the main polish army, and soon the German army was approaching the Polish capital. On 28 September, Warsaw fell and the Polish government surrendered. On 6 October, germany and the Soviet Union divided Poland along the naraf-Vistla-San river line, as agreed in advance by the Soviet-German Non-Aggression Pact. In this battle, the Germans quickly destroyed Poland, which was then known as the second army power of the European Allied Forces, at a slight cost of 38,000 casualties.
Although the entire Polish campaign, Manstein's performance was remarkable. In fact, in terms of his own heart, Manstein was not enthusiastic about attacking Poland, after all, Poland and Britain and France signed an alliance agreement, Manstein was worried that once Germany attacked Poland, the Anglo-French coalition would fulfill its alliance obligations and send reinforcements. At that time, the German army will have to deal with the attack between the east and west sides of the tri-power alliance with the strength of one country, and Germany will have the possibility of falling into the situation of being attacked by the enemy in the "First World War". On the contrary, keeping Poland as a strategic buffer state would be conducive to future wars against the Soviet Union.
< h1 class = "pgc-h-center-line" > blitzed the five countries and Northern Europe fell</h1>
When the Polish Campaign broke out, the Anglo-French forces were overwhelmed and forced to declare war on Germany on 3 September. However, despite the declaration of war, the British and French allies ignored the invaded Poland, did not send reinforcements, but adopted what the Germans called "sit-in war", hiding in the "Maginot Line" as a shrunken-headed turtle, allowing Poland to fend for itself. In just one month, the Republic of Poland ceased to exist.
In order to ensure the smooth passage of war resources such as Iron Ore in Sweden, Germany must have sea control in the North Sea and the Baltic Sea, prevent the British Imperial Navy from entering the North Sea and the Baltic Sea, and cut off Germany's vital transport lifeline. To this end, from April 1940 onwards, Nazi Germany did not hesitate to trample on the neutrality pact, and successively blitzed Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg.
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" > boldly conceived and planned</h1>
In May 1940, with the exception of Britain, which was its ally across the English Channel, the other countries surrounded on three sides were either Nazis or Nazi allies, and France was now in danger of being attacked on three sides. The slightest politically minded person understands that a clash of blood and fire between the two european powers is inevitable.
After the successful conquest of Poland, Germany had proposed peace, and in view of Hitler's previous series of rebellious rogue acts, the British and French leaders had long lost trust in the great dictator, so Hitler had an attempt to force Britain and France to comply with a terrible war. Hitler ordered the Army General Staff to draw up a military plan for the operation against France.
After the yellow plan for fighting against France was formulated, Manstein, chief of staff of Army Group A, resolutely opposed it, because this so-called plan of operation against France was actually a copy of the "Schlieffen Plan" of World War I, for which he angrily said: "Is it possible that our generation cannot formulate a good plan, instead of copying the old articles of the predecessors." To be sure, Hitler himself was very unhappy with this plan.
Manstein believed that against France, the main spearhead of the German offensive should be on the left wing, not on the right wing. With powerful armored forces, the armored group that served as the main assault force cleverly passed through the ardenne area with steep terrain and was widely considered unable to march by armored troops, thus bypassing the heavily defended "Maginot Line" and directly into the weak area of the Allied defense. This was a shortcut to attack France unprepared and surprisingly victorious, cutting off the connection between the southern and northern allies, dividing and encircling the British and French allies, and quickly destroying France. Based on this idea, Manstein redrawn a plan of operations against France, but this bold and bizarre military plan of adventure was so disapproving that The Army Commander-in-Chief Brauchitch refused to transmit it to Hitler.
The reason why manstein's war plan against France can have a head start in the future is actually related to the occasional "Mechelen incident". On January 10, 1940, a Luftwaffe officer carrying the yellow plan, Helmeus Reinberger, landed in Belgium by plane trek, causing part of the German battle plan against France to fall into the hands of Britain and France, and the unexpected exposure of the yellow battle plan documents gave Manstein hope again, so he again submitted his own battle plan to the General Staff, Brauchitsch was very annoyed by this, and in a fit of anger he transferred Manstein to the commander of the 38th Infantry Army. Soon after, however, by summoning the Fuehrer, Manstein repeated his plan for the war against France to Hitler, and Hitler was very interested when he heard it.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-center-line" > genius plan, France is dying quickly</h1>
In view of the fact that the original "yellow plan" had been exposed, Hitler ordered Franz Halder to re-formulate a specific and detailed war plan against France with reference to the manstein plan. This is the famous "Manstein Plan" in the history of World War II.
According to the newly formulated Manstein Plan, the General Staff integrated the German armed forces attacking France into three major army groups. Among them, Army Group C was responsible for feinting the attack on the "Maginot Line" on the German-French border to contain the French army; Army Group B passed through the border of the Netherlands and Belgium and advanced all the way to the English Channel, blocking the Landing of the British Army to reinforce France and cutting off the retreat of the Allies on the European Continent; Army Group A was the main force of the battle, and its mechanized troops entered the French mainland after quickly crossing the lofty Ardenne Mountains, one of which cooperated with Army Group B to encircle the Allies, and the main attack force detoured south to attack Paris.
On May 10, 1940, Germany sent a total of 132 divisions, about 2700 tanks and self-propelled guns, about 7500 guns, and about 5100 aircraft into battle. France, Britain, Belgium, and the Netherlands formed allied forces, with a total of 134 divisions, about 5,800 tanks and self-propelled guns, about 14,000 artillery pieces, and about 2,600 combat aircraft into combat. Although the Allies had the upper hand, the final victory and defeat of the war were greatly surprised, with France defeated and Germany completely victorious. The only regret is that at a time when Germany and France were at war on the Battlefield of France, Manstein, the planner of the battle, was stationed in Poland as the commander of the 38th Army and did not have the opportunity to participate personally. In the follow-up Soviet-German battlefield, what wonderful performance manstein has, to be continued (end).
< h1 class = "pgc-h-center-line" > evaluated by later generations</h1>
Manstein was born into the nobility, received a good military education, in his early years was an excellent staff officer, he had his own relatively mature concept of tactics, campaigns, and strategy, because of his participation in the formulation of a perfect battle plan to attack France, and enjoyed the title of "number one strategist" in Germany.
Throughout the history of World War II, people used to call Manstein, along with Guderian and Rommel, the three great generals of Nazi Germany. And both the enemy and the enemy, everyone recognized him as the best general in the German Army, a true military genius.
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