During World War II, Germany was enthroned as 27 marshals, including 1 Imperial Marshal, 19 Field Marshals, 5 Air Marshals and 2 Admirals. Of the 27 marshals, Air Marshal Albert Kesselring is probably the most unique presence, as he is a field marshal but has earned the respect of his opponents by commanding the army.
In 1947, Kesselring was sentenced to death by a British court for the crime of massacre, and when the verdict came out, former British Prime Minister Churchill, British Canadian Governor Alexander and other Allied high-ranking officials came forward to help him speak, and even the US military said that Kesselring should not be sentenced to death.
And while the Allies were running around for Kesselring's release, millions of German veterans also organized themselves and signed a petition demanding a pardon for Kesselring, which became a spectacle at the time.
So why? What exactly did Kesselring do to make his enemies and subordinates willing to stand up and defend him? This has to mention the legendary life of Kesselring.
To state in advance, this article is by no means a propaganda of Nazism, but a simple military common sense small science.
Born on 30 November 1885 in Marktstäft in the Franconia region of Bavaria, Germany, Kesselring was influenced by the fact that his father was a teacher who demanded strict requirements for his children from an early age, and Kesselring became diligent, optimistic and enterprising as an adult.
However, when he was in middle school, Kesselring's teacher did not have a good evaluation of this student, believing that although he had a good temper and was very polite, he was slightly sluggish in thinking and even a little indecisive.
But after entering the army, Kesselring quickly changed all this.
On 20 July 1904, Kesselring gave up the opportunity to attend university and joined the 2nd Bavarian Fortress Artillery Regiment as a "non-commissioned officer student", and was welcomed by his superiors soon after joining the army.
The officers of the artillery regiment admired the young man, believing him to be very intelligent, elegant and kind, and immediately arranged for him to study at the Munich Military Academy, where Kesselring embarked on an officer's career and embarked on his legendary life.
Albert Kesselring, who was an alternate officer in 1905
While serving in the artillery regiment, Kesselring showed his talent for artillery tactics, and his superiors immediately arranged for him to study at the Munich Artillery and Engineer Academy, after which Kesselring was selected to train as a reconnaissance balloon observer. Thus, by the time of the outbreak of World War I in 1914, Kesselring had become an all-rounder, and he was well versed in the use of artillery, infantry, engineers, and reconnaissance balloons.
After the outbreak of the First World War, Kesselring first served as an aide-de-camp of an artillery brigade, and then as a staff officer of the 2nd Bavarian Reserve Division, the staff of the 3rd Army, the staff of the 4th Army, etc., and the ranks were higher and higher, and almost every superior gave him the evaluation of "reliable and strong", "easy-going", "energetic", and "buildable material".
After the end of the First World War, Kesselring wanted to retire from the army to find another way to make a living, but his superiors personally came to keep Kesselring, and Kesselring remained in the "100,000 National Defense Forces" to continue to serve.
Kesselring's position in the German army rose all the way up.
He was first appointed a company commander of the 24th Artillery Regiment, then recruited to the Ministry of Defense by General Seckert, the "father of the German Wehrmacht in World War II", and then as a member of the "Army Training Directorate", and in 1925 he was appointed by Seckt as his chief staff officer, becoming Seckert's most admired young officer, and was also commissioned by Seckert to participate in secret attempts to reorganize the Air Force, including the secret establishment of pilot training bases in the Soviet Union in 1923-124.
A standard photograph taken by Kesselring in 1928, when his rank was second lieutenant
In 1926, Seckert was forced to leave his post by inviting the former German Crown Prince to a military parade, but Kesselring's career was not affected, on the contrary, because his talent and emotional intelligence were too prominent, so after Seckert's departure, Kesselring continued to rise.
In October 1926, Kesselring was transferred to the Army General Affairs Department, where he presided over the development of the wehrmacht's complete set of weapons procurement procedures and was appointed "Director of the Army Frugality Committee" in charge of budgetary, logistical and legal matters. Later, Kesselring was transferred to the "Army Personnel Office", becoming one of the few officers who had served in all the important departments directly under the Army Command, and his future was unlimited.
In October 1932, because Kesselring's performance was too impressive, the German top brass appointed him as an army colonel and made him the commander of the 3rd Battalion of the Artillery Regiment of the 4th Infantry Division, placing high hopes on him.
However, the following year, Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany by Hindenburg and began to take over the military and political power in Germany.
The first thing Hitler did after coming to power was to reorganize his armaments, especially the Luftwaffe. At this time, among the two officers in the German army who were considered by Seckert to be the most capable of creating a future air force was Kesselring, so Hitler waved a big hand, kesselring was immediately discharged from the army, transferred to the Luftwaffe as a civilian, and officially assumed the position of chief administrative officer, responsible for budget allocation, airport construction, logistics support, pilot training and fighter production.
Kesselring was with Air Force Commander Ggolin
A 1935 cartoon in Germany reflects a busy day for kesselring, the new chief of the Air Force
In his position as Chief Executive, Kesselring quickly managed everything in an orderly manner, allowing the luftwaffe to rise rapidly. Kesselring even succeeded Weaver as Chief of Staff of the Air Force, and on 1 June 1937 he was promoted to General of the Aviation Corps, becoming one of the most senior men in the Luftwaffe.
Soon after, World War II broke out.
At the beginning of the war, Kesselring, as a front-line commander, directly commanded the troops on the front line, and under his command, the Luftwaffe participated in the Polish Campaign, the French Campaign, the British Air Battle and Operation Barbarossa, and he was promoted to Air Marshal by Hitler because of his outstanding contributions to the French Campaign.
Although the Luftwaffe suffered heavy losses due to Goering's wrong command in the Battle of Britain, Kesselring still severely damaged the Soviet front air force with a strong fighter and bomber force in the Barbarossa Plan the following year, and strongly supported the ground forces.
In 1940, Kesselring was on the front line talking to the commander of the ZG-76 Wing about the situation on the front line
On November 28, 1941, Kesselring, who was commanding the Air Force attack on Moscow on the front lines, suddenly received orders from Hitler to travel to Italy as Commander-in-Chief of the Southern Front, responsible for maintaining Axis influence in the Mediterranean and providing air support and logistical support to the Afrika Korps in Rommel.
Upon his arrival, Kesselring was dissatisfied with Rommel's "self-contained" style, such as his agreement with Rommel that as long as Tobruk was occupied, Rommel would have to stop and allow him to mobilize air and sea forces to capture the island of Malta to improve the supply problem. However, after capturing Tubbrooke, Rommel ignored Kesselring's opinion and led his army to attack Egypt, where he suffered a crushing defeat due to insufficient supplies.
Kesselring and Rommel met
Conversations with Italians
Nevertheless, Kesselring was doing his best to ensure Rommel's logistical supplies, and when Rommel was defeated from El Alamein, he took great risks to bring ammunition and oil to Rommel in the midst of difficulties, and then he was the one who persuaded Hitler to abandon North Africa with Rommel.
However, as the superiority of the Anglo-American Allies in the North African battlefield continued to expand, the Germans had to abandon North Africa and retreat to the Apennine Peninsula.
In July 1943, the Allies launched Operation "Eskimos", landing in Sicily, and the troops were directed at Italy. At this critical moment, Kesselring once again turned the tide, first using the policy of "turnips and sticks" to stabilize Italy, which was already anti-water, and then constantly collecting troops to reinforce the front, forcing the Offensive of the Anglo-American Coalition.
Thanks to Kesselring's sophisticated organization and the continuous efforts of Army generals such as Hube and Vijenhof, the Germans succeeded in stabilizing the situation on the Apennine Peninsula, so that although the Allies had landed in Italy in 1943, they could not reach Germany from Italy until the end of the war in 1945.
Kesselring and Hube
General Clarke, then commander of the U.S. 15th Army, was so happy that tears fell from his tears when he learned that Kesselring had been transferred by Hitler to command the German army on the Western Front in March 1945, and he later wrote: "Marshal Kesselring was one of the most capable generals in Hitler's army... He was competent both as a commander and as an administrative officer. During his two years in Italy, he did a great job in commanding Axis forces, and then he was transferred to command the Germans on the Western Front, and I was glad to see that he had finally left. ”
On 16 November 1943, Kesselring was appointed by Hitler as Commander-in-Chief of the South-West Theater and commander of Army Group C.
On 9 March 1945, Kesselring was appointed commander-in-chief of the Western Front by Hitler, and in the last moments of the Third Reich, the forces directly under Kesselring's jurisdiction included the Central, Southern and Southeast Armies of the Eastern Front, as well as the Italian Army Group C and Army Group G and the Upper Rhine Army Group on the Western Front, which was the most powerful person in the German army.
On 9 May 1945, Kesselring, as plenipotentiary representative of southern Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, and Yugoslavia, surrendered to the U.S. army near Salzburg, Austria, and General Taylor, commander of the U.S. 101st Airborne Division, personally met him at a hotel and praised his outstanding performance in the war.
On 15 May 1945, Kesselring was sent to Mondorf in Luxembourg for trial, and on 6 May 1947 the British military court pronounced Kesselring to death on suspicion of committing massacres during the war.
Just after the news of the death sentence came out, Churchill stood up for the first time to say that the sentence was too heavy, and immediately began to reduce Kesselring's sentence, and the British Governor-General of Canada Alexander also called the British Prime Minister at the time, Attlee, at the first time, saying: "I have nothing to complain about Kesselring, he and his fighters have made us suffer, but it is not dirty." ”
Sir Leith, a former member of the U.S. 8th Army, also stepped forward, saying that he did not understand the British sentence Kesselring to death, and believed that it was "to impose the victor's trial on Kesselring." ”
Under various pressures, the British military court had to change Kesselring's charge from death to life imprisonment.
In July 1952, in order to fight against the Soviet Union, the Allies released Kesselring on the pretext that Kesselring had throat cancer, and Kesselring eventually died on July 15, 1960, in Bad Wieszel, and was buried in a local country cemetery.
At his funeral, Dönitz, Dietrich, Schöner and other former World War II German generals attended, and even General Kamhübe, then Chancellor of the West German Air Force, attended Kesselring's funeral and delivered a speech on behalf of the former Air Force and the West German Bundeswehr, saying that "his early achievements, not his recent activities, will be remembered by future generations." ”
This is why Albert Kesselring is the most unique of the German marshals, most of whom became legendary by their outstanding contributions to the war, while Kesselring has become a legend from the moment he joined the army.
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