Fedor von Bock was born into a military family in Kusterlin, Brandenburg, and a Field Marshal of Germany. At the same time, Marshal Bork had the characteristics of a traditional Prussian officer. His military prowess has long been criticized as "conservative" by historians of later events, and not only that before the outbreak of World War II, the young and strong factions in the German army also considered it to be an old-fashioned army, especially the young German generals who advocated "blitzkrieg".
In his book, the military historian Kennitz McCese said of the level of former Soviet armored forces commanders in the Soviet-German War: "Among the many outstanding armored generals of the German army, Bock and Guderian are no different from 'dragons among men'. In fact, Bock is not a military genius general, but his ability to lead troops is affirmed. In his memoirs, Blumentrit described Bock as "a first-rate military think tank in our country, with Lundest and Manstein, with the ability to command large-scale operations."
Fedor von Bock was born in Kusterlin, In the Province of Brandenburg, an old castle on the banks of the Oder River in the east of Berlin. Bork's family was a Prussian Protestant aristocracy with an ancient military tradition dating back to the teutonic warrior era. Bock's great-grandfather served in Frederick the Great's army, and his grandfather, Friedrich Wilhelm Bock, was a major in the Prussian Army in Jena and served as deputy commander of the army in Magdeburg.
10 years before Bock was born, the German Empire was unified, and militarism was quite prosperous in the country, so Bock was sent to the Prussian Military Academy in Dawakono, Berlin, at the age of 8. Bock's academic performance is quite outstanding, including modern languages, mathematics, history are quite good, and can speak Fluent Russian, French, English. Due to the influence of family and school, the idea of loyalty to the country and dedication to the military was deeply anchored in Bock's mind, which appeared from time to time in his command style in the second world war.
In terms of personality, Bock was undoubtedly a traditional and conservative Prussian officer, a militarist, and an officer in the German army who was quite good at speech, because of his impassioned performance, he was nicknamed "the holy fire of Cus spring", his private life was extremely serious and hardworking, some sources pointed out that he often worked for several days without eating, and was also described as an "innate Frederick Prussian character", "violent statist, with a strict sense of discipline, only to strengthen his troops and enhance his military career." ”
Bock was a monarchist, but he was also an anti-Nazi, never engaged in politics, and did not pay attention to senior Nazi party officials. Bock also opposed Hitler's order to execute all Soviet commissars and partisans, and was never carried out. Bock not only demanded that the Germans treat enemy prisoners of war humanely and treat Soviet civilians harshly and fairly, but also tried to persuade them to cooperate with the Germans and give them private ownership of the land. In the war with the Soviet Union, Bock believed that the German army's task was not only to annihilate its armed forces, but also to free the Soviet people from communism.
However, Bock was a strenuous advocate of Hitler's military policies, feeling that it gave him the opportunity to show his skills. As a result, Bock was not involved in the containment or even rebellion against Hitler and the Nazi regime. In March 1938, Hitler awarded Bock the rank of General. On 12 March, Bork led his 8th Army (provisionally reorganized from the 3rd Army) across the border and occupied Austria. Bock succeeded Lundstedt as commander of the 1st Army Group (later Army Group North).
On June 22, 1941, when Germany began a blitzkrieg against the Soviet Union, Bock was appointed commander of the main army, Army Group Center, with the primary task of taking Moscow. At the beginning of the war, Bok was invincible, although there were millions of Soviet troops on the Moscow front, but under Bok's leadership, a punctual encirclement almost completely destroyed it, resulting in a long period of time, the Soviet soldiers were bitter about Bock, even to the point of talking about Bok.
When Bock re-attacked in October, the city of Moscow, which had been lacking a defensive offensive, had already been built by the Soviets as a huge "death bunker". At the same time, "the sky is not beautiful", it snowed heavily in Moscow, German logistics were paralyzed by heavy snow, and soldiers on the front line had to fight in a state of lack of clothing and food. Faced with desperate subordinates, Bock began trying to persuade Hitler to abandon the offensive, retreat to safety to supply, and then attack again. But Hitler did not accept, he insisted on calling the troops to attack, Bock refused to see his subordinates die, and chose to resign.
On 5 May 1945, German troops were marching on the Kiel Highway in Schleswig-Holstein. Suddenly, a group of British Air Force fighter-bombers flew in to carry out a low-altitude attack. One of the bombers stared at an open-top car and fired continuously, killing three women and drivers and seriously wounding the only officer. After being rescued by the Germans, the officer was immediately taken to the hospital in Oldenburg, where he died that night after the rescue failed. The only officer who died of Allied gunfire was Field Marshal Fedor von Bock of Nazi Germany.
Bock himself despised National Socialism and hated the bloody wars that were constantly intensified by terror. But because of the lack of clarity in personality, the cautiousness and conservatism of the personality prevent him from being able to overthrow what he regarded as a scourge on the people of Europe and Germany itself by simply nodding his head or raising a finger.
However, like most generals who swore allegiance to the Fuehrer, and like maintaining Prussian military traditions, honors, and taking a detached neutral position in politics, Bock was reluctant to intervene directly, responding to the resistance leader's engagement with him as long as the rebellion succeeded, and he was certain to support it, but he himself was unwilling to accept the consequences of defeat. ”