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Erich von Manstein; the career of a soldier in the Third Reich

Richard Michael Robertson The University of Montana

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ERICH VON MANSTEIN

The career of a soldier in the Third Reich

by Richard i/iichael Robertson

B.A. University of Montana, 1964

Presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the

degree of

Master of Arts

University of Montana

1967 Approved by: PT. Chairman, Board of Examiners

/4/Tr— , Deajç5 Graduate School

AUGl^ 1967 Date

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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOI-JLEDGEIIENTS

I wish to thank Dr. Robert T. Turner for his onrouragement and

helpful advice in preparing this paper. In ad d ition , I would lik e to

mention the assistance of my wife. Franci, who rendered me valuable aid,

without which this paper could not have been written.

Richard M. Robertson

July 19, 1967

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS...... i

ERICH VON MANSTEIN

The career of a soldier In the Third Reich

Chapter I. THE OFFICER...... 1

II. CHIEF OF STAFF SOUTH, ...... 13

I II. THE HITLER-MANSTEIN PLAN SEPT. 1939-FEB. 1940 ...... 25

IV. 38 ARMY : FRANCE 1940-1941 ...... 50

V. 56 PANZER CORPS: THE INVASION OF THE .... 61

VI. 11 ARMY, THE ...... 71

VII. ()--THE TIDE TURNS ...... 95

VIII. THE END OF A CAREER...... lU

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ESSAY ...... 171

BIBLIOGRAPHY...... 122

l i

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Chapter I

The Staff Officer

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Fritz Erich von Manstein’s lif e was closely bound-up wlcb the re^;me

of Adolf H itler for the ten years from 1934 to 1944. During this time,

Mansteln held a series of prominent military appointments in the Third

Reich. In addition, Manstein was probably 's most gifted sold ier

to emerge from the fire of World War II. Few have ever achieved such a

brilliant military record. Nevertheless, Manstein's outstanding accomp­

lishments in the military sphere have been somewhat tarnished by his

close association with the name of Hitler. He, along with other high-

ranking German officers, was tarred with the same brush by the International

Military Tribunal in Nuremburg at the end of the war.

Manstein was born in on November 24, 1887. He came from a

professional Prussian military family. Manstein's grandfather, Gustav,

had helped to found the of Wilhelm I; he had commanded the

IX Corps in 1870,

Hitler's future field marshal grew up in the Germany of Kaiser

Wilhelm II. L ittle is known of his early years, and in his memoirs,

Manstein almost completely ignores his early life. Erich's father was

Eduard von Lewinski, an officer, later a corps commander.

However, early in his life, Erich was adopted by his mother's brother-

in- law. Georg von Manstein. He does not discuss the circum­

stances of his adoption in his memoirs, but being the tenth child of the

Lewlnskl's, it is not difficult to guess why he was adopted by his child­

less aunt and uncle. A Prussian general's salary is not the most adequate

means for raising so large a family. Besides, General von Manstein needed

Erich von Manstein, . Chicago; Henry Pegnery Co., 1958, 564, Hereafter cited as; Manstein Lost Victories; and B.H. Liddell Hart (ad.) The Bjed Army. New York; Harcourt Brace & Co., 1956, 464-465. Hereafter cited as; Liddell Hart, The Fed Army.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. an heir and this was quite a convenient means of obtaining one. As a

matter of coincidence, the future field marshal's brother-in-law, Egbert 2 von Loesch, lived with the Mansteins for several years as a youth. It

may therefore have been some family tradition to adopt a male relative in

these circumstances. At any rate, the reasons for Manstein's adoption are

obscure. His early life bears a strong resemblance to that of one of his

later commanding officers, .^ Manstein attended school

at Strassburg and while there, he acquired a taste for French culture. Upon

leaving the , he entered cadet school at Engers, near Coblenz, and

he remained in the cadet corps u n til 1906, at which time he passed his

ensign's examination and was posted to the Third Regiment of Foot Guards,

commanded by another uncle. This was also the regiment of two other future

general o fficers who were to play important roles in Germany's destiny;

Hindenburg and Schleicher.^ According to trad ition, Manstein probably

served his first six months with his regiment as an enlisted man, learning

what it was like to serve in the ranks. After more than six years as a

regimental officer, he was admitted to the War Academy in 1913 and studied

there until the outbreak of World War 1.

Manstein's participation in carried him back and forth

across Europe for four long bloody years. Mobilization saw him posted to

the Second Reserve Regiment of Guards in the attacking right wing in ,

2 Manstein, Lost Victories. 131. Also see Erich von Manstein, Verlore ne S iege. ; Athenifum-Verlag, 1955, 658. Hereafter cited as; Manstein, Ver- lorene Siege. Rundstedt, Gerd von. Field Marshal, Commander-in-Chief of Army Group South, Poland, 1939| Army Group A, France, 1940. John W, Whee1er-Bennett, The Nemesis of Power. New York; St. Martin's Press in c., 1954, 330. Hereafter cited as : Wheeler-Bennett. Hindenburg, Paul von. Field Marshal, President of the Republic from 1925 un til his death on August I, 1934. Schleicher, Kurt von. Genera 1 der Infanterie. ex-Chancellor, murdered on H itler's order on June 30, 1934. ^Manstein, Lost Victories. 564.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. but the crisis in East caused his unit's transfer to that theater

where he participated in the late phases of the Tannenberg campaign. After

the opening battles of the war, Manstein's unit was sent to southern Poland,

where he was seriously wounded in November, 1914.

In May, 1915, his wound having healed, Manstein returned to active

service, first with von Gallwitz's^ army staff, and later with the Eighth

Army staff of von Below.^ From the fall of 1915 to the spring of 1916,

Manstein was with the German Army in the Balkans.

In 1917, he returned to the western front, serving first a<- "rrA.m

and later on the and the Aisne. Here *“he [M anstein] made his mark

[while serving] on the staff of General von Lossberg,® who in 1917 produced

a new system of defence in d e p th .W ith the conclusion of the summer de­

fens Ive fighting in the west, Manstein was promoted to G.S.O. I^^ of the

Fourth D ivision stationed in Courland. Here he had a chance to

study first hand the ground over which he was later to conduct his lightenlng-

like advance during the opening phase of Barbarossa in 1941. With the

collaspe of and the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, Manstein, together with

a great number of his comrades, once again entrained for the journey across

Germany for the coming offensive in the spring of 1918. Ludendorff's^^ series

of offensives saw Manstein serving again as G.S.O. I to the 213th Infantry

^Gallwitz, Max Carl von. General der Infanterie. Commander-in-Chief Array Group C, Western Front, 1918. 7Below, Otto vcn, General der Infanterie, Commander-in-Chief, 8th Armv. Eastern Front, 1915. ®Lossberg, Bernhard von, , later Chief of S ta ff, Armv of the South, Eastern. Front (World War I). ^B. H. Liddell H#:rt, The German Generals Talk. New York; Wm, Mcrrcw & Co., 1948, 63. Hereafter cited as; Liddell Hart, The German Genera Is la Ij^. .S.0. I, General Staff Officer I, the staff officer In charge, of operations, second only to the chief of staff in a headquarters unit. 1‘Ludendcrff, Erich, General der Infanterie, Chief of St?ff under Hindenburg (World War I ) .

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. . He participated in the Eeim’s offensives from May to July, 1918.

With the failure of Ludeodorff*s final offensive, the tide of battle

quickly shifted in favor of the Allies. Manstein remained in France up to

the Armistice. He then marched back across the with his division,

disappearing into anonymity for a time.

The early post-war years were certainly an important part of Manstein’s

life. However, information on his career and private life in this period

is scanty. He was stationed in Breslau in 1919, and in 1920 he married Jutta-

Sibylle von Loesch. The couple was subsequently blessed with three children:

Gisela, Gero (who was later killed in Russia in 1942 as an infantry lieutenant),

and RUdiger.^^

Manstein remained in the army after the war, serving as company com­

mander In Infantry Regiment 5, commander of a JM%er battalion In Infantry

Regiment 4, and on various regimental s ta ffs in the newly reconstituted

Reichswehr. But he never belonged to any of the "Free Corps", as has been

alleged by Milton Schulman and others.Manstein said later: "In the last

war (World War I) I was in the General Staff with the troops. In 1929, I

joined the First Division of the Troops Department. The "Troops Depart­

ment"^^ or Truppenamt was, in reality, the old General Staff in disguise.

This subterfuge was merely a way of avoiding the elimination of that body,

as was called for in the . Manstein in the early

J^Walther Habel, ed.Wer. Berlin: 1962, 962. See M. Schulman, Defeat in the West. London: Seeker & Warburg, 1931, 22; and Manstein, lost Victories, 564-565. O fficia 1 Record of the Tr la 1 of the Ma jor War Criminels Be for C' the Internat Iona 1 Military Tribunal, 42 vols. Nuremburg: 1947-1949. XX, 626. Hereafter cited as: I.M.T, ^^"Troops Department is the translation used in I .M. T. English trans­ lation for the German Truppenamt. ^^Wheeler-Bennett, 97.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. poet-war period also joined the Schlieffen Club, a social fraternity of

former General Staff officers who were veterans of World War

In 1931, as part of the German military collaboration which was being

carried on with the Soviet Union^® in order to circumvent certain articles in

the Treaty of Versailles, a number of officers in the Truppenamt visited that

country. The delegation included Blomberg, Brauchitsch, Keitel, M anstein,

and others.19 The , before Stalin's purges, enjoyed a great deal of

respect which undoubtedly made quite an impression on Manstein, as it did or.

Blomberg and others. While in , Manstein met Marshal Voroshilov ,

who was later to face Manstein on a battle field in 1941.^2

At this time, Manstein worked closely with , who later 23 became one of Manstein's avowed enemies. As early as the Polish C risis of

1930, the Truppenamt had been studying and formulating plans to increase the

size of the . An army reserve (A-Army) was to be called into 2 S existence in the event of a national emergency. The Reichswehr consisted of

seven infantry divisions and three cavalry brigades, or about 100,000 men,

in 1930.^^ That summer, relations with Poland became tense, and Germany

17I.M.T.. XX, 598- Wheeler-Bennett, 125-143. Blomberg, Werner von. Field Marshal, M inister o f Defense 1933-1935, Minister of War, 1935-1938. Brauchitsch, Walter von. Field Marshal, Commander-ln -Chief of the Army 1938-1941. Keitel, Wilhelm, Field Marshal, Chief of the Oberkommando der . 1938-1945. — ^*^heeler-Bennett, 295-296. ^Voroshilov, K. E,, Marshal of the Soviet Union, Commander of the '<■;■)• tt western P^ont, 1941. Manstein, Verlorene Siege. 197. ^Wilhelm K eitel, The Memoirs of Field Marsha 1 K e ite l. New hork: Jteiri & Day, 1966, 16-17. Hereafter cited asrKeitel, Memoirs . •^Wheeler-Bennett, 296. 25Keitel, Memoirs. 17. Robert M. Kennedy, Infantry, U.S. Army, The German Campa t gr in Poland (1939). Department of the Army, Pamphlet No. 20-255, 1936, 10-3b.' Hereafter cited as: Kennedy, Campaign in Poland.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 27 expressed fear of losing to the Poles in event of war. Ihe

Truppenamt began planning for a tripling of the strength of the Reichswehr

in the event of hostilities. These plans included a general mobilization to

Increase the army to twenty-one divisions and a strengthening of the eastern

frontier. But this plan was later ignored by Hitler in 1935 when he announced

that Germany was going to rearm; the strength of the new army was set at th irty

six divisions.^® Manstein fir s t heard of th is on March 16, 1935, while liste r j'^.g

to a radio broadcast.Needless to say, he was somewhat shocked at the time,

In 1934, Manstein was transferred to Wehrkreis III, the corps area com­

prising Berlin-Brandenberg, as chief of staff. Here he became a spectator in the

intrigues which led up to the events of June 30/July 1, the "Night of the Long 30 Knives." Whether Manstein was aware of the role played by the minister of 31 war in the coup is unknown, but if not, he was certainly not unhappy with the

outcome of H itler’s destruction of the S.A. as a r iv a l of the expanding Reichs­

wehr. Later he said:

The more distant those days become from the p resen t, the more people seem inclined to minimise the extent of the danger represented by the S.A. at the time under the leadership of a man like RWhm; it was a danger not only to the Reichswehr. but to the very state itself.32

If Manstein was pleased with the immediate results of the R8hm33 purge,

as it would appear, he failed to realize the latent danger of the increasing

27whee1er-Benne1 1 , 139; & Manstein, Lost Victories. 24-26. 28wheeler-Bennett, 338-339. ^^I.M.T.. Nuremburg, XX, 603. E. Wiskemann, "Hitler and the ." History Today. June 1964, 371 following. ^^Wheeler-Bennett, 289-332. 32Keitel, Memoirs. 23. 33Rÿhm, Ernst, Chief of the S.A. (Strum Abteilungen). murdered dur rug the events of June 30/July 1 & 2, 1934.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Influence of the S.S. and Himmler. Undoubtedly he was preoccupied with his

work. Besides, both Blomberg and Fritsch,^^ his superiors, ta c itly approved

the deed, and as Brauchitsch said later, "Rearmament was too serious and d iffi­

cult a business to permit the participation of peculators, drunkards and homo­

sexuals .

The purge of Rühm and the S.A. completed for the time being H itler's

part of the Deutschland Fact, an agreement entered into ea rlier by H itler and

Blomberg concerning the future of the Reichswehr and Germany. On the eve of

spring maneuvers (April 11, 1934), H itler and Blomberg le ft Kiel on board the

-battleship Deutschland, steaming for East Prussia. Here in a wardroom,

they agreed to the following: Blomberg would support Hitler as Hindenburg's

successor, the party insignia would become a part of the uniform of the armed

forces, and in return. H itler promised to allow the Reichswehr to remsin vupreme

in military affairs, i.e., he agreed to sack RWhm in return for the continued

support of the army.^^

It now became the turn of the army to fu lfill its part o f chat agreement.^7

On August 1, the a ilin g President of the Reich, Marshal Hindenburg, died, and

from that time on, Manstein and the Reichswehr underwent a sweeping change

in their relationship to his successor. The oath extracted by Hitler from the

armed forces was an allegiance not to the state but to the person of the Führer.

3^Frltsch, Freiherr Werner von, . Commander-in-Chief of the Army, 1934-1938. ^^l-Jheeler-Bennett, 310. ^^Wheeler-Bennett, 311-312. ^7pjheeler-Bennett, 312.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. It read;

I swear before God to give my unconditional obedience to , FUhrer of the Reich and the German people. Supreme Commander of the Uehrmacht, and I pledge my word as a brave soldier to observe this oath always, even at peril of my life.38

As Wheeler-Bennett wrote later:

, . . the effect of this act upon the officers from the rank of colonel downwards, upon the rank and f i l e , and also upon the civilian population of Germarw was more far-reaching than Blomberg Q>r anyone c l s e j could have ever dreamed.39

Perhaps a few did see the danger, as did General Beck.^® Manstein was, at this

time a colonel, and sig n ifica n tly he remained faith fu l to his oatn until Hitler’s

death released him.

In 1935, with the announcement of general rearmament, the professional

soldiers became completely immersed in their work. Hitler had, true to his word,

unlocked the "toy cupboard." The Wehrmacht could now openly develop such o ffe n ­

sive weapons as tanks, heavy artillery, U-boats, and aircraft, which had all

been prohibited by the Treaty of Versailles and which had formerly been developed

only clandestinely. Manstein was promoted at this time to Chief of the Operations

Branch of the General Staff of the Army.^^ Here, he came into close contact

with Hitler's chief opponents in O.K.H» (). e sp e c ia lly

General Beck.

38wheeler-Bennett, 332, 339, 340. ^^Wheeler-Bennett, 313. ^OBeck, Ludwig, Generaloberst. Chief of tlie General S taff of the Army 1933-1938. ^iManstein, Lost Victories. 564.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. This association with the old guard at O.K.H. was a mixed b le ssin g

for Manstein. Because of it, his relationship with Hitler and other high Nazis

was quite cool from the beginning. Manstein took an intense dislike, quite

naturally, to these "upstarts." On the other hand, his view of Hitler d iffered

from most of the conservatives in the army. He was impressed with Hitler as a

politician and a strategist

The c r isis over the reoccupation of the Rhine land discredited the warnings

of Beck and the other generals. This caution on the part of the Army High Command

was to weaken its influence with Hitler as time went on. Hitler®s intuition

was consistently vindicated and the generals subsequently discredited. It was

in this atmosphere that Manstein was promoted O.Qu. I (Oberquartiermeister ,

in October, 1936, deputy to General Beck, the Chief of the General S taff. The

new position carried with it the rank of GeneraIma lor.^^ Manstein was, at Iasi ,

a general, after thirty years of service. Unfortunately, the title "general" was

becoming an epithet in H itler's vocabulary.

The rearmament program progressed apace, and things went fairly smoothly

during the first year that Manstein held his new post. Suddenly, early in 1938,

the Blomberg-Frltsch scandal broke.On March 8, 1938, Schuschnigg,^^ the

Austrian Chancellor, announced that there would be a p le b isc ite on Sunday the

13th concerning 's union with Germany. Hitler first learned of what was

afoot the afternoon of March 9th. He was furious with the attempt to thwart

^^Itonstein, Lost Victories. 274. y"One star General. ^^Wheeler-Bennett, 363 following. 45l.M .T .. Nuremburg, XX, 604, ^"Schuschnigg, Kurt von, Austrian Chancellor, resigned March 11, 1938.

10

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. his p la n s ,b u t ever an opportunist. Hitler saw an opening- General Brauchitsch

was absent from Berlin sitting on the court martial of General Fritsch, so the

FUhrer summoned the Chief of the General Staff, General Beck, to meet with him

the next afternoon. Manstein, as O.Qu. I, accompanied General Beck to the

interview with Hitler on March 10. During the interview. Hitler reluctantly

agreed to a partial mobilisation of the Wehrkreis (military district) along the

Austrian border in order to achieve the military occupation of that country.

General Beck had to insist on this since otherwise, if any resistance occurred,

the army would be too weak to guarantee Immediate success. After receiving the

FUhrer'8 orders, the two generals returned to their offices and began immediately

drawing up plans.'The only plan which existed for military action against

Austria had been drawn up to prevent Otto of Hapsburg reclaiming the t h r o n e . "50

Beck and Manstein spent the remainder of the afternoon redrafting and adapting

this plan to the new situation. Some of the necessary orders had to be sent out

half an hour late simply because of the short rotice given by Hitler.51 Tt has

been suggested since the end of World War II by some historians that Hitler used

the Anschluss to distract attention from the Bloraberg-Fritsch scandal, but

this is unlikely.52 When the tension of the Anschluss had subsided, Manstein

found himself promoted out of his job, although he did return long enough to

familiarize Beck's successor. General Haider, with his duties as the new Chief

Alan Bullock, H itle r ; A Study in Tyranny. New York: Harper & Row, 1962, 426-427. Hereafter cited as; Bullock, Hit 1er. ^^Wheeler-Bennett, 377, 49I.M .T.. Nuremburg, XX, 604. SOfiullock, H itle r . 427. 5 1 l.M.T.« Nuremburg, XX, 604-605. 52vvfheeler-Bennett, 375-378.

11

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. of the General Staff.^3

The courage and candor of Manstein In Hit 1er^'s presence dates from short­

ly after Hitler’s assumption of Blomberg's office. During the interview which

H itler held for his generals probably on or around February 4, 1938, "General

von Manstein was the only one to ask whether a "Chief of the Armed Forces

General Staff’ would ever be appointed, to which Hitler replied that the way was

open for that if the occasion should arise. Manstein thus boldly stepped

forward to question H itler’s assumption of command of the Wehrmacht, considering

the new arrangement unsatisfactory, esp ecially i f war should occur.

The shake-up in the army high command in the summer of 1938 resulted

in Manstein’s acquiring another star and a division. He was now Genera lieutnaat

of 18 Division. Perhaps his removal from O.K.H. was a result of his exchange of

words with Hitler mentioned above. This may be why General Beck was not removed

from his post at this time, yet Manstein was,

Manstein’s career as a divisional commander was brief and interrupted.

During the occupation of the , he was temporarily Chief of Staff to

Generaloberst Ritter von Leeb.^^ Manstein returned to Liegnitz and his division

after this phase of the "floral war"3b and buried himself in his work. He

had been away from the troops since 1929.

^%heeler-Eennett, 405; and I.M.T.. Nuremburg, XX, 629. Note: There is some confusion as to when Manstein left O.K.H. Compare Wheeler-Bennett, 405; I.M.T.. 629; & Manstein, lest Victories, 21. ^^Keitel, Memoirs. 52, ^ianstein, lo'St V icto ries. 22, 565- Leeb, Wilhelm Ritter von. Field Marshal, Commander-in-Chief of , 1939-1940, (Russia) 1941. S^The welcoming of German troops into the , Austria, and the Sudetenland by the populace throwing flowers led to their being referred to «5 "wars of flowers,"

12

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Chapter II

Chief of Staff Army Group South, Poland

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. The resignation of the Chief of the General Staff, General Beck, during

the Czech c r is is (August 1938), severed Manstein's last link with high level

planning.^ He first learned of the existence of Case White, the plan for the

, during the summer of 1939.^ Actually, planning had started

much ea rlier, when on March 25 H itler had issued a statement to Kcitcl a no

Brauchitsch instructing them to initiate planning for possible hostilities with

Poland.3

Plans for war with Poland had even been in existence prior to this time,

but since the Polish-German rapprochement in 1934 they had been gathering dust,^

The basic scheme of Case White had been worked out as early as 1928 by General­

Fritsch, the Commander-in-Chief of the Army, who was later stripped of

his office by Hitler in February 1938 as the result of a "diabolical party ir-trl-

q u e . On April 3, 1939, O.K„W. (Oberkommando der Wehrmacht' issued part of

its "Annual Military Directive, 1 9 3 9 - 4 0 , @nd as part cf; this directive,

Arbeitsstab Rundstedt (Working Staff Rundstedt) was created.^ 1 he staff included

Generaloberst Rundstedt as Commander-in-Chief, Genera 1leutnant Macstcln es ' hiel

of Staff, and Colonel Guenther Blumentritt^ as Chief of Operations. In the p-vent

of mobilization, this staff would form the headquarters of Army Group South.

^Wheeler-Bennett, 405. ^Manstein, Verlorene Siege, 12. 3i .M.T.. Nuremburg, XXXVIII, Doc. 100 P., 274 and X, 513. 4see Wheeler-Bennett, 71, 130, 140, 302. ^Wheeler-Bennett, 302, 370-372, also mentioned above In Chapter I, 10, ^Kennedy, German Campaign in Poland. 39. Also I.M.T„. Nuremburg, XXXT/, 120C, 380-442; & H, R. Trevor-Roper, to Defeat. Few York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1965, 3-5. Hereafter cited as: Trevor-Rober, Blitzkrieg. ^Kennedy, German CampeIgn in Poland. 58-59, ®Blumentritt, Guenther, later General, Chief of Staff to Rundstedt and his biographer,

14

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. The provisional headquarters had no peacetime counterpart, and almost all of the Arbeitsstab Rundstedt planning had to be carried on by two General Staff officers detailed to the project in the course of the summer. Rundstedt remained much of the time at his home, while Manstein and Blumentritt con­ tinued as division commander and O.K.H. Staff officer, res­ pectively, working on the plans as an additional duty. Blumentritt's dual position in operational planning and normal training made it possible to camouflage many of the preoperational movements of troops as part of the annual training and maneuver program. ^

H itler approved O.K.H.°s plan for the invasion of Poland late In April,

and "a d irective embodying the army's campaign plan was sent by O.K.H. to

Rundstedt. . . on 1 May for comment and elaboration, and initiated detailed

planning by . . . Rundstedt's staff. The suggestions of Rundstedt and his

sta ff were then incorporated into Case White during the remainder of the month.

In essence, the plan called for a double envelopment of the Polish armies. The

northern pincer (Army Group North) would strike south from East Prussia (Third

Army and east from Pomerania (fourth Army). The southern pincer (Army Group

South) would strike northeast from S ile sia and the Czech Protectorate with three

armies In line (Eighth, Tenth, and Fourteenth). The pincers would close In the

vicinity of , hopefully preventing as many Polish units as possible from

escaping eastward. Mopping-up operations would then follow.

How did Manstein feel about this new turn of events"? Even up to the

last minute, both he and Rundstedt felt that it was all a bluff; they expected

another last minute settlement along the lines of the Agreement. but

it must be kept in mind that Manstein was an old Prussian, and therefore his

feelings toward Poland were less than friendly;

^Kennedy,^ ^ ^ ' Campaign ■ .;n ..JBnfai II.J' in Poland, — itmi ^ 59. ^^Kennedy, Campaign in Poland. 59.

15

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Poland waa bound to be a source of greatbitterness to us after sVse had used the dictated peace ofVersailles to annex ^A-rri tories to which neither historical justice nor right of self-determination gave her any claim. For us soldiers she had been a constant cause of d istress in the years of Germany's weakness. Every time we looked at a map we were reminded of . . . the m utilation of our Father land.

In spite of this, Manstein was not the type to allow emotion tocloud

his judgement. He was, first and foremost, a general staff officer, calm and

alert in the worst situation. Consequently, he was much too shrewd not to see

that Poland, in spite of her attitude, was a safer neighbor that the S*>viet

Union:

Whether we liked her or net, it was preferable to keep Poland b'ï'tweeri, us and the Soviet Union . . .[[if only because] ioland was still less dangerous as a neighbor than the Soviet Union.

As planning progressed that fateful summer, Manstein remained convinced

that the military preparations were just another means of putting pressure on

the Poles. He had several reasons for this. Hitler had achieved an impressive

string of diplomatic victories using similar methods of bluff and bluster, so

why should they suddenly end? Besides, the grievances of the Reich were gen­

uine. If Hitler was irrevocably bent on war, why had he stopped the array's

Krlegspiel (wargame) of the Polish campaign, saying that it might affect the

diplomatic scene?During the f ir s t part of August, Manstein must have

frequently meditated on these and other related events as he continued in his

dual role as 18th Infantry Divaion Commander and Chief ef Staff to Army Croup

South.

j-^Manstein, lygt Vi ot ar ie s, 24. Manstein, Lost Victories. 25-26. ^^Kennedy, Campaign in Pcl.a n j 60.

16

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. On August 19 b M.%ustain and Rundstfedt were ordered to attend a conference

at the Obersalzberg on the 21st, called by Hitler to inform his military leaders

of impending events. On this occasion, Hitler allowed no discussion totake

place. He was determ,ined net to allow a repetition of the painful scenes whieh

had occurred just prior to the occupation, of the Sudetenland. Manstein's account

of the conference is rnc.st interesting and does ni.-t agree with several of more

lurid accounts.

Shortly before Hitler appeared, C"ring^5 came in. He wss an extraordinary sig h t. Up t i l l now I had assumed we were here for a serious purpose, but Coring appear­ ed to have taken it for a masked ball. He w.as dressed in a soft“Collared white shirt, worn under a green jer­ kin adorned with big buttons of yellow leather. In addition he wore grey shorts and long grey silk stock- ings that displ.ayed his impressive calves to considerable e ffe c t. This dainty hosiery was o ff-s e t by a p a ir of massive laced boots. To cap it all, his paunch was girded by a swordbelt of red leather richly inlaid with gold, at which dangled an ornamental dagger in ample she .at h of tliê same m a teria l. I (_Manetein] •'ould not resist whispering to my neighbor. General v. Salmuth; 'I suppose the Fat Boy's here as a strongarm man?'

Manstein's description of the Peichsmarshall leaves little doubt thf>t bis

feelings for the latter were quite contemptuous, but Manstein denied "th,st CSring,

delighted at the prospect of war, had jumped on the ta b le and yelled 'Seig

H eilî’"^^ Concerning H itle r, Manstein also denied that the Führer's speech

contained any of the vile language (Schwsinehund) that Wheeler-Bennett and

other authorities attributed to itj^® because H itle r 'Vas fa r too good a

psychologist to think th a t he could impress a gathering of this kind with

l^Wheeler-Bennett p 447. ^^Gffrirgs Herm.ar., Fe.ichsm arsha 1 1 . Commander-1 n -C h ie f c f ^he L u ftv a f f e , 1^Manstein, Lost Victories, 28. ^^Manstein, Lzst V icto ries, 28. ^ %fhe e 1er “Be nne 1 1 . 447. 17

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. tirades of bad language."^^ It was Manstein's Impression th a t h i t l e r was d eter­

mined to bring the Polish crisis to a climax at that time. But th is did rot

exclude a peaceful settlement, sincE during his address the Führer took sp ecial

pains to develop the thesis that the Western Powers, Britain and France, w -,uld

not risk war over Poland. After all, G'er.mary was about to conclude a of

agreements w ith the Soviet Union, and “neither Chamberlain nor Daladifr. Hitler

contended, would take upon, themselves the decision to go to war.

Manstein was not completely taken in by H itl e r 's speech, but he kept his

reservations to himself. His natural caution as a staff tfficer and his previous

closeassociati'-'Ti with Ef.fk and F rits c h possibly influenced his attitude. ' ihf

B ritish guarantee was certainly the only real obstacle to his ^Hit1 e r designs,

oy *n but it was a pretty weighty one. ' The g re a te st su rp rise of the evening had

been the anno une erne n t cf the •''erman'-Soviet Kon-Aggress'icn Fact, P\'th Mansfe 1 r

and Rundstedt now expected an eleventh hour settlement simply because:

The pact w ith the Soviet Union now render^ i iohand's position hopeless from the start. If Fritaîn, virtc;-“ill> deprived of the weapon of blockade, were f ATipel l-hd to take the Mccdy course of attacking in the west in order to aid Poland, i t seemed lik e ly enough that, under pressure fre-m the French, she would advise Warsaw to give In .22

^^Franz Haider, Th_e Private War Journal of Generaloberst Franz Haider Chief of the General Staff cf Che Supreme Command of the Cf,rtr;an Army 14 August 1939 to 24 . 8 vols. Edited & translated by P. Willner, A. Lissance, L. R. Borlnski, W.H. Rapp, e_t @%. Unpublished memograobed ccpv, no date. I, 19-23, entry for August 22, 1939. Hereafter cited as : R aid er' s 2ia|X* ^^Manstein, lost Victorles„ 29. 2iManst e i n , Los_t i'Tc-tori e s , 29. 22Manstein, Lest V i.c t c-r.l.gj . » 3 0 . Compares Guenther Blumentr 1 nt ^ Rundstedt. lortden: Odhatns Press Limited j, 1 9 5 2 , 42-43. Here a f t ? i f A a ^ : BlumentrittB KundsttLlt,.

18

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Manstein and Rundstedt discussed the future as they drove back from Berchtes-

gaden, and Manstein stopped off at Liegnltz to spend a day with his family, firmly

b elievin g th a t Poland roust n egotiate.

On August 24j, the headquarters for Army Croup South became operatic ral

with Rundstedt assuming o-£fioial command at neon. Ort the following day at 3:2‘>

P.M., the order came from O.K.H. confirming th a t operations were to commence

against Poland at 4;30 A.M. on August 26. Manstein dined with Rundstedt the

evening before hostilities were to s t a r t the two were in th e ir q u arte rs (the

Monastery of the Holy Cross) in Naisse when s c a ll came from O.glcH.». postponing

operatIona

As a result cf the late warning. Army Group A Headquarter? had tC" take

some drastic measures in order to prevent any serious incidents. One motorised

column was barely stopped wh?n a staff officer, at considerable risk, ha-dcd

his Feiseler Storch aircraft in front of it in the. dark. Army Group A w.@s

thus halted with only minor border incidents. Mobiliz.atien continued, however,

n ecessitatin g a few changes in the invasion plan.

The reason for the la s t minute postponement was th a t H itle r, a fter an

animated diplomatic exchange with Mussolini, momentarily lost hi? nerve. He w.#s

"deeply shaken" by the attitude of the Italians.It th a t the la tttr

were having second thoughts concerning the Pact of Steel: thus would n/t

honor her promise to jo in Germany in the event that Britain and France

^^Manstein, Seige, 20=23; Lest Victories. 30. ^^Mansteln, Lost Victories, .32. P.-Jlril» 1 . 27 (.August 26, 1939). ha_ldcr*s D: *ry, I, 28 (August 26, 1930). 4 ! 32 3^ . h 1 1 Te r did expect Britain cr Franc: to fight lut the firm British .*jtt Ic.i.: h^ 1 1, - m f .■ r e v i'e thd ? uylr i or . olird tried to drive this h'.m'* with the h-;hr<^r d .»ri r g the diplomatic prctesdings.

19

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Intervened.27

When O.K.H. sent cat a second order on August 31, announcing that the

opening o f hostilities was set for the next day, the opinion of officers of

the staff of A r m y Grcap' South rsflcained highly skeptical. ''. . . f s r t i c a l l y

no mention was made of the r.egofclat lens having fa ile d . P rep’ra t lor- we

made to halt the advancing armies in the event of a second postponement.

Manstein and Ruîr\dst'edt stayed up u n til midrig^t awaiting a second postponement

3 g -, order and when nare came they rttired.*" Tre next -day vas to be a long: c ■ c

for them.

The invasion of Fclaod began at 4;30 A«M. on September 1, 1939, The

Poles were caught off balarrce despite the initial postponement and its c o n ­

sequent ramifications. On the Ge-rman side, in most higher heedqua’-ters urits,

once the assau lt had began^ there was l i t t l e to do but w ait for s itu a tio n

reports to filter back to the Army Group headquarters. M.an.3tein was part =

icularly anxious about the performance of the mechanised and armored jmHts,

although he was not a member of that branch of the s e r v ic e .^0

Today i t is easy tc L>'erlcck the h is to ric a l s itu â t ice at the t-egi onirg

of the Polish campaign, c-vt at that time Blitzkrieg was an unknown quantity.

The theories of armored warfare were just that: theories. There was strc>'g

opposition, even within the German Army, to these theories, and indeed, no

27 ivone Kirkpatrick, Mussolini, A Study in Fewer. New.York; Hawth.rcp Books In c., 1964, 423 follcw lng. 2 ®Ma ns te i n , Test. V icto ries 32 . 2^Midnight, August 31, was the la te s t po ssib le time at which a pcstr ment order could be. given, in :rd er toh a lt the troops mc%h ng tu the aft a k. See Ha Id e r ' s Diary, 1, 38 (Aagust 30. 1939). 3GManstein ' ? serv i ce, branch was the i nfartr}' 1 at he w e rg-c --ihb& fc- development c-f a-mcVed a*'.s-: clt-gu:c shortly letlre the w^r. h ^i.j; -, « friend of Gv car Let. tl> t,a:ck expert In the armv. Li-lJell •Har'- . The (v - , ar Talk. 63.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. one (with the excepti.n cf a few experts) expected that a cojrtry the size cf

Poland could be <_• e r r c ' if less tfan a m o n t h . p jt the Polish A-my. tnf ored

by the French, was completely unprepared for what was to be urleashed upon It.

If the Polish High Comir«and were aware of the German plan of campaign, they were

certainly in no way prepareî for it.^^

The Polish pl%r apt ears to have beer* sn attempt to hold as much cf Poland as possible by concentrait Ing most of the available trocps along the frontiers. It can only he surmised tlat the Pc les- = like their allles->-expected to fight a World War Î tvpe c-f war, ^hich would give them time tc c’mr-lete th e ir mob 11 i 2.»t Ic n. '

The opening of the campaign went so smoothly that M«n'~tein’s chief com­

plaint while at Nei-sse was the Spartan existence Rundstedt imposed up cn the

staff. As Manstein was somethirg of « gourmet, he did not relish a stead''”

diet of army bread ar d s,».o?age for supper. Being a decut Christ tar. he had

no objection to the as-.-eti..- gorroundlr/.gs c f the rr ;-a ; te r / , but the me cu e’”t.a î n-

ly failed to p.amp&r his taste for French ccisine.

In the German plat of cperatioris, the main effort was to be carried _,ut

by Army Group Scuth.^^ Pc r i t ’s ro le , the army grc'up bad been a llo tte d three

armies, the Eighth, Tenth, and Fcurteenth. Of these, the Teuth wa- thr str-rg

e st and was expected to leal the advance cn W-arsaw. The Eighth and Fourteen!; r

Armles were to protect the flanks cf the Tenth Army during its advance. In

addition, the Fourteenth Army was given a secondary assignment; it was to

sweep fa rth e r e a s t, forming a second pincer after initial Polish re s i - t^r o.--

had been broken.

31 For a b r ie f a f see Liddell -H a rt, The Gery.-zr: C*!-' ra !? h-.î'ÿ. 9 i - i"J; , TJ-.-y Gji.yny Lg_n i n P^l^ar d , 55. " V.J. Espo

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. To a l l intents and purposes, "Poland was already conquered strategically

before a shot had been fire d or a soldier had crossed the border. Ihe P:.ies

offered heavy resistance from the outset, but the tank spearheads, supported

by the , after tearing holes in the enemy front, proceeded to oonfuee

and destroy communications. The Poles soon lo s t o p eratio n al co n tro l. There--

upon, they were pushed into isolated pockets and destroyed piecem eal. The

entire operation was con'Iuded except for mopping -up, by the th ird week in.

September.

The only major crisis in the campaign for Army Croup South occurred o**

its northern flank. Here the Eighth Army was spread extremely th in , c.?\ering

the advance of the Te.nth Army. Polish u n its, composing ch iefly the relative!;

intact: Poænan Army but also remnants c f other gro-ups, began concentrâting for

a stroke against the flank cf the German advance. Both M anstei- and Rundstedt

were worried over th is expr red flank and requested a cavalry unit for recorn.

aissance. Since this was net available, the 56th In fan try D ivision was sent

by O.K.H. as a reinfoT'oement. On September 10, the 30th Infantry Dix/ision

was fiercely attacked by a superior Polish force estimated at between 2 and 3

d iv isio n s. The German unit suffered heavy casualties and lost some ground,

but the Polish forces failed to achieve any decisive success.

As a result, the Army Group transferred XVI Panzer Corps and XI Army

Corps to the Eighth Army, weakening its center, and with the assistance of

Fourth Army (Army Group North) succeeded in encircling this force. Resistance

in the pocket collapsed on September 18 after several attempts ky the P ".-fx

3^81 j;metritt, d^t_tit, A2 . Id e r's Pia:ry, I, 54 (Sep 1 ember 7, 1939)

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. to break out had failed.Ibis was the largest battle of the

campaign and bore a strong resemblance to later actions in Russia.

On September 17, the Russians crossed Poland's eastern frontier. At

this point further Polish resistance became pointless, but heavy fighting con­

tinued ir. r e r tsin ar-i-as as the Germans stro v e to break con tact and withdraw

behind the demarcation line. On the same day, the citadel of Eresfe-Llcovsk

surrendered to the commair-fer of XIX Panser Cores., General Guderian.

Manstein ar.d dt were visiting the former'^ .Id command, the 18th

Infantry Divisicr, io Warsaw's suburbs when the Polish offer to surrender

r e c e i v e d . 39 The ns.xt oay (September 28) the garrison r-,f Warsaw su rren d ered .

There followed a readjustment of the demarcation line between. Germany and the

Soviet Union, during which there were several incidents between their res­

p e c tiv e fo r c e s. These were s e t t le d by lo c a l commanders cn the sp ot.

On OctO’ber 5, the Germans held a v ic to r y pars de in Warsaw, H itle r was

present, and while there he snubbed the generals who were his hosts by walking

out of their lunchecn to dir.C: with a group of soldiers at a field kitvhen.

This offended Manstein; he felt that the Führer's behavior was inexcusable

The swift German victory over Poland was especially sweet for Mbnatein.

He was very proud of the rebuilding cf the German Army in which he had had a

hand. Thus far it had proven its mettle. Eut more than that, the army had

found a means cf pvev^ntirg a regression to posit ional warfare. The *'lro- -

mongery" of the last war hsu succumbed to mobile operatives.

On Oc’tcLsr 15, i-.-'lev'll heu singer, one of General Haider'-', e; <.

visited tbs S : : h ^ Arm.: f \ :'s f -'=■ Jq-srters at I dr. H= »r. ^hr t bt r ■

V." U c . ) l- )u . '1'-..'■ 0 -r - . .*y 1 ■ b'-ru t , - r tV., ;\r-i.v ier.er'-L i

23

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. that Manatein had been waiting for. The Army Group headquarters was to be tran­

sferred to the west at the end of the month. In the meantime, Manstein was to

rep o rt to O.K.H. at Zossen on the 21st. While th ere, be would be b riefed and

given the o p erational orders for the Army Group (now renamed Army Group A).^%

On his way to Zossen, Manstein found time for a short side trip to

Breslau. There he visited his family and a brother-in-law who had been ser­

iously wounded in the campaign.

^"Hianstein, Verlorere Siege, 59-60. 42Mansteln, VerlcTere Siege. 60. 24

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Chapter III

The h it lc-r-’"a rjs teia Plan Sept. 1939-Fob. 194

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. The war in the west did not get under way until September 3, 1939, when

B rita in and France belatedly declared war on Germany at 11:17 A.M. snd 5:00 P.M.

respectively. The rasus belli was Germany's invasion of Poland, which bad

earlier been given a guarantee by the British.

The Anglo="French d eclaratio n of war, if not a shock, came as a mild

su rp rise to the Nazi hierarchy^ which had perhaps been hoping that cr je ag^.ln

the western powers wu via come to terms, as they had dooe previe osly.

Hitler's intent, initially at least, was to leave any offensive act i' -n

on the western frontier to his antagonists, since Germany had already cotrimiitted

three-fourths of her strength in Poland.^ Ic doing so. Hitler and the O.K.H.

had taken a gamble that the Anglo-French allies would not risk a major offensive

against the highly f c o » d "We st Wall' , which being incomplete, was by no means

capable of holding a determined offensive. The calculated risk taken by Ger­

many reinforced Hitler's faith in his '’'intuition"', for the vlcti. ra of 1918,

handicapped by outdttei dcctrines, had little f%ith in offer.siv? operations.

In an attempt to save fact, the French army did undertake a miner offeoisive

operation in the Saar area but quickly withdrew from German te r r i to r y at the

end of the Polish campaign, and nothing came of these operations. The Allies

thus cast away their only opportunity to render any effective aid to Poland

and in less than, a month she was crushed.

By the end of September the danger of an A llied offensive in the west

had disappeared, since Germany had rapidly transferred units from Poland to

the west as soon as they were no longer needed there.

On October 6, after H itler's return from the Warsaw victory célébra* ic .s,

he made a belated attemj fc t\: re.'cncile his differences with the western c . .

e l.sr-hennet t , 460. ^Trevor-lc-per, Blitzkrieg. 5-8.

26

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. hoping that they would *ocept his fait 1 . In a speech to the Reichstag,

he sta te d ;

My chief endeavor has beers to rid our relations with France of all trace of ill-will ard render them tolerable for both nations. . . . Germany has no further claims against France, and no such claim shall ever be put fcrward. I have refused even to mention the problem of -Lorraine. . . . I have always exore3-?ed my d esire to bury fcrecer cur ancient enmiirv and bring together these two nations, both of which have such gi'.'riccs p'.ests. . . . I have devoted rv» less an effort to r he achievement of an Anglo-German understanding» nay, more than th a t, c f Ar.gîo“Germ.«R frien d sh ip . . . . I believe even today that there can only be real peace in Europe and throughout the world if Germany and England co-ire to aa understanding. . . . Why should this war In the west he fought ? For the r e s t e r a 11C Id c f P._'lar,d? The Poland o f th e V e r s a i l le s T re aty will rie.'v-er rise again. This is guaranteed by two of the largest states in the world [^i.e. Germany and the Soviet U n 1 on. %]. '

The re s u lt of th is jsceech «as th a t:

Every paver in Germany at once broke into headlines: “Hitler's Peace Offer. So war aims against France and Britain. Reduc­ tio n Cif arniSm'e'ct s . Prepcsaî v f a cc n ference . ' ^

But any hopes the Führer o s. y have harbored were sha t * ere j whevi his ‘'"Pea ’e Offers"

were rejected by the Argio-Freoch goverrments within a week (the French or

October 10, snd the British on October 12%

In any case, it is doubtful if Hitler had ai.y re# 1 intent to negotiate,

since on September 25 and 27, even before the o ffe r had bee a ext ended ^ had

ordered p'reparatioc.s for mn offensive in the west.^ Or October 10, Hitler

held « meeting of his Chiefs cf Service: the same day O . K . issued 'D irect­

ive No. 6 for the Conduct cf the Mar.*' ^ This directive (predated March 9. 1939)

O'utlimed an offensive it the west , i t s main v h -ti he ir g t'-' er- -

LuxembourgÇ, aind the he cher2avis and thereby to- seise er- ugh vfrhe Cb e: f »

^hvllo'/.k . H_itJ-ex, 357, taken fr rm the. X * - ' 3?-^^ jL'L-'-"” •yl.M.T., 473: Diary. II» ~ Ù (September W l9‘>r. W' Feaaett, 4 63. TreVCr =B■ :p e P I ' hTtr i/j f ^ It -14 .

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. operations against the British Isles. This wo'ili also eliminate any immediate

Allied threat to the Riui'nr industrial complex. "The attack is to be launched <

if conditions are at *11 possible/* Hitler ordered, ’'this act-jUTjri.

0.K.H. gave the directive a chilly reception, vcicirg many objecticn?

to the proposal. ‘To begin with, it was not bit 1er ' s duty to make, detailed

suggestions to the Army High Ccmmand coneerning the conduct of operations

(ta c tic s ) s and both. B racchitsch and Haider were incensed a t thl.s super.leding

of their function by Hitler, His plan also involved voidating the neutrality

of the above mentioned countries which had only shortly before been given

assurances that th is wculd no t bag-y-en. 0_.jC.H..^ •/iu ldly rerrieol e^ed the resul»'. Ing

stigma th is had C'ccasicr:«d In 1^14, Fw.rther, f e lt th at mn O'ffer.sice in

the west was an extremeIj.' risky operation, not only because the relative strer.g*“hs

of the parties invoited were approximate ly equal. ^ but also because O.K.H. tc-ok

a p essim istic view of the r e l i a b i l i t y and offensi'ce fig h tin g -value of many of

the newly formed infantry divisionsB rauchitscb's pera. -real a.5sistant from

1939 to 194Ip General Siewert, related that

Fie Id “Marshal voxi Brauchitsch was dead ag-ainst It [h it 1er "a . . . . did not think that the German fences w*re strong enough to conquer France, and argued that If they invaded France they would draw Britain's full weight into the. war. The FShrer discounted th is, 'tut the Field-Marsh* 1 waro.ed him.: 'We kr.-ow the British from the last war - and how tcugh they

The re s u lt of th is continuing disagxee-m.ect was th at re la tio n s bet w.? » n

P.K.W, and O.K.H, became more and mere strain ed as the dxte of the o -ffes .t oe

^Liddell H art, The German G-eo.er.alr. T alk.. ICd. % 'here. were 136 Germ.an D ivisions ag.aln.st. 135 All ,ied uo-'its. he-: Lv-^c Mcntross, War Thr-ough t.h,s Ages. New York : Hars-er Brothers ' i v t ù 806. Diar^-, IT- 22, (0._t.:.ber 5. 1939). ^'-’Liddell Hmrt, '.Ihe tetir.an GeneraIs^ T_a_lk. 108-109,

28

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. (November 12) neared. a t the suggestion cf c e rta in d is s a tis f ie d e l e ­

ments within and wltho'ut the army, began to think sericusly of taking matters

into its own hands, and for a time talk of a eouy d °etat circulated in high

army c i r c l e s . Brauchitseh, with Haider concurring, urged the Fi*h‘"er to

abandon his offensive plans. He g.ugg*ste.d that a diplomatic solution would

be in Germany’s best interest.

This hesitation by O.KoH, was manifested in Its planning, which remained

strictly defensive until p'Codded into activity by Hitler. He could not unde'’=

stand the attitude of O.K,H. ; their defensive plans and passive resistance

ir r i ta te d him. T his " S p irit o f Zossen" had no palace in fvî.s p la n s and o n ly

served to reinforce his mistrust of the army. He was constantly worried

about the Soviet Pact, as were his generals, but with the difference that

they had no fa ith in any offensive in the wsst.^'-^

The rejection of Hitler's "peace offer" bv Cham,her la served to

strengthen the FÜÏhrer's hand «gainst his generals, and their pla*,s for a cvupl

f e l l through when General Fromm, f he Commander of the Heme Army, reje cted

the overtures of the conspirators. Frcmm reasoned that any attempted coup> was

bound to f a i l , since the German FeMg^rau (G. I ,) having complete f a ith in the

Führer, could not be relied upon in such circumstanogs. Besides, th* Luff.waf fe^

and S.S. (both strongly Nazi) would be strong enough to break any attemct-S'd

by the army, especially when H itler’s popularity was so great that su -h motion

by the army would appear completely unjustified in the e%/es ef the Ce:m,at

people. The cotispirmtors g'Tudgingly admitte'd that fromm’s view was çnimbi;.’

c o r r e c t.

llComt-are Whe e 1er -Be m e t t , 4 6 3 -4 7 1 ; E-allock, HI t le r . r 56-5 59 : sacs I d d u e ll Kart, The German G enerals Talk., 107 follow lr-g, Friedri.'.’h, te^ eT alcb t r p t , Coniin«r,.’le r - ir - 'Jhief o f the Horr.i- Arm'-, up t'A the ,7'zîy 20, 1944 29

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. O.K.H. „ coisfror:t*d with H itler's o ffe n s iv e plan, cculd see only defeat

ahead. Earlier, on Seprerr-ber 30, had subm itted « mémorandum to O.K.W.

outlining defensive operatlo^ns for the This was now overruled by Hitler's

directive of October 9, The best that 0 ».K cculd hope to do in these ri rc urn-

stances was to play f :r time while awaitir-g a ch®'.yge o f weather which w: old m a^ e

arty offensive cperatio'n impossible. Hitl«r, eviieritly tired of the delay. Issued

* further dlrectl've cn D.-toher 18, whi':h a jppleme :_ted ar,d ampi if ie j his direct icf..

cf October 9.1^ Tbs next dsy (October 13) O.K.H,, stirred to activity, issued

i t s f i r s t operatic»:-, s c r ie r (Case Ye 11cw) «.■-«i-.verning a west*:-n u-ffensive . ^ ^ The

plan, as expc-'taded by v.as mere ly a translation cf H it le r 's order into

fact. For the propcsed oft«r:Slve, O.K.H. established three army groups, (A,

B, & C) and an army de.tac.hme.:nt (Armejft.“Atite.lljpng ; these were to centre 1 the

various armies, corps and divisions. Army Oroup B, which was to- carry oat. th e

main effort of the offensive, was assigned th ree armies: the 18th, 6th, and

4th. It was to advanoe westward through B-slgi jm azd the southern

to the. coast .ar.d thes foirrt south, sd'vartcing «s far into Tr&ncf: .«s po'salble.

Army Group B was male extreme ly strong in order to carry cut its role, receiiotng

thirty infantry divisions, nine Panser divisions, and four motorised infantry

divisions, nearly half the German aggregate strength (102 divisions). Armee

Abteilung H, a weak arrr.y, was givers the task of cverrunning tb* rest ff the

Netherlands. Army Group A, with Manstein as Chief cf Staff, was given two

armies, the 12th and 16th (22 infantry divisions). Its role was tv ad't-anc-e

across the River to the south of Army C-rc i.p 5, giving th-r l.mtter flank

p r c te e tio n .and maintaiinirLg e c n ta c t w ith Army G-rocx? C. 'Ih*. l.y.fct. w ith * * -

1^0v’Mi»t-3 in Haï i-.r's Diary, II, 17 (S-ept. 26, 19:39) ^^Trevcr-R'iper, b 1 itrbrieg, 14-15. ^%bls appears in Manstein. Verier en- Sieve, 620-62.3.

30

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. armies, the 1st and 7th <18 int'ar try d iv is io n s ), was to hold the "West Ws 11"

from Luxembourg to the Swiss frontier, tying down as many French troops as

possible. This plan was later slightly modified on Oct. 29, but remained basicly

the same for the time being.

Manstein arrived &c Zossen (O.H.K. Headquarters) on October 21, arJ was

quickly contamined with the gloom and uncertainly which surrounded his superi.irs.

He had been in rather high spirits before his arri's'-al, the reason being that he

and his staff had narrowly escaped frcm the thankless task oforganising the mil­

itary government of Poland. Now, here he was at Zossen expecting tc be brtef^-d

on the new assignment of Arry Croup A in the w est. Thus began for Army Group A

Headquarters and particularly Manstein ""the winter of O'Ur discontent,”-^® 'Man-

s te i n 's b rie fin g at ZosScn brought him back ir.to the fog ^ng-alfliig O.K.H, ^ which

he had left after the Frltsc'h scandal, He became keenly aware of -what had come

to pass.

It was perfectly ■t-ricent from the remarks ef these three gisntlemen [^Haider, Stïi'lpnagel, and Griefenberg]]^ that O.K,K... had issued a war plan forced on It hy H itle r, They as w ell as the Cu'.tm:ander-in-Chit f him self [Prauch 11s h ] obvious ly Cock a t'horo'Ughly negatl-^'e view of the idea of an C'ffensive in the west and did not consider it the proper way to bring the war to a close,

After concluding his interviews, Manstein left Zossen thoroughly depressed by

what he had learned. During the next few days, he pondered over w'hat had takATi

place. One of his greatest fears had been realised ; Hitler had reduced O. k:,H. to

a mere executive body and was now personally directing tl.« conduct of the war.

Thus Manstein arriv ed a t Coblens (Army Group A's Headquarters) on Cet. 24, the

bearer of more ill-’tiiln g s „

See Manstein, Lost Victories , 95=97, and V'erlorer.e S ie ^ , 623=625. (th e revised p la n ) . l^Manstein, lost Victories, 6?. ^ This is Mans te in's phrase taken from Shake sp 's Ri ch^rj TJCT . ^^Halder, Frar.r, Gev^e r fl_lc b.£_rjs_t, ( hlef of Staff, O.K.H. StÜlpcagêî, <<■ Ar i-H elr.rich von, Ger -aralmajcr, Oberq-jart i ■; r-ne ist er I O.i'.H, 1939*-1940. Grtfefenberg, R*ns v;n. Colonel, Chief of Operations, ^Oyranstein, Lyst }Ii_cbqrie5_, 71; b Verlorena S ie g e . 67 fa llo w in g .

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. What bc'thfered Mm na te In .equally as muuhj. if uct more, was the plan of

operations which he had b»j'*n glv^rv. Fall C'e lb « H itler's envisaged western

offensives seemed completely Inaieqaate to him. Initially Marste in was reminded

of the famous Schileffen Plan of 1914, and "found it humiliating, to sav the

leasts that our generation, could do nothing better than repeat an old recipe, ^ -g even when this was the pri'duot of a roar like Schli*£t>r. J'c Ks.r_st*in,

t h is approach seemed cV.-lcc s and there fore not much ccu îî t e e'^f ected of i t

since the A llies w"'old r_a"ce taken *11 the re essary ; recm utior ^ i c roee.t i t .

later s after he bsd giren more c.onsld. *'rs tl.on to the plm'r. M;an< f e in remli'-'*!

th a t althcojgh sim ilar to the S ohlieffen Plan in sev eral re^spec^ts. I t was a.;tüaîly

* new plan altO'getker. The plans had two .similarities; both specified t.h.st

the main effort was tv be placed c-n tl^e right wing {north), and 'both planr.ed

to violate the neutrality of th e Low Cou n trle s (a t least Belgi-m) . The'se

were their sim ilarities. Their .Jif-ferences we:re man,,'. The Schlie f ten Plan.

had been designed as a kno-ck.out blow, en\ elcplrg the Fr^no-h armies In the

Verdun-Toul=Nancy-Ep ir.a 1 fu -rtifi cations by sw etting t.br -vgh P*Igiur, thence

west to Paris, and t^jrning to cru*h the foe his wn border defense';;. Put

In 1939s the strategic problem was quite different. The surp'Ti.%e which

Germany had hoped for and achieved in the f i r s t war by v i o l â t I'Oig B elgian

neutrality was not to be expected again. Worst of all?

The 1939 operaticn plan . . . contained no clear cut irtecitlcn of fighting the camp ai ga to a v ic to r 1 vus cone las i crû. I t s object was quite clearly, partial victory (defeat o f the Allied forces in northern Belgium) and territorial gain* (possession -f the Channel co a st as m basis for future operations)

M anstein w.as aghast when the enorm ity o f wb«t had ha'pp-c.f.ed ««r.k .1 n..

B'it 1er was r.tskio.g C-?'rrTi.fiiT;/'s oo-

^^Havstein, I, 1 ■ tyrif s , 98. ^'^Marsteia., L:'St \'i..t'':'_ries_, 99,

.32'

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. p a r t i a l eoluticn. Thtrt v*5 tc- be no only a massive frontal aasa u lt.

Manstein fcond it bare to accept this plan as the final solution. and scon

a f te r his re tu rn from Z csssa he vas b-jsy working cut a new plan of op-eraticns

which would» in time» end t'.:th H itler’s and O.K.H, ’s fears in the west at Is^st

temporarily; Manstain» to be sure, did not realise it at the time.

As h« saw It» there was a way to achieve a decisire victor/, and only

a decisive victory was worth the risk which a major offensive invO'l'\'ed. Be did

not come up with a complété solution immédiately » but fcy gradual stages.

Nonetheless» even in the early stages, the. basic elemerts o f the plan were a l l

present. Using one of the eldest ruses in m'ilit-ary history» Marstein's

relied on the principle of the. .ambush on a grand scale. The halt for the trap

was to be supplied by which would make m frontal attack thrcug'h

the Low Countries north o-f the F orest, werman in te llig e n c e knew th a t

secret conversations were being carried cru by t'he Fren'îh and Belgian General

S ta ffsa n d it did not t-nke ® great deal cf insight to guess what they were

discussing. In addition, it was g.sneral knowledge tlat Britain» fc«r str&tegi'-

reasons, would be irrevocably opposed to any German attempt to seise this area.

Easing his plan cn this information» Manstein crn'''.luded that any siromg

forward push made by Army Group B W'. or Id provoke a rapid Allied advance into

the L»?w Countries. Therefore, he proposed a feint by Army Croup B» taking

advantage of the precedent c f 1914» which would act as .a "matador's cloak

drawing the Allied left-wing forward out of its prepared defensive positions

~*The êxtvr.f e t ?elg-itsm*s c:ommf tment tc t'he A lii es vss re- •• aV.l d ■;< ' g the course of the winter as the German? if sized their .attack criers nn.i tr.-■■.•• i tO' assembly area? no le?s th&n thirteen time s f.etveen *1/ 7» 19d9 a-cl / lo, 1940, This vci'star.t stop a.id go on the part of Germa?*y led the Allies to re­ v eal thei"“ in ten tio n s (Pl.>*n D) . See Pluir..e;i.trl*'t » Pc_ni_g*. ? d t» 60; *'-d Warïimont» In.si de h i t l y x ’s Hs.* i g "carte rs 19 34 «4 5. New York; B. 4. ?r*eger P ublishers » 1964» 52. He re.a ft er c ite d as; W.arl.imont.

33

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. In to the central Belgian plain. If this happened, they would be isolated by

Army Group A, which would be lying in wait, concealed in depth along the

German frontier its the Eifel ares, adjacent to the Ariennes, As the Allied

armies advanced, Arry Croup A would launch a sudden attack through the

Ardennes toward Seiary where it would cross the Meuse River (between Sedac

and ), hopefully achieving a breakthrough. If thl? c-ccurrei and nothing

went drastically wrong, Army Croup A would then thrust westward across northerr:

France heading for the Sonjre Estuary. This stroke would cut off the advarcing

Allied left wing, which would then be destroyed either vhlle pinned to the

Channel, or surrounded in central Belgium. Immeilately th*rif:sfter, having

achieved the de struct, ic^a of the left wing, both Army Group>s would turn south

advancing across the Sc'mme-Aisne River line on a broad front. Py this time,

the Germans would have a decisive numerical superiority. The advance would

then swing back ea.stwards turning the , which would then be

breached by Army Group C. .After this had been achieved, if Frarve had not

already surrendered, a pursuit would fcsllow and the remainder of that country

would be overrun.In order to fulfill its newly proposed role, Axroy Group

A would need a strong reinforcing, which could c/nly he achieved by tra n s fe rrin g

units from .

In. general outline, the proposed plan resembled Napoleon's r.elehrate.d

victory over the Russians at Austerlitas In 1805. Even the final result envis =

aged by Manstein was sitrtilarj Germany would achieve a tempo-rary hegemr-ny of:'

the continent.

It seams strange that, having conceived s-ii.cL a brilliant p la n . Mans te in

would face sc- much cppv.sîtiov before getting it adopted. Clear l y , i*' '-..ad a

Left V ic to rie s, 10 j - 105; a ni '"er lore:'.* S ie/e, 1)0-103.

34

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. great deal more to c ff*r tLmn the current O.K.jH. rlanj, £ '.t i t ■-.■or.tai.ned the

seeds o f decisive v icto ry ^ ith : vt ir.'.:reasir_g the ris k c f th= a tt a:kif g

During the la s t v*«k of Oct-:her* Manstein unfolded his bratr: child to

h is -chief, Rnr.^eteitp »&î several e th e r members of t i e Arm'.’ Crc'cp Stat t'. The y

were quite taker: with 1er s : much so, that the 31st 'Ecodste sent a Lett er

to O.K.H. la this letter, Ruadsfcedt pointed cir.t that : “The i^'-peret Î cas Orders

of 19th mad 24th Octe ter c: rli act h.-sive ® decisive effect ca the he

went on to out lin e Kansteic.** plan an-3 suggested its adoption In p lace ot the

current operat ic as p Isa. ^

Unfortunately th e le t t e r was ignored by Palder mad Brauchitsch, vho

were at this time frantic, searching for sooie means o f sto p p in g , or at îf..»st

delaying, the beginving o f M it l t r 's western of fens ive. During th e sosiœ*^ week,

they had persuaded Q&neraIcherst von Reiohenar^^ to i*«e H it le r . hops:d

that he m ight be mb3e to talk the F'ihrer around to their point of niew. But

Ralchenau was u»ab ) a to a*chiie:.'-e anything.Hi* former Influence w ith H it lex

had vanished and his icsit t/sr.ce served only tc provcke "ser Icum quarrels

Relchetiau* 3 frankness so p-iqued the FWIhrer that for a time the two eemsed to be

on speaking terms. A fte r h is failure, Beicbenau returned to S ix th Army Head-

quarters, temporarily withdrawing from the political field. "'The conduct of

25Manstein, lyÿçsj^ Tbqtjcxijg.s, 105. ^%'his letter app-ear* in Manatein, Verlorene Siege, 625-626. ^^Eeicherau, Walt her Ton, STeld Marshal (1884-1912). He was p-robabT-r H itler's favorite pre-war Army General, havlvg been suggested as a candidate fo r th e p o st o f CeosTiarj3er»i.r,-,-Chie£ o f th e Army by H i.tier s e v e r a l t lines. S*e Wheeler-Bennett, 301, 303, 309, 310, & 372. 28see ManstAir., 1: 85; Ws.rllro-'Vt. 59-60; svi Bel*.* 1, Memoirs, 101. •^^Heirs ■>: ?eri«r-., L ; c 1 rb t r s t , Far.rer Lg:.»d*_r . IS's v Y -rx : E . T . P^. «-t • •i* Co., 1952, 86. H-*reat'tér cited as : *:'Xvl*riar._, Pa_n.ar.e_r. Le.* «

•v;

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. a man like vcn RelcheriM Is significant!, ' wroite v^n Hassell In his diary on

October 30* 1939. 'He always hears the grass grow. '

This setback left Erauchitsoh in the lurch, for new he would personally

have to face Eitlsr. He mmy have felt uasulted for such n r.'"Is since '"a T'srt-

ing w ith H itle r seemed a -tn s lly tc have some p h y sical e ffe c t on him^ indeed he

often appeared practically paralysed. Brit regardless cf thiSj, he k new what

his duty was and on October 27, he went to see the Führer. That eventng he

returned to Zossen, '■’'tired and dejec'ted,''*32 'having suffered the same f.i»te as

Reichenau.

Apparently, Brauohitsuh was under the imp-ressicn that if he ecu 13 marshal

enough evidence su- p or ting his case and show it tc Hitler, the l'Ührer

bow to reality and withdraw his orders. Therefore, on an inspection tour of

the fro n t on November 2 an I 3, he and Haider tusiei themselves In collect iu.g

data which would support their contention that the army was unready for a

winter campaign. 33 Hovever, when they arrived at Cet lens, their fact fi'nding

m ission h it a s:r>*g. M anstein, w ith P.u: J s t e i t 's app ro'-.'al, t .■ .>k a H'a^-tage of

the op'portunity to bring iorw^ard his pilar. He d-lr-.ctly /cnfroot»:i the

in-Chief with his p

Group A and asked that it be r^iinf.rc-ei to inolrde a and strong

armored forces. Krauchitsc.h 'brushed him aside ''■.with the retnmrk that he 'v'\

wished he could spiare them. ' Matstein, iindauntei by this rebuff, LC:.'nt iooe i

30Quot«d in Wb.e'sl«r‘-E em ett., 465; Ulrich, von Hassel, Tb.e vo ■ 'hr.;-:-'-'! 'ies 1938-1944. London: Mamish H^amiltcci, 1948

'^'^ar liment j , 61. 32Hal.der's Diary. II, 39 (October 27, 1939). 33Ha'13e r' s t

36

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. to badger Bratschitsch, who softensd a little th>e persistent barrage. In

the end, "he did prr-rnlse ),.? an armored division ard mcborlztd reghnert<

from army reserve. While giving tn, Prauchltsch made if painf jlly clear

that both he and General Haider hsi ‘'strcng r&servatiens" regarding tie % imnjec.

cf success of any e ff j.r,si'.'« . This defeatist outl'eck on their part w a < anything

but reassuring.Ire. unsettling effect of Raider" s and Erauchit*;ch's rein.arKs

plus their eagerness tC" l v : £e the su-allest complaint reinforced t'he misgivi

of those present.

To compensate for this impression, C-j»Icre 1 ^Gemera 1 v. Ruridstedt him.seIf addressed the generals of the Army Croup a few days later. By irudlc.atlm.g the Gyoerational atmndpoint of hi.s i.'wn staff, he showed them that there was actually every prospect of * victorinua decision in the we.st, even, if it were not expedient to> take the offensive before spring.

Brauchltsch and Pa 1.1 *r returneî to Zossen, their notebouks filled with

arguments to answer H itler's demands. They spent the following day ccmpiling

a "counter-memoraud'rm''', h-_-pi^ig that it would bring h itler around . ZB %i they

could do th is , then the Fubrer must surely see the e rro r of his ways and cancel

the offensive.

It was a nartous Brauchitsch who left Zvssen. th.«t rainy day heading for

what he hoped would be a rewarding interview with Hitler, Signlfic.antly,

Haider did net accompany his chief; perhaps he to>o "could hear the, grass

grow."

35Man.ste.iraj, L.ost ’V ic t o r l e s , 107. 36wh“:elsr'--B.s 'L:'.'et t;, 46 5. •^iManstfciffl, L:et_ Vic to r ie s. 107° 108, 38Rai!*T'g Diary, II, 41-44.

37

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. H it 1er g who may have scspect^d that something was afoot,, received his Commander“ir;“Chle£ in the main conference rocm of the Chan- celleryj, under the bust ef Bismarck, instead (as w.culd have been more usual) of one of the smaller antechambers. After a certain amount c f verbal shadow boxing, in an atm"jsphere th at must have been anything but comfcrtable,, Prauchrltsoh de-.lared that "0_.h.H.. would be gr&tsfol for an understanding that it and it alone wojld be responsible for tha conduct c f any future campaign. ' ■

Hitler swallowed this remark "in icy silenoe. brauchltsc-h e lab :r =

atin.g cn the miserable oonditicn cf the trcops. Imp'c s sib le weather condit io-ns

had adversely affeote.d the morale of the. army.

H itle r court ere 1 by p'ointing out that ' t he en "my also suffers under bad

weather."41 and besides, the weather would also be unfa-vcrabl» in the spring.

He added that the offensive roust recur; there was no other effective means

o f p ro tect ing the ir.!V.aluable Ruhr in d u s tr ia l com plex.

Brauchitsch saw t ’hat the FShre'r was unm.o^-'ed, and in a fit of d.espair

he made a final effort to obtain, a csLncell.at.lon of the offers Ive. Unwise ly,

he told Hitler that the new infantry divisions were .«adly below the at.an.'-iards

of the famous Gerro*;rt In.fantry of 191.4,42 j%i_-pherately exaggecrating '"Vhat was

merely slackness and bad behavior as a result, cf the pr^'lcngei alert» into

incipient mutiny reminiscent of 1 9 1 8 ."43 Ti? back up his alleg&t ions » Brauchit'o-h

mentioned the mieco'nduct of S'''ldiers or trains as proof »'«f the deterioration

of discipline. (^ït is a common experience that the discip>line of a unit or

^^Alan Clark» E arb arcsM , T!\e german R ussian Op n f_ li.1941-45. New Ycrk: Wm Morrow & Co., 1965, 4. Hereafter cited as; Clark» bartarcssa. 40g lark» Barbarosya» 4. 4lHalder''3 Diary. II» 45 (Ycvember 5» 1939). 42BL:]cp*ntritt.» &%r:_istedt.„ 54: & Halisr D ia r y „ II., 45. 43Hald.tr'a Diary» II. 45 and VIIÏ (11,9).

38

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. even individual so'ldiers is reflected by their bshavior in transit.3^^

This was tco much fcr Hitler. ''Ke was absolutely convinced that “his*

infantry was very bit as outstanding as that which he himself had seen as a

soldier In 1 9 1 4 ."'*5 vg, demanded fr o o f from B rau ch ïtscb . The Army C hief made

an effcrt to avoid being nailed down, telling Hitler that he wculd be sent

documentary evidence. This evaalen did not fool Hitler; he had "smelled a

r a t ."46

There followed ascene which Haider, in gross understatement, later

described as "most •■i.gly and disagreeable. Hitler called In Keitel, and in

h is presence, he proceeded to c a s tig a te B rauchitsch and h is kind.**® The Commander'

in~Chief of the Army mmle « teebl* attempt to defend himself but was no match

for H itle r . By th e tima he was fir.ish.ed, BTaucIhitso:h had w ilte d . H itle r pro-

mptly turned and walked out, slamming the dco>:r.^^ Brauchitsob, apparent ly

unable to speak, turned and .fled back to the s,afety of Z^ssen, where . .

he arrived in such poor shape that at first he coild r.inîy give a somewhat

incoherent account of the proceedings.

This fateful conference ended Brauchit.sch's attempt: to dabble In

politics. Whatever thread of confideni.'e that haS existed. t-et'we:en himself and

Hitler was new gone. ; his attempt to obtain a c.»n:'.e ll.atien of the west err.,

offensive had only succeeded in reinforcing Hitler°s determination tc

it through. Hitler had ag.ain demonstrated that in a showdown hl..s générais

were out of their element. Erauchitsch had folded in the crisis, j'ast as had

his predecessor Fritsoh.

44Halrj,.T'a, Di.a-y, 47.11, ( I I , 9) 4 r.Î1 1. ku'J st eih , .54 . 46whe.*-.ler-he'nnett, 47Û-471. 47c lark, s, Barl.mrc'Ss.a. 5. 4% eitel.' Mem:lrsT 101-102. ^Keitel, fiemcTr;u, 102. '-■'Ocia'.rk:, Eath.trcy3. ^ - ' 39

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Mutiistein. and h is cosnp.s’ilo n s a t Array Group A, ignorant o f what had

happened the previous day, sent a second note to 0.K.H* again advancing their

plan. This note achieved nothing; evidently the people at. Zossen vere still

recovering from the events of November 5. Manstein persorally was not aware

of Braochltsch's ordeal, since no one bothered to inform him of the above

mentioned events until January 18, 1940, when Colcs'vel Hensinger, the current

G.S.O. I at 0 .K.H. g told him that Brauchitsch h.md avoided seeing Hit ler since

then. I t was daring t h is co n versation th at Mane te in learned the e>t,tent o f

the g u lf between O.K.H. and H itle r .

On November 7, the offensive, due to start the 12th was postponed for

a few days because of continued heswy rains and mad, which severly hampered

movement. This set the entire operation back at least two d.ays and the count­

down op eration biad to be. recycled.The rain did not let up, and the next

few days were spent trying to str.*ighten oat the resulting ccnfusi-in of march­

ing and counter■-marchlrtg columns .

While this was in p^rogress. Array Group A received the following tele­

printer message on November 12 from O.K.H.

'The Fîihrer has now directed that a third group of fast-raeving troops w ill be formed on the southern wing of Twelfth Army or in the sector allotted to Sixteenth Army, and that this w ill be directed against Seian and the area east of it taking advantage of the unwooded terrain on either side of Arlc-n, Ttntlgny and Florenville. Composition: K.Q. 19 corps, 2 and 10 Panzer Divi= a ions, on* motorized db/ision, the. Ireibstaridarte and the Cro-ss- Deutschland Re.ghnent. The task c»f this group w ill be; {a) To d e fe a t m obile enemy fo r c e s thrown, in to southern Belgium and thereby tci lighten the task of Twelfth and Sixt-eenth Armies; (b) To gain a surprise hold on the west bank of the Meuse by cr South-east of Sedan, thereby creating ® favorable sito.r.ticn f .r the sub'Seque.nt phases o f the o p era tio n , specifi«-'.ally in the

^^Whst Heuairger p re bah ly ro.e*nt was th a t Brauo’hit sc h only saw Hi ^ le r oc. offi.cial b'O’sineas ; since it is known th a t the two met cco'aei cr.allv du’“ing p erio d . Mans t e . L- yt ''to-rles , 87. Comp ,ar t with Warlfmont, 61. Ider ' a Dle:ry, I I , 46 (No vem.ber 7, 19.19) .

40

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. event of the units under Sixth *nd Fourth Armies proving unsuiccfessfai in bhe.iT own sectors.® ^

This order fame as a complete surprise at Army Croup A Headquarters, The

opening sen ten ce made i t c le a r th at O.K.H. vas not the author c f the move and

did not endorse it. Manstein at the time speculated that General Eusch^^

had initiated the move, for he had recently seen Hitler and vas also cognizant

cf rtensteln's p-eint of view.-^^ Nonetheless, Manstein in his memoirs readily

admits tha.t the idea may have been H itler’s own. "He hada keen e>'e for tacti­

cal openings and spent much time fro ceding over maps. He may har'* realized that

the easiest place to cross the MtuS'S was at Sedan.

The r&ceptlQ'îï o f th is order a t Coblenz was a mixed c o e . Everyone was

glad to see a Pato?,er Ccrps assigna i to the Army Group. Put sir eg it appeared

that Hitler "'. . .wanted =■ as he always did - to go for every tempting object­

ive at once,"57 *t the expense of weakening critical sectors, even Manstein

was dubious.

When Gemmerai O-iierlan, The Ooiamander-in-Chlef of XIX Panzer Corps,

arrived at Coblenz be was net slow to voice his dissatisfactio-n with the corp's

new task. Ever since the creation of the first armored divisions, his moi.to

had been "to punch hard or* place at * t i m e , "58 g^t MâB..3t*ln soon changed

Guderian's mind. Directly after the tanker’s arrivai, he asked Guderian to

pay him a visit. When Guderian arrived, Manstein outlined his ideas to the

Panzer expert, asking him to examine their feasibility from his own experience.

^Manstein, l;>st V ictories. 108 j & VerIc-rene Slege, 106. 5^Busch, F ield Marshal Ernst von, then G en era lcb erst, Gongrander- :n-Ct i * i of Sixteenth Army, llm orit, 62'. 56Kaa,£,t • In , Ley t Vlj • tcr_i_*y 109. (^ r js te in , 1,3_st Vi.: to r ie s , 109, ^iarsteln,-, Lost Victories ^ 109 „ & Verlcrer* Siege, 106.

d l

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. After a detailed examiratloai of the plan, Gaderian told his host that the

operation could certainly be carried out i f the forces a ssign ed were made s u f­

ficiently stro n g . Never one to do th in g s by halves, he su ggested that a

" 'su fficien t number o f ann-oired and motorizei divisions must be employed, if

possible all of them. This expert’s support was a welcome relief to M.anste in ,

who, despite his experience in the conduct of mobile operations, knew that

i f he were to succ.eei, he would need a ll the sapport he could muster.

The unflinchi'&g support of his comrades at Coblenz encouraged Manstein

to continue his struggle to get the ne.w plaai adopted. Unfortunate ly, the furor

caused by Brauehitsch’s interview with. Hitler on November .5 had not yet subsided.

Hitler, in an effort; to eliminate, the "go-slow" attitude lingering in the army,

had scheduled a series of lectures during No'Vember for the leaders of the armed

forces. The first talk was delivered by Gc-ebbelSj, the .second by G«4ring, and

the last on November 23 by Hitler himself.The raain theme expressed at these

m eetings was th a t although the L uftw affe and Ns'v^y had proven th e ir faith, there

s t i l l e x is te d w ith in the army’s rarks a lack o f c::"nfidex.ce in the r."girn.e.

Therefore, it was the duty of tbs army le a d e r s, its® gener«I.s, to pass cm th is

confidence to the. other rardc* which they biad thus far failed to do. This was

another reminder by the party that it was not finished with its attempts to

bring the ’’New Order” to the sirmy. Naturally *11 this was resented by O.K.H»

and most of the senior g e n e r a ls, except possibly Keitel and Jod1.

^^Guderian, Fan_ger Leader, 89. ^^llumentritt, Rundstedt. 54. ^iGuderlair.. Parrer Le.ader. 85.

42

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. la order to prep&ze for the Isst of the lectures^ 0«,K«H, called a

meeting of a ll the CQœmaaders of armies and army groups, to be held at Cob lea?

on November 21.62 Their ostensible reason was to discuss preparations for the

s till pending western offensive. During the discussion Brauchitsch deliberately

snubbed members o f Army Group A 's staff by refusing to let them take the floor.

Brauchitsch probably defired Co avoid any unnecessary rift in the army's ranks

at this juncture so that the generals could present a solid front in Berlin on

the 23rd, This slight did not go unnoticed, but all that Rundstedt and Manstein

were willing to do at the time was to submit ® memorandurn. stressing the need

to change the entire operations plan.

Hitler's speech to his commanders on the 23rd lived up to all expecta­

tions . His opening remarks were “’well considered and conv'tnelng,“* but his

scathing attack upon O..K_,go_ and the army generals as a gro'up, -‘^whiom he accused

of constantly obstructing his boldness and enterprise,*" was one of the mnst

biased statements Msnsteîn ever heard Hitler make. These intemperate words

caused Brauchitsch afterwards to tender his resignation, but Hitler refusei to

li s t e n to him .65

The army gen erals su ffe red th is censure in silence. Only General Grderlan

took any positive action and he did not accomplish much more thami his fellow

travelers.66 gg. f i r s t sought support from his peers, but they refused to do

62Halder's D ia ry „ II, 55, (November 21, 1939). ^^Manatein, Lost Victories„ 110. ^^Manstein, lost Victories. 88. ^See Wheeler-Bennett, 473-474; & Bullock, H itler, 568. 66Guderian, Parrer leader, 86-88. It is quite possible, that durïru t.h'. î trip to Berlin, Guderian dropped a few hints concerning Mansteir's p'lan in tre right places, even though there Is no evidence confirming thi<. S»e also Warlim en t, 62,

43

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. anything. Reichenau was net on speaking terms with Hitler and Rundstcdt

refu sed to jeopardise Braurhitseh's position further. During a visit w ith

H itle r on November 24, accompanied by Busch and Guderain, Rundstedt j-udtcicusly

«Voided any conversation which might have tended to weaken Brauchitsch's feeble

hold on h is o f f i c e . Discussion was limited to the projected role of Sixteenth

Army and XIX Panser Corps. Anyway, Hitler hs;d been the one to suggest their

visit and he was interested in other things. In Directive No. 8, issued 'Nov­

ember 20 p he had ordered :

(a) All prtcantions will be taken to enable the main weight of the attack to be switched frcm Army Croup E to Army Croup A should the d isp csttio .n o f enemy fo rces at anv time suggest t'bmt Army Group A could achieve greater success.^®

I t was ; no d<:.ubt,, Guderian who suggested to H itle r tb at XIX Panzer Ccrps

be reinforced. Hitler must have agreed, for socn afterward O.K.H. ordered

XIV Motorized Corps into Arsrty Croup A“s rear area. But, miffed at these ''"back­

stairs" machinationsj retained operational control of the corp s.

I t is not known to what extent Hitler was influenced by sub rosa

contacts between . and Army Grovp A. Colonel Schmundt, Hitler's aide^

and later General Warllmontj, of 0«K.W. Section L, both served as unofficial

couriers, but until his relief as Chief of Staff, Mar.stein hesitated to c ir ­

cumvent "proper channels." Lieutenant Colonel Tresckow^^ and Colonel

Blumentritt were less inhibited. Tresckow, being a close frien d o f Schnundt,

did not hesitate to take advantage of the situation and even Ruo.lstedt arpesrs

^^bWnsteiS;, L:'St V ictcrles„ 111. ^®Trewr-B>:p.*rj, B_litzk'?i*Jg, 16-18. Henning vt-rc, later Ge ter a lie ut vatt, Chief t f S ta ff t : Arm-.- Group Center (R n ssla ). Imp 11 rated Isi the July 20 p l o t , he .-id* shortly therea f t * r .

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. to hjive given tacit s'appctt to wh&t went cn. Late in Novembet„ Manstein was

pressed by his two aides ritt and Tresckcw) to allow Schmundt to take

& copy of his latest memcrandum to 0«K.H. back with him. but Manstein refused

to allow this until R'i:;ndstedt Ir-tarvened.

Army Group A's p lan received another cool reception at 0«K.W.. where

Jodi u n w ittin g ly supported Q,K»H„°s stand in a rare example o f coop eration and

agreement between, the two rival .gt,af£s.^^ Thus it is not known if Fitter ever

actually saw the plan before the middle of February„ 1940.

The move o f XTf Motcrised Corps into Army Group A's rear area .sent

Manstein's hopes zooming. .Although this reinfcrcenent w-as only a fraction of

what his plan called for, it w.as another step I d . the r Lght d ir e c tio n . H:«ping

for more8 he promptly sent another note to 0«FcH, on No\’fembeT 30° howe*.'er

OqK«H, remained silent. I'ri; an effort to jar something loosej, Maastein sent

yet another note, in the form of a personal lette'.r to General Raider, on

December 6. It contained the entire new operations plan. It app"e.*ra th.al,

at least in Mans Ce in's eyes, Haider would be more likely t see. the me.rtis of

his plan. But hWnsteln's regard for the Chief c.f the General St«.ff was unfjunied,

Haider did mention the letter to Eraiachitsch and that was as far as i t went.

Manstein waited until Decem.b*r 15 for a reply to his letter 5 buf none

came. At this point, he lost his temper, and in a belligerent rmoodj, r.*ng up

Stülpnageig the O.Qu. I a t O.K.Ho demanding to speak w ith H aider. To h is

astonishment8 Haider cam* to the phone.

Lc ?_t Viytprieg ^ 69^ 111; & W .«rlimont52 ^ " « 18i %arlimonts 52 g (i\(cte 18). ^^,^ ld _ e r "s_ D iaryp I I I , 1 (DeL-.mmher 7, 19.39).

45

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. While eoîïceding ev.r viev? Crcup A's] largely coincided with those of O.K .H .. . . [R&ld'fr]] insisted thst latter "s orders regarding 19 and i^. Corps did not establish a new focal point fcr the offensive, but merely provided for the possibility o>£ cresting one if the need were to arise, "Owing to influences 'beyond our contrôla* Qi.e, hit Ifr^j he added, * the decIsion as to where the main effort w ill be made has changed from a problem of planning to one, of cummazW during the operation itself, * . , .[Haider] assured me LMansteiaJ that the army leaders entirely agreed with us, but were under strict instructions to leave the main effort in Army Group B or, alternatively, to allow for a shift of this effort in the course of the of£*c.sive,^^

Manstein's persaver.avce seemed to bring dividends. Balder had final ly

broken O.K.B. "s official silence. B-ut several days later, or. December 18.

Manstein was disillusioned . During a conversât ion with Ge .',erml'ma jur W.arllmont ,,

J o d i’s deputy, he leam srl "that O.K.H, had uw-r.r subm itted %ny recon.a'er.dationf

to H itle r on the li.nes suggested by H a ller had fe-"i.i»ritîy b*“C'i leadiv'g

him on. This double—dealir.g by O.K 0H. embi 1 1 ee.i M anstein »nd h-^ t.he.^i re 3 1 ' ?'g i

that if he were to have anv further svc-'ess„ he must bypass O.K.H. It was

d i f f i c u l t for M anstein to Jo thi.s in good conscience., slnre he, along with

General Beck, had striven to create a unified c .mrrand stru'/ture f.. r t he

Wehrmacht.

Most important, from the A.rn>y point of view it opened the do■■•■'« tv those ’irresponsible backstairs influences ’ which. General Beik, during the earlier arge-tients on crganiz.ation, had stated ’had nn place in the. organization for command and leadership in war. ’ ' ^

Manstein could hardly be classed as mn "''irresponsible backstairs influence."

Nevertheless, his action did

H itler, and he knew tbiat his action wovld be detrimental to any fut’tAre h/'P"».

of creating a reall.y uni.fi.w.d chain of command.

„^:aT*.tein.8 tc.rl.es, ll'i* arJ .Si'jgt,, Î.M, V.ict.e.rles.. 11.1. Comp are with Warl i 3 \ i Z) ^^Warlimont, rh-c-t* 1) .

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Faced with this difficult choice, Itanstein naturally chase t :> prc.eei.

Remembering "llcltke’s diet un that 'an error in the first stages of deployment

can never be made good,’''*^ he was deternlr.ed t~ d : a 11 in his power tc se :

his plan adopted in its entirety. It may have been that he recalled the

fatal changes In Schli&ffen's plan which resulted in Germany's failure t' gain

victory in 1914. But before dtiog anything hasty, he submit ted two m . re r - 1 s

to O.K.H. outlining his plan, one on December 18. 1939 and his final note or

January 12, 194C. These approaches shared the fate of their predecessors.

only serving to antagonize O.K.ti.

The v ig o r w ith which he had p r e sse d h is id ta s had bee-\ resented by his military superiors end they suspected h-m of trying a backstairs approach to Hitler.'?

O.K.H. was no doubt suspicious of the £req;;ect: visits of S;hm:rdt and

War limon t to Coblenz. Probably what triggered MÆ^stein"; con..coi

out o f the way was a rumor which c.«me to H aider'- ■--d brau'vMt?'b< ' ?■ ear<; i

"many of the your.ger mambers of the General Stall were spying that Î n

ought to be made Conn' nder-in-C hi e f . ' Hci.r -'or , M ars'sin wAs r ,t irto'm fd

of this decision until Ja.m.ery 27, 1940. His replacement w*- ‘the

General von Soden stern . ^ The reason gi'.-eri by O.K.H. fcr th is move was t'n.at

Manstein's seniority could no Icnger be overloo'ked. K^nstein. whc knew fcetf-r,

was aware that his dogged persistence in pushing the rev-' oprr^ti-ns pl?'> hno

aroused this reaction. In his memoirs, he comments;

It can hardly be doubted , . . that my rep-lacCMcnt. w-i-. d:s; a desire on the part cf O.K.H. to be rid of an importerais nuisence who h»d verturod to put up r-o. operation plan at variance with its

?^Manîtiin, Lest Victories. T . 77L td Jr:l h :-.% 'T' 7uLld.de 11 H art, The German Geoero .1*11, I'h '^Guderian, Panzer Leader, 90. ^^îianstein. Lost Victories,120.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Manstein remained at Coblenz long enough to fam iliarize Sodenstern with

his new job. He was present on February 7, for a wargame exercise„ concerning

the movements of the armor through the Ardennes bottleneck. During the course

of this exercise, Guderian interjected several unorthodox suggestions. These

remarks stuck General Haider, who was there as an observer, as "senseless."®^

The Chief of the General Staff would only agree to m more conventional means

o f attack.During the ensuing argjjments, Guderian and Wietersheim®^ sorely

felt the impending loss of Manstein, who would soon be leaving to take command

of XXXVIII Infantry Ccrpa. At the end of this wargame exercise, Rundstedt

publicly thanked Manstein for all he had done as his Chief of Staff. Two days

later, on February 9, Manstein left Coblenz for a short leave before taking

over his new duties. He had been denied his request for a Panzer Corps on

the grounds that he lacked experience.

Ironically it was his "promotion** which was responsible for Manstein'’s

historic interview with the Führer. Manstein believed that Tresckow, his

assistant, working through Schmundt was responsible for this, but Warllmont

mentions a standing order by Hitler that a ll newly appointed corps commanders

be personally presented to the Führer.

In any case, on February 17, 1940, Manstein was summoned to Berlin to

report to Hitler, along with several other new corps commanders. After the

interview. Hitler invited them to lunch and at the end of the meal, as Manstein

was taking his leave. Hitler asked him to step into his study. After Man = te 1n

81'?ude.riaa, Par.j'e-.r Leader, 90. G^Hmld&r's Diary, III, 61=63 (February 7, 1940). Ü^Wietershelm, Gener&loberst Gustav von, the Cm-mr.mnder of XT; Me'vr Corps. 84L ld d *ll H art, The German G enerals TaIk . 64. 85Compare Manstein, Lest Victories. 120; & Warllmnt, 62.

48

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. was seated. Hitler asked bis general what he thought o£ th e operations plan

fo r th e western offensive. Manstein. with all of his characteristic skill,

proceeded to unfold his own plan of operations, reiterating to Hitler its

numerous advantages. The Führer was "surprisingly quick to grasp the points

w hich . . . Army Group []&] had been ad vocatin g for many months past."®^

Hitler encouraged h is gueat to elaborate, welcom.ing his suggestions with open

approval. Manstein left H itler’s study with the knowledge that he had won

over the decisive authority. His plan was issued in a Führer Directive,

No. 10, on February 18. Unfortunately it has been lost and only fragments

are known.87 These were taken bodily from the directive and incorporated in

O.K.H.*s new operations order of February 24. Jodi’s thoughts on the new plan

are characteristic of the orthodox skeptics : ""Ihe thrust via Seian is a deep

dark path on which the God of War may lie in wait for u s . "88

There was perhaps one key event which influenced Hitler to adopt Manstcln’s

plan. On January 11, 1940, the G.S„0„ I of 7 Airborne Division, a Luftwaffe

Major, made a forced landing In Belgium.8^ He was carrying on his person vital

parts of the operations plan which fell into Allied hands.This in c id e r t

caused nervous apprehension on both sides, but Hitler, expressing the view that

the Allies would regard it as a plant, did not at the time feel a need to

change the operations ord er.A t that time, the offensive was due to start

any day. Later, after the offensive had been cancelled till spring, he m hv

have had second thoughts.

Mars te in , Ibjist i cjv::-_r . 121. 8 iTreror"Roper, Blitzkrieg, 21«22. 88warlimort, 598 (^ote Id). 89Ralder’s Diary. Ill, 24-25 (Januray 12, 1939). ^^Nari Conspiracy aid Agression. 8 \ oli?. and 2 suppliments. I'iS. ment P r in tin g O ffic e , Wa£b.'i:t.gton, 1946-1948 . ¥T II, 423 fo l lO'Wi;r..g. 9 iRIfjanentr i1 1 , j:_« d t , 62 . 49

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. C^iapter IV

38 Army Cc«rp@ : France 1940-1941

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. The adoption of Army Group A’s plan by Hitler «erved to soften some­

what Manstein's disgruntled feelings. But in spite of his success with the

Führer, he never really forgot the treatment he had received at the hands of

Haider and Brauchitseh. His "promotion" was, to his mind at least, a disguised

form of exile. He was cut off from his brain child, banished to the hinter­

land while others put his ideas into motion.^

Manstein probably never knew that he, along with Kleist and Weichs,^

was being considered as p o s s ib le commander o f th e "armored wedge" which would

thrust across Belgium in the spring.^ It was, in all probability, the bad

feeling engendered at O.K.H. by his aggressiveness which led to the selection

of Kleist in his stead. This choice probably did not decisively influence the

outcome of the campaign in 1940, but like many other "ifs" in military oper­

ations, one always wonders if things would have turned out differently with

Manstein at the helm of the "armored wedge''h According to General von Thoma : ^

He [jKleist] had earlier been one of the chief opponents to them j__tanksj. To put a sceptic, even a converted sceptic, in supreme charge of the armoured forces was typical of the way th in g s were done in the German Army. ^

Manstein spent the months from February to May moplshly organizing the

staff and signals regiment of 38 Corps Headquarters. During this pieriod, he

visited his family in Liegnitz as often as possible. Resides his regular

duties, he occasionally received orders to inspect new divisions in the process

of being formed in Poznan or Pomerania. But none of these preoccupations was

^Manstein, Lost Victories. 127-8. ^ K le is t, Ewald von, la te r F ield M arshal, commander o f a panzer c o r e ::n Poland, 1939, Group K le is t in France in 1940, and F ir s t Panzer Group In R u ssia , 1941. W&ichs, M axim ilian F reih err von, la te r F ie ld M arshal, commander o f France, 1940, the Balkans, 1941, Russia 1941, and Army Group E, Russian 1942. ^Haider's Diary. Ill, 95, (February 25, 1940), ^Thoma, General Wilhelm R itte r von. Thoma and other tankers wished Guderian to command the Armored Group but he, like Manstein, was considered unsuitable, being a "difficult subordinate. " Liddell Ha.rt, The, German Generals Talk, 94-5 ^ L id d ell Hart, The German Gen erals T alk. 9 4 -5 . 51

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. enough to keep Mansteln'a mind completely occupied, and he waited anxiously

for news of the opening of the campaign Ir. th' ,e st.

Re was at heme in Liegnit'î' on May 10„ whe:' news of the cffensi e first

reached him over the radio. That same night he reueivei orders to move 38

Corps Headquarters tO' Brunswick. From Erunswi :k, the next fcrward me re toc K

him to Düsseïdcrf, where his ceres came under Army Group B's orders.

While 38 C.rpe Headquarter a were at DÎJsseldo^f, Manstein. had s ^rsm r

to wander over the newly von battlefields in the. rear of the Sixth Army.

He was surprised t.u find that the impressive Belgian border fortifications

had fallen so quicklyp even Fort Eben-EKael, with Its modern equipment.

The rapid pace of th* German advavce caused Manst.e in's Corps Head­

quarters to be s h ifte d frxr. Arty Group h to Army Group A cn May 16. M anstein

drove to Baatogne or» the. 17th t . receive hi* orders, and when he «■’-rIred he.

was given a varm ve 1 ..•.cm* bp Geosr.al Sodeostfv ard his former staff. During

the course of his v isit, he 'vms told how ccmplet ply h.ls plan had svf eeded .

The th ru st across I re Ardeoines a fid the Meus* had caught the e nemy e& tirelv

unprepareds and as a result, the Allies were finding it extremely diffle-uît

to regain th e ir b alan ce. M anstein was d ire cted to pLac* h is M-jadqueirtere

under Twelfth Army,^ whi'.-h was following in the wake of Parser Group' K leist';«<

advance.

Manstein arrived at Trvelfth Army Headquarters in time to witness s ser -

ious command crisis. Hitler was in the grip cf another of his nervous .rises.

Early on May 17, he tv Id B rauchitseh th a t "he con-slder* 1 the prin." i c #1 davg-r

[jof a French ccucfer-strok sQ to b* from the south. î-i t s.ati s f le 3 with

th is the Fvhrer raced o f f oo" Army Grvxp A «t B..a.stogKe. I ne re ^ e jet, zed

*^The Twelfr b A^j.y '.xs o- .onm.&aded b"' Ge '.'.,e:_r.Hj.o b.ey'sf W î 1 r f hr T , J ■ Field M«r*h.«l_. -'Ic - Ibte f f Army Gv: - 'o A. .Rutsi.w. l - - ‘. . ^ War 1 Imi'T.t. y > ,

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Rundstedt on the political dangers of a military check at this juncture.

"Under no circumstances must there be any form of setback at this moment

since that would be a dangerous morale-raiser for the enemy."® This order was

immediately passed on. After seeing this » Manstein noted that even at this

early date, propaganda and politics were infringing upon Hitler's role as

supreme commander.^

In his memoirs, Mansfein blames Hitler exclusively for the pause on

May 17, but in doing this he is unfair to Hitler. The Führer was not the only

one who was worried about the extended southern flank of Army Group A.

Everyone was surprised by the overwhelming initial success, particularly

Rundstedt who suspected a trap. His high opinion of Garoelin^^ reinforced

his caution, and he probably needed little urging from Hitler to call a

momentary halt;

I knew Game 1in before the war, and, try in g to read h is mind, had a n tic ip a te d that he would make a flan k move from the direction with his reserves. We estimated that he had thirty to forty division* which could be used for this purpose. Bet nothing of the sort developed.

To halt the panzers at this critical moment (right after the break­

through) was highly undesirable. Even. General Haider realized this ,^2 but

it was Guderian who finally shook things loose. On that day (the 17th),

Kleist had ordered Guderian ta> meet him at the liaison airstrip near bis

headquarters a t 7:00 A.M. Guderian was th ere when K l e is t 's plane flew in .

Immediately after his arrival, Kleist began to berate his subordinate :

®Warlimont, 95. ^Manstein, Lost Victories. 129. l^Gamfeltn. Ge^n.eral Maurice. Commander-in-Chief of the French Armies . IviO, l^LiddeLl Fart, The German Generals Talk, 128. Co'n>p»'re with BicriPniritt Rundstedt, 64 and 70-1. i?Halder'.s Diary, IV, (May 17, 1940). ^■Asuderian. Panzer Leader, 109. 53

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 'You have in frin g ed the orders c f the High Command,' he told him 'They limited you tc crossing the Meuse and establishing bridge-heads on the left tank of the river. Why did you exceed them?'

At this outburst, Guderian was livid: he asked to be relieved of his , cmmand

straight away. This impulsive act took Kleist by surprise, but he cepted

the offer. Guderian the - notified Rur_dstedt“s Headquarters cf his wish a no

said that he world fly C'\e.r to report what had happened.

When Army Group A received th is p iec e o f news, i t imrr.edlate ly eer t

General List forward to straighceo. thirgs out. and shortly after his arrival.

List told Guderian to- forget .atou': reslgrclng his comma rd. He explained that

O.K.H. had given the order. and it was qui ce emphatic about a further advance

b efore the marchic'.g in far try closed up. While thi.s was being den e. G'id?rr«'‘.

and his Headquarters were to &f$y put„ but ’'pending better orders" Guderian

was "to carry out ' tig h t i ' g reccT inaissarcs ' m ission s (Foamt-fa'ck î'Mru'-gen) , ‘ ^

This was a l l Grodfoi sn d ; in a mcTeo-.t dy r scHtO'S l i e He i r,-1^ was c 1 smce t i ri

back into his command tank.

Ma as te In was tv-.-t all p leased with these delays, but his position J id

not allow him to do any mere than, express support o f G uderian's v iew s. Be

felt that more élan was needed highfr up if maximum gains were to- be

of the offensive. As Manstein saw it, the contircual tug cf warbetween O.K.H.

and O.K.W. was a r e s u lt o f H it le r 's d e s ir e to p lay the. w arlord. F crtu r a tely ,

this disruption did not seriously affect cp-er.af.ii?oa, even though it pe.ririlt'"ed

the French to build up a new line of defense on the Somme 17

Jacques-Hec.nist“Me.chin. S.Lpity Pays that SJyj._ck tye . 1 in' France : 1940. New York: Œ.P. Futr-.am's Sons, I9b3, 112 . Her*îit"?r ,# «. : Benoist-Méchin. ^^Benoist-Méchln, 112; and Guderian, 109--110. l^Guderlan’s nirkman*. l^Manstftin. Lose V ictories, 129-130. •14

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Manstein and h is C'srpg were marching up behind Partæer Group K le is t

during the final phases of the operation, and it was not until May 25

that his corps was inserted in the front l i n e . During th is move, Manstein was

notified that his brother-in-law, Egbert von Loeseh, had been posted missing.

He was Manstein's wife's youngest b rother and had grown up in h is household

a s a so n . Manstein later learned th a t Does c h 's botnbeir had bee^ shot down w ith

no survivors near Brussels. But with the increased activity of his c o r p s, he.

soon pushed h is g r ie f to the back of his mind.^^

On the 25th, his ocr-pa relieved XIV Mctorired Corps, which was ro'ljing

the line of the Sonane from to the s e a . Anxious to take part in. the

a c t io n , Manstein wa-s soon busy sending proposals to Gener-sl Kl\:ge, suggesting

that Instead of m erely defending th e r iv e r lin e and the. two b ridge-heads at

Amiens and , he should croas the Sc-nmte between the trldge-he.ads and

take the allied fo rces contait,J.rg them in flan k and re..*r. M anstein continued

t o p r e s s for th is solution, as it was bcm d to relieve some of th e p ressu re on

the bridge-heads. These were b*ing violently ccu.n.ter-att.acked by the I'Tnt.uh,

who hoped to eliminate them. But Kluge showed no in te r e s t in M.aZiStein's

offensive plans; probably his hands were tied by O.K.H. whi :-.h was now bu«y

regrouping for the coming battle of Traae*. Manstein took thi? as a fu rth er

sign that O.K.H. would never accept anything but ""textbook" solutions ;n

operational p lan n in g, remaining hostile to his unorthodox approach to

l®Manstein, Yicteries, 131. l^Manstein's 38 Corps had been transferred to Fourth Army 1 b v GeneraloberSt Gunther w n Kl'uge^ later Field Marshal, C-'-mmand-r-în-ûh ! «r f Army Group Center, Russia, 1941-194.3. ZOManstein, Lc"*t ytories , 133.

55

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Things took a critic*1 turn at Abbeville on the 29th, as the French

4th Armored Divisional continued to exert hea.y pressure. Ihe green German

57 Infantry Division, holding the bridge-head, was roughly handled by de Gaulle's

tanks, losing heavily in killed, wounded, and prisoners. Bet by throwing in

reserves and personally taking contre1, Manstein steadied his shaken line.

The French were stepped, worn down by heavy artillery and counter-attacks

In the next few 3ays, fighting slackened as loth sides made rapid

preparations for the second phase cf the campaign. 38 Corps was relieved of

control of the bridge-heads and given a smaller sector around Flcqulgny.

Manstein was given three veteran infantry divisions for the attack, the 6th.

27th, and 46th. Of these, two would be used in the river crossing aad the

third would be fed in later to exploit the initial assault.

Infiltration tactics were used in the attack which began at dawn on

June 5. As Manstein watched the first wave go in, he was struck by the In­

effectiveness of the enemy artillery. French gunners were app-arently unable

to shift their fire with the speed called for in mobile eperatlona. As a

result, the crossing was quickly consolidated, but rat without loss. The

French stubbornly defended many strong points which were by-passed, in order

to seize the heights farther back. These kept up a lively fire on conspicuous

targets, and several times Manstein received their unwelc.rjm* attenticr.n.

The advance was pushed fcrward energetically at Man*te.ln's insistence.

He was everywhere, encouraging, pushing, and prodding his regiments tO' keep

moving. At one point:

I [jManstein^] fou^d myself in the '.'try front llr.e, t.-i^îking to a company co'iranander. After brie flog me on the situai zoo. he apparent ly saw r.o reason why he should not t«k* *d'Tant»ge of

The Cc’ireiander-i r -Chief ~ i' 4th Arm^.-r Diy i s l r va» C eteral ''■bar''. * ' -le G a u lle, fctu-e leader cf tbs Free Fr«'o?h. ^^Comp'-sre Es',uoi so-Ms . - h . 184 ' M arsteir, I': ; 'ph ’f . l3"'-4 « a - d Jer.eral Charles de G aulle, Wwjr Mf-mor les , The Cg 11 t ;• "'A, r i 9 - New York; Viking P ress, 1953 , 49-.54.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. the presence of « high-ranking cfficer» and go me - flat on my b e lly - tc spread out by b ig s it u a t io n map and g iv e him a detailed account of the tattle as X knew it.

This rather humorous incidents, and several others. demonstrate that Manstein

was doing his utmost to win the confidence of his men. He felt that it was

necessary to gain their respect since they had been working together cniy a

few d a y s.

His efforts were richly rewarded, as his co*rps marched side by side with

the Panzer Divisicrs during the pursuit which followed the breakthrough. Ihe

Seine was reached c.:c June 9, and crossed on the IJth, but while France was

receiving her coup d_e grÆce Manstein was arguing with Kluge ; he continua 1 ly

asked for more freedom of action. The enforced halts^ in Manstein"s ojpiaicn,

only gave the enemy tim e to regroup.

The p u rsu it larcnched by 38 Corps crossed the Led re on June 22 and was

h alted th ere by news o f the a r m is tic e . The corps had marched aud fought nearly

three hundred miles in twenty days.

Being something of a student of Fresioh h î s tor-y ^ Mans te ic took advaatag*

of the Armistice to examine several of the famous castles in the Loire b a s in .

He made the castle of Serrant^ near Chalonnes. his headquarters and proceeded

to inspect that outstanding piece of architecture. He wa# fascinated with the

library and the many historical mementos found there.

Naturally enough, Manstein was more than pleased with the armistice.

France had been Germany's chief opponent ever since that ’’black day'' >: f

^Aianstein, Victcries, 138. 24Man9tein.„ Lcsc Victo ries , 147. ^SManste.irc Ic si Vict'crles , 147 ; and Verjx^r e.ri* Steg*.. 1 ^S-6.

57

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Novemter 11 „ 1918 when Germany had surrendered. E'jt ’’the wheel had turned,

and France now found herself at Hitler's feet.

There was little time in which to reflect» however» for soon after the

ceasefire, 38 Corps was dispatched to the Sanserre region, on the middle Loire.

Here » in accord.ar.ee w ith an O.K.H. o r d e r, it assumed c o n t r o l c-f several infantry

d iv is io n s which were to be converted in to armored or motC'rir.ed form ations

Hmnstein found that his new he.®dquarters was quite a step down from the

elegant castle of Serrant. The smaller ehste.au was the creation of a nouveau

riche wine merchant » who, according to Manstein» must have had extremely had

taste. He disliked nearly everything ahc.-ut the new surroundings excep.t the

hilltop view of the Loir* valley which was magnificent.

On July 19» Manstein was present a t the Reichstag session in her1in at

which Hitler c r e a te d a dozen new field marshals and one grand admiral. T.t

irked him to se e a fop lik e GfJring promoted R eich sm arsh all. and th e creation

o f so many f ie l d m arshals at once, could , in Manstein's view, only serve, to

lessen the prestige of that honor. What, he wondered, had the chief cf O.K.W.

(Keitel) done to m erit h is new t i t l e ?

While in Berlin, Manstein learned that 38 Corps He.adquarters was ear­

marked for a new task: Op^eration Sea Li'^n (Se.gl'^we). the propO'Sed invamLrn

o f the B r itis h I s l e s . The Corps Headquarters moved north to th* Channel c-c.«?t.

occupying billets at Le Touqiiet» a resort n ear Boulogne. Three, in fa n try d iv i-

sion.s were placed under its com», and there, and training in amphibie us "Operations

began.

L est V i t a r i e s . 149; the number c f F.ar.rer Pi rî.ased 10 to 11 durrirsg the period -Juae. 1941. See and Dr. F.M, vo^n E t.te r lin , p_le_ Panger e r t » G.e.schdy^hte und Gest_s 11 d"= " m. ;:_ch,enis_l*rt_en In far te r le 1930-1960. Munich (Munchen) : J .F . Lebm.ann? V erleg. 75 fa llo w in g . 58

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. From the, start it was clear to everyone, including Manstein, that

Hitler was rat very interested in pushing this cperation to « conclusion.^8

Hitler revealed his intentions in Führer Directive No. 16. There he stated :

Sir,oe England, in spite of her hopeless military situation, shows DO signs of being ready to come to an understanding, I have decided to prepare a larding operation against Eng- la'.T-d .and, if_ n ec e ssa r y , to carry i t

In h is memclrSj, M anstein i s extreme ]y c r i t i c a l : f H it le r 's lead ersh ip

during this decisive phase of the war. In his opinion. Hitler's failure either

to carry cu*" the i::'' as ion ot Brit.ain o^r come tO' terms w 1 th her vas the principal

reason for a ll of G^rm-ano"'s subséquent defeats.

Neverthelee.s, Manstein does not subscribe to the theory that it was

imp'ossiblê t'3 ca:^ry out a s'.: “oessful invasion of Britain. In 1940. He gives

a d e ta ile d and seem ingly im p\artial acco.int o f hew th is nright ba 'e been done:,

but he readily admits fcbat in the test of clrcumst,«r„ces chances of success

would have never been l etter than 50-50. S till, in his cpini'. n, this was

the cr'iy correct scî ction if Germany ever hoped tc achie're final v i c t o r y . 31

Certai.r.ly Hanstein's thcnghts cannot be discounted, siw e he was regarded as

Germany's most able soldier by his contemporaries

The amphibiou.s training carried on by 38 Corps that summer was not,

in spite of prevailirig opinions, allowed to sl.acken. Manstein's professional

pride drove his troops,, and soon they were quite adapt, at embarking and landing.

This proficiency can hardly be credited to superior equipment, since, most oi

their landing craft were reconditioned river t'arges. But while f'al nl ng

^Sy^ariSteie.j. Lcrit_ Vlc'hcrlies, 169, -^Atrh'r's it.al.T'S. .30' Î- v r -B ,r E lltg.krieg» 33-37, especially 34. Manstein. os ce in . Lest Lost v v l'ctI'ct C;rcries i e s„ „ 148-171.14 Ma Mao? ..fti o,„ L.,st Vi'vt'Crie?. 13°, & LI ;i ie 11 hart.. The Cerma’-,' "le "fra I «, :a:k. 6J. 59

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ir.tense, there were still moments of relaxation. Manstein allowed himself

to indulge in se-ixeral of his weaknesses during his stay in France. île gave

a free rein to his appetite, eating his fill of French Cuisine, and swimming

almost every day in the sea. For him and his troops, this was a welcome

r e s p it e .

60

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Chapter V

i'6 Pander Corps; The Invasion of the Soviet Unlot

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Hitler and Stalin both considered the German-Soviet Non-Aggressicn

Pact of 1939 as nothing more than a temporary measure; netther considered

letting the agreement endure any longer than was expedient.^ Both men seen

felt cramped by their respective spheres of influence which overlapped, and

which created friction and mutual distrjst.

On •- ily 31, 1910, H itle r ordered O.K.H. to i n i tia te planning fcr a

campaign in tie esst;^ he was fetermirrd to rid himself of this burdensome

alliance as soon as possible. The irc-asion plan finally adopted (Op-e ra tio n

Earb*ro>ssa 1 called for t.he crea tio n of three army groiispa ; North, Center and

Sc'Ut.h. I t was issued on December 18, 1941, The main effort o f the German

attack was to be directed north cf the Pripyat Marshes which divided the

theater of operations. From the beginning, there was no agreement over th‘“

strategic objectives of the ino-asior. Hitler, thinking in terms cf Nazi

propaganda and 'lermar.y“» eccnomic needs, sought « declsion of the flanks.

(Leningrad and the I'kraine). O.K.H. on the ether hand saw Moscow as the

key tc the Soviet LV'icn and wished to put the main effort in the cente'c.

As a result of this conflict of interest, there was no, firm dec; is ion re­

garding strategic objectives beyond the op'tning phase of the invaslc»n. It

was or this dilemma that the attack ultimately foundered.

1,3te in February, 1941, M anstein was r e c a lle d from Franre and ordered

to organize 56 Panzer Corps, one cf the new armored formations. No doubt,

this was a reward for his outstanding performance during the second phase

of the Frrnch Campaign.

^ :H-ft E,“i-ks,'n,. The S o v iet Bi_gh Command A Mi 1 itary-'F'? 1.t ial. .Hlstorv 19I8-_1941 , New i c v: k : S t, M artin's P r e ss, 196*2, 565-567. Here a it « r .'ite-J as Erick-:: a - 11 mo rt , 113- 11 4 : and Georg* £. 61 au. The Germai Cs-nt> igr. t n Bvssia 1,0^ Cv_er-._t f:n j' ( 19:^0 - 1912.) . W ashington; E'ep artms-r*. c t t he A-mv P amp hie ' N'j. lO-kola, Har.'h., 1955, Î - 2 . Hereagter cited a^ : P '! - o f.r..± Ot e r a t i . 62

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. As spring broke, Germany's legions were agâln on the move. In March,

Roncnftl^ began his first Libyan offensive, and during the next month the

Wehrmacht overran and Y u goslavia. Rumors o f a l l s o r ts were passed

back and forth that spring, but Manstein was not made aware of Operation

Rarbarossa's existence until M a y Generaloberst , Commander

of Fourth Panzer Group, informed Manstein of the plan to invade Russia at

that time. 56 Panzer Corps was to become part of Hoepner's group which was

assigned to Army Group North (Leeb) for the Invasion.

Army Group North was to protect the flank of Army Group Center (Bock)

by advancing through the towards Leningrad. During the advance

Army Group North was to destroy as many Red Army formations as possible,

preventing any organised retreat into the Interior of the Soviet Union.

Information on Soviet dispositions in the Baltic was s c a r c e , but the

L u ftw affe, by violating Soviet air-space, did reconnoiter Russian defensive

positions.5 There were four major defensive positions facing the Germans

between the East Prussian frontier and Leningrad : the new Soviet frontier

position, the Dvina River Line, the old Soviet frontier positions (the Stalin

line), and the Lttga River Line. Manstein was ordered to lead 56 Panzer Corps

in a thrust which would capture the vital Dvina River crossing at Dvinak, 230

miles from the corps assembly area.

To Manstein his new Panzer Corps was a wish fulfilled.^ To be sure,

he had some misgivings regarding the coming in vasion ,b u t Hitler's refusal

^Rommels Lati^r F ie ld M arshal, The "'Desert Fox"*, Co.'tmander-in- Chief of German troops in Africa. ‘^Blsy’Sp f.lar.ntng and Operations, 32-33; & M anstein, Los.t Vi c t c r i e s . 175. bErl-'kscn, 571, and , Hitler Moves East 1941° 1943. Bostcn: L i t t l e , Fro'wn and Company, 1964, 59-60. H ereafter c ite d a^: Care 11, R.M.E. Manstein, Verlorene Siege. 172. GAr^rell, H.M.E. , 30.

63

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. to cross the Chsnnel in 1940 made it necessary to deal vlth the Soviet Union,

Britain's last hop*. Manstein seems to have agreed with Hitler that a "pre­

ventive war" was the best and perhaps the only realistic solution to the

German dilemma.^ What worried Manstein most was the way Hitler and, to some

extent, even under-estimated the potential military strength of Rassia.

He had serious doubts that a campaign of this magnitude could be won in a

single, season.^ The hesitating leadership Hitler had demonstrated in France

was ano-ther factor which worried Manstein. The Führer*s habit of avoiding

military risks and putting off crucial d'^cisicns was not reassuring. But

Manstein’s reservations may, to a large extent, be hindsight. He was cer­

tainly eager to test his sk ill at commanding a Panzer Corps, and in the end,

what could he have done to prevent this new adventure? Probably very little.

On June 22 at 3:30 A.M. the invasion of the Soviet Union began. In

56 Panzer Corps* sector, near Tilse.t, space for deployment was limited. There

was only enough r o o m to deploy 8 Panzer Divi.slon and 290 Infantry Division;

.3 Motorized Infantry Division had to be left on the southern bank of the

Memel River until more space could be won.

From the start, Soviet resistance was fierce. Th* ad vance became

entangled in a pi11-box system which was not broken through until noon in

8 Panzer Division’s area. When Manstein heard of this (he was at 8 Panzer

Division's Headquarters), he immediately ordered the division to push on.

During the evening, the first day's objective, the large road viaduct at

Alrogcla, was captured intact.

The advance continued during the night and for the next tew days. By

al'cwlc't his men no rest and pushing them as hard as he dared, Manstein wnf

?Mer_ste:n, Lost Victories, 169-171; and I.M.T. XX, 608. ^Manstein, Lost y_ic-1ories . 175.

64

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ®bl« to sfeis* hi a primary objective on the morning o f the 26th. This bold

stroke capped a 20C mile drive through enemy-heId territory.

During the advance Manstein ran across several instances o f S oviet

brutality.^ In spite o£ these u g ly incidents, he would not allow the

"Commissar Or 1er ' or like measures to be carried out in h is command. He

in s is te d on s o ld ie r ly b e h a v io r of bis troops, hater, during the advaeoe c n

ler.irgrad, M an stein ordered two c f h is men, who had raped R ussian women, shot

for their excesses.

The 41st P&nr&r Ccrps, ccmprising the other half of Fourth Panrer Group,

was not as fortunate as Manstein's corps. It ran into a Soviet tank corps’ll

south of th% Dvina and only after a week of heavy fighting did it capture

Jekabp

Manstein was disappointed when he received o r d e r s to hold his bridge­

head and await the arrival of 41 Panzer Corps and Sixteenth Army. To sit and

wait would only all<:«w the Russians to reorganize. If 56 Panzer Corps sa t

still within the bridge-head it wculd soon find itself heavily counterattacked,

Manstein had hoped that he would be allowed to push o n , dislocating any Soviet

counter action. But when Hoepaer flew to Dvinsk oa the 27th, he confirroei

the halt order, admitting to Maasteia that even he did not know what the

next objective would be.

Manstein spent the next week defindlag the bridges against determined

Soviet attacks, all of which failed. The Red Air Force repeatedly tr ie d to

^Manstein, Lost Victcries, ISO. Lost V ictories, 179-180; & Warllraont, 159-171. I'iloMoT., X5T, 610. ^M.i'._st-r,i'-i designates i t as th® First Tank Corps, but both E rick scn and Carell rs.fer to it as the III Mechanized {Tank) Corps, With a strength of ^00 tanks including many ICV-1 & 2 models.

65

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. dtstroy the bridges by bombing^ but only succeeded in losing squadron after

squadron tc fighters and flak. The bridges remained unscathed.

On Jily 2, the Panzer Grcup resumed its advance following the main

highway towards Ogtrosy and Leningrad. Soviet resistance became more

methodical as the Gsinran tank thrust neared the old Soviet frontier defenses,

tie Stalin Line.

Recoansiissance showed that the Russian reserves were concentrating around

Pskov. F.c*.pr-ers hoping to c u t - fla n k th is concentration, split his group in

h a lf, sending M anstein's ccrp-s east, towards Opochk®. 41 Panzer Corps continued

to advance along the mala read towards Oatrcv.

M.arstaln protested M;eprer“« order claiming that fcecaus* of marshy

ground his advance w<:,uld be too sloWf, and he would be unable to intervene

on. 41 Panzer Corps* right with any effect. But Hoepner turned .« de.af ear to

Manstein's warning.

56 Panzer Corp-s was .soon mired in the swampy fo>re.,st w est o f .

Eight P anzer Division founid a corduroy r o a l and managed to make some p ro g ress,

but 3 Motorized Infantry Division had to be pulled out and rerouted behind

41 Panzer Corps.

Farther south the S_^ Totankepf (Death's Head) Division, then attached

tc 56th PatLzer C orp s, struck firmer ground, but was halted in front of the

Stalin Line at Zehesh (Sefcezh). Only after suffering heavy casualties did It

succeed in piercing the line of concrete fortifications there.

Manstein had a .great deal of respect for this division which he regarded

as the best Wafftn S.S. division he ever c,ame acro.ss. Nevertheless, he felt

chat r.'he pr.'-v’&'e arm::of GSring end Eimm.ler^^ were * va-

1-r.Taty II ill affcrd. The Luftwaffe field divisions and Wtffen S,S, unif s

b'Mimmler, Beinri h, Feith.f^ihrer S .S ., Bead of t V Pel: s and 9=2'

66

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. us«d up man and equipment at exorbitant rates which were completely out of

scale with their military gains. The main reason for this weakness was the

methods of training used. They relied far too much on physical courage,

ignoring planning and staff contributions. Justifiable as Manstein’s complaints

appearp his real co'ncern was the threat which these forces posed to- the Army’s

P'osition within the state.

By July 9, it was apparent to Hoepner that Manstein had been right.

The remainder to 56 Panaier Corps was withdrawn and sent after 3 Motorized

Infantry Division. Hoepner regrouped his forces around OstroVj, which had

fallen to 41 Panzer Co-rps.

At Ostrov, Hoepner on ce again divided his group. Manstein was to ad­

vance on Chudcvo v ia Porkov and Novgorod. Chudovo i s on the Leningrad-Moscow

rail line which Manstein was ordered to sever as soon as possible. Reinhardt’s^^

corps would continue to advance on the main road towards Leningrad.

Manstein considered this dispersal of the Panzer Croup’s strength as

dangerous. True, the Soviet forces facing them lisd been severely mauled. But

they were still putting up organized resistance, and the German forces had also

been worn down by the first month’s fighting.

During a tour of the front. General Paulas, Haider’s O. Qu. I ., visited

Manstein’s headquarters on July 26. Before the start of Barbarossa, Manstein

had written a letter to Paulus in hope of obtaining some assault guns for his

corps since "red tape" had prevented his obtaining any through regular channels.^'

l^Manstein, Lost Victories„ 187-189, and 268-269. ï-^Reinhar-it, Hans, Ceaeraloberst. Commander of 41 Panzer Corps. 16P'«ulu?p Frie.irichj, later Field Marshal, Commander of the Sixth Army at Stalingrad. ^^walter GHrlltz, Paulus and Stalingrad; A Life, of Field-Marshal with notes, Gcrrespondeoce and documents from his papers. New York ; Citaiel Presîs, 1963, 137. Hereafter cited ms : Gërlltz, Paulu/s,

67

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. It is not knc;^n if this letter achieved the desired result, although It may

ha\'e had a benevolent effect. Manstein felt he could approach Paulus on

vital subjects. Being quite outspoken, Manstein outlined his ideas for the

continued, operations of the Panzer Group. He felt that Mosc< w was more

Important than Leningrad strategically. But If Leningrad was to be taken

first,, then Hoepner must stop sending his troops off on less important errands.

Imitating Guderian. M.ar.stein emphasized the necessity of concentrât.ïng on.

vital points . 'Klctzen. nicht Kleckern", (do'ti’t sp-atter 'em, boot 'em ! )

Hoepner's Group must concentrate «round Narca (which had just fallen to wl

Panzer Corp.s) on the t e s t lin e o f co'mmunications and then aidv.ance as s w iftly

as pos.si.ble towards len in's city. "Paulus entirely agreed with . . , Qyianatein's^]

T lews .

TheS't w.arnings were ignored by the high command ho'we.'.’^er, and Hoepner

was scon running off in all directions. Earlier Han.srein.'s .crps, deir.l ve.d

of c'cver u>n. its southern flank, had advar.ced northeast via Forkhcv, Dr u. «nd

ho 1 t.*y. Here i t v.«s moment.ar î ly is o la te d and roughiy l-ar.dl«d by a Russian

countAT-offetnai'ce. Manstein skillfu ily withdrew» breaking cut eastwards to

re-establish his communieatlcns. The Russians, now under Voroahilev. were

rushing up reserves «.nd digging in on the Lug« Ri'ver line. ^

After This check 56 Panzer Division was detsiched ani taken into reserce

for ant impartis an opération# . It was replaced by the S «S Pol.ice Division.

Ale ne.56 Panzer Corp.* tried to adv.ance on Le.ningr*d.

When neit her c f H::epn.ersm all jabs suo'ceeded,. it w.as decide 1 tc

ado t Manstein'* suggestion. B:-it, true to form , only ha 1 f of 56 Pâmer Ccrp*

;®Ksc.stelr Siege, 198-199. j'^Gudev i a n . Par.zer I »a3e r , 105- 1 0 6 ; & Manstein. s_t ’’k.ct- ."les. 1 9 8. - “’Macs*Ï.in. Losi: I u o tc rie s . 1 9 8. ^ "-Ef i -ksco., 60 ^ - 6 0 ;. 68

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. sen t north to Naro-a, (41 Panzer C orps). A fter an extrem ely t ir in g d rive over

impassable r: ids the headquarters of 56 Panzer Corps reached Lake Samro.

But the mcment had p assed .

Late that same evening (August 15) Panzer Croup c a lle d w ith bad news;

a Russian counter"*!tack cn the extreme right of Sixteenth Army (between

Array Group North and Army Group Center) threatened to check any fu rth er

advance towards Leningrad. Therefore » 36 Panzer Corps was to retrace yesterday’s

march and report to Sixteenth Army on the morrow. Amid many groans, preparations

were made to retu rn over th* same wretched read s. M anstein was heartened by

Major Kleinschmldt, his quartermaster, who retained his usual cheery attitude

despite the hardship of having to swing his supply columns completely around.

The Commander o f S ix teen th Army, General Busch, had been Manstein*»

friend for several years. When Manstein arrived at , Busch explained the

s itu a tio n to him. The 38th S o v iet Army, com prising e ig h t in fa n try d iv is io n s

and several cavalry formations, had succeeded in out-flanking the German 10

Corps south of Lake Ilmen. But in doing so, the Russians, in their turn, had

also exposed t h e ir flank. Manstein was instructed to assemble his two

motorized infantry divlsicns (3rd Motorized aad S.S. To-terkopf) west of this

open flank as fast as p'ossible. Wl.en they were assembled, 56 Panzer would

drive forward encircling the Russian Army,

Immediately after 56 Panzer Corps jumped off, 10 Corps went over to

the offensive. The Russians were completely surprised by this sudden flank

s tr ik e and retired hastily, losing heavily in prisoners and equipment.

The Panzer Corps captured several unusual item* of équipement. A

ta*''e-y dfiTim. AA guns of German manufacture dated 1941, and the first

:q_?ha (a ruck et salve type of gun) were among the booty.

69

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Manstein mentions this In his memoirs, perhaps to balance out a blot on his

carp's record. When his corps had been momentarily Isolated earlier in the

campaign, i t had lo s t soma o f i t s m u ltip le rock et f ir in g launchers. O.K.W,

vas disturbed by this loss of classified material and made an official in­

vestigation of the. incident. Manstein was irked by this unwanted attention

and remarked th at " to a v o id any further censure we would henceforth refrain

from c r u isin g «round some 60 m iles behind enemy lin e s .

For the next few weeks 56 Panzer Corps remained under Sixteenth Army's

control. Manstein. had several conversations with Busch during this period.

Both men were uneasy over Che constant 'chopping and changing" which r e su lte d

from the divergent opinion* of Hitler and O.K.H. Manstein hoped that 56 Panzer

Corps would soon be shifted over to Ninth Army (Army Group Center) for the

drive on Moscow. Ftimors to th is effect were being circulated but before any­

thing definite was heard, Manstein was promoted.

I t was raining the night of September 12; Manstein was sitting in

his tent with part cf his staff playing cards. An aide entered asking Manstein

to come to the phone. Manstein was apprehensive for late calls seldom brought

good news. Kts friend Busch was oa the other receiver. He gave Manstein. the

following message from O.K.H.;

'General of the Infantry v. Manstein w ill leave forthwith for Southern Army Group to assume command of .'23

Busch congratulated Manstein and then rang off.

That night, Manstein bade his staff farewell. He took only his aide

and his two drivers with him. The morning of the 13th, he flew south. Ic

took four days to reach Eleventh Army Headquarters. Russia's vast spaces

Impressed Manstein and his aides.

^"Manstein. Lest Victories. 197. ^%anstein, L.3St Viet pries, 203,

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Chapter VI

I l Army9 The Crimean Campaign

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Compared to Army Croups North and C enter, the advance o f Army Group

South into the was painfully slow. Here the Russians put up a very

stiff fight indeed. On June, 27, General Haider wrote in his diary; "One

has to admit that the Russian leadership on this front is doing a p r e tty

good jo b .

Contrary to German expectations, the Soviet leaders had concentrated

their strongest forces in the Ukraine to protect their granary and the industries

of the Basin.3 Stalin expected a war with Germany sooner or later and

hoped to menace the flank c£ any German advance north of the Pripyat. This

deployment had a further advantage in that if events took a favorable turn, it

might be possible to overrun the Balkans and eliminate Germany's chief

source of crude oil.

The Eleventh Army's role prior to Operation Barfearossa was to protect

Germany's Rumanian oil supply. With the advent of that plan, it was decided

at first to give the 11 Army a strong offensive role. But because of a short­

age of troops, especially Panzer Divisions, as a result of the Balkan campaign,

this idea was stillborn. The 11 Army was therefore given a more modest follow-

up r o le .

Germany's ally, Rumania, furnished two armies to the Axis cause for

the Russian invasion, the Third and Fourth. Unlike Germany's other allies,

Rumania allowed th e Germans to e x e r c is e a much t ig h te r t a c t i c a l c o n tr o l over

^Haider's Diary. VI (June 27, 1941), 173. ^The Army (O.K.H.) contended that the main Soviet forces would be met on the road to Moscow. ^Se* Clark, Barbarossa„ 29-30; Erickson, 588=592; and Esposito, West Point Atlas, Map 24 (World War II).

72

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. its armies. Both Rmianian Armies were subject to Army Group South's directives

atd the Third Romanian Army was further directly subordinated to the German 11

Army. ^

On July 19AI, the II Army began its advance into the Soviet Union.

From the start, its advance was ud impressive. In August, with the victory of

Klel«t*s panzers at , the pace of the advance quickened.^ The Fourth

Rumanian Army, ,:n the su jth flan k o f 11 Army, undertook the sie g e o f

with German support. A few days later Rundstedt's main forces turned north and

began their *d\ance s« the s.-'utSern arm of the pincer, then closing on

B uiep.ny ' s deoine i frC'Z.t.

Coinciling with these moves, the 22 Infantry Division, part of 11 Army,

made a surprise crossing of the during the first days of September

and soon th e e n tir e army was a c r o s s . ^ The shortage of troops on the eastern

front at this Juncture forced Army Group South to give 11 Army two conflicting

objectives. The Army’s main body was to continue its advance eastward towards

Mariup'ol (Zhdanov) ar.d Ro^stov. Meanwhile, 54 Corps was to seize the

by a coup de main.'

Oa September 12, the commanding general of 11 Army was killed.® Hitler

chose. Hanstein to replace this loss.^ It is not difficult to guess why he

was chosen to rep la ce the f i r s t f a ll e n army commander. M anstein had c le a r ly

demonstrated on every previous occasion his abundance of talent. And besides.

Hitler was indebt to him for the brilliant French campaign. Perhaps Hitler

Vic'tori'*? „ 205-206; &Blumentritt., Rundstedt „ 106. bBetve^a 16 a&î 20 S o v ie t Divisions were destroyed here. Esposito, Pcir.t Atlas, Map 25 (World War II) | & Erickson, 607-609. '“ St'TtrrTil, 274-276. 7%arell, 272-273. raloberst Ritter von Schobert. B* and his pilot were both killed '"'hhiS'-t'^-roh Kir-r&ft nside a forced landi.ng In a Rysslen minefield. M&nateir, V«rlcrens Siege, 208. ?See above. Chapter V. 73

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. bad taken a liking to this Prussian who refused to be browbeaten. Unlike many

of Hitler's ether generals, Manstein was always able to stand up to the Führer.

Manstein had another characteristic which appealed to Hitler. He was a very

aggressive commander, and even in critics! situations he retained his tenacity.

Shortly before bis death. General Schobert had ordered an attempt to

aelSL'e Perekop Isthmus, the door to the Crimea, by a coup da main, but this

failed. On September 12, S,S. Lelbstandarte Adolf H itler, Eleventh Army's only

motorised formation, was halted at Preobrazhenka by a line of fortifications

and f ie l d w orks.

It took Manstein four days to reach NLkoImyev, the Soviet Naval Base

at the mouth of the Bug, where 11 Arn^ Headquarters was located. On being

promoted, ha had asked that Colonel Trssckow be sent to him as his Chief cf

Staff, but his request was refused on the grounds that Manstein "'did not need

so clever a man.At Nikolayev Manstein met his new staff including Colonel

WBh1er as Chief of Staff and Lieutenant Colonel Busse as Chief of Operations.

These men were later to form the nucleus of Army Group Don Headquarters.

Manstein was not given much time to get acquainted with his new staff.

His orders, although they mentioned both Rostov and the Crimea, seemed to

give priority to the latter. Since 11 Army was not strong enough to pursue

both objectives simultaneously, Manstein ordered Immediate preparations for

the. red u ction o f the Crimea.

Conditions seemed favorable, for the Russians were still recovering

from their defeat at Uman and were devoting more attention to the heavy fighting

^^Lidd“î l Hart,, The German G enerals Ta Ik , 67. ï p., Lest %Tctorle@, 68. '^-‘-'Trftvar-Roper, E lttrk rieg , 89-97.

74

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Kié;/. chia cppvrtur.ity, 11 Army weakened its steppe front which

was advainting in Xtliti'fol. in favor of the proposed Crimean operation.

Within, a veâk of his .ass'jmptlooi of the command, K anstein's 11 Army

the aseaolt co. the Perekop Isthmius. This neck cf land only four miles

wide is the widest of the throe land approaches to the Crimea. This “Russian

aircraft carrier''"'^is separated from the mainland by the Zivmsh (Sivash) of

1-3vy Se.i, an ey.rensive brackish swamp or s a lin e marsh.

'Manstein had wdtridrawn k? Mio^ontain Corps and S«S, Leibstand.artft Adolf

Hitler from his stetpi front la order to have enough troops on hand to over­

run th-.e Crime.® 54 f'-trp?* trcf-e thrrcugh the Perek :p defenses. He was able

to obtain, the .'ird Rf(.an,i.an .Arny to replace th* units withdrawn after having a.

personal talk with Ckr-iral DfultrescUj the commander. The Rumanians were

reluctant to ser'Te further in any active capacity for they had achieved all

of their territorTail aims. Mairnsteln obtained their continued cooperation by

means of re'pe&ted e n tre a tie s to Dumitrescu and Marshal AntO'nescup the head

lof the Rrma.nlan s ta te .

The assault on the Crimea was heIp-up by supply difficulties. When

thtse were giverc.ome, the att,acks started (Sept. 24). The narrow l.st.lanus

eliminated any chan.-.'** of maneuver and Manstein had to fight a set piece battle

a'icrg World War I lines. Trench system after trench system was ass,aulted and

carried ? the caaualltea were heavy but the advance continued. After five

day4 I-f h.erd fighting^ 54 Corps fir;.®lly broke through the Ferekop defenses,

i-af L rt uria t-e ty , the C^ermana were unable to evp-loit their success as the F us si*-''■

quickly fell h,®.ck to * new 'line of positions at the Ishun l^ikes bottleneck.

H itler's refer fin ce to the Crimea. Trevor-Roper» Blitzkrieg, 93, Inst Vdctcrlfif, 205-?il7.

7:>

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Seme prisoTftrs ®nd eqe'fpmerit f e l l into II Army’s hands, but the Russians

retreated in fair order.

Seeking to relieve the pressure on their Crimean forces, the Soviet

Commgni relnfcrced their front opposite 11 Army on the steppe and went ever to

tie offensive on Sept. 26. The Riimanian u n its facing them were h it h ardest,

several being rvctsd. la order to restore the situation,, Manstein counter-*

m,arched the German 49 Mountain Corpus and the Lelbstandarte. But the situatirn

wer.t fr-'m bad to wcrs* as the Soviet atta c k d evelop ed. Unit after unit of

Rumanians panicked.

Two new Soviet Armies were identified, including a dozen rifle divisions.

M'snstein’3 reinfcrcements S'ccceeded in sealing off the Russian penetrations,

but the sit «cat ion re'mained. critical. On September 29, Manstein moved his

tactical headquarters into the danger zone a little behind the front line in

order to prevent any further hasty withdrawls by uneasy Rumanian staffs.

Ihe Soviet Cc-n¥(-.aud succeeded in gaining a temporary respite for their

Crimean armies, but in doing so, they had failed to notice the danger l o o m i n g

on their ncrthern flank. Here General Kleist's First Panzer Group, now freed

from the Kiev encirclem ent t a t t l e s , was forming. On October 1, this greuy

broke out of its bridgeheads at Zaporozhy and Dniepropetrovsk thrusting

towards the Azov seacoast. In the course of this operation, the bulk of the

Eighteenth Soviet Army was destroyed and the Ninth Soviet Army badly mauled

Jn s:n encirclement battle for the. tria n g le Bolshoy lomak-bkirulp o 1"Barc Ivansk .

Smirnov, the Comma nder-in-^Chief of 18 Army, was kill<=^ i

^ •Th,‘ :r"^u.gth o f S c v ie t Armies Is deceptive. Usually sr army wa*i eiuivalerit t?- strength to m German Army Corps. Also, Soviet Rifle divisicr-.s ■ I ierahly small&r than German infantry divisions. Their stn»ogth o-■ .v.lly under 10,000 me.n and freq u en tly dt'opped under 5,000 m^n. f-’w E:.-l 'ks n. 619, 643. 76

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. action en the 6th and by the 10th, Soviet resistance was largely broken.

The encirclftment yielded 65,000 prisoners, over 100 tanks and 500 guns.16

The reshuffling of forces following the battle on the shores of the Sea

Azov allowed Manstein to concentrate on the capture of the Crimea. Although

11 Army was required to give up 49 Mountain Corps and its S.S. division, it no

Icnger had two divergent o b je ctiv e s.

The Supreme Cotnmand -seemed to have re a lis e d th a t no army could simultaneously fight cne operation in the direction cf Rostov and another in the Crimea . . .

Th'*: Rua>.*tnian.s were also removed frcm Manstein’s control, hut subsequently

MArfhal A,n'hcne.«cu allowed 11 Army to take some Rumanian detachments into the

CriiTii^a.

Thi .lets-.-’-iment of 11 Army from the main fro n t of Army Croup South w.as

all to the good ®.s far as Mj-nstein w='.s concerned. It had th«^ effect of

relaxing the. control cf Army Group South, and Manetein was allowed to conduct

his operations in a semi ~ir-dependent m a n n e r . H i t l e r was already *"alking

ab'jut 11 Army crossing the K.-erch Straits and moving into the Caucasus.

Manstein cleverly used this suggestion to gain badly needed reinfocccements.

He received 42 Army Corps Headquarters and the 24th and 132nd Infantry Divisions.

This was a noteworthy achievement, for at this time nearly everything was

being allotted to Army Group Center for the "final'" drive towards M.oscow.

P reparations for the a ss a u lt on the Ishun p o sitio n were not compl?!ted

ivT.til October 17. Much of the delay was caused by Red a irfo rc e and navy

aircr-t.ft which h&d compléta control of the air in the area. Shcrtîy before

are Manstein Lost Victories, 216; & CareII, H.M.E., 283.

pMnni-tei'.-!, Ve-.-lt>Tt.a-. S l e g , 207.

^^Tr.ec'c«r“Rop‘*r , B litz k r ie g , 94;S & M anstein, Ver 1er a ne Sigi??,, 224. 77

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. things had been so bad that anti-aircraft batteries no longer dared to fire.

Anything which revealed its roeitlcn was immediately set upon and wiped out

ty Soviet grcond attack aircraft. Even at night the enemy airplanes bombed

and strafed 11 Army's jump-off positions.

The lull in the fighting in Ishun gave the Soviet High Command time to

transship Petrox;’ ^ Cc.astal Army which had evacuated Odessa on October 16.

This trovp transfer was a minor Dunkirk; considering the difficulties involved

it vèll illustrates Scviet adaptability. In a single night, 70,000 - 80,000 22 men were é'.'acu.sted from Odessa.' Much of th e ir tran sp o rt and hea'rv weap'?'ns

was left behind but the men escaped. After a short rest and refitting at

Se".’ftstopc-l, the te units made their appearance on the Ishun front. However,

they failed 'lo stem the determined Germsn drive.

After a week <-.f extremely bitter fighting, the Fuss fan defense began

to break up. te i n had a g if t for sensing the rig h t moment. Although

his tt'icops were, ne.tr exhaustion, the crucial point in the battle w.a.s at han^.

Smelling victory, he ordered preparations for the final assault and P'ursult .

11 A.rmy had .-'■crlier been deprived of its one mobile division. Put by im-

pr: [sing, a mobile comb.at group was .assembled out of reonnaissa.nce .and

mo>tcrliEe.d se ctio n s. This force w.as ordered to drive through 13 Sîrnfer.opol

.«tnd prevent a Russian withdrawal into the fortress of Seva.stepol, whi ;h tl^ostei-

hoped to seTg.e before its defense could be organized.

^^anstein. Lo-st Victories, 219; & Verlorene Sie.ee, ?28-226, 5ve Eri kso'i, 8u7“8o8 for jf.n estimate cf Soviet air strength, .also 612 & 6^6; f .are 11. 285 . Y.E, Petrov, Comma:nder -in-ChIef, :aist a'i a-;,, . _ the "h:fjjic.% and, Srvaf topol; 1941-1942. t r s l l , 285. 23ca-& ll, H.M . E . ’, 288-289.

78

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. The Soviet 51st Army avoided the German pursuit by retreating under

c:ver cf derkness cn the night of October 27-28. It withdrew south-eastwards

toward the Peninsula. The Coastal Army was less fortunate. The heavy

fighting had resulted in a good deal of confusion. Petrov's link with the

front commaid was severed end he did not receive any orders to retreat.

On the morning cf Oct. 28, the Coastal Army was caught falling back and was

nearly destroyed dvrlag the pursuit. About 8,000 men, mostly from 95 Rifle

Division and Petrov, fought their way through the German encirclement O t attempts Irtu Se'c.aatcpol.

Or. Niov. 5p the 51st Soviet Army’s line across the Kerch Peninsola ^cas

breached by 42 Army Corps and by Nov. 16. all oT the Crimea with the exception

c£ Seo>\ê:st>_ po 1, was In German hands.

The Russians [email protected] lost 100,000 men as prisoners and 2.5,000 de%d cr

missing as w ell rs 700 gune and 160 tanks.T his was over 50% )f their

estimated .200,000 men (12 R ifle Dlvisloria and 4 Cavalry D ivisions).

Sevastopol repulsed the. initial German attacks and Manstein temporar:ly

contented himself with sealing off the fortress, since his forces were too

weak to carry it by storm. Supply difficulties he Id-up prep.arat ioris through

November and into December. Winter had come to Russia and the long supply

lines were now laboring under the added strain of ice and snow.

A further delay in the attack on was caused when Army Group

South was checked and then forced to withdraw from Rostov. I n this crisis,

Manets in was ordered to* hand over 170 and 73 Infantry Divisions to Army Gr_ .,p

Sc ; th. This deprived the forthcoming assault of its reserve element.

^^A Sc.-'let fro n t is equivalent to a German Armv Group. Z^Erickaon, 646. : e * ^ V.-rlr re ne Siege , 231.

79

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Manst«in protested the remc-'val of these troops at such a crucial time and suc­

ceeded In retaining the I70th Division. Even so, when the assault started on

Decemher 17, It was undermanned. The key Soviet position. Fort Stalin, com-

marding Severnaya Bay, withstood all the German attacks.

Meratein had ruthlessly denuded the Crimea of covering forces in order

to continue the assault on Sevastopol. By the end of December, the entire 11

Army with the exception of one German division and two Rumanian brigades, were

in line facing the beleaguered fortress.

Taking advantage of the German position, the Soviet High Command began

landing unit* of the 51st Army around Kerch on Christmas might. The success

of the Russian landings was lim ited by 46 In fan try D ivision a t Ke.rch. However,

the Germans were too weak to elim inate the Russian beachheads.

Manstein knew that the landings were designed to relieve the growing

pressure on Sevastopol. He ordered General Count Sponeck,^'^ Cottftrander of

42 Corps, to hang on as best he could until help arrived. Manstein. felt that

Sevastcp.'Ol was at the ead c f i t s te th e r; one more determined a ssau lt would

finish th* job. Therefore he decided to risk one last major attack on

Sevastopol. It was launched on Dec. 28, but Manstein had underestimated hî.a

^^Speneck, Count Hans von, Genera 1 der Infanterie « Commander-in-Chief of the 22nd German Airborne D ivision in the N etherlands 1940. Awarded the Knights C'Tf ss for his leadership there. Court-martialed and sentenced to death on Hitler's orders in 1942 as a result of his retreat from Kerch. On tfenstein's intervention the seritence was commuted to 7 years fortress detention. Killed in July 1944 after the attempt on Hitler's life. Was one of the first to disobey an order and retreat in order to save his conurtand frvm extinction. Not only did he defy Manstein.*s direct order, hut also Hitler's 's'd' on* î-tep hank"' crd^sr. His case is only one of many In the w inter c^îsAii of 1941. Compare M aasteir, V erlurene S iege, 243 following ; C areII, 29.2 fbllêwi.rg- & Wm. L, Shlrer, Th^ Rise and Fall o_f the Thlr3_ Reich. N>w Y.rk: Simo- & v.viuster, 1960, 1133, 1160.

80

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. opponent. The were at I* 13 r^InfzTce their garrison frcm the sea and

the Cerr.?.r: track was checked je s t sh' r t c f the commanding heights - f Fort

S talir.^® Tc make things were*, more Boissian landings had taken f lace, this

time at T>^c-'i:

Scviet High '"cmiaand was making % dttermined effort to regain the Crimea.

I t was sc'tTi clear to Ham^tein that he was dealing with more than *

di-»/ersionary effort. The sise of the Raaalan Invasion was indicated by the

number of enemy formation* already Identified. This threat could no longer

be ignored. The nature of the operation was confirmed when Soviet wireless

propaganda ®nrvou'r'o".eJ that Stalin himself would be directing the offensive to

retake t he Cr dm#a.

If K-ansteln was guilty of underestimating Russian tenacity, his oçror^eot:

were not above mak.!.r.g a similar mistak*. The 11 Army was in a highly ewtsrr»»sa

i:-,g petition when the landings b eg an , and Manstein bad taken further risks so

that h'=* oo';ld m«ke cue more effV-rt at Sevastopol. This delay*! his cunrter-

me.«.sures, gi'.'ing the Russians time to establish a firm hold crt Feodosiya.

General Count Sponeok, the commander of the troops a t Kerch, was

threetenued with being cut-off and annihilated. But Manstein c-ategcrically

refused to allow Sponeck to withdraw from Kerch. He knew th a t as long as

that port reraaiïïà-l In German hands, the Russian* would be unable to achieve

any rapid build-up o f their forces in the peninsula across the short trans-

Caucasus route.

a side light on the op nratl‘ViS a t 'Sevastopol, it may h^ cf < or,' inbsre St fort'h* reader to know that the man who led the attacks in Fcrt Stalin and who later captured th a t ftr'Vng point was c-olcnel von ry.o i f ï , '■• '-wn®'..ter -*■' -'"-ie f 16 R egt. 2 TnJ D ivision : later General der. Infant t r ie. ^.i%f 84th v'oocps & M llita ry Commandant cf P a ris , 194u. ^^Ertokion. 658.

81

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Sponeck was of a different mind. He could not see what purpose would

be served by letting his troops be sacrificed. Being closer to the situation,

he felt duty bound to use his own judgment. He announced his intention of

breaking out westwards, dismantled his wireless communications station, and

began to move back towards the German lines west of Feodosiya. In the process,

Sponeck*3 troops were forced to abandon most of their heavy equipment. None­

theless, Sponeck succeeded in preserving his command intact even though it bad

to march and fight during a retreat in extremely harsh weather conditions.

The Sponeck incident is significant for several reasons. Manstein

h im self had reacted in a lik e manner as commander o f 56 Panzer Corps when h is

corps was cut off near Leningrad early in the campaign. It is true that the

circumstances were quite different, but s till he had made the same decision

as Sponeck, only under more agreeable circumstances. One can only wonder what

effect, if any, this affair had later on Faulus at Stalingrad.^®

When Manstein realized that his efforts at Sevastopol were not getting

anywhere, he broke off the attack and made immediate preparations to deal with

the growing threat to his rear and communications. The 46th Division, ad hoc

German formations and Rumanian units had succeeded in sealing off the Kerch

Peninsula. By the middle of January 1942, this force was reinforced by the

30th Corps Headquarters and two German in fa n try d iv is io n s , which had been

withdrawn from Sevastopol. Thereupon, Manstein counter-attacked. Fighting

with the courage of desperation, the German spoiling attack regained Feodosiya,

pushing the Russians back a ll along the line. But due to their weary conditions

the attack had to be broken off before it achieved any major success.

In the lull which followed this check, the Soviet High Command rebuilt

its forces in the Kerch Peninsula. Stalin had not yet given up hope of

3®Sse Gdrlitz, Paulus. 213-215. 82

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. smashing the 11 Army and regaining the Crimean mainland. On March 13, the

Russians began their breakout attempt. The main weight of their attack was

in 46 Division's sector. Using typical Russian mass tactics, the Soviet

Command carried out from ten to twenty-two attacks during the first three days 31 of the offensive in 46 Divlsioriis sector alone. By March 18, the situation

was so critical that any new Russian effort was bound to succeed. Manstein had

no alternative but to commit his newly arrived reinforcement, the green 22

Panzer Division. This was the first time that the Germans used tanks in the

C rim ea.T he count&r-attack of 22 Panzer Division failed to achieve its

objective I it ran straight into a Russian assembly area. Although it failed,

the situation was restored to the extent that further Russian efforts had no

effect. The appearance of armor on the German side gave the Soviets a

severs shock.

The Russians made a final effort to regain the Crimea early in April.

After two days of heavy fighting, they were repulsed. This defeat marked the

end of the Soviet winter offensive in the Crimea. "Operation Stalin" ground

to a disappointing halt.

The German attack on the Soviet Union had not met with the envisioned

success which had been outlined In . The Soviet winter

offensive demonstrated that in spite of the severe beatings it had suffered,

the Red Army was fa r from d e fe a te d . Indeed, the Wehrmacht had su ffered a good deal

at the hands of the Russians, so much so that in 1942 it could not hope to

carry out op eration s on th e same s c a le as i t had the p revious summer. The

^iManstein, Lost Victories. 229. Assault guns had been used to a limited extent earlier; 11 Army had one battalion of them.

83

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Germans decided therefore that the major offensive effort in 1942 would be

made in the south. This offensive aimed at seizing the area west of the

Including the Caucasus region, Russia's main oil supply.T he objectives of

this offensive were entirely economic, or nearly so. It was argued by some

army generals that to pursue economic gains was a mistake until the Red Army

was truly defeated, but as usual Hitler brushed these remarks aside. 35 His generals did not understand politics, let alone economics.

The German plan in 1942 called for a series of minor offensive opera­

tions which would precede the major summer offensive. The conquest of the

Crimea was first on the list, and 11 Army was subsequently reinforced, Manstein

received besides the already mentioned 22 Panzer Division, 28 light or Pursuit

Division, two new Rumanian divisions of fairly good quality, a great deal of

heavy artillery and special weapons, and finally the 8 Air Corps of General

von R ich th ofen .T h is was the strongest offensive Air Corps Germany possessed

at the t ime.

Manstein visited Hitler in April, before the spring campaign opened, to

discuss the operation in the Crimea. Contrary to expectations Manstein was

allowed a comparatively free hand in both planning and execution.

^Hitler]] agreed to our intentions without hesitation when I Q^nstein] went to see him . . . and had doubtless done everything to make our success at Sevastopol possible.

Manstein decided to deal first with the Russian position at Kerch.

This point was easier to reinforce than Sevastopol and was therefore the more

^%revcr-Roper, Blitzkrieg, 116-121. ^ ^ a . I: m *■ I mi ji w æM .o ' ;^^€lark, Barbarossa. 187-188. ^^Compmre Clark, Barbarossa, 188-189; B. H. Liddell Hart, ed. The Red Army. New Yorkî Harc©urt, Brace & Co., 1956, 139; Bullock, Hitler. 666-6t)7; Bbinstein, Lost V ictories. 276-280; & Liddell Hart, The German Generals T a Ik, 1?4. ^ Richthofen, later Field Marshal Wolfram Freiherr von, Covimander of 8 Air C'ros, France, 1940; Russia, 1941-1942; 2 Air Fleet, Italy, 1942. Manft^ln cO'Sssiderfed Richthofen Germany's "most outstanding Luftwaffe leader.’’ Manstein, Lost Victories, 235; Verlorene Siege. 258. ^^^MÏâsriin, Lost victories. 238. ^^Manstein, Lost Victories, 274; Verlorene Siege. 304-5.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. dangerous of the two fronts. Once again Manstein denuded the Crimean Coast of

its defensive troops to secure the necessary strength required for the coming

o f f e n s iv e .

The attack (code named ‘Operation Bustard’) was to take place along the

southern part of the front where the Soviet defenses were weakest. It Jumped

off on May 8, making fair progress. On May 10, a change in the weather slowed

the German advance, but the next day the skies having cleared, the attack

regained i t s momentum. The port c i t y o f Kerch soon f e l l to a German m otorized

column.M opping-up operations followed and by May 18, all organized resist­

ance had ceased. The booty amounted to 170,000 prisoners, 1,133 guns and 258

tanks

On May 12, shortly after "Operation Bustard" started, the Soviet spring

offensive opened in the Ukraine. This event had little effect on operations

in the Crimea, but Manstein was forced to give up 22 Panzer Division as soon

as operations at Kerch were completed. For a time, it looked to Manstein as

if the attack on Sevastopol would have to be postponed temporarily, but: this

did not happen.

Early in June, 1942, Sevastopol was "the strongest fortress in the

w orld .F ortification s had been constantly improved since the initial invest­

ment in Nov., 1941. The strength of the defending Coastal Army, according to

Soviet sources, before the German offensive, was 106,000 menManstein had

about 200,000 men in the Crimea, thus his paper strength was about twice

39por an a c c o u n t of the battle from the Russian side, see Alexander Werth's R u ssia a t War 1941-1945. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., 1964, 388-389. Here­ after ctbsd as; Werth, Russia at War. ^^MLanstein, Lost V ic t o r ie s , 238. 4ïCarell, 476. ^^Werth, R ussia a t War, 398.

85

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. great as that of the Soviet Coastal Army. However, since II Army was responsible

for holding the entire Crimean Peninsula, Manstetn's strength on the Sevastopol

front must have been well under the 200,000 figure. Manstein claimed that his

available numerical strength at Sevastopol was never more than equal to the

Russians.In his favor, he had the 8th Air Corps and the strongest concent­

ration of artillery which Germany ever assembled during the warOne further

factor which enabled the Germans to continue the costly reduction of this fort­

ress was that Manstein could replace worn down units with troops doing duty

elsewhere in the Crimea. He could thus continue to feed fresh troops Into the

a tta c k .

That 11 Army did not enjoy complete air superiority at the outset of

the assault was painfully brought home to Manstein. He and his entourage

were cruising along the southern coast of the Crimea when the Italian E-boat

in which they were riding was strafed by two Russian fighters from Sevastopol.

Several people were killed outright including Captain von Wedel, who was

sitting next to Manstein. Fritz Nagel, Manstein's driver and companion since

1938, was mortally wounded when a shell fragment shattered his thigh. He died

later from loss of blood. Lieutenant Specht, Manstein’s aide, dove overboard

and swam to shore where he hailed a passing truck (he was stark naked) which

he commandeered. He raced back to Yalta, obtained another boat and hurried

back to rescue his general.

This was probably the closest Manstein ever came to being killed during

the war. But the most unsettling thing for Manstein was the death of Fritz Nagel.

n. Lost Victories, 243. so, Werth gives the strength of the Soviet artillery as 606 guns, compared with 708 German guns. Werth, Russia at War, 398.

86

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Mjtnstein personally accompanied his friend to the nearest hospital where he

was informed that Nagel was beyond help. This was the tragic end of Manstetn's

attempt to see for himself j’Jist how vulnerable the southern end of his line

would be to naval bombardment. Ironically, the Soviet Black Sea Fleet dared

not intervene; their respect for the Luftwaffe prevented them from interfering.

On, June, 7, the artillery barrage on Sevastopol grew to a new intensity

just prior to the infantry assault. Throughout the first half of June, the

infantry ground forward yard by yard in the bitterest kind of fighting. On two

other occasions the fighting reached this pitch, at Stalingrad and Berlin.

Soviet strong points and trench lines were held to the last round and the last

man. On June 13, Fort Stalin passed into the hands of 22 Division's 16 In­

fantry Regiment. Observed artillery fire could now be directed on any part of

the Soviet position. By suddenly shifting the focal point of the attacks

the advance continued and by June 26, the outer belt of Sevastopol's defenses

was in German hands. But complete success still loomed just out of reach.

Manstein was worried that the inner barrier might prove his undoing. The

infantry units had suffered terribly during the advance thus far, and

was now pressing for the early release of 8 Air Corps for the Ukrainian front.

What Manstein needed was a quick and relatively bloodless way to break the

remaining Soviet defenses.

Manstein, never a man to shrink from accepting risks, decided to try

the least likely line of approach, an amphibious assault across Severnaya Bay

and up the cliffs on the opposite shore. If it succeeded, the Zapun line ecuId

be taken from the flank and rear. Many of the members of 11 Army Staff thought

the plan too risky, bat Manstein was adamant.

87

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. On the night of >jne 28-29, preparations were completed and at dawn 22

and 24 Infantry Divisions launched their first wave cf assault boats. The

Russians were taken unawares. This attack was accompanied by a frontal assault

on th* Zapun position which succeeded, in the ensuing confusion, in penetrating

and overrannlTig part of the Soviet line on a narrow front. From this point

there could be no doubt as to the outcome cf the battle, but urged on by

their officers and commis gars, the Russian soldiers continued to resist

fanatically. Manstein ordered his massed artillery to bombard Sevastopol

in order to sa’i/e his .army frcm suffering further heavy losses in house-to-house

fighting. In his own words;

Oar headquarters would have been neglectful of its duty to the soldiers of Eleventh Army had it failed to take account of this possibility. A battle within the city would cause more heavy losses to the attacker. In order to obviate them we directed the artillery and 8 Air Corps to go into action once more before the divisions resumed their assault. The enemy was to be shown th a t he could not expect to extract a fu r­ ther toll of blood from us in house-to-house fighting.^^

On July 3, resistance in Sevastopol ended and the following day the

survivors c f the 230 day siege emerged from Cape Chersonese to surrender to-

tne. Germans. The Red Army and Navy command eluded capture, being rescued by

pla.ve and submarine. Eut. the unfortunate m ajority, 90.000 strong, marched

into captivity.

Hitler was overjoyed with the news of the capture of the fc-rtre-ss.

Sc'EBew’hat prematurely, on July 1, he promoted Manstein to the rank of Field

^^Manstein. Lpgt Victories, 257; & Verlorene Siege, 281. Adolf Hitler,, Hitler °a Secret Conversât ions 1941-1941. edited by M artin Bormann, New York: Signet books, 1961, 511.

88

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Marshal in recognition o f his achievement. The Führer also ordered that a

special victory shield, the Crimean shield, be created and worn by all ranks

who had participated in the campaign. In a more materialistic gesture. Hitler

rewarded K.anstein with one c f the former tsarist palaces near Yalta Mansteir

took obvious pride in the f#.ct chat he had earned his field m arshal’s baton

by ^orducting at successful campaign and also capturing a fortress. This was

a rot cco subtle w»y cf criticising Keitel, Goring and certain other per­

sonages for their desk promotions.^®

A fter the f a l l cf Sevastopol, 11 Army was given a few weeks in which

to rest and refit. Meanwhile, preparations were made for the planned cross-

iftg of the straits at Kerch in conjunction with the advance of Army Group A

into the Cau-casus. Harsteln utilised this rest period to visit his wife

In Rumania. Here he also had several conversations with Marshall Artcnescu,

the Rumanian dictator, Cc'Ic;'',el Busse, II Army's Chief cf Operations, kept

Manstein posted on developments in the Crimea,

When Manstein returned to duty otu August 12, he was surprised to find

that hitler had scrapped the Kerch crossing. Instead, 11 Army was to be divided

up and sent on various minor operations. Headquarters 42 Corps, including

46 Infantry Division and several Rumanian units, was detailed to carry out

the Kerch crossing on a reduced scale. One Division (the 50th) was lef^

in the Crimea. The 22nd D ivision was converted back to its former statu s as

an mirbcrne unit and sent to garrison the island of Crete in the MeditetT'anean.

Even tfough this was "one of our best formations," it was to remain idle for

: he rest of th* war in a minor theater O'f operations.

f'^Werth, Russia a t War,, 599. Clark , Barbarossa, 124; & Marstein, Lcst Vic'•.tries, 150. Tre":.'cr-Roper. Blitzk rieg . 122 follcwl r>.g, -"-'Marste in, Lt st yjetcjriea , 260.

89

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. The rerrainde.r of 11 Army was to rocve north to Leningrad where It would

undertake the capture of that city. Shortly after the move north began, 72nd

Division was diverted to Army Group Center where a local crisis occurred.

?y the time Manstein reached his destination, his forces had shrunk tc four

divisicns plus the siege train. In this manner, 11 Army's actual strength

was redcoed to trat of a reinforced Infantry Corps.

0 : his way north, Manstein stopped at Vinnitsa for conversations witn

Hitler and Holder. Haider agreed with Manstein that Germany could ill afford

a side shew at : tgra J Ir ad d itio n to her other heavy uoramitments. hut:

when Ma:~i.stein asked If Ftslier thought it would be possible to dispense entire Iv

with 11 Army in the acuth. halier replied that 'he Manstein implies

in his memoirs thi«t ev.^n pt this early date he iuresaw the imptendidisaster

or the S'vUthern wt:-,.g cut was unable to c-c-nvvnue balder, mu : h less Hi 11 c v L f

what be antiuipatei. It i a quite true that if II Army bad rema I red in •'■'M-.er'-n

cn the southern front it raigh*- have p«revented the disaster sc Staliogcad. But

thi# is tnO'St likely another a.ig'-y-have-oeen. Manstein does r ... t. seem tc ha* o

put up much o f a fight for the. planned Kerch Operation. On the contrary, what

most ir r ita te d him was the dismemberment of his A r m y . This oO'uld only result

in lessening his influen.e ! How much this entered into his thought is hard

to judge, but behind bis high-minded premonitions somewhere lay Manstein's

pride ; prestige, and ambitiou.

While at Vinnitsa Manstein duly noted the very bad relations of Hitler

with his Chief of Staff, Haider clashed rereatedlv with Hitler, who refused

holder's Diary, VII, 374 {August 14, 154?). & Mansteir lest Vici ries

M&r.jt",in, lost V ictories , 2 6 )

90

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. to credit his remarks. It was obvious that this situation could not endure

much longer. At one point during a situation conference Hitler's recriminations

so provoked Haider that the latter, losing his temper, bitterly contradicted

his Ffihrer.^5

Hitler's reply was an insulting tirade. Manstein, with his Prussian

serse of dignity, removed himself from the map table and refused to return

until Hitler regained his composure. To Manstein, Hitler's behavior was rude

in the extreme and completely uncalled for. He let Hitler know via his aide.

General Schmundt, that if he could not get along with Haider, he must seek

a more agreeable replacement.^^

On August 27s 11 Army relieved 18 Army of the three sectors of front in

the immediate vicinity of Leningrad. The 18 Army continued to control the

VolkhC'V front. Beff're Manstein was able to amass the necessary ammunition

and supplies for the attack on Leningrad, the Red Army struck hard on the

VoIkhov.

Hitler personally called Manstein on Sept. 4, ordering him to restore

the sltuaticn in 18 Army's sector by counterattacking. The Führer's meddling

created » certain amount of friction between the two army headquarters but

Manstein, with his characteristic energy, soon smoothed over these difficulties.

The S o v iet a tta ck s had created a s a lie n t e ig h t m iles deep and about

five miles wide at it# base near Gaitolov. The enemy successes were soon

brought to a halt as Manstein shifted four fresh divisions from the Leningrad

front to counter the threat. Then in an almost classic manner he counter­

attacked, cutting off the Russian at its base. In order to av._ id

Ider *s Diary, VII, 382 (August 24, 1942), & Manstein, Lost Victories :l-2 6 2 teir.. Lost Victories , 262.

91

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. heavy casualties in reducing the pocket by forest fighting, at which the Russians

excelled, Manstein made extensive use of his heavy artillery.The en circle d

Russians were subjected to intensive bombardment and by Oct. 2, the survivors

in the pocket capitulated. Twelve thousand men survived the shelling to sur­

render to the Germans. These were only a fraction of the casualties inflicted,

for the Soviet command, not expecting such heavy artillery in the rugged terrain,

had not made adequate preparations. As a result, their casualties were very

heavy. Manstein's forces also suffered; Haider's diary describes the fighting

as "stubborn" and "slowly gaining g r o u n d . "56

If the Soviet attacks were costly to the Russians, they nevertheless

succeeded in delaying Manstein's projected assault on Leningrad, which, in

the end, never materialized. Manstein's forces remained tied down restoring

local crises.

The October days passed quickly. On Oct. 24, Manstein flew to Hitler's

headquarters to receive formally his field marshal's baton. Hitler was in a

good mood, presumably Haider's disappearance from the scene had refreshed

Hitler temporarily.^^ Manstein, sensing Hitler's affability pressed Hitler

to reconsider his decision to create twenty-two Luftwaffe Field Divisions.^®

Hitler listened to Manstein's arguments politely enough but remained uncon­

vinced. He explained to Manstein that he had already given CHring his decision

and could not go back on h is word now.

S^The extensive use Manstein made of his artillery may also be an in­ dication of the declining caliber of German Infantry on the eastern front. 56Halder*s Diary. VII, see entries for Sept. 1942, northern sector, 387-397. 57Halder was dismissed on Sept. 24, 1942. 58Luftwaffe Field Divisions were Infantry divisions manned by air force personnel. Because of their lack of training they were usually indifferent in quality unlike air force paratroop units which, in contrast, were excellent tr o o p s . 92

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Hitler then changed the subject. The Leningrad assault was to be dropped

and Instead 11 Army was to move to the vicinity of where the Russians

were preparing an o ffe n s iv e . The 11 Army was to counter th is o ffe n s iv e when

it came. Meanwhile, Manstein must prepare himself for a new role. Hitler

was co n sid erin g him as s. rep 1? ■ emer.t for F ield Marshal L is t, the commander of

Army Group A. 59 Hitler had removed the latter when his troops were unable t c

continue the advance in the Caucasus and assumed personal command of Army Group

A temporarily. At the end cf the talks, Manstein returned to 11 Army and

ordered the necessary p rep aration s for the move to Army Group Center.

On O ct. 29p Manstein was Informed that his eldest son, Gero, had been

killed in action. Quite raturally this was a great shock. Perhaps for a

moment his iron-hard Prussian self-discipline slipped. The last time he had

seen his son alive was only eleven days before when his friend Busch (the

Commander-in-Ghief 16 Army) had arranged a fa th er and son g e t-to g e th e r combining

business and p le a su r e . The blow came ju st a few days after Manstein"s aide

"Pepo" Specht had been killed in a plane crash. Badly shaken, Manstein took

a short leave after the funeral to be with his wife. Frau Manstein was deeply

upset by this loss. She had lost her favorite brother in Belgium in 1940 and

now her eldest son.

Manstein did what he could to console his wife. Begin devout Christians

they took comfort in their religion. Manstein’s epitaph for his son describes

him as a young aristocrat, a soldier, a gentleman and a Christian.GO

^^Listj, Field Marshal Sigmund Wilhelm. Principal commands 14 Army. Polaad 1939, 12 Army, France 1940, & Balkans 1942, Army Group A, Russia, 194/. GOMÿ.nstein, LciSt V ic to r ie s , 271.

93

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. The 11 Army headquarters had moved to V itebsk w h ile M anstein was in

Germany with his wife. A few days after his return, Manstein was informed

on Nov. 20 that his headquarters was to move south to take control of the

front on both sides of Stalingrad. His new headquarters designation would

be Artnv Groan Deo. He waa to restore another critical situation.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Chapter VII

Army Group South (Don)--The Tide Turns

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. During Manstein's tenure as Commander of Army Group South (Don) the

German Armies in Russia gradually relinquished the initiative to the enemy.

Manstein's rcle as Commander of Army Group South is divided into four distinct

periods; the attempt to relieve Stalingrad, the extraction of Army Group A

from the Caucasus, "Operation Citadel'*, and the series of defensive battles

following Citadel in which Army Group South was pushed back into the western

Ukraine. Much has been written about the Stalingrad phase, but the other

periods, especially the post-Citadel period, have been largely ignored by

western historians. The obvious reason for this neglect is that after 1943,

it was only a matter of time until the Red Army ground down the Wehrmacht

and overran eastern Europe.

During the entire period from November 20, 1942, to April 2, 1944, for

sixteen long months, Manstein demonstrated his considerable military talents.

His personal life, formerly often cheerful, now almost ceased to exist. The

mental and physical strain was almost over«powering and seldom slackened.^

Manstein's numerous responsibilities precluded his visiting the front, with any

regularity. He sorely missed this close contact with the combat soldiers

which he had enjoyed b efo re in the Crimea and as a corps commander.

Another feature of IWnsteln's new duties was the change in his relations

with Hitler. Formerly the Führer had treated Manstein well. In his presence

Hitler had always acted correctly with the single exception of the scene with

Haider in the summer of 1942. Up to Manstein's dismissal, his relations with

Hitler were polite, never friendly, but polite. Nevertheless, as time wore on,

their disagreements became more pronounced. S till, Hitler remained rational

^Ihis is graphically Illustrated by two photographs of Manstein; one In f'aul'js* biography (opposite 145) shows Manstein in early 1943. He looks very tired and Icw&cast. The other picture in Verlorene Siege (opposite 48) shows Manstein after his dismissal In 1944. He looks much more alert in the latter, having evidently regained his vigor. 95

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. in Manstein's presence and only on one occasion did he personally insult this

sober-minded Field Marshal. On this occasion Manstein endured his derogatory

remarks in silence and then returned to the business at h a n d . 2

One matter which influenced Hitler's relationship with Manstein possibly

more than anything else was Manstein's demand that there be a change in the

structure of the German High Command. This was an old complaint of Manstein's

which he had first mentioned to Hitler after the Blomberg-Fritsch scandal in

1938.^ Since he was mcved from his post as 0. Qu. I shortly thereafter, he did

nrt have an opportunity to press this point upon the dictator until the winter

of 1940* when he again saw Hitler. But at that time, other things seemed more

important. Manstein then put forward his plan for the destruction of France.

Since 1940, his visits with Hitler had been few, and in view of Germany's

success, Manstein did not think it opportune to press Hitler for a more

efficient and rational command structure. But as Germany's situation deterior­

ated, Manstein became bolder. It would be superfluous to say that Manstein's

task was an easy one, and even worse, to minimize the personal risk which he

ran in suggesting his scheme to Hitler. This in itself speaks for the courage

o f the man.

What Manstein proposed was that Hitler hand over the 0 »K,W. and O.K.H»

positions he held to someone else. Of course Manstein was not foolish enough

to ask Hitler to resign; no dictator would relinquish control of his armed

forces of his own choosing. Manstein made the p ill more palatable. At O.F.W.

he Suggested Hitler ap*polnt a real Chief of Staff to replace the rubber-stamp

^Manstein, Lc^st Vic to ries, 285; & Ver lore ne Siege, 316, ^K»iit*lj, Memoirs, 52.

97

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Keitels and for O.K.H. „ #. man to comme cd the eastern front. Hitler would

keep h is t i t l e s and ^ jure c o n tr o l, but th ese two p o s itio n s would be f i l l e d

by men with the ^ facto authority relegated to them by Hitler.^ In this manner.

Hitler would suffer no loss of prestige, so vital to him, nor would he be over­

shadowed by his appointées j, for he would s till, for appearance ' s sake, be the

nominaI coramarder-in-ch1e f ,

Unfcxtunateiy Hitl-^r, who viewed himself as something of a German Napoleon,

thought rather differently. To- Hitler, Manstein appeared as a very talented

soldier, although ^'S'-mewb_at ex:easively ambitious. Indeed, the Führer may

have quite agreed with Hassell that Manstein, like the majority of the field

marshals, was out to make his career, ’“'in the lowest s e n s e . one occasion,

when Manstein pressed Hitler particularly hard to accept his proposal. Hitler

retorted: '"Appoint a CcmtrLsnder-in-Chief . . . What would be the use? Even I

caanot get the field marshals tf,» obey me!'’^

Hanstein‘'s suggestion was plainly not acceptable. Yet Hitler remained

c>n good terms with hi;:.i s—.h once, surprisingly enough, nearly accepted his

proposal. After the debacle at Stalingrad, Hitler recalled Guderian to service

and gave M anstein a r e la t iv e ly fr e e hand in the Ukraine.® But the tem ptations

of military glory soon over-rode this inclination, supported no doubt by Himmler,

^See Manstein, Verlorene Siege « 316-318; & Lost Victories » 286-288. Joseph Gc'ébbels, The Goebbels Diaries. New York; Eagle Books, 1968, 537. Hereafter cited as: Goebbels Diaries. ®Ulricb, von Hassell, The Vcp Hassell Diaries, 309, quoted in Wheeler- Bennett, 373. "^Clark, Earbaross.g, 1. ®Man.stein®s Army Group ben was rec h risten ed Army Group South on le t . 1? , 1943; Array Grorp was dissolved and divided up between Army Groups Cer'-•“r and Scrth at th,;Ls time. Grderi*n was recalled to service on March I, 196 3 a.5 Inspector Gereral of troops. See Clark, Barb&rossa, 292-296; & M&nstein, Lost Victories„ 406-413; Verlorene Siege, 437-444.

98

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CîJrisig and H it le r 's party c r o n ie s. S im ila rly M anstein vas handicapped when­

ever he broached this subject to Hitler. Hitler know that Manstein would be

the. most likely candidate for the new positions he had suggested, and the

Führer used this successfully to Manste in's disadvantage. Ironically, Keitel

made a similar proposal to Hitler:

I myself, [jCeitel^] advised Hitler three times to replace me with von Manstein; the first time was in the autumn of 1939, before our campaign in the vest; the second was in , when Brauchitsch went; and the third time was in September 1942 when his big quarrel with Jcdl and myself flared up. But despite his frequently expressed admi­ ration for Manstein's outstanding talents. Hitler obviously feared to take such a step and each time he turned i t down; was i t sure Indolence on his part or some other unvoiced objection he had to him/ I have no idea.9

Perhaps Hitler feared Mansiein's influence at the top would someday over-shadow

h is own, or maybe Himmler and Güring, fea rin g for th e ir "empires" were able to

influence Hitler.

The tragedy of Stalingrad is well-known. In the early morning of

November 19, 1942, R ussian fo rces fa cin g the Rumanian Third Army on the Don

northwest o f Sts lingr.ad, surged forward a g a in st the th in Rumanian lin e . The

Rumanians held on until noon in spite of an almost total lack of heavy weapons

and anti-tank guns. But by 2:00 P.M. they were overrun and strong Soviet tank

columns were surging south and west deep into the German rear. The next day

a second Soviet attack routed the Fourth Rumanian Army south of Stalingrad

and drove west. A glance at the map clearly illustrates that the Soviets,

mimicing Ge:rman double-envelopment tactics, were about to complete their first

and most s u c c e s s fu l o ffe n s iv e o f the war. On the 22nd the two arms o f the

pincers closed at Kalach on Don and the German Sixth Army was encircled In the

Russian n>.t.

9k> • i , Merr.c ir.s , 53 .

99

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. The Germans were q u ite aware o f the S oviet in te n tio n s and p reparations

weeks before the trap was sprung, but Hitler, primarily for reasons of prestige,

refused to sanction any adequate counter-measures. As a result the Russian

plan ran like clock-work in its initial phases, successfully entombing the

Sixth Army. Hitler refused to grant Paulus "operational freedom", i.e. per­

mission to withdraw or break out from the outset and steadfastly refused to

budge from h;F.s in itial order.

There exists today a continuing controversy ever who is to blame for

the disaster. Much of what has been written since the events only series to

cloud the isPue, shedding more h<>at than light. Hitler naturally must share

the. greatest burden of blame, but since the war^ nearly everyone associated

with the de.feat has been accused of being partly responsible, Gdrlngp who

gave Hitler a ridleclous guarantee that the Luftwaffe could supply Sixth

Army by air, certainly contributed his share to the final outcome «s did

P.aul"j.Sg who has achieved igromir.ious fame in defeat.

Much of the post-war back-biting is the result of attempts by the

anti-NaKi conspirators to enlist the front commanders in a coup against Hitler

at this critical juncture, Kluge, Paulus and Manstein, so the story goes,

were to lead their armies back to Germany, seize Hitler, and make peace,

This suggestion, quite rightly, was considered impossible by those to whom

it was suggested. Nevertheless, it has been used since the war to blacken

the reputations of those involved.

Technical problems precluded Manstein’s taking command of his army

group until November 27, His orders read : "recapture the positions formerly

^^Roger M spveil & H einrich F raen k el, The Men Who Tried, to KI11 H itler, Nev Y:;'"k S Cardinal Pocket Books, 1964 , 34, Goerlitz, Paulus , 69-73; & Me.n.s^.e i r o L t Vic tcries . 287-8,

100

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. held by This was wishful thinking cn Hitler's part. Manstein began

by scraping together the shattered remnants of his new command. Sixth Army

was surrounded in Stalingrad and under the watchful eye of Hitler's personal

representative. General ScWidt. Both Rumanian Armies had largely disinte­

grated in the in it ia l attacks. This le ft Manstein with Hoth'a Fourth P*n?er

Army, m mass of fugitives, and whatever reinforcements he could wring from

H itler to "restore** the situ ation .

Initially Manstein hoped to launch two relief attacks towards Stalingrad,

but the heavy pressure exerted by the Russians on the Chlr front ruined anv

chance Group Hollidt (remnants of the Third Rumanian Army plus several German

Divisions) had for going over to the offensive. Bad weather and late arrival

of reinforcements slowed the start of the other relief column (Fourth Fanxer

Army). It started out from Kot&lnlkovo on December 12.

The "rats war''" cantinued in the Stalingrad pocket. GWring's promised

airlift never really got off the ground. The beleaguered Sixth Army needed

between 550 and 600 tons of supplies dally to fight effectiv ely ; the roost

tonnage flown=in in one day by the Luftwaffe never approached th ls.13 On

their biggest day, December 19, only 289 tons of supplies reached the pocket.

The situation remained grim. Roth's Fourth Panzer Army advanced slowly;

it took an extraordiKsry effort to hold the rest of Array Group Don’s front.

^_^E«po3itc, West Poiint A tla s, Map 34, (World War II). Genera. Ima j or Art hur Schmidt, a mm a who remained loyal to H itler tc the end. Paulus' Chief of Staff, he^ succeeded in getting sentenced to 25 years forced labor as a war criminal later on. Kuxt Zeitsler's article In The Fatal Decisions. (Freiden & Richardso'ci. Ed.), New Yexks Berkley Medalion Books, 1956, 161-163. Here­ after cited as; The Fatal Decisions. Also IWnsteln, Lost Vietor.ies, 309, '1 318. 357-358: & Care11, K.M.E., 591. lA ccerlitz, Patjlus « 282.

101

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Manstein. Kad to contend not only with the Russians and the weather, but also

with Hitler. In an acidly bitter report to Hitler he summed up his criticism

by saying:

Ref. 5. In the :urrent situ ation , I do not welcome the placing of ancthsr Array Gro jp under my command. Qianstein desperately needed relntc rcéme.nts which Kl«lst (Army Group A) could best provide, but was unwilling to give.J Nevertheless I think It must be done, though I must ask for complete liberty of action in the conduct of operations. In this connection, I feel bound to point out that the situation as a whelm has now developed to such an extent„ both as regards Sixth Army and as regards Army Groups 'A' and that the maju-r dec i a ions now under consideration are being taken too la te . May I suggest that you consider what would happen i f we vsre commanding en the other side . . .15

Manstein was referring f z- the increasing possibility that the entire southern

front might collapse, Roth's relief attempt, after hard fighting, had reached

within thirty-five c£ Ra ;lus' front. Here it was halted, and then

fcrced on to the defensioe. At the same time. Eighth Italian Army on the north

fl.at.k of Army uroup' Den was '^Sv-attered to the four winds" by m new Russian

blow,^^ This new move aimed at P.cstov threatened Army Group A with the same

fate as Sixth Army. I f th is happened, Germany would soon be on her knees.

Manstein, with Zeitrleraid struggled continually with Hitler to

obtain the necessary decisions so that they might stabilize the situation. But

H itler in sisted that Stalingrad must be held; th is ended Paulus' chances of

breaking out. He refused to disobey his F ü h r e r . Manstein was deeply

shocked at H itler's app.arent w illingness to sa crifice a quarter of a m illion

^ Goerlitz, Faulua,, 280. secrets claim the distance to be as close as 25 miles. Hansteln ''ïlaim® th*: di v-t w.»:s "'sir-m.* 30 lostVietcries, 339. ^^GverlltTi, Paulcs p 2 8 1 . G’e:j\r.ralohy.r_g_t Fvrt Ze-itrléir replaced Haider as H itler's Chief of Staff o .y n ' 'tembe r . 19^2. lâuluf dé s. Is expensively with Paulus' motives. See es - ; ia l ly 68 fc 1 lowing .

10:

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. nen for the sake :f his p r e s t ig e .’Nonetheless, realizing that an even

greater disaster ^as hanging o.er hi< head. he set about to save what he could.

Fighting an elastic defensive battle whenever possible, he succeeded in holding

open the Rostov gateway f.r Kleist’s retreat. Sixth Army's martyrdom now be­

came crucial. Paulus continued to tie down a large portion of the Russian

forces. As lo'ng as he held out,, these forces would not be available for opera­

tions en the main front. In this respect Paulus and his army did a great

service by continuing to resist in conditions which would have demanded their

surrender acccrding to western standards.

On J.anuary 25, 1943, the German Second Army was caught fa llin g back

from ¥eri;ne.?:b. and badly mauled. This blow together with Sixth Army's now

hopeless p-light brought Hitler momentarily into reality. He authorized the

withdraw,al of Army Group,' A from its exposed p osition . But Seventeenth Army,

instead of withdrawing through RostO'V, continued to hold a bridgehead in the

Kuban. F irst Panzer Army retreated ncirth through Rostov where it became part

of Army Group Don.

On February 6, three days after Paulus' surrender. Hitler flew to Stalino

to discuss the situation with Manstein. The Führer was upset with the way

his field marshal was handling things. It seems that Manstein, Ignoring the

'’'tand fa s t’* order, was giving ground right and le f t . To Manstein this was

trading space for time, but Hitler was wont to see things differently.

"^^Clar-k in Barharossjs disputes of Manstein's story. He insists th'at Manstein cverestimatS'd* the Russian strength and did not exploit their we,mkn*3ses fully,. thu,« he miffed the chance to relieve Paulus in time. See S'5i following? further evi'i'?:nce of this is found in Goerlitz ' s Paulus. whif h ‘îuctsa G*n,*jral vcn Ficbthcfen*? diary. See 280 f,:llowing; & F. W. Mellenthin, Battl'ts, A Study of the Emt>lovcnent of Armor in the Se.'Conj World Way. j'rm,»n, Oklahoma; University of Oklahoma Press, 1956» 182-184. Hsreafter cited as; Mellen£hi:a. Mellenthin explain,? that the Russians, in spite or their numbers v*r* not very form 1,5.able, in th eir attacks.

103

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Manstftin was pleasantly surprised to find H itler in good s p ir its . The

Führer opened the conference by admitting to Manstein that he and he alone was

responsible fcr Stalingrad. This ’’struck a chivalrous ncte” with Manstein,

who had been expecting something quite different.Encouraged by Hitler's

seemingly fire spirits, the field marshal began to argue the necessity of a

further retreat in First Panzer Army's sector to the Mlus River. This shortenin;

of the front would free sufficient forces enabling Manstein to strengthen his

mobile reserve. During the renversât ion Manstein made, several caustic remarks

about Hitler's overestimaticn of the capabilities of the S.S» and Luftwaffe

Field Divisions. Hitler agreed that the Luftwaffe, formations were a " fiasco,"*

reinforcing Ifenstsin's boldneesAfter obtaining permission to carry out

the suggested withdrawal, Manstein returned to the charge. He bluntly but

tactfully told Hitler that he should withdraw from active command, put ting

his ‘''implicit trust’" in a chief of staff with "the appropriate responsibility

and authority. BLtler., remaining quite calm, explained that he could not

consent to t h is . Blcmberg and Brauchitsch had caused him enough disappointment

and besides, only he personally could control GHring. The Reichsmarshm 11

would never take orders from a general. At all events, Führer and field marshal

parted company at least partly satisfied with their accomplishments.

Manstein returned te his headquarters to conduct the withdrawal. His

armies were now fighting in three directions against odds estimated at seven

to one. Ke.eping his worn down panzer divisions well in hand, Manstein smash­

ed tack the Russian pénétrâtions as best he could. His northeast flank

^^Ma.nsteln, I^st^ V ictpries^,, à 0 7 ; Compare Clark, Par bar os.g a, 292-293. Clark, E^rbarossa, lk93. ^^'Manstein, Lest Vic toria's, 407.

104

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. n&d In the air alter tn-i def=at of the Sec: nd Array. Into the gap le ft by

this reCitac 2ht.k^ peered h..s threes In ar. effort to pin Manstein's Don

Group to the Black Sea. Cn 1'ebrc.ary 16, Kharkov was recaptured by the Russians.

The gap between Army Groupe £:j-h and Center was new over 100 miles wide.

£ it tnifgs were net so L‘ad as they appeared on the surface. The Russians

had teen driveng west far three months and in the process they had taken heavy

losses. More important. *:he:; were finding the problems of sjpplying the

attack, a new experience, extremely difficult. Also, or the German side,

Man.st^ein®» cries for aid we v? now being lister ed to. Reinforcements began

to arriu-e cr. a more r e a lis ti . scale, N onetheless, the cr isis was severe

enough to warrant « second -’-Isit from 'Hitler. He flew to Zaporozhe, Manstein's

headquarter», cn the lit>. Ih,.s was the closest Hitler ever came to the

fighting front during the war.

During H itler'» v is it . Marste in began his counter-attack. Fourth

Panæer Army attacked west northwest tC'Vard I^yum sin.d Kharkov, meanwhile.

First Panzer Army struck rc^’th and east at the flank of the Russian advance.

The Russians were over extended, and the Germans, being well concentra ted,

pocketed and destroyed unit after unit. As the attack progressed some

Russian units panicked other* ran out of fuel.

Manstein's counteroffensive was a masterpiece of mobile warfare; it t.« ao'berlng to considtr what he might hsve accomplished i f given a free hand from the beginning.

Py March 14. Kharkc:’" had once agmlo fallen to the German*; the German

counteroffensive then rolled the Russians back tO' th* general line of the positions

G.K, J, Harsh.*! t :•!' the Soviet Union. Zhtrkw was in overall ' he 5 jV', tf f'Cr, es ' scjth at this time. lark , i a . 1> JO . "^Eoncslto West Map 36, WorlJ War II.

105

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. held in May, 19-+2. Th? un/iy ma j:r except ion was the KzraK sa lie n t which le ft

a threatening bulge in the Germtn front between Army Creeps South and Center.

This area could not be retaken for the spring thaw soon put an end to mobile

operations.

As the ttaw set in., both sides began to withdraw their armored formations

for r e st and r e h s t i litatiom. The reoTgar izatlon of the German economy by

Steer^'heIped scmewrac to offset the increasing strength of the Soviet Un1er,

tut. Germany's relative strength was .slowly declining. British .snd Amerlc.«n

leo,.d(-le.«s« a!so contribu'-.e.d to th-s worsening o f Germany's situ.atioffi.

During the muddy peri)d Mit 1er sought « solution to the discouraging

turn of events. 1. G-jderi.sn hoped that H itler would remain on

the defensi'ii'e in the east in 1 3 , He. warned the F^ihrer that * prera.atu.re

c-oromi tment of Germany's only » : r.ategic reserve might be disastrous M.«"'istein

was iïj. agreement with Gûd*ri.*n.. 'f* proposed to let the Ru.sslans strike, fir st

as they had in 19'-i-2 . The -Jermsns r u Id f.all back before the Russian o f fe n s iv e

'jutil it had worsi Itself dowr aivanclng; then they could strike at the exposed

flanks of the. Russians, hlttin.g them hard '"on the backhand. If this counter-

att.aok succeeded, the Russians si' c: d to lose their offensive capability, Iti

which ca.se a stalemate would ensue. In these conditiens it might be possible

to come to terras w ith Stalin before the western allies could intervene on

any decisive sca le. M anstein f e lt that Germany might find salvation i n these

conditions. Otherwise, there was little hcpe.^^

^^Spter, Albert. PrcfessoT of archite ture. Minister o f Armam-ent e.cd War Prcdur.ticr 1942 = 1945; ser.ter^.c* i to l i f e Imprisonment 1946; released in 1966. '^^Cl.ark, B.arl arO'Sea .= 275, .and G'u.aerian, P.gin%er 2.14-13).

^^anstein, Lc_st Victories , 5 . ^^.ar.steir., Lc? t %ictcrie.< , 443-445 ; & Ve~Ioren_e S ieg e. «73 -483.

106

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Hitler vas wliiiog tthe admittedly hea^'^y risks which the

acceptance of Manstein’s suggestion® implied. Instead, he decided to adept a

compromise solution. His reasons for rejecting Manstein's suggest ion were

twofold. First and most important. Hitler never truly mastered the techniques

of mobile warfare and as m result„ in this type of operation, he would be

dependent on his general staff officers to carry it out. Second, the success

of this plan was prchlematical, as are all military operations, and since its

su-cess could net be guaranteed in %d,-ance, he did net wish to risk it.

Still, ”Oc-er£tirn Citadel', t ha plan which finally emerged did show

some promise in it ia lly . Z e lt* le r ’s ''brainchild''' was fir s t suggested to Hitler

early in A p r i l . Zeltæler proposed to eliminate the salient wViich

threatened the flanks of Army Groups Center and South. This would be accomp­

lished by a joint offensive of the two Army Groups involved. If it was

launched at an early date, it was hoped that it would catch the main Russian

tank units which were known to- b* refitting in that area before they could

complete th eir reorganisation. A sever* mauling of the Soviet armored units

early in the summer would, for all intents, end any prospect of a new Russian

offensive fcr several months.

Hitler held a meeting early in May at Munich to determine whether

"Citadal“* still had any prospects of success. Present were the O.K.W. Staff,

the 0,K.H, S ta ff. Speer, CuderIan, K luge , Model,and Manstein.After

Hitler’s speech. Model (Commander-in-Chief of liinth Army) was given the fl.or.

■^^Mellen.thin. Panser B a ttle s . 213-215. -2-Mo-iel, Field Marshal Walter. Chief of Staff 16 Army ( b u s c h ) Franc e , 1940" 3 Fanner D ivision *?nid 3 Paitter Corps Russia, 1941; Commander=in-Cnief 9 Army 1942-194 'J: replaced C-v-Miiander-in-Chief Army Croups .Vorth, Cente-. t> Scuch (Maaatein) 1944. la t»r ret lac-eJ Kluge in west, 1944. Suicide st. end of U'ar. Referred to himself ms ’“'Hitler’s fireman.* ^'%rîberi®n, Panrer Leader... 244.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. He produced evidence that the Russians, aware of the German intentions, were

setting a trap and asked that the attack be called off. Hitler then turned

to Manstein.

Manstein, as often when face to face with Hitler, was not at his b est. His opinion was that the attack would have had a good chance of succeeding if it had been launched in April; now its success was doubtful, and he would need a further two full- strength infantry divisions in order to be in a position to carry it out. Hitler replied that , . . Manstein must make do with what he already had; he then repeated his question, but unfortunagely received no very clear answer.

Kluge supported Zeitsler as did O.K.W. ; only Guderlan made any real protest,

and he was in the minority.

Guderian: My Führer, why do you want to attack In the East at all this year? Hitler: You are quite right. Whenever I think of this attack, my stomach turns over.

As a result of this bickering, and also because Hitler wanted to

re-equip his panzers with the Tiger and Panther tanks, the attack was delayed

until July, It finally started on the afternoon of July 4. Just, before the

attack, Manstein protested that i t must be abandoned, but it was too la t e .

The Russians, as Model had warned, were ready. In a week of bitter fighting,

they turned the tables on the Germans, severely mauling Hitler's precious

Tigers and Panthers. "Citadel", the greatest tank battle ir history, marks

the lowest ebb in German offensive planning in World War II. Model's attacK

on the north flank of the Kursk salient never really got started, and in the

south Manstein fared little better.

^^Guderlan, Panzer Leader, 245. ^^Clark, Barb.arossa, 275. '^^Glark, Barbarcssa. 322 following. Barbaressa. 327, and Mellenthin, Panzer Battles, 217, In his memo ir s Manstein paints a somewhat rosier picture of Kjrsk, Lr. fa/-t h is wcrds have a hollow ring. Manstein, Lost Vic tori» ji., 448-(.49, V&tlcrf re Sli.ge„ 501-506. 108

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. The crisis in Italy ended "Citadel"; by mid-July the Germans were

reeling under the Russian summer offensive. The Russians, besides their main

offensive on Manstein's northern flank, also struck on the Mlus front and at

Xzyum. Manstein managed to hold on throughout August, but early in September

the situation once again became critical. In a new round of "discussions"

with Hitler, Manstein obtained belatedly permission to fall back to the

Dnieper line.

la the ensuing retreat behind the Dnieper, Manstein devastated Che

German occupied areas, hoping to slow the Russian pursuit. He succeeded in

delaying them long enough to enable his over-tired troops to gain the crossings.

In the resu ltin g redeployment on the west bank, he was unable to eliminate the

Soviet bridgeheads at Kiev and Kermenchug. All of the Soviet attempts to

break out of th eir bridgeheads were costly failures. Heavy fighting west of

Kiev continued through November, with no d ecisive resu lt.

As the winter of 1943-1944 arrived, Manstein became more disenchanted

with H itler's "hold fast" orders. There were never enough troops to really

"hold" the front, and as Manstein had demonstrated on many previous occasions,

the only proven method of successful defense against the Russians was a mobile

offensive-defensive one. He was determined never to allow a second "Stalin­

grad" to happen while he was in command.

In contrast. Hitler became more insistent that every square inch of

ground must be defended to the la s t. On September 3, accompanied by Kluge,

Manstein had visited Hitler to discuss the situation. With Kluge's backing,

Manstein tried once again to persuade the Führer to appoint a chief of staff. 39 But Hitler refused to listen to Manstein and nothing positive was accomplished.

^^Manstein, Lost Victories. 461-462

109

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Pour nonths labor Manstein repeated his per fori a nee ; this tine he u'o '

c::cccdingly out-spoken. His dismissal followed shortly thereafter.

110

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Chapter VIII

The End o f a Career

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. As 1943 faded into 1944, the Hit 1er-Manstein relationship reached

a new low. On January 4, 1944, Manstein flew to Hitler's headquarters. He

had several matters which he wished to discuss with the Führer. Towards the

end of the situation conference, Manstein asked Hitler if he might see him

''with only the Chief of Staff present. When everyone had left the room

except Zeitzler, Manstein "asked leave to speak quite openly.Hitler agreed

and Manstein began to speak.

'One thing we must be clear about, mein Führer. is that the ex­ tremely critical situation we are now in cannot be put down to the enemy's superiority alone, great though it is. It is also due to the way we are led.'^

Hitler's expression hardened but he kept silent, Manstein went on but he

could hardly fail to notice Hitler's obvious displeasure. The only way to

restore the situation would be fcr Hitler to appoint a soldier (Manstein) to

set things right.

The. Führer, although he was nettled by Manstein's barbs, remained calm.^

Returning to his former stand. Hitler reiterated his previous negative attitude.

He alone cculd decide what forces were available for the var­ ious theaters of war and what policies should be pursued there.^

Besides, there was always Güring.

Manstein, sensing an impasse, turned to the subject of a commander of

the eastern front. But Hitler would not yield.

'Even I cannot get the Field-Marshals to obey me!’ he cried. 'Do you imagine, for example, that they would obey you any more read ily? I f i t comes to the w orst, I can dism iss them. Ho one else would have the authority to do that.'

^Manstein, Lost Victories, 504; & Verlorene Siege. 572, ^Manstein, Lost Victories, 504 ; & Verlorene Siege, 572. ^Man^irein, Lost Vic t o r ie s , 504; & Verlorene S ie g e , 572. 'Hitler obviously sersed Just how far he could afford to go with his lnt*rlcîutor and what people he caald hope to intimidate with outbursts of rag* that maiy o£t;*n have been simulated." Manstein, Lost Victcrles, 285. ^Manstein, Lost Victories, 505. nstein, Lost^ yictorie*, 505. 112

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Manstein had the satisfaction of saying that his orders too "were always

carried o u t," but H itle r , refu sin g to comment, ended the t é t e - a - t ^ e .^

His proposals rejected, Manstein returned to his own headquarters.

His dejection is understandable; ahead he saw Germany's certain defeat.

But what could he do? Join the conspirators? No, this he could not do;

his oath of loyalty would not permit it. Besides there were other factors to

consider:

[}ianstein [ 2 well aware that any attempt to settle the matter by force [i.e. do away with HitlerH would lead to the collapse of our armies in the fieId . 8

If this happened, the Soviet Union would overrun and occupy Germany.^ He

could not risk it. And anyway, what difference would Hitler's disappearance

make? The Allies were insistent on unconditional surrender. As he said in

his memoirs.

At the time when I held a command we had not, to my mind, reached the point where such action had to be regarded as the only possible so lu tio n .

Manstein hoped (and most likely prayed) for a miracle.

At the fr o n t. Army Croup South, tie d down by H itle r 's "stand fast"

orders, continued to fight an unequal battle. Manstein encircled a Russian

column near Uraan and succeeded in d estroyin g i t . But th is minor success

could not offset the Russian superiority.

Manstein, always dogged when he knew he was r ig h t, continued to pester

Hitler with personal letters and official correspondence. He urged Hitler

to take a "long step back.In this manner the German Armies could momentarily

^Manstein, Lost Victories. 505. nsteln. Lost Victories. 506. ^The Anglo-American landings did not take place until June. ^^Manstein, Lost Victories. 288. ^Liddell Hart, The German Generals Ta Ik, 6 6 .

113

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. shake-off their pursuers and pull themselves together. Hitler listened with

a deaf ear.

On January 27, Hitler called a meeting of all the army and army group

commanders at his headquarters. In his speech Hitler insulted these long

serving men until Manstein could no longer bear it. Hitler had been stressing

the need for "faith" in the regime and its leader. He said:

’If the end should come one day, it should really be the Fleld- Marshals and generals who stand by the flags to the last.'l^

As he repeated the sentence a second time for emphasis, Manstein shouted back:

‘"’And so they w ill mein Führer’ ’ This sudden interjection unnerved

Hitler. He lost his train of thought and abruptly ended the meeting. Manstein,

went to tea with Zeitz1er. While he was there the phone rang. Hitler wanted

to see Manstein.

When Manstein entered Hitler upbraided him for his earlier interruption.

Keitel, whom Manstein detested, was present. In his presence Hitler mentioned

Manstein’s personal letters; he accused him of trying to justify himself to

posterity through the war diary.

Manstein endured the first reprimand in silence, but Hitler's second

comment was too much. He denied H it le r ’s comment. '" L etters I w rite to you

personally do not get f ile d in the war diary.He then implied that he

was a "gentleman" (something Hitler was not) and his motives were for the

good of the cause. After a pregnant pause. Hitler thanked him for coming

over and excused him.

•‘^■■'Manstein, Loat V ic t c r le s , 511. ^%^nstein. Lost Vic ter le s, 511. i^Manstein, Lost Victories„ 512.

114

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Bfthitîd th« scenes Himmler and GBring had been working for M anstein’s

dtsmisâal fnr scrne time. GBring had suggested that Hitler dismiss Manstein

as early as March, 1943, after Manstein first suggested that Hitler step down.

Manstein’s pointed criticism of the ReichstnarshâII certainly gave Goring a motive

The Laftwaffe field division and the Stalingrad airlift, both complete failures,

Manstein laid at GBring’s door.

M anstein's feud w ith Himmler dated from the F ritsch scandal. His

sardonic comments on the ability of S.S. generals had earned him no favor in

in Himmler®s camp. But there was more to Himmler's d is lik e that Army - S.S.

rivalry. Manstein was a Christian and proud of it . A Prussian aristocrat,

Manstein represented the old way in Germany's "New Order". His position was

somewhat ana lagous to that of the Tsarist general in the Red Army. It was

Hitler’s need of his skills which kept Manstein in command.

Gcebbels was another high Nazi who wished to see Manstein go. When­

ever Manstein Is mentioned in his diary there is some disparaging remark

associated w ith h is name. On Nov. 8 , 1943, he wrotet

The crisis in the southern sector of the Eastern Front would not have become so serious had a man of caliber stood in Manstein's place . . . [unfortunately] Manstein is to return to his post. I regard this as a grave disaster.

Ifenstein returned from his visit to Hitler’s headquarters in time to

deal with a series of new crises. The first occurred when Sixth Army was

attacked east of the Dnieper early in February. The Nikopol bridgehead had

t o be abandoned as the Germans retreated across the river. Hitler took this

report unit y to transfer the forces inwlved to Army Group A (Kleiat) .

Diaries. 306. ^^Go&btels Diaries. 570.

115

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Shortly thereafter 5 Red Army u n its d rivin g west from Kiev and Kermenchug

succeeded in Isolating two German Corps (II and 42) in the Cherkassy Pocket,

Manstein immediately counter-attacked, but mud, snow, and a tough Russian

defense stopped his relief forces short of the pocket. Manstein, ignoring

Hitler's "hold fast" orders, told the corps commanders to break out. This

they did on the night of Feb. 16-17. Much of the heavy equipment, including

most of the artillery, had to be abandoned, but the men were saved.

The Soviet offensive now grew in fury driving west towards Rovno,

which fell early in February. Thereupon the attacks turned southeast toward

the Carpathians, Early in March the F ir st Panzer Army was en circled south of

Tarnopol, As usual Hitler ordered the army to fight on in place. General

wanted to break out southward but Manstein Insisted that he move west.

As a result of this divided opinion, Manstein was ordered to report, to

Hitler at the Obersalrberg; while there he had a "sharp exchange" of words

with the Führer. Hitler blamed Manstein for the events of the past months

and the current crisis. Manstein indignantly referred to Hitler's "leadership"

in an "I told you so”* manner. After more bickering, during which both men

r«Hiained technically polite. Hitler prorogued the conference until the evening.

At the evening conference H itle r 's mood was more agreeable; relu cta n tly

he gave his consent to the west-ward break out of the First Panzer Army.

During the rest of Manstein's visit. Hitler was quite amiable. On March 26,

Manstein returned to L'vov (L'wow), his headquarters. Preparations were made

for a joint attack by Fourth Panzer Army to link up with First Panzer Army on

the north bank of the Dniester River.

^ lob erst Hang Hube .. commander of a panzer corps at Stalingrad, 1^41. Killed in a plane crash in 1944° the Commander-in-Chief of First Panzer A.rry. ^^Mangtein, Lcst Victories « 540.

116

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Early on March 30, Manstein awake to the news that Hitler's personal

Condor aircraft was aboct to land at L'vov, The plane had already picked up

Klelst. Shortly afterward Zeitzler called to warn Manstein that the field

marshals were to be reliev e d o f th e ir commands. E arlier the same day Genera 1-

oberst Hoth and Field Marshal Kuchler had suffered the same fate. Arriving

at , they talked first with Zeitzler. He told Manstein that

Himmler, C8 ring and probably also Keitel, had been agitating for Manstein's

remeva 1.1 20

Goring had been heard to state privately that Manstein and [jWarlimontJ were the leaders of a 'C atholic Free «masonry* working against Naticnal-Socialism. (Field Marshal von Manstein, be it noted in passing. Is not a Catholic).

Zeitrler was quite upset over the entire business. He had nearly always been

In agreement w ith Manstein sin ce November 1942, and he In sisted that he be

permitted to resign with his colleagues. Hitler refused to permit this.

During the evening Hitler sent for Manstein. When he entered the Führer's

chamber H itle r greeted him and awarded him the Swords to h is Knight's Cross,^-

He then told Manstein most politely that "the time for grand-style operations

in the e a st . . . was now past. Manstein was not suited for the new role;

therefore, he had decided to replace him with Model. In his diary Manstein

wrote;

He [Hit 1er]] expressly wished to state that there was not the least question of a crisis of confidence between us, as had pre­ viously been the case with other field-marshals (whose names he mentioned). He still had the utmost faith in me; indeed, far from having any crltism of the way the Army Group was led, he had always been in complete agreement with it. [This is a lie]

^^Warlimcrtt, 419. ^^Manst-èin, Lost V ic t o r ie s , 544. ^ Wa r 1 imoiTit, 419. ^^Msnstein won his Knight's Cross in France, 1940. The Oak leaves were a-^ded after Kharkov was recaptured in March, 1943. See Ver lore ne S lege, 659; & GoebbeIs Diaries, 345. ^^Manstein, L c -a t Victcrles, 554.

117

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. . . . After onc= again assuring me that there was no crisis of confidence between us, the Führer added that he would never for­ get that prior to the western campaign I had been the only man Co advise him of the possibility of deciding the whole issue in the west by a breakthrough at Sedan.

Manstein gracefully accepted his dismissal. He returned to L'vov only long

enough to assist Model in taking over. Nevertheless, his actions assured the

relief of First Panrer Army.

At In 1946 Manstein added l i t t l e to what he wrote in his

diary.

I was r e lie v e d o f my p ost at the end of , The reason given tO' me by Hitler was that large-scale operations for which he needed me could no 1 : oger be carried out and that it was mere­ ly a question nowFolding out stubbornly, and for that a new man w^uld h&ve be put in my postticr,. The true reason was without doubt that he mistrusted me too. After all, he was the rev: 1 utionary ^nd I was the. old Prussian Officer. Then too, as the Chief of the General Staff, General Zeitzler, told me at the time^ there w.?s a vcntinuous campaign of hatred against me on the ■fart o f Himmler, .and a l l manner o f statem ents were made, namely, that a Christian like myself could not be loyal; and it is cer- t.ain, tco, that, oth-^.r elements joined in this campaign.^^

Manstein left L'vov by train on April 3. Probably he returned to

Liegnitæ In where be had his home. At any rate he. dropped out of

sight for nearly a year.

Manstein must have fled west as the Russians overran Eastern Germany,

for late in April 1945, he and Field Marshal von Bock were in , While.

there they talked with Admiral D 8 nitr, Hitler's successor. Manstein told

Dünitæ that in his opinion the forces facing the Russians should gradually

withdraw towaria the, British and American forces with the hopes of surrenderirg

to the America?,'-:. Dcnitr agree-d, and on May 1 he gave orders th.at Manstein

n ste in J, Lc st c'tories „ 3■'45. EK. 626.

18

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. be Æontactfed st once sr,d invited to t»?:e over Keitel's position. But in

the chaos of the last days he had disappeared and could not be reached . ^ 6

Incidently, Bock was killed in an air raid in Hamburg on May 4.

Manstein surrendered to the British during the first part of May.

His wife was caught in the Russian advance and remained for a time in the

Russian z o n s. It I r r ita te d Manstein when he found out that she was forced ,

along with other German women, to bring in the potato harvest that fall.

He voiced this complaint during his testimony at Nuremberg,

Manstein remained in British captivity as a witness during the

Nuremberg trials. On August ID-11, 1946, he was called to the witness stand

following B'rauchitach in that rde. It was not until Feb. 24, 1950, that he

was tried and sentenced by a British court to 18 years imprisonment. This

was la te r commuted to 12 years, was freed on May 6 , 1953,^^

The quest ten oi war is far too vast a subject to be dealt with

here, and since Manstein w.»® tried by the British, the record of his trial Is

upsxrai lab le . During h is interrc g stic n at Nuremberg it was brought out that

the charges against him stem principally from his conduct as Commander of the

Elexenth Army and later on Army Grcup South in the East.

In particular there wms an order issued by Manstein (It bears his

signature) which bears a strong resemblance to the infamous '"Reichenau

Order.There were also the questions of the treatment of prisoners of

war, the ac.tlvity of tie Eir..:atr9and Manstein's ""

" ^Karl W a it a, Memo ir s , I e n Years and Twenty Days, New York: World P ublishing Co,, 1959 LL ^/I.M.T., XX. 620 f I? A ^ ^Compare. Clark., Barbares sa, 4?4; & Trt\or-Roper, Blltrkrieg, 219. XXI, ")2.

119

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. policy. Manstein was Ivt on. most of these questions. His standard

answer was that the matter had ’’escaped his memory entirely.”^® Once in a

while he would snap back a sharp answer. For example, he made it clear that

the ’’scorched earth” policy was learned from the Russians and practiced by

both sides. Significantly, his ecnvlction and rather harsh sentence were

l*ter retracted 5 but e\ren so he was confined for about eigh t years (M.ay, 1945

to May, 1953).

Since his imp:/1 sonme%t Manstein has written and published several works

Kls most famous one (Lest Victories) is the basis for this work. Another

volume of memoirs (Au..s elnem S-o Idatenlgben; Bonn, 1958) has appeared since

thebut rero.ains untranslated and rot available. Besides these full length

VO lûmes y Manstein has turned out several articles and shorter pieces (see

L id d ell Hart, The Rad Army, Chapter 13).

Manstein w ill be remembered chiefly for his contribution to the French

campaign of 1940. But military men w ill probably be more interested in his

conduct of the German retreat out of Russia. The conduct of a retreat in the

face o f A stronger enemy is probably the most difficult task that a general

is ever confronted with.

To find another example of defensive strategy of this caliber we must go back to Lee’s campaign in Virginia in the summer of 1864.31

XXI, 73. 3-M«:Ï Pa'i-.rer Battles. 203.

120

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Eiblxograpaical Essay

The best work en the subject is Manstein’s Verlorene Siege. Lost

Victories „ the. translation, suffers in that several valuable documents have

been omitted from it, but otherwise it is a nearly verbatim translation.

Liddell Kart’s The Gerri'an Generals Ta Ik. is probably the best sacondary

sccfce. Also useful are Whaeler-Bennett, Benoiat-M^chln, and Clark, who

d 1 with the subject from d iffe r e n t a n g le s .

Th» mAr%cirs and 1 iaphies ot the other German generals involved are

.«II of some use;. Warlimout Is the best of this group, but none of them can.

be igno-'ed, Keitel is prob.ably the least reliable.

Kalder 's Diary [email protected] gives the opinion of O.K.H., however, it is

difficult to tell how much Haider reflects Brauchitsch and vice-versa.

The Führer Direct .L"es are indisp ^nslble, since they are generally the

sovrce of most 0«K.,H. orders. I found Trevor-Roper’s book very u sefu l.

The Trial of tjv^ Ka jor War Criminals is the best official source, but

except for interrogation.^ of people involved, it is of limited value. N.CpA,

contains little of any positive value, with the exception of the documents

found on a captured Luftv.affe officer, and these can be found elsewhere.

Most of the other sources rely on those already mentioned, or in the

case of primary sources, contribute little of value.

I was unable to obtain a copy of Jacobsen, B. A., Fall Gelb, Per Kampf

um den deutschen Operat io-r sp Ian der West -Of fens ive 1940. Frans Steiner Gmbh,,

1957. This book would, trcbably be quite valuable to anyone interested in

d. : i ag f.-rther research.

121

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Selected Bibliography

Documents

U.S. Civil Affairs Division, Official Record of the Tria I of the Kalor War Criminals before the Irr^^atipria 1 Military Tribunal. (42 vols.) Nurem­ berg, 194 7-1949. ”

U.S. War Department, Nasj. Conspiracy and Aggression. (8 vols, plus 2 supplements), Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1946-1948.

U.S. Adjutant Generals Department, Trials of War Criminals before the Nuremberg M ilita ry T ribunals, (14 v o l s . ) , Washington: U.S. Government P r in t­ ing Office, 1951=1953.

Primary Sources

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de Gaulle, Charles. Tlie Call t_o Honor 1940-1942. New York: Viking Prtss, 1955.

Dfeltas, Karl. Memoirs, Tppt Years and Twenty Days. New York: World Publishing Co., 1959.

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Calland, Adolf. Th/p First and the Last, the Rise and Fall of the German Fighter Forces 1938-1945. New York: Ballantine Books, 1957.

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Guderian, Heinz. Panzer Leader. New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc. 1952.

Haider, Frans. The Diary cY Generaloberst Franz Haider Chief of General S ta ff cY the German Army (p «K.H. ) 1938-1942. (Printed U.S. Array/Eucom), 9 vols., no date.

Hassell, Ulrich vor. The yen Hassell Diaries 1938-1944. L;ndcn: Famish Hamilton, 1948.

Kelt a I, Wilhelm. The Memoirs of Field-M arshal K e it e l. Edited tv W. Nr Yevl : Stair: S'-H. Day, 1966.

MAOstzir, Eri.-h . V r 1 :■ r € ne _ S ie ge . Bonn: Athemaum-Vrrlag, 1938.

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Treror«Roper, H.S,. (éditer). Blitzkrieg tjo Defeat Hitler's War Directives 1939-19;?. New York: Holt, Rinehart mr i Winston, 1965.

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