Erich von Manstein

 

 

 

Outstanding among the younger leaders was Erich von Manstein,
who was born on Lewinslki, son of a distinguished army oflicer, but
was later adopted by his mothers brother-in-law, General von Manstein,
an equally distinguished soldier. As a junior officer in World War 1, young .
Manstein served with distinction on the Western, Eastem, and Serbian fronts,
and was badly wounded. Between the wars his brilliance caused him to
he promoted to majorgeneral, and deputy to the Chief of the German General
 Staff.

Although he was in disfavor with Hitler at the outbreak of World War II,
Manstein became chief of staff to von Rundstedt, who commanded the
Southern  Army Group in the Battle of Poland. He was still Rundstedt's
chief of staff in 1939-40, when the latter was appointed to command Army
Group A for the invasion of Western Europe.

It was at this time that .Manstein's strategic brilliance first had a major

influence on the war. He was very dissatisfied with theoriginal plan of
Hitler and von Brauchitsch, which he felt was amere imitation of the
Schlieffen Plan, by which Germany had almost won World War I. He
believed that the Allies would be ready for such a plan, which could
thus achieve only a partial victory in Holland and Belgium. With the
strong support of von Rundstedt, he proposed instead a powerful
surprise thrust through the Ardennes and northern France to the
 English Channel, thus isolating and destroying the left-flank Allied
armies, and making it easy to overwhelm France with one more blow.
Hitler, having heard minors of a strategic controversy, sent for Manstein,
and after hearing his opinion, revised the plan, which soon afterward
worked out exactly as Manstein had envisaged.

Manstein commanded an infantry corps in the operations in Western Europe,
and led an armored corps in the initial invasionof Russia. His brilliance led
to his promotion to command of the  Eleventh Army, with which he conquered
the Crimea and (in July,1942) Sevastopol. His outstanding success in these
operations (while the rest of the German army had been thrown back from
Moscow and Leningrad) led to his promotion to Field Marshal. After briefly
commanding the Northern Army Group, near Leningrad, late in 1942 Manstein
was rushed to take command of the newly created Don Army Group, for the
purpose of attempting the relief of the German forces cut off in Stalingrad.
His slashing counterattacks would have been successful if Hitler had allowed  
General von Paulus to fight his way out to meet Manstein. But Hitler insisted
that all ground be held, and thus doomed von Paulus’ Sixth Army to destruction.
Not only did Manstein completely stop the Russian counter-offensive from Stalingrad,
but in March, 1943, despite great Russian numerical superiority, he counterattacked
in turn to win a victory in the Battle of Kharkov. This was the last important
German victory of World War II.

During the remainder of 1943 and early 1944, Manstein commanded the Southern
Army Group against the principal Russian offensives in the Ukraine. Although the
Russian forces outnumbered his own by four- or five-to-one during this period,
Manstein's brilliant withdrawals and counterattacks miraculously prevented
a Russian breakthrough, and resulted in far heavier Russian casualties than those
his own forces suffered. Hitler, however, refused to adopt his repeated recommendations
for a further withdrawal, to shorter and more easily defended lines, where Manstein
envisaged a showdown battle to knock Russia out of the war, or at least to
gain a stalemate in the East. Hitler was infuriated by Mansteirfs obvious contempt
for his military blunders, and in March, 1944, relieved him from command.
Mianstein took no further part in the war.

Manstein never exercised strategic command over an independent theater of
operations, although he commanded about one quarter of the vast Russian front.
For four and a half years, however, he demonstrated strategic, tactical, and administrative
capabilities of the highest order, and seems to have had an inherent
military genius unexcelled in Germany, and comparable to that of MacArthur.