Günther von Kluge
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Hans Günther von Kluge (October 30, 1882–August 19, 1944), was a German military leader. He was born in Posen into a Prussian military family. Kluge, being familiar with the Blitzkrieg concept, became a Field Marshal.
During World War I he was a staff officer and in 1916 was at the Battle of Verdun.
By 1936 he was a lieutenant general and in 1937 took command of the Sixth Army Group, which became the German Fourth Army that he led in Poland in 1939. Though he opposed the plan to attack westward, he led the Fourth Army in its attack through the Ardennes that culminated in the fall of France. Promoted to field marshal in July 1940, he continued to command the Fourth Army in Operation Barbarossa, where he also developed a strained relationship with Heinz Guderian over tactical issues in the advance and the latter's frequent disobedience of his orders.
After Fedor von Bock was relieved of his command of Army Group Center in late 1941, Kluge was promoted and led that army group until he was injured in October 1943. Von Kluge frequently rode in an airplane to inspect the divisions under his command and sometimes relieved his boredom during the flights by hunting foxes from the air—a decidedly non-traditional method.
On October 27 1943, Kluge was badly injured when his car overturned on the Minsk-Smolensk road. He was unable to return to duty until July 1944. After his recovery he became commander of the German forces in the West (Oberbefehlshaber West) as von Rundstedt's replacement.
The head of the German military resistance, Henning von Tresckow, served as his chief of staff of Army Group Center. Kluge was somewhat involved in the military resistance. He knew about von Tresckow's plan to shoot Hitler during a visit to Army Group Center. He had been informed by his former subordinate, Georg von Boeselager, who was now serving under von Tresckow. Kluge, however, refused to provide any support to the conspirators of the July 20 plot as soon as he found out that Hitler had survived Stauffenberg's assassination attempt. He was recalled to Berlin for a meeting with Hitler after Stauffenberg's failed coup; thinking that Hitler would punish him as a conspirator, he committed suicide on the plane to Berlin.
According to Jurgen Stroop statement in Kazimierz Moczarski book "Conversations with an Executioner" von Kluge resisted to commit suicide, and was murdered by SS-men. Citation: "Stroop: I've given him a loaded gun and left the room. After fifteen minutes I returned. Eventually I took the gun and left a glass of water and some poison on the table - without any result.[..]. And yet he ended on the beautiful carpet, on the floor with a hole in his head...
Moczarski: You murdered him??? [...] - Stroop doesn't deny. After a while -
Stroop: Heinrich Himmler in a telephone conversation ordered me to send a report to his HQ that Kluge took a plane from France [..] and commited suicide just before take-off."
References
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