Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb
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Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb (September 5, 1876 - April 29,1956) was a German field marshal during World War II.
Born in Landsberg am Lech, he joined the Bavarian Army in 1895 as an officer cadet. After being commissioned in the artillery, he served in China during the Boxer Rebellion. He later attended the Bavarian War Academy in Munich (1907-1909) and served on the General Staff in Berlin (1909-1911). Promoted to captain, he performed a tour of duty as a battery commander in the Bavarian 10th Field Artillery Regiment at Erlangen (1912-1913).
At the outbreak of World War I, von Leeb was on the General Staff of the Bavarian First Army Corps. During the war, he served with the Bavarian 11th Infantry Division. Upon promotion to major, he was transferred to the Eastern Front in the summer of 1916. The following year he was appointed to the staff of Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria. After the war, von Leeb remained in the German Army. In 1923, he was involved in putting down the Beer Hall Putsch. He then commanded Wehrkreis VII as a lieutenant general before the rise of Hitler and the Nazi Party.
Hitler was not fond of von Leeb due to his anti-Nazi attitudes and religious convictions. However, due to his outstanding credentials, Hitler made him commander of the Second Army Group and he took part in the occupation of Sudetenland in 1938.
Hitler promoted von Leeb to the commander of Army Group C and his troops broke through the Maginot Line in France. For his role in this victory, von Leeb was promoted to the rank of Field Marshal (Generalfeldmarschall) in July 1940, along with receiving the Knight's Cross.
Von Leeb, now having Hitler's faith, was given responsibility for carrying out the attack on the Soviet Union in the northwestern sector and he was given command of Army Group North in Operation Barbarossa. von Leeb was to destroy Soviet units in the Baltic area, capture all Soviet Baltic Sea naval bases, and Leningrad by July 21 1941.
When the invasion of the Soviet Union began on June 22 1941, von Leeb's armies met with outstanding success against an overwhelmed Soviet force. By the end of September, his army had advanced 900 km into the Soviet Union and surrounded Leningrad. Hitler, however, was not pleased and said of the Field Marshal, "Leeb is in a second childhood; he can't grasp and carry out my plan for the speedy capture of Leningrad. He fusses over his plan of assuming the defensive in the northwestern sector and wants a drive in the center on Moscow. He's obviously senile, he's lost his nerve, and like a true Catholic he wants to pray but not fight." It was indeed true that von Leeb had no time for Hitler and the Nazis, and was also, like many of the senior German officers, a devout Christian but he was nevertheless a professional soldier and a man of the highest honor who did not take well to having his command micro-managed by an armchair general, namely Hitler. In December 1941, von Leeb was relieved of his command and it was officially announced that he had stepped down voluntarily due to illness. Colonel General Georg von Küchler assumed command of Army Group North. von Leeb was never to be used again by Hitler.
After the war, von Leeb was tried by a U.S. military tribunal in Nuremberg in the High Command Trial. He was found guilty on one of four charges and sentenced to three years imprisonment, but was released after the judgment because he had already spent more time in custody. He spent his last years in quiet existence with his family until his death in 1956.
Notes
- Note regarding personal names: Ritter is a title, translated approximately as Knight, not a first or middle name. There is no equivalent female form.
References
- Pavlov, Dmitri V. Leningrad 1941: The Blockade. Translated by John Clinton Adams. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1965.
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