Erich von Manstein

Erich von Manstein

Erich von Manstein was a German field marshal in World War II. He became one of the most well-known commanders of the Wehrmacht. During World War II he attained the rank of Field Marshal and was held in high esteem by his fellow officers and enemy commanders alike as the Wehrmacht's best military strategist. He was the initiator and one of the planners of the Ardennes offensive in the Batlle of France in 1940. He received acknowledgment from the German leadership for the victorious battles of Perekop Isthmus, Kerch, Sevastopol and Kharkov. Though,he also commanded the failed relief effort at Stalingrad and the Cherkassy pocket evacuation. He was dismissed from service by Hitler in March 1944, due to his frequent clashes with Hitler over military strategy. In his memoirs, Lost Victories which was published in 1955, he was critical of Hitler above all for denying the Army flexible defensive maneuverability, for "over-reliance" on his strength of the "will", and of the attempt by other military officers on Hitler's life. In 1949, he was tried in Hamburg for war crimes and was convicted of "neglecting to protect civilian lives" for the use of scorched earth tactics which denied vital food supplies to the local population. He was sentenced to 18 years in prison, which was later reduced to 12, but he only served 4 years before being released. After release from a British prison in 1953, he became a military advisor to theWest German Government. His memoirs largely contributed to the myth of "clean Wehrmacht", and only years later scholars revealed Manstein's full involvement in atrocities and Holocaust in the East during the war. I hate Hitler but I think if this guy was in charge Germany may have won.