Has there ever been an instance of a General picking up a personal

>>31589574
Not in recent history, and before someone mentions Patton just to mention him.

>Not a general at the time
>Blowhard asshole
>Likely took credit for someone else's kill

Korean war, General Paik lead front line assault in near Dabudong.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paik_Sun-yup

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Marshal Voroshilov was reported to have personally led a charge against German panzers near Leningrad armed only with a pistol.

Voroshilov is just a cool guy in general. He was made the scapegoat for the Winter War disaster and basically yelled at Stalin in a politburo meeting, instead blaming Stalin and his purges, and then he slammed a plate of food on the table. He got away with it.

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Four star general, one of the three leaders of Czechoslovak resistance during WWII.
Hunted by the Gestapo since 1941, went down fighting when the Nazi-led protectorate police held him up in a tavern in October 1944.

His son, also a member of the resistance, then gathered a dozen fighters, stormed the police station and killed everyone.

https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vojtěch_Luža

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>leading attacks from the front
>slight chance of engaging a enemy with his tank/ SdKfz

Can't recall his name but there was a Wehrmacht general who had to stab a soviet to death in his own HQ in '45

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Major-General William Howe personally led the attack on Bunker Hill because he didn't believe in ordering soldiers to do something that he wouldn't do.

Which was pretty unheard of for commanders at the time.

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>>31589574

>>31589574

General William Dean engaged T-34's with bazookas and hand grenades in Korea.

mainly out of desperation.

but still.

Specifically in WWII like your image or any war?

Very interesting thread!!

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>>31589574
Forrest killed lots of damnyankees in combat.

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>>31589574

Theodore Roosevelt Jr. insisted on landing with the first wave on D-Day, despite having a heart condition and having to use a cane to get around. He helped to coordinate the landings personally.

>>31589574
Teddy Roosevelt shot a spaniard in the back

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even got gassed. but war god macarthur so whatev. german manlets were ez tbqh

>>31590126
he reminds me of little finger if little finger had balls

>>31589574
I think Guderian has a couple instances in his memoirs where there was so much confusion during rapid advances his command tank would plunder into some Frenchmen/Russians and he had to use his own machine gun.

>>31590126
>and then he slammed a plate of food on the table.
that actually didn't happen, the plate was empty because there was no food at Soviet Russia during those days, only pickled cucumbers and Vodka

>>31589574
Sepp Dietrich and Oskar Dirlewanger of the SS.

>>31594745
Why don't pickles count as food?

>>31594768
Because they are used as ice cubes for the pickle juice.

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General Hasso von Manteuffel's headquarters was broken into by several Soviet soldiers. Manteuffel shot one of them, and proceeded to stab a second one to death with his officer dagger.

>>31592090
He also manned a cannon along with his general staff officers when he burned a city to the ground, they all were laughing and having a good time. Shortly before that he commandeered Union gunboats and engaged northern vessels in naval combat, winning a few before skuttling them.
Read Jack Hinson's War for more bad ass Forrest tales

>>31589574
Major General William Dean blew up a T-34 in Korea with a hand grenade. That counts.

>>31590126
does k know of his song?https://youtu.be/myg8Q0r8JnQ

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Major-General Sir Isaac Brock

While leading a counter attack Brock was struck in the wrist of his sword arm by a musket ball but continued to press home the attack. His height and energetic gestures, together with his officer's uniform and a gaudy sash given to him eight weeks earlier by Tecumseh after the Siege of Detroit made him a conspicuous target. An unknown American stepped forward from a thicket and fired at a range of barely 2 yards. The musketball struck Brock in the chest and he fell. His last words have been reported as "Push on, don't mind me"

>>31595093
everyone has blown up a T-34

>>31594792
That made me smile
First time after a bitch of a work day

Thanks for that

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Flying an ME-262, Generalleutnant Adolf Galland shot down two B-26 bombers in 1945.

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Don't know if he killed anyone personally as a general, but he was just general badass.

>A cavalry officer who regularly wore both a sword and a monocle, Saucken personified the archetypal aristocratic Prussian conservative who despised the brown mob of Nazis. When he was ordered to take command of the Second Army on 12 March 1945, he came to Hitler's headquarters with his left hand resting casually on his cavalry sabre, his monocle in his eye, saluted and gave a slight bow. This was three 'outrages' at once. He had not given the Nazi salute with raised arm and the words 'Heil Hitler', as had been regulation since 20 July 1944, he had not surrendered his weapon on entering....and had kept his monocle in his eye when saluting Hitler.

>When Hitler told him that he must take his orders from Albert Forster, the Gauleiter (Nazi governor, or "District Leader") of Danzig, Saucken returned Hitler's gaze....and striking the marble slab of the map table with the flat of his hand, he said, 'I have no intention, Herr Hitler, of placing myself under the orders of a Gauleiter'. In doing this he had bluntly contradicted Hitler and not addressed him as Mein Führer.

>To the surprise of everyone who was present, Hitler capitulated and replied, "All right, Saucken, keep the command yourself." Hitler dismissed the General without shaking his hand and Saucken left the room with only the merest hint of a bow.

He got captured by the Soviets and was returned to Germany after the war crippled for the rest of his life.

>>31595144
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5_zvuPw8xU

Don't forget his adjutant as well.

Like a couple other anons said, General Dean.

"The North Koreans then moved against Taejon.[44] On July 19, North Korean forces entered Taejon, the site of the 24th Infantry Division's headquarters.[45] Dean personally led the division in its stand at Taejon.[46][47] The North Koreans quickly surrounded the city and moved in from the west, north and south.[48]

For two days, the 34th Infantry fought the advancing North Koreans in bitter house-to-house fighting. North Korean soldiers continued to infiltrate the city, often disguised as farmers. The remaining elements of the 24th Infantry Division were pushed back block by block.[49] Without radios, and unable to communicate with the remaining elements of the division, Dean joined the men on the front lines, hunting the T-34 tanks with the help of the new shaped-charge, armor-piercing 3.5 inch "Super Bazookas", which had only been put into production two weeks before the war.[50] At one point, Dean personally attacked a tank with a hand grenade, destroying it.[51] He also repeatedly directed the fire of US armor in the city while being exposed to North Korean fire.[12] American forces pulled back gradually after suffering heavy losses, allowing the North Korean 3rd and 4th Divisions to move on the city freely from the north, south, and west roads.[49] The 24th Infantry Division repeatedly attempted to establish its defensive lines, but was repeatedly pushed back by the numerically superior enemy.[39][47]"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_F._Dean#Taejon

Alexander the Great at Gaugamela

My computer does not recognize Gaugamela.

>>31594796
Solid effort.

>>31595593
Try Arbela.

>>31589574
I read in a book that Patton ordered one of his generals to attack a hill in Africa in 42. I can't remember his name. The guy grabbed a carbine and made his way up the hill with his men. Was a shit plan of attack, yadda yadda yadda, Patton is over rated.

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>>31589574
During the battle of Schloss Itter in 1945 both Maxime Weygand and Maurice Gamelin engaged SS troops besieging the castle.

Both were former Commanders-in-chief of the French Military and in their mid to late 70's.

>>31590126
>He got away with it.
For a man who was really only good at signing execution orders for Stalin it's amazing how much Voroshilov got away with.

Anyone else with even half of his fuckups would have been shipped off to the gulag and erased from photos. Instead Voroshilov gets promotions and a nice retirement after Stalin's death.

>>31594745
Aahh the end of month special.

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>>31589574

Not recently.

Didn't Napoleon Bonaparte take up a position at a cannon in some battle? Hence he got the nickname "Little Corporal"?

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>>31589574
My dude Dudakovic led an operation to capture a town by surprise. He was under siege in his own town and badly in need of supplies. There was an autonomous region nearby that was helping the Serbs and with their help they were able to besiege Bihac. He sent one of his men to the leader of APZB saying he would launch a coup but needed their help. APZB buys this and when it seems like there is a coup going on APZB and Serbs go to attack. Well they responded to a bunch of people firing in the air to get their attention and then got ambushed in return. Serbs and APZB got shrekt, Atif got the supplies he needed, and took the town kicking out the populace.

>>31592190
He got up to colonel, not general.

Unless I don't remember him picking up a star, which is also likely.

>>31591434
Howe was pretty based.
He did a lot in trying to prevent war with the continentals.

>>31596085
damn shame so many know Patton and so few know Ridgway.

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Yes.

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>>31594768
Follow-up question:

Why doesn't vodka count as food?

>>31596918
Because Nathan Explosion said so.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjwGr9KKIpM

>>31596552
Yes he did, in the Alps and I think in Toulon.

>>31595278
Straight motherfucking badass.

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>>31589574

>>31598011

>On March 30, 1945, a few miles south of the city of Paderborn in a rural forested area, General Rose was riding at the front of the Task Force Welborn column. The front of this column consisted of his own jeep, a jeep in front of him, a tank at the head of the column, an armored car behind him, and a motorcycle messenger bringing up the rear. Suddenly they began taking small arms fire as well as tank and anti-tank fire. General Rose, along with the other men, jumped into a nearby ditch with his Thompson sub-machine gun as the lead tank took a direct hit and was destroyed. When they realized that they were being surrounded by German tanks they re-entered their jeeps and tried to escape. They drove off the road and through a nearby field before heading back towards the road. When arriving back at the road they realized it was occupied by numerous German Tiger tanks. The lead jeep gunned its engine and narrowly made it past the Tiger tanks and escaped to the other side. The driver of General Rose's jeep attempted to do the same, but one of the German Tigers turned to cut them off and as Rose's jeep was passing the Tiger tank wedged the jeep against a tree. The top hatch of the Tiger tank flung open and a German soldier appeared pointing a machine pistol at the group in the jeep. General Rose reached towards his pistol holster (either to throw it to the ground or in an attempt to fight back). The German soldier shot him several times with at least one round hitting Rose in the head. It is believed that the German tank crews never had any idea that the man they killed was a general because sensitive documents, as well as General Rose's body, were not removed from his jeep.

What a way to go. Very few Allied generals risked themselves in combat compared to their German counterparts.

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>>31590435

Hasso von Manteuffel who alongside Gotthard Heinrici are my favorite German generals of WW2

"von Manteuffel was faced with an overwhelming attack launched by General Konstantin Rokossovsky's 2nd Belorussian Front during the Battle of Berlin. At one point in the battle, Soviet troops entered his headquarters, and killed four of his staff, wounding an equal number. Before they could kill the others, Manteuffel himself shot one, and brought down the other with his trench knife."

>>31596552

He was an artillery officer then so I'm not sure that counts.

>>31596791
Hes one of my favorites having read about him in Korea

>>31590083
Based Koreans.

>>31590126
>>31596406
>He got away with it.

This seems to be a recurring theme with Stalin. If you stood up to him and told him exactly what you thought, you'd get off the hook. Zhukov and Stalin constantly argued and he survived.

>>31601483
Because Stalin and Zhukov are both strong men with principles.

Stalin just happens to be super paranoid.

I hate him but Stalin deserves respect for purging jews, gays and restore the Church/

>>31598138
>What a way to go. Very few Allied generals risked themselves in combat compared to their German counterparts.

I wonder why? I guess we will never know.

>>31601483
To be fair, Zhukov has gained enough respect from the ruling class (engagements against Japan), before Stalin went fully bonkers.

>>31601498
>and restore the Church
Wat.

>>31601536
You don't know?
>The result of state sponsored atheism was to transform the Church into a persecuted and martyred Church. In the first five years after the Bolshevik revolution, 28 bishops and 1,200 priests were executed.[186]

>After Nazi Germany's attack on the Soviet Union in 1941, Joseph Stalin revived the Russian Orthodox Church to intensify patriotic support for the war effort. By 1957 about 22,000 Russian Orthodox churches had become active.
Stalin purged bolsheviks and restored men in faith.

>>31598138
>>31601521

"Example leadership" was somewhat frowned upon for the higher ranks.

>"The constant emphasis on 'example' leadership in our training and teaching has resulted in our losing many valuable leaders-from generals to corporals. Experienced leaders are difficult to re-place; the loss is seriously affecting the efficiency of some of our units. Emergencies sometimes arise which require leaders to expose themselves and by personal example get an attack moving or calm down men who are about to break. Some leaders, however, carry their job to the point that their presence is almost standard operating procedure; as a result, their subordinates do not move unless the leader is there. Each officer and NCO and enlisted man should be trained to do his job and then be given the chance and responsibility of doing it."

>"We want our Captain out-front; we don't care much about the 'position of our battalion commander."

>>31598217
>>31594796
Met a veteran of the Wehrmacht Großdeutschland Division on the train once.
> Was a signal corps guy. Builds forward observation post for von Manteuffel. Manteuffel watches his tanks attack through his binoculars. Soviet Airplane attacks position. Everyone gets wounded or killed except for von Manteuffel. Manteuffel doesn't even flinch and continues to observe his tanks maneuver.

I think Manteuffel was also known for leading attacks in a tank commanding from the front as it is German leadership doctrine still today. Apparantly there are Leopard 2s with a fake guns made out of wood to make room for radio equipment to allow the commanders of tank brigades (usually a brigadier general) to lead from the front.

>>31601731

>Some leaders, however, carry their job to the point that their presence is almost standard operating procedure; as a result, their subordinates do not move unless the leader is there.

That may be true in some armies, but the Wehrmacht was operating on the Auftragstaktik. For a German general of the period, going out into the field was not so much about giving orders on the spot, as much as it was a reminder that they were all in it together, and so their presence was a morale boost. Especially when shit hit the fan.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mission-type_tactics

>>31601791

I've seen it claimed that German NCO's and junior officers were superior compared to their counterparts in other armies because of it, the downside being they were much harder to replace and compounded a decline in leadership/effectiveness by attrition.

Any truth to that?

>>31589574
WW2 during BEF's retreat to Dinkirk.

>>31601860
They weren't for the most part. They suffered from overexpansion. They had like 20,000 excellent officers to begin the war but they also had 100 divisions which were hastily formed. Then it just got worse as the Heer ballooned to hundreds of divisions.

>>31601860
it is very true for the pre-war german army
they had over-qualified everyone, the army was all NCOs and officers basically
then the war came and there were enough cadres for a while, then the army got even bigger and by 1943 you have German tanks crashing headlong into prepared AT defenses and other such stupidities

>>31602166
>then the war came and there were enough cadres for a while
Not even close. Pre-Hitler German army was 100k large. Most were not allowed to leave and be replaced by new recruits. Military schools were limited to three. Hence most officers in the German army that started WW2 (100+ divisions) were just as green and clueless as others.

>>31602192
closer than you think. the Freikorps took in all the WWI vets they could find, many of them field officers, who were the least likely to find gainful civilian employment

>>31602208
Freikorps were a handful of small bands of thugs, not organized militaries or even "well-regulated militia" that could train officers. You need to get your wehraboo goggles checked.

>>31602217
Freikorps provided room and board (in exchange for thuggery work) to a lot of bona-fide officers and NCOs who did not make the cut into the Versailles-limit army
there was also an explosion of hiking, shooting, parachuting and glider clubs

In Panzers At War, by A.J Barker, he cites something that Guderian himself actually found himself in sticky situations several times.

Apparently his HQ came under direct attack when a Soviet infantry division snuck across the river they were camped at at night, and he manned an MG42 for over an hour fighting them back.

Then he was driving in his staff car, when he found himself in a Soviet camp around the bend. He told his driver to 'act natural', and they drove right past them. Weird to think the Soviets had the best German general right fucking there and missed him.

>>31602243
>drive casually
>Comrade commisar, this car looks strange. Is using old code, still valid though
>(stares in soviet)

>>31602243
>best German general
He was good, but definitely not the best

>>31589574
It's more usual for generals to stand in front and show they don't care about being shot at. Napoleon did this in Italy.
Frederick the great went in front on the first line, who were hesitating during a bayonet charge under enemy fire, and pulled his sword and pointed it at the enemy, saying "Onwards, rascals, would you live forever?"
Yes he's the originator of that quote.

>>31602313
So who's better?
Waste of a post.

>>31602445
Adolf Hitler

>>31596747
Many people wished it, it was sorta civil war like in many ways

>>31602445
>Beck
>Jodl
>Rommel
>Model
>von Rundstedt
>von Manstein
>von Kleist

>>31602515
Rundstedt and Kleist were just competent, high-ranking guys from the old guard.
Rommel is a meme.

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>>31602536
>Rommel is a meme.

>>31602566

I hate to break it to you, but he was. He was certainly talented, but he was too emotional for any command over a Division; and he constantly clashed with Kesselring which is not what you want to do. He should have been assigned to East while Walter Model and Gotthard Heinrici was sent to Africa in 1941/42.

>>31602536

Rundstedt was a solid commander, but by 1940 he was showing his antiquity. His name brought a real fear factor though and his reputation as a tough man made him very useful. I mean this is the same man who had a heart attack while leading the attack on Rostov, and requested only a bottle of aspirin and powered right through it.

>>31602609
> wasting Model on a sideshow
no. Rommel got sent there BECAUSE he was a flake. the high command thought him capable of tactical miracles, and that is exactly what they needed, since they never intended to supply him seriously, or gods forbid making his theatre of operations into a principal one
the importance that the Brits attached to north africa was way out of proportion - to the Germans it was just Yugoslavia 2.0 , another shitty situation that they had to extricate the Italians from

>>31602609
> super dosing aspirin right after a heart attack
smart fucker. very smart fucker.

>>31602713
lucky. Im sure they didnt yet know that helped with heart attacks and he took it for pain

>>31602706
They didn't think him capable of anything, that's why they sent him to Africa to hold Tripoli at the end of Brits' logistics line without doing anything too dangerous.

>>31602738
they (by which I mean the OKH) thought him a very capable field commander, but no more
his was in no small part a political appointment

>>31601483
Voroshilov was still a special case. Zhukov at least had a winning record and was good at his job.

Voroshilov fucked up every command he got and managed to humiliate Stalin in front of Roosevelt and Churchill. And he still got to remain part of Stalin's inner circle, not just out of his gulag.

He's just like the tank named after him: not really good at anything, but impossible to get rid of.

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>>31602609
>but he was.
So that's the reason he was the youngest Wehrmacht soldier ever promoted to Generalfeldmarschall?

>>31605025
And after being promoted, all he did was supervise building bunkers while Kesselring was orchestrating the defense of Italy.

>>31605025

He was promoted to the rank for publicity reasons. None of the other generalfeldmarschalls felt he was up to the task.

>>31597495
underrated

>>31605062
>the defense of Italy.

And that went swimmingly

>>31589574
General Miaja spanish civil war during the first siegue of Madrid the frontline was crumbling and the general himself went to the trenches and fought with the rest to give a morale boost to the rest of the troops.

Source: Carr Raymond, the spanish civil war

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>>31589574
Not really a General, but we used to lead charges himself when he was young. At Kunersdorf two horses died under his ass and he got shot at several times

Julius Caesar did some frontline fighting and personally threw his men back into battle at Alesia

>>31606567

Considering Kesselring held the Allies in Italy for the rest of the entire fucking war. Yes, yes it did go swimmingly.

>>31596804
Lol

>>31598138
Which Axis generals voluntarily entered the fray? Not even Rose did it intentionally.

Risking your general officers to set some sort of retarded example on how to not allocate your resources properly is not anything to be proud of.

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>>31589574

>>31596356
French cowards don't count as generals, let alone as men.

Try again.

>>31595278
I kinda want a monocle now.

mfw I only have one slightly bad eye (20/21), so could pull it off

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>>31589574
Since he hasn't been mentioned yet, I'll do the polite Canadian thing and mention Brigadier General John K. Lawson.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_K._Lawson#Battle_of_Hong_Kong
>Lawson was placed in charge of the west brigade, which included the Winnipeg Grenadiers, the Royal Scots, the Punjab Regiment (India) and the Canadian Signallers. The Japanese landed on Hong Kong island on 18 December 1941 with the intent to split the defenders in two. After fierce fighting, Japanese forces surrounded Lawson's headquarters at around 10 a.m. on 19 December. Lawson radioed his commanders that he was going to "fight it out" and left his pillbox with a pistol in each hand, and was killed in the ensuing fight.

He was also immortalized in, though not the focus of, the following commercial about Canadian history.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPLyGYhbedE

>>31596918
Vodka doesn't count as food, but until quite recently beer did in Russia. Any alcoholic beverage under something like 12.5% ABV fell under food tax laws.

>>31589980
he still strapped the corpses to the front of his jeep and drove them back to base.

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>>31597898
>throw such a big hissy fit that even hitler thinks its embarassing
>badass
Heres a real badass, the man the German general in "A Bridge too Far" was based on

>>31608830
I'm sorry, how many commanders-in-chief had killcounts in WWII?

Because last I checked it was only Weygand, Gamelin, and Hitler. And Hitler's only kill was himself.

>>31609812

Based off of who, the Maximilian Schell general? Been a while since I saw it. But if that' the case then you're kind of off. He was called Bittrich and Wilhelm Bittrich was real.

Bittrich was pretty based and pissy like Von Saucken. He was referred to as "The Most Sarcastic Man in the Reich" and routinely got into verbal conflicts with Himmler. Himmler always tried to insert himself into the affairs of the Waffen-SS. The Big 3 (Sepp Ditrich, Papa Hausser and Bittrich) were all army officers before becoming National Socialists and wanted nothing to do with the games the Allgemeine-SS played. At one point Himmler was banned from consorting with their men and Sepp Ditrich quietly told Rommel that if something were to happen to Hitler, as in confirmed dead, the last thing the Waffen-SS wanted to do was support Himmler.

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>>31610688

The Allies tried to charge Bittrich as a war criminal for being Waffen-SS but all the evidence pointed to Bittrich spent the whole war fighting clean

>>31592290
Picture is fucking crazy

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>>31610688
No the Hardy Kruger General " Karl Ludwig", he was supposed to just be Heinz Harmel but Harmel didn't want his name to be used.

>>31601498
>Restore the church

Are you underaged or just mentally handicapped?

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>>31602706

Model should have been sent to Africa with Rommel. Model would not have been needed on the Russian front for sometime. The Russian Front was still moving and Model was a defensive oriented General.

Model could have been the one in charge of setting up the defense and securing the logistical routes while Rommel took his Korps and made deeper slices into the British. Model could have been the one holding Rommel's leash. Kesselring for all his talents, could never keep Rommel under control.

You didn't dare fuck with Model. Not even Hitler.

>In a much-noted incident, Model had to deal with an attempt by Adolf Hitler to interfere with his arrangements. A telephone call from Army Group Center's chief of staff on 19 January 1942 informed him that Hitler, having become nervous about the direct Soviet threat against Vyazma, had decided that XLVII Panzer Corps, 2nd SS Division Das Reich and 5th Panzer Division were not to be employed in the imminent counterattack but reserved for other use in the rearguard. Immediately, Model drove back from Rzhev to Vyazma in a raging blizzard and boarded a plane for East Prussia. Bypassing the figure of field marshal Günther von Kluge, his immediate superior, he sought a personal confrontation with Hitler. At first he attempted to lay out his reasons in the best, dispassionate General Staff manner, only to find the Führer unmoved by logic. Suddenly, glaring at Hitler through his monocle, Model brusquely demanded to know: "Mein Führer, who commands Ninth Army, you or I?". Hitler, shocked at the defiance of his newest army commander, tried to find another solution favorable for both, but Model still was not satisfied. "Good, Model", the exasperated Hitler finally responded. "You do it as you please, but it will be your head at risk"

Hitler later remarked: "Did you see that eye? I trust that man to do it, but I wouldn't want to serve under him"

>>31610808

ooh, ok. Sorry to call you out. Again, it's been at least 10 years since I saw that movie. Might need to run a marathon of war movies

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>>31609812
>>31610837
Heinz actually asked Model for permission to blow up a few bridges, but was denied. In classic German fashion he disobeyed the order, wired Nijmegen bridge, and then watched as it failed to detonate.
Here's a Brit officer relaying an interview with him.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7JWd_UtCy0

>>31603756
Constantly going toe to toe with Stalin and denouncing the purges in front of Zhukov is probably what saved Voroshilov's life - he was heavily involved in the purges and Stalin's rise to power, but unlike Lavrenty Beria he got sick of Stalin's shit and Stalin's sucessors took notice

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Just before dawn on April 16, 1945, Russian Marshal Georgi Zhukov gave the signal to attack. More than 20,000 field guns, mortars, and Katyushkas began firing on German positions west of Kustrin on the Oder River. People in Berlin, forty miles away, heard the barrage, and many of the gunners began to bleed from the ears so great was the noise. The greatest artillery onslaught of the war lasted for more than half an hour, and Zhukov believed no army on earth could withstand such fire.

And he would have been correct, except it all fell on empty lines. General-Oberst Gotthard Heinrici had pulled his troops back hours before to let the Russians blast unoccupied ground. Now, when three Russian armies moved forward in a huge mass of 750,00 men and 1800 tanks, the Germans stopped them in their tracks.

If the Russians had known who faced them, they wouldn’t have been surprised by this defensive tactic, for Heinrici had been doing similar things to them for more than three years.

>>31610959


Heinrici had built his reputation as a brilliant defensive fighter during the disastrous winter of 1941-42. He was placed in command of the 4th Army at the gates of Moscow, when the Soviets threw a hundred divisions at his freezing and ill-clad troops. He held out for almost ten weeks using every method available to him. Goading, exhorting, promoting, and tactfully retreating, he kept his army intact in the face of 12-l odds. It was here, that Heinrici developed the technique that served him so well in the defense of Berlin. From intelligence reports, patrols, interrogation of prisoners, and an extraordinary sixth sense, he was able to pinpoint the time and place of impending Russian attacks. He’d order his troops to retreat the night before to new positions one or two miles back. ‘We let them hit an empty bag,” he said.

In fighting on the long retreat from Stalingrad, his soldiers held their ground well, knowing that Heinrici would never throw their lives away needlessly. He contested every mile, every step, and then would withdraw to safer ground when a situation became hopeless. A staff officer said of him, ‘Heinrici retreats only when the air is turned to lead…and then only with determination.”

The retreat was interrupted at Smolensk in 1943. He was accused by Reich Marshal Goering of failing to carry out the Fuhrer’s scorched-earth policy. He narrowly escaped court martial, but was instead declared in ill health, and dispatched to a nursing home in Karlsbad, Czechoslovakia.

The incident with Goering was not unexpected, as Heinrici never got along with the toadies and lackeys that made up much of Hitler’s inner circle. After listening to on interminable discussion in the Fuhrerbunker that involved phantom divisions and panzer armies which no longer existed, Heinrici called it ‘Cloud Cuckoo-land.’

>>31610959
>I told Gotthard to use the same tactic for 3 years and he actually did it!

>>31610969

He was the sort of soldier that Hitler intensely disliked, having come from a family of military aristocrats ( His Cousin Generalfeldmarschall Gerd von Rundsteadt) —a class Hitler despised and blamed for leading Germany to defeat in World War I. Heinrici had spend forty of his fifty-eight years in the army, serving with solid professionalism, but in almost impenetrable obscurity. There had been no dashing blitzkrieg attacks, no full-page layouts in Das Signal, the Nazi magazine devoted to military triumphs.

And, worst of all, Heinrici had no time for, nor interest in, the spit and polish, the black boots, and baton-pounding posturing so common to the German general officers.

In fact, those meeting him for the first time would never suspect he was a general. Short, slightly built, with fair hair and a neat mustache, Heinrici seemed at first glance a schoolmaster, and a rather shabby one at that. He wore his uniforms until they were threadbare, and refused to part with a ratty sheepskin coat he wore for the duration of the war.

But if he didn’t look the part of a general, he acted like one. He was every inch the soldier, and his troops called him affectionately ‘unser Giftzwerg—our tough little bastard.’

>>31610990


When the Russians opened their winter offensive in 1943, it was Heinrici’s 4th Army which bore the brunt of it, holding a hundred mile front between Orsha and Rogachev, with only ten depleted divisions. The Russians delivered five offensives against him between October and December, each lasting five or six days, with several renewed efforts each day.

They deployed some twenty divisions in the first offensive, when the Germans had just occupied a hastily-prepared position consisting of a single trench line. They employed thirty divisions in the next offensive, and the subsequent attacks were made with some thirty-six divisions.

The main weight of the Russian assault was concentrated on a front of a dozen miles astride the Moscow-Minsk highway. Heinrici used three-and-a-half divisions on this very narrow front, leaving six-and-a-half to cover the remainder of his extensive line. He thus had a dense ratio of force versus space at the vital point.

Heinrici was well aware of the Russian tendency to mass troops and armor at a central point, and then try to simply overwhelm the defenders. His artillery was almost intact, and he concentrated 380 guns to cover the crucial sector. Controlled by a single artillery commander at 4th Army headquarters, he was able to concentrate his fire at any threatened point of the sector.

At the same time, Heinrici made a practice of ‘milking’ the divisions on the quiet part of his front in order to provide one fresh battalion daily during the battle, for each of the divisions that were heavily engaged. This usually balanced the previous day’s loss, while giving the division concerned an intact local reserve that it could use for counterattack.

>>31611001


The drawbacks of mixing formations were diminished by a system of rotation within each division— which now consisted of three regiments, each of two battalions.

For the second day of battle, the re-enforcing battalion would be the sister of the one that was brought in the day before. After two more days, a second completely new regiment would be in the lines; and on the sixth day, the original division would have been relieved altogether, and gone to hold a quiet sector recently vacated by the replacement units.

The repeated successes of this defensive maneuver against overwhelming odds were a remarkable achievement. They indicated how the war might have been drawn out, and the Russians’ strength exhausted if the defensive strategy had matched the tactics. But this prospect was wrecked by Hitler’s insistence that no withdrawal be made without his permission, and an accompanying reluctance to give such permission. With parrot-like repetition, the Supreme Command recited ‘every man must fight where he stands.’ Commanders who used their discretion were subject to court martial, even in cases where it was only a matter of withdrawing a small detachment from an isolated position.

Thus, Heinrici could count himself lucky that he was only confined to convalescence in the Karlsbad nursing home. He knew the war was being lost, and fully expected to never wear the Wehrmacht uniform again; a prospect he found unbearably frustrating.

>>31611018


There he languished for eight months as the Allies landed at Normandy, increased pressure in Italy; as the Russians moved every closer to the Reich, and Hitler survived the generals’ bomb plot. At last, late in the summer of 1944, he was ordered back to duty in Hungary as commander of First Panzer and Hungarian First armies. Although forced to retreat from northern Hungary, he contested the ground so tenaciously that on March 3, 1945, he was decorated with the Swords to the Oak Leaves of his Knight’s Cross—a remarkable achievement for a man so intensely disliked by Hitler.

At about this time, Heinz Guderian, Chief of the General Staff (OKW), began to entreat Hitler to place Heinrici in command of Army Group Vistula, replacing Heinrich Himmler.

That Himmler had ever been in command was in itself either shockingly naive or criminally ignorant. Himmler was one of Hitler’s closest associates, the head of the SS and the Gestapo, and considered the most powerful man in Germany next to the Fuhrer himself. A former chicken farmer, Himmler had not held military command at even a regimental level, let alone was he capable of commanding a major group of several armies.

>>31595146
I haven't ;(

>>31611029

After the failure of the Ardennes offensive in the West, Guderian had been able to convince Hitler that the only hope for survival in the East lay in having Heinrici direct the defense there. Hitler finally agreed after Himmler resigned the position because of ‘other pressing duties.’

It was, therefore, an evolving set of circumstances that brought Heinrici in April, 1945, to the line of defenses along the Oder and Neisse Rivers, and which would determine the fates of Berlin and the entire German nation.

What he found upon taking command was chaos. He had nearly half a million men, but their quality and loyalty were in question. Mixed with regular German troops were Romanians and Hungarians. Two Waffen-SS divisions were made up of Norwegian and Dutch volunteers. There was even a formation of former Russian POW’s that he expected to desert at the first opportunity. His shortages were acute in gasoline, ammunition, food, medicine, tanks, and even in rifles. One anti-tank regiment had one projectile for each man!

Within one week of taking command, Heinrici had bulldozed his way through these seemingly insurmountable difficulties. He cajoled and goaded his troops, growled at and praised them, to build morale and to gain time to save lives. He moved all the anti-aircraft guns out of Berlin where they were no longer effective. Though they were immobile, needing to be set in concrete, they did help to fill the gap; the Third Panzer Army alone received 600 flak guns.

>>31610913
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWL184ZcSxA

>>31598138
Probably had less to do with their Generals and more to do with the fact that the men under their command where getting wiped out on a regular basis.

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>>31611048


His adroit anticipation of Zhukov’s barrage and his astute movement of troops from one critical point to another served him well, as it had in the past. But he was under no illusions that the collapse of the Reich was inevitable. His only hope at the point was to prevent the wholesale loss of his armies, and to prevent a block-by-block, house-by-house battle in Berlin, which he knew would kill thousands of civilians.

When his forward position on the Oder became indefensible under mounting Russian attacks, he ordered the German Third army to retreat, setting up a second line of defense. As expected this was met with an immediate and sharp reaction from the Fuhrerbunker. Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, one of Hitler’s primary sycophants arrived on the scene. After berating Heinrici for cowardice, Keitel ordered the Third Army not be moved to secondary positions. When Heinrici refused, Keitel removed him from command of Army Group Vistula.

As Heinrici drove toward his headquarters at Plon, he told his driver to do so slowly. Perhaps the war would be over before they arrived.

------

The story forgot one the chief reasons for Heinrici's hatred of Hitler. Heinrici fell deeply in love with and married a half Jewish woman and had quite a few quarter Jewish children. He had to ask Hitler for permission to circumvent the racial laws. He never forgot it.

>>31596818
F A K E
A
K
E

>>31589574
I'm surprised none of my fellow burgers mentioned Washington. At the Battle of Princeton in January 1777, American militiamen began to flee after the British overran Continental Army troops. On seeing that, Washington rode up with reinforcements and rallied the fleeing militia. Then he personally led the counterattack on the British.

Not sure if he shot anyone personally or stabbed them, but Washington had a number of horses shot out from under him. Pretty much friend and foe alike thought he had divine protection due to the sheer number of close calls he had yet never being wounded.

>>31594748
>Oskar Dirlewanger
not a real general (by the time he reached the rank it was regarded as a "senior colonel" -rank)

great thread

>>31609223
Sgt Major Osborn of Winnipeg

F