The sign of a good commander is the ability to adapt with lightning speed to an unstable situation on the battlefield. Walter Model was one such commander. The master of defense on whom Hitler could rely in the most difficult circumstances. "The Fuhrer's fireman", who saved situations that were hopeless for the Wehrmacht on the Eastern Front. Thanks to his military merits, Model enjoyed Hitler's great confidence. Guderian recalled him as "a brave and tireless soldier ... the most suitable general for the prohibitively difficult task of restoring the central part of the Eastern Front."
At 53, Model became the youngest field marshal in the Wehrmacht. Coming from a civilian family, he took his place among the Prussian military aristocracy. But even as head of the High Command of the Western Front, Model was equally far from both staff work and the politics of the Third Reich, which was heading towards the sunset. His element was the battlefield: on the front line, among shots and explosions, shoulder to shoulder with his soldiers. This is the reason for his brilliant successes ... and unfortunate defeats.
The beginning of a military career
The origin of the Model did not portend a bright military career. Otto Moritz Walter Model was born on January 24, 1891 in Genthin, near Magdeburg, into a family of Lutheran teachers. His father taught at a local girls' school, and his mother came from a peasant family.
At the end of World War II, Model ordered all his personal records to be burned, so little is known about his childhood. The future field marshal was distinguished by a weak physique, loved Latin and history, was a member of a literary circle. Young Walter got his first impression of military art in 1906, when he transferred to the church gymnasium in Naumburg (Saale). At that time, the Kaiser Jaeger Battalion was there. Apparently, the 15-year-old boy was so impressed by the military exercises that he decided to connect his life with the army. Two years later, Model entered the military school in Neuss as an officer candidate for the 52nd Infantry Regiment of the 6th Brandenburg Division. For a man of low birth, this was not easy, but Walter was helped by his uncle, who served as a reserve officer there. According to the memoirs of other graduates, a brutal order reigned in the school. As in any closed society, there was an internal hierarchy that allowed superiors to humiliate and beat inferiors; despite the lack of clear office instructions, any cadet could be severely punished for any misconduct. Nevertheless, Model withstood two years of testing and on August 22, 1910 he left the walls of the school with the rank of lieutenant of the Prussian army.
Walter Model in 1918
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Model immediately established himself as a conscientious and ambitious officer. He was not afraid to openly declare his position, let go of caustic remarks, could argue with his superiors. Model carried these qualities through his entire career. Like his contemporaries, Model participated in the battles of the First World War. There he developed a reputation as a capable and hard-working officer, and received several battle wounds and decorations. Walter Model met the surrender of Germany in the rank of captain, after which he continued his military career within the walls of the General Staff. In 1920, General von Rantau described him as "having all the makings and qualities necessary for the highest command posts." As time has shown, the general was not mistaken.
Friend of a soldier, enemy of staff officers
In 1932, Model was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel. Two years later, already in the rank of colonel, he took command of the 2nd Infantry Regiment. For Germany, this was a special period associated with the rise of Hitler to power, the rapid build-up of weapons, the expansion and modernization of the army. In 1935, the chief of the General Staff, Ludwig Beck, organized the 8th department in his department to analyze technical innovations. He appointed Model as the head of this department. The colonel, accustomed to the infantry, had difficulty understanding the technical details of innovative projects. However, this did not prevent him from immediately assessing the potential of tanks and aircraft and defending innovations.
In 1938, Model, with the rank of major general, was transferred to the headquarters of the 4th Army Corps, in which he took part in the Polish campaign of 1939. The following year, at the head of the 16th Army, he participates in the invasion of France, after which he takes command of the 3rd Panzer Division. By this time, a double attitude towards the Model was already in full swing. The soldiers under his direct command respected their commander and appreciated his willingness to act swiftly and mercilessly. The general liked to be on the front line and give orders in the heat of battle. For the same reason, staff officers did not like him: in an emergency, he acted at his own discretion and did not seek to coordinate every order with his superiors.
On the eastern front of World War II
Model entered the war with Russia on the Eastern Front. His division was at the forefront of the 2nd Panzer Group of General Heinz Guderian, breaking through the Soviet defenses at Brest-Litovsk, Rogachev, Baranovichi. On July 9, 1941, Model received the Knight's Cross as a reward for his services. After the rapid capture of Smolensk and Kyiv, he was appointed commander of the 41st motorized corps. The model participated in Operation Typhoon, during which German troops almost reached Moscow.
The commander of the German 3rd Panzer Division in the 2nd Panzer Group, Major General Walter Model (left) and the commander of the 2nd Panzer Group, Colonel General Heinz Guderian. 1941
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When winter frosts began, the Soviet army managed to push the enemy back to the west. Enraged by such a failure, Hitler removed several dozen of his generals from their posts. At the beginning of 1942, Walter Model was appointed to the vacant post of commander of the 9th Army. The reasons why his personality attracted the Fuhrer can be considered in two ways. On the one hand, his pro-Hitler views could play a role. A number of biographers speculate on this as the main reason that allowed Model to slip through the three steps of the army hierarchy and bypass many of his colleagues up the career ladder: less than six months had passed since he became a colonel general. But no less important were his competent actions during the retreat near Moscow, which could not but attract the attention of Hitler.
Model (center) on the Eastern Front, July 1941
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On February 1, Model was awarded the Oak Leaves to the Knight's Cross. Just a couple of weeks earlier, he had had a lively argument with Hitler over strategy and tactics. The model was able to prove that the field commander imagines the situation on the battlefield much better than the generals bending over the maps in Berlin. Hitler agreed. The general was allowed to regroup on the battlefield, and he received the requested reinforcements. In the battles near Rzhev, Model was able to realize the trust placed in him. Repelling the offensive of the Soviet troops, the 9th Army held a bridgehead near the city for more than a year, inflicting significant losses on the enemy: about a million people, including prisoners and wounded. Model's army retreated only in the spring of 1943, when the general situation of the German troops on the Eastern Front deteriorated markedly.
"Lion of Defense"
The "Lion of Defense" walked along Soviet soil with a heavy tread, leaving behind scorched earth and ruined destinies. The Nuremberg Tribunal established a lot of evidence of the atrocities of his 9th Army on Soviet soil. Do not forget that Model has not only brilliant tactical maneuvers and impressive victories, but also thousands of civilians killed. In the captured Rzhev, several dozen people were hanged in the central square, thousands were shot, about 100 Jews were brutally murdered in Sychevka, 200 people were burned alive in Drachevo, another 79 in Kharin ... People were expelled from their homes, cattle were taken away, food was destroyed. Many fell into the hands of SS punitive detachments. Such was the price of the victories of the Third Reich.
Walter Model speaking to members of the Hitler Youth, October 1944
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After the retreat, Model took an active part in the offensive near Kursk - the famous Operation Citadel. In the ranks of the high command of the German army there was no agreement on the plan of the operation. General Manstein and Model's immediate superior, General von Kluge, hoped to attack the Kursk Bulge before the Soviet troops could strengthen their defenses. However, Model himself called for caution and refused to lead his 9th Army into the attack until it received sufficient reinforcements. He was supported by Guderian, who warned Hitler that the offensive could be "useless" and bring only heavy losses. And so it happened - but in many respects precisely because of Model's advice to delay the attack. This was his first major defeat, which exposed the weaknesses of his commanding abilities. Being an excellent tactician on the battlefield and skillfully plugging defense gaps with reserves, Model could not become an equally competent “broad profile” strategist: to correctly assess the options for the development of the situation, and most importantly, to plan an offensive. Nevertheless, his art of building defense was extremely useful to Hitler in the last years of the war.
Model, Rundstedt and Krebs examining a map of the Western Front, November 1944
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In January 1944, Model was given command of Army Group North, which was in serious trouble due to the Soviet offensive in the Leningrad region. Finding himself in the elements familiar to 1942, he was able to stop the enemy troops, which were rapidly advancing towards the Baltic. Hitler appreciated the merits of Model: on March 1, he became the youngest Field Marshal of the Wehrmacht. For the next six months, the Model was deployed throughout the Eastern Front to plug holes in the defenses and ensure the retreat of demoralized German units. For these services, on August 17, Model received Diamonds for the Knight's Cross and the order to take control of the situation on the Western Front.
The Allied landings in Normandy brought Germany to the brink of defeat. Once in France, Model faced the same problems as on the Eastern Front. In August, he withdrew the encircled troops from the Falaise "pocket", in September he organized the defense of Oosterbeek after the Allied landing on the Armenian bridge. The Ardennes became the second Kursk for the field marshal. After a successful offensive in December 1944, Model did not want to switch to strategic defense for anything. Despite the superior artillery power of the American army, he led the tanks in the attack. The field marshal again failed to assess the development of the situation - and paid dearly for it, losing not only thousands of soldiers, but also Hitler's authority.
Disappointed Model (center) on the Western Front near Aachen, in a Volkswagen Kübelwagen, October 1944
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Defeats followed one after another, the war came to a predictable end. Realizing this, Model did not wait for the inevitable captivity and possible execution. Moreover, he could hardly imagine a suitable occupation for himself outside the army, to which he devoted his whole life. On April 21, 1945, Field Marshal Walter Model shot himself in the forest near the village of Wedau. Nazi Germany capitulated two weeks later.
Literature:
- Stephen Newton. Hitler's "firefighter" - Field Marshal Model. M., 2007.
- Correlli Barnett. Hitler's Generals. NY, 1989.
- Liddell, Garth, Basil Henry. Battles of the Third Reich. Memoirs of the highest ranks of the generals of Nazi Germany. M., 2004
