Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt was commander-in-chief of the German forces in France during the Normandy invasion, and an architect of Germany's rise to world dominance in the 1930s and 1940s. Rundstedt spent over fifty years in German military service, and gained a reputation as a first-rate military strategist, winning many admirers, even among the Allied generals. Eisenhower considered Rundstedt, above Rommel, to be the "ablest of the German generals." (1)
In choosing military life, Gerd von Rundstedt continued the tradition begun by his father and grandfather. He entered a military academy at age twelve, and rose to the rank of major by the end of World War I.
Following World War I, Rundstedt continued to rise in the ranks of the German Army. By 1932, he commanded the First Army Group, giving him control of over half of the German Army. (2) He was instrumental in its covert build up, and a pivotal figure and architect of the invasions of Poland, France, and Russia.
On 1 September 1939, Germany invaded Poland. By mid-September, German forces under Rundstedt's command reached the capital city of Warsaw. On 28 September 1939, Polish military forces in Warsaw surrendered to the Germans. (3) The invasion of Poland solidified French and British opposition to Germany. World War II had begun.
France was next on Hitler's path of conquest. Following the capitulation of French forces in 1940, Rundstedt was elevated to the rank of field marshal. (4) Hitler, impressed with Rundstedt's performance, commented to an aide that he approved Rundstedt's technique of command: "It conformed to his [Hitler's] own thinking entirely." (5)
After France, Hitler turned to Russia and issued the Commissar Order that called for the immediate execution of captured Russian military officials. The order called for the immediate execution of and collective reprisals against Soviet civilians for any acts of resistance to the German forces. In the course of World War II, over twenty million Russian soldiers and citizens were killed. (6)
The Russian campaign did not produce the speedy conquest that many German officials expected. Rundstedt and other generals in Hitler's army were apprehensive about the Russian campaign, believing the terrain and climate would defeat the blitzkrieg military maneuvers used so successfully in Poland and France. (7)
Although the summer had enabled marked advances, by November a brutal Russian winter set in and German supplies were low. Hitler ignored Rundstedt's request for relief and ordered the field marshal to move his troops forward. But Russia's climate overwhelmed the Germans, and on 29 November 1941, Rundstedt's forces retreated against Hitler's orders. Following the retreat, Hitler ordered Rundstedt's resignation. (8)
Hitler relented as the war progressed, recalling Rundstedt to duty and appointing him commander-in-chief of the western front in 1942. By 1943, the tide of the war had turned against Germany. With his own forces diverted to the Russian campaign, Rundstedt requested additional military reinforcements for France. In response, Hitler sent Erwin Rommel to help Rundstedt prepare for an Allied invasion.
Rundstedt and Rommel disagreed on strategic plans to thwart Allied invasion. Rommel's plans relied on defeating the Allied force on the beaches. Rundstedt's plan relied on the beaches as the first line of defense and proposed a fall-back line of panzer divisions farther inland. When Hitler determined a compromise between the two plans, Rundstedt lost control of his command, and the compromise strategy led to Germany's defeat at Normandy.
Once again, Hitler dismissed Rundstedt from duty, only to recall him in the final days of the Reich to command a final assault against the Allied forces. Rundstedt's response to Hitler was, "My Fⁿhrer, whatever you order, I shall do to my last breath." (9)
Despite formidable Allied opposition, Rundstedt led depleted German forces through the Allied lines in the Ardennes forest on 16 December 1944; the Battle of the Bulge was Germany's last major offensive of World War II.
On 1 May 1945, Rundstedt was taken prisoner by United States forces at a medical facility near Munich, Germany. The general, weakened by years of military service and heart problems, explained to reporters that "if he had not been a hospital patient at the time it would have been necessary to take him by force of arms." (10)
Following his capture, Rundstedt was tried in Nuremberg for war crimes and placed in military detention until 1949. During the trials, Rundstedt responded to the issue of why he did not join the attempt to assassinate Hitler by saying, "I never would have thought of such a thing; that would have been base, bare-faced treachery. . . " (11) Following his incarceration, Rundstedt resettled in Germany, where he died in 1953.
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1. Dwight D. Eisenhower, "Crusade in Europe," (New York: Double Day, 1948), p. 386.
2. Earl F. Ziemke, "Rundstedt: Field-Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt," in "Hitler's Generals," Correlli Barnett, ed., (George Weidenfeld & Nicolson Limited: New York, 1989), p. 180.
3. Ibid., p. 185.
4. Ibid., p. 191.
5. Ibid., p. 190.
6. Michael Wright, ed., "The Reader's Digest Illustrated History of World War II: The World at Arms," (The Reader's Digest Association: New York, 1989), p. 465.
7. Ziemke, p. 10.
8. "The Last of the Great Prussians," (Time Magazine, March 9, 1953), p.27.
9. Ziemke, p. 201.
10. Richard J.H. Johnston, "Rundstedt Calls Allies Too Strong," (The New York Times, 5, May, 1945), p. 5.
11. International Military Tribunal, "Trial of Major War Criminals, vol. 21," (Nuremberg: International Military Tribunal, 1948), p. 30.
