Fedor von Bock

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Fedor von Bock (December 3, 1880 - May 4, 1945) was a Generalfeldmarschall of the Wehrmacht who served as Army Group Center's commander during the attack on the Soviet Union in 1941. von Bock was considered a very "by the book" general and was not heavily involved in politics but also did not sympathize with those who opposed Adolf Hitler.

He was born in Küstrin, Germany. He attended a military academy then joined the German Army in 1897. He served in the First World War and by 1918 he had attained the rank of major. He remained in the army after the end of the war, serving as commander of the Third Army Group.

He was one of the few officers not removed from his position when Hitler reorganized the German military at the onset of World War II in September 1939. At that time, von Bock was assigned to lead Army Group North during the successful invasion of Poland. After his success with the blitzkrieg against France, Belgium, and The Netherlands, von Bock was promoted to field marshal. He was then given his most famous mission; Operation Barbarossa, the capture of Moscow and the defeat of the Soviet Union. In 1941, von Bock invaded Soviet-occupied Poland, destroying the non-aggression pact between Germany and the Soviets. By December, all of Poland had been subdued, as well as the Ukrainian SSR, Belarus, and most of western Russia.

However, von Bock was unfortunate enough to get caught in the vicious Russian winter, when some of his men were within 30 km of Moscow. Temperatures dropped to an average of -30º C, but his men only had their thin fall jackets (Hitler wouldn't send winter uniforms, in order to assure the soldiers that the war will be won before the winter). Tank engines routinely failed, and their weapons jammed frequently. However, Hitler ordered von Bock to stand his ground. The Russian forces, commanded by Marshal Georgy Zhukov, quickly went on a counteroffensive, driving the Germans back 145 km from Moscow. German casualties were listed in the thousands, and Moscow would not be threatened for the rest of the war.

When von Bock asked for permission to withdraw his exhausted troops in December 1941, he was dismissed from his post as Commander of Army Group Center, to be reassigned to lead Army Group South in January 1942, when field marshal Walter von Reichenau died of a heart attack. Only five months later, in July 1942, Hitler blamed him for the failure of "Operation Braunschweig", the second part of the German offensive in Russia, and retired him definitively.

After Hitler's suicide, von Bock offered his services to Admiral Karl Dönitz, the new leader of Germany. While in Hamburg, von Bock was killed in an Allied bombing raid on May 4, 1945.

While privately opposing the atrocities being committed against Soviet civilians, von Bock never protested directly to Hitler, although at one time, he had a subordinate file a formal complaint ("Meine Herren, ich stelle fest: Der Feldmarschall von Bock hat protestiert!" - "gentlemen, I state: The field marshal von Bock has protested"). His nephew Henning von Tresckow tried in vain to win him for the military resistance against the Hitler regime. Von Bock intervened, when his Staff officers planned the assassination of Hitler during a visit to his Army Group. On the other hand he did not report the conspirators either.

One of the reasons for von Bock's dismissal is believed to have been his expressed interest in supporting the Russian Liberation Movement, which Hitler was categorically against.

[edit] Trivia

In the film The Final Countdown, the USS Nimitz (stranded in time on December 6, 1941) picks up a radio broadcast which mentions that forces under General von Bock are advancing on Moscow.

German Field Marshals (Generalfeldmarschall) of World War II (in alphabetical order)
Werner von Blomberg | Fedor von Bock | Walther von Brauchitsch | Ernst Busch | Hermann Göring | Robert Ritter von Greim | Wilhelm Keitel | Albert Kesselring | Ewald von Kleist | Günther von Kluge | Georg von Küchler | Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb | Wilhelm List | Erich von Manstein |Erhard Milch | Walter Model | Friedrich Paulus | Walther von Reichenau | Wolfram von Richthofen | Erwin Rommel | Gerd von Rundstedt | Ferdinand Schörner | Hugo Sperrle | Maximilian von Weichs | Erwin von Witzleben
Honorary: Eduard von Böhm-Ermolli
German Grand Admirals (Großadmiral) of World War II
Erich Raeder | Karl Dönitz