Everything about Fedor Von Bock totally explained
Fedor von Bock (
December 3,
1880 –
May 4,
1945) was an
officer in the
German military from 1898 to 1945, attaining the
rank of
Generalfeldmarschall (Field Marshal) during
World War II. As a leader who lectured his soldiers about the honor of dying for the German Fatherland, he was nicknamed "Der Sterber" (literally, "The Dier") . Bock served as the commander of
Army Group North during the
Invasion of Poland in 1939, commander of
Army Group B during the
Invasion of France in 1940, and later as the commander of
Army Group Center during the attack on the
Soviet Union in 1941; his final command was that of
Army Group South in 1942.
Bock is best known for commanding
Operation Typhoon, the ultimately failed attempt to capture
Moscow during the winter of 1941. The
Wehrmacht offensive was slowed by stiff
Soviet resistance around
Mozhaisk, and also by the
Rasputitsa, the season of rain and mud in Russia. The soft dirt roads in Russia quickly turned into
quagmires, and as a result the pace of the German advance slowed to a crawl. Once the full fury of the Russian winter struck, which was the coldest in over 50 years, the German armies quickly became unable to conduct further combat operations, with more casualties occurring due to the cold weather than from battle. The Soviet counteroffensive soon drove the German army into retreat, and Bock, who recommended an earlier withdrawal, was subsequently relieved of command by
Adolf Hitler.
A lifelong officer in the German military, Bock was considered to be a very "by the book"
general. He also had a reputation for being a fiery lecturer, earning him the nickname “Holy Fire of Küstrin”. Bock wasn't considered to be a brilliant
theoretician, but possessed a strong sense of determination, feeling that the greatest glory that could come to a German soldier was to die on the battlefield for the Fatherland.
Bock personally despised
Nazism, and wasn't heavily involved in politics. However, he also didn't sympathize with plots to overthrow
Adolf Hitler, and never filed official protests over the treatment of civilians by the
Schutzstaffel. Bock was also uncommonly outspoken, a privilege Hitler extended to him only because he'd been successful in battle.
Early life
Fedor von Bock was born in
Küstrin, a fortress city on the banks of the
Oder River in the
Province of Brandenburg. His full name given at birth was Moritz Albrecht Franz Friedrich Fedor.
He was born into a
Prussian
Protestant aristocratic family whose military heritage is traceable to the time of the
Hohenzollerns. His father, Karl Moritz von Bock, commanded a division in the
Franco-Prussian War, and was decorated for bravery at the
Battle of Sedan. His great-grandfather served in the armies of
Frederick the Great, and his grandfather was an officer in the Prussian Army at
Jena. His mother, Olga Helene Fransziska Freifrau von Falkenhayn von Bock, was of both German and
Russian aristocratic heritage. Bock was distantly related to
Erich von Falkenhayn.
At the age of eight, Bock went to
Berlin to study at the
Potsdam and Gross Lichterfelde Military Academy. The education emphasized Prussian
militarism, and he quickly became adept in academic subjects such as modern
languages,
mathematics, and
history. He spoke fluent
French, and to a fair degree
English and
Russian. At an early age, and largely due to his father, Bock developed an unquestioned loyalty to the state and dedication to the military profession. This upbringing would greatly influence his actions and decisions when he commanded armed forces during the
Second World War. At the age of 17, Bock became an officer candidate in the Imperial Foot Guards Regiment at Potsdam; he received an officer’s commission a year later. He entered service with the rank of
Sekondeleutnant.
The tall, thin, narrow-shouldered Bock had a dry and cynical sense of humor; he seldom smiled. His manner was described as being arrogant, ambitious, and opinionated; he approached military bearing with an unbending demeanor. While not a brilliant theoretician, Bock was a highly determined officer. As one of the highest ranking officers in the
Reichswehr, he often addressed graduating cadets at his
alma mater. His theme was always that the greatest glory that could come to a German soldier was to die for the
Fatherland. He quickly earned the nickname “Holy Fire of Kürstin”.
In 1905, Bock married Mally von Reichenbach, a young Prussian noblewoman, whom he'd originally met in Berlin. They were married in a traditional military wedding at the Potsdam garrison. They had a daughter, born two years after the marriage. A year later, Bock attended the War Academy in Berlin, and after a year’s study he joined the ranks of the General Staff. He soon joined the patriotic Army League and become a close associate of other young German officers such as
Walther von Brauchitsch,
Franz Halder, and
Gerd von Rundstedt. In 1908, he was promoted to the rank of
Oberleutnant.
World War I
By the time the
First World War began in
1914, Bock was a
Hauptmann. He was assigned as a divisional staff officer in
von Rupprecht’s army group on the
Western Front. Major von Bock was a friend of the Crown Prince of Germany. Two days before the Armistice, he met with Kaiser
Wilhelm II at
Spa, Belgium, in an unsuccessful attempt to persuade the Kaiser to return to Berlin to crush the
mutiny at Kiel. After the Treaty of Versailles was signed, limiting the German Army to 100,000 troops, Bock stayed on as an officer of the post-treaty
Reichswehr, and rose through the ranks. In 1935, Adolf Hitler appointed General von Bock as commander of the Third Army Group. Bock was one of the
officers not removed from his position when Hitler reorganized the armed forces during the phase of German rearmament before the outbreak of World War II. He remained a monarchist, and was a frequent visitor to the former Kaiser's estate. Hitler reportedly said of him, "Nobody in the world but Von Bock can teach soldiers to die." Bock himself told his troops, "The ideal soldier fulfills his duty to the utmost, obeys without even thinking, thinks only when ordered to do so, and has as his only desire to die the honorable death of a soldier killed in action."
General von Bock commanded the invasion of Vienna in March 1938 for the
Anschluss and then the invasion of
Czechoslovakia, before leading German armies into the Second World War.
World War II
Invasion of Poland
By
August 25,
1939, Bock was in command of
Army Group North in preparation for the invasion and conquest of
Poland. The objective of Army Group North was to destroy the Polish forces north of the
Vistula. Army Group North was composed of General
Georg von Küchler's
3rd Army, and General
Günther von Kluge's
4th Army. These struck southward from East Prussia and eastward across the base of the
Polish Corridor, respectively.
In just five weeks, Poland was overrun by German and Soviet forces and Bock had linked Germany back to
East Prussia. Following the success in Poland, Bock returned to Berlin to begin preparations for the upcoming campaign in the West.
Invasion of France
Shortly after the conquest of Poland, on
October 12,
1939, Bock was given command of
Army Group B, with 291/2 divisions, including three armoured divisions. These were tasked with advancing through the
Low Countries and luring the northern units of the
Allied armies into a pocket. Army Group B consisted of the
18th Army and
Sixth Army.
On
July 18,
1940, Bock was promoted to the rank of
Generalfeldmarschall during a reception held by Adolf Hitler. For much of the summer of 1940 Bock alternated his time between his headquarters in Paris and his home in Berlin. At the end of August, Army High Command transferred Army Group B to East Prussia; this included Kluge’s
Fourth Army. On
September 11, 1940, Bock relinquished command of his occupation area in France to Field Marshal
Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb.
Operation Barbarossa
In preparation for
Operation Barbarossa, on
April 1,
1941, Army Group B was re-designated as
Army Group Center in an official order from Army High Command which defined the organization of the invasion force. Deployed in Poland, Army Group Center was one of the three army formations which were to lead the invasion of the
Soviet Union. It included the
4th Army and
9th Army, the
3rd Panzer Army and
4th Panzer Army and the
2nd Air Fleet. On the left flank of Bock's Army Group Center was
Army Group North, commanded by
Ritter von Leeb; on the right flank was
Army Group South, commanded by
Gerd von Rundstedt.
Initially, the main objective of Army Group Center was to follow
Napoleon’s route north of the
Pripyat Marshes straight to
Moscow. However, against all strong vocal opposition of von Bock,
Hitler altered the original invasion plan, one of many changes he'd make, both before the invasion and after it had already begun. Von Bock opposed any changes to the invasion plan of
Moscow, because he wanted to occupy Moscow as soon as he could, and hopefully before the onset of the winter conditions there, so that his troops would be in warm conditions inside the buildings during winter. His concern turned out to be the cause of failure of the
Soviet campaign.
The new task of Army Group Center was to drive towards the cities of
Minsk and
Smolensk, and in great encirclements destroy the Soviet Armies stationed there. Army Group Center would then drive toward
Leningrad, and along with Army Group North destroy the remnants of the Soviet Armies in the
Baltic states and seize valuable ports for the supply of the campaign. Only after the bulk of the Soviet army was destroyed in Western Russia would Army Group Center then drive toward the Soviet capital. Hitler made this change conscious of the fact that despite capturing Moscow, Napoleon was defeated because he didn't destroy the Russian army.
At 3:15 a.m.,
June 22,
1941, the first shots of Operation Barbarossa were fired. At the outset of the campaign Bock remained at his desk in his headquarters waiting for the first reports from the front. Within an hour of the attack, the first reports began to arrive at Army Group Center headquarters. Elements of
Heinz Guderian’s force had crossed the
Bug River and were bypassing the city of
Brest-Litovsk.
Hermann Hoth’s tanks were heading for
Grodno on the
Nieman River to seize the important river crossings. Several reconnaissance units from the
4th Army and
9th Army had already crossed the Bug and
Desna Rivers.
At 7:00 a.m. Bock flew from
Posen to an advanced airfield near the headquarters of XIII Infantry Corps. There, Lieutenant General
Erich Jaschke gave Bock a summary of the progress of the invasion. Following this meeting, Bock visited Guderian’s forward command post at Bokhaly. Guderian’s Chief of staff Colonel
Kurt Freiherr von Liebenstein greeted Bock, as Guderian had already crossed the Bug River several hours earlier with the
18th Panzer Division. Bock then visited
Joachim Lemelsen, who gave an agitated report from the front. The roads on the Russian side of the Bug River were already becoming too soft to support the weight of tanks. As a result, several tank columns had to be rerouted to cross a bridge farther south at
Koden. This rerouting caused severe traffic congestion, as some ten thousand vehicles converged on this single crossing. Despite this, the first day of the invasion had been spectacularly successful. Russian resistance was reported as being light and complete surprise was achieved. All along the front rapid progress was being made.
On the second day of Barbarossa, Bock crossed the Bug River. Escorted by Major General
Gustav Schmidt, he made his way to a company command post from where he observed German
artillery firing on Russian positions near
Brest-Litovsk. Despite the fact that German panzers had already crossed deep into Russian territory, the defenders of the city were holding out stubbornly. Later that day Bock was presented with reports that Russian resistance was stiffening all long the front, especially on Guderian’s southern flank. Meanwhile, Hoth’s forces were advancing with much more ease through the Baltic states and
White Russia. The first two days of Army Group Center’s advance proved to be highly successful.
Hoth’s armies advanced so quickly that Bock immediately contacted
Walter von Brauchitsch, requesting the bypassing of Minsk in favor of attacking toward
Vitebsk so that a drive could be made for Moscow. Initially, the change in plan was accepted but it was soon overruled by Hitler, who favored the encirclement and destruction of the large Soviet armies near Minsk. Bock wrote in his diary:
» The envelopment of Minsk isn't decisive. Besides, I'm sure that the enemy expects us to attack Minsk, the next natural objective, and will concentrate defense forces there.
Differences between Bock’s strategic intent and the intent of High Command repeatedly surfaced. Bock continued to favor a direct drive toward Moscow, bypassing Soviet armies and leaving them to be destroyed by infantry, which advanced well behind tank columns. Bock argued that if encirclement was truly necessary then instead of diverting his tanks north and south to encircle and destroy smaller Soviet armies, a larger encirclement should be made eastward toward the
Dvina-
Dnieper River basins. Hitler decided against this plan, and insisted that the pockets containing Soviet armies must be destroyed before advancing deeper into Russia.
Bock, enraged by this decision, was quoted as saying:
» We are permitting our greatest chance of success to escape us by this restriction placed on our armor!
He hesitantly gave the order to abandon the drive toward Vitebsk and assist in the destruction of the pockets. On
June 25, Bock moved his headquarters from Posen to
Kobryn, a town about fifteen miles northeast of Brest-Litovsk. On
June 30, the 4th Army and 9th Army met each other near
Slonim, trapping thousands of Russian soldiers. However, many Russian soldiers managed to escape eastward. Bock soon gave the order to disengage from the encirclement and prepare for a full-scale drive to the east. This order once again caused a confrontation between Bock and Brauchitsch.
On
July 3, Bock’s forces were once again advancing eastward, with Guderian’s tanks crossing the
Beresina and Hoth’s tanks crossing the
Duna. This day marked the furthest distance covered by Bock’s troops in a single day, with over 100 miles traveled. Four days later, Guderian’s tanks crossed the
Dnieper River, the last great obstacle before
Smolensk. However, Guderian was soon ordered by
Günther von Kluge to withdraw back across the river. Bock soon reversed this order, and Guderian was allowed to re-cross the river. Bock protested Kluge’s actions to High Command, to no avail. On
July 11, Bock moved his headquarters again to
Borisov, a Russian town near the Beresina River.
Operation Typhoon
On
September 9, Army High Command instructed Bock to prepare an operational order for the assault on Moscow.
Operation Typhoon was the code-name given to this new attack, which was to begin no later then
September 30. Bock carefully supervised the planning and preparation of the operation, and a few days later it was approved by the High Command.
As part of the preparation for Operation Typhoon, Army Group Center would be reinforced and replenished with men and vehicles; it would be composed of three infantry armies (
2nd Army,
4th Army, and
9th Army) and three tank armies (
2nd Panzer Army,
3rd Panzer Army, and
4th Panzer Army). Colonel General
Erich Hoepner would command the 4th Panzer Army, while the former two were outgrowths of Hoth’s and Guderian’s original Panzer Groups. The replenishment of Army Group Center for Operation Typhoon caused it to increase greatly in size: with almost 1.5 million soldiers, it was now larger than it was at the outset of
Operation Barbarossa. Bock spent most of the remainder of September on inspection tours of his reinforced Army Group Center. On one occasion, Bock, along with
Albert Kesselring, flew over Moscow.
On
September 29, Bock held a conference with his senior commanders
Strauss,
Hoth,
Kluge,
Weichs,
Hoepner,
Guderian, and
Kesselring. During the meeting the main operational plan was reviewed, with Bock again stressing that Moscow must be taken by
November 7, before the onset of the
Russian winter, and to coincide with the anniversary of the
Russian Revolution. The following day, Operation Typhoon began with attacks from Guderian’s and Hoth’s armored forces. Several days later, the infantry armies began to move toward Moscow. With less then 100 miles between the most advanced troops and Moscow, Bock estimated that his troops would enter the city in three to four weeks.
Almost immediately, Bock’s forces encountered stiff Soviet resistance on the road to Moscow. The previous diversions of Army Group Center allowed the Soviets to reinforce the area between
Smolensk and Moscow with the Russian 3rd Army, 10th Army, 13th Army, and 20th Army, as well as elements of three other armies. German forces were outnumbered almost two to one. However, the superior tactics and training of the Wehrmacht, along with an element of surprise, resulted in significant gains despite the increasingly desperate measures employed by the Russians to stop the advance.
The 2nd Panzer Army, along with the XLVIII Panzer Corps, attacked important rail junctions near
Orel and
Bryansk. Hoepner’s 4th Panzer Army soon crossed the
Desna River and gained access to deep Russian territory. Meanwhile, Hoth’s 3rd Panzer Army struck toward
Rshev on the
Volga River.
On
October 3, Guderian’s forces soon captured Orel and subsequently gained access to a paved highway which led to Moscow, some 180 miles away. Meanwhile, elements of the 2nd Panzer Army reported that they'd bypassed Bryansk and were heading toward
Kuraschev. Bock ordered Guderian to press on toward
Tula, but within hours this order had been reversed by High Command. The reversal of the order called for Guderian to attack Bryansk where, along with
Vyazma, two massive encirclements of Soviet forces were occurring. Bock argued that the area between Orel and Tula remained relatively free of Soviet forces and that Tula could be captured within hours. Ultimately, Bock agreed to divert Guderian’s tanks toward Byansk.
Cold rain soon began to fall over the northern sectors of Army Group Center’s front, and the roads soon turned into
quagmires as part of the
Rasputitsa. Virtually the entire front became stuck - the only vehicles capable of negotiating the mud were tanks and other tracked vehicles. However, these moved at a snail's pace (sometimes less than two miles per day ), and fuel consumption soared. This further aggravated the problem of already poor supply lines. Trucks soon became stuck in the mud, as soldiers tried desperately to free them. As the temperature continued to drop, Guderian requested a supply of winter clothing and anti-freeze for the vehicles. However, the increase in partisan activity behind the lines, along with the deteriorating weather conditions, made it increasingly difficult for these vital supplies to reach the front. In one two day period, partisans made over sixty attacks on German truck convoys, outposts, and railway lines.
Slight improvements in the weather soon made it possible for Bock’s forces to continue to seal the pockets around Bryansk and Vyazma. The dual encirclements of Soviet forces around Vyazma and Bryansk yielded some of the largest Soviet casualties since the beginning of Operation Barbarossa: some 650,000 prisoners were taken during these two encirclements, after which the Soviet armies facing Bock’s Army Group Center no longer had the advantage of superior numbers.
The weather soon deteriorated again, with the roads once more turning into impassable, muddy quagmires. Since
September 30, Bock had lost some 35,000 men, 250 tanks and artillery pieces, and several hundred other vehicles, many of which were mired in the mud. Fuel and ammunition supplies became dangerously low. Despite these problems, the advance toward Moscow continued as Hitler became increasingly impatient. When advance units of the 4th Panzer Army reached
Kaluga and
Maloyaroslavets, German forces were within forty miles of Moscow. Guderian's advance in the south was much slower. An attempt by his forces to capture Tula had failed, with considerable losses of men and tanks. However, other units captured
Stalinogorsk and
Venev, indicating the possibility of bypassing Tula.
As Bock’s forces pressed on toward Moscow, panic struck in the capital. Hundreds of thousands of civilians began to evacuate the city while others were forces into emergency volunteer units.
Martial law was instituted as looting and pillaging of deserted stores increased. Marshal
Timoshenko was relieved of command in favor of
Georgy Zhukov, who had been organizing the defense of
Leningrad. The main bulk of the Soviet government was evacuated to
Kuibyshev, 500 miles southeast of Moscow; however, Stalin remained in the capital after being reassured by Zhukov that the capital wouldn't fall.
The further Bock’s forces advanced, the stiffer Soviet resistance became. The paved roads leading to Moscow became craters under constant Russian artillery fire, rendering them impassable. This forced the German troops into the mud and Army Group Center soon became stuck once again. The goal of capturing Moscow by mid-October could no longer be achieved. However, the sheer weight of the German advance couldn't be fully stopped and on
October 21 units of the 9th Army captured
Kalinin.
As November arrived the mud soon turned into ice as temperatures dropped to -20
F. While the ground hardened sufficiently enough to support vehicles, the cold weather added to the miseries of the German soldiers as many hadn't received winter clothing. Frostbite soon took its toll - many soldiers were severely affected and had to be evacuated.
On
November 20, Bock moved his field headquarters to an advanced forward position near the front lines. There he visited an artillery command post, where he could see the buildings of Moscow through his field glasses. Several days later, German forces crossed the
Moscow-Volga Canal and reached
Khimki but soon fell back due to Soviet resistance. On
November 29, elements of the 4th Panzer Army reached the western suburbs of Moscow. On
December 4, units of the 2nd Army reached
Kuntsevo, a western suburb of Moscow. Several units of Guderian’s army bypassed
Kolomna and reached the
Moscow River. Meanwhile, the 3rd Panzer Army once again fought into Khimki. These were the last advances made by Army Group Center under Bock’s command.
On
December 6, with the temperature at -50 F, fresh Russian troops commanded by Zhukov launched a huge counterattack. All along the front near Moscow German troops retreated, destroying whatever equipment they couldn't salvage. Several days later, High Command ordered a halt to all offensive operations. Bock wrote in his diary:
» All along, I demanded of Army High Command the authority to strike down the enemy when he was wobbling. We could have finished the enemy last summer. We could have destroyed him completely. Last August, the road to Moscow was open; we could have entered the Bolshevik capital in triumph and in summery weather. The high military leadership of the Fatherland made a terrible mistake when it forced my army group to adopt a position of defense last August. Now all of us are paying for that mistake.
By
December 13, German forces had retreated more than 50 miles from the capital. On
December 18, Bock was relieved of his command of Army Group Center. The official pretext of this decision was health problems. However, this was just one case out of some 40 high ranking officers being relieved of their command following the failure to capture Moscow. Bock's command of Army Group Center marked the closest the German army ever got to Moscow; never again would the Soviet capital be threatened.
Operation Blue
When 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. The command of Army Group South was given to
Maximilian von Weichs.
While privately opposing the atrocities being committed against Soviet civilians, Bock never protested directly to Hitler, although at one time, he'd 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. When his staff officers planned the assassination of Hitler during a visit to his Army Group, Bock intervened. On the other hand he didn't report the conspirators either.
One of the reasons for Bock's dismissal is believed to have been his expressed interest in supporting the
Russian Liberation Movement, which Hitler was categorically against.
Post 1943
As an involuntarily retired Field Marshal, Bock felt he was made a scapegoat for the problems of Stalingrad. He was approached to join a coup against Hitler, but he believed any such move not supported by
Heinrich Himmler (who controlled the
Waffen-SS) was bound to fail; he refused to move against the Führer.
Death in battle
With the Russians closing in on Berlin in 1945, Bock was informed by
Erich von Manstein that Grand Admiral
Karl Dönitz was forming a new government in
Hamburg. Bock started off for that city immediately, perhaps hoping for a new command. On
4 May 1945, only a week before the war's end in Europe, Bock's car was strafed on the Kiel road by a British fighter-bomber; he was killed along with his wife and daughter.
At age 64, Fedor von Bock became the only one of Hitler's Field Marshals to die from enemy fire.
Quotes
"Our profession should always be crowned by heroic death in battle"
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.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Fedor Von Bock'.
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