Albert Kesselring (30 November 1885 – 16 July 1960) was a Field Marshal of the Luftwaffe of Nazi Germany, and from 1941 to 1945 he was the German commander in Italy, while from 11 March to 22 April 1945 he was commander-in-chief in the West. Kesselring was a popular general of World War II and a well-known defensive genius, but he was sentenced to death, then life imprisonment, and then acquitted of war crimes for massacres perpetrated in Italy during his command there.
Biography[]
Kesselring in 1940
Albert Kesselring was born on 30 November 1885 in Marktsteft, Bavaria, in the German Empire. He served in the 2nd Bavarian Foot Artillery Regiment in World War I, and in 1917 he was posted to the general staff despite not going to the Bavarian War Academy. In 1933, Nazi Germany discharged him from the army and moved him to the Reich Air Ministry, and he was a latecomer to aviation; he was 48 when he flew a plane for the first time. Kesselring was one of the men responsible for forming the Luftwaffe in 1935. On 1 October 1938 he was given command of Luftflotte 1, an air fleet based out of Berlin, and he was promoted to General. He was a veteran of the invasion of Poland in 1939, the Battle of France in 1940, and the Battle of Britain later that year; in 1940, he was the man responsible for ordering the Bombing of Rotterdam, one of the worst war crimes of the war. Later, he was given command of Luftflotte 2, and he destroyed much of the Soviet Air Force on the ground during Operation Barbarossa.
Italian campaign[]
Kesselring in North Africa
Kesselring with his Iron Cross
In November 1941, Kesselring was appointed Commander-in-Chief, South by Adolf Hitler and supervised the bombing of Malta, a British island off the coast of Sicily. His air fleet also gave support to Erwin Rommel's Afrika Korps during the North African Campaign of 1941-1945. In July 1943, when the Allied Powers invaded Sicily, Kesselring returned to his old role as a ground commander and coordinated the defense of southern Italy against the Allies, organizing the Volturno Line, Bernhardt Line, Gustav Line, and several more defensive positions. In September 1943, he was responsible for arresting many Italian leaders who betrayed Benito Mussolini, who set up the Salo Republic in German-occupied Italy. Under his command, Wehrmacht units committed atrocities against occupied Italian towns and villages, massacring people believed to have supported Italian Resistance partisans. He gave the Allies a hard time advancing up the boot of Italy, and the Gothic Line campaign of August 1944-March 1945 was a tough campaign. In March 1945, he was redirected to Germany to replace Gerd von Rundstedt as commander of the Western Front forces, and in April 1945 he was dismissed as the Allies invaded Germany.
Postwar career[]
After the war, Kesselring was held responsible for the bombing of Rotterdam and the massacre of Italian civilians by the Wehrmacht, among other crimes, and he was sentenced to death. However, his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment, and in 1952 he was released from prison due to poor health. He published his memoirs, A Soldier to the Last Day, one of only three Field Marshals to be able to do so. Kesselring died on 16 July 1960 in Bad Nauheim, Hessen, West Germany.