Walther Model (24 January 1891 – 21 April 1945) was a Field Marshal of Nazi Germany during World War II. Model was the best defensive commander that Adolf Hitler had, although he was also a hard-driving panzer commander early in the war. Hitler chose him as commander whenever situations were tense, as he worked miracles. Model eventually lost Hitler's trust after the Battle of the Bulge turned out to be a large defeat for Germany, and he committed suicide when the Allies encircled him in the Ruhr Pocket in 1945.
Biography[]
Early career[]
Walther Model was born on 24 January 1891 in Genthin, Saxony, German Empire (present-day Germany). His father was a music teacher, and in 1910 he became a Lieutenant in the Reichswehr. He was posted among the German General Staff because he was a brilliant commander, and he therefore avoided the carnage of the Battle of the Somme and only fought in the early stages of the Battle of Verdun. By 1917 he was a Hauptmann (captain), and at the end of the war he fought in the Spring Offensive. He resumed his military career in the interwar years and Model was promoted to Brigadier-General in 1938 under Nazi Germany.
Eastern Front[]
In the first year of World War II (1939), he fought in the invasion of Poland and joined the German 16th Army during the Battle of France a year later. In April 1940 he was promoted to Major-General and gained his first major command as the leader of the 3rd Panzer Division. He believed in combined arms training, involving infantry as well as armor moving together. In Operation Barbarossa - the June 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union - he drove his men hard and they worked for a great victory against the Russian forces by December. His success in holding his front against Soviet forces was rewarded when he was made the commander of the German 9th Army at the Rzhev Salient, leapfrogging 15 commanders in Army Group Centre for the position. Up-to-date intelligence, a continuous front line, tactical reserves, centralized artillery command and control, and multiple static lines of defense contributed to his victories on the Eastern Front, as he became known as Germany's best tactical defense commander. In September 1943 he was relieved of his command after the failures at the Battle of Kursk and Operation Kutuzov, but Hitler did so only because he wanted him to be available in case of another emergency. In 1944 he took command of German forces in Estonia and in March he became the youngest Field Marshal of Nazi Germany.
When the Soviets launched Operation Bagration on 13 June 1944, Model was in command of the German forces on the Eastern Front. Model took command of Army Group North, Army Group Centre, and Army Group South at separate points and failed to prevent the destruction of the central army group, but he was able to halt the Soviets at Warsaw and crush a revolt in the city.
Western Front[]
Model in 1944
On 17 August 1944, as the Allied Powers began to break through in Normandy in northern France, Hitler posted Model to command Army Group B. Army Group B was facing major problems in the Falaise Gap, and Model failed to defend the Dives River with the 7th Panzer Army and the 9th Panzer Army. On 20 August 1944, the last German forces in the Falaise Gap were destroyed at the Battle of Chambois, and five days later, Paris was liberated by Allied forces without much fighting.
Model then played his cards right again, adapting to defensive warfare. He defeated the Allies in Operation Market Garden in September, forcing two British armies to surrender in their failed airborne invasion of the Netherlands. He also inflicted heavy losses on American and Polish forces that assisted the British army. His defenses of the Hurtgen Forest and Aachen cost the Americans dearly, and Model continued to impress Hitler.
Model's downfall came at the December 16–26 Battle of the Bulge. Although his army reenacted the invasion of France in an Ardennes offensive, poor weather prevented the Germans from advancing farther and the British and Americans teamed up to throw back the German siege of Bastogne and pushed them clean out of Luxembourg and the Ardennes. On 21 January 1945 Hitler took over command of Model's Army Group B, limiting Model's power. Allied forces crossed the Rhine River at Remagen and Model was encircled at the Ruhr Pocket with his forces. He shot himself in the head in a forest to avoid capture, dying a warrior's death.