Wilhem Ritter von Leeb (5 September 1876 – 29 April 1956) was a Field Marshal of Nazi Germany's Wehrmacht during World War II. From 20 June 1941 to 17 January 1942, he commanded Army Group North, replacing Fedor von Bock. Von Leeb was sacked in January 1942 and replaced by Georg von Kuechler after the German advance on Moscow was halted.
Biography[]
Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb was born on 5 September 1876 in Landsberg am Lech, Bavaria, German Empire to an aristocratic family, and he served in the Imperial German Army during the Boxer Rebellion in China in 1900 and on the Eastern Front of World War I. Von Leeb led the military district covering Bavaria during the rule of the Weimar Republic, and he retired from the army in 1938. Although Von Leeb was an incorrigible anti-Nazi, Adolf Hitler called on his skills and recalled him to the Wehrmacht in 1938, giving him command of Army Group C for the invasions of Poland, France, and the Netherlands. When Nazi Germany went to war with the Soviet Union in June 1941, Von Leeb was given command of Army Group North, and units under Leeb's command killed gypsies and "mental inferiors" in addition to turning in Jews to the Einsatzgruppen death squads. Von Leeb's disagreements with Hitler led to Leeb calling Hitler an "armchair general", while Hitler said that he was a Catholic who wanted to pray instead of fight. In January 1942, Von Leeb asked to be relieved of command, and Hitler agreed. Hitler was grateful to Leeb, however, giving him substantial retirement money as well as an estate. Leeb would be arrested by the United States and subjected to the Nuremberg Trials, where he was sentenced to time served. In 1956, he died of a heart attack at the age of 79.