Erich von Manstein

Erich von Manstein (24 November 1887 – 9 June 1973) served the German military as a lifelong professional soldier. He became one of the most prominent commanders of Nazi Germany's Wehrmacht.

He was the initiator and one of the planners of the Ardennes-offensive alternative in the invasion of France in 1940. He received acclaim from the German leadership for the victorious battles of Perekop Isthmus, Kerch, Sevastopol and Kharkov. He commanded the failed relief effort at Stalingrad and the Cherkassy pocket evacuation. He was dismissed from service by Adolf Hitler in March 1944, due to his frequent clashes with Hitler over military strategy.

In 1949, he was brought on trial in Hamburg for war crimes, which convicted him of "Neglecting to protect civilian lives" and for using scorched earth tactics denying vital food supplies to the local population. He was sentenced to 18 years in prison, which was later reduced to 12 years but only served 4 years before being released. Although claiming to not know about the Holocaust, von Manstein nevertheless showed a callous disregard for the plight of the Jews, equating partisans and Jews and advocating harsh measures against both. After release from a British prison in 1953, he became a military advisor for the West Germany Government.

Erich von Manstein in "Ready for the Fatherland"
Erich von Manstein assassinated Adolf Hitler on February 19, 1943, and succeeded Hitler as leader of Germany.

Manstein's clashes with Hitler grew more frequent as the situation on the Eastern front deteriorated throughout 1942. In February, 1943 Hitler flew to Zaporozhye, in German-Occupied Ukraine to berate Manstein. When Hitler demanded that he launch an attack which Manstein knew would only be disastrous, Manstein balked. In a manic tirade, Hitler then likened Manstein's nose to that of a Jew and commanded him to act. Manstein realized just how insane Hitler's rants had become. He pulled out his pistol and shot Hitler dead. Manstein and his ally, Field Marshall Paul Ludwig Ewald von Kleist promptly arrested Hitler's subordinates, Alfred Jodl and Wilhelm Keitel, and Manstein began the negotiations for a separate peace with the Soviet Union, becoming Germany's leader in the process.

Manstein remained Germany's leader into the 1950s. He negotiated a cease-fire between the Soviet Union and the United States, when an exchange of sunbombs nearly escalated into war.

Erich von Manstein in Worldwar
In 1965, Erich von Manstein was a contender for the office of Führer of Germany. Despite being a respected general both in Germany and abroad, he was not politically adept enough to gain favor on the Committee of Eight, and so lost to Ernst Kaltenbrunner. Vyacheslav Molotov and Andrei Gromyko both privately hoped Manstein would ascend to the leadership of the Greater German Reich, due to his willingness to see reason and his predictability.