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Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb
September 5, 1876 - April 29, 1956
Generalfeldmarschall Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb
Place of birth	Landsberg am Lech, Bavaria
Place of death	Füssen, Germany
Allegiance	German Empire (to 1918) Weimar Republic (to 1933) Nazi Germany
Rank	Field Marshal
Battles/wars	World War I World War II
Awards	Knight's Cross Military Order of Max Joseph

Wilhelm Ritter^[1] von Leeb (September 5, 1876 - April 29, 1956) was a German Field Marshal during World War II.

Contents 1 Youth 2 World War I and after 3 World War II 4 The Defeat at Tikhvin 5 Relations with Nazis 6 Notes 7 References

Born in Landsberg am Lech, Bavaria as Wilhelm Leeb, he joined the Bavarian Army in 1895 as an officer cadet. After being commissioned in the artillery, he served in China during the Boxer Rebellion. He later attended the Bavarian War Academy in Munich (1907 - 1909) and served on the General Staff in Berlin (1909 - 1911). Promoted to captain, he performed a tour of duty as a battery commander in the Bavarian 10th Field Artillery Regiment at Erlangen (1912 - 1913).

At the outbreak of World War I, Leeb was on the General Staff of the Bavarian I Corps. During the war, he served with the Bavarian 11th Infantry Division. Upon promotion to major, he was transferred to the Eastern Front in the summer of 1916. The following year, he was appointed to the staff of Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria. For his military achievements on May 2, 1915, on May 29, 1916 Leeb received the Knight's Cross of the Military Order of Max Joseph, the Bavarian equivalent of the Prussian Pour le Mérite. Receipt of this decoration elevated him to the ranks of nobility, and on June 21, 1916 Leeb received a patent of nobility changing his name by adding the title "Ritter (knight) von".

After the war, Ritter von Leeb remained in the Reichswehr, the 100,000-man army permitted to Germany under the Treaty of Versailles. In 1923, he was involved in putting down the Nazi Beer Hall Putsch. He then rose to command Wehrkreis (Military District) VII, which covered Bavaria, as a lieutenant-general, before the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party.

Hitler was not fond of von Leeb due to his anti-Nazi attitudes and religious convictions, and retired him in 1938 after promoting him to the rank of colonel general. However von Leeb was reactivated in July of the same year, and made commander of the Twelfth Army which took part in the occupation of the Sudetenland. Afterwards he was pensioned off again.

In summer 1939 however, von Leeb was yet again called back into service and given command of Army Group C. During the Battle of France, his troops broke through the Maginot Line. For his role in this victory, von Leeb was promoted to the rank of Field Marshal (generalfeldmarschall) in July 1940, and awarded the Knight's Cross.

Now having Hitler's faith, von Leeb was given command of Army Group North and responsibility for the northern sector in Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union. Von Leeb was to destroy the Soviet units in the Baltic region, and capture all Soviet Baltic Sea naval bases. When the invasion began on June 22, 1941, von Leeb's armies met with outstanding success against an overwhelmed Soviet force. By the end of September, his army had advanced 900 km into the Soviet Union and surrounded Leningrad, but he failed to capture the city.

The turning point in the defeat of the German attempt to capture Leningrad was the battle of Tikhvin in October-December 1941. At Tikhvin the Red Army, for the first time in World War II, inflicted a large-scale defeat on the Wehrmacht in ground warfare.

Encouraged by easy victories over the disorganized and poorly led Red Army at the beginning of the war, von Leeb had rushed his armies to Tikhvin, a key city on the road to Leningrad in hopes of a quick conquest of Leningrad. A victory would allow the Germans to shift many of their troops from the north to Army Group Centre, for a decisive attack on Moscow. The Germans, having numerical superiority in tanks over the Russians, initially succeeded in occupying Tikhvin on November 8. However the newly-appointed commander of the Soviet 4th Army, Kirill Meretskov, bogged down the Germans by applying active defense and constant counterattacks. He then went on the offensive and on December 10 recaptured Tikhvin.

In the midst of the battle Stavka ordered Meretskov to organize a new Volkhov Front. By December 30 Meretzkov had forced von Leeb's troops back to positions from which they began their Tikhvin offense. According to one of the leading historians of the Eastern Front, David Glantz: "the concept of blitzkrieg failed for the first time in the Second World War... anticipating [the Soviet victory at Moscow]".

The battle at Tikhvin was also significant in its direct assistance to the Red Army in the battle of Moscow. Instead of being able to send units from Army Group North to Army Group Centre, the Germans were compelled to move reinforcements in the opposite direction. Glantz again: "During this most critical period of the war, 32 percent of the Wehrmacht's forces, operating north of the Pripiat Marshes, including almost two full panzer groups, were tied down in combat along or adjacent to Tikhvin". The Wehrmacht lost 45,000 troops in the battle.

When von Leeb did not quickly capture Leningrad, Hitler impatiently commented: "Leeb is in a second childhood; he can't grasp and carry out my plan for the speedy capture of Leningrad. He fusses over his plan of assuming the defensive in the northwestern sector and wants a drive in the center on Moscow. He's obviously senile, he's lost his nerve, and like a true Catholic he wants to pray but not fight."

An old-school German general, von Leeb did not take well to having his command micro-managed by someone he considered an armchair general, namely Hitler. It is sometimes stated in works of popular history that Hitler fired Leeb, but this is incorrect: in January 1942, von Leeb asked Hitler to relieve him of his command, a request to which Hitler agreed. It was officially announced that he had voluntarily stepped down due to illness, not because of his defeat. Colonel-General Georg von Küchler assumed command of Army Group North, and von Leeb was never used again by Hitler.

Von Leeb's attitude towards the Nazi regime is ambivalent: in spite of his open contempt for Hitler and his cronies, he did accept a present of 250,000 Reichsmarks for his 65th birthday in 1941. In 1944 he also allowed the Nazis to use his popularity for propaganda purposes, when he was presented with a great Bavarian estate worth 638,000 Reichsmarks. After the failed July 20 plot to assassinate Hitler in 1944, Leeb sent an affirmation of loyalty to the dictator.

After the war, von Leeb was tried by a U.S. military tribunal in Nuremberg in the High Command Trial. Due to a confusion of documents he was found guilty on one of four charges and sentenced to three years imprisonment, but was released after the judgment because he had already spent more time in custody. He spent his last years in quiet existence with his family until his death in Füssen in 1956.

• David Glantz, "The Battle for Leningrad", 1941-1944, Lawrence, KS, 2002.
• Pavlov, Dmitri V. Leningrad 1941: The Blockade. Translated by John Clinton Adams. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1965.

Military offices
Preceded by Generalfeldmarschall Fedor von Bock	Commander of Heeresgruppe Nord June 20, 1941 - January 17, 1942	Succeeded by Generalfeldmarschall Georg von Küchler

v • d • e German Field Marshals and Grand Admirals of World War II
Field Marshals (Generalfeldmarschall)	Werner von Blomberg | Fedor von Bock | Eduard Freiherr von Böhm-Ermolli (honorary) | Walther von Brauchitsch | Ernst Busch | Hermann Göring | Robert Ritter von Greim | Wilhelm Keitel | Albert Kesselring | Ewald von Kleist | Günther von Kluge | Georg von Küchler | Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb | Wilhelm List | Erich von Manstein | Erhard Milch | Walter Model | Friedrich Paulus | Walther von Reichenau | Wolfram von Richthofen | Erwin Rommel | Gerd von Rundstedt | Ferdinand Schörner | Hugo Sperrle | Maximilian von Weichs | Erwin von Witzleben
Grand Admirals (Großadmiral)	Karl Dönitz | Erich Raeder