Walter Model

Otto Moritz Walter Model (; 24 January 1891 – 21 April 1945) was a German during World War II. Although he was a hard-driving, aggressive panzer commander early in the war, Model became best known as a practitioner of defensive warfare. His relative success as commander of the Ninth Army in the battles of 1941–1942 determined his future career path.

Model first came to Hitler's attention before World War II, but their relationship did not become especially close until 1942. His tenacious style of fighting and loyalty to the Nazi regime won him plaudits from Hitler, who considered him one of his best field commanders and repeatedly sent him to salvage apparently desperate situations on the Eastern Front as commander of Army Group North, Army Group North Ukraine and
Army Group Centre.

In August 1944 Model was sent to the Western Front as commander of OB West and Army Group B. His relationship with Hitler broke down by the end of the war after the German defeat at the Battle of the Bulge. In the aftermath of the defeat of Army Group B and its encirclement in the Ruhr Pocket, Model took his own life on 21 April 1945.

Early life and career

Otto Moritz Walter Model was born in Genthin, Saxony, the son of Otto Paul Moritz Model, a music teacher at a local girls' school, and his wife Marie Pauline Wilhelmine Demmer. He had a brother, Otto, who was seven years older. He belonged to a middle-class, non-military family. Model's decision to burn all his personal papers at the end of World War II means relatively little is known about his early years. He attended school at the (citizen school) in Genthin. The family moved to Erfurt in 1900, and then to Naumburg, where he graduated with his from the , a humanities-oriented secondary school, on Easter 1909.

Through the influence of his uncle Martin Model, a reserve officer in the 52nd Infantry Regiment ''von Alvensleben'', he joined that regiment as an officer cadet () on 27 February 1909. He was promoted to on 19 November 1909, and was admitted to the army officer cadet school () in Neisse (now Nysa, Poland), where he was an unexceptional student, and was commissioned a (2nd lieutenant) in the 52nd Infantry Regiment on 22 August 1910. He made few friends among his fellow officers and soon became known for his ambition, drive, and blunt outspokenness. These were characteristics that marked his entire career. He became the adjutant of his regiment's 1st Battalion in October 1913.

World War I

The 52nd Infantry Regiment was mobilized on the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, and formed part of the 5th Division, which fought on the Western Front. It saw action in the Battle of Mons in August and the First Battle of the Marne in September before occupying a static position in the Soissons sector. Model was promoted to on 25 February 1915. In May 1915, he was severely wounded near Arras when a bullet hit his shoulder blade, and he spent a month in hospital. He distinguished himself in the fighting around Butte-de-Tahure in September, for which he was awarded the Iron Cross, First Class on 19 October. On 3 November he was wounded by artillery fragments in his right shoulder and spent another six weeks in hospital. He was wounded again on 26 April 1916 in the Battle of Verdun, this time by shell fragments in the right thigh.

Model's deeds brought him to the attention of his divisional commander who, despite misgivings about his "uncomfortable subordinate", recommended Model for German General Staff training. He completed the abbreviated eight-month staff officers' course and returned to the 5th Division as adjutant of the 10th Infantry Brigade. This was followed by postings as a company commander in both the 52nd Infantry Regiment and the 8th Life Grenadiers. In June 1917, Lieutenant Colonel Georg Wetzell, who had been the chief of staff of III Corps, of which the 5th Division was a part, in 1914 and 1915, selected Model for duty on the (Army General Staff). Model became an ordnance officer. In late 1917 he was part of a group of junior staff officers who accompanied Colonel Hans von Seeckt to Constantinople to assess the Ottoman Empire's ability to continue prosecuting the war and the possibility of employing German troops in the Middle East.

Model was promoted to Hauptmann (captain) in March 1918, and soon after was assigned to the staff of the Guard Ersatz Division as division supply officer (IIb). As such, he fought in the German spring offensive of that year. The Guard Ersatz Division fought in Operation Michael against the British in March, and in the Second Battle of the Marne against the French in July. On 30 August he became the supply officer of the 36th Reserve Division. The division participated in the Battle of the Lys and the Escaut in October and November.

Inter-war years

Under the terms of the armistice of 11 November 1918 that ended the fighting, the German Army had thirty days to depart France and Belgium. The 36th Reserve Division crossed the border into Germany at Aachen on 20 November, but making its way back to its home station at Danzig was no simple feat in the chaotic conditions that prevailed in immediate post-war Germany. 36th Reserve Division commander Major General Franz von Rantau gave Model the credit for the division reaching Danzig more or less intact.

Model considered leaving the army, but was dissuaded by his uncle Martin. In November 1919, von Seeckt selected Model as one of the 4,000 officers in the 100,000-man post-war Reichswehr permitted by the Treaty of Versailles. After the 36th Reserve Division was demobilised, he became the adjutant of the Danzig-based XVII Corps from January to June 1919. He then joined the staff of the 7th Brigade in Westphalia. In early 1920, he became a company commander in the 14th Infantry Regiment at Konstanz, which was sent to the Ruhr in March 1920 to help crush the Ruhr uprising. Following von Seeckt's example, Model kept aloof from politics in the chaotic period that marked the birth of the Weimar Republic, but the experience of the early 1920s left him with an abhorrence of communism.

While billeted in the Ruhr, Model became acquainted with Herta Huyssen, and they were married in Frankfurt on 11 May 1921. They had three children: a daughter, Hella, who was born in 1923; a son, , who was born in 1927, and a second daughter, Christa, who was born in 1929. On 1 October 1921, Model was posted to the 18th Infantry Regiment in Munich, where he commanded the regimental machine gun company. After a few months he returned to staff duty with the artillery staff of the 6th Division. He was influenced by the thinking of its commander, Fritz von Loßberg, who rejected the concept of an elastic defence in favour of a more rigid defence in depth.

In October 1925, following the standard alternation of staff duty with troop duty, Model assumed command of the 9th Company, 3rd Battalion, 8th Infantry Regiment. This was part of the 3rd Division, which was heavily involved in testing the technical innovations of that era. He returned to staff duty in September 1928, as an officer in the training section at 3rd Division headquarters. He lectured in tactics and war studies for the basic General Staff training course, with presentations on the First Battle of the Marne and the Battle of Tannenberg, and authored a 1929 study of August Neidhardt von Gneisenau. His students included Adolf Heusinger, Alfred Jodl, Siegfried Rasp, Hans Speidel and August Winter, who later became generals. Model was promoted to in October 1929.

In 1930 he was transferred to the Training Branch of the Truppenamt, where he served under Colonels Wilhelm von List, Walter von Brauchitsch, and Walther Wever. He became close friends with Friedrich Paulus, a fellow officer on the staff. In August 1931, he accompanied Brauchitsch, Wilhelm Keitel and Ernst-August Köstring on a visit to Germany's secret training areas in the Soviet Union. Model spent a fortnight with the Red Army's 9th Rifle Division at Rostov, and this formed the basis of a paper he wrote on the Red Army's weapons technology. He was promoted to (lieutenant colonel) in November 1932.

Model returned to troop duty in November 1933, as commander of a battalion of the 2nd Infantry Regiment, part of the 1st Division, which was stationed at Allenstein in East Prussia. As the Army began to expand again in 1934, each of the battalions became a regiment, and in October 1934, Model became the commander of the new 2nd Infantry Regiment, with the rank of (colonel).

In October 1935, Model was appointed to head the 8th Department (Technical) of the (OKH), the revived Army general staff. In this role he was responsible for the development of new weapons, particularly artillery. He was one of the officers who advocated for the creation of armoured divisions and corps. He was promoted to (major general) on 1 March 1938. He led a test firing of the 21 cm Mörser 18 on mock Czech fortifications, which did not impress Adolf Hitler. Like many army officers at the time, Model was a supporter of the Nazi Party, and his time in Berlin brought him into contact with senior members of the government, but after Franz Halder became chief of staff of the OKH in September 1938, there was a purge of pro-Nazi officers from OKH, and Model was reassigned, becoming the chief of staff of the IV Corps in Dresden.

World War II

Invasion of Poland

Preparations for the invasion of Poland started in May 1939. The IV Corps became part of the Tenth Army, under the command of Walter von Reichenau, which in turn formed part of Gerd von Rundstedt's Army Group South. World War II began in Europe when IV Corps crossed the border into Poland on 1 September. For the IV Corps, the campaign lasted only eleven days, but there was some hard fighting. On 28 September, the IV Corps was designated the controlling headquarters of the Lublin area. The Lublin Ghetto became one of the first of its kind.

Battle of France

On 20 October, Model was appointed the chief of staff of the Sixteenth Army on the recommendation of Brauchitsch, who was now the Commander-in-Chief of the Army. The Sixteenth Army's commander was Ernst Busch. He was an ardent supporter of the Nazi Party, to which he owed his advancement to an army command ahead of several more senior officers, despite his undistinguished record of service in Poland. Brauchitsch hoped that Busch and Model would form a good working relationship, since their politics were similar and social backgrounds were humble. At the same time, he hoped that Model would provide expertise on fast-moving operations for Busch, whose tactical ideas were considered reactionary.

Under the plan for the attack on France, the Sixteenth Army formed part of Rundstedt's army group, now renamed Army Group A. The Sixteenth Army was given the minor role of protecting the left flank, with seven divisions recently mobilised from reservists that were largely equipped with Czech weapons. During the winter, the alternative Manstein Plan (Case Yellow) was adopted, which shifted the main attack to Army Group A. In war games held in February, Model played the commander of the Sixteenth Army while Busch played the French commander, General Maurice Gamelin. Using stolid operational movements, Busch was able to halt the German advance.

Model, who was promoted to on 1 April 1940, had to cope with the Sixteenth Army's composition being completely changed in March and April. The Sixteenth Army's mission was still to cover the flank, but its frontage became much wider, and the imperative for a rapid advance meant that Model spent much of his time overseeing logistical arrangements. When the Germans attacked on 11 May, Gamelin pursued the Dyle Plan rather than the cautious operations that Busch had favoured, and the infantry of Army Group A advanced much faster than expected, leading to an important German victory.

The Sixteenth Army assumed a defensive posture on 25 May. During the next two weeks it prepared for Case Red, the next phase of operations against France, which commenced on 9 June. The Sixteenth Army was transferred to Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb's Army Group C. The Sixteenth Army's advance was initially slow, but a breakthrough was achieved on 11 June, and on 22 June the Sixteenth Army linked up with the First Army, encircling 600,000 French troops. In the wake of the victory in France, Busch and his three corps commanders were all promoted, but Model was not. He was engaged in planning for the Operation Sea Lion, the German invasion of Britain, in which the Sixteenth Army was slated to play a major role.

Invasion of the Soviet Union

Model earned his first senior command posting in November, when he was assigned to lead the 3rd Panzer Division. While a division command was the normal progression for a chief of staff of an army, command of a panzer division was especially prestigious, and Model had no experience leading armoured units. The assignment was engineered by Brauchitsch, who had 3rd Panzer Division's commander, Horst Stumpff transferred to the 20th Panzer Division. For a time it was thought likely that the 3rd Panzer Division would be sent to North Africa, and some of its subunits were, but in May 1941 it was assigned to Leo Geyr von Schweppenburg's XXIV Panzer Corps, which was part of the 2nd Panzer Group, commanded by Heinz Guderian for Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union.

Model ignored formalities of organization and command, which endeared him to his men and exasperated his staff, who often had to clean up the mess he left behind. He instituted a combined arms training program where his men were thrown together in various ad-hoc groupings regardless of their parent unit: tankers trained with infantry, engineers with reconnaissance units, and so on. He thus anticipated by some months the regular German use of Kampfgruppen in World War II. While this became routine later on, it was not a universal practice in the Wehrmacht in late 1940 and early 1941.

The campaign opened on 22 June 1941, with Guderian urging his divisions forward at breakneck speed. This suited Model, and by 4 July, his advance elements leading the panzer group's charge had reached the Dnieper. Crossing it in strength was another matter, however, as the Red Army was prepared to defend the river line. For this operation, Model, now reinforced with additional troops, reorganised his command into three groups: an infantry-heavy force that would cross the river and establish a bridgehead, a mobile armored group that would pass through the bridgehead and continue the advance, and a fire support group containing nearly all his artillery. The plan worked so successfully that the river crossing cost scarcely any casualties. There followed two weeks of hard fighting to defend the panzer group's flank, during which he was assigned the 1st Cavalry Division in addition to 3rd Panzer as , who then attacked to break up Soviet forces massing near Roslavl.

After the battle of Smolensk, Hitler ordered a change of direction. Guderian's panzer group turned south into Ukraine. Its objective was to trap the Soviet forces defending Kiev, an unsupported advance of . Once again 3rd Panzer formed the spearhead. From 24 August to 14 September, Model conducted a lightning thrust into the rear of the Soviet Southwestern Front. The manoeuvre reached its conclusion when 3rd Panzer made contact with the 16th Panzer Division from Army Group South at Lokhvitsa. While it took several more days to eliminate all resistance, the trap around Kiev had been closed; 665,000 Soviet soldiers were taken prisoner.

Before Moscow

On 26 October 1941, Model was placed in command of XLI Panzer Corps vice Georg-Hans Reinhardt, who stepped up to command of the 3rd Panzer Group, of which the XLI Panzer Corps was a part. He was promoted to , backdated to 1 October. The XLI Panzer Corps was embroiled in Operation Typhoon, the assault on Moscow. The attack had begun on 2 October 1941, and Model arrived at his new command on 14 November, in the midst of the battle. The corps was located at Kalinin, north west of Moscow. It was worn out, at the end of a long and tenuous supply line, and the cold weather was starting to hamper the Germans. Nevertheless, morale remained high, and the final push towards Moscow began shortly after his arrival.

Model was a whirlwind of energy, touring the front and exhorting his troops to greater efforts: he also ran roughshod over the niceties of protocol and chains of command, and, in general, left his staff trailing in his wake. By 5 December, XLI Panzer Corps' 6th Panzer Division had reached Iohnca, just from the Kremlin. There, the advance stopped, as the winter took hold. Temperatures dropped to -40 degrees C (-40 degrees F), weapons and vehicles froze solid, and the Germans were forced to call a halt to offensive operations.

Just as the Germans had made the halt decision, the Soviet Kalinin, Western and Southwestern Fronts launched a massive counteroffensive, aimed at driving Army Group Centre back from Moscow. The attacks were especially strong against Third Panzer Group, which had made some of the closest penetrations to the city. In three weeks of confused, savage fighting, Reinhardt extricated his troops from potential encirclement and fell back to the Lama River

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