Erich von Lewinsky Manstein (1887–1973) was an army division of Nazi Germany during World War II. Born in 1887, Manstein studied at the Army University (1913-1914) and then fought in World War I. From 1935 to 1939, he was Chief of Operations and Deputy Chief of Staff of the Army General Staff. From 1939 to early 1940, he was chief of staff of Army Group South. Manstein inherited the German tradition of military doctrine and blitzkrieg, making blitzkrieg warfare, which had been fully demonstrated in the moltke period of the elder, more powerful in the European battlefields of World War II. Because of his bravery and strategy in battle, he was distinguished in the occupation of Poland and the defeat of the Anglo-French coalition forces, and together with Rommel and Gudrin, he was known as the "three famous german generals".
Lightning attacked, and Nazi Germany took Poland lightly
In early 1939, the Nazi ruling clique led by Hitler took advantage of the fear of war in Britain and France and other countries to forcibly annex its southern neighbor, Czechoslovakia. This victory made germany's two consecutive conquests without firing guns (Austria and Czechoslovakia) very smooth, and Germany turned its sights on Poland, a million-strong military ally of Britain and France in Eastern Europe. Because Germany's conquest of Poland by force can reach the goal of first attacking the Allies of Britain and France, and then turn to crushIng Britain and France and competing for European hegemony; at the same time, conquering Poland can also let the world see the strength of German force and pave the way for the invasion of the Soviet Union.
In the early hours of September 1, 1939, German troops launched a surprise attack on Poland in blitzkrieg. This was the beginning of a war in which Hitler had used force against another country after six years of arms expansion since he had been sworn in as Chancellor of Germany at 12 noon on January 30, 1933, and a few years later had planted the Nazi flag by force from the Atlantic to the Volga. The blitzkrieg against Poland is also considered by Western historians to be the most brutal war in world history! The beginning of World War II (strictly speaking, World War II should have begun with Japan's attack on Wanping City outside Beijing, China, i.e., the Lugou Bridge Incident on July 7, 1937).
At that time, taking advantage of the fear of war between Britain and France, Germany placed only 11 regular divisions and more than 30 new divisions at the border with France, which claimed to have the most powerful army in the world, while the army that invaded Poland had 62 divisions, a total of 1.6 million people, nearly 3,000 tanks and more than 2,000 aircraft. At the beginning of the battle, German aviation suddenly attacked an air base in Poland. At the same time, the main Polish cities and communications, communication hubs and army command systems were also severely damaged by German bombing. Subsequently, German ground forces, consisting of two army groups from the south and the north, quickly invaded Poland from all sides of the Polish-German border under the cover of aircraft and heavy artillery fire. Within a day or two of the start of the battle, the Germans not only gained absolute superiority in the air, but also undermined the unified command of the Polish army, allowing the troops to quickly break through the first line of defense of the Polish army, and more than half of the Polish aircraft were destroyed.
The main offensive task of the German army was the "South" Army Group, commanded by General Rundstedt and Manstein as chief of staff. After breaking through the Polish front positions, the headquarters of Army Group South ordered the German Tenth Army to attack the Polish-guarded area of Bin Laden so that the Polish troops gathered in the Lodz area could not get closer to the capital Warsaw. On 3 September, the German Tenth Army crossed the Valta River and soon defeated the Polish forces in the Laden area, forming a siege of the Polish forces in the Lodz area.
At the same time, the German Fourteenth Army had divided its forces in two directions, attacking simultaneously from the city of Lueu and the lower reaches of the San River to attack the Kraków area. On 6 September, the Polish government could no longer hold out in its capital and fled Warsaw to Lublin.
Because the Polish army did not organize an effective offensive, the army lacked unified command and was independent, and the German army progressed very smoothly. The Commander-in-Chief of the German Army ordered Army Group South to cross the Vistula River and capture Warsaw. However, Manstein and Lundstedt believed that the main Polish army was still in the Poznan area west of the Vistula River at this time, and that the main force of Army Group South should be turned to a decisive battle with the main force of the Polish army. On 10 September, he ordered the Eighth Army, which had been attacked by the Polish, to hold its position and ordered the Tenth Army to return to the division from the southeast to attack the Polish. At the same time, the main force of the German Army Group North launched a powerful offensive against the Polish army from the northwest. Fighting continued until September 18. After this battle, the main Polish army collapsed completely, completely losing the ability to engage the Germans head-on.
Immediately afterwards, the Luftwaffe launched a heavy bombardment of Warsaw. Although the Polish army and the inhabitants of Warsaw put their lives on the sidelines and gave a fierce counterattack to the German attack, due to the strong Strength of the German Army and the lack of unified command on the Polish side, it was impossible to defend their capital. The Polish government officials, who had already fled to the outside world, fled to Romania on September 16, despite the country's danger. On 27 September, the German Eighth Army finally invaded the Polish capital, Warsaw, at a great cost, causing the Warsaw garrison of 120,000 men to surrender with a raised hand. A few days later, the remnants of the Polish forces in Kutno, Kotsk, Lviv, etc. also stopped resisting.
In this way, the German army completed the occupation of Poland in a month's time with blitzkrieg. The Germans paid only 10,572 deaths, 30,322 wounded, and 3,400 missing generations in the war to conquer this ancient country of 34 million people. However, due to its armed invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany on September 3. In this way, the Second World War will soon be fully unfolded in Europe and the world after the Sino-Japanese War.
Take it boldly, and the "Manstein" plan is out
Long before the outbreak of the First World War, the German Chief of the General Staff, Schlieffen, formulated the infamous "Schlieffen Plan" of crossing the northern border of France from Belgium and returning from south of Paris to the east after occupying the coast of the English Channel in western France to eliminate the remnants of the French army. In the autumn of 1939, when Hitler ordered his Army Headquarters to draw up a plan for an offensive against France, the army commanders hurried to produce the "Yellow Plan", which was basically the same as the previous "Schlieffen Plan". However, because the Soviet Union was different from the previous Tsarist Russia and did not have the Allied military alliance that attacked eastern Germany in World War I, Hitler only demanded the repulsion of the French army, so that the contact between Britain and France was broken, thus forcing Britain and France to surrender, and then turning east into the Soviet Union.
However, since on January 10, 1940, a German officer fled to Belgium with the plan, the "Yellow Plan" fell into the hands of the Anglo-French forces. But before the "Yellow Plan" fell into the hands of the Anglo-French Forces, the Allied high command had already deployed the possibility of such a German operation accordingly, and formulated "Plan D" so that when the German army attacked from Belgium, the Anglo-French coalition could quickly reinforce Belgium and establish a main line of defense on the banks of the Dar and Muses rivers.
In order to avoid a head-on engagement with the prepared Anglo-French forces, Manstein, chief of staff of the German Army Group A, proposed to change the "yellow plan" and focus the attack on Army Group A on the south flank. At Manstein's suggestion, Army Group A crossed southern Belgium with one corps and attacked behind the enemy from along the Muse; one corps advanced to the southwest to cover the left flank of the main German force; and one corps was responsible for resisting the attack from the direction of the Maginot Line so that the German army would not be blocked by the main French force from south to north. At the same time, the offensive of Army Group B was about to unfold.
In addition, Manstein also suggested that the attack should be put at the forefront
In the centre, with a large tank force, the enemy unexpectedly passed through the Ardennes Forest, and then entered the French hinterland north of the Muse River, heading straight for the English Channel.
However, since Manstein was only a low-ranking army group chief of staff and did not have much fame in German military circles, his proposal, although it had been made long ago, could not be recognized because of the jealousy of his superior commanders. Moreover, Manstein himself was transferred to the Thirty-eighth Army as a commander. But at Hitler's reception for the new commanders, Manstein, a "little man," finally found an opportunity to present his plan to Hitler. With the support of the Fuehrer, the "Manstein" plan was adopted. On 24 February 1940, the German High Command issued an order to implement the "Manstein Plan".
In this way, Manstein's plan was carried out step by step on the European battlefield. In May 1940, the Germans began their invasion of Western Europe with a "mighty force never seen in history"—136 divisions. Due to lack of preparation, the Anglo-French forces were overwhelmed by the German assault, and France, which claimed to have the most powerful army in the world, was easily conquered by the Germans in a very short time.