Fedor von Bock(born 3 December 1880 in Küstrin; 4 May 1945 in Oldenburg/Holstein) was a German army officer (Field Marshal since 1940). During World War II, he was the commander of different Army Groups.

Fedor Von Bock Life

Empire And World War I

Fedor von Bock was the son of Major General Moritz von Bock and his wife Olga Franziska Helene née von Falkenhayn, the sister of Erich von Falkenhayn.

He joined in 1898 after a cadet training as a lieutenant in the 5th Guards regiment Walk a. 1905 was Sadjutant Bock battalion. After he was appointed regimental adjutant in 1907, he was reassigned from 1910 to 1912 for general staff training. He was transferred in 1912 to the General Staff.

Bock attended the general staff and battalion commander in the First World War. On 30 December 1916, he was promoted to Major. On 1 April 1918, he was awarded the Pour le Mérite.

Weimar Republic

He was acquired in 1919 in the Army. As Chief of Staff of the 3rd Division in Berlin, he was also commander of the anti-republican Black Reichswehr.On 1 February 1929, was Bock to Major General on 1 February 1931, commander of the 1st Cavalry Division to lieutenant general. End of 1931, he was the military district commander of Bock II in Szczecin.

Prewar

After the takeover of the Nazi Party in 1933, he acted the Nazi regime toward neutral. In 1935, he was promoted to General of Infantry and appointed commander of the newly established Group Command3 in Dresden. In 1936, he married Wilhelmina of the East, with whom he had a daughter.

As part of the annexation of Austria into the German Reich on 12 March 1938, he marched at the head of the educated from his command post 8th Army in Austria, and it was backdated to 1 March, promoted to colonel general. On 1 November of that year, he was appointed commander of the command group, and on 26 August 1939, Commander of the Northern Army Group formed from that place.

World War II

In this role, he also participated in the attack on Poland on 1 September 1939 in part. He commanded it from the Pomerania (4th Army) and East Prussia(3rd Army) advancing Army Group North end and, after the capitulation of Warsawon 30 September, awarded the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross. Upon completion of the Polish campaign, he was transferred to the army group commander to the western frontier and placed there from October 1939 to the Army Group B. In November 1939, he learned of “processes of” colonization “of the East,” which frightened him deeply. He comments on this in his notes: “Make you keep it there; these methods return once against us.”

With Army Group B, which was the northern wing of the German forces, he led the West campaign’s attack on Belgium and the Netherlands. After the invasion of Paris, he took, on 14 June 1940, the parade of German troops from the Arc de Triomphe. On 19 July 1940, he was appointed simultaneously with eleven other generals to Field Marshal. On his 60th Birthday, Hitler gave him 100,000 Reichsmarks.

Due to the “Directive No. 21 Operation Barbarossa” of 18 December 1940, Bock instructed to prepare the troops under his command for the attack on the Soviet Union. Against this context, in May 1941, he adopted Kommissarbefehl, he put orally, at the urging of his staff officers, Henning von Tresckow and Rudolf Christoph von Gersdorff at OKH, a contradiction. After his protest remained ultimately fruitless, he told his staff - “Gentlemen, I note: The Field Marshal von Bock has protested.”

The start of the German attack on the Soviet Union was of Bock, commander of Army Group Centre, whose mission was the assault on Moscow. After Bock during the Battle of Moscow, due to the exhaustion of his troops, pleaded for a tactical retreat on the Eastern Front, on 19 December, he and the Chief of the Army Walther von Brauchitsch replaced.

He took over on 18 January 1942, after the sudden death (by stroke) of Walter von Reichenau, whose Army Group South. Following renewed clashes with Hitler about the plans of the operation, he was on 15BrunswickJuly 1942 of his duties as commander of Army Group B and removed by the end of the war and added to the reserve leaders. Colonel Maximilian von Weichs succeeded him.

He lived in seclusion in the last years of World War II in Bavaria. His nephew, Henning von Tresckow, tried several times in vain to win him over to the military resistance against Hitler - the attempted assassination of Hitler on 20 July 1944 he condemned as a crime. After Hitler’s suicide, he offered himself to the new government under Karl Doenitz.

On 3 May 1945, an attack by Bock with a British low-flying aircraft in the vicinity of Lensahn seriously injured them; the next day, he died of his injuries in a naval hospital in Oldenburg/Holstein. The attack also came from Bock’s wife, his daughter, and his driver killed. Fedor von Bock is, therefore, the only field marshal of the Third Reich who came by direct enemy action to death.

Ranks

• Lieutenant - 15 March 1898
• Lieutenant - 10th September 1908
• Captain - 22 March 1912
• Major - 30 December 1916
• Lieutenant Colonel - 18 December 1920
• Colonel - 1 May 1925
• Major General - 1 February 1929
• Lieutenant General - 1 February 1931
• General of Infantry - 1 March 1935
• Colonel General - 15 March 1938
• Field Marshal - 19 July 1940

Awards

• Prussian Crown Order IV Class on 13 September 1911
• Iron Cross II Class 18th September 1914
• Iron Cross First Class 30 October 1916
• Knight’s Cross of the Royal House Order of Hohenzollern with Swords on 25 October 1916
• Austrian Military Merit Cross III. Class with war decoration on 24 June 1915
• Order of the Iron Crown III. Class with war decoration on 9 February 1917
• Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin Sches Militärverdienstkreuz II Class 3 August 1917
• Hanseatic CrossHamburgon 19 September 1917
• Bremen Hanseatic Cross on 30 January 1918
• Order of the Zähringer Lion Knight’s Cross First Class with Swords on 10 January 1918
• Order of the Württemberg Crown Knight’s Cross with Swords on 25 January 1918
• Pour le Mérite on 1 April 1918
• Military Merit (Bulgaria) Commander’s Cross on 2 August 1918
• Cross Service Award 1920
• Silesian Eagle II and low range on 15 April 1921
• Wehrmacht Long Service Award IV to First Class
• Medal to Commemorate the 13th March 1938
• Medal to commemorate the first October 1938
• Order of the Crown of Yugoslavia. Class on 1 June 1939
• Eichenlaub to Wehrmacht Long Service Award, First Class on 12 September 1939
• Clasp to the Iron Cross II and First Class on 22 September 1939
• Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross on 30 September 1939
• Order of the Crown ofItalyGrand Cross on 27 August 1940
• Romanian Order of Michael the Brave Military III. and second class on 29 July 1942
• Romanian Order of Michael the Brave Military, First Class on 1 September 1942
• Hungarian Order of Merit Grand Cross with Swords on 27 November 1942
• Mention in the Wehrmacht report on 7 August 1941; 19th September 1941, the 18th October 1941, 30th May 1942