Hasso Freiherr (Baron) von Manteuffel: A Prussian soldier of the old school. General der Panzertruppen Hasso-Eccard Freiherr von Manteuffel was born in Potsdam on 14 January 1897. The scion of a Junker family that traced its origins to 1287, he served as a young man in the ranks of the elite Husaren Regiment von Zieten (Brandenburgisches) Nr. 3, and can be said never to have lost his instincts as a cavalryman, even as he commanded whole Panzer armies in the Second World War. Reputed to be the shortest officer in the German army, he was tough, wiry, resourceful and athletic, becoming an Olympic pentathlon champion and remaining an expert horseman until late in life. As commander of the Panzergrenadier-Division Grossdeutschland, he led The Fire Brigade (the units nickname in the Wehrmacht) in desperate battles on the Eastern Front throughout 1943-44 against overwhelming odds, rushing from one threatened sector to another and counterattacking ceaselessly, without rest, often snatching victory from defeat. Von Manteuffel possessed great physical courage, and his habit of leading from the front also caused him to suffer wounds and injuries on several occasions in the course of the war. During the fighting around the Gulf of Riga in August 1944, when Grossdeutschland was heavily engaged in a desperate attempt to open a line of retreat for its comrades of Army Group North who had been pinned against the Baltic Sea by the massive Soviet offensive, Freiherr von Manteuffel was wounded in an air attack. He characteristically refused to leave the front to receive necessary medical treatment. Ordered to take over the Fifth Panzer Army in the West in September 1944, he took part in the Ardennes Offensive, and later commanded the Third Panzer Army on the lower reaches of the Oder during the last weeks of the war. Freiherr von Manteuffel was never charged with war crimes, and after his release from Western Allied captivity in 1947, he became active in West German politics. He played a key role as adviser to the Adenauer cabinet on the formation of the West German armed forces, and is reputed to have originated the name Bundeswehr.
Posted on: Tue, 14 Jan 2014 17:14:42 +0000
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