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| Author | Erich von Manstein |
|---|---|
| Language | English, German |
| Genre | Memoir |
Publication date | 1955 |
Published in English | 1958 |
| Media type |
Lost Victories (German: Verlorene Siege) is the English language title of the memoirs of Erich von Manstein, a German field marshal during World War II. The book was first published in West Germany in 1955, and its English translation was published in 1958 for distribution in the UK and the US. Academic and historical responses to the book have been mixed, with the operational aspects of the book generally praised and the personal and political context frequently criticized as self-serving.
Content
[edit]In the book, Manstein presented his experiences, ideas, and decisions as they appeared to him during the 1930s and 1940s. He wrote not as a historical investigator, but as one who played an active part in the story he was relating. Discussing the 1939 invasion of Poland, Manstein commented on Poland's lack of military leadership: "The Polish General Staff did not possess its own tradition of generalship shaped by long experience. On the one hand the Polish temperament was more disposed towards attack than defense ... On the other hand the newly founded Polish Army was French-taught".[1]
Discussing the eventually cancelled plan to invade Britain in 1940, Manstein wrote: "British eyes were blind to the fact that the big need in a changed world would be to create a world balance of power in view of the might which the Soviet Union had attained and the dangers inherent in its dedication to the idea of world revolution.[2] Manstein, who commanded the south German sector forces in 1943, complained that Operation Citadel was delayed too long for the German force to break through. He said Hitler halted the attack prematurely, a decision he called "tantamount to throwing away a victory".[3] According to Manstein, Hitler did not allow the detailed planning of large-scale military operations.[4] He believed that, in 1943, a draw could have been achieved on the Eastern Front by bleeding the Red Army dry if the generals had been allowed to operate properly.[5]
von Manstein's Matrix
[edit]What is frequently described as the "Von Manstein's Matrix" is outlined in Lost Victories. The matrix categorizes leaders into four categories and assigns each into a position of best fit.[6] The Matrix is used in leadership contexts across industry and the military and is frequently attributed to von Manstein as an original idea, although several examples of the Martix appear in earlier publications, attributing it to other German generals such as Kurt von Hammerstein-Equord and Helmuth von Moltke.
Reception
[edit]Professional
[edit]The concepts and ideas Manstein presents in the book have been extensively quoted and utilized in professional military circles. The Marine Corps quotes the book's treatment of war planning and leadership in its 1997 Manual for operations.
Academic
[edit]After Verlorene Siege was published, the West German newspaper Die Zeit asked about Manstein's account: "What would it have signified for the world and for Germany, what would it have signified for a Christian and gentleman like Manstein if these victories had not been lost?"[7] In the preface to Lost Victories, military historian and officer Martin Blumenson wrote that Verlorene Siege was "the best book of memoirs on the German side and it is indispensable for understanding the conditions and circumstances of Hitler’s war.[8] Robert M. Citino called its account of operational details to be as good as a source as could be found, but criticized Manstein for "defending his generalship and reputation, hiding his participation in war crimes, and blaming others for everything that went wrong," adding that he thought the book should come with the warning label: "Use with Caution."[9] German historian Jürgen Förster wrote in 1998 that, for too long, most Germans accepted at face value self-serving claims by generals such as Manstein and Siegfried Westphal in their memoirs that the Wehrmacht was a professional, apolitical force who were victims of Adolf Hitler which evaded the issue of Wehrmacht war crimes.[10]
In 2004, Volker Berghahn called Manstein's memoirs "totally unreliable" and said that if more had been known about his war crimes during the 1940s, he might have been hanged.[11] According to Berghahn, "By the time Christian Streit published his book Keine Kameraden about the mass murder of Red Army prisoners of war at the hands of the Wehrmacht, professional historians firmly accepted what Manstein and his comrades had denied and covered up, i.e., that the Wehrmacht had been deeply involved in the criminal and genocidal policies of the Nazi regime".[12] Max Egremont called the memoir "arrogant" and "self-serving" in Literary Review, Andrew Roberts wrote in "The Storm of War" that it has "rightly been condemned".[13]
German historian Volker Berghahn wrote about Verlorene Siege, "Its title gave the story away: it had been Hitler's dogmatism and constant interference with the strategic plans and operational decisions of the professionals that had cost Germany its victory against Stalin".[11]
Smelner and Davies criticized the book in their own book, The Myth of the Eastern Front, saying that Manstein unfairly portrays the average Russian soldier as courageous but poorly led and the Soviet officer corps as hopelessly incompetent. He portrayed the war on the Eastern Front as a German army vastly superior in fighting ability being steadily ground down by an opponent superior only in numbers, which the historians consider to be self-serving and protective of his own perceived failures. disparaging other German generals as incompetant, and taking credit for German victories while blaming Hitler and his fellow generals for defeats. Smelser and Davies called Manstein's criticism of Hitler self-serving, saying that Manstein's claim that he wanted the 6th Army to be pulled out of Stalingrad after it was encircled only to be overruled by Hitler was false. They also criticized his avoidance of political issues, and writing about the war as a purely operational matter, without expressing regret for serving a genocidal regime condemning Hitler or the Nazis moral grounds. They go on to say that Manstein's claiming that he did not enforce the Commissar Order was untrue and criticized his omission of any mention of his role in the Holocaust.[14]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ Manstein 2004, p. 41.
- ^ Manstein 2004, p. 156.
- ^ Manstein 2004, p. 449.
- ^ Manstein 2004, p. 273.
- ^ Verlorene Siege, Manstein, Bernard & Graefe, 1983 p. 474
- ^ Bering 2011, pp. 51–68.
- ^ Marianne Regensburger, Mansteins-verlorene-Siege, Zeit Online 07.07.1955 Nr. 27
- ^ Manstein 2004, p. 11.
- ^ Citino 2010.
- ^ Förster 1998, p. 266.
- ^ a b "Preface" by Volker Berghahn from War of Extermination edited by Klaus Naumann & Hannes Heer, New York: Berghahn Books, 2004 page xiv.
- ^ "Preface" by Volker Berghahn from War of Extermination edited by Klaus Naumann & Hannes Heer, New York: Berghahn Books, 2004 page xvi.
- ^ The Storm of War: a New History of the Second World War 2009 HarperCollins, ISBN 978-0-06-122859-9
- ^ Smelser & Davies 2008, p. 95-98.
Bibliography
[edit]- Bering, Henrik (August 2011). "The perfect officer". Policy Review (168). Stanford, California: Hoover Institute. Retrieved 17 October 2017.
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link) - Citino, Robert M. (2010). "Forgotten Army, Lost Victories". Historynet.com. Retrieved 17 March 2014.
- Förster, Jürgen (1998). "Complicity or Entanglement? The Wehrmacht, the War and the Holocaust (pages 266–283)". In Michael Berenbaum & Abraham Peck (ed.). The Holocaust and History The Known, the Unknown, the Disputed and the Reexamined. Bloomington: Indian University Press. ISBN 978-0-253-33374-2.
- Manstein, Erich von (2004). Lost Victories: The War Memoirs of Hitler's Most Brilliant General. Minneapolis, Minnisota: Zenith Press. ISBN 978-0760320549.
- Smelser, Ronald; Davies, Edward J. (2008). The Myth of the Eastern Front: the Nazi-Soviet war in American popular culture. New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521833653.
External links
[edit]- MCDP 1-2 (1997)
- Glantz, David (1987). "American Perspectives on Eastern Front Operations in World War II"., a review of Lost Victories
- Revisiting a Lost Victory at Kursk
Category:World War II memoirs Category:1955 books Category:German books