AHC: Give Model the biggest reputation of all ww2 German generals

Your challenge should you chose to accept it is to give Walter Model the biggest reputation (for being a skilled commander/most famous) of any German general in WW2... he must be bigger/more famous than Guderian, Manstein and Rommel

No Pod's before Sept 1 1939

Bonus points if he remains a fanatical Nazi/Hitler apologist

Double bonus points if he still kills himself or is killed in battle and doesn't get to write his own memoirs
 
Your challenge should you chose to accept it is to give Walter Model the biggest reputation (for being a skilled commander/most famous) of any German general in WW2... he must be bigger/more famous than Guderian, Manstein and Rommel

No Pod's before Sept 1 1939

Bonus points if he remains a fanatical Nazi/Hitler apologist

Double bonus points if he still kills himself or is killed in battle and doesn't get to write his own memoirs

Have him disobey Hitler's orders and conduct a fluid defense to severely damage Bagration. Bonus points if he manages to break Rokossovsky's 1st Byellorussian Front - beating a Marshal of the Soviet Union who was actually proven in battle is something for the history books. More bonus points if he pulls a Zhuge Liang and beats Rokossovsky after he's dead.
 
Have him disobey Hitler's orders and conduct a fluid defense to severely damage Bagration. Bonus points if he manages to break Rokossovsky's 1st Byellorussian Front - beating a Marshal of the Soviet Union who was actually proven in battle is something for the history books. More bonus points if he pulls a Zhuge Liang and beats Rokossovsky after he's dead.
Definitely sounds like a good choice; it gives him a major battlefield victory, and involves disobeying Hitler. To gain any real post-war popularity, a German WW 2 general needs to have something that can at least be made to look like anti-Nazism.

Of course, Model's big disadvantage when it comes to building up a reputation is that his real talent lies in defense, while big reputations almost always go to aggressive offensive reputation.
 
Have him disobey Hitler's orders and conduct a fluid defense to severely damage Bagration. Bonus points if he manages to break Rokossovsky's 1st Byellorussian Front - beating a Marshal of the Soviet Union who was actually proven in battle is something for the history books. More bonus points if he pulls a Zhuge Liang and beats Rokossovsky after he's dead.

The problem is (if we are working in the otl time frame) was that model wasn't given command of army group center until AFTER bagration had destroyed the front (he was fresh off a major victory with army group south at kaments
 

Cook

Banned
Send him to North Africa instead of Rommel.

Given that Model probably wouldn’t have ignored his logistics problems to the extent Rommel did perhaps he’d have done even better.
 
Have him successfully lead a coup against Hitler--preferably because Hitler was not ideologically pure enough.
 
The problem is (if we are working in the otl time frame) was that model wasn't given command of army group center until AFTER bagration had destroyed the front (he was fresh off a major victory with army group south at kaments

Well, you did say no POD before Fall Weiss :p
 
A certain Greek chap known for an awesome front kick might disagree with you :p
Not really; I only said offensive generals usually get better reputations than defensive ones, not that a defensive general could never get a heroic reputation (and before 300 came out Leonidas didn't have much a reputation). The vast majority of generals with huge famous reputations are ones that launched aggressive, bold offensives (Thus why for WW II Germany, it's Manstein, Rommel, and Guderian).
 
scenario 1

A. During the opening stages of Barbarossa Schweppenburg is killed in an air attack, with Model as senior division commander being selected to replace him leading 24th panzer corps. Model does a brilliant job in the initial encirclements including Smolensk

B. Guderian resigns in protest over Kiev being selected as the target for the late summer instead of Moscow. Model with Kluge's backing is selected to command the 2nd panzer army. Model leads the decisive assault on Kiev taking a similar bag of prisoners to otl

C. Model leads the highly successful Bryasnk-Vyzama encirclements before failing at the gates of Moscow

D. Bock is fired as otl, but instead of Kluge being selected to command Army Group Center, Model is

E. Model successfully holds the lines over the winter vindicating himself further to Hitler

F. He stays on the defensive in 1942 and crushes operation mars as otl

G. Hitler listens to him about Kursk and cancels the offensive, the Russians go over to the offensive and with reserves in tact, Model fights a skilled defense, yielding ground but inflicting a blood bath

H. Model conducts a mobile retreat in front of bagration, again losing ground but inflicting heavy casualties

I. Model takes over high command west as Falaise is developing

J. Model requests a general retreat from Falaise

K. Hitler refuses and Model is captured... he becomes extremely embittered at Hitler for not allowing him to extricate the army and provides intel to the allies

L. Model drafts his memoirs in conjuction with surviving members of his taff

M. Liddle Hart interviews him and others who say that he was Germany's most brilliant tactician

N. Liddle boosts his reputation in the press, and Model's memoirs become major best sellers
 
Not really; I only said offensive generals usually get better reputations than defensive ones, not that a defensive general could never get a heroic reputation (and before 300 came out Leonidas didn't have much a reputation). The vast majority of generals with huge famous reputations are ones that launched aggressive, bold offensives (Thus why for WW II Germany, it's Manstein, Rommel, and Guderian).

I know, I was joking.
 
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