Thoughts on Manstein?

For the longest time, Manstein was my favorite general of WW2. As an ex-Wehraboo, I ate up all the BS his memoirs chugged out, but after doing actual research I renounced all love I once had for the German army in WW2 due to fully realizing the horrors they perpetrated during the Second World War. Personally, I don't believe Manstein was the general most media hypes him up to be, and in fact he's the person to blame for the disaster at Stalingrad (Paulus was continuously screeching that the Sixth Army needed to book it, to which Manstein fervently denied), but I just wanted to know this site's thoughts on Manstein's capabilities as a field marshal (his participation in war crimes is a discussion for another day), and please debate and don't start a civil war in this discussion preferably
 
Like so many he wrote a self-serving biography post war & directed the narrative in interviews and other venues in his favor.

There are a couple points concerning the 1940 campaign and the Sickle Cut maneuver where the testimony of Guderian and other evidence crosses broadside the usual Manstein favored story.

That said he does seem to have been a above average corps and army commander. He was not chosen as Rundsteadts chief of staff in 1939 for trivial reasons. & his appointment to corps and then army command were in competition with many other well trained and experienced men.
 
Like so many he wrote a self-serving biography post war & directed the narrative in interviews and other venues in his favor.

There are a couple points concerning the 1940 campaign and the Sickle Cut maneuver where the testimony of Guderian and other evidence crosses broadside the usual Manstein favored story.

That said he does seem to have been a above average corps and army commander. He was not chosen as Rundsteadts chief of staff in 1939 for trivial reasons. & his appointment to corps and then army command were in competition with many other well trained and experienced men.

This spot on! An above average commander (at corps and army levels), but made crucial mistakes that he then tried to deflect blame for after the war.
 
For the longest time, Manstein was my favorite general of WW2. As an ex-Wehraboo, I ate up all the BS his memoirs chugged out, but after doing actual research I renounced all love I once had for the German army in WW2 due to fully realizing the horrors they perpetrated during the Second World War. Personally, I don't believe Manstein was the general most media hypes him up to be, and in fact he's the person to blame for the disaster at Stalingrad (Paulus was continuously screeching that the Sixth Army needed to book it, to which Manstein fervently denied), but I just wanted to know this site's thoughts on Manstein's capabilities as a field marshal (his participation in war crimes is a discussion for another day), and please debate and don't start a civil war in this discussion preferably

ObWI: Manstein is politically opposed to the Nazis so is purged from the ranks when von Blomberg gets the axe. Does the Wehrmacht perform better or worse?

Personally, I'd say they perform worse. Which means the world today is a better place. But on balance, I think the man was good at his job and a Germany without him is a less dangerous Germany.

I do wonder at which hurdle Germany would really fall short without him... In OTL, it was fighting the Soviet Union at the very limits of logistics where his shortcomings as a military leader are really in evidence. But would Germany even get as far as Barbarossa before being crushed without him? I suspect they would, but I don't have the detailed knowledge to speak on this with any authority.

fasquardon
 
Just because he polished up his performance in his memoirs (and also try to trick the readers into believing that he had nothing to do with war crimes) he wasn't a bad general. He was a pretty able commander, actually.

The same goes for Rommel. He wasn't an unstoppable military genius, but he was no idiot either. If anything the limited infrastructure of Italian Libya greatly hampered him by messing up his logistics.
 
Given the US 7th Army assessment report from May 1945 this should be able to stay here unless it is meant to be a legitimate discussion. If you can find a copy it's an interesting 150ish page read.
 
In terms of ethics and chivalry his marks were low even by the standards of the day. His strength was clearly military tactics, but at strategy he was overrated. He couldn't see before Kursk that Germany just did not have the resources for a major offensive in the East in '43 and after in meeting with Kludge and Rommel still argued that a stalemate was possible and that if things got too bad Hitler would step down.

Of the three Manstein had the best self preservation instinct. Leaving strategy up to Hitler at the end of the day guaranteed himself a long life, a leading role in West German military affairs to plan the rebuilding of the Heer and a death at a ripe old age at the cost of half of his country being overrun by Stalin. His writings made clear he had few regrets and would rather be in the position he ended up in then the alternative.
 
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