Erich von Manstein

Fritz Erich Georg Eduard von Lewinski was born into Prussian military aristocracy in 1887 and took the Manstein name, rising to captain in the First World War. In 1940, as chief of staff to Army Group South, he devised the Sichelschnitt - the surprise thrust through the Ardennes that cut the Allied armies in two and delivered France in six weeks. Promoted to field marshal after the siege of Sevastopol in July 1942, he led forces at Leningrad, then commanded the doomed Winter Storm relief attempt at Stalingrad in December. His backhand blow at Kharkov in early 1943 destroyed three Soviet armies and briefly turned the tide, but repeated clashes with Hitler over strategy led to his dismissal in March 1944. Captured by the British in 1945, he testified at Nuremberg and was convicted in Hamburg in 1949 on nine counts, including failing to protect civilians under his command. Released in 1953 after serving less than four years, he advised West Germany's rearmament and published memoirs that blamed Hitler while erasing the war's moral dimension.