Günther von Kluge

Günther von Kluge led the 4th Army through Poland in 1939 and France in 1940, earning his marshal's baton. He pushed into the Soviet Union with Operation Barbarossa and the assault on Moscow in 1941, then took command of Army Group Centre during the crisis of the Soviet counter-offensive in December. Officers plotting Hitler's death, including Henning von Tresckow, served on his staff; Kluge knew but held back unless the assassination succeeded. A car accident in October 1943 knocked him off the Eastern Front for months. He returned in July 1944 as Supreme Commander West, replacing a predecessor dismissed for defeatism, and watched the Normandy invasion roll forward beyond stopping. After the 20 July plot collapsed, he was summoned to Berlin. On 19 August 1944, en route, he took his own life.