LEADERS AND HEROES
A number of lesser-known civil and military figures contributed to the final victory
MARSHAL KONSTANTIN ROKOSSOVSKY “THE GERMAN ARMY IS A MACHINE – AND MACHINES CAN BE BROKEN” 1896-1968 POLAND
Konstantin Rokossovsky began his military career as an outstanding Red Army cavalry officer, twice honoured with the Order of the Red Banner. An innovative thinker, he went on to study at the Frunze Military Academy. In the military purges of 1937, Rokossovsky’s Polish origins aroused suspicion and he was arrested. He refused to sign a confession that he knew was false, despite beatings and mock executions, and was released three years later.
Rokossovsky’s World War II record was exceptional. In 1941 he bravely led the 16th Army in its heroic defence of Moscow. The following year, as commander of the Don Front, he helped mastermind Operation Uranus, cutting off the German 6th Army at Stalingrad. In July 1943 he held the northern salient during the battle of Kursk, preventing a breakthrough by
General Model’s 9th Army. His greatest achievement came in the summer of 1944 with the planning and execution of Operation Bagration, which destroyed the Wehrmacht’s Army Group Centre.
A moment of controversy occurred in August 1944, when – entrenched on the River Vistula – Rokossovsky claimed that over-extended supply lines prevented him assisting the Warsaw Uprising. In reality, Stalin – distrustful of the Polish resistance fighters – may have ordered him not to give any military support. He finished the war fighting in northern Germany, linking up with the British forces of Field Marshal Montgomery at Wismar on 2 May 1945.
Marshals Rokossovsky and Georgi Zhukov led the Victory Parade on Red Square (on 22 June 1945). Zhukov is usually celebrated as the Soviet Union’s greatest World War II commander but Rokossovsky’s style of leadership was more effective. He remained calm in the most difficult of situations and did not bully his subordinates. Above all, he never forgot the needs of the frontline soldier – and that was the foundation of his success.
GENERAL OF THE ARMY OMAR BRADLEY THE QUIET AMERICAN WHO SAVED LIVES 1893-1981 USA
Omar Bradley graduated from West Point in the same year as Dwight Eisenhower. He was a superb strategic planner, whose prime concern was to achieve his objectives with minimum losses for the soldiers under his command.
Unfailingly polite and soft-spoken – in contrast to the flamboyant George Patton – he was nevertheless capable of making tough decisions and was a good judge of character. In 1943 he led US II Corps in Tunisia and Sicily; the following year, he was commander of all American forces in Normandy. He oversaw the crossing of the Rhine in March 1945 and on 25 April linked up with Soviet Marshal Konev on the River Elbe.
A compassionate commander, nicknamed
‘the GI’S General’, Bradley dissuaded General Eisenhower from making a dash on Berlin. He reckoned it would cost 100,000 American casualties, far too many, he believed, for “a prestige objective”. He was right.
“BRADLEY DISSUADED GENERAL EISENHOWER FROM MAKING A DASH ON BERLIN. HE RECKONED IT WOULD COST 100,000 AMERICAN CASUALTIES, FAR TOO MANY, HE BELIEVED, FOR ‘A PRESTIGE OBJECTIVE’”
RAOUL WALLENBERG THE CALL OF CONSCIENCE 1912-1945 (DISAPPEARED) SWEDEN
Leadership can be seen on the field of battle, or in international statecraft. It also resides in the conscience of every individual. In the summer of 1944, Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, his country’s special envoy to Budapest, proved the truth of this, doing all he could to save the lives of Hungarian Jews being sent to Auschwitz, in the teeth of opposition from Hungarian fascists (the ‘Red Arrow’ party) and SS commander Adolf Eichmann. Wallenberg handed out protective passes to Jews about to be deported – on one occasion clambering aboard a train about to leave for the death camps – and sheltered others in buildings designated Swedish territory. He continued his efforts as the Red Army fought for control of the Hungarian capital.
There is much speculation about Wallenberg’s eventual fate. He was arrested by Soviet forces in Hungary on 17 January
1945. He may have been executed in a Moscow prison two years later, for reasons that are still unclear. But one thing is certain – he stepped up and did the right thing, regardless of the risks. Thousands of Jewish lives were saved as a result.
MARSHAL TITO INVINCIBLE PARTISAN LEADER 1892-1980 CROATIA
In the summer of 1941 Germany launched a blitzkrieg invasion of Yugoslavia. When organised resistance quickly collapsed, communist leader Josip Broz, known as ‘Tito’, took command of a guerrilla movement. That autumn Tito’s partisans tied up vital Wehrmacht divisions that could have been used in the battle for Moscow. The Germans were never able to subdue him, either by conventional military operations or assassination attempts (including an airborne attack on his mountain headquarters at Drvar). At the Teheran summit in November 1943, the United States, Britain and the Soviet Union all pledged their support.
Fiercely independent, Tito once sat down at an Allied conference with five machine-gunners in attendance. In May 1945 there was concern when his forces briefly occupied Trieste, in the northeastern corner of Italy – but everyone recognised his remarkable contribution to the defeat of Adolf Hitler.
GENERAL WLADYSLAW ANDERS AN INDOMITABLE WILL TO RESIST 1892-1970 POLAND
If Homer’s Odyssey had been set in World War II, General Wladyslaw Anders would have taken a starring role. A cavalry brigade commander at the beginning of World War II, Anders fought courageously against the Germans, only to be captured by the Russians, who had invaded Poland from the east. He spent the next 20 months in a Moscow prison, but was released in the summer of 1941, after Hitler invaded the Soviet Union, and ordered to raise an army from those
Poles languishing in Stalin’s gulags. In March 1942 Churchill intervened, gaining permission for Anders and his followers to leave the Soviet Union and undertake a remarkable journey south. Marching through Iran, Iraq, British-held Palestine and Egypt, Anders and his soldiers then fought in Italy as the Polish II Corps. Here they gained a stunning revenge against the Germans, storming the summit of Monte Cassino in May 1944.
General Anders was a bitter opponent of the Yalta summit of February 1945 – rightly seeing it as a betrayal of Poland. The remarkable heroism of his army should never be forgotten.
FIELD MARSHAL HAROLD ALEXANDER AN ABILITY TO GET ON WITH OTHERS 1891-1969 UNITED KINGDOM
Harold Alexander served with distinction in the First World War, and afterwards rose through the ranks, becoming the youngest general in the British Army (in 1937). In the dark days of World War II he oversaw the evacuation of Dunkirk, in 1940, and led British troops back into Burma in 1942. Alexander had a superb all-round grasp of warfare, and it was in the Mediterranean theatre that he excelled, becoming supreme allied commander and field marshal (after the capture of Rome in June 1944). On 29 April 1945, he accepted the surrender of all German forces in Italy and Austria at his headquarters at Caserta.
Unity of purpose is all-important in war – and in contrast to his fellow Field Marshal, Bernard Montgomery, Alexander got on well with those he worked with, particularly the Americans, who were happy to be under his command.