Erich von "von Lewinski"

Erich von Lewinski, born on 24-11-1887 in Berlin, Goebbels (see Joseph Goebbels) was Gauleiter of Berlin, and was the tenth child of West Prussian aristocrat and an Artillery General, Eduard von Lewinski. He was then adopted after the death of his parents, by his uncle General Georg von Manstein. Erich von Manstein began his military career in 1906,as an Ensign serving with 3^rd Foot Guard Regiment. In 1914, he rejoined 3^rd Foot Guard Regiment and then served as Adjutant of 2^nd Guard Reserve Regiment. During World War I, Erich von Manstein served on both the Western and Russian front. While fighting on the Russian Front, he was wounded and afterwards was transferred to the staff of Army Group commander, followed by other staff positions. In 1915, von Manstein was promoted to the rank of Captain and remained as staff officer until the end of the war in 1918. In 1918, he volunteered for the staff position in Frontier Defence Force in Breslau, Wroclaw and served there until 1919. In 1936, Erich von Manstein was promoted to the rank of Major-General, his aide was Alexander stahlberg    and became deputy Chief of Staff to General Bock (see Bock). He in 1938, took part in the German take-over of the Sudetenland as the Chief of Staff to General von Leeb (see Leeb). On 01-04-1939, von Manstein was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant-General.In 1939, Erich von Manstein served as Chief of Staff to General Gerd von Rundstedt (see Rundstedt), who commanded Army Group South during the Invasion of Poland in September. In preparations for the Invasion of France, Erich von Manstein received the position of Chief of Staff of the Army Group A. On 06-02-1940, he received the command of 38^th Infantry Corps, which he successfully commanded in France and was first across the River Seine and later proposed his own new plan of the attack on France based on the Blitzkrieg. First his plan Operation, sickle- stroke, was rejected by the German Army's High Command, but once it was brought to Hitler's personal attention on 07-07, it was quickly accepted. During the French Campaign, Erich von Manstein was promoted to the rank of General and on 19-06-1940, after the success of Fall Gelb, he was awarded the Knight's Cross. In February of 1941, von Manstein advanced over 320km, while capturing bridges across Duna River and almost capturing the city of Leningrad. On September 12/13^th of 1941, von Manstein received the command of 11^th Army He then successfully drove southwards into the Crimea, while taking over 430.000 Russian prisoners and by November 16^th secured entire Crimea with exception of Sevastopol. On 01-07-1942, he captured the city of Sevastopol, and on the same day received the promotion to the rank of Field Marshal. Von Manstein's son Gero was killed in Russia, age 19, on 23-10-1942, (see Gero). Erich von Manstein received the command of newly formed Army Group Don, which was made up of Hoth's 4^th Panzer Army (see Hoth), Paulus's 6^th Army, entirely trapped in Stalingrad and 3^rd Romanian Army. He was ordered to relieve the 6^th Army and 4^th Panzer Army trapped in the city of Stalingrad. Von Manstein started his attack on December 12^th and by 24th was within 50km from "Fortress Stalingrad", when his advance was halted and he was forced into 200km long retreat, which continued until February of 1943. During the "Unternehmen Zitadelle", von Manstein's Army Group South made good progress but was eventually halted when 4^th  Panzer Army was unable to advance northwards. This was a result of the unresolved outcome of the biggest tank battle in history on 12-07-1943 in the area of Prochorovka, where SS Obergruppenfuhrer Paul Hausser's (see Hausser) II SS Panzer Corps engaged Lieutenant-General Pavel Rotmistrov's 5^th Guards Tank Army. From October to mid January of 1944, von Manstein "stabilized" the situation but in late January was forced to retreat further westwards by the new Soviet offensive. He received the Oalleaves and Swords on 30-03-1944 In mid February of 1944, von Manstein disobeyed Hitler's order and ordered 11^th and 42^nd Corps, consisting of 56000 men in six divisions of his Army Group South to breakout from the "Cherkassy Pocket", which occurred on February 16/17^th. Eventually, Hitler accepted this action and ordered the breakout after it already took place. On 30-03-1944, Erich von Manstein was dismissed by Adolf Hitler (see Adolf Hitler) after the series of "heated" conferences over the situation and decisions made concerning the events on the Eastern Front. On the same day, von Manstein received the Swords to the Oak Leaves of the Knight's Cross  . After his dismissal, Erich von Manstein entered the Breslau hospital's eye clinic followed by convalescence near Dresden and then retired to his estate. Although, he did not take part in the attempt to kill Hitler on July 20^th of 1944, he was aware of it. In late January of 1945, von Manstein collected his family members from their homes in Liegnitz (Legnica) and evacuated them to Celle in West Germany. In May of 1945, Erich von Manstein was arrested by the British Forces and taken to POW camp in Luneburg and later to Nuremburg. In the Autumn of 1946, he was transferred to the special camp for high ranking officers in Great Britain and returned to Germany in the Summer of 1948. During the war crimes trial in August of 1949, Erich von Manstein was sentenced for 18 years of imprisonment but was released in 1952, because of his health condition. Erich von Manstein also successfully defended number of Wehrmacht officers charged with war crimes. Afterwards, in 1956, he became an organizational advisor to the Bundeswehr, joined with Germany's wartime enemies to protect Western Europe from Soviet threat.

   Erich von Manstein lived with his family, including his son Rudiger, in Irschenhausen near Icking (see Sixt)(see Josef Dahme)in the Isar valley in Bavaria until he died of a stroke at the age of 85, on 10-06-1973. He is buried with his wife Jutta Sibylle, born Loesch, who died old age 86, 01-03-1988, in Dorfmark near Fallingbostel. Close by the graves of Bruno Bieler (see Bieler) and Egmond Bahn (see Bahn).