History's Greatest People

OTTO VON BISMARCK

THE IRON CHANCELLOR OF THE SECOND GERMAN EMPIRE

Otto von Bismarck, born on April 1, 1815 at Schönhausen, is considered the founder of the German Empire. For nearly three decades he shaped the fortunes of Germany, from 1862 to 1873 as prime minister of Prussia and from 1871 to 1890 as Germany’s first Chancellor. On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of his death on July 30, 1898, German News remembers the great German statesman.

After reading law at the Universities of Göttingen and Berlin, Otto von Bismarck entered Prussian service and became a judicial administrator at Aachen. Bismarck gained prominence in 1851 when he was chosen to represent Prussia in the Federal diet. In 1859 he was sent as ambassador to Russia, from where he was recalled in March 1862 to become ambassador to France. However, already after 6 months in September 1862, Bismarck returned to Berlin as prime minister of Prussia when he devoted himself to the task of uniting Germany. In the war of 1866 he succeeded in defeating Austria and excluding itAltogether from Germany. Also the Franco-German War (1870-71) ended with Prussian success.

This victory instigated the kingdoms of Bavaria, Württemberg, Baden and Hesse to join the North German Alliance, an alliance of

Prussia and 17 northern German states created by Bismarck in 1866, which led to the declaration of the German Empire (Deutsches Reich) in 1870 and the

proclamation of King William I of Prussia as German Emperor in Versailles in 1871. The imperial constitution was declared in April 1871. Bismarck was

appointed imperial chancellor. The chancellor of the Reich was not responsible to parliament but to the Emperor. The Reichstag, the imperial parliament, was convened by uni versal, equal, direct and secret elections. Next to the Emperor,it was the second most important institution. However, its political influence was limited to the area of legislation. It exerted only a very small influence over the formation of governments and government policy. Characteristic of the Reich was the government over the parties" and the restriction of the peoples representation to a position in which it was only able to express a non-binding opinion on important political questions. The system was described at the time as a chancellor dictatorship". It was Bismarck as Imperial Chancellor who decided upon policy outlines and who proposed the appointment and dismissal of state secretaries who were in turn responsible for the administration of theministries of the Reich.

His greatest achievements, however, were the administrative reforms, developing a common currency, a central bank, and a single code of commercial and civil law for Germany. Bismarck also became the first statesman in Europe to devise a comprehensive scheme of social security to counter the Social Democrats, offering workers insurance against accident, sickness and old age. In foreign affairs, he, as a master of alliances and counter-alliances, presided over the Congress of Berlin (1872) and this seemed to symbolise his paramount position as mediator between the then great powers such as Russia, Austria, France, Great Britain. An alliance with Austria-Hungary (1879) marked a new period of conservatism in Bismarck’s foreign policy.

But by 1890 his policies began to come under attack. On March 18, 1890 two years after Emperor William II accession, Bismarck was forced to resign. His last years were devoted to composing his memoirs. But even today he is always be one of the greatest statesmen of Germany - Rexx 08.01.02

DESERT FOX - THE AFRIKAN KORPS

FIELD MARSHAL ROMMEL

Rommel, Erwin (1891-1944), German field marshal, renowned for his African desert victories during World War II.  Born in Heidenheim, he joined the German army in 1910.  After winning awards for bravery in World War I, he taught in military academies.  In the German push to the English Channel in 1940 Rommel headed the victorious 7th Tank Division.  He was made a lieutenant general the following year and placed in command of the Afrika Korps in North Africa.

By 1944, Erwin Rommel had a lifetime of military experience behind him.   He was awarded the Pour le Mérite, Germany's highest decoration for bravery, for capturing 9,000 enemy soldiers during World War I.  During the invasion of France of 1940, Rommel commanded the notorious Ghost Division--the German 7th Panzer Division.   Pushing every man and machine to its limit, Rommel's forces advanced 350 miles in six weeks (an unheard of distance for tanks during that time).

Rommel was a popular, although unconventional military leader.  Rommel's method of command was also unique.  While other officers directed battles from a strategy room located far from the field of battle, Rommel chose to lead from the front.   Rommel felt it was important for the commander to always be near his troops.   When the troops had to build a bridge or when a supply convoy was in trouble, Rommel was known to lend a hand.

Rommel earned worldwide recognition for his leadership of the Afrika Corps during the North African desert campaign.  From 1942 to 1943, Rommel was at the top of the Allies most wanted list.  His ability to show up, when and where his opponents least expected, earned Rommel the nickname "the Desert Fox."  Initial successes in the desert campaign, however, were followed by crushing defeats at the hands of better equipped Allied forces.  The Allies marched victoriously through North Africa in May 1943.  From there the Allies landed in Italy and by early 1944 were marching steadfastly toward Rome.

In 1944, the western front was the only arena that had yet to receive a full Allied frontal assault.  Hitler charged Rommel with defense of the western front.  He began by touring the western coastal defenses from the North to the Mediterranean Seas.  He was discouraged by what he saw.  The defenses were widely scattered and none could withstand an Allied offensive attack.   The infantry defending the coasts were in worse condition.  They included POWs and German soldiers exhausted from fighting the Russians.  They were poorly organized, poorly trained, and lacked artillery; in some cases they even lacked the physical strength to endure intense military action.

Although the situation was bleak, Rommel set to work to bring order to the western front.  The mere appearance of Germany's national hero had a positive effect on troop morale.  Rommel organized the troops and put them to work fortifying western coastal defenses - the Atlantic Wall.  He made daily inspections of the progress on the Wall.  Rommel functioned as an architect, personally designing many of the obstacles for the Atlantic Wall.  Minefields, concrete and steel obstructions, and artillery posts sprung up at a startling rate.

While construction continued on the Atlantic Wall, the German leadership debated strategy for the defense of the coast.  Rommel, aware of the strength of the Allied forces, contended the Allies must not be allowed to establish a beachhead on the coast.  They must be thrown back into the sea.  Rommel proposed that all available men and material be positioned as close to the coast as possible.  Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt, Rommel's immediate superior, argued that sufficient forces must be kept on the coast, but a large contingent of forces should be kept in reserve, away from the field of battle so that a piercing counterattack could be launched.

In the end a compromise was reached, giving Rommel command of the army, but also placing a small reserve of troops far from the battlefield.  Rommel, however, did not have complete control over all of the German armed forces.  Unlike the Allies, who in Eisenhower had a commander with absolute control over the army, the navy, and the air force, Rommel only controlled the army.  The German navy and Luftwaffe functioned under separate and autonomous command.  Effective organization was further hindered by Hitler's insistence that all orders be approved by him, thus making the formation of a single-minded defense plan for the coast impossible.

On June 6th, 1944, the construction and planning of German defenses in France came to an end as the Allies launched Operation Overlord.  Due to the inclement weather, Rommel thought that an attack would not be launched.  He used the opportunity to travel to Germany to celebrate his wife's birthday.  Upon hearing of the attack, Rommel rushed back to the Normandy coast, arriving at 10:00 p.m. The initial Allied attack had been a bruising one.  Although Rommel's Atlantic Wall inflicted casualties on the Allied forces, the sheer number of men and material participating in the invasion and the supremacy of the Allied air force far outweighed the effectiveness of the coastal fortifications. On D-Day, the Allies were able to put over 8,000 planes in the air, compared to Germany's three.

Rommel commanded the German forces tirelessly, traveling to the front, and inspecting and encouraging the troops. But the Germans suffered from lack of supplies and the continual onslaught of Allied air power.  Without sufficient manpower, Rommel was unable to launch an effective counterattack.  By mid-July German losses topped 100,000, yet only 6,000 replacement troops had arrived.

Realizing the war was lost, Rommel went to Hitler to bring the severity of the situation to his attention.  Rommel proposed re-establishing a defensive line on the Seine, to secure the German borders from Allied attack.  Hitler rejected the idea--France was to be defended to the last man.  Shocked by the Führer's lack of understanding of the situation, Rommel discussed with other German officials the possibility of opening secret negotiations for peace with the Allied leaders.  On July 17th, 1944, the possibility of such negotiations taking place evaporated when Rommel was seriously injured in an attack by an Allied plane. The injuries effectively ended his involvement in the Normandy invasion.

There had been frequent rumblings of plots to remove Hitler from power.   In 1944, the conspirators made overtures to Rommel to gauge his interest in the plot.  Rommel and Hitler were once close friends, but since the defeat in North Africa and Hitler's "victory or death" proclamation, Rommel viewed Hitler as a madman who would destroy Germany.  Although he would have no part in an assassination attempt against Hitler, Rommel did say that he would consider being the leader of Germany after Hitler's removal from power.

Rommel was recovering from his injuries when the assassination plot was launched.  Under torture, one of the conspirators mentioned Rommel's name, implicating him in the plot.  As friends and fellow officers were arrested as conspirators, Rommel realized the end was near.  On October 14th, 1944, two generals came to Rommel's house and gave him an ultimatum.  Either take his own life and be buried with full honors or stand trial and put the future of his wife and son in jeopardy.   Rommel said good-bye to his family, went with the two men, and swallowed poison.   He was buried with full honors.

-Rexx 08.01.02

ZERO ACE

SABURO SAKAI

For those who don't know, Saburo Sakai was, during WWII a fighter pilot in the Imperial Japanese Navy. Through most of his flying career he flew the famous Mitsubishi Zero in it's various models. He had, by his accounting 3,700 hours flying time, with at least 1,500 hours of that in Zeros.

He first entered combat in 1938 in China, flying the A5M "Claude", a low-wing, fixed gear, open cockpit fighter. He later transitioned to the Zero and flew that until August of 1942 when he was severely wounded in a fight with American Douglas SBD dive-bomber aircraft.

Once he was returned to Japan he found out that he lost the use of one eye completely, and just barely retained the use of the other eye after a painful operation without benefit of any sedatives. The result was that he was grounded.

He was however, able to contribute to the IJN training program to help train new pilots. This was a post he remained at until late in the war when Japan needed all the experienced pilots she had left, even if they couldn't see all that well.

He returned to active duty, by this time he was an officer, having been promoted to the rank of ensign in 1944. This was a record in the IJN, going from enlisted man to officer rank in 11 years.

He then continued to fight on, still flying the Zero, even though it was the latest design model of the Zero, it was long obsolete. Yet he continued to fly right up to the very last day of the war. His survival can be attributed as much to his flying ability as to the green American pilots he met in aerial combat.

In one dogfight he had near Iwo Jima, he managed to get away from a squadron of US Naval F6F Hellcats, bigger, faster and in general better than the Zero he flew. In that particular action, Sakai credits his survival to the great likely hood that the American pilots were green, with very little if any combat experience. Upon landing he discovered he had just one bullet hole in his aircraft!

Most historians estimate that Sakai shot down something in the vicinity of 60-64 enemy aircraft. Japanese records on this have always been sketchy at best. In general, the Japanese military did not credit individual pilots with victory claims. Instead they gave credit to the squadron as a whole. This stems from the tradition of serving for the greater good. The award of medals was very rare as well. It was only late in the war when the Japanese Army started giving medals to their pilots while they were still alive. Typically, a pilot who was killed in action against the enemy would receive a medal posthumously, while a pilot who survived, regardless of whether his contribution was greater than that of the one who died, would receive nothing other than possibly the thanks from his superiors and fellow pilots.

By the way, Mr. Sakai never claimed to have shot down 64, or ANY specific number of enemy aircraft. This number was arrived at by Martin Caidin using his own methods. It has since been accepted by Japanese air historians who have taken a conservative approach to ALL Japanese air victory claims and applied a blanket modifier of 50%. In other words, they multiply all Japanese claims by .5 and use the resulting number as a base. This gives Sakai a range of 32-64 victories. Personally, I don't think you can judge a man by the number of victories he has claimed or have been confirmed. You have to judge his character. And Saburo Sakai was NEVER lacking in character.

After the war, Saburo Sakai managed to open a small printing shop, a business at which he became successful. And he also managed to help other former military men as well. The climate in Japan for former military men was not good at first. Whenever and where ever they went in search of a job, the common retort was "You are a militarist! We don't want you here!" Sakai was fortunate that he was able to start his own business. Many could not, but he helped as many as he could to recover in a time when the whole nation was rebuilding from the devastation that was the result of World War II.

Regardless of what you may have thought about the Japanese and their part in starting WWII, Saburo Sakai was one man. A man who fought for his country, right or wrong. A man who held honour in the highest regard and NEVER lost his under any circumstances. A man who's loss is a loss for the world, not just Japan. I doubt we shall ever see his like again.

ACHTUNG PANZER

Heinz Guderian was the leading theorist of armored warfare in Germany, and a great tactician as well. One might not expect this from his service in World War One, for, unlike multiply-decorated Rommel, Guderian had served in technical and staff, rather than combat positions. However, this experience with unglamorous radios and trucks gave him an insight into the new technology missed by many of his contemporaries. After the war, as an officer in the reduced German Army under the Versailles Treaty, he became part of the secret development of tanks, which the Treaty had prohibited. After Hitler had repudiated the restrictions of the Treaty, in 1937, Guderian published "Actung! Panzer" (Attention! Armor), in which he advanced his ideas for tank warfare. In it, he proposed a middle road in the debate then raging on role of armor. The tank could NOT simply overrun all opponents, as its radical supporters assumed; nor should it be just a tool to help the infantry. Instead, it should operate as part of a "combined arms team" supported by large numbers of motorized infantry, artillery and engineers.

This middle position was more upsetting than it might seem. If either of the extreme views was correct, all the Army had to do in peacetime was train a few isolated tank units; when war came, these would simply be told which infantry unit to support, or be turned loose on the helpless enemy (depending on which extreme was talking). Guderian, however, was calling for large parts of the Army to be reorganized into divisions built around armor, upsetting the routines of lot of people who were ordinarily willing to ignore the question. This had doomed such proposals in other countries; but Hitler, always enchanted by new ideas, liked the plan, which gave Guderian the support he needed to form not one, but three of the new "Panzer Divisions" and later, still more.

Guderian commanded XIX Panzer Corps in the Polish Campaign and the Battle of France and led 2nd Panzer Group (Army) in BABAROSSA, the German invasion of the Soviet Union, in 1941. In each case, his forces were critical to the offensive and his theories were confirmed in victory. These successes came to an end in December, when he was relieved of this command, after disobeying the orders of General von Kluge! Guderian's career resumed fourteen months later, in February 1943 when he was made Inspector General of Panzer Troops. He reformed and rebuilt depleted units and increased tank production, but did not command troops again. Hitler named him Army Chief of Staff on 21 JULY 44, a post he filled until 28 MARCH 45, when he argued with Hitler once too often and was dismissed.

After the war, it was decided that as Guderian had neither direct responsibility for, nor clear knowledge of war crimes, he would not be tried by the Nuremburg Tribunal. He lived until 1953.