Paul Ludwig Ewald von Kleist (8 August 1881 – 13 November 1954) was a German Generalfeldmarschall (Field Marshal) of the Wehrmacht during World War II. Born into the Prussian noble family von Kleist, Kleist entered the Prussian Army in 1900 and commanded a cavalry squadron during World War I. Kleist joined the Reichswehr of inter-war Germany before being discharged in 1938.
Recalled to active duty at the beginning of World War II, Kleist commanded a motorised corps in the Invasion of Poland. He then became the commander of Panzer Group Kleist (later 1st Panzer Army), the first operational formation of several Panzer corps in the Wehrmacht during the Battle of France, the Battle of Belgium, the Invasion of Yugoslavia and Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union.
During the Battle of France, units under Kleist's command included Heinz Guderian's armoured corps and spearheaded the "blitzkrieg" attack through the Ardennes forest, outflanking the Maginot Line. His panzer divisions eventually pushed deep into France, resulting in Allied defeat. He then commanded the 1st Panzer Group as it drove deep into Ukraine and the Caucasus during Operation Barbarossa.
Kleist was appointed commander-in-chief of Army Group A during the last days of Case Blue, the 1942 German summer offensive in southern Russia. His disagreements with Hitler over strategic decisions led to his dismissal in March 1944 after the German defeat in right-bank Ukraine.
Following the war, Kleist was extradited to the Soviet Union where he was sentenced to 25 years in prison for war crimes; he died in prison.
Early military career Paul Ludwig Ewald von Kleist was born in Braunfels into the House of Kleist, an old Pomeranian noble family with a long history of military service. There had been two previous Prussian field marshals, numerous generals and Pour le Mérite recipients in the family. He was the son of Geheimer Studienrat Christof Hugo Albrecht August von Kleist (1848-1886), a high-ranking civil servant, and his wife, Elisabeth Gley (b. 1856).
At the age of 18, Kleist joined the Prussian field artillery regiment, "General Feldzeugmeister" No. 3 on 9 March 1900 as a fahnenjunker. He was commissioned as a leutnant on 18 August 1901. He became a battalion adjutant in 1904 and regimental adjutant in 1907. After attending the cavalry school at Hanover from 1908 to 1909, he was promoted to oberleutnant in 1910 and was sent to the prestigious War Academy in Berlin, to undergo general staff training. On 22 March 1914 he was promoted to captain and joined the 1st Life Hussars Regiment (Leib-Husaren-Regiment No. 1).
During the First World War, Kleist served on the Eastern Front and commanded a cavalry squadron at the Battle of Tannenberg. From 1915 to 1918 he served as a staff officer of the Guards Cavalry Division on the Western Front.
Inter-war period After the First World War ended, Kleist joined the Freikorps and participated in the Latvian and Estonian Wars of Independence as a member of the Iron Division. In June 1919, he led an attack group during the Battle of Cēsis.
Kleist joined the Reichswehr in 1920. From 1924 to 1928, he was assigned as a tactics instructor at the Hannover Cavalry School. In 1928, he served as the chief of staff of the 2nd Cavalry Division in Breslau, then from 1929 to 1931, he held the same position in the 3rd Division in Berlin. Kleist was promoted to Colonel in 1931 and was given command of the 9th (Prussian) Infantry Regiment in Potsdam. At the beginning of 1932, he was given command of the 2nd Cavalry Division. In October 1932, he was promoted to Major General.
Kleist was a monarchist, and did not heavily involve himself in the politics of the Weimar Republic. He openly favored the restoration of the House of Hohenzollern. After the Nazis seized power, the Reichswehr was united with the newly formed Wehrmacht. On 1 December 1933, he was promoted to lieutenant general. In October 1934, he was given command of the "Breslau Army", which was later reorganized into the VIII. Army Corps. In 1935, he was given command of the newly formed military district VIII responsible for Silesia while simultaneously serving as the commanding general of the VIII. Army Corps. On 1 August 1936, he was promoted to General of the Cavalry.
Kleist was a member of the Order of Saint John, an ancient Protestant religious order. In 1935, Prince Oskar of Prussia, the Order's Grand Master, made him a Knight of Justice of the Order.
After the war, Kleist claimed that being forced to listen to the proclamation of the antisemitic Nuremberg Laws was a "great humiliation" of his life. On February 5, 1938, during the Blomberg–Fritsch affair when Hitler purged the army of staff who were unsympathetic to the Nazi regime, Kleist was forced to retire from service for his monarchist attitudes. Despite his forced retirement, Kleist received a significant departing honor when he was authorized to wear the uniform of the 8th Cavalry Regiment. According to Kleist, he withdrew from the army because he spoke out too loudly in favor of Christianity and the church, which clashed with Nazi ideology. To secure his retirement, he acquired a property near Breslau.
World War II
At the outbreak of the Second World War, Kleist was recalled to active duty and led the XXII Motorised Corps in the Invasion of Poland. Kurt Zeitzler, the future chief of the Army General Staff, served as his chief of staff. His corps broke through the southern wing of the Polish army. According to Kleist, during the campaign, he successfully utilized cavalry tactics with his motorized units. Kleist's units also encountered friendly Soviet units invading Poland from the east; his first impression of them was positive. He particularly noted their surprising extent of motorization, good behavior and advanced military technique.
Invasion of France
In May 1940, Panzer Group Kleist was formed, the first operational formation of several Panzer corps in the Wehrmacht. Zeitzler continued to serve as Kleist's Chief of Staff. Panzer Group Kleist, consisting of XIV Corps under Wietersheim, XLI Panzer Corps under Reinhardt, and XIX Panzer Corps under Heinz Guderian, played a pivotal role in the Invasion of Belgium, France and the Low Countries. On 10 May, it spearheaded the German breakthrough in the Ardennes. As it advanced through southern Belgium, Kleist and Guderian clashed over where the main point of effort should fall. Kleist, Guderian's immediate superior, pressed for the main point to come at Flize, further west than Sedan. Kleist argued that the blow would avoid a double river crossing at the Meuse (at Sedan) and Ardennes canal (to the west of Sedan). Moreover, the blow would strike at the dividing line between the French Ninth Army and the French Second Army. Guderian saw things differently, and pointed out that a thrust along the lines of Kleist's plan would put the flank of the advance within range of the fortress artillery at Charleville-Mézières, some northwest of Sedan. The shift of operations further north would also disperse concentration (or Schwerpunkt) and disrupt the intense planning of the German tactical units, who had been in training for the Sedan attack and an advance north-west, for months. He also felt that a regrouping period in front of Sedan would delay the assault for 24 hours and allow the French to bring up reinforcements. Kleist agreed that such a delay was unacceptable, so he agreed to Guderian's plan.Frieser 2005, p. 155. Panzer Group Kleist overwhelmed the French defenses at Sedan, advanced west and reached the sea, forming a huge pocket containing several Belgian, British, and French armies. Kleist said of his role in the French campaign after the war:
Invasion of Yugoslavia
Kleist was promoted to Generaloberst on 19 July 1940 and received the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. In April 1941, Panzer Group Kleist was renamed to 1st Panzer Group, and spearheaded the invasion of Yugoslavia. Deployed against central Yugoslavia (Serbia), units of the 1st Panzer Group were the first to enter Belgrade.
Invasion of the Soviet Union
In June 1941, with the launching of Operation Barbarossa, Kleist led the 1st Panzer Group as part of Army Group Southtasked with the capture of Moldavia and Ukraineand saw success in the initial phase of the invasion, advancing deep into Ukraine. The 1st Panzer Group broke through the Stalin Line, then defeated the five mechanized corps of the Soviet 5th Army and 6th Army in the Battle of Brody (23 to 30 June 1941). In July 1941, during the Battle of Uman, the 1st Panzer Group broke through the Soviet Southern Front's lines, leading to the encirclement and annihilation of the Soviet 6th and 12th armies to the southeast of Uman city (in present-day Cherkasy Oblast). During the First Battle of Kiev of August–September 1941, 1st Panzer Group's northward turn from central Ukraine in conjunction with 2nd Panzer Group's southward advance from Smolensk led to the encirclement and destruction of the entire Soviet Southwestern Front east of Kiev, inflicting over 600,000 losses on the Red Army. However, the campaign had been costly, leaving the German forces with just half the tanks they had had three months earlier.
Kleist was very favorably impressed by the Red Army. He remarked after the war: "The men were first-rate fighters from the start, and we owed our success simply to superior training. They became first-rate soldiers with experience. They fought most toughly, had amazing endurance, and could carry on without most of the things other armies regarded as necessities. The Staff were quick to learn from their early defeats, and soon became highly efficient." On Soviet technical innovation and arms, he noted: "Their equipment was very good even in 1941, especially the tanks. Their artillery was excellent, and also most of the infantry weapons – their rifles (SVT-40) were more modern than ours, and had a more rapid rate of fire. Their T-34 was the finest in the world."
After operations at Kiev concluded, Kleist's 1st Panzer Army advanced east to capture the important industrial Donbas region. On 26 September 1941, the Battle of the Sea of Azov began as the Southern Front launched an attack on the northern shores of the Sea of Azov against the German 11th Army advancing into the Crimea. On 1 October, the 1st Panzer Army swept south and encircled the two attacking Soviet 9th and 18th armies at Melitopol (Zaporizhzhia Oblast); by 11 October, both Soviet armies had been destroyed and the 1st Panzer Army had taken the Donbas. The 1st Panzer Army then attacked east along the shore of the Sea of Azov toward Rostov near the mouth of the Don river, the last barrier before the Caucasus.
On 17 November 1941, the German forces forced their way across the Mius River and launched an offensive against the Southern Front at Rostov. On 19 November 1941, the 1st Panzer Army reached Rostov and the following day, they seized bridges over the river Don. Three days after reaching Rostov, the 1st Panzer Army had captured the city. However, on 27 November, the Southern Front, as part of the Rostov Strategic Offensive Operation, counter-attacked the 1st Panzer Army's over-extended spearhead from the north, forcing them to pull out of Rostov. By 2 December 1941, the Soviet forces had retaken Rostov and forced the 1st Panzer Army to withdraw back to the Mius River, near Taganrog. This marked the first major German withdrawal of the war. On 18 February 1942, Kleist was awarded the Oak Leaves to his Knight's Cross.
In 1942, Kleist was given an estate worth 567,000 Reichsmarks by the Nazi regime. A Silesian estate already owned by Kleist was extended by 100-hectares; this particular extension concerned a confiscated Jewish-owned tract that was being divided up. This was a part of Hitler's policy of buying the loyalty of his senior commanders.
Operation Fredericus