Bock, Fedor background

The early years

Born in Kyustrin (now Poland) in the family of officer Moritz von Bock and his wife Olga (née von Falkenhayn), who had German and Russian roots (hence the Russian name Fyodor), sisters Erich von Falkenhayn (in the future - the German Minister of War and Chief General headquarters). A cousin of F. von Bock served as a naval attache of the imperial Russian government in Berlin. The von Bokov clan was divided into the proper Prussian and Baltic branches; representatives of the latter belonged to the Russian aristocracy.

In 1898 , after receiving a cadet education, he was appointed, with the rank of lieutenant , to the 5th Infantry Guards Regiment.

In 1904, von Bock became a battalion adjutant, in 1906 - a regimental.

From 1910 to 1912, von Bock was seconded to the Academy of the General Staff, after which he was sent to the General Staff at the rank of captain .

In 1913 he was appointed Chief Quartermaster of the Guards Corps.

World War I

Since September 1914, Captain von Bock served as chief of the operational department of the headquarters of the Guards Corps. Already in September 1914 he was awarded the Iron Cross of the 2nd class, and in October 1914 - the Iron Cross of the 1st class. In May 1915 he was transferred to the headquarters of the 11th Army . From August 1916 to March 1917, he was chief of the operational department of the division headquarters. In December 1916 he was promoted to majors . Then - at headquarters posts in the Guards Corps and the Army Group of the Crown Prince of Germany. In addition to the Iron Crosses, he was awarded ten more German, Austro-Hungarian and Bulgarian orders. In April 1918, von Bock was awarded the Prussian Order of Pour le Mérite for his services during the German offensive in Picardy .

Between World Wars

In the Weimar Republic , despite the reduction of the German army under the Treaty of Versailles , von Bock was left in the Reichswehr . He served in various staff posts, up to the district chief of staff, then commander of the infantry battalion. The rank of colonel is promoted to commander of an infantry regiment. In 1929, promoted to major general , appointed commander of the cavalry division. In 1931-1935, while continuing to command the division, concurrently commands the Stettinsky Military District. Receives the rank of infantry general.

Since 1933 , after the Nazis came to power , he remained neutral in relation to the new regime. In 1935, von Bock was appointed commander of the 3rd Army Group. In 1936 he marries, a daughter is born. March 12, 1938 during the Anschluss commanded the 8th Army, after which he received the rank of colonel general .

World War II

During the German invasion of Poland in 1939, von Bock commanded the Army Group North. September 30, 1939 awarded the Knight's Cross (No. 1).

In 1940, he commanded Army Group B, which, with the onset of the German offensive on the West, occupied the Netherlands and Belgium . On June 14, 1940, after the occupation of Paris, von Bock hosted the Wehrmacht parade at the Arc de Triomphe. July 19, 1940 promoted to the rank of Field Marshal .

Invasion of the USSR

During the invasion of the USSR, von Bock received command of Army Group Center , whose main task was to capture Moscow. Under his command were the most powerful tank groups of Goth and Guderian.

He was a supporter of the worthy treatment of the population of the occupied territories, as he believed that otherwise “there will be a“ fall in discipline in the troops ” ^[1] . From von Bock's diary entries it follows that before the attack on the USSR, he considered the Soviet army a frivolous enemy, and the Slavic peoples - "uncultured." In this respect, he had no contradictions with either Hitler or Himmler . Henning von Treskov (husband of his cousin, daughter of General Erich von Falkenhayn) asked von Bock to take part in the assassination attempt on Hitler , but he rejected this offer.

In December 1941, von Bock openly criticized the situation at the front, which caused Hitler's obvious displeasure. For the failure of the attack on Moscow and the subsequent winter crisis, Hitler blamed the generals in general, and von Bock in particular.

On December 19, 1941, on the basis of a disastrous winter campaign and the retreat of German troops near Moscow, he was removed from the post of commander of the Army Group Center with the official wording - vacation "for health reasons."

On January 18, 1942, after the sudden death of Walter von Reichenau, he was appointed commander of the Army Group South .

In July 1942, serious new disagreements arose with Hitler. Von Bock criticized the fragmentation of Army Group South into the Stalingrad and Caucasus directions during the summer offensive. July 15, 1942 he was removed from command of Army Group South with the official wording “for illness” and sent to the Fuhrer’s reserve.

After the shift

Fedor von Bock was very upset by his resignation and forced inaction. In 1942 - March 1945, he lived in his estate Grodtken in Prussia. He criticized the strategy of warfare by the German military-political leadership, who sought to impose a decisive battle on the enemy, without having formed reserves. He indicated that the upcoming operation "Citadel" could be a repetition of the battle of Verdun , bleeding the German army in 1916 .

In April 1945, together with Field Marshal Manstein, he held several meetings with Karl Doenitz , trying to achieve the transfer of power into the hands of the military and the immediate implementation of political decisions that could mitigate the catastrophic consequences of defeat in the war. On May 3, 1945, the car in which von Bock was traveling with his wife came under fire from an English plane on the Kiel Highway. The next day, Fedor von Bock died in the hospital from his wounds.

Fyodor von Bock was a model of a good old Prussian officer of the old school: modest, amiable, without a monocle, and devoid of the arrogance that we Germans brought up in Russia were so disagreeable with.

- Wilfried Shtrik-Shtrikfeldt ^[2] .

• March 15, 1898 - lieutenant
• September 10, 1908 - Lieutenant
• March 22, 1912 - captain
• December 30, 1916 - Major
• December 18, 1920 - lieutenant colonel
• May 1, 1925 - Colonel
• February 1, 1929 - Major General
• February 1, 1931 - Lieutenant General
• March 1, 1935 - infantry general
• March 15, 1938 - Colonel General
• July 19, 1940 - Field Marshal

• Order of the Crown 4th class (September 13, 1911) ( Prussia )
• 2nd Class Iron Cross (September 19, 1914) ( Prussia )
• 1st Class Iron Cross (October 30, 1914) ( Prussia )
• Honorary Cross of the Royal Order of the Hohenzollern House 3rd class with swords (October 1914) ( Prussia )
• 3rd Class Military Merit Cross with Military Distinction (June 24, 1915) ( Austria-Hungary )
• Knight's Cross of the Royal Order of the Hohenzollern House with Swords (October 25, 1916) ( Prussia )
• 3rd degree Iron Crown Order with swords (February 9, 1917) ( Austria-Hungary )
• 2nd class (August 3, 1917) ( Mecklenburg-Schwerin )
• Hamburg Hanseatic Cross (September 19, 1917)
• Order of the Tseringen Lion of the 3rd class with swords (January 10, 1918) ( Baden )
• Knight's Cross of the Order of the Württemberg Crown with Swords (January 25, 1918) ( Württemberg )
• Bremen Hanseatic Cross (January 30, 1918)
• Order of Pour le Mérite (April 1, 1918) ( Prussia )
• Officer Cross of the Order of Military Merit (August 2, 1918) ( Bulgaria )
• ^[3] (April 5, 1921)
• Honorary Cross of a War Veteran (December 14, 1934)
• Medal “In memory of March 13, 1938” (November 21, 1938)
• Order of the Yugoslav crown of the 1st degree (June 1, 1939) ( Yugoslavia )
• Buckle to the Iron Cross of the 2nd and 1st grade (September 22, 1939)
• Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross (September 30, 1939)
• Grand Cross of the Order of the Crown of Italy (August 27, 1940) ( Italy )
• Order of Mihai the Brave ( Romania )
  • 3rd grade (July 29, 1942)
  • 2nd class (July 29, 1942)
  • 1st grade (December 1, 1942)
• Grand Cross of the Order of Merit with swords (November 27, 1942) ( Hungary )
• 4 times mentioned in the Wehrmachtbericht (August 7, 1941, September 19, 1941, October 18, 1941, May 30, 1942)

• Bok Fedor von // The Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945: Encyclopedia / ed. M. M. Kozlova . - M .: Soviet Encyclopedia , 1985.- S. 106. - 832 p.
• , Muller J. Commanders of the Third Reich. - Smolensk: Rusich, 1995. -480 s - (Tyranny). - 10,000 copies. - ISBN 5-88590-287-9 .
• Mitchem S. Field Marshals Hitler and their battle. - Smolensk: Rusich, 1999.
• Bock F. background. I stood at the gates of Moscow . - M .: Yauza, Eksmo , 2006.
• Zalessky K. A. Who was who in the Third Reich. - M .: AST , 2002 .-- 944 p. - 5,000 copies. - ISBN 5-271-05091-2 .
• Gordienko A.N. Commanders of the Second World War. - T. 2. - Mn. , 1998. - ISBN 985-437-627-3
• Guido Knopp. Die Wehrmacht (Eine Bilanz). 1. Auflage. - München: C. Bertelsmann Verlag, 2007. - ISBN 978-3-570-00975-8

•   Wikimedia Commons has media related to Fedor von Bock
• Biography of Fedor von Bock on the Chronos website
• Dossier on the Axis Biographical Research website
• Biography of Fedor von Bock at www.lexikon-der-wehrmacht.de (German)
• Biography of Fedor von Bock on the website www.ritterkreuztraeger-1939-45.de (German)
• Brief biographical information on the website of the German Historical Museum (German)