Ewald von Kleist

The Early Years

Paul Ludwig Ewald von Kleist was born in August 1881 in the town of Braunfells, in the Hesse area of Germany. Following his education at a military school, he was enlisted into a field artillery Regiment in March 1900. In January 1904, he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant and became the Adjutant of the mounted Battalion of Field Artillery Regiment 3. In October 1909 he was posted to the Military Riding Institute at Hanover, where he remained until October the following year when he attended the War Academy in Berlin for Staff training.
Following his graduation in 1911, he filled a number of command positions in a variety of cavalry units, including the 2nd Light Hussar Regiment, with whom he spent the early part of WW1 on the eastern Front. In October 1915 he was detached for service as a Staff officer in the 86th Infantry Division, becoming the Divisions Operations Officer in July 1916. Then in September 1918 he became the operations officer of the 7th Army Corps.
In October 1923 he was posted to the Hanover Cavalry School were he became a tactics instructor. In April 1928 he became Chief of Staff to the 2nd Cavalry Division and then in July 1929, following his promotion to the rank of Colonel, Chief of Staff of the 3rd Infantry Division. In January 1932 he was given command of the 2nd Cavalry Division, until his appointment as commander of the Breslau Military District in October 1933, following his promotion to Major General. In June 1935 he was given command of the 8th Army Corps, gaining promotion to General of Cavalry in August 1936. He remained in this post until his temporary retirement, possibly brought about by his political views, in February 1938.
A year later he was returned to service for the invasion of Poland. He was given command of the 22nd Panzer Corps, which consisted of the 2nd Panzer and 4th Light Divisions and was attached to the 14th Army. His Corps attacked from the area of the Orava Valley in the western Carpathians towards Krakow. The Panzer Corps advanced rapidly north, then turned eastwards, crossing the San River at Jarslav and turning northwards once more, continuing towards Komarov and Vlodzimierz.
For the French campaign he was given command of Panzer Group Kleist, which consisted of the 19th and 41st Corps. Kleist's Group reached and crossed the Meuse River near Sedan on the 13th of May, forcing a breach between the French 2nd and 9th Armies. The group continued its advance to the Aire St Omer Canal, which it reached on the 16th of May, where it was ordered to halt. Initially Kleist decided to ignore the order and crossed the canal, his leading elements entering Hazebrouck. However he was subsequently ordered to withdraw his forces back behind the canal, where he was held for three days. During the second part of the campaign, Kleist took control of the 16th Panzer and 14th Motorized Corps. His force attacked from Amiens and gained a bridgehead on the Oise River. From there it pushed on rapidly towards the channel port of Dunkirk. On the 24th of May, Kleist was ordered to halt once more, on the Aa Canal to the southwest of Dunkirk. Kleist's Group ended the campaign in the area north of Lyons, on the 20th of June.
In April 1941, Panzer Group Kleist took part in the invasion of Yugoslavia as part of the 2nd Army. Panzer Group Kleist performed brilliantly in Yugoslavia, quickly smashing the Yugoslavian 5th and 6th Armies before entering Belgrade.
Following the conclusion of the Yugoslavian campaign in May 1941, von Kleist was given command of the 1st Panzer Group in preparation for the invasion of Russia.

Barbarossa Begins

Attached to Army Group South, Kleist's Panzer Group crossed the Eastern Bug River on the 22nd of June and broke through the defences of the Russian 5th Army penetrating some 60km and reaching Lutsk on the Styr River by the 26th of June. The Group faced a counter attack by the 8th, 9th, 15th and 19th Mechanized Corps in the area of Dubno, which began the same day and lasted until the 1st of July. During July, Kleist's Panzer Group was heavily involved in the encirclement battle of Uman, capturing Belaya Tserkov, Novo Arkhangelsk and Pervomaysk. Elements of Kleist's Panzer Group joined up with forces of the 17th Army at Dobrianka, to the southeast of Uman, encircling the Russian 6th and 12th Armies.
The Group reached the lower Dnepr on the 19th of August, occupying the Dnepr bend to the west of Dnepropetrovsk. On the 11th of September, Kleist's Panzer Group began to cross the Dnepr, reaching Lubna on the 13th and forcing a wedge between the Russian 38th and 6th Armies. On the 16th of September, Kleist's Panzer Group joined up with elements of the 3rd Panzer Group at Lokhvitsa, closing the Kiev pocket, which contained the remnants of five Russian Armies.
In October 1941, the Group was renamed 1st Panzer Army. On the 3rd of October, Kleist's Army attacked from the area of Poltava, breaking through the defences of the Russian 12th Army. It advanced rapidly towards Melitopol, where it encircled elements of the 9th and 18th Armies on the 7th of October. The Army reached the Mius River near Taganrog, on the 13th of October, but here the advance was stalled by the terrible ground conditions experienced during the autumn mud season. Following three weeks of poor progress, including a two-day halt to refit and re-supply, his 3rd Panzer Corps reached Rostov on the 17th of October. The city was captured on the 20th of October, following three days of hard fighting against the Russian 37th Army, but the occupation was short lived. The Russians counter attacked into a gap between the 17th and 4th Panzer Armies and then advanced into the rear of the 3rd Panzer Corps, making its position in Rostov untenable. On the 1st of December, German forces were compelled to withdraw from Rostov, back towards the Mius River.
In January 1942, he was given command of Army Group Von Kleist, consisting of the 1st Panzer and 17th Armies and Group von Mackensen. During the second battle of Kharkov, Kleist counter attacked on the 17th of May to the south of Izyum, reaching the Donetz River. By the 29th of May, Kleist had destroyed the bulk of the 6th and 57th Armies and inflicted serious losses on the 9th and 38th Armies.
When operation Fall Blau opened in July, Kleist advanced southeastwards from the Don and into the Caucasus. He reached Maikop on the 9th of August, but was making slow progress against Russian forces, which had established a strong defensive line along the Terek River. By the 5th of November, Kleist's advance ran out of momentum, beset by a shortage of fuel and a steady drain of manpower, as units were withdrawn to assist in the drive on Stalingrad.
On the 22nd of November 1942, he was given Command of Army Group A and in February 1943 he was promoted to the rank of Field Marshall. Following the fall of Stalingrad, Russian forces threatened Rostov, leading to a perilous situation for Army Group A, threatening to trap it in the Caucasus. With the Russians only 45 miles from Rostov and Army Group A still some 400 miles to the east, Kleist received an order from Hitler not to withdraw under any circumstances. 'That looked like a sentence of doom' he later related. However the order was later rescinded and with help from Army Group Don, Kleist managed to withdraw his Army Group from the Caucasus, with the majority of its equipment, into the Kuban bridgehead.

Fall From Grace

In March 1944, as Russian forces of the 2nd Ukrainian Front achieved a breakthrough between Army Groups South and A in the area of Mogilev Podolsky, Kleist, along with von Manstein, petitioned Hitler for permission to conduct a general withdrawal of Army Group A, behind the Dniester River. Kleist was aware that the request would be unpopular with Hitler, but stated, 'Someone must lay his head on the block'. On the 30th of March, both he and Manstein were recalled to Obersalzberg, where following the award of the Swords to his Knight Cross, he was relieved of his command and retired from the Army.
Following his enforced retirement, he returned to his family home in Weidebrück. In April 1945, von Kleist was captured by the Americans at Mitterfels bei Krenzkirchen and subsequently handed over to British forces. In 1946, following a year in British captivity, he was extradited to Yugoslavia where he was tried as a war criminal and sentenced to 15 years imprisonment. In 1948 he was extradited to the Soviet Union, where he was sentenced to life imprisonment. He remained in captivity at the Vladimir POW camp until his death from poor health in October 1954.