Second World War
In September 1939, Witzleben, now a colonel-general, took command of the First Army, stationed in the West. When Germany attacked France on 10 May 1940, the First Army was part of Army Group C. On 14 June it broke through the Maginot line, and within three days had forced several French divisions to surrender. For this, Witzleben was decorated with the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross; and on 19 July, he was promoted to Generalfeldmarschall. In 1941 he was appointed Commander-in-Chief West, but only a year later he took leave from this position for health reasons. Some sources, however, claim he was again forcibly retired at this time after criticizing the regime for its invasion of the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941 in the so-called Operation Barbarossa.
Read more about this topic: Erwin Von Witzleben
Famous quotes containing the words world and/or war:
“Our pleasance here is all vain glory,
This false world is but transitory;
The flesh is bruckle, the Fiend is slee:—
Timor Mortis conturbat me.”
—William Dunbar (c. 1465–c. 1530)
“Soldier, there is a war between the mind
And sky, between thought and day and night. It is
For that the poet is always in the sun,
Patches the moon together in his room
To his Virgilian cadences, up down,
Up down. It is a war that never ends.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)