Branch: Kaiserliche Heer
Born: 9 April 1865 in Kruszewnia near Posen, Province
of Posen.
Died: 20 December 1937 in Munich, Nazi Germany.
Ranks:
General der Infanterie
Generalleutnant
Generalmajor
Oberst
Oberstleutnant
Major
Hauptmann
Oberleutnant
Leutnant
Fähnrich
Decorations:
Pour le Mérite, Iron Cross First class
Commands:
Other: Personnel
Articles:
Erich Friedrich Wilhelm von Ludendorff was born on 9 April
1865 in in Kruszewnia near Posen, Province of Posen. And educated
in the cadet school of Plön, he entered the infantry
in 1882, and in 1898, joined the general staff, with which
he remained, save for brief intervals of active service, till
early in 1914, acting as a lecturer in the military academy,
Berlin, 1906 to 1908, and working, 1904 to 1913, in the operations
section, which planned the violation of Belgium's neutrality.
For this a special responsibility attaches to him.
On the German mobilisation. He was a major general and joined
the staff of
Karl
von Bülow's 2. Armee. He took part in the attack
on Liège, receiving the surrender of the citadel. On
22 August 1914, he was sent as
Paul
von Hindenburg's chief of staff to the Russian front,
where he was mainly responsible for the great victory of Tannenberg,
and for the successes of 1915. With
Paul
von Hindenburg, he opposed the attack on Verdun, and when
that attack failed and Romania entered the war, he, with
Paul
von Hindenburg, was placed in command of the German forces,
29 August 1916.
Erich von Ludendorff reorganised the German army, and planned
the bold strategy which paralysed Romania, while he held the
French front defensively. In 1917, after the completion of
the Hindenburg line, he arranged the German retreat to it.
Erich von Ludendorff devised new methods of attack in 1917,
which used surprise to the utmost, employed gas shells on
a great scale, and supported the assault of picked shock troops
by trench mortars, field guns and machine guns. These methods
were successfully tested on the Russian front at the capture
of Riga, and in the Caporetto offensive against the Italians.
In 1918, confronted by the failure of the U-boat campaign,
which he had supported and strengthened by the collapse of
Russia, he determined on a series of offensives on the French
front, the prime object of which was to destroy the British
Army. But his strategy failed, he did not breakthrough at
Amiens in March as he had intended and, although he inflicted
enormous loss on the allies, his first of three offensives
did not bring a decisive victory.
In July 1918, he was still confident of success, but now found
himself opposed by an able strategist in Foch, while American
troops were pouring into France, and while the British brought
up 350,000 fresh men.
On 18 July 1918, Foch launched his first counterstrike with
success, Erich von Ludendorff from that moment, was held and,
as a serious of Allied attacks, opened along the whole French
front, suffered a serious of disastrous defeat. The storming
of the Hindenburg line in September by the British and the
collapse of Bulgaria, shuck his nerve, so that he called for
immediate peace negotiations, but when these were opened he
refused his consent, and was dismissed on 26 October 1918.
Erich von Ludendorff was a bold, enterprising strategist of
great talent, but no genius, cold and heartless, lacking a
deeper insight, which is the mark of a supreme leader. He
was directly implicated in the grave war crimes, which brought
such dishonour on the German nation, and after the Armistice
plotted constantly against the allies His War Memories was
published in 1919.
For a complete list of
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