Full name: Paul Ludwig Ewald von Kleist
Nickname: No information
Date of Birth: 08.08.1881 - Braunfels an der Lahn, Rhine Province (German Empire)
Date of Death: 13.11.1954 - Vladimir Central Prison, Vladimir Oblast (Soviet Union)
Battles and Operations: Invasion of Poland (1939), Battle of France (1940), Battle of Belgium (1940), Invasion of Yugoslavia (1941), Operation Barbarossa (1941), Battle of Uman (1941), First Battle of Kiev (1941), Battle of the Sea of Azov (1941), Second Battle of Kharkov (1942), Battle of the Caucasus (1942), Battle of the Dnieper (1943), Dnieper-Carpathian Offensive (1944)
NSDAP-Number: No information (was not a member)
SS-Number: No information (was not a member)
Religion: Protestant
Parents: Christof Hugo Albrecht August von Kleist (1848-1886, high-ranking civil servant and Geheimer Studienrat) and Elisabeth von Gley (born 1856)
Siblings: No information
Spouse: Gisela Amalie Johanna Wachel (born 20.12.1889 in Hannover, Germany; married no exact date available)
Children: Johannes Juergen Christoph Ewald von Kleist and Hugo Edmund Christoph Heinrich von Kleist
Promotions:
00.03.1900 Fahnenjunker
18.08.1901 Leutnant
00.00.1910 Oberleutnant
22.03.1914 Hauptmann
00.00.1923 Major
00.00.1928 Oberstleutnant
00.00.1931 Oberst
01.10.1932 Generalmajor
01.12.1933 Generalleutnant
01.08.1936 General der Kavallerie
19.07.1940 Generaloberst
01.02.1943 Generalfeldmarschall
Career:
00.03.1900 Entered the Prussian Army as Fahnenjunker in Feldartillerie-Regiment General Feldzeugmeister Nr. 3
00.00.1904 Battalion adjutant
00.00.1907 Regimental adjutant
00.00.1908-1909 Cavalry school at Hanover
00.00.1914 Joined the 1st Life Hussars Regiment
00.00.1914-1915 Commanded a cavalry squadron on the Eastern Front (Battle of Tannenberg)
00.00.1915-1918 Staff officer in the Guards Cavalry Division on the Western Front
00.00.1919 Joined Freikorps, participated in Latvian and Estonian Wars of Independence (Battle of Cesis)
00.00.1920 Joined Reichswehr
00.00.1924-1928 Tactics instructor at Hannover Cavalry School
00.00.1928-1929 Chief of staff, 2nd Cavalry Division in Breslau
00.00.1929-1931 Chief of staff, 3rd Division in Berlin
00.00.1931 Commanded 9th (Prussian) Infantry Regiment in Potsdam
00.00.1932 Commanded 2nd Cavalry Division
00.00.1933 Commanded Breslau Army (later VIII Army Corps)
00.00.1935 Commanding general of Military District VIII in Silesia
00.02.1938 Retired during Blomberg-Fritsch affair
00.08.1939 Recalled to active duty, commanded XXII Motorised Corps (Invasion of Poland)
00.05.1940 Commanded Panzergruppe Kleist (Battle of France)
19.07.1940 Commanded 1st Panzer Group (later 1st Panzer Army)
00.04.1941 Invasion of Yugoslavia
00.06.1941 Operation Barbarossa
00.11.1942 Commanded Army Group A
30.03.1944 Relieved of command
Awards and Decorations:
Eisernes Kreuz (1914) II. Klasse (04.10.1914)
Eisernes Kreuz (1914) I. Klasse (27.01.1915)
Ritterkreuz des Koeniglichen Hausordens von Hohenzollern mit Schwertern (World War I)
Hanseatenkreuz (World War I)
Ehrenritter des Kgl. Preuss. Johanniter-Ordens: 00.00.1917
Kgl. Preuss. Dienstauszeichnungskreuz
Ehrenkreuz für Frontkämpfer
Rechtsritter des Kgl. Preuss. Johanniter-Ordens: 00.00.1935
Wehrmacht-Dienstauszeichnung IV. bis I Klasse: 02.10.1936
Spange zum Eisernen Kreuz (1939) II. Klasse (17.09.1939)
Spange zum Eisernen Kreuz (1939) I. Klasse (27.09.1939)
Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes (15.05.1940) als General der Kavallerie und Kommandierender General XXII. Armeekorps (Panzergruppe von Kleist). This decoration recognized his pivotal role in the early stages of the battle of france, particularly the daring breakthrough through the ardennes forest. Kleist's forces, comprising multiple panzer divisions, advanced rapidly through difficult terrain that was considered impassable by the allies, catching french and british troops off guard. By may 13, his units had crossed the meuse river at sedan, creating a massive breach in the allied lines over 50 kilometers wide. This maneuver isolated the allied armies in belgium and northern france, enabling the german encirclement and contributing directly to the fall of france. The award was presented shortly after these initial successes, highlighting his innovative use of armored warfare to achieve strategic surprise.
Medaille “Winterschlacht im Osten 1941/1942“
Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes mit Eichenlaub #72 (17.02.1942) als Generaloberst und Oberbefehlshaber Panzergruppe 1. This award honored his leadership during the invasion of yugoslavia in april 1941 and the early phases of operation barbarossa against the soviet union starting in june 1941. In yugoslavia, kleist's panzergruppe spearheaded the advance, capturing belgrade on april 12 after a swift thrust that collapsed yugoslav resistance in just 11 days. Transitioning to the eastern front, his forces played a key role in the battle of uman in july-august 1941, encircling and destroying significant soviet armies. This was followed by his decisive contribution to the first battle of kiev in september 1941, where panzergruppe 1 linked up with other german units to trap over 600,000 soviet troops in one of the largest encirclements in history. His rapid advances into ukraine, including the capture of kiev and pushes toward rostov, demonstrated mastery of blitzkrieg tactics and helped secure vast territories in the initial months of the campaign.
Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes mit Eichenlaub und Schwertern #60 (30.03.1944) als Generalfeldmarschall und Oberbefehlshaber Heeresgruppe A. The award were granted for his defensive achievements in the southern sector of the eastern front during 1943-1944, amid mounting soviet pressure. Kleist orchestrated the orderly retreat of heeresgruppe a from the caucasus region following the german defeat at stalingrad, preventing a potential catastrophe by withdrawing forces across the kerch strait and maintaining cohesion under harsh winter conditions. He then directed tenacious defenses during the battles along the donets, dnieper, and dnestr rivers, including the dnieper-carpathian offensive where his units inflicted heavy casualties on advancing soviet forces despite being outnumbered. These actions stabilized the front temporarily and allowed for the evacuation of german troops from crimea. The award was presented on the same day he was relieved of command due to strategic disagreements with hitler over further retreats.
Koeniglich Rumaenischer Orden Michael der Tapfere III. Klasse (16.07.1942)
Koeniglich Rumaenischer Orden Michael der Tapfere II. Klasse (06.10.1942)
Koeniglich Rumaenischer Orden Michael der Tapfere I. Klasse (06.10.1942)
Koeniglich Ungarischer Verdienstorden Grosskreuz mit Schwertern (13.05.1941)
Koeniglich Italienischer Militaerorden von Savoyen Kommandeurkreuz (30.07.1942)
Wehrmachtsbericht: 10.04.1941 ; 13.04.1941 ; 26.08.1941 ; 27.08.1941 ; 11.10.1941 ; 12.10.1941 ; 22.11.1941; 30.05.1942; 19.08.1943 ; 09.10.1943
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Paul Ludwig Ewald von Kleist was born in Braunfels on 8 August 1881 to the noble family Kleist, an old Pomeranian family with a long history of military service. There had been two previous Prussian field marshals in the family! His father was Geheime Studienrat Christof Hugo von Kleist, a high ranking civil servant.
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. On March 22, 1914, he was promoted to Captain and joined the 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.
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. After the Nazis seized power the Reichswehr was united with the newly formed Wehrmacht. On December 1, 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 August 1, 1936, he was promoted to General of the Cavalry.
In February 1938 Kleist was involved in the Blomberg–Fritsch affair and forced to retire from service when Hitler purged the army of staff who were unsympathetic to the Nazi regime. To secure his retirement, he acquired a property near Breslau.
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, during which his corps broke through the southern wing of the Polish army.
In May 1940 Panzer Group Kleist was formed, the first operational formation of several Panzer corps in the Wehrmacht. Panzer Group Kleist, consisting of XIV Corps, XLI Panzer Corps, 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 25 kilometres (16 mi) 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. 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 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.
In June 1941 with the launching of Operation Barbarossa, Kleist led the 1st Panzer Group as part of Army Group South - tasked with the capture of Moldavia and Ukraine - and 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, by then the German forces had just half the tanks they had had three months earlier.
After operations at Kiev concluded, Kleist's 1st Panzer Army advanced east to capture the important industrial Donbass 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 (Zaporizhia Oblast), by 11 October both Soviet armies had been destroyed and the 1st Panzer Army had taken the Donbass. 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 February 18, 1942, Kleist was awarded the Oak Leaves to his Knight's Cross.
During the Second Battle of Kharkov on 17 May 1942 as part of Operation Fredericus, Kleist's 1st Panzer Army attacked the Barvenkovo bridgehead from the south, advancing up to ten kilometres in the first day of the attack. On 19 May, the German 6th Army led by General Friedrich Paulus launched an offensive north of the bridgehead, encircling the Soviet 6th Army and 57th Army. After six days of encirclement, both armies were destroyed. By 28 May Kleist and Paulus' armies had captured 240,000 prisoners and destroyed or captured over 1250 Soviet tanks and 2000 artillery pieces.
The summer of 1942 saw Army Group South subdivided into Army Group A and B. Army Group A, which included Kleist's 1st Panzer Army, had the task of leading the Axis thrust into the Caucasus in the execution of Case Blue, the German offensive which aimed to capture the important oilfields of Grozny and Baku. The 1st Panzer Army was to spearhead the attack. Army Group A advanced deep into Southern Russia, capturing Rostov, Maykop, Krasnodar and the Kuban region. However, heavy Soviet resistance and the long distances from Axis sources of supply eventually reduced the Axis offensive to local advances only and prevented the Army Group A from capturing their ultimate objectives.
On 22 November 1942, Kleist replaced Field Marshal Wilhelm List as commander of Army Group A near the end of Case Blue. Hitler ordered him to hold position and to resume the offensive should the Axis forces take Stalingrad. This possibility ended after the Soviets launched counter-offensives Operation Uranus (November 1942), which encircled the German 6th Army in Stalingrad, and Operation Little Saturn (December 1942 to February 1943). Little Saturn aimed to cut off Army Group A in the Caucasus, however, the limited scope of the Soviet offensive gave Kleist enough time to withdraw his Army Group A in the direction of the Kuban, abandoning the Caucasus.
On 1 February 1943 Kleist was promoted to Field Marshal. In July 1943 the Red Army launched a massive offensive along the Dnieper river. By December 1943 the Soviets had conquered the west bank of the Dnieper, and Kleist's Army Group A was forced to retreat to southwest Ukraine. In December 1943 the Soviets launched the Dnieper-Carpathian Offensive against Erich von Manstein's re-constituted Army Group South, intending to capture all of the Ukrainian and Moldovian territories occupied by the Axis forces. As part of the initial phase of the offensive, the Soviet 3rd Ukrainian Front to the south launched the Nikopol–Krivoi Rog Offensive against Kleist's Army Group A. Proceeding slowly at first, the front eventually destroyed the salient projecting around Kryvyi Rih and Nikopol, costing the Germans the important mining operations there as well as nearly encircling the reformed German 6th Army. By the end of March 1944 the Soviets had recovered most of right-bank Ukraine and the Germans were defeated with 20 divisions either destroyed, disbanded or requiring major rebuilding, while another 60 divisions were reduced to 50% of their establishment strength. Kleist had disagreed with Hitler over the withdrawal of Army Group A during the offensive. He had demanded permission to pull back his forces to more defensible positions, however, Hitler ordered his armies to stand where they were. Hitler blamed his generals for the overall strategic success of Soviet armies and on 30 March 1944, Kleist was dismissed and replaced by Ferdinand Schörner.
After the 20 July plot to assassinate Hitler failed (1944), the Gestapo implicated and arrested Kleist due to the involvement of his cousin Ewald von Kleist-Schmenzin in the Oster conspiracy. Kleist avoided trial and was later released.
Kleist was arrested in late April 1945 in Bavaria by United States' troops, and handed over to the British Army. In September 1946 he was extradited to Yugoslavia, where after a trial he was sentenced to fifteen years in prison for war crimes.
In 1948 he was extradited to the Soviet Union, where he was charged with war crimes. After a trial he was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
On 13 November 1954 Kleist died of heart failure in Vladimir Central Prison. He was the most senior ranking soldier among the German prisoners of war in the Soviet Union to die in Russian captivity.
Source:
https://www.lexikon-der-wehrmacht.de/
https://en.wikipedia.org/
https://www.tracesofwar.com/
https://grokipedia.com/
https://rk.balsi.de/index.php?action=list&cat=300
https://www.unithistories.com/units_index/index.php?file=/officers/personsx.html
https://web.archive.org/web/20091027052912fw_/http://geocities.com/orion47.geo/index2.html
https://forum.axishistory.com/
https://www.wehrmacht-awards.com/forums/
https://www.bundesarchiv.de/en/
https://www.geni.com/
https://books.google.com/
Paul Ludwig Ewald Von Kleist (book, Wikipedia articles)
Feldmarali: Feldmaraali Nacisticke Nemacke, Evald Fon KlaJst (book)
Tysklands Militære Personel I 1 Verdenskrig (book)
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