Hitler brings back Von Manstein

[Matt Wiser]

Perhaps the greatest strategist of all in WW II, and certainly the best one the Germans had, Field Marshal Erich von Manstein was fired by Hitler on 30 March 1944, and never again held a command for the remainder of the war. With the D-Day invasion and the disaster of BAGRATION-the Soviet Summer Offensive on 22 June 1944 that destroyed Army Group Center, there was good reason to bring him back on active duty. So WI Hitler swallowed his pride and brought von Manstein back? Where does Hitler send him? He could take Rommel's command after he's injured, or does Hitler get him back to the Eastern Front to do what can be done to keep the Russians at bay? Von Manstein would have been a vociferous opponent of the Ardennes offensive (Battle of the Bulge), and he would've been screaming for the armor used there to be sent to him, for one thing. If he holds the Russians at bay, but the Western Front does evaporate after the Remagen Bridge falls, then there's a really decent chance the U.S. and British get to Berlin first (which is what the Germans themselves preferred).

 

[Slamet]

1) Von Manstein would have been a vociferous opponent of the Ardennes offensive (Battle of the Bulge), and he would've been screaming for the armor used there to be sent to him, for one thing.

2) If he holds the Russians at bay, but the Western Front does evaporate after the Remagen Bridge falls, then there's a really decent chance the U.S. and British get to Berlin first (which is what the Germans themselves preferred).

1) In vain. Guderian yelled even louder (probably) than Von Manstein, and even when the offensive was bound to fail, Hitler would never let go.

2) Maybe. Hitler wasn't that keen to lose to the Allies, so he would have stripped the Eastern Front of some of its materials (even more so if Von Manstein succeeds in holding the red tide).