The Father of the 100,000-Man Army - Von Siechtel
Johannes Friedrich Leopold von Seeckt (often called Hans von Seeckt), born on April 22, 1866 in Schleswig, died on December 27, 1936 in Berlin. He was the creator of the "100,000-man army" and laid the foundation for the resurgence of the German Army, deservedly known as the father of the World War II German Army.
His taciturn and reserved nature, as well as his humble demeanor, earned him the nickname "Sphinx". The British Ambassador to Germany once commented: "His mind is broader than his stiff military exterior, and his vision is wider than his neat and tidy appearance." He was the son of a Prussian general and had been serving in the Alexander Guards Grenadiers since 1885. He had a talent for literature and had also earned the unusual title of "abitur" (similar to "athletic champion") in sports. In 1893, he married Dorothea Fabian, but they had no children together, although their marriage was happy. Together, they traveled throughout Britain, the Mediterranean countries, visiting famous landmarks and meeting people who interested them. In 1896, he entered the Staff College, and then alternated between serving on the front lines and in staff units, where his good reputation continued to rise with each new posting. By the outbreak of World War I in 1914, he was Chief of Staff of the 3rd Army in Berlin.
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The army corps to which Siegert belonged was part of Alexander von Kluck's 1st Army, playing a key role in the right-wing attack of the famous Schlieffen Plan. With the "Miracle on the Marne", the German plan collapsed and the 1st Army had to retreat. However, Siegert showed his personal talent and leadership skills during battles at Vailly and Soissons. He was considered a natural candidate for high staff positions. In March 1915, he became Chief of Staff of the newly formed 11th Army in East Galicia under General August von Mackensen (later Field Marshal and Grand Cross recipient). During the major offensive starting on May 2, the 11th Army and the Austro-Hungarian 4th Army led the main attack, annihilating the Russian 3rd Army like dry leaves, advancing 100 miles in two weeks. The 11th Army captured 140,000 Russian prisoners within 12 days, recaptured the Austrian fortress of Przemy?l within a month, and Emperor William II awarded Siegert the highest military honor, the Pour le Mérite (also known as the Blue Max). By the end of June, the 11th Army had captured over 250,000 prisoners when it took Lemberg, then took Warsaw on August 4 and the Brest-Litovsk fortress by the end of August. The 11th Army advanced a total of 300 kilometers, completely eliminating the Polish salient by the end of September and removing the Russian threat to Galicia. Siegert was promoted to Major General ahead of schedule, while his superior Mackensen received the Field Marshal baton. At the same time, they were transferred to the newly formed "Mackensen Army Group", tasked with achieving what the Austro-Hungarian army had failed to do - eliminating Serbian resistance and opening up a route to the Balkans and Turkey. The attacking force consisting of the German 11th Army, Austro-Hungarian 3rd Army, and Bulgarian 1st Army launched an attack on October 6, and by the end of November all Serbian forces had been either annihilated or fled to Albania and Greece. A total of 150,000 prisoners were captured, and Siegert received the Oak Leaves to the Pour le Mérite (also known as the Blue Max with Oak Leaves).
The Mackensen Group remained in Bulgaria until the spring of 1916, preparing to destroy the Allied forces at Salonika, but was cancelled due to the heavy losses suffered by the German army during the Battle of Verdun. In June 1916, the Russian army defeated the Austro-Hungarian army in the Brusilov offensive, and Falkenhayn (German Chief of Staff) and Conrad (Austrian Chief of Staff) urgently transferred Seeckt to Galicia as Chief of Staff of the Austrian Seventh Army, with the task of assisting in stopping the Russian advance and restoring relations between the two armies. At this time, the relationship between the German and Austro-Hungarian armies on the Eastern Front was very tense, and Seeckt deeply felt this. He never received respect from his nominal superior, General von Franz Conrad, who "was never a friend of Germany" (Seeckt's words), but after the war, Conrad attributed it to the different views of the two armies on the role of the Chief of Staff. Seeckt himself recalled that at the time: "I arrived, observed, and then gave orders", as if his superior did not exist. This relationship could not last long, and Seeckt was soon appointed as the Chief of Staff of the newly formed Army Group Archduke Karl, assisting the Archduke in commanding the entire Austro-Hungarian-Russian front. Seeckt cooperated well with Archduke Karl, and after a bloody battle, they finally stopped the Russian army on the Carpathian Mountains line. Immediately afterwards, Archduke Karl's troops, along with Falkenhayn's Ninth Army (at that time, due to the failure of the Battle of Verdun, Falkenhayn was relieved of his position as Chief of Staff and demoted to command the Ninth Army), participated in the Romanian Campaign, giving a good lesson to the foolish Romanians who had entered the war. In the final stage of the campaign, due to the death of the 86-year-old Austro-Hungarian Emperor Franz Joseph I in November 1916, Archduke Karl succeeded as Emperor, and Archduke Joseph took over command of the Army Group. In 1917, Seeckt served as Chief of Staff of the Army Group Archduke Joseph, a job that became increasingly difficult due to the growing animosity between Germany and Austria-Hungary. Despite this, when Seeckt finally left his position, Archduke Joseph wrote that he could not imagine a better Chief of Staff than Seeckt.
In December 1917, von Sanders arrived in Istanbul as a lieutenant general to serve as the Chief of the General Staff of the Ottoman Army. The German military had originally appointed General Liman von Sanders for this position, but Enver Pasha, the commander of the Ottoman forces, refused the appointment. At that time, the Palestine front was one of the most active theaters of war, and British General Edmund Allenby had just captured Jerusalem a week before von Sanders' arrival, so he was sent to the Palestinian front to maintain a stalemate. As Chief of the General Staff of the Ottoman Army, von Sanders was superior to Enver Pasha; however, in terms of military missions in Turkey, Enver Pasha held a higher rank. The two men inevitably had conflicts, and as a result, von Sanders' activities gradually shifted to politics, which he was not good at. In 1918, both the Allies and the Central Powers invested their greatest efforts on the French front, so the Eastern Mediterranean theater was relatively calm in the first half of the year. However, the situation changed suddenly in mid-September when the Allied forces broke through the blockade of Salonica, and Allenby defeated von Sanders' Ottoman-German army in Palestine (the Turks fled in disarray, allowing the British to capture many prisoners. But according to British military history: "A small number of German detachments maintained their cohesion and fighting spirit, moving freely like on a parade ground, stopping to fire, and then withdrawing to the rear."). When Bulgaria withdrew from the war in October, Turkey was already hopeless. On October 30, Turkey signed an armistice agreement, allowing all Germans to leave Turkey within 30 days. Von Sanders arrived in Odessa via the Black Sea on November 4 and returned to Germany on November 13 (Germany had already signed an armistice agreement on November 11).
He was coolly welcomed by the new republic, but he clearly expressed his determination to continue serving his country. Hindenburg sent him to K?nigsberg to organize the withdrawal of German troops from Ukraine and the entire Eastern Front, which he accomplished with great success under very difficult conditions, making it a natural thing for him to become the military representative of the German delegation to the Paris Peace Conference. In July 1919, he became the Chief of Staff of the post-war German Army, and a year later, he became the Commander-in-Chief of the German Defense Forces. From 1920 to 1926, he achieved remarkable achievements in this position that cannot be overstated. In an era of political turmoil and national chaos, he created an army that became the backbone of the nation, proven to be the best trained and led among its contemporaries. He developed plans for rearmament and morale boosting, which allowed the German Army's greatest advantage - the officer corps - to be preserved, and new tactics and strategies to be developed. The Treaty of Versailles stipulated that the German army could not exceed 100,000 men, so Seeckt set the standard: soldiers had to have good physical health and at least 12 years of service experience; officers had to have at least 25 years of military experience. Once a member of the Defense Forces, they had to receive specialized training in a particular area, with an emphasis on leadership skills. He placed great importance on the personal skills and initiative of soldiers. Since the treaty prohibited Germany from having military academies, he established a military education system within units at the regimental level, where every soldier received training to become a non-commissioned officer, every non-commissioned officer received training to become an officer, and every officer received training to become a general. Every six months, exercises were held to improve professional skills and professional ethics. Without tanks or artillery, they used cardboard and wood to simulate, and the German army may have been the only one that used toy airplanes to simulate real planes for anti-aircraft practice! Individual soldiers had to refer to themselves as "I am a certain platoon" or represent an 8-man machine gun team during exercises. All of this formed Seeckt's "Army of 100,000"!
Quoting some of his words:
"A country without defense is shameful!"
"Any unequal treaty, anything that an enemy cannot take from us is a strong conviction. When fate once again calls the German people to arms (and this day will come!), he will see brave warriors and not cowards grasping the loyal weapon tightly. As long as there are iron-like hands and will, it does not matter what weapons are used."
"Advanced equipment can conquer one flesh and blood body after another, but it cannot conquer the immortal spirit of humanity!"
In 1921 he wrote: "The way to win future wars is to mobilize a small but high-quality mobile force, and if equipped with aircraft, the combat effectiveness will be even higher". His emphasis on speed and mobility was the germ of the German Blitzkrieg.
After ending his 6-year tenure as Commander-in-Chief of the National Defense Army, he briefly participated in some political activities and wrote several books. From 1933 to 1935, he came to China and served as the head of Chiang Kai-shek's German advisory group. During his tenure as the head of the advisory group, the influence of the German advisors on the Chinese ruling clique and Chiang Kai-shek himself was unusually great. Compared with Li De, the advisor to the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, the "encirclement and suppression" plan he designed for Chiang Kai-shek was obviously much more brilliant (this is the difference in military literacy). He had served as a trustee of the chairman, representing Chiang Kai-shek himself in handling military and political affairs. Every Tuesday and Friday morning at 10 o'clock was the time for the Minister of Military Administration, school officials to make an appointment to meet with Seeckt, due to the fact that they were not allowed to be late, big and small officials lined up early, becoming a spectacle. The three major ideas he proposed for Chiang Kai-shek's military construction had a lifelong impact on him. These three points are: 1) The army is the foundation of ruling power; 2) The power of the army lies in its high quality; 3) The combat potential of the army lies in the education and training of the officer corps.
He died of heart disease on December 27, 1936. Compared to his achievements during World War I, his position as the creator of the post-war German Defense Force is the main reason why he still enjoys a very high reputation today.
