Word: rundstedt
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...Navy. The great naval base of Toulon, last remaining bit of the free zone, was to be occupied, the warships stationed there taken or "annihilated" to prevent their escape to the Allies. Control of all France would pass into the hands of Field Marshal Karl Rudolf Gerd von Rundstedt, Commander of German armed forces in Occupied France and the Low Countries. The letter -many pages long-concluded with the "hope that cooperation thus is initiated from which we expect on France's part nothing but loyalty and understanding for the common destiny of Europe...
...France the same pair was back again! Bock on the right, Rundstedt in the center. Now Leeb was with them. He commanded the left, and Germany had its greatest trio in the field. Their work had improved; Poland had taught them much. And when the French campaign was over, there was still more to learn...
This time it was Russia. Now Leeb took the left, assailed Leningrad. Bock took the center, headed for Moscow. Rundstedt took the right and headed for Rostov. This time, in a campaign against which the Junker clique was reported to have fought and been overruled, the trio failed...
When the madness passed, Bock went back on the Russian front: he had Rundstedt's old southern sector, and this time knifed through and past Rostov. So did Leeb, in his old Leningrad sector. "Der General" went back to harness, too, and der Führer had honored him with one of the Reich's most important but least thankful commands. In France, at the first, it was quiet and there was much building to do. Now there are more invasion barges on the beaches, more gunfire in the night, and the skies are laced with the bright...
From the front of the elegant, ruthlessly cynical Rundstedt, quiet has departed. Even the soldiers of enemy nations had grudgingly to admit that der General must be pleased. This was what he had been born for. This was the way to win medals and the adulation of other soldiers. This was better than retirement for an old horse that would be restless in pasture. Let the politicians worry about what came after the war. Let the theologians worry about what came after that...