Word: rundstedts
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...position that no Prussian likes, or wants to keep. He is on the defensive. As long as the Russian war holds the best of the German Army on the Eastern Front, as long as that hooligan and instinctive soldier Rommel needs help in Egypt, Rundstedt, the carefully cultivated flower of the old German military system, has to hold off the enemy in the north. Germany's most respected soldier, her soundest staff officer, her No. 1 field commander, he has to sit behind his bunkers and parry the enemy's thrusts. He may never again lead an offensive...
Plan for Defense. In the lexicon of Rundstedt's Hohenzollern-made class, there is no such word as "won't." When Adolf Hitler, whom few Junker officers regard with kindness, ordered straight-backed Rundstedt to a secondary area, and a defensive job to boot, no old-line officer could have been surprised that he took the job. Or that he did it well...
...Commandos slip or bash their way inside the steel arc of Rundstedt's defenses to feel out German techniques. But old Rundstedt can tell himself that it has been an even trade. By their raiding, the British have had to give away their own techniques: how they carry tanks on barges, what kind of weapons they favor, what proportion of artillery they use. And the British can be sure that the Germans are profiting by what they learn...
...Rundstedt's job has been to put muscle on a defense skeleton. He was lucky in that his defense area had magnificent communications. It was criss-crossed with highways and railroads (see map, p. 29), dotted with airdromes, some snatched from the French, some built by the Germans in their months of hesitancy after Dunkirk. With these advantages Rundstedt has organized a fluid defense, well but tressed on its front by strong points, backed by forces that could be whipped to any threatened point...
Defender's Assets. To meet the British wherever they may strike, Rundstedt has a big force, with impressive mobility. Under his command are 30 to 40 infantry divisions (15,000 men each), which he has disposed along the beaches and in rear areas. Ten which have long battle experience are probably kept at vital communication points, to be whisked where they are needed. Far to his rear, in the Reich itself, are 50 to 55 more divisions, some still training, all relatively untested. They are reserves...