The Italian front to which he returned at the end of January 1945 was no longer of much strategic importance in the eyes of his opponents, though strong arguments divided the Allies as to its political consequences. For the time being Alexander and Clark were outnumbered by the Germans because they had been more severely starved of reinforcements than the Germans. They were uncertain of receiving sufficient resources even for a spring offensive when the weather improved. Nevertheless their position at the entrance to the Plain of Lombardy with the threat to northern Italy was enough to pin Kesselring's Army Group down. For him February was to be a month filled with delusions as he busied himself with the familiar routine of constructing defences that purchased a tenuous hold on the northern crags of the Apennines, employing the meagrest resources for a task that was controversial in purpose. Every day came the reports of a Russian horde flooding into Germany from the east through Poland and from the Balkans (which had been skilfully evacuated in the autumn) and of the Western Allies closing up to the River Rhine along its length. That these events cannot always have been clearly analysed in his mind sometimes is apparent: a certain confusion to match that of the outside world installed itself. Sudden inactivity after decades of intense industry must have relaxed his concentration. There are indications that he was already burnt out.

Siegfried Westphal instantly apprehended the change when, as Chief of Staff to the C-in-C West, he met Kesselring again on 11 March. Once more they were teamed up because, on the 8th, Kesselring had been called before Hitler (whose headquarters now sheltered in Berlin as the Russians closed up to the River Oder) to be told that he was to take over from Gerd von Rundstedt. The Americans had seized a bridge over the Rhine at Remagen and this had convinced Hitler that the change must be made. But even the spurious reasoning of the Führer with its adherence to palliative miracles could project themselves no further than the exhortation to 'hang on' as best he could. So volatile was the situation, but so emphatic Hitler's confidence in Kesselring, that his departure from Italy was to be kept secret in case it caused a collapse there.

Characteristically Kesselring put on a cheerful demeanour when meeting Westphal, saying, 'I am the new V3!’ But of this introduction Westphal (who once more demonstrates his inability to penetrate the irony of Kesselring when faced with the ridiculous) writes:

When Kesselring arrived I reported to him the situation in the West. Immediately I noticed how he had altered. Of course, he had hardly recovered from a serious accident, but during my report he sometimes displayed rejection, sometimes disbelief and sometimes smiled thoughtfully. When I pointed out the dangerously depleted state of our forces ... and asked him if he disbelieved me, Kesselring answered that 'the Führer had told him something different'. I requested my immediate dismissal ... This the field-marshal rejected out of hand and assured me of his undiminished trust.

It is quite inconceivable that Kesselring did not recognise the hopelessness of it all and that he was unaware of Hitler's fallibility. Trust, of course, was at a premium in the ruling circles of Germany. Just about the last things that bore resemblance to reality were rational military strategies and tactics. In his 'Memoirs' Kesselring gives a very different version of their discussion. Maybe it was the ingrained habit of loneliness in supreme command which prevented him from disclosing his feelings; much more likely they were both too wary of the consequences of seeming to betray the Führer to be entirely frank. It is utterly impossible to imagine the reactions and fears of men who were under ceaseless suspicion and surveillance. With hindsight it is easy to ask, as Milch was asked during the Nürnberg trials, why it was that senior German leaders did not resign their posts in protest against the bad things they knew were taking place, and all too wrong to underestimate his entirely valid reply: 'For us there was only one kind of resignation - death!' One false move was enough to engineer that event, as Rommel among many more had discovered, and though there were undoubtedly those who shrank from challenging a gruesome fate, probably preceded by torture, there were the rest who responsibly looked to the day when martyrs would be but names of those who escaped into legend and the living the men of destiny who had rescued Germany from the pit. At that very moment the SS was frantically engaged in erasing evidence by killing all potential witnesses of their worst atrocities. Westphal himself declares that, had he been guilty of neglect, Kesselring, who certainly was no coward, could not have saved him. In the final analysis hardly anybody dared speak the truth openly; everything had to be arrived at by devious ways. ...

Kesselring: Table of Content

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