Field Marshal Albert Kesselring
Albert Kesselring conducted the German defence of Italy and was sentenced to death for reprisal killings. Born in 1885 in Bavaria, he was an artillery officer in the First World War and a staff officer afterwards, and was transferred at forty-eight to the new Luftwaffe, learning to fly at that age. He served as its chief of staff, commanded air fleets in Poland, France and the Battle of Britain, and supported the invasion of the Soviet Union. He was sent to the Mediterranean in late 1941 as commander-in-chief south, where he directed the air campaign against Malta and supplied Rommel's army in North Africa, with whom he disagreed frequently about strategy and supply. After the Allied landings in 1943 he persuaded Hitler to fight for Italy rather than withdraw north, and conducted the defensive campaign that is his professional reputation: a succession of prepared lines across the peninsula — the Gustav Line at Monte Cassino, the Gothic Line in the Apennines — using terrain, rivers and demolitions to hold vastly superior forces for twenty months at low cost in German divisions. His nickname among his troops was smiling Albert. The occupation was another matter. Partisan attacks were answered with hostage shootings on a fixed ratio, most notoriously at the Ardeatine Caves in March 1944, where 335 people were killed in reprisal for 33 German policemen. He was convicted by a British court in 1947, the sentence commuted, and he was released in 1952. He died in 1960. His memoirs disputed the convictions and were widely read in Germany.
- Lived: 1885 CE – 1960 CE
- Nationality: German
- Roles: general, air_force_commander
