Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb Wilhelm Josef Franz Ritter von Leeb ( 5 September 1876 – 29 April 1956 ) was a German Field Marshal during World War II . His younger brother , Emil Leeb , rose to the rank of General der Artillerie during World War II . Youth . Born in Landsberg am Lech , Upper Bavaria as Wilhelm Leeb , he joined the Bavarian Army in 1895 as an officer cadet . After being commissioned a lieutenant of artillery , Leeb served in China during the Boxer Rebellion . He later attended the Bavarian War Academy in Munich ( 1907 – 1909 ) and served on the General Staff in Berlin ( 1909 – 1911 ) . Promoted to captain , Leeb served as a battery commander in the Bavarian 10th Field Artillery Regiment at Erlangen ( 1912 – 1913 ) . World War I and after . At the outbreak of World War I , Leeb was on the General Staff of the Bavarian I Corps , then served with the Bavarian 11th Infantry Division . Upon promotion to major , Leeb was transferred to the Eastern Front in the summer of 1916 . The following year , he was appointed to the staff of Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria . On 29 May 1916 , for his military achievements on May 2 , 1915 , Leeb received the Knight ' s Cross of the Military Order of Max Joseph . This was the Bavarian equivalent of the Prussian Pour le Mérite , and its receipt elevated Leeb to the ranks of nobility : on 21 June 1916 , he received a patent of nobility , which changed his name by adding the title " Ritter " ( " knight " ) and the German nobiliary particle " von " ( " of " ) . After the war , Ritter von Leeb remained in the Reichswehr , the 100 , 000 - man army permitted Germany under the Treaty of Versailles . In 1923 , he was involved in putting down the Nazi Beer Hall Putsch . Then , before the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party , von Leeb commanded " Wehrkreis VII " ( " Military District VII " , which covered Bavaria ) as a major - general . World War II . Hitler was not fond of von Leeb because of the general ' s anti - Nazi attitudes , and retired von Leeb in 1938 after promoting him to the rank of colonel general . But von Leeb was recalled to duty in July of the same year and made commander of the Twelfth Army , which took part in the occupation of the Sudetenland . Afterwards , he was pensioned off again . In the summer of 1939 , von Leeb was again called back into service and given command of Army Group C . Before the Battle of France , von Leeb was the only German general to oppose the offensive through the ( neutral ) low countries , especially Belgium , on moral grounds . He wrote : " The whole world will turn against Germany , which for the second time within 25 years , assaults neutral Belgium ! Germany , whose government solemnly vouched for and promised the preservation of and respect for this neutrality only a few weeks ago . " During that battle , his troops broke through the Maginot Line . For his role in this victory , von Leeb was promoted to the rank of Field Marshal ( Generalfeldmarschall ) in July 1940 and awarded the Knight ' s Cross of the Iron Cross . Now having Hitler ' s confidence , von Leeb was given command of Army Group North and responsibility for the northern sector in Operation Barbarossa , the invasion of the Soviet Union . Von Leeb was to destroy the Soviet units in the Baltic region and capture all Soviet naval bases on the Baltic Sea . When the invasion began on June 22 , 1941 , von Leeb ' s armies met with outstanding success against an overwhelmed Soviet force . By the end of September , his army had advanced 900 kilometers into the Soviet Union and surrounded Leningrad , though he failed to capture the city . Relieved of command . When von Leeb failed to capture Leningrad quickly , Hitler impatiently commented , " Leeb is in a second childhood ; he can ' t grasp and carry out my plan for the speedy capture of Leningrad . He fusses over his plan of assuming the defensive in the northwestern sector and wants a drive in the center on Moscow . He ' s obviously senile , he ' s lost his nerve , and like a true Catholic he wants to pray but not [ to ] fight . " An old - school German general , von Leeb did not take well to having his command managed from afar by Hitler , whom he considered an armchair general . In January , 1942 , von Leeb asked Hitler to relieve him of his command , and Hitler complied . It was officially announced that von Leeb had stepped down due to illness , not because of his defeat . Colonel - General Georg von Küchler assumed command of Army Group North , and Hitler never employed von Leeb again . Relations with National Socialists . Von Leeb ' s attitude towards the Nazi regime was ambivalent : in spite of his open contempt for Hitler and the dictator ' s cronies , he did accept a present of 250 , 000 Reichsmarks for his sixty - fifth birthday in 1941 . In 1944 , von Leeb allowed the Nazis to use his popularity for propaganda purposes , when he was presented with a great Bavarian estate worth 638 , 000 Reichsmarks . After the failed July 20 plot to assassinate Hitler in 1944 , von Leeb sent an affirmation of loyalty to the Führer , although ostensibly this was in order to save his own life and that of his family . After the War . Von Leeb was tried by an American military tribunal in Nuremberg in the High Command Trial . Due to a confusion of documents , von Leeb was found guilty on one of four charges and sentenced to three years imprisonment ; but he was released after the judgment because he had already spent more time in custody . He spent his last years living quietly with his family . Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb died in Füssen on 29 April 1956 , following a heart attack .