serviceyears commands death_date birth_place allegiance awards name battles birth_date rank article_title birth_name
1898 -- 1945 army 1940 army group center , 1941 army group south , group 1942 north , 1939 army group b , 04 may 1945 küstrin , german empire , province of brandenburg , kingdom of prussia german -lrb- 1918 -- 1933 -rrb- nazi germany -lrb- 1933 -- empire 1945 -rrb- -lrb- 1898 -- 1918 -rrb- weimar republic '' the iron cross pour le mérite '' knight 's cross of fedor von bock world war i 03 december 1880 field marschal -lrb- german : '' generalfeldmarschall '' -rrb- fedor von bock
 moritz albrecht franz friedrich fedor von bock
fedor von bock

moritz albrecht franz friedrich fedor von bock -lrb- 3 december 1880 -- 4 may 1945 -rrb- was a german field marshal who served in the german army during the second world war .
as a leader who lectured his soldiers about the honor of dying for the german fatherland , he was nicknamed '' `` der sterber '' '' -lrb- literally , ambiguously , and ironically : `` the dier '' -rrb- .
bock served as the commander of army group north during the invasion of poland in 1939 , commander of army group b during the invasion of france in 1940 , and later as the commander of army group center during the attack on the soviet union in 1941 ; his final command was that of army group south in 1942 .
bock is best known for commanding operation typhoon , the ultimately failed attempt to capture moscow during the winter of 1941 .
the `` wehrmacht '' offensive was slowed by stiff soviet resistance around mozhaisk , and also by the `` rasputitsa '' , the season of rain and mud in russia .
once the full fury of the russian winter struck , which was the coldest in over 50 years , the german armies quickly became unable to fight , with more casualties occurring due to the cold weather than battle .
the soviet counteroffensive soon drove the german army into retreat , and bock -- who recommended an earlier withdrawal -- was subsequently relieved of command by adolf hitler .
a lifelong officer in the german military , bock was considered to be a very `` by the book '' general .
he also had a reputation for being a fiery lecturer , earning him the nickname `` holy fire of küstrin '' .
bock was not considered to be a brilliant theoretician , but possessed a strong sense of determination , feeling that the greatest glory that could come to a german soldier was to die on the battlefield for the fatherland .
a monarchist , bock personally despised nazism , and was not heavily involved in politics .
however , he also did not sympathize with plots to overthrow adolf hitler , and never filed official protests over the treatment of civilians by the `` schutzstaffel '' -lrb- ss -rrb- .
bock was also uncommonly outspoken , a privilege hitler extended to him only because he had been successful in battle .
bock -- along with his second wife and his stepdaughter -- were killed by a strafing british fighter-bomber on 4 may 1945 as they traveled by car toward hamburg .
