GALLWITZ, MAXVON
Gallwitz, Max von
(May 2, 1852–April 17, 1937)
German General
T
enacious Gallwitz stood directly in the
path of American and French offen-
sives during the final months of World
War I. He eventually yielded to superior Allied
numbers and resources but extracted a heavy
price for the victory along the Western Front.
Max von Gallwitz was born in Brelau, Ger-
many, on May 2, 1852, into a family of com-
mon origin. He joined the army in 1870 and
that year saw service in the Franco-Prussian
War as an artillery officer. After the impres-
sive Prussian victory, which led to the unifica-
tion of Germany as a single nation, his
prospects for advancement seemed grim. Not
only was he a commoner in an officer corps
dominated by glittering aristocrats, but he
also practiced Catholicism in a predominately
Protestant army with long traditions of bias
against his creed. Nonetheless, Gallwitz
proved himself an outstanding junior officer,
and he rose steadily through the ranks on
merit. In 1896, he gained a promotion to
colonel and shortly after received the ap-
pointment of chief of artillery in the War Min-
istry. He became a major general in 1902 and
lieutenant general commanding the 16th Divi-
sion three years later. Good performance,
sound judgment, and attention to detail then
led to his appointment as inspector of field ar-
tillery with the rank of full general in 1911.
Two years later Gallwitz’s acceptance was
confirmed when Kaiser Wilhelm I elevated
him into the ranks of Prussian nobility.
When World War I commenced in August
1914, Gallwitz commanded the elite Guard
Reserve Corps on the Western Front. After
distinguished fighting at Namur, Belgium, his
forces transferred to the east, where they
fought in the decisive victory at the Masurian
Lakes in September 1914. By dint of excellent
service, Gallwitz was elevated to command an
army group bearing his name in February
- Having crossed the Narev River in
Poland after heavy fighting, he took 111,000
Russian prisoners in a series of battles around
Pultusk. That fall Gallwitz transferred south
as head of the 11th Army and helped orches-
trate the conquest of Serbia in September - He was preparing for an all-out assault
against the Allied bridgehead at Salonika,
Greece, when orders arrived transferring him
back to the Western Front. Successively lead-
ing troops in the Verdun and Somme sectors,
his Fifth Army was renamed Army Group
Gallwitz with the addition of troops from
Army Division C.
After the defeat of Paul von Hindenburg’s
and Erich von Ludendorff’s spring offensive,
German forces were increasingly placed on
the defensive. By the fall of 1918, it fell upon
Gallwitz to hold a defensive line in the Meuse-
Moselle region against increasing numbers of
newly-arrived American troops. The recent
failure also ushered in Allied counterattacks
across the Western Front, and German forces
were hard-pressed to contain them. However,
the U.S. commander, Gen. John J. Pershing,
was determined to keep the American Expedi-
tionary Force intact and not parceled out to
assist French and British efforts elsewhere.
For his first target he selected the St. Milhiel
Salient, a large pocket of German forces south
of Verdun. On the flank of the critical Meuse-
Argonne sector, it posed a threat to any ad-
vances toward the German border. Pershing
received permission to attack, although only
after haggling with senior French command-
ers, who wanted American forces concen-
trated for the upcoming Meuse-Argonne offen-
sive. Pershing nonchalantly agreed to
participate in both operations once he had
neutralized the salient. On September 12,
1918, 550,000 American doughboys, aided by
an additional 110,000 French, attacked Gall-