EARLY YEARS
Friedrich Bertram Sixt von Armin was born in Wetzlar (an exclave of the Rhine Province in Prussia) on November 27, 1851. After leaving school in 1870, he enlisted in the Fourth Grenadier Guards Regiment as a Fahnenjunker (cadet).
Armin fought in the Franco-Prussian War and was seriously wounded at the Battle of Gravelotte on August 18, 1870. He was later awarded the Iron Cross, Second Class and promoted to Leutnant (lieutenant). After hostilities ceased, Armin continued his military service in a wide variety of assignments: regiment adjutant, troop commander, and general staff officer.
In 1900, Armin was promoted to Oberst (colonel) and given command of the 55th Infantry Regiment. The following year, he was appointed Chief of Staff of the Gardekorps. Armin was then promoted to major general in 1903 and lieutenant general three years later.
Following a period of service at general headquarters in 1908, Armin was appointed commander of the 13th Division stationed in Münster. In 1911, he succeeded Paul von Hindenburg as commanding officer of IV Corps in Magdeburg. Two years later, Armin was promoted to general.
WARRIOR IN THE WEST
After the mobilization of the German Army on the first of August 1914, Armin’s IV Corps was attached to Kluck’s German First Army on the Western Front. His men saw plenty of action during the First Battle of the Marne in early September 1914. They also became bogged down in the subsequent years of trench warfare… seeing action at Arras, Loretto Heights, La Bassee, and the Somme. For his handling of combat operations on the Western Front (particularly at Arras and the Somme), Armin was awarded the Pour le Mérite on August 10, 1916.
The following year (February 25, 1917), Armin was appointed commander of the German Fourth Army (replacing Albrecht, Duke of Württemberg) and served as commander-in-chief in the Flanders region. Later that year, the German Fourth Army withstood several attacks from the British and the French, most notably the Third Battle of Ypres.
THE BLINDEST SLAUGHTER OF A BLIND WAR
In the weeks before Third Ypres, Armin’s chief of staff, Colonel von Lossberg, directed the building of the German defense works.Six successive lines of trenches were dug… with concrete-protected machine guns nested like squares on a checkerboard for mutual support. Over 1,500 guns and eight divisions (with another twelve in reserve) were ready to face the British onslaught of Mark IV tanks and 2,300 guns along a seven-mile front.
When the fight began on the last day of July 1917, torrential rains and thunderstorms hampered the British offensive. On August 16th, the Battle of Langemark was launched after the weather cleared (albeit briefly). Diversionary attacks by the Canadians at Lens (August 15-25, 1917) and the French at Verdun (August 20th) were successful, but not decisive.
As summer gave way to autumn, the B.E.F. renewed the push with battles at Menin Road Ridge (September 20-25, 1917), Polygon Wood (September 26th), and Broodseinde (October 4th). The British eventually reached the crest of the Ypres ridges before the weather deteriorated yet again! An Australian-led assault at Poelcapelle made little progress.
Then on October 12, 1917, the final stage of Third Ypres was launched by Anzac troops in torrential rains: the infamous Battle of Passchendaele. Many soldiers drowned in the water, tanks sank in the mud, and Passchendaele Ridge was a sea of both!
It took two and a half weeks for the B.E.F. to reach the crest of the ridge. By mid-November, ice sealed the battlefield… and a vulnerable salient of about 9,000 yards (a little over five miles) had been achieved. However, not one thing of importance was gained in the fight!
Third Ypres cost the British Empire 310,000 men; the Germans lost slightly less. Virtually all of Britain’s available reserves were consumed in what was dubbed “the blindest slaughter of a blind war”. An additional 250,000 Allied casualties only reinforced the point of view!
For his performance as commander of the German Fourth Army, Friedrich Sixt von Armin was awarded the Order of the Black Eagle. He also added the oak leaf cluster to his Pour le Mérite.
THE LYS OFFENSIVE
Armin was still in command of the German Fourth Army when General Erich Ludendorff commenced Operation Michael (the Somme Offensive) on March 21, 1918. A month later, Armin and his men were in action against the B.E.F. during Operation Georgette (the Lys Offensive).
On April 10, 1918, four divisions of the German Fourth Army attacked beyond Armentières to the Ypres-Comines Canal. Ludendorff intended (1) to break the B.E.F. once and for all, thus (2) tactically defeating the French, and (3) ending the war in triumph. His failures would result in mounting logistical difficulties and shrinking manpower reserves.
By April 12th, Wytschaete Ridge, the village of Ploegsteert, and Messines Ridge were in Teutonic hands. Ordering an all-out drive to Hazebrouck, Ludendorff also wanted the Cats-Kemmel hill mass in an effort to exhaust B.E.F. reserves. But as long as the British were willing to die to keep Hazebrouck safe, Ludendorff was wasting lives in trying to fight it out on the line he had taken.
So with “their backs to the wall and believing in justice of their cause”, the Tommies straightened their lines to save lives and yield ground that counted little. The 1917 trophies of Poelcapelle, Passchendaele, Polygon Wood, and Houthulst were sacrificed, but Ypres remained in British hands. The German advance was soon halted; forty-four divisions were used in the fight.
But on April 25th, the Germans renewed the offensive after a diversionary attack at Villers-Bretonneux near Amiens. Armin’s troops captured Mont Kemmel, but Ludendorff suspended operations four days later when it became apparent that the remainder of the Flanders heights could not be seized.
Operation Georgette resulted in a ten-mile German advance with an awkward salient to defend. No strategic objectives were achieved, and the British stand in front of Ypres was decisive. The manpower reservoir of the Imperial German Army was dropping fast…
Armin stayed in command of the German Fourth Army for the remainder of the war. With the signing of the armistice at Compiegne on November 11, 1918, he took command of Army Group A… and with it, returned to Germany. Upon the demobilization of his troops, Armin resigned from the German Army.
FINAL YEARS
After the war, Armin moved back to Magdeburg in the Province of Saxony. He was a popular speaker and made frequent appearances at public events. When he died on September 30, 1936 at the age of eighty-four, Friedrich Sixt von Armin was buried with full military honors.
FAMILY
On June 11, 1882, Armin married Klara Pauline Auguste von Voigts-Rhetz. She was the daughter of Prussian general Julius von Voigts-Rhetz. His son Hans-Heinrich also had a military career. As a lieutenant general, Hans-Heinrich became a prisoner of war in 1942 and died in Soviet Russia ten years later.
DECORATIONS AND AWARDS
– Knight of the Order of the Black Eagle (Prussia, 1917)
– Order of the Red Eagle 2nd Class with Crown and Oak Leaves
– Knight of the House Order of Hohenzollern
– Pour le Mérite (Prussia; August 10, 1916), with Oak Leaves (Prussia, 1917)
– Member of the Order of Saint John (Bailiwick of Brandenburg)
– Iron Cross of 1870, Second Class
– Commander’s Cross of the Military Order of St. Henry (Saxony; May 7, 1918)
– Knight of the Albert Order (Saxony)
– Knight of the Friedrich Order (Württemberg)
– Knight of the Order of Berthold I (Baden)
– Military Merit Medal (Austria-Hungary)
– Honorary title “Lion of Flanders”
– Magdeburg Barracks (1928) and Sixt-von-Armin-Weg in Magdeburg (1933) were named after him, but both were renamed subsequently.