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Albert Kesselring
20 November or 30 November 1885 - 16 July 1960
Albert Kesselring
Nickname	Smiling Albert
Place of birth	Marktsteft, Bavaria, Germany
Place of death	Bad Nauheim, West Germany
Allegiance	German Empire (to 1918) Weimar Republic (to 1933) Nazi Germany
Service/branch	Deutsches Heer (1904-1922) Reichswehr (1922-1933) Luftwaffe (1933-1945)
Years of service	1904-1945
Rank	Generalfeldmarschall
Commands	Luftflotte 1 Luftflotte 2 Army Group C OB South OB West
Battles/wars	World War I World War II *Invasion of Poland (1939) *Battle of France (1940) *Operation Barbarossa (1941) *Operation Typhoon (1941) *Siege of Malta (1941-42) *Western Desert Campaign (1941-42) *Tunisia Campaign (1942-43) *Allied invasion of Sicily (1943) *Allied invasion of Italy (1943) *Bernhardt Line (1943) *Battle of Monte Cassino (1944) *Operation Shingle (1944) *Gothic Line (1944) *Central Europe (1945)
Awards	Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds

Albrecht Kesselring (20 November^[1] or 30 November^[2] 1885 - 16 July 1960) was a Luftwaffe Generalfeldmarschall during World War II. One of the most respected and skillful generals of Nazi Germany, he was nicknamed "Smiling Albert". He commanded air forces in the invasions of Poland, France, and the Soviet Union, and the Battle of Britain. As Commander-in-Chief South, he was overall German commander in the Mediterranean theatre, which included operations in North Africa. Later, he conducted a stubborn defensive campaign against the Allied forces in Italy. In the final campaign of the war, he commanded German forces on the Western Front. After the war he was tried for war crimes and sentenced to death. The sentence was subsequently commuted to life imprisonment and he was released in 1952.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Great War 3 Between the Wars 4 World War II 4.1 Poland 4.2 Western Europe 4.3 Battle of Britain 4.4 Invasion of the Soviet Union 4.5 The Mediterranean and North Africa 4.6 Tunisia 4.7 Italian Campaign 4.7.1 Sicily 4.7.2 Allied Invasion of Italy 4.7.3 War Crimes 4.7.4 Cassino and Anzio 4.8 Central Europe 5 Post-War trial and life after 6 Notes 7 References

Albrecht Kesselring was born in Marktsteft, Bavaria on either 20 November or 30 November 1885, the son of a schoolmaster and town councillor, Karl Kesselring and his wife Rosa.^[3]

He matriculated from the Classical Grammar School in Bayreuth in 1904 and joined the German Army as an officer cadet (fahnenjunker) in the 2nd Bavarian Foot Artillery Regiment. Based at Metz, this regiment was responsible for the forts there. He was to remain with this regiment until 1915, except for periods at the Military Academy from 1905 to 1906, at the conclusion of which he received his commission as a lieutenant, and the Artillery School from 1909 to 1910.^[4]

He married Pauline Keyssler in 1910. The couple adopted a son in 1913.^[3]

Kesselring was transferred to the 1st Bavarian Foot Artillery, which formed part of the Sixth Army, in 1915. In 1916 he was transferred again, to the 3rd Bavarian Artillery. In 1917, he was posted to the General Staff, serving on the Eastern Front on the staff of the 1st Bavarian Landwehr Division. In 1918, he returned to the Western Front as a staff officer with the II and III Bavarian Corps.^[5]

At the conclusion of the war, Kesselring was involved in the demobilisation of III Bavarian Corps in the Nuremburg area, at the conclusion of which a warrant was issued for his arrest for his alleged involvement in a putsch against the command of III Bavarian Corps.^[6]

From 1919 to 1922, he served as an artillery battery commander. He joined the Reichswehr on 1 October 1922 and was posted to the Military Training Department at the Reichswehr Ministry in Berlin. He remained at this post until 1929, when he returned to Bavaria as commander of Wehrkreis VII.^[3] In his time with the Reichswehr Ministry, Kesselring was involved in the organisation of the army, trimming staff overheads to produce the best possible Army with the limited resources available. He was involved in the reorganisation of the Ordnance Department, laying the groundwork for the research and development efforts that would produce new weapons. After another, brief, stint at the Reichswehr Ministry, he spent two years in Dresden as a lieutenant colonel with the 4th Artillery Regiment.^[7]

Against his wish, Kesselring was discharged from the army on 1 October 1933 and became head of the Department of Administration at the Reich Commissariat for Aviation (Reichskommissariat für die Luftfahrt), the forerunner of the Reich Air Ministry. At the age of 48, he learned to fly. Kesselring believed that a first-hand awareness of all aspects of aviation was crucial to being able to command airmen, although he was well aware that latecomers like himself did not impress the old pioneers or the young aviators. As chief of administration, he had to create his new staff from scratch. He was involved in the re-establishment of the aviation industry and the construction of secret factories, forging alliances with industrialists and aviation engineers.^[8]

Following the death of Walther Weaver in an air crash, Kesselring became Chief of Staff of the Luftwaffe on 3 June 1936. As chief of staff, Kesselring oversaw the expansion of the Luftwaffe, the acquisition of new aircraft types such as the Me 109 and Ju 87, and the development of paratroops. His main operational task was the support of the Condor Legion in the Spanish Civil War. However, his tenure was marred by personal and professional conflicts with his superior, General Erhard Milch, and Kesselring asked to be relieved.^[9]

The head of the Luftwaffe, Hermann Göring, acquiesced and Kesselring became the commander of Air District III in Dresden. On 1 October 1938, he was promoted to General der Flieger and became commander of Luftflotte (Air Fleet) 1, based in Berlin.^[10]

In the Polish campaign, Kesselring's Luftflotte 1 operated in support of Army Group North, commanded by Generaloberst (Colonel General) Fedor von Bock. Although not under von Bock's command, Kesselring worked closely with Bock, and considered himself under Bock's orders in all matters pertaining to the ground war. Kesselring strove to provide the best possible close air support to the ground forces, and used the flexibility of air power to concentrate all available air strength at critical points, such as during the Battle of the Bzura. He attempted to cut the Polish communications through air attacks Warsaw, but found that even 1,000 kg bombs could not guarantee that bridges would be destroyed. For his part in the campaign, Kesselring was personally awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross by the Chancellor, Adolf Hitler.^[11]

Kesselring's Luftflotte 1 was not involved in the preparations for the campaigns in the West, remaining in the East on garrison duty, establishing new airbases and an Air Raid Precautions network in occupied Poland. However, after an aircraft made a forced landing in Belgium with copies of the German invasion plan, Generalfeldmarschall Hermann Göring relieved the commander of Luftflotte 2, General der Flieger Hellmuth Felmy, of his command, and appointed Kesselring in his place. Kesselring flew to his new headquarters at Münster the very next day, 13 January 1940. As Felmy's chief of staff had also been relieved, Kesselring brought his own chief of staff, Generalmajor Wilhelm Speidel, with him.^[12]

Arriving in the West, Kesselring found Luftflotte 2 operating in support of von Bock's Army Group B. He inherited from Felmy a complex air plan requiring on-the-minute timing for several hours. While initial air operations against the Netherlands went according to plan, and Kesselring's fighters and bombers soon gained the upper hand against the small Dutch air force, but the paratroopers ran into stiff opposition. Responding to a call for assistance from General der Flieger Kurt Student, Kesselring ordered the bombing of Rotterdam.^[13]

After the surrender of the Netherlands, Luftflotte 2 attempted to move forward to new airfields in Belgium while still providing support for the fast moving ground troops. Hitler's decision to halt the panzertruppen left the burden of stopping the Allied evacuation of Dunkirk to Kesselring's fliers, who were hampered by poor flying weather and staunch opposition from the British Royal Air Force (RAF).^[14]

For his role in the campaign in the west, Kesselring was promoted to Generalfeldmarschall (Field Marshal) on 19 July 1940.^[15]

Results will demonstrate an officer's fitness to be a field marshal, and no one will then ask about his origins, whether he came from the army or the air force. But one piece of advice I will give to all air field marshals: do not become a one-sided technician, but learn to think and lead in terms of all three services. Albert Kesselring[16]

Following the campaign in France, Kesselring's Luftflotte 2 was committed to the Battle of Britain. Luftflotte 2 was initially responsible for the bombing of southeastern England and the London area but as the battle progressed, command responsibility shifted, with Generalfeldmarschall Hugo Sperrle's Luftflotte 3 taking more responsibility for the night-time Blitz attacks while the main daylight operations fell to Luftflotte 2 '. Kesselring's fliers gave the RAF a tremendous beating but failed to press home its attacks and achieve a decisive victory. Instead, the Luftwaffe employed the inherent flexibility of air power to switch targets.^[17]

Although earmarked for operations in the east, Luftflotte 2 remained in the west until May 1941, partly as a deception measure, and partly because new airbases in Poland could not be completed by the 1 June 1941 target date, although they were made ready in time for the actual commencement of Operation Barbarossa on 22 June 1941.^[18] Kesselring established his new headquarters at Bielany, a suburb of Warsaw.^[19]

Luftflotte 2 operated in support of Army Group Centre, commanded by von Bock, continuing the close working relationship between the two. Kesselring's mission was to gain air superiority, and if possible air supremacy, as soon as possible while still supporting ground operations.^[20] For this he had a fleet of over 1,000 aircraft, about a third of the Luftwaffe's total strength.^[21] The German attack caught large numbers of Soviet Air Force aircraft on the ground. Faulty tactics - sending unescorted bombers against the Germans at regular intervals in tactically unsound formations - accounted for many more. Kesselring reported that in the first week of operations Luftflotte 2 had accounted for 2,500 Soviet aircraft in the air and on the ground. Even Göring found these figures hard to believe and ordered them to be re-checked. As the ground troops advanced, the figures could be directly confirmed and were found to be too low.^[22] Within days, Kesselring was able to fly solo over the front in his Focke-Wulf Fw 189.^[23]

With air supremacy attained, Luftflotte 2 turned to support of ground operations, particularly guarding the flanks of the armoured spearheads, without which the rapid advance was not possible. When enemy counterattacks threatened, Kesselring threw the full weight of his force against them.^[24] Convincing the army that air support should be concentrated at critical points took time, as units were all to inclined to call for air support.^[25] Kesselring strove to improve army-air cooperation with new tactics and the appointment of Colonel martin Fiebig as a special close air support commander.^[26] By 26 July, Kesselring reported the destruction of 165 tanks, 2,136 vehicles and 194 artillery pieces.^[27]

In late 1941, Luftflotte 2 supported the Operation Typhoon. Raids on Moscow proved hazardous, as the Moscow had good all-weather airfields and opposition from both fighters and anti-aircraft guns was similar to that encountered over Britain.^[28] The bad weather that hampered ground operations from October on hampered air operations even more. Nonetheless, Luftflotte 2 continued to fly critical reconnaissance, interdiction, close air support and air supply missions.^[29]

In November 1941, Kesselring was appointed Commander-in-Chief South and was transferred to Italy along with his Luftflotte 2 staff, which for the time being also functioned as his CinC South staff. Only in January 1943 did he form his headquarters into a true theatre staff and create a separate staff to control Luftflotte 2.^[30] As a theatre commander, he was answerable directly to OKW and commanded ground, naval and air forces but this was of little importance at first as most German units were under Italian operation control. In October 1942, Kesselring was given direct command of all German armed forces in the theatre except for Generaloberst Erwin Rommel's German-Italian Panzer Army in North Africa, including General der Infantrie Enno von Rintelen, the German liaison officer at Commando Supremo. Kesselring's command also included the troops in Greece and the Balkans until December 1942, when Generalfeldmarschall Wilhelm List was appointed CinC South East with responsibility for this area.^[31]

Kesselring strove to organise and protect supply convoys in order to get the German-Italian panzer army the resources it needed. He succeeded in creating local air superiority and neutralising Malta. Through various expedients, Kesselring managed to deliver a greatly increased flow of vital supplies to the Afrika Korps in Libya.^[32] With his forces thus strengthened, Rommel prepared an attack on the British positions around Gazala, while Kesselring planned an airborne attack on Malta with the Folgore Parachute Division and Ramcke Parachute Brigade.^[33]

For the Battle of Gazala, Rommel divided his command in two, taking personal command of the mobile units while leaving the infantry of the Italian X and XXI Corps under General der Panzertruppe Ludwig Crüwell. This command arrangement went awry on 29 May 1942 when Crüwell was taken prisoner. Lacking an available commander of sufficient seniority, Kesselring assumed personal command of Gruppe Crüwell. Flying his Fieseler Fi 156 to a meeting, Kesselring was fired upon by an enemy force astride Rommel's line of communications. An air strike by every available Stuka and Jabo followed in short order. Kesselring attributed the failure of the initial infantry assaults to capture Bir Hakeim to faulty ground-air coordination but he was more impressed with the results of the attack on Tobruk, for which Kesselring brought in additional aircraft from Greece and Crete.^[34]

In the wake of the victory at Tobruk, Rommel persuaded Hitler to authorise an attack on Egypt instead of Malta, over Kesselring's objections.^[35] The parachute troops assembled for the Malta operation were sent to Rommel.^[36] Things went well at first but, just as Kesselring had warned, logistical difficulties mounted and the result was the disastrous First Battle of El Alamein, Battle of Alam el Halfa and Second Battle of El Alamein.^[37]

The Allied invasion of French North Africa precipitated a crisis in Kesselring's command. He ordered Walther Nehring, the former commander of the Afrika Korps who was returning to action after recovering from wounds received at the Battle of Alam el Halfa, to proceed to Tunisia to take command of a new corps (XC Corps). Kesselring ordered Nehring to establish a bridgehead in Tunisia and then to press west as far as possible so as to gain freedom to manoeuvre.^[38] By December, the Allied commander, General Dwight D. Eisenhower was forced to concede that Kesselring had won the race; the final phase of Operation Torch had failed and the Axis could only be ejected from Tunisia after a prolonged struggle.^[39]

With the initiative back with the Germans and Italians, Kesselring hoped to launch an offensive that would drive the Allies out of North Africa. At the Battle of the Kasserine Pass his forces gave the Allies a beating but in the end strong Allied resistance and a string of Axis errors stopped the advance.^[40] Kesselring now concentrated on shoring up his forces by moving the required tonnages of supplies from Sicily but his efforts were frustrated by Allied aircraft and submarines. An Allied offensive in April finally broke through, leading to a collapse of the Axis position in Tunisia. Some 275,000 German and Italian prisoners were taken. Only the Battle of Stalingrad overshadowed this disaster. In return, Kesselring had held up the Allies in Tunisia for six months, forcing a postponement of the Allied invasion of northern France from the northern summer of 1943 to that of 1944.^[41]

Kesselring expected that the Allies would next invade Sicily, as a landing could be made there under fighter cover from Tunisia and Malta.^[42] Kesselring reinforced the six coastal and four mobile Italian divisions there with two mobile German divisions, the 15th Panzergrenadier Division and Hermann Göring Panzer Division, both rebuilt after being destroyed in Tunisia.^[43] Kesselring was well aware that while this force was large enough to stop the Allies from simply marching in, it could not withstand a large scale invasion. He therefore pinned his hopes on repelling the Allied invasion of Sicily on an immediate counterattack. Although his troops gave the Americans "quite a battering" and the Luftwaffe destroyed a Liberty ship filled with ammunition, the counterattack failed to destroy the Allied position.^[44]

Kesselring flew to Sicily himself on 12 July to survey the situation and decided that no more than a delaying action was possible and that the island would have to be evacuated.^[45] Nonetheless, he managed to delay the Allies in Sicily for another month. In the end, the evacuation was perhaps the most brilliant action of the campaign. In spite of the Allies' superiority on land, at sea, and in the air, Kesselring was able to evacuate not only 40,000 men, but 96,605 vehicles, 94 guns, 47 tanks, 1,100 tons of ammunition, 970 tons of fuel, and 15,000 tons of stores. He was able to do so because he was able to achieve near-perfect coordination between the three services under his command while his opponent, Eisenhower, was not.^[46]

With the fall of Sicily, OKW feared that Italy would withdraw from the war but Kesselring remained confident that the Italians would continue to fight.^[47] OKW regarded Kesselring and von Rintelen (who spoke fluent Italian) as too pro-Italian and began to bypass him, sending Student to Rome, where his I Parachute Corps was under OKW orders to occupy the capital in case of Italian defection, and Rommel to northern Italy.^[48] Italy did withdraw from the war and Mussolini was removed from power. Mussolini was rescued by the Germans in Operation Oak" (Unternehmen Eiche), a spectacular raid planned by Kurt Student and carried out by Obersturmbannführer Otto Skorzeny. The details of the operation were deliberately, though unsuccessfully kept from Kesselring. "Kesselring is too honest for those born traitors down there" was Hitler's assessment.^[49] Italy now effectively became an occupied country, as the Germans poured in troops.

Kesselring was ordered to withdraw from southern Italy and consolidate his forces with Rommel's Army Group B in Northern Italy, where Rommel would assume overall command. Kesselring was appalled. This would expose southern Germany to bombers operating from Italy; risked the Allies breaking into the Po Valley; and was completely unnecessary, as he was certain that Rome could be held until the summer of 1944, based on his assumption that the Allies would not conduct operations outside the range of their air cover, which could only reach as far as Salerno. Kesselring submitted his resignation on 14 August 1943. Hitler refused to accept it.^[50]

Although his command was already "written off",^[51] Kesselring intended to fight. At the Battle of Salerno, he launched a full-scale counterattck against the Allied landings there with Generaloberst Heinrich von Vietinghoff's Tenth Army. Once again his forces gave the Allies a beating. His troops failed to throw them back into the sea but gained the time that was their actual objective. Already Kesselring, in defiance of his orders, was preparing a series of successive fallback positions on the Volturno Line, Barbara Line and the Bernhardt Line . Only in November 1943, after much fighting, did the Allies reach his main position, the Gustav Line. Kesselring felt that much more could have been accomplished had he had access to the troops held uselessly under Rommel's command.^[52]

In November 1943, Kesselring met with Hitler. Kesselring gave an optimistic assessment of the situation in Italy and gave reassurances that he could hold the Allies south of Rome on the Winter Line. Kesselring further promised that he could prevent the Allies reaching the Northern Apennines for at least least six months. As a result, on 6 November 1943, Hitler ordered Rommel and his Army Group B headquarters to move to France to take charge of the Atlantic Wall and prepare for the Allied attack that was expected there in the Spring of 1944. On 21 November 1943, Kesselring resumed command of all German forces in Italy, combined Commander-in-Chief South, a joint command, with that of Army Group C, a ground command.^[53]

"I had always blamed Kesselring," Hitler later explained, "for looking at things too optimistically... events have proved [Rommel] wrong, and I have been justified in my decision to leave Field Marshal Kesselring there, whom I have seen as an incredible political idealist, but also as a military optimist, and it is my opinion that military leadership without optimism is not possible."^[54]

Kesselring strove tirelessly to avoid the physical destruction of many artistically important Italian cities, including Rome, Florence, Siena and Orvieto. In some cases, historic bridges were booby trapped rather than blown. Kesselring declared Rome, Florence and Chieti to be open cities. In the case of Rome, this was in spite of there being considerable tactical advantages to be had from defending the Tiber bridges.

Most notably, Kesselring tried to preserve the monastery of Monte Cassino, but was unsuccessful. On the morning of 15 February 1944 142 B-17 Flying Fortress, 47 B-25 Mitchell and 40 B-26 Marauder medium bombers deliberately dropped 1,150 tons of high explosives and incendiary bombs on the abbey, reducing the historic abbey to a smoking mass of rubble, a war crime under Section 56 of Hague Convention (1907) which forbid "all seizure of, destruction or wilful damage done to institutions of this character, historic monuments, works of art and science".^[55]

In Rome on 23 March 1944, 31 German-Italian soldiers of the SS Polizeiregiment Bozen and two civilians were killed by a bomb blast.^[56] In response, Hitler ordered that ten Italians should be shot for each policeman killed. Kesselring interpreted this to mean the execution of condemned criminals and passed the order on as such to Generaloberst Eberhard von Mackensen, the commander of the Fourteenth Army, who was responsible for Rome. The task eventually fell to Obersturmbannführer Herbert Kappler who, finding there were not so many condemned prisoners available, made up the numbers as he thought best. The result was the Ardeatine massacre. Other massacres were carried out by the Hermann Göring Panzer Division at Stia in April, Civitella in Val di Chiana in June and Buchini in July 1944,^[57] and by the 16th SS Panzergrenadier Division Reichsführer-SS at in Sant'Anna di Stazzema and Marzabotto.

Kesselring attempted to save the Jews of Rome - as he had earlier saved those of Tunis - by employing them on the construction of fortifications. When ordered to deport them, Kesselring announced that no resources were available to carry out such an order. Hitler then transferred responsibility to the SS and the 8,000 Jews of Rome were ultimately deported.^[58]

The Allied attempt to break through the Gustav Line in the Battle of Monte Cassino met with early success, with the British X Corps breaking through the line held by the 94th Infantry Division and imperilling the entire Tenth Army front. At the same time, Kesselring was receiving warnings of an imminent Allied amphibious attack. Kesselring rushed his reserves, the 29th and 90th Panzergrenadier Divisions to the Cassino front. They were able to stabilise the German position there but left Rome poorly guarded. Kesselring felt that he had been out-generalled when the Allies landed at Anzio.^[59]

Although taken by surprise, Kesselring moved rapidly to regain control of the situation, summoning Generaloberst Eberhard von Mackensen's Fourteenth Army headquarters from northern Italy, the 29th and 90th Panzergrenadier Divisions from the Cassino front, and the 26th Panzer Division from Tenth Army. OKW chipped in some more divisions from other theatres. By February, Kesselring was able to take the offensive at Anzio but his forces were unable to crush the Allied beachhead, for which Kesselring blamed himself, OKW and von Mackensen for avoidable errors.^[60]

On 11 May 1944 General Sir Harold Alexander launched Operation Diadem, which finally broke through the Gustav Line and forced Tenth Army to withdraw. In the process, a gap opened up between Tenth and Fourteenth Armies, threatening both with encirclement. For this failure, Kesselring relieved von Mackensen of his command, replacing him with General der Panzertruppe Joachim Lemelsen Fortunately, General Mark Clark, obsessed with the capture of Rome, failed to take advantage of the situation and Tenth Army was able to withdraw to the next line of defence, the Trasimene Line, where it was able to link up with the Fourteenth army and then conduct a fighting withdrawal to the formidable Gothic Line north of Florence. There, Kesselring was able to halt the Allied advance.^[61]

Casualties of the Gothic Line battles included Kesselring himself. On 25 October 1944, his car collided with an artillery piece coming out of a side road. Rumours said that the field marshal was okay but the gun had to be scrapped. Kesselring suffered serious head and facial injuries and did not return to his command until January 1945.^[62]

Furthermore, we knew that in command of these forces was Field Marshal Albert Kesselring, one of the ablest officers in the Hitler armies. He had served with distinction in the German artillery, the air force and had been on the General Staff prior to the war. Kesselring was well-qualified, both as a commander and an administrator, and he conducted the Axis operations in Italy with great skill for two years, after which he was transferred to the Western Front in Germany. I was glad to see him go. He was quick to reorganise his forces and shift reserves to meet our attacks... Mark Clark[63]

Kesselring relieved Generalfeldmarschall Gerd von Rundstedt as Commander-in-Chief West on 10 March 1945.^[64] On arrival, he told his new staff, "Well, gentlemen, I am the new V-3". ^[65]

As Germany became cut in two, his command was enlarged to include Army Groups Centre, South and South-East on the Russian Front, and Army Group C in Italy, as well as his own Army Grousp G and Upper Rhine.

On 30 April, Hitler had committed suicide in Berlin. On 1 May, Karl Dönitz was designated German President (Reichspräsident) and the Flensburg government was created. One of new President's first acts was the appointment of Kesselring as Commander-in-Chief of Southern Germany, with plenipotentiary powers. He was taken prisoner at Saalfelden on 6 May 1945.

With the end of the war, Kesselring was hoping to be able to make a start on the rehabilitation of Germany.^[66] Instead he found himself placed under arrest. At the Nuremberg Trials, Kesselring testified in the trial of Hermann Göring. Kesselring's offers to testify against Russian, American and British commanders were declined.^[57]

In 1947, the Allies tried him for the shootings of civilians by troops under his command, as reprisal for attacks by Italian partisans, during the Italian campaign. In his memoirs, Kesselring claims that some of these shootings were carried out by communist partisans in German uniforms, while others were carried out by the SS, over which he claimed he had no authority.^[67]

He was charged in particular with the shooting of 335 Italian citizens, partly partisans, mostly civilians, in reprisal of the attack of Via Rasella in Rome, in which 33 German soldiers were killed (the Ardeatine massacre). Kesselring did not invoke the "Nuremburg defence". Rather, he maintained that his actions were legal. The court was forced to concede Kesselring's actions were legal and that the taking of hostages and even the execution of innocent people in reprisals - sanctioned by the US Army's Rules of Land Warfare - was permissible under the international law of the day. This later led to a strengthening of the law in this regard. However, they felt that he had created a climate in which some of his subordinates felt entitled to exceed their orders. He was found guilty and sentenced to death by firing squad.^[68]

The sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. On 15 July 1952 Kesselring was paroled for a medical operation. He was released from prison on 24 October 1952 as an act of clemency in consideration of his ill health.^[69]

His memoirs, printed in 1953, were entitled Soldat bis zum letzten Tag (A Soldier To The Last Day), and were reprinted in English as A Soldier's Record a year later.

He died at Bad Nauheim, West Germany, on 16 July 1960 at the age of 79.

Military offices
Preceded by Generalleutnant Walther Wever	Chief of the Luftwaffe General Staff June 3, 1936 – May 31, 1937	Succeeded by General der Flieger Hans-Jürgen Stumpff
Preceded by none	Commander of Luftflotte 1 February 1, 1939 – January 11, 1940	Succeeded by Generaloberst Hans-Jürgen Stumpff
Preceded by General Hellmuth Felmy	Commander of Luftflotte 2 January 12, 1940 – June 11, 1943	Succeeded by Generalfeldmarschall Wolfram Freiherr von Richthofen

v • d • e German Field Marshals and Grand Admirals of World War II
Field Marshals (Generalfeldmarschall)	Werner von Blomberg | Fedor von Bock | Eduard Freiherr von Böhm-Ermolli (honorary) | Walther von Brauchitsch | Ernst Busch | Hermann Göring | Robert Ritter von Greim | Wilhelm Keitel | Albert Kesselring | Ewald von Kleist | Günther von Kluge | Georg von Küchler | Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb | Wilhelm List | Erich von Manstein | Erhard Milch | Walter Model | Friedrich Paulus | Walther von Reichenau | Wolfram von Richthofen | Erwin Rommel | Gerd von Rundstedt | Ferdinand Schörner | Hugo Sperrle | Maximilian von Weichs | Erwin von Witzleben
Grand Admirals (Großadmiral)	Karl Dönitz | Erich Raeder

v • d • e Recipients of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords, and Diamonds (in chronological order)
1941	Werner Mölders
1942	Adolf Galland  · Gordon Gollob  · Hans-Joachim Marseille  · Hermann Graf
1943	Erwin Rommel  · Wolfgang Lüth  · Walter Nowotny  · Adelbert Schulz
1944	Hans-Ulrich Rudel  · Hyazinth Graf von Strachwitz  · Herbert Otto Gille  · Hans-Valentin Hube  · Albert Kesselring  · Helmut Lent  · Sepp Dietrich  · Walter Model  · Erich Hartmann  · Hermann Balck  · Hermann-Bernhard Ramcke  · Heinz-Wolfgang Schnaufer  · Albrecht Brandi
1945	Ferdinand Schörner  · Hasso von Manteuffel  · Theodor Tolsdorff  · Karl Mauss  · Dietrich von Saucken

v • d • e Recipients of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords (in alphabetical order)

Ernst-Günther Baade · Franz Bäke · Hermann Balck · Heinrich Bär · Erich Bärenfänger · Gerhard Barkhorn · Wilhelm Batz · Otto Baum · Werner Baumbach · Fritz Bayerlein · Hermann-Heinrich Behrend · Wilhelm Bittrich · Johannes Blaskowitz · Georg Bochmann · Alwin Boerst · Georg Freiherr von Boeselager · Albrecht Brandi · Hermann Breith · Josef Bremm · Kurt Bühlingen · Karl Decker · August Dieckmann · Eduard Dietl · Josef Dietrich · Helmut Dörner · Hans Dorr · Alfred Druschel · Maximilian Reichsfreiherr von Edelsheim · Karl Eibl · Hermann Fegelein · Fritz Feßmann · Walter Fries · Adolf Galland · Waldemar von Gazen · Herbert Otto Gille · Gordon Gollob · Walter Gorn · Hermann Graf · Fritz-Hubert Gräser · Franz Griesbach · Anton Hackl · Heinz Harmel · Josef Harpe · Erich Hartmann · Walter Hartmann · Paul Hausser · Richard Heidrich · Ludwig Heilmann · Gotthard Heinrici · Joachim Helbig · Traugott Herr · Hajo Herrmann · Otto Hitzfeld · Hermann Hogeback · Hermann Hohn · Hermann Hoth · Hans Hube · Herbert Ihlefeld · Hans Jordan · Arthur Jüttner · Hans Källner · Albert Kesselring · Friedrich Kirchner · Otto Kittel · Ewald von Kleist · Günther von Kluge · Otto von Knobelsdorff · Alfons König · Wolfgang Kretschmar · Otto Kretschmer · Hans Kreysing · Hans Kroh · Walter Krüger · Otto Kumm · Ernst Kupfer · Friedrich Lang · Heinz-Georg Lemm · Helmut Lent · Wolfgang Lüth · Heinrich Freiherr von Lüttwitz · Smilo Freiherr von Lüttwitz · Günther Lützow · Hellmuth Mäder · Erich von Manstein · Hasso von Manteuffel · Hans-Joachim Marseille · Karl Mauss · Johannes Mayer · Egon Mayer · Eugen Meindl · Kurt Meyer · Walter Model · Werner Mölders · Dietrich von Müller · Friedrich-Wilhelm Müller · Werner Mummert · Joachim Müncheberg · Walther Nehring · Hermann Niehoff · Horst Niemack · Theodor Nordmann · Walter Nowotny · Hans von Obstfelder · Walter Oesau · Hermann von Oppeln-Bronikowski · Max-Hellmuth Ostermann · Joachim Peiper · Dietrich Peltz · Hans Philipp · Georg-Wilhelm Postel · Hermann Prieß · Josef Priller · Günther Rall · Hermann-Bernhard Ramcke · Hermann Recknagel · Ernst-Wilhelm Reinert · Alfred-Hermann Reinhardt · Georg-Hans Reinhardt · Lothar Rendulic · Robert Ritter von Greim · Erwin Rommel · Hans-Ulrich Rudel · Erich Rudorffer · Gerd von Rundstedt · Max Sachsenheimer · Dietrich von Saucken · Heinrich Prinz zu Sayn-Wittgenstein · Heinz-Wolfgang Schnaufer · Fritz von Scholz Edler von Rarancze · Ferdinand Schörner · Werner Schröer · Hinrich Schuldt · Adelbert Schulz · Friedrich Schulz · Karl-Lothar Schulz · Gerhard Graf von Schwerin · Sylvester Stadler · Rainer Stahel · Leopold Steinbatz · Felix Steiner · Johannes Steinhoff · Hyazinth Graf Strachwitz von Gross-Zauche und Camminetz · Werner Streib · Reinhard Suhren · Carl Alfred Thieme · Theodor Tolsdorff · Erich Topp · Erich Walther · Wilhelm Wegener · Otto Weidinger · Helmuth Weidling · Maximilian Wengler · Wend von Wietersheim · Wolf-Dietrich Wilcke · Theodor Wisch · Günther-Eberhardt Wisliceny · Michael Wittmann · Josef Wurmheller · Isoroku Yamamoto · Werner Ziegler