For those that don't know you can download the files for German Generals from the Bundesarchiv. They are just summaries (career, ranks, award, next of kin) but some contain the evaluation comments of their commanding officers which can be enlightening and incredibly blunt. This is the file for Eberhard von Mackensen who 'resigned' on 1st June 1944 following the Anzio breakout.
Kesselring's comments from 3rd June show it wasn't really a resignation. Apologies for my German translation - I'm sure some of our native German speakers will be able to improve it. "The events of the past weeks and months have increasingly revealed the differences between Colonel-General von Mackensen and myself regarding the necessary tactical measures and their implementation. They have meant that I very often had to intervene in the leadership of the army to such an extent that it is not sustainable in the long run. Above all, I missed his belief in the feasibility of the tasks set for him and the ruthless energy to demand the seemingly impossible in certain combat situations. He saw the solution of his tasks more in operations than in tactical combat and success - probably because of his experiences in Russia. In view of the particularly tense situation at the moment, I therefore consider it necessary, even with full recognition of Colonel-General von Mackensen's high personal values, for a change in the leadership of the 14th Army. I ask that Colonel-General von Mackensen be employed further in a position that does justice to his outstanding talent and personality values."
The daily transcripts of the war crimes trial against him and another are available from the International Criminal Court website and the UNWCC Law Report is here: https://www.legal-tools.org/doc/c52a85/pdf Daily Transcripts: Day 1 https://www.legal-tools.org/doc/ce9528/pdf Day 2 https://www.legal-tools.org/doc/396e54/pdf Day 3 https://www.legal-tools.org/doc/695383/pdf Day 4 https://www.legal-tools.org/doc/cfffa8/pdf Day 5 https://www.legal-tools.org/doc/f5bdd4/pdf Day 6 https://www.legal-tools.org/doc/8200fe/pdf Day 7 https://www.legal-tools.org/doc/9ccf50/pdf Day 8 https://www.legal-tools.org/doc/91b1d7/pdf Day 9 https://www.legal-tools.org/doc/6ba558/pdf Day 10 https://www.legal-tools.org/doc/9ab238/pdf Day 11 https://www.legal-tools.org/doc/039cb1/pdf
Gary's translation is quite sufficient, so just a few explanations of some abbreviations: F.R./FR - Führerreserve/Leader reserve Has no reference to Hitler's nickname, but refers to leadership personnel (usually senior officers) who are waiting for further use Later in the war, it was also very popular to dismiss unpopular staff without firing them. (Manstein, for example) RDA - Rangdienstalter/rank seniority: Officers were promoted according to the „Anciennietätsprinzip“ (principle of seniority). mFb - mit Führung beauftragt/charged with leadership: a kind of probationary period for commanding officers before they assumed final command of a military unit F.s.g.a. - Führt sehr gut aus/performs very well (sheet 2, regarding v. Kleist)
There are better pdf versions of the UNWCC Law Reports available from the Library of Congress: the Mackensen case is number 43 in this volume: https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/service/ll/llmlp/Law-Reports_Vol-8/Law-Reports_Vol-8.pdf Colonel Scotland of the "London Cage" became a friend of Mackensen: see, for example, "The London Cage" by Helen Fry ( Yale University 2017 ). The summary of the case is as follows: "TRIAL OF GENERAL VON MACKENSEN AND GENERAL MAELZER BRITISH MILITARY COURT, ROME 18TH-30TH NOVEMBER, 1945 A. OUTLINE OF THE PROCEEDINGS 1. THE CHARGE The accused were jointly chargcd with committing a war crime by being concerned in the killing as a reprisal of 335 Italians in the Ardeatine Cave. 2. THE EVIDENCE The evidence showed that on 23rd March, 1944, a bomb exploded amongst a company of German police marching through Rosella Street in Rome. Twenty-eight German policcmen were killed outright and a great number wounded, four of the wounded died during the day, thus raising the death roll to thirty-two. When the news of the bomb attack reached Hitler’s Headquarters an order was issued to Field Marshal Kesselring, the Commander of Army Group “C” in Italy, to shoot within 24 hours 10 Italians for every German policeman killed. The order was silent on the question how the persons who were to be shot as a reprisal were to be selected. This order was passed on to the accused General von Mackensen, who was the Commander of the German 14th Army, in whose sector of operations Rome was situated. He telephoned the accused General Maelzer, who was the Military Commander of the City of Rome, to find out whether there were enough persons under sentence of death to make up the required number. Maelzer passed on this enquiry to Lieut.-Colonel Kappler, who was head of the S.D. (German Security Service) at Rome, and was responsible for the prisons of the city. These facts were agreed upon by Counsel for the Defence and Prosecution, but from here onwards the claims of the two were at variance. The Prosecution relied upon the evidence of Kappler and maintained that Kappler told both accused that he did not have enough prisoners to make up the required number, but that he would compile a list of 280 people "worthy of death." This phrase signified persons imprisoned who were either sentenced to death and awaiting execution or serving long sentences of imprisonment or persons detained for partisan activities or acts of sabotage. The Defence, basing themselves on the testimony of the two accuscd as well as that of Field Marshal Kesselring and Colonel Baelitz, one of Kesselring’s staff officers, claimed that Kappler completely misled the army authorities by telling Kesselring that he had enough prisoners under sentence of death to make up the number, and by promising von Mackensen that if the number of prisoners under sentence of death should be less than 320 he would only execute whatever number there were, but would, nevertheless, publish a communique that 320 had been shot as a reprisal, so that the execution of his order could be reported to the Führer. The Prosecution and the Defence agreed that Kappler told both accused that only four of the selected victims had anything to do with the placing of the bomb in Rosella Street. The result of the orders given by von Mackensen and Maelzer, whatever these orders were, was neither the formal execution of 320 Italians as ordered by Hitler, nor the execution of all persons in the prisons of Rome who were sentenced to death or long terms of imprisonment as intended by the accused, but an indiscriminate massacre by the S.D. under Kappler. The rest of the evidence was common ground between the Prosecution and the Defence. After both the Army and the Police authorities had refused to carry out this mass execution, the S.D. under Kappler was ordered to do so. The final number of prisoners executcd was 335. Kappler accounted for this number by claiming that another policeman died, making a total death roll of thirty-three, and that he asked the Italian Police to send fifty prisoners to make up the numbers and that they sent fifty-five instead. The victims included a boy of fourteen, a man of seventy, one person who had been acquitted by a Court, and fifty-seven Jews who had nothing to do with any partisan activities and some of whom were not even Italians. The victims were herded together in the Ardeatine Cave on 24th March, and shot in the back at close range by a section of the S.D. under Kappler. They were divided into groups of five and each group was made to kneel on top of or beside the corpses of the previous group. No priest or doctor was present. After all 335 had been killed the cave was blown up by a battalion of engineers. Kappler reported the execution of the Hitler order to the accused Maelzer and von Mackensen, who passed the report on to Kesselring's headquarters. Neither von Mackensen or Maelzer pleaded superior orders in the strict sense. They pleaded that they were of the opinion that the reprisal as such was justified as the month preceding the bomb attack had seen a long series of crimes against German troops in Rome to which only drastic action could put a stop. Both accused said that they were anxious to take the sting out of the Hitler order by having only people shot who were sentenced to death or long terms of imprisonment. Both accused disclaimed all knowledge of the manner in which the reprisal was eventually carried out by the S.D. and there was no evidence to show that they knew how the 335 died in the Ardeatine Cave. 3. FINDINGS AND SENTENCES Both accused were found guilty and sentenced to death by being shot. The Confirming Officer confirmed the findings on both accused but commuted both sentences to imprisonment for life."
Andreas, they are in the PERS 6 category - then in 10. Approx. 35 pages of them all downloadable. PS For those that don't have the link this is in the Bundesarchiv search engine - invenio - Anmeldung (bundesarchiv.de) (their equivalent of Discovery at TNA).
