On August 17, 1971 (the 27th June of the lunar calendar), Nazi German Field Marshal Wilhelm Liszt died of illness.

Siegmund Wilhelm List (German: ; May 14, 1880-August 17, 1971) was a German Field Marshal and military strategist.

Liszt was born on May 14, 1880, in Oberkirchburg to a family of doctors. After graduating from high school in 1898, he joined the army and served in the 3rd Bavarian Engineer Battalion in Munich. After graduating from the School of Artillery and Engineers, he became an adjutant of the 1st Battalion of Engineers and was promoted to lieutenant in 1908. After graduating from the Military Academy for three years, he participated in the fortress construction project in Ingolstadt. One year later, he was sent to the Service Center of the Staff Headquarters in Bavaria and later transferred to the Staff Headquarters.

At the beginning of World War I, Liszt had been promoted to captain, served as a staff officer in the 2nd Bavarian Army and participated in combat, fighting in Lorraine, Flanders, Amiens and the Maas River. In the winter of 1915, he fell seriously ill and was transferred back to serve in the War Ministry in Bavaria after recovering. In the summer of 1916, he served as Staff Officer of the Strantz Corps and was transferred to Chief Staff Officer of the 8th Reserve Division the following year. In January 1918, he was promoted to major and soon became section chief of the Bavarian War Department. After the war, he initially served in the 4th Army Command, served as staff officer to General Eppe, the 7th Infantry Commander, from 1920 to 22, and later served as commander of the Mountain Infantry Battalion.

Since 1924, Liszt has chaired the 7th Military Region Command Assistant Training Team. He was later promoted to lieutenant colonel and was transferred to director of the Army Education Department of the Ministry of Defense in 1926. In 1930, he was appointed principal of Dresden Infantry School and was promoted to lieutenant general three years later. In 1935, when he served as commander of the 4th Military Region, he was promoted to infantry general, and later transferred to commander of the 4th Army.

Liszt was neither opposed nor in favor of national socialism. Like many generals, he believed that Hitler's rule would not last long, but had to obey Hitler's command. In the spring of 1939, Liszt was promoted to general. At the beginning of the Battle of Poland, he was awarded the Knight's Iron Cross on September 30, 1939 for his meritorious command of the 14th Army. During the Battle of France, he commanded the 12th Army to break through the Maginot Line near Sedan-Meziers and advance across the Langele Plateau towards the Swiss border. The 12th Army played a decisive role in the annihilation of the French Army.

Liszt was promoted to Marshal on July 19, 1940. His troops eliminated the Yugoslav army in the Battle of the Balkans, broke through the Metassa Fourth Defense Line on the Bulgarian and Greek border, and defeated the main force of the Greek troops strengthened by British dispatches. On April 27, 1941, German troops entered Athens. After the Battle of Crete, Liszt was appointed commander-in-chief of the Wehrmacht Southeastern Front in Athens.

In October 1941, Liszt underwent surgery for illness. After recovering from the illness, he went to Norway for an inspection trip in March of the following year. In the summer of 1942, he was appointed commander-in-chief of Army Group A, composed of the 11th Army, the 17th Army and one of the 1st Panzer Group Army, and was ordered to capture the Black Sea coast and the Transcaucasia region. At that time, the German army wanted to capture Stalingrad and launch an offensive into the Caucasus, but its troops were obviously insufficient.

At the end of August, Liszt's leadership camp in Vinnitsa, Ukraine, stated to Hitler his reasons for opposing the dispersion of forces. Hitler was stubborn. As a result, Liszt was ordered to resign after failing to defeat the enemy's tenacious resistance. The post of Commander-in-Chief of Army Group A was concurrently held by Hitler.

In 1945, Liszt was arrested by the Americans and sentenced to life imprisonment at the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg. On December 24, 1952, he was released from prison due to illness.

Comments: Although he is a senior Nazi general, his actions in military history, especially in the battles of Poland, France, the Balkans and the Caucasus, should be written down.