Download or read book Hitler s Armed Forces Auxiliaries written by Jean-Denis G.G. Lepage and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2016-01-26 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The story of Hitler’s Wehrmachtsgefolge (armed forces auxiliaries) is less well known than that of Germany’s other armed forces in World War II, such as the panzer divisions, the Luftwaffe and the Kriegsmarine. The Organization Todt (construction company), Reichsarbeitsdienst (labor service), Nationalsozialistische Kraftfahrer Korps (driver’s corp) and Volkssturm (people’s militia) were given the status of armed forces auxiliaries to protect their members under the Geneva Conventions should they be taken prisoner. By 1944, the Wehrmachtsgefolge comprised 40 percent of the German armed forces, and their contribution to the war effort was far from negligible. This illustrated history documents the development, structure and organization, uniforms, regalia and technical data of these units and discusses their role in the war and during the prewar period.
Download or read book Wehrmacht Auxiliary Forces written by Nigel Thomas and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2012-08-20 with total page 50 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Though the 'Wehrmachtsgefolge' (Armed Forces Auxiliaries) were generally inferior to their armed forces equivalents, their contribution to the German war-effort was far from negligible. Auxiliaries including the NSKK, Transportkorps Speer, Reichsarbeitsdienst and Organization Todt supported the Wehrmacht in their duties. In 1944, the strength of these organizations peaked at 3,800,000-40% of the size of the armed forces. As they became increasingly aware of their importance, the Auxiliaries introduced uniform and insignia modifications which made them virtually indistinguishable from their comrades in the armed forces. This book examines the organization, uniforms and history of the various Wehrmacht auxiliary forces.
Download or read book Eastern Europe and the Balkans written by Antonio J Munoz and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page 512 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The German Defense Of Berlin written by Oberst a.D. Wilhem Willemar and published by Pickle Partners Publishing. This book was released on 2015-11-06 with total page 72 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Often written during imprisonment in Allied War camps by former German officers, with their memories of the World War fresh in their minds, The Foreign Military Studies series offers rare glimpses into the Third Reich. In this study Oberst a.D. Wilhem Willemar discusses his recollections of the climatic battle for Berlin from within the Wehrmacht. “No cohesive, over-all plan for the defense of Berlin was ever actually prepared. All that existed was the stubborn determination of Hitler to defend the capital of the Reich. Circumstances were such that he gave no thought to defending the city until it was much too late for any kind of advance planning. Thus the city’s defense was characterized only by a mass of improvisations. These reveal a state of total confusion in which the pressure of the enemy, the organizational chaos on the German side, and the catastrophic shortage of human and material resources for the defense combined with disastrous effect. “The author describes these conditions in a clear, accurate report which I rate very highly. He goes beyond the more narrow concept of planning and offers the first German account of the defense of Berlin to be based upon thorough research. I attach great importance to this study from the standpoint of military history and concur with the military opinions expressed by the author.”-Foreword by Generaloberst a.D. Franz Halder.
Download or read book German Northern Theater of Operations 1940 1945 Illustrated Edition written by Earl Ziemke and published by Pickle Partners Publishing. This book was released on 2015-11-06 with total page 351 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: [Includes 23 maps and 31 illustrations] This volume describes two campaigns that the Germans conducted in their Northern Theater of Operations. The first they launched, on 9 April 1940, against Denmark and Norway. The second they conducted out of Finland in partnership with the Finns against the Soviet Union. The latter campaign began on 22 June 1941 and ended in the winter of 1944-45 after the Finnish Government had sued for peace. The scene of these campaigns by the end of 1941 stretched from the North Sea to the Arctic Ocean and from Bergen on the west coast of Norway, to Petrozavodsk, the former capital of the Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic. It faced east into the Soviet Union on a 700-mile-long front, and west on a 1,300-mile sea frontier. Hitler regarded this theater as the keystone of his empire, and, after 1941, maintained in it two armies totaling over a half million men. In spite of its vast area and the effort and worry which Hitler lavished on it, the Northern Theater throughout most of the war constituted something of a military backwater. The major operations which took place in the theater were overshadowed by events on other fronts, and public attention focused on the theaters in which the strategically decisive operations were expected to take place. Remoteness, German security measures, and the Russians’ well-known penchant for secrecy combined to keep information concerning the Northern Theater down to a mere trickle, much of that inaccurate. Since the war, through official and private publications, a great deal more has become known. The present volume is based in the main on the greatest remaining source of unexploited information, the captured German military and naval records. In addition a number of the participants on the German side have very generously contributed from their personal knowledge and experience.
Download or read book German Antiguerrilla Operations in the Balkans 1941 1944 written by Robert M. Kennedy and published by . This book was released on 1989 with total page 114 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Soviet Nationalities in German Wartime Strategy 1941 1945 written by Alex Alexiev and published by RAND Corporation. This book was released on 1982 with total page 56 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study examines the determinants and character of German policies toward the Soviet non-Russian nationalities and their effects on the Soviet and German war efforts and on the nationalities themselves. Particular emphasis is placed on the analysis of the nature and magnitude of military collaboration with the Germans by the non-Russian nationalities, in an attempt to examine the military exploitability of the political warfare opportunities that presented themselves. Section II outlines the attitudes toward the Soviet nationalities prevalent among the Nazi leadership and the role envisaged for them in a postwar German-dominated Europe, and juxtaposes them on the views of German officials who did not share Nazi dogma and advocated a more pragmatic approach. German policies in the occupied non-Russian territories and their implications are examined in Sec. III. Section IV describes the different types and degrees of military collaboration with the Germans. The main conclusions are summarized in Sec. V.
Download or read book The Wehrmacht written by Wolfram WETTE and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2009-06-30 with total page 395 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a profound reexamination of the role of the German army, the Wehrmacht, in World War II. Until very recently, the standard story avowed that the ordinary German soldier in World War II was a good soldier, distinct from Hitler's rapacious SS troops, and not an accomplice to the massacres of civilians. Wolfram Wette, a preeminent German military historian, explodes the myth of a "clean" Wehrmacht with devastating clarity. This book reveals the Wehrmacht's long-standing prejudices against Jews, Slavs, and Bolsheviks, beliefs that predated the prophecies of Mein Kampf and the paranoia of National Socialism. Though the sixteen-million-member German army is often portrayed as a victim of Nazi mania, we come to see that from 1941 to 1944 these soldiers were thoroughly involved in the horrific cleansing of Russia and Eastern Europe. Wette compellingly documents Germany's long-term preparation of its army for a race war deemed necessary to safeguard the country's future; World War II was merely the fulfillment of these plans, on a previously unimaginable scale. This sober indictment of millions of German soldiers reaches beyond the Wehrmacht's complicity to examine how German academics and ordinary citizens avoided confronting this difficult truth at war's end. Wette shows how atrocities against Jews and others were concealed and sanitized, and history rewritten. Only recently has the German public undertaken a reevaluation of this respected national institution--a painful but necessary process if we are to truly comprehend how the Holocaust was carried out and how we have come to understand it.
Download or read book Hitler s Army written by David Stone and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2014-04-15 with total page 951 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'I swear by God this sacred oath that I shall render unconditional obedience to Adolf Hitler, the Führer of the German Reich, supreme commander of the armed forces, and that I shall at all times be prepared, as a brave soldier, to give my life for this oath.' (German armed forces oath of loyalty, instituted 2 August 1934) This extensively illustrated new title from renowned historian, David Stone, describes and analyses every significant aspect of the rise and fall of 'Hitler's Army' within the Wehrmacht from 1933 to 1945, including its creation, organisation, weapons, equipment, training and tactics. The book also considers its conduct in battle and its strengths and weaknesses, together with the motivation, lifestyle, performance and nature of its officers and soldiers, both prior to and during the conflict. Hitler's Army is an essential reference for anyone seeking a definitive explanation and analysis of one of Europe's most formidable fighting forces. It is also a balanced and indispensable aid for those wishing to understand how the much vaunted and apparently unbeatable German army that went to war in 1939 and so speedily achieved military pre-eminence in Europe, was consigned just over five years later to total military defeat and the ignominy of unconditional surrender in a devastated, demoralised and shattered Germany.
Download or read book Integration of the Armed Forces 1940 1965 written by Morris J. MacGregor and published by e-artnow. This book was released on 2020-06-18 with total page 628 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In the quarter century that followed American entry into World War II, the nation's armed forces moved from the reluctant inclusion of a few segregated Negroes to their routine acceptance in a racially integrated military establishment. Nor was this change confined to military installations. By the time it was over, the armed forces had redefined their traditional obligation for the welfare of their members to include a promise of equal treatment for black servicemen wherever they might be. In the name of equality of treatment and opportunity, the Department of Defense began to challenge racial injustices deeply rooted in American society. For all its sweeping implications, equality in the armed forces obviously had its pragmatic aspects. In one sense it was a practical answer to pressing political problems that had plagued several national administrations. In another, it was the services' expression of those liberalizing tendencies that were permeating American society during the era of civil rights activism. But to a considerable extent the policy of racial equality that evolved in this quarter century was also a response to the need for military efficiency. So easy did it become to demonstrate the connection between inefficiency and discrimination that, even when other reasons existed, military efficiency was the one most often evoked by defense officials to justify a change in racial policy."_x000D_ Morris J. MacGregor, Jr., received the A.B. and M.A. degrees in history from the Catholic University of America. He continued his graduate studies at the Johns Hopkins University and the University of Paris on a Fulbright grant. Before joining the staff of the U.S. Army Center of Military History in 1968 he served for ten years in the Historical Division of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Download or read book Standing Fast written by Timothy A. Wray and published by . This book was released on 2011-06 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Hitler in Los Angeles written by Steven J. Ross and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2017-10-24 with total page 435 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A 2018 FINALIST FOR THE PULITZER PRIZE “[Hitler in Los Angeles] is part thriller and all chiller, about how close the California Reich came to succeeding” (Los Angeles Times). No American city was more important to the Nazis than Los Angeles, home to Hollywood, the greatest propaganda machine in the world. The Nazis plotted to kill the city's Jews and to sabotage the nation's military installations: Plans existed for murdering twenty-four prominent Hollywood figures, such as Al Jolson, Charlie Chaplin, and Louis B. Mayer; for driving through Boyle Heights and machine-gunning as many Jews as possible; and for blowing up defense installations and seizing munitions from National Guard armories along the Pacific Coast. U.S. law enforcement agencies were not paying close attention--preferring to monitor Reds rather than Nazis--and only attorney Leon Lewis and his daring ring of spies stood in the way. From 1933 until the end of World War II, Lewis, the man Nazis would come to call “the most dangerous Jew in Los Angeles,” ran a spy operation comprised of military veterans and their wives who infiltrated every Nazi and fascist group in Los Angeles. Often rising to leadership positions, they uncovered and foiled the Nazi's disturbing plans for death and destruction. Featuring a large cast of Nazis, undercover agents, and colorful supporting players, the Los Angeles Times bestselling Hitler in Los Angeles, by acclaimed historian Steven J. Ross, tells the story of Lewis's daring spy network in a time when hate groups had moved from the margins to the mainstream.
Download or read book Finland in World War II written by Tiina Kinnunen and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2011-11-25 with total page 597 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawing on innovative scholarship on Finland in World War II, this volume offers a comprehensive narrative of politics and combat, well-argued analyses of the ideological, social and cultural aspects of a society at war, and novel interpretations of the memory of war.
Download or read book Stalingrad written by Antony Beevor and published by Penguin. This book was released on 1999-05-01 with total page 560 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Battle of Stalingrad was not only the psychological turning point of World War II: it also changed the face of modern warfare. From Antony Beevor, the internationally bestselling author of D-Day and The Battle of Arnhem. In August 1942, Hitler's huge Sixth Army reached the city that bore Stalin's name. In the five-month siege that followed, the Russians fought to hold Stalingrad at any cost; then, in an astonishing reversal, encircled and trapped their Nazi enemy. This battle for the ruins of a city cost more than a million lives. Stalingrad conveys the experience of soldiers on both sides, fighting in inhuman conditions, and of civilians trapped on an urban battlefield. Antony Beevor has itnerviewed survivors and discovered completely new material in a wide range of German and Soviet archives, including prisoner interrogations and reports of desertions and executions. As a story of cruelty, courage, and human suffering, Stalingrad is unprecedented and unforgettable. Historians and reviewers worldwide have hailed Antony Beevor's magisterial Stalingrad as the definitive account of World War II's most harrowing battle.
Download or read book Joining Hitler s Crusade written by David Stahel and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2018 with total page 457 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A ground-breaking study that looks at why European nations sent troops to take part in Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union.
Download or read book Hitler s Stormtroopers and the Attack on the German Republic 1919 1933 written by Otis C. Mitchell and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2008-10-24 with total page 203 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Hitler was Nazi Germany and Nazi Germany was Hitler." Though true to the extent that Hitler's personality, leadership, and ideological convictions played a massive role in shaping the nature of government and life during the Third Reich, this popular view has led many writers since the end of World War II to overlook important aspects of Nazism while centering attention solely on Hitler's contributions to the Nazi Party. This book seeks to fill a significant gap in the literature by concentrating particularly on the Nazi Party and its growth during the years of the Weimar Republic, examining the paramilitary presence in Germany and Bavaria after World War I. Most of the book describes the development of the Nazi Storm Detachment (Sturmabteilung, or SA) before and after the failed Beer Hall Putsch in 1923. By the time Hitler came to power in January 1933, there were perhaps as many as 400,000 of these brown-shirted men, often self-styled revolutionaries, creating violence on a daily basis and destroying the underpinnings of the Weimar Republic. The book features several photographs captured from the Nazi Party's Central Publishing Facility in Munich and passed to the author in the late 1950s.
Download or read book Four Days in Hitler s Germany written by Robert Teigrob and published by University of Toronto Press. This book was released on 2019-05-09 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1937, Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie King travelled to Nazi Germany in an attempt to prevent a war that, to many observers, seemed inevitable. The men King communed with in Berlin, including Adolf Hitler, assured him of the Nazi regime’s peaceful intentions, and King not only found their pledges sincere, but even hoped for personal friendships with many of the regime's top officials. Four Days in Hitler’s Germany is a clearly written and engaging story that reveals why King believed that the greatest threat to peace would come from those individuals who intended to thwart the Nazi agenda, which as King saw it, was concerned primarily with justifiable German territorial and diplomatic readjustments. Mackenzie King was certainly not alone in misreading the omens in the 1930s, but it would be difficult to find a democratic leader who missed the mark by a wider margin. This book seeks to explain the sources and outcomes of King’s misperceptions and diplomatic failures, and follows him as he returns to Germany to tour the appalling aftermath of the very war he had tried to prevent.
