Download or read book Hitler s Wehrmacht 1935 1945 written by Rolf-Dieter Müller and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2016-09-01 with total page 380 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An “impressively comprehensive” study of the Nazi military and its culpability in war crimes by “one of the foremost historians of World War II” (Stephen G. Fritz, author of Ostkrieg). Since the end of World War II, Germans have struggled with the legacy of the Wehrmacht—the unified armed forces mobilized by Adolf Hitler in 1935. Historians have vigorously debated whether the Wehrmacht's atrocities represented a break with the past or a continuation of Germany's military traditions. Now available for the first time in English, this meticulously researched yet accessible overview by eminent historian Rolf-Dieter Müller provides a comprehensive analysis of the Wehrmacht, illuminating its role in the horrors of the Third Reich. Müller examines the Wehrmacht's leadership principles, organization, equipment, and training, as well as the front-line experiences of soldiers, airmen, Waffen SS, foreign legionnaires, and volunteers. He skillfully demonstrates how state-directed propaganda and terror influenced the extent to which the militarized citizenry—or Volksgemeinschaft—was transformed under the pressure of total mobilization. Finally, Müller evaluates the army's conduct during the war, from blitzkrieg to the final surrender and charges of war crimes. Brief acts of resistance, such as an officers' “rebellion of conscience” in July 1944, embody the repressed, principled humanity of Germany's soldiers. But ultimately, Müller concludes, the Wehrmacht became the “steel guarantor” of the criminal Nazi regime.

Download or read book Hitler s Wehrmacht 1935 1945 written by Rolf-Dieter Müller and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2016-09-01 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the end of World War II, Germans have struggled with the legacy of the Wehrmacht—the unified armed forces mobilized by Adolf Hitler in 1935 to ensure the domination of the Third Reich in perpetuity. Historians have vigorously debated whether the Wehrmacht's atrocities represented a break with the past or a continuation of Germany's military traditions. Now available for the first time in English, this meticulously researched yet accessible overview by eminent historian Rolf-Dieter Müller provides the most comprehensive analysis of the organization to date, illuminating its role in a complex, horrific era. Müller examines the Wehrmacht's leadership principles, organization, equipment, and training, as well as the front-line experiences of soldiers, airmen, Waffen SS, foreign legionnaires, and volunteers. He skillfully demonstrates how state-directed propaganda and terror influenced the extent to which the militarized Volksgemeinschaft (national community) was transformed under the pressure of total mobilization. Finally, he evaluates the army's conduct of the war, from blitzkrieg to the final surrender and charges of war crimes. Brief acts of resistance, such as an officers' "rebellion of conscience" in July 1944, embody the repressed, principled humanity of Germany's soldiers, but ultimately, Müller concludes, the Wehrmacht became the "steel guarantor" of the criminal Nazi regime.

Download or read book The Wehrmacht 1935 1945 written by Michael E. Haskew and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Focusing on the German land forces, with chapters on the history of the German Army, pre-war development, command structures, infantry, armoured formations, artillery and support services. The book offers interesting facts and figures of every sort, from infantry tactical doctrine through the make-up of a Type 1944 infantry division to the number of operational panzers Rommel had at his disposal during the El Alamein campaign and the types of artillery employed in the Atlantic Wall fortifications before the D-Day landings. It also includes colour artworks of key equipment and weapons, reference tables, diagrams, maps and charts, presenting all the core data in easy-to-follow formats.

Download or read book Wehrmacht Infantry Divisions 1st 2nd and 4th 1935 1945 written by Gustavo Uruena A and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2013-05-06 with total page 492 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Following the invasion of Poland in September 1939 (which started the Second World War), a period of inaction called the Phony War ("Sitzkrieg" or "Dr�le de guerre") set in between the major powers. Adolf Hitler had hoped that France and Britain would acquiesce in his conquest and quickly make peace. On 6 October, he made a peace offer to both Western Powers. Even before they had time to respond, on 9 October, he also formulated a new military policy in case their reply was negative: F�hrer-Anweisung N�6, or "F�hrer-Directive Number 6".Hitler had always fostered dreams about major military campaigns to defeat the Western European nations as a preliminary step to the conquest of territory in Eastern Europe, thus avoiding a two-front war. However, these intentions were absent from F�hrer-Directive N�6. This plan was firmly based on the seemingly more realistic assumption that Germany's military strength would still have to be built up for several more years and that for the moment only limited objectives could be envisaged. They were aimed at improving Germany's ability to survive a long, protracted war in the West. Hitler ordered a conquest of the Low Countries to be executed at the shortest possible notice. This would stop France from occupying them first, and prevent Allied air power from threatening the vital German Ruhr Area. It would also provide the basis for a successful long-term air and sea campaign against Britain. There was no mention in the F�hrer-Directive of any immediate consecutive attack to conquer the whole of France, although as much as possible of the border areas in northern France should be occupied.While writing the directive, Hitler had also assumed that such an attack could be initiated within a period of at most a few weeks, but the very day he issued it he was disabused of this illusion. It transpired that he had been misinformed about the true state of Germany's forces. The motorized units had to recover, repairing the damage to their vehicles incurred in the Polish campaign, and ammunition stocks were largely depletedOn 10 October 1939, the British refused Hitler's offer of peace; on 12 October, the French did the same. Franz Halder, the chief of staff of the German Army (Generalstabschef des Heeres), presented the first plan for Fall Gelb ("Case Yellow") on 19 October, the pre-war codename of plans for campaigns in the Low Countries: the Aufmarschanweisung N�1, Fall Gelb ("Deployment Instruction No. 1, Case Yellow"). Halder's plan has often been compared to the Schlieffen Plan, which the Germans attempted to execute in 1914 during the opening phase of the First World War. It was similar in that both plans entailed an advance through the middle of Belgium, but while the intention of the Schlieffen Plan was to gain a decisive victory by executing a surprise encirclement of the French Army, Aufmarschanweisung N�1 was based on an unimaginative frontal attack, sacrificing a projected half a million German soldiers to attain the limited goal of throwing the Allies back to the River Somme. Germany's strength for 1940 would then be spent; only in 1942 could the main attack against France begin.

Download or read book Speeches and Proclamations 1932 1945 The years 1935 to 1938 written by Adolf Hitler and published by . This book was released on 1990 with total page 776 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Volume 2 of a complete compilation of Hitler's speeches and proclamations.

Download or read book Faces of the Wehrmacht 1939 1945 written by Gerry Villani and published by CreateSpace. This book was released on 2015-05-18 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The year 1935 was one of Germany's crossroads in the pre war period; not only were jobs created but the militarization of the nation was set. 1935 was also the year of the German rearmament program. A new army was born: the Wehrmacht (defence force), which was a replacement of the Reichswehr (1919-1935). The Wehrmacht were the unified armed forces of Germany: the Heer (army), the Luftwaffe (air force), and the Kriegsmarine (navy). Hitler started the expansion of the military and created a new air force (Luftwaffe) which was, of course, against the Treaty of Versailles. The League of Nations ignored this possible threat from Germany which gave Hitler carte blanche to expand and develop his new army. By creating/expanding the army and the rearmament program, the German economy was booming again. The pride of a nation was restored. By 1939, before the start of WWII, unemployment in Germany was gone. The Wehrmacht fought on all fronts: from Western Europe to Russia and from Scandinavia to North Africa. The Germans dominated upwards of 3,898,000 square kilometers of territory by 1942. It is estimated that between 1935 and 1945 more than 18 million men were part of the Wehrmacht. The Wehrmacht's name alone will resonate in eternity, mostly in a bad way, because of the stigma that the German soldier received after WWII. Lots of crimes had been committed during the war by just a few (Wehrmacht and SS) but it's because of that small percentage of people that had committed these crimes that the Wehrmacht received such a bad name... The only component of the Wehrmacht that was never convicted for war crimes or other brutalities was the Deutsches Afrikakorps under the command of Generalfeldmarschall Erwin Rommel. Even the English POWs testified that they were treated with great respect by their German opponents in Africa. With this book I want to show you the faces, or better said the person behind the uniform. I want to show you that humanity still existed, even in Nazi Germany or in the territories under its control. At last I want to portray the regular German soldier that was not involved in politics but who answered the call to fight for the fatherland. These soldier's stories will reflect the horror of the war, a horror that only the ones can understand that actually have been there. We, the generations after the war can only imagine what happened back in those days. Even when we're reading their stories, how long or short they might be, we'll never fully understand what these veterans have experienced back in those days. The Third Reich destroyed millions of people their hopes and dreams. War is a bad thing and at the end there are no winners. Millions of dead remind us! This document is intended for future generations as a historical reference of members of the Wehrmacht. It is a bundle of stories - not a collage! - of the men that once where part of the Wehrmacht in the period of 1939-1945. It is the voice of the unheard...

Download or read book The Final Archives of the F hrerbunker written by Paul Villatoux and published by Casemate. This book was released on 2020-10-28 with total page 161 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Collected documents offering a look into the minds of the Third Reich’s leaders in their final days, and at Berlin following the end of World War II. In November 1945, two French officers secretly entered the Führerbunker, the air raid shelter near the Chancellery in Berlin. The bunker was the last home of Adolf Hitler; the background of the last months of his life and the war; where he married Eva Braun on April 29, 1945; and where he killed himself less than two days later. In the middle of a heap of furniture and broken objects, the two officers found hundreds of documents littering the ground. Among the documents that they retrieved were a dozen telegrams of historic importance that allow us to understand the spirit of the last leaders of the Third Reich as well as the events that took place between April 23 and 26, 1945. These and other documents are presented for the first time in this book, shown in their proper context with an expert commentary. “But although the building may have gone, troves of historic documents survived. Now, many have been published for the first time in this new visual history, an excellent guide to the horrendous final days, hours, and minutes of the Third Reich.” —Military History Matters

Download or read book Hitler Speeches and Proclamations 1932 1945 1935 1938 written by Adolf Hitler and published by . This book was released on 1990 with total page 774 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Hitler s War Directives 1939 1945 written by Adolf Hitler and published by . This book was released on 1966 with total page 266 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 126 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 The Second World War written by Antony Beevor and published by Back Bay Books. This book was released on 2012-06-05 with total page 829 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A masterful and comprehensive chronicle of World War II, by internationally bestselling historian Antony Beevor. Over the past two decades, Antony Beevor has established himself as one of the world's premier historians of WWII. His multi-award winning books have included Stalingrad and The Fall of Berlin 1945. Now, in his newest and most ambitious book, he turns his focus to one of the bloodiest and most tragic events of the twentieth century, the Second World War. In this searing narrative that takes us from Hitler's invasion of Poland on September 1st, 1939 to V-J day on August 14, 1945 and the war's aftermath, Beevor describes the conflict and its global reach -- one that included every major power. The result is a dramatic and breathtaking single-volume history that provides a remarkably intimate account of the war that, more than any other, still commands attention and an audience. Thrillingly written and brilliantly researched, Beevor's grand and provocative account is destined to become the definitive work on this complex, tragic, and endlessly fascinating period in world history, and confirms once more that he is a military historian of the first rank.

Download or read book Blitzkrieg to Defeat Hitler s War Directives 1939 1945 written by Germany. Wehrmacht. Oberkommando and published by . This book was released on 1965 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Wehrmacht 1rst Infantry Division 1935 1945 written by Gustavo Uruena A and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2013-03-14 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: AFTER six months of war the riddle is still the same: Can the Allies defeat Nazi Germany by their blockade, or can she become self-supporting in safety behind the Siegfried Line? Strategists and statisticians are busy checking and rechecking the facts and estimating the potentialities. Nobody can prove what the final issue will be. But one can ascertain the range of probabilities. At first sight it seems as though history were repeating itself in a cycle of only twenty-five years. Again Great Britain and France are fighting Germany on the Western Front; again they are trying to throttle her by a naval blockade; again Mitteleuropa is in the German grasp. But at closer range the contours look different. In 1914 the war came as a surprise after an era of forty-four years of peace. A large accumulation of invisible reserves was ready for mobilization by both sides when the struggle began. This time, though Nazi Germany has built up and is operating a highly perfected totalitarian fortress economy, she lacks the dormant reserves normally carried over from a long era of peace. Further, Alsace-Lorraine, Belgium and northern France are not, this time, in her hands. Even the Saar coal and iron region lies almost idle, within range of the Maginot Line guns. Offsetting these disadvantages, the whole German machinery of planning, rationing and requisitioning became fully operative from the first day of war. This happened last time only after the war had been going on for two years. Our conclusion must be that although Germany is weaker today in economic assets than she was in 1914, she is relatively stronger in utilizing them. Her substance is smaller, but her effective exploitation of it is greater.

Download or read book The Wehrmacht written by Wolfram Wette and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2006-05-15 with total page 422 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 Wehrmacht written by James Steiner and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The body of the work uses contemporary sources to delve into the incomprehensible reasoning behind the loyalty of Hitler's chief lieutenants. In addition, it discusses those who attempted to dissuade Hitler from his course of action. Appendices contain a list of postwar indictments; a chronology of the Third Reich; information regarding treaties and agreements; and comparative army ranks"--Provided by publisher.

Download or read book Shattered Genius written by David J. A. Stone and published by Casemate. This book was released on 2012 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A new and authoritative study of Hitler's relationship with the German Army general staff in the period leading up to and during World War II. Examines the general staff's struggle to work effectively under Hitler, despite facing many challenges--not least the F'uhrer's own divisive policies and directives. Illuminates the fractured nature of the German army command in the latter stages of the war as the general staff was marginalized by the Nazis. Dispels many widely held myths concerning the key staff officers that served the Third Reich, while also identifying their personal and collective failures and oversights. Analyzes and evaluates the army's involvement in the German resistance movement, the repercussions of the abortive assassination attempt against Hitler in the von Stauffenberg plot of 1944, and the unsuccessful bid to initiate Operation Valkyrie."--P. [4] of jacket.

Download or read book The Waffen SS 1939 1945 written by Gustavo Uruena A and published by . This book was released on 2017-07-03 with total page 672 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Waffen-SS grew from three regiments to over 38 divisions during World War II, and served alongside the Heer (regular army) but was never formally part of it. Adolf Hitler resisted integrating the Waffen-SS into the army, as it was to remain the armed wing of the Party and to become an elite police force once the war was won. Prior to the war it was under the control of the SS F�hrungshauptamt (SS operational command office) beneath Reichsf�hrer-SS Heinrich Himmler. Upon mobilization its tactical control was given to the High Command of the Armed Forces (Oberkommando der Wehrmacht).Initially membership was only open to people of Germanic "Aryan" origin, who were said to be the Herrenvolk (master race), according to Nazi racial ideology. The rules were partially relaxed in 1940, although Jews remained banned. Hitler authorized the formation of units composed largely or solely of foreign volunteers and conscripts. By the end of the war, non-Germans made up approximately 60 percent of the Waffen-SS.At the post-war Nuremberg Trials the Waffen-SS was condemned as a criminal organization due to its essential connection to the Nazi Party and involvement in numerous war crimes. Waffen-SS veterans were denied many of the rights afforded to veterans who had served in the Heer (army), Luftwaffe (air force), or Kriegsmarine (navy). An exception was made for Waffen-SS conscripts sworn in after 1943, who were exempted because of their involuntary servitude.