Download or read book Hitler s Home Guard Volkssturmmann written by David Yelton and published by Osprey Publishing. This book was released on 2006-09-26 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Osprey's study of Germany's Home Guard during the latter part of World War II (1939-1945). The creation of the German Home Guard or Volkssturm on 18 October 1944 was a desperate measure by the Nazi regime to utilize every available manpower resource in their last-ditch attempts to delay their inevitable defeat. All able-bodied males between the ages of 16 and 60 who were not already members of the German Armed Forces were conscripted into one organization. The aim of the Volkssturm was to shore up the defense of the Reich, but also to restrict any possible revolt or dissent by exercising military discipline over the entire male population of fighting age. This Nazi fantasy was the creation of a new force of highly-motivated Aryans dedicated to the heroic defense of their fatherland. However, the Volkssturm failed due to poor equipment, lack of training, and low morale. Men who had no experience of combat and little or no inclination to fight, and who had little interest in the Nazi regime found themselves sent into battle against impossible odds and achieving little or nothing. The focus of the book is the section of Germany's western front where the Volkssturm fought in vain to slow the advance of Canadian forces and where the desertion rate was very high. David K. Yelton follows the experience of a Volkssturm conscript from his call-to-arms, into action and through to his capture and time as a POW, examining his personal reaction to the creation of the German Home Guard and his response to the fighting into which he was thrust.
Download or read book Hitler s Panzer Generals written by David Stahel and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2023-05-04 with total page 335 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comparative biography of four of Germany's leading panzer commanders on the eastern front based on their private wartime letters.
Download or read book Disobeying Hitler written by Randall Hansen and published by Canelo. This book was released on 2024-10-10 with total page 426 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'A chilling look at Nazi Germany in collapse' Globe and Mail 'Excellent' Evening Standard | 'Fascinating' Ben Macintyre Raze Paris to the ground. Burn the bridges. Destroy all industry. These were just a few of the insane orders issued by Hitler in the closing months of the Second World War, as the Allies made their unstoppable advance on Germany. Had it not been for the determination and bravery of a few Germans – officers and ordinary civilians – who disobeyed Hiter, Europe might have been a scorched ruin. Many paid with their lives. Might Rommel have opened the Western Front to the Allies on 20 July 1944 had he not been shot at a few days earlier? Did Albert Speer single-handedly prevent the destruction of bridges, factories and towns? Did a Prussian general save Paris? In this compelling book, distinguished historian Randall Hansen explores the extraordinary phenomenon of disobedience-as-resistance and its effect on both the war and its aftermath. A gripping account of German resistance to Hitler’s tyranny in the last year of World War Two, in its 80th anniversary year.
Download or read book The German Home Front 1939 45 written by Brian L Davis and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2012-05-20 with total page 66 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book outlines and illustrates the living conditions of German civilians in World War II, and the Nazi state's basic structure. German families suffered the same hardships as British labour conscription, extra civic duties, severe shortages of food and necessities, disrupted transport, homelessness and evacuation, separation from loved ones and, for many, bereavement. However, there were important differences. The dictator for whom many had voted was leading them to ruin; unequalled death and devastation ensued from Allied air raids; and every aspect of life was caged around with repressive decrees that began to replace the true rule of law well before September 1939.
Download or read book American Shooter written by Gerry Souter and published by Potomac Books, Inc.. This book was released on 2012-02-01 with total page 293 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Gun ownership has long been a hot-button topic in the United States, and the National Rifle Association has the reputation of being an organization of primarily politically conservative members. American Shooter provides a unique look at gun ownership, handgun bans, shooting sports, and the controversy over how to interpret the Second Amendment from the point of view of a liberal gun owner and enthusiast. Gerry Souter examines the history of firearms in the United States, from the settlers who carried matchlock muskets ashore at Jamestown to the citizens who purchase guns in record numbers today. Recent Supreme Court decisions that uphold the right to bear arms have galvanized citizens on both sides of the debate, making the gun issue hotter than ever. To provide a personal view, Souter weaves in tales of his own experiences with guns, including sport shooting as a young man, hunting and bonding with his father, and facing the smoking end of a muzzle as an international photojournalist. American Shooter is both a history and a personal journey that traces the path of American gun ownership culture from the Revolution to today. It recounts how the country has lived with guns from the flintlock hung over the fireplace to the concealed-carry, laser-sighted Glock semiautomatic pistol tucked away in the hidden pocket of a mom’s purse.
Download or read book Red Army into the Reich written by Simon Forty and published by Casemate. This book was released on 2021-11-30 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An illustrated history of how the Red Army pushed west and into Berlin in 1945 during World War II. The last year of the war saw Russian offensives that cleared the Germans out of their final strongholds in Finland and the Baltic states, before advancing into Finnmark in Norway and the east European states that bordered Germany: Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary. By spring 1945 the Red Army had reached to Vienna and the Balkans, and had thrust deep into Germany where they met American, French and British troops advancing from the west. The final days of the Third Reich were at hand. Berlin was first surrounded, then attacked and taken. Hitler’s suicide and his successors’ unconditional surrender ended the war. For writers and historians who concentrate on the Western Allies and the battles in France and the Low Countries, the Eastern Front comes as a shock. The sheer size of both the territories and the forces involved; the savagery of both weather and the fighting; the appalling suffering of the civilian populations of all countries and the wreckage of towns and cities—it’s no wonder that words like Armageddon are used to describe the annihilation. Red Army into the Reich combines a narrative history, contemporary photographs and maps with images of memorials, battlefield survivors and then & now views. It may come as a surprise to the western reader to see how many memorials there are to Russia’s Great Patriotic War and those to the losses suffered by the countries who spent so long under the murderous Nazi regime. Praise for Red Army into the Reich “If you have any interest in understanding the final cataclysm that overtook the Third Reich and delineated the hows and whys of the Cold War—and Eastern Europe after the collapse of the Soviet Union—Red Army into the Reich will give you a glimpse into a generally underreported past...a small slice of heaven for the East Front fan.” —ARMOR Magazine “Carries the reader into the Eastern Front with clear writing, good maps, and lavish illustration. Many of the photographs are accompanied by images of how the scene they depict appears today.” —WWII History Magazine “A better-illustrated recent volume would be hard to find, especially one that covers the breadth of Red Army combat operations in the third period of the war.” —Journal of Slavic Military Studies
Download or read book Downfall 1945 written by Steven J. Zaloga and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2016-05-19 with total page 100 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As the final month of fighting in Europe in 1945 dawned the Allies embarked upon a series of mopping up operations, destroying the last centres of German resistance as the essentially defeated Wehrmacht fought on in increasingly desperate conditions, driven on by the explicit no surrender order issued by Hitler. Yet at the same time, the Allied alliance was already on shaky ground, as German resistance was crushed the Allies began to eye each other nervously across a battletorn Europe, with the politically driven military decisions to have a huge impact on the future of the continent. This book traces the final operations of the war, from the liberation of Denmark, the Allied drive towards the Baltic straits, incursions in Yugoslavia, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and engagements in Eastern and Western Germany, whilst also analyzing how the Allied strategies in the final days of the war were a hint of the future difficulties that would drive the Cold War.
Download or read book Hitler s Last Levy written by Hans Kissel and published by Helion and Company. This book was released on 2024-05-30 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A companion volume to our very successful In a Raging Inferno - Combat Units of the Hitler Youth, Hans Kissel's study offers a highly detailed account of the German Volkssturm, or Home Guard. Formed from men unfit for military service, the young, and the old, this ad-hoc formation saw extensive combat during the desperate defense of the Reich, 1944–45. The author describes the Volkssturm’s training, leadership, organization, armament and equipment, in addition to its active service on both the Eastern and Western fronts. The text is supported by an extensive selection of appendices, including translations of documents and many fascinating eyewitness combat reports. This edition also includes over 150 previously unpublished b/w photos, and 4 pages of specially commissioned color uniform plates by Stephen Andrew.
Download or read book A Brief History of The Third Reich written by Martyn Whittock and published by Robinson. This book was released on 2011-06-23 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The abuse of power, genocide, the destruction of total war, unimaginable cruelty and the suffering of millions were all central features of Hitler's Nazi regime. Yet the Nazis were also highly successful in manipulating images and information: they mobilized and engaged vast numbers of people, caught the imagination of the young and appeared remarkably modern to many contemporary observers. Was the Third Reich a throwback to a mythical past or a brutally modern and technologically advanced state? Was Hitler a strong dictator who achieved his clear goals, or was his chaotic style of government symptomatic of a weak dictator, unable to control the complex and contradictory forces that he had unleashed? Was the Third Reich ruled by terror, or largely supported by a compliant German population? Was the genocide against the Jews a peculiarly German phenomenon, or a uniquely German expression of a terrible wider trend? Whittock explores these and other key questions, interrogating the views of different historians and drawing on a wealth of primary sources - from state-sponsored art to diaries, letters and memoirs of both perpetrators and victims - to provide an overview of the complex evidence. History should aim to put us firmly in touch with the lives of people living in the past and the issues they faced. Whittock never loses sight of the individuals whose lives were caught up in these extraordinary events, while also giving a lucid overview of the bigger picture.
Download or read book The Journal of Military History written by and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Army Uniforms of World War 2 written by Andrew Mollo and published by Blandford. This book was released on 1977 with total page 190 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book American Book Publishing Record written by and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page 834 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book World War II in Numbers written by Peter Doyle and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2013-01-01 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: World War Two was the most terrible war that Europe, and indeed the world, had ever seen. Discover the truth behind the propaganda with this brilliantly informative, infographic guide to the real statistics behind WWII.How many soldiers went to war? How many came home? How many civilians were made homeless? How many bombs were dropped, and where did they land? With over 25 nations fighting the second world war on four different continents the numbers were staggering.Covering a huge amount of content World War II in Numbers brings these staggering statistics to life with easily digestible graphics depicting the conflict, casualties, weaponry, cost and technology, clearly illustrating the war's impact on individuals, whole countries, and the global social and economic effects that would last long into peacetime.
Download or read book Gotterdammerung written by Bob Carruthers and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2013-01-16 with total page 141 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This fascinating collection of primary source accounts focuses on the combat actions of the Wehrmacht in the final battles of the war. The material is drawn from a variety of wartime sources and encompasses fascinating writings concerning the tactical, operational and strategic aspects of the battle for Berlin. Compiled and edited by Emmy Award winning author and historian Bob Carruthers, this absorbing assembly of primary source intelligence reports encompasses rare material originally drawn from both German and Russian original sources to provide the reader with a unique insight into the last battles in the east. This is the unvarnished reality of what it meant to fight in this titanic struggle to the death.??Featured in the book are reports concerning little known and neglected tactical aspects of the war including weapons, street fighting techniques and improvised anti-tank measures. Original illustrations from US wartime intelligence manuals are also featured. This compelling compilation is essential for readers with an interest in discovering more about the last days of the Wehrmacht from a range of unusual and diverse primary sources.
Download or read book In a Raging Inferno written by Hans Holzträger and published by Helion and Company. This book was released on 2024-05-30 with total page 150 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a Raging Inferno is the first English-language book ever to recount the story of the Hitler Youth and its combat role at the end of World War II. During the desperate final months of the Third Reich boys (and girls) as young as ten were thrown into action against the advancing British, American and Soviet armies, frequently fighting with a fanatical and suicidal fury. The author spent many years collecting material and interviewing veterans of the Hitler Youth combat units. The result is a fascinating - and sometimes disturbing - account, packed with eyewitness accounts and rare photographs. In addition, well-known military artist Stephen Andrew has produced 4 superb pages of color uniform plates.
Download or read book Germany Calling written by Mary Kenny and published by Little Books. This book was released on 2008 with total page 420 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a biography of William Joyce, also known as 'Lord Haw Haw'. It looks closely at his life from his teenage dalliance with fascism in the 1920s right up until his execution in 1946.
Download or read book Panzerfaust and Panzerschreck written by Gordon L. Rottman and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2014-08-20 with total page 82 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Two of World War II's most distinctive weapons, the Panzerfaust and Panzerschreck offered German and other infantrymen the ability to destroy enemy tanks singlehandedly at close ranges. While the Panzerschreck owed its origins largely to the US bazooka, the Panzerfaust was a revolutionary design that was unlike any previous weapon, and went on to influence anti-tank technology and tactics for decades after World War II. Allied troops, notably Soviet forces, made widespread use of captured Panzerfäuste, and they were also supplied to German allies such as Finland, Hungary and Bulgaria. Written by an expert on anti-tank warfare, this book reveals the fascinating development history of these two feared weapons and assesses the tactics that were employed by the soldiers using them.
