1.
Nazi Germany
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Nazi Germany is the common English name for the period in German history from 1933 to 1945, when Germany was governed by a dictatorship under the control of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Under Hitlers rule, Germany was transformed into a fascist state in which the Nazi Party took totalitarian control over all aspects of life. The official name of the state was Deutsches Reich from 1933 to 1943, the period is also known under the names the Third Reich and the National Socialist Period. The Nazi regime came to an end after the Allied Powers defeated Germany in May 1945, Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany by the President of the Weimar Republic Paul von Hindenburg on 30 January 1933. The Nazi Party then began to eliminate all opposition and consolidate its power. Hindenburg died on 2 August 1934, and Hitler became dictator of Germany by merging the powers and offices of the Chancellery, a national referendum held 19 August 1934 confirmed Hitler as sole Führer of Germany. All power was centralised in Hitlers person, and his word became above all laws, the government was not a coordinated, co-operating body, but a collection of factions struggling for power and Hitlers favour. In the midst of the Great Depression, the Nazis restored economic stability and ended mass unemployment using heavy military spending, extensive public works were undertaken, including the construction of Autobahnen. The return to economic stability boosted the regimes popularity, racism, especially antisemitism, was a central feature of the regime. The Germanic peoples were considered by the Nazis to be the purest branch of the Aryan race, millions of Jews and other peoples deemed undesirable by the state were murdered in the Holocaust. Opposition to Hitlers rule was ruthlessly suppressed, members of the liberal, socialist, and communist opposition were killed, imprisoned, or exiled. The Christian churches were also oppressed, with many leaders imprisoned, education focused on racial biology, population policy, and fitness for military service. Career and educational opportunities for women were curtailed, recreation and tourism were organised via the Strength Through Joy program, and the 1936 Summer Olympics showcased the Third Reich on the international stage. Propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels made effective use of film, mass rallies, the government controlled artistic expression, promoting specific art forms and banning or discouraging others. Beginning in the late 1930s, Nazi Germany made increasingly aggressive territorial demands and it seized Austria and Czechoslovakia in 1938 and 1939. Hitler made a pact with Joseph Stalin and invaded Poland in September 1939. In alliance with Italy and smaller Axis powers, Germany conquered most of Europe by 1940, reichskommissariats took control of conquered areas, and a German administration was established in what was left of Poland. Jews and others deemed undesirable were imprisoned, murdered in Nazi concentration camps and extermination camps, following the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, the tide gradually turned against the Nazis, who suffered major military defeats in 1943
2.
Waffen-SS
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The Waffen-SS was the armed wing of the Nazi Partys SS organisation. Its formations included men from Nazi Germany, along with volunteers, the Waffen-SS grew from three regiments to over 38 divisions during World War II, and served alongside the Heer, Ordnungspolizei and other security units. Prior to the war, it was under the control of the SS Führungshauptamt beneath Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler, initially, in keeping with the racial policy of Nazi Germany, membership was only open to people of Germanic origin. The rules were relaxed in 1940, and later the formation of units composed largely or solely of foreign volunteers. These SS units were made up of men mainly from among the nationals of Nazi-occupied Europe, despite relaxation of the rules, the Waffen-SS was still based on the racist ideology of Nazism, and ethnic Poles were barred specifically from the formations. At the post-war Nuremberg trials the Waffen-SS was judged to be a criminal organisation due to its connection to the Nazi Party, former Waffen-SS members were denied many of the rights afforded to the military veterans. An exception was made for Waffen-SS conscripts, who were exempted because they were not volunteers, about a third of the total membership were conscripts. The origins of the Waffen-SS can be traced back to the selection of a group of 120 SS men in March 1933 by Sepp Dietrich to form the Sonderkommando Berlin. By November 1933 the formation had 800 men, and at a ceremony in Munich for the tenth anniversary of the failed Munich Putsch the regiment swore allegiance to Adolf Hitler. The oaths pledged were Pledging loyalty to him alone and Obedience unto death, the formation was given the title Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler. On 13 April 1934, by order of Himmler, the regiment became known as the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler, led by one of Hitlers oldest comrades, Ernst Röhm, the SA was seen as a threat by Hitler to his newly gained political power. Hitler also wanted to conciliate leaders of the Reichswehr and conservatives of the country, when Hitler decided to act against the SA, the SS was put in charge of eliminating Röhm and the other high-ranking SA officers. The Night of the Long Knives occurred between 30 June and 2 July 1934 and saw the killing of up to 200 people and this included almost the entire SA leadership, effectively ending its power. This action was carried out by SS personnel, and the Gestapo. In September 1934, Hitler authorized the formation of the wing of the Nazi Party and approved the formation of the SS-Verfügungstruppe. The SS was given the lowest priority for recruits, at the same time Himmler established the SS-Junkerschule Bad Tölz and SS-Junkerschule Braunschweig for military training of SS officers. Both schools used regular army training methods and mainly used former army officers as instructors, Himmler initially in 1934 set stringent requirements for recruits. They were to be German nationals who could prove their Aryan ancestry back to 1800, unmarried, a four-year commitment was required for the SS-VT and LSSAH
3.
Panzer
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Panzer /ˈpænzər/ is a German word that means armour. It is also used by the Germans as an abbreviation meaning armoured fighting vehicle or tank, the full German word for armoured combat vehicle is Panzerkampfwagen. The word Panzer is occasionally used in English and some languages as a loanword in the contexts of German military. It is mostly used in the names of military formations. The dated but official German term is Panzerkampfwagen, ‘tank’ or literally ‘armoured combat vehicle’, the first German tank, the A7V of 1918, was referred to as Sturmpanzerwagen. The German word Panzer refers to any kind of armour, as in Plattenpanzer, ‘plate armour’, Kettenpanzer, ‘mail’, or generally gepanzert, the word also refers to an animals protective shell or thick hide, as in Schildkrötenpanzer, ‘turtle shell. Steel electrical conduit is called Stahlpanzerrohr, literally steel armour pipe, bulletproof glass is called Panzerglas, literally armoured glass. It derives through the French word pancier, ‘breastplate’, from Latin pantex, ‘belly, paunch’, German tanks in World War II Panzerschreck Panzerschiff
4.
Armoured warfare
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Armoured warfare, mechanised warfare or tank warfare is the use of armoured fighting vehicles in modern warfare. It is a component of modern methods of war. The premise of armoured warfare rests on the ability of troops to penetrate defensive lines through use of manoeuvre by armoured units. Under these conditions, any sort of advance was very slow. Tanks were first developed in Britain and France in 1915, as a way of navigating the barbed wire, British Mark I tanks first went to action at the Somme, on 15 September 1916, but did not manage to break the deadlock of trench warfare. The first French employment on 16 April 1917, of the Schneider CA, was also a failure, in the Battle of Cambrai British tanks were more successful, and broke a German trenchline system, the Hindenburg Line. Despite the generally unpromising beginnings, the military and political leadership in both Britain and France during 1917 backed large investments into armoured vehicle production and this led to a sharp increase in the number of available tanks for 1918. The German Empire to the contrary, produced only a few tanks, twenty German A7V tanks were produced during the entire conflict, compared to over 4,400 French and over 2,500 British tanks of various kinds. Tactically, the deployment of armour during the war was typified by an emphasis on direct infantry support. The tanks main tasks were seen as crushing barbed wire and destroying machine-gun nests, theoretical debate largely focussed on the question whether a swarm of light tanks should be used for this or a limited number of potent heavy vehicles. Though in the Battle of Cambrai a large concentration of British heavy tanks effected a breakthrough, the manoeuvrability of the tank should at least in theory regain armies the ability to flank enemy lines. Following the First World War, the technical and doctrinal aspects of armoured warfare became more sophisticated and diverged into multiple schools of doctrinal thought, during the 1920s, only very few tanks were produced. There were however, important theoretical and technical developments, various British and French commanders who had contributed to the origin of the tank, such as Jean Baptiste Eugène Estienne, B. H. Liddell Hart and J. F. C. Fuller, theorised about a future use of independent armoured forces, containing a large concentration of tanks. Especially Liddell Hart wrote many books about the subject, partly propagating Fullers theories, such doctrines were faced with the reality that during the 1920s the armoured vehicles, as early road transport in general, were extremely unreliable, and could not be used in sustained operations. Mainstream thought on the subject was more conservative and tried to integrate armoured vehicles into the infantry and cavalry organisation. To save weight, such designs had thin armour plating and this inspired fitting small-calibre high-velocity guns in turrets, J. Collins, after Fuller refused the function. The unit carried out operations on Salisbury Plain and was observed by the major nations, the United States, Germany
5.
Division (military)
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A division is a large military unit or formation, usually consisting of between 10,000 and 20,000 soldiers. Infantry divisions during the World Wars ranged between 10,000 and 30,000 in nominal strength, in most armies, a division is composed of several regiments or brigades, in turn, several divisions typically make up a corps. In the West, the first general to think of organising an army into smaller units was Maurice de Saxe, Marshal General of France. He died at the age of 54, without having implemented his idea, victor-François de Broglie put the ideas into practice. He conducted successful practical experiments of the system in the Seven Years War. The first war in which the system was used systematically was the French Revolutionary War. It made the more flexible and easy to manoeuvre. Under Napoleon, the divisions were grouped together into corps, because of their increasing size, napoleons military success spread the divisional and corps system all over Europe, by the end of the Napoleonic Wars, all armies in Europe had adopted it. In modern times, most military forces have standardized their divisional structures, the peak use of the division as the primary combat unit occurred during World War II, when the belligerents deployed over a thousand divisions. With technological advances since then, the power of each division has increased. Divisions are often formed to organize units of a particular type together with support units to allow independent operations. In more recent times, divisions have mainly been organized as combined arms units with subordinate units representing various combat arms, in this case, the division often retains the name of a more specialized division, and may still be tasked with a primary role suited to that specialization. For the most part, large cavalry units did not remain after World War II, in general, two new types of cavalry were developed, air cavalry or airmobile, relying on helicopter mobility, and armored cavalry, based on an autonomous armored formation. The former was pioneered by the 11th Air Assault Division, formed on 1 February 1963 at Fort Benning, on 29 June 1965 the division was renamed as the 1st Cavalry Division, before its departure for the Vietnam War. After the end of the Vietnam War, the 1st Cavalry Division was reorganised and re-equipped with tanks, the development of the tank during World War I prompted some nations to experiment with forming them into division-size units. Many did this the way as they did cavalry divisions, by merely replacing cavalry with AFVs. This proved unwieldy in combat, as the units had many tanks, instead, a more balanced approach was taken by adjusting the number of tank, infantry, artillery, and support units. A panzer division was a division of the Wehrmacht and the Waffen-SS of Germany during World War II
6.
Battle of France
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The Battle of France, also known as the Fall of France, was the German invasion of France and the Low Countries in 1940 during the Second World War. Italy entered the war on 10 June 1940 and attempted an invasion of France, the German plan for the invasion of France consisted of two main operations. After the withdrawal of the BEF, the German forces began Fall Rot on 5 June, the sixty remaining French divisions made a determined resistance but were unable to overcome the German air superiority and armoured mobility. German tanks outflanked the Maginot Line and pushed deep into France, German forces occupied Paris unopposed on 14 June after a chaotic period of flight of the French government that led to a collapse of the French army. German commanders met with French officials on 18 June with the goal of forcing the new French government to accept an armistice that amounted to surrender and this led to the end of the French Third Republic. France was not liberated until the summer of 1944, in 1939, Britain and France offered military support to Poland in the likely case of a German invasion. In the dawn of 1 September 1939, the German Invasion of Poland began, France and the United Kingdom declared war on 3 September, after an ultimatum for German forces to immediately withdraw their forces from Poland was met without reply. Following this, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Canada, on 7 September, in accordance with their alliance with Poland, France began the Saar Offensive with an advance from the Maginot Line 5 km into the Saar. France had mobilised 98 divisions and 2,500 tanks against a German force consisting of 43 divisions, the French advanced until they met the then thin and undermanned Siegfried Line. On 17 September, the French supreme commander, Maurice Gamelin gave the order to withdraw French troops to their starting positions, following the Saar Offensive, a period of inaction called the Phoney War set in between the belligerents. Adolf Hitler had hoped that France and Britain would acquiesce in the conquest of Poland, on 6 October, he made a peace offer to both Western powers. On 9 October, Hitler issued a new Führer-Directive Number 6, the plan was based on the seemingly more realistic assumption that German military strength would have to be built up for several years. For the moment only limited objectives could be envisaged and were aimed at improving Germanys ability to survive a long war in the west. Hitler ordered a conquest of the Low Countries to be executed at the shortest possible notice to forestall the French and it would also provide the basis for a long-term air and sea campaign against Britain. On 10 October 1939, Britain refused Hitlers offer of peace and on 12 October, colonel-General Franz Halder, presented the first plan for Fall Gelb on 19 October. This was the codename of plans for a campaign in the Low Countries. Halders plan has been compared to the Schlieffen Plan, the given to the German strategy of 1914 in the First World War. It was similar in both plans entailed an advance through the middle of Belgium
7.
Operation Barbarossa
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Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Nazi Germanys invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II, which was launched on Sunday 22 June 1941. In the two leading up to the invasion, the two countries signed political and economic pacts for strategic purposes. Nevertheless, the German High Command began planning an invasion of the Soviet Union in July 1940, over the course of the operation, about four million Axis personnel invaded the western Soviet Union along a 2, 900-kilometer front, the largest invasion force in the history of warfare. In addition to troops, the Wehrmacht employed some 600,000 motor vehicles, the offensive marked an escalation of the war, both geographically and in the formation of the Allied coalition. Despite their successes, the German offensive stalled in the Battle of Moscow and was pushed back by the Soviet winter counteroffensive. The Red Army repelled the Wehrmachts strongest blows and forced the unprepared Germans into a war of attrition, the Wehrmacht would never again mount a simultaneous offensive along the entire strategic Soviet–Axis front. The failure of the operation drove Hitler to demand further operations of limited scope inside the Soviet Union, such as Case Blue. The failure of Operation Barbarossa proved a point in the fortunes of the Third Reich. Most importantly, the operation opened up the Eastern Front, in more forces were committed than in any other theater of war in world history. The German armies captured 5,000,000 Soviet prisoners of war who were not granted protections stipulated in the Geneva Conventions, a majority of them never returned alive. The Nazis deliberately starved 3.1 million of the prisoners to death as part of a Hunger Plan that aimed to reduce the population of Eastern Europe, over a million Soviet Jews were murdered by Einsatzgruppen death squads and gassing as part of the Holocaust. On 10 February 1939, Hitler told his commanders that the next war would be purely a war of Weltanschauungen. Totally a peoples war, a racial war, on 23 November, once World War II had already started, Hitler declared that racial war has broken out and this war shall determine who shall govern Europe, and with it, the world. The racial policy of Nazi Germany viewed the Soviet Union as populated by non-Aryan Untermenschen, Hitler claimed in Mein Kampf that Germanys destiny was to turn to the East as it did six hundred years ago. Accordingly, it was stated Nazi policy to kill, deport, or enslave the majority of Russian and other Slavic populations and repopulate the land with Germanic peoples, under the Generalplan Ost. Likening the Soviets to the forces of Genghis Khan, Hitler told Croatian military leader Slavko Kvaternik that the Mongolian race threatened Europe. Following the invasion, Wehrmacht officers told their soldiers to target people who were described as Jewish Bolshevik subhumans, the Mongol hordes, the Asiatic flood, German army commanders cast the Jews as the major cause behind the partisan struggle. The main guideline policy for German troops was Where theres a partisan, theres a Jew, many German troops viewed the war in Nazi terms and regarded their Soviet enemies as sub-human
8.
Battle of Moscow
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The Battle of Moscow is the name given by Soviet historians to two periods of strategically significant fighting on a 600 km sector of the Eastern Front during World War II. It took place between October 1941 and January 1942, the Soviet defensive effort frustrated Hitlers attack on Moscow, capital of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the largest Soviet city. Moscow was one of the military and political objectives for Axis forces in their invasion of the Soviet Union. Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion plan, called for the capture of Moscow within four months, the German Army Group North moved towards Leningrad, Army Group South took control of Ukraine, and Army Group Center advanced towards Moscow. By July 1941, Army Group Center crossed the Dnieper River, in August 1941, German forces captured Smolensk, an important stronghold on the road to Moscow. At this stage, although Moscow was vulnerable, an offensive against the city would have exposed the German flanks. In part to address these risks, in part to attempt to secure Ukraines food and mineral resources, Hitler ordered the attack to turn north and south and eliminate Soviet forces at Leningrad and this delayed the German advance on Moscow. When that advance resumed on 2 October 1941, German forces had been weakened, for Hitler, the Soviet capital was secondary, and he believed the only way to bring the Soviet Union to its knees was to defeat it economically. He felt this could be accomplished by seizing the economic resources of Ukraine east of Kiev, when Walther von Brauchitsch, Commander-in-Chief of the Army, supported a direct thrust to Moscow, he was told that only ossified brains could think of such an idea. Franz Halder, head of the Army General Staff, was convinced that a drive to seize Moscow would be victorious after the German Army inflicted enough damage on the Soviet forces. This view was shared by most within the German high command, but Hitler overruled his generals in favor of pocketing the Soviet forces around Kiev in the south, followed by the seizure of Ukraine. The move was successful, resulting in the loss of 660,000 Red Army personnel by 26 September, with the end of summer, Hitler redirected his attention to Moscow and assigned Army Group Center to this task. The forces committed to Operation Typhoon included three infantry armies supported by three Panzer Groups and by the Luftwaffes Luftflotte 2, up to two million German troops were committed to the operation, along with 1,000 tanks and 14,000 guns. German aerial strength, however, had severely reduced over the summers campaign. Luftflotte 2 had only 549 serviceable machines, including 158 medium and dive-bombers and 172 fighters, the attack relied on standard blitzkrieg tactics, using Panzer groups rushing deep into Soviet formations and executing double-pincer movements, pocketing Red Army divisions and destroying them. Facing the Wehrmacht were three Soviet fronts forming a line between the cities of Vyazma and Bryansk, which barred the way to Moscow. The armies comprising these fronts had also involved in heavy fighting. Still, it was a formidable concentration consisting of 1,250,000 men,1,000 tanks and 7,600 guns, the Soviet Air Force had suffered appalling losses of some 7,500 or 21,200 aircraft
9.
Battle of Kursk
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The Battle of Kursk was a Second World War engagement between German and Soviet forces on the Eastern Front near Kursk in the Soviet Union during July and August 1943. The German offensive was code-named Operation Citadel and led to one of the largest armoured clashes in history, the German offensive was countered by two Soviet counter-offensives, Operation Polkovodets Rumyantsev and Operation Kutuzov. For the Germans, the battle was the strategic offensive that they were able to launch on the Eastern Front. Their extensive loss of men and tanks ensured that the victorious Soviet Red Army enjoyed the strategic initiative for the remainder of the war. The Germans hoped to weaken the Soviet offensive potential for the summer of 1943 by cutting off a number of forces that they anticipated would be in the Kursk salient. The Kursk salient or bulge was 250 kilometres long north to south and 160 kilometres from east to west. The plan envisioned an envelopment by a pair of breaking through the northern and southern flanks of the salient. Adolf Hitler believed that a victory here would reassert German strength and improve his prestige with his allies and it was also hoped that large numbers of Soviet prisoners would be captured to be used as slave labour in the German armaments industry. The Soviet government had foreknowledge of the German intentions, provided in part by the British intelligence service, aware months in advance that the attack would fall on the neck of the Kursk salient, the Soviets built a defence in depth designed to wear down the German armoured spearhead. The Germans delayed the offensive while they tried to build up their forces and waited for new weapons, mainly the new Panther tank and this gave the Red Army time to construct a series of deep defensive belts. The defensive preparations included minefields, fortifications, artillery fire zones and anti-tank strong points, Soviet mobile formations were moved out of the salient and a large reserve force was formed for strategic counter-offensives. The Battle of Kursk was the first time in the Second World War that a German strategic offensive was halted before it could break through enemy defences, the maximum depth of the German advance was 8–12 kilometres in the north and 35 kilometres in the south. Though the Red Army had succeeded in winter offensives previously, their counter-offensives following the German attack at Kursk were their first successful strategic summer offensives of the war. As the Battle of Stalingrad slowly ground to its conclusion the Red Army moved to an offensive in the south. Army Group Center came under significant pressure as well, Kursk fell to the Soviets on 8 February 1943, and Rostov on 14 February. The Soviet Bryansk, Western, and newly created Central Fronts prepared for an offensive which envisioned the encirclement of Army Group Center between Bryansk and Smolensk, by February 1943 the southern sector of the German front was in strategic crisis. Since December 1942 Field Marshal Erich von Manstein had been strongly requesting unrestricted operational freedom to him to use his forces in a fluid manner. On 6 February 1943, Manstein met with Hitler at the headquarters in Rasternburg to discuss the proposals he had previously sent and he received an approval from Hitler for a counteroffensive against the Soviet forces advancing in the Donbass region
10.
Operation Overlord
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Operation Overlord was the code name for the Battle of Normandy, the Allied operation that launched the successful invasion of German-occupied Western Europe during World War II. The operation was launched on 6 June 1944 with the Normandy landings, a 1, 200-plane airborne assault preceded an amphibious assault involving more than 5,000 vessels. Nearly 160,000 troops crossed the English Channel on 6 June, the decision to undertake a cross-channel invasion in 1944 was taken at the Trident Conference in Washington in May 1943. The coast of Normandy was chosen as the site of the invasion, with the Americans assigned to land at sectors codenamed Utah and Omaha, the British at Sword and Gold, and the Canadians at Juno. In the months leading up to the invasion, the Allies conducted a military deception, Operation Bodyguard. This misled the Germans as to the date and location of the main Allied landings, Adolf Hitler placed German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel in charge of developing fortifications all along the Atlantic Wall in anticipation of an invasion. A failed counterattack by German forces on 8 August left 50,000 soldiers of the 7th Army trapped in the Falaise pocket, the Allies launched an invasion of southern France on 15 August, and the Liberation of Paris followed on 25 August. German forces retreated across the Seine on 30 August 1944, marking the close of Operation Overlord, in June 1940, Germanys leader Adolf Hitler had triumphed in what he called the most famous victory in history—the fall of France. The defending British Expeditionary Force, trapped along the northern coast of France, was able to evacuate over 338,000 troops to England in the Dunkirk evacuation. After the Germans invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin began pressing for the creation of a front in Western Europe. Two tentative plans code-named Operation Roundup and Operation Sledgehammer were put forward for 1942–43, instead, the Allies launched the invasion of French North Africa in November 1942, the invasion of Sicily in July 1943, and invaded Italy in September. These operations provided the troops with valuable experience in amphibious warfare, the decision to undertake a cross-channel invasion within the next year was taken at the Trident Conference in Washington in May 1943. Churchill favoured making the main Allied thrust into Germany from the Mediterranean theatre, but was over-ruled by his American allies, British Lieutenant-General Frederick E. Morgan was appointed Chief of Staff, Supreme Allied Commander, to begin detailed planning. The initial plans were constrained by the number of landing craft, most of which were already committed in the Mediterranean. In part because of lessons learned in the Dieppe Raid of 19 August 1942, the failure at Dieppe also highlighted the need for adequate artillery and air support, particularly close air support, and specialised ships able to travel extremely close to shore. Morgan considered four sites for the landings, Brittany, the Cotentin Peninsula, Normandy, as Brittany and Cotentin are peninsulas, it would have been possible for the Germans to cut off the Allied advance at a relatively narrow isthmus, so these sites were rejected. The Pas de Calais is the closest point in continental Europe to Britain and was the location of sites for V-1 and V-2 rockets. The Germans considered it to be the most likely initial landing zone, Normandy was hence chosen as the landing site
11.
Battle of the Bulge
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The Battle of the Bulge was the last major German offensive campaign of World War II. It was launched through the densely forested Ardennes region of Wallonia in Belgium, France, the surprise attack caught the Allied forces completely off guard. American forces bore the brunt of the attack and incurred their highest casualties of any operation during the war, the battle also severely depleted Germanys armoured forces on the Western Front, and they were largely unable to replace them. German personnel and later, Luftwaffe aircraft, also sustained heavy losses, the Germans officially referred to the offensive as Unternehmen Wacht am Rhein, while the Allies designated it the Ardennes Counteroffensive. The phrase Battle of the Bulge was coined by contemporary press to describe the bulge in German front lines on wartime news maps, once that was accomplished, the German dictator Adolf Hitler believed he could fully concentrate on the Soviets on the Eastern Front. The offensive was planned by the German forces with utmost secrecy, with minimal radio traffic and movements of troops, intercepted German communications indicating a substantial German offensive preparation were not acted upon by the Allies. The Germans achieved total surprise on the morning of 16 December 1944, due to a combination of Allied overconfidence, preoccupation with Allied offensive plans, and poor aerial reconnaissance. The Germans attacked a weakly defended section of the Allied line, columns of armor and infantry that were supposed to advance along parallel routes found themselves on the same roads. This, and terrain that favored the defenders, threw the German advance behind schedule, improved weather conditions permitted air attacks on German forces and supply lines, which sealed the failure of the offensive. In the wake of the defeat, many experienced German units were left severely depleted of men and equipment, the Germans initial attack involved 406,000 men,1,214 tanks, tank destroyers, and assault guns, and 4,224 artillery pieces. These were reinforced a couple of later, bringing the offensives total strength to around 450,000 troops. Between 67,200 and 125,000 of their men were killed, missing, for the Americans, out of 610,000 troops involved in the battle,89,000 were casualties. While some sources report that up to 19,000 were killed, British historian Antony Beevor reports the number killed as 8,407. It was the largest and bloodiest battle fought by the United States in World War II, after the breakout from Normandy at the end of July 1944 and the Allied landings in southern France on 15 August 1944, the Allies advanced toward Germany more quickly than anticipated. The Allies were faced with several military logistics issues, - troops were fatigued by weeks of continuous combat supply lines were stretched extremely thin supplies were dangerously depleted. General Dwight D. Eisenhower and his staff chose to hold the Ardennes region which was occupied by the U. S, the Allies chose to defend the Ardennes with as few troops as possible due to the favorable terrain and limited Allied operational objectives in the area. They also had intelligence that the Wehrmacht was using the area across the German border as an area for its troops. The speed of the Allied advance coupled with a lack of deep-water ports presented the Allies with enormous supply problems
12.
Paul Hausser
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Hausser served as an officer in the Prussian Army during World War I and attained the rank of general in the inter-war Reichsheer. After retirement, he joined the SS of Nazi Germany and was instrumental in forming the Waffen-SS, during World War II, he rose to the level of army group commander. He led Waffen-SS troops in the Third Battle of Kharkov, the Battle of Kursk and it campaigned for the restoration of legal and economic rights of the Waffen-SS employing a multi-prong propaganda campaign to achieve its aims. Under Haussers leadership, HIAG reshaped the image of the Waffen-SS as a so-called pan-European force that fought honorably and had no part in war crimes or Nazi atrocities and these ideas have since been discredited by historians. Hausser was born on 7 October 1880 in Brandenburg an der Havel into a Prussian military family, in 1899, he graduated from a cadet academy and was commissioned as a lieutenant in the 155th Infantry Regiment. Hausser graduated from the Prussian Military Academy in Berlin in 1911, Hausser married Elisabeth Gerard in 1912, the couple had one daughter who was born in December 1913. During World War I he served in the German General Staff and in roles on the Eastern Front. He was promoted to major in 1918 and was retained in the postwar Reichswehr, Hausser joined the right-wing World War I veterans organization Stahlhelm, becoming the head of its Brandenburg-Berlin chapter in 1933. Soon after, the Stahlhelm was incorporated into the Sturmabteilung, and, with the SAs demise, in November 1934 Hausser was transferred to the SS-Verfügungstruppe and assigned to the SS officer training school. He became the Inspector of the SS-VT in 1936, in this role, Hausser was in charge of the troops military and ideological training, but did not have command authority. The decision on deployment of the troops remained in Himmlers hands and this aligned with Hitlers intentions to maintain these troops exclusively at his disposal, neither of the army, nor of the police, according to Hitlers order of 17 August 1938. Hausser served during the 1939 invasion of Poland as an observer with the mixed Wehrmacht/SS Panzer Division Kempf, in October 1939 the SS-VT was formed as a motorized infantry division known as the SS-Verfügungs-Division with Hausser in command. He led the division, later renamed 2nd SS Division Das Reich, through the French campaign of 1940 and in the early stages of Operation Barbarossa. For his service in the Soviet Union, Hausser was awarded the Knights Cross of the Iron Cross in 1941, after recovering, he commanded the newly formed SS-Panzer Corps and against Hitlers explicit orders withdrew his troops from Kharkov to avoid encirclement. He led the 1st, 2nd and 3rd SS divisions during the Battle of Kursk, after Kursk, his Corps was reformed and sent to Italy, then to France where he commanded them in the early stages of the Normandy Campaign. After the death of Friedrich Dollmann, commander of the Seventh Army, during the Falaise encirclement in 1944, Hausser was seriously wounded. Hausser was promoted to SS-Oberst-Gruppenführer in August 1944 and subsequently commanded Army Group Oberrhein, on the day he was relieved, Joseph Goebbels wrote, He has definitely not stood the test. He ended the war on Generalfeldmarschall Albert Kesselrings staff, at the Nuremberg Trials he claimed that the Waffen-SS only had a military role and denied that it was involved in war crimes and atrocities
13.
German language
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German is a West Germanic language that is mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, South Tyrol, the German-speaking Community of Belgium and it is also one of the three official languages of Luxembourg. Major languages which are most similar to German include other members of the West Germanic language branch, such as Afrikaans, Dutch, English, Luxembourgish and it is the second most widely spoken Germanic language, after English. One of the languages of the world, German is the first language of about 95 million people worldwide. The German speaking countries are ranked fifth in terms of publication of new books. German derives most of its vocabulary from the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, a portion of German words are derived from Latin and Greek, and fewer are borrowed from French and English. With slightly different standardized variants, German is a pluricentric language, like English, German is also notable for its broad spectrum of dialects, with many unique varieties existing in Europe and also other parts of the world. The history of the German language begins with the High German consonant shift during the migration period, when Martin Luther translated the Bible, he based his translation primarily on the standard bureaucratic language used in Saxony, also known as Meißner Deutsch. Copies of Luthers Bible featured a long list of glosses for each region that translated words which were unknown in the region into the regional dialect. Roman Catholics initially rejected Luthers translation, and tried to create their own Catholic standard of the German language – the difference in relation to Protestant German was minimal. It was not until the middle of the 18th century that a widely accepted standard was created, until about 1800, standard German was mainly a written language, in urban northern Germany, the local Low German dialects were spoken. Standard German, which was different, was often learned as a foreign language with uncertain pronunciation. Northern German pronunciation was considered the standard in prescriptive pronunciation guides though, however, German was the language of commerce and government in the Habsburg Empire, which encompassed a large area of Central and Eastern Europe. Until the mid-19th century, it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of the Empire and its use indicated that the speaker was a merchant or someone from an urban area, regardless of nationality. Some cities, such as Prague and Budapest, were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain, others, such as Pozsony, were originally settled during the Habsburg period, and were primarily German at that time. Prague, Budapest and Bratislava as well as cities like Zagreb, the most comprehensive guide to the vocabulary of the German language is found within the Deutsches Wörterbuch. This dictionary was created by the Brothers Grimm and is composed of 16 parts which were issued between 1852 and 1860, in 1872, grammatical and orthographic rules first appeared in the Duden Handbook. In 1901, the 2nd Orthographical Conference ended with a standardization of the German language in its written form
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World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
15.
Eastern Front (World War II)
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The battles on the Eastern Front constituted the largest military confrontation in history. They were characterized by unprecedented ferocity, wholesale destruction, mass deportations, and immense loss of life due to combat, starvation, exposure, disease, and massacres. The Eastern Front, as the site of nearly all extermination camps, death marches, ghettos, of the estimated 70 million deaths attributed to World War II, over 30 million, many of them civilian, occurred on the Eastern Front. The Eastern Front was decisive in determining the outcome of the European portion of World War II and it resulted in the destruction of the Third Reich, the partition of Germany for nearly half a century and the rise of the Soviet Union as a military and industrial superpower. The two principal belligerent powers were Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, along with their respective allies. Though never engaged in action in the Eastern Front, the United Kingdom. The joint German–Finnish operations across the northernmost Finnish–Soviet border and in the Murmansk region are considered part of the Eastern Front, in addition, the Soviet–Finnish Continuation War may also be considered the northern flank of the Eastern Front. Despite their ideological antipathy, both Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union shared a dislike for the outcome of World War I. The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact signed in August 1939 was an agreement between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. It contained a secret protocol aiming to return Central Europe to the pre–World War I status quo by dividing it between Germany and the Soviet Union, Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania would return to Soviet control, while Poland and Romania would be divided. I need the Ukraine so that they cant starve us out, the two powers invaded and partitioned Poland in 1939. The annexations were never recognized by most Western states, the annexed Romanian territory was divided between the Ukrainian and Moldavian Soviet republics. Adolf Hitler had argued in his autobiography Mein Kampf for the necessity of Lebensraum, acquiring new territory for Germans in Eastern Europe, Wehrmacht officers told their troops to target people who were described as Jewish Bolshevik subhumans, the Mongol hordes, the Asiatic flood and the red beast. The vast majority of German soldiers viewed the war in Nazi terms, Hitler referred to the war in unique terms, calling it a war of annihilation which was both an ideological and racial war. In addition, the Nazis also sought to wipe out the large Jewish population of Central, after Germanys initial success at the Battle of Kiev in 1941, Hitler saw the Soviet Union as militarily weak and ripe for immediate conquest. On 3 October 1941, he announced, We have only to kick in the door, thus, Germany expected another short Blitzkrieg and made no serious preparations for prolonged warfare. Throughout the 1930s the Soviet Union underwent massive industrialization and economic growth under the leadership of Joseph Stalin, Stalins central tenet, Socialism in one country, manifested itself as a series of nationwide centralized Five-Year Plans from 1929 onwards. It served as a testing ground for both the Wehrmacht and the Red Army to experiment with equipment and tactics that they would later employ on a wider scale in the Second World War
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Battle of Prokhorovka
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The Battle of Prokhorovka was fought on 12 July 1943 near Prokhorovka,87 kilometres southeast of Kursk, in the Soviet Union, during the Second World War. The German offensive was delayed several times to bring up additional units, the Soviet high command, Stavka, had learned of the German intentions, and therefore used the delay to prepare a series of defensive belts along the routes of the planned German offensive. The Soviet leadership also massed several armies deep behind their defences as the Stavka Reserve and this army group, the Steppe Front, was to launch counteroffensives once the German strength had dissipated. The 5th Guards Tank Army was the armoured formation of the Steppe Front. On 5 July 1943 the Wehrmacht launched its offensive, on the northern side of the salient, the German forces bogged down within four days. On the southern side, the German 4th Panzer Army, with Army Detachment Kempf on its eastern flank and they made slow but steady progress through the Soviet defensive lines. After a week of fighting, the Soviets launched their counteroffensives, Operation Kutuzov in the northern side and a coinciding one in the southern side. On the southern side of the salient near Prokhorovka, the 5th Guards Tank Army engaged the II SS-Panzer Corps of the 4th Panzer Army, resulting in a large clash of armour. The German high command, unable to accomplish its objective, cancelled Operation Citadel, the Red Army went on a general offensive, conducting Operation Rumyantsev in the southern side and continuing Operation Kutuzov in the northern side. The Soviet Union thus seized the initiative on the Eastern Front. As the spring season came to an end in 1943. This would allow the German side to weaken themselves in attacking prepared positions, but for political reasons Adolf Hitler insisted that the German forces go on the offensive, choosing the Kursk salient for the attack. On 15 April 1943 he authorised preparations for Unternehmen Zitadelle, the German offensive plan envisioned an assault at the base of the Kursk salient from both the north and south, with the intent of enveloping and destroying the Soviet forces in the salient. The two spearheads were to meet near Kursk, the III Panzer Corps of Army Detachment Kempf was to protect Hoths right flank from counterattack by the Soviet strategic reserves known to be located east of the salient. The 4th Panzer Army and Army Detachment Kempf were under Army Group South, multiple delays by the German high command allowed the Red Army a great deal of time to prepare their defences. Employing defence in depth, they constructed a series of lines to wear down the attacking panzer formations. The Voronezh Front, commanded by General Nikolai Vatutin, defended the southern face of the salient, the Steppe Front, commanded by Colonel General Ivan Konev, formed the strategic reserve. It was to be held back east of the salient until the time was right for the Soviet counteroffensive and this formation included Lieutenant General Alexei Zhadovs 5th Guards Army and Lieutenant General Pavel Rotmistrovs 5th Guards Tank Army
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5th Guards Tank Army (Soviet Union)
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The 5th Guards Tank Army was a Soviet Guards armored formation which fought in many notable actions during World War II. The army was formed in February 1943, until the aftermath of the Vilnius Offensive in July 1944, it was commanded by Pavel Rotmistrov. Its organisation varied throughout its history, but in general included two or more Guards Tank Corps and one or more Guards Mechanized Corps and it was considered an elite formation. Under Red Army doctrine of deep operations, Tank Armies were primarily to be used for exploitation of major offensives. Tank armies were expected to penetrate up to several hundred kilometers into the enemy rear, after the war, the 5th Guards Tank Army moved to the Belorussian Military District. It was downsized to division size in late 1946 and became an army in 1948. The designation 5th Guards Tank Army was restored in 1957, the army was taken over by the Belarus Ground Forces in June 1992 and became an army corps two months later. The 5th Guards Army Corps was disbanded in 2001 and its headquarters became the headquarters of the Belarus Ground Forces. The 5th Guards Tank Army was formed on 25 February 1943 based on a Stavka order of 10 February 1943 and it was part of the Reserve of the Supreme High Command. The army included the 3rd Guards and 29th Tank Corps, the 5th Guards Mechanized Corps, in 1943, it played a significant role in the Battle of Kursk, being one of the formations tasked with the counter-attack at Prokhorovka. Early in 1944, it took part in the reduction of the Korsun-Cherkassy Pocket, in June 1944, the 5th Guards Tank Army was used as the main exploitation force during the Soviet summer offensive, Operation Bagration. It was then employed in the phase of Operation Bagration. High casualties in this campaign, however, led to the units commander Lieutenant-General Pavel Rotmistrov being relieved of command and replaced with Vasily Volsky. Late in 1944, the 5th Guards Tank Army was committed against 3rd Panzer Army as part of the Baltic Offensive and this left the 5th Guards Tank Army with a single tank corps, the 29th, under its control. This reduction in strength coincided with the hospitalization of the 5th GTAs commanding general, Vasily Volsky, Volsky did not return to the army and Major General Maxim Sinenko took command from 16 March 1945 to the end of the war. After the war, Rotmistrov wrote a memoir and history of the unit, in July 1945, the army was relocated to Slutsk. In February 1946, it moved to Bobruisk and it was stationed in the Belarussian Military District until 1992. Throughout the postwar period it had an almost constant composition of three tank divisions – the 8th Guards and 29th Tank Division (Slutsk, and the 193rd Tank Division, the headquarters was located in Bobruisk
18.
Oradour-sur-Glane massacre
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A new village was built nearby after the war, but French president Charles de Gaulle ordered the original maintained as a permanent memorial and museum. In February 1944, the 2nd SS Panzer Division was stationed in the Southern French town of Valence-dAgen, north of Toulouse, waiting to be resupplied with new equipment, following the D-Day invasion of Normandy in June, the division was ordered north to help stop the Allied advance. One of its units was the 4th SS Panzer Grenadier Regiment, command passed to Weidinger on 14 June. Early on the morning of 10 June 1944, Diekmann informed Weidinger that he had been approached by two members of the Milice, a force of the Vichy Regime. They claimed that a Waffen-SS officer was being held prisoner by the Resistance in Oradour-sur-Vayres, the captured officer was claimed to be SS-Sturmbannführer Helmut Kämpfe, commander of the 2nd SS Panzer Reconnaissance Battalion. He may have been captured by the Maquis du Limousin the day before, Stadler ordered Diekmann to have the mayor choose thirty people to be hostages in exchange for Kämpfe. The SS also arrested six people who did not live in the village, the women and children were locked in the church and the village was looted. The men were led to six barns and sheds, where guns were already in place. According to an account, the SS men then began shooting, aiming for their legs. When victims were unable to move, the Nazis covered them with fuel, only six men managed to escape. One of them was seen walking down a road and was shot dead. The SS men next proceeded to the church and placed an incendiary device beside it, when it was ignited, women and children tried to escape through the doors and windows, only to be met with machine-gun fire. 247 women and 205 children died in the brutal attack, the only survivor was 47-year-old Marguerite Rouffanche. She escaped through a rear sacristy window, followed by a young woman, all three were shot, two of them fatally. Rouffanche crawled to some pea bushes and remained hidden overnight until she was found, about twenty villagers had fled Oradour-sur-Glane as soon as the SS unit had appeared. That night, the village was partially razed, several days later, the survivors were allowed to bury the 642 dead inhabitants of Oradour-sur-Glane who had been killed in just a few hours. Adolf Diekmann said the atrocity was in retaliation for the activity in nearby Tulle. Raymond J. Murphy, a 20-year-old American B-17 navigator shot down over Avord, France in late April 1944, witnessed the aftermath of the massacre
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Tulle massacre
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After a successful offensive by the French Resistance group Francs-tireur on 7 and 8 June 1944, the arrival of Das Reich troops forced the Maquis to flee the city of Tulle in south-central France. On 9 June 1944, after arresting all men between the ages of sixteen and sixty, the SS and members of the Sicherheitsdienst ordered 120 of the prisoners to be hanged, of whom 99 were actually hanged. In the days followed,149 men were sent to the Dachau concentration camp. In total, the actions of the Wehrmacht, the Waffen-SS, a day later, the same Panzer Division was involved in the massacre at Oradour-sur-Glane. They were to respond to the landing of 18,000 Allied soldiers supported by light armored vehicles. Historically, there have been several theories for the reason behind the 2nd Panzer Divisions role in the massacres and it was the personal wish of Hitler that the division confront the Maquis in the face of their escalation. The order to engage the partisans was known as the Sperrle Ordinance, the orders also called for the area to be secured along with all inhabitants, and that any house used by the resistance or its supporters, regardless of its owner, were to be burned. The orders of the commander of the division mentioned certain precise tactics, on 5 June 1944, General Lammerding approved the use of repressive measures implemented in Eastern Europe in the suppression of the Maquis. His program included such as use of counter-propaganda and discrimination. It approved mass arrests, occupation of important localities, and the commandeering of vehicles, notably, it also read that For every German wounded or killed, we will kill ten terrorists. The orders overarching goal was to separate the fighters from the rest of French citizens. During these operations, sixty partisans were killed and twenty were deported to labor camps, an estimated one hundred civilians were killed in a variety of circumstances, while hundreds of houses were burned. On 1944, a detachment of 12 members of the German Security Services under August Meier, directed by the Hauptsturmführer Friedrich Korten, these men, along with elements of the North African Legion under the command of Henri Lafont, mounted a crackdown on the Maquis Resistance. In collaboration with a Division cobbled together under the command of Major General Walter Brehmer, the Brehmer division left Corrèze in May, after having equally devastated Dordogne and Haute-Vienne. The crackdown partially explains the operations in Tulle by the Resistance who hoped to end the suffering of the population, when contacted, officials of the French Armée secrète Resistance indicated they were totally opposed to operations against an urban center. According to J. Facing them, the resistance had 1350 fighters, the offensive began on 7 June 1944 at 5 oclock in the morning with a bazooka shot on the security forces barracks at Champ de Mars serving as the signal to begin the attack. By 6 oclock, the used to house the German garrison were identified, the post office and the town hall. Only Abel Leblanc survived the shootout, Kartheuser, it was deliberate murder, the Germans being aware of the presence of the watchmen and knowing their attire
20.
Adolf Hitler
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Adolf Hitler was a German politician who was the leader of the Nazi Party, Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and Führer of Nazi Germany from 1934 to 1945. As dictator of the German Reich, he initiated World War II in Europe with the invasion of Poland in September 1939 and was central to the Holocaust, Hitler was born in Austria, then part of Austria-Hungary, and raised near Linz. He moved to Germany in 1913 and was decorated during his service in the German Army in World War I and he joined the German Workers Party, the precursor of the NSDAP, in 1919 and became leader of the NSDAP in 1921. In 1923 he attempted a coup in Munich to seize power, the failed coup resulted in Hitlers imprisonment, during which he dictated the first volume of his autobiography and political manifesto Mein Kampf. Hitler frequently denounced international capitalism and communism as being part of a Jewish conspiracy, by 1933, the Nazi Party was the largest elected party in the German Reichstag, which led to Hitlers appointment as Chancellor on 30 January 1933. Hitler aimed to eliminate Jews from Germany and establish a New Order to counter what he saw as the injustice of the post-World War I international order dominated by Britain, Hitler sought Lebensraum for the German people in Eastern Europe. His aggressive foreign policy is considered to be the cause of the outbreak of World War II in Europe. He directed large-scale rearmament and on 1 September 1939 invaded Poland, resulting in British, in June 1941, Hitler ordered an invasion of the Soviet Union. By the end of 1941 German forces and the European Axis powers occupied most of Europe, failure to defeat the Soviets and the entry of the United States into the war forced Germany onto the defensive and it suffered a series of escalating defeats. In the final days of the war, during the Battle of Berlin in 1945, Hitler married his long-time lover, on 30 April 1945, less than two days later, the two killed themselves to avoid capture by the Red Army, and their corpses were burned. Hitler and the Nazi regime were also responsible for the killing of an estimated 19.3 million civilians, in addition,29 million soldiers and civilians died as a result of military action in the European Theatre of World War II. The number of civilians killed during the Second World War was unprecedented in warfare, Hitlers father Alois Hitler Sr. was the illegitimate child of Maria Anna Schicklgruber. The baptismal register did not show the name of his father, in 1842, Johann Georg Hiedler married Aloiss mother Maria Anna. Alois was brought up in the family of Hiedlers brother, Johann Nepomuk Hiedler, in 1876, Alois was legitimated and the baptismal register changed by a priest to register Johann Georg Hiedler as Aloiss father. Alois then assumed the surname Hitler, also spelled Hiedler, Hüttler, the Hitler surname is probably based on one who lives in a hut. Nazi official Hans Frank suggested that Aloiss mother had been employed as a housekeeper by a Jewish family in Graz, and that the familys 19-year-old son Leopold Frankenberger had fathered Alois. No Frankenberger was registered in Graz during that period, and no record has been produced of Leopold Frankenbergers existence, Adolf Hitler was born on 20 April 1889 in Braunau am Inn, a town in Austria-Hungary, close to the border with the German Empire. He was one of six born to Alois Hitler and Klara Pölzl
21.
Oberkommando des Heeres
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The Oberkommando des Heeres was the Supreme High Command of the German Army. It was founded in 1935 as a part of Adolf Hitlers re-militarisation of the Third Reich and its commander held the title Oberbefehlshaber des Heeres, Supreme High Commander of the Army. During the war OKH had the responsibility of planning of Armies and Army Groups. Each German Army also had an Armeeoberkommando, Army Command, or AOK, until the German defeat at Moscow in December 1941, OKH and its staff was de facto the most important unit within the German war planning. OKW then took over this function for other than the Russian front. Hitler had been the head of OKW since January 1938, using it to pass orders to the navy, air force, and army. After a major crisis developed in the Battle of Moscow, Walther von Brauchitsch was dismissed, at the same time, he limited the OKHs authority to the Russian front, giving OKW direct authority over army units elsewhere. Meanwhile, the OKH was subordinated to the OKW of the Wehrmacht, personnel at the sprawling Zossen compound remarked that even if Maybach 2 was completely destroyed, the OKH staff in Maybach 1 would scarcely notice. The camouflaged facilities were separated physically by a fence also maintained structurally different mindsets towards their objectives, on 28 April 1945, Hitler formally subordinated OKH to OKW, giving the latter command of forces on the Eastern Front. Geoffrey Megargee, author of Inside Hitlers High Command, available at the official YouTube channel of the U. S. Army Heritage and Education Center
22.
Invasion of Poland
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The campaign ended on 6 October with Germany and the Soviet Union dividing and annexing the whole of Poland under the terms of the German-Soviet Frontier Treaty. German forces invaded Poland from the north, south, and west the morning after the Gleiwitz incident, as the Wehrmacht advanced, Polish forces withdrew from their forward bases of operation close to the Polish–German border to more established lines of defence to the east. After the mid-September Polish defeat in the Battle of the Bzura, Polish forces then withdrew to the southeast where they prepared for a long defence of the Romanian Bridgehead and awaited expected support and relief from France and the United Kingdom. While those two countries had pacts with Poland and had declared war on Germany on 3 September, in the end their aid to Poland was very limited. The Soviet Red Armys invasion of Eastern Poland on 17 September, in accordance with a protocol of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. Facing a second front, the Polish government concluded the defence of the Romanian Bridgehead was no longer feasible, on 6 October, following the Polish defeat at the Battle of Kock, German and Soviet forces gained full control over Poland. The success of the invasion marked the end of the Second Polish Republic, the Soviet Union incorporated its newly acquired areas into its constituent Belarusian and Ukrainian republics, and immediately started a campaign of sovietization. In the aftermath of the invasion, a collective of underground resistance formed the Polish Underground State within the territory of the former Polish state. Many of the exiles that managed to escape Poland subsequently joined the Polish Armed Forces in the West. On 30 January 1933, the Nazi Party, under its leader Adolf Hitler, as part of this long-term policy, Hitler at first pursued a policy of rapprochement with Poland, trying to improve opinion in Germany, culminating in the German–Polish Non-Aggression Pact of 1934. Earlier, Hitlers foreign policy worked to weaken ties between Poland and France, and attempted to manoeuvre Poland into the Anti-Comintern Pact, forming a front against the Soviet Union. The Poles feared that their independence would eventually be threatened altogether, the so-called Polish Corridor constituted land long disputed by Poland and Germany, and inhabited by a Polish majority. The Corridor had become a part of Poland after the Treaty of Versailles, many Germans also wanted the city of Danzig and its environs to be reincorporated into Germany. Danzig was a city with a German majority. It had been separated from Germany after Versailles and made into the nominally independent Free City of Danzig, the series of border violations, which are unbearable to a great power, prove that the Poles no longer are willing to respect the German frontier. Poland participated with Germany in the partition of Czechoslovakia that followed the Munich Agreement and it coerced Czechoslovakia to surrender the region of Český Těšín by issuing an ultimatum to that effect on 30 September 1938, which was accepted by Czechoslovakia on 1 October. This region had a Polish majority and had been disputed between Czechoslovakia and Poland in the aftermath of World War I, the Polish annexation of Slovak territory later served as the justification for the Slovak state to join the German invasion. Poland rejected this proposal, fearing that after accepting these demands, it would become subject to the will of Germany
23.
Manstein Plan
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The Manstein Plan is one of the names used to describe the war plan of the German Army during the Battle of France in 1940. The original invasion plan was a compromise devised by Franz Halder, some documents containing details of the plan fell into Belgian hands during the Mechelen incident of 10 January 1940 and the plan was revised several times. The versions of the plan increased the emphasis of an attack by Army Group A through the Ardennes, the Manstein Plan was a counterpart to the French Dyle Plan for the Battle of France. Lieutenant General Erich von Manstein dissented from the 1939 versions of Fall Gelb, a plan for an invasion of France, Manstein first thought to follow annihilation theory, envisaging a swing from Sedan to the north, rapidly to annihilate the Allied armies in a cauldron battle. His views were rejected by Halder and Walther von Brauchitsch, reformulating them in a more radical sense did not help and in late January, Halder removed Manstein by having him promoted commander of XXXVIII Army Corps in east Germany. On 1 September 1938, Halder had replaced Beck instead of Manstein, having found Halders plans unsatisfactory from the very beginning, Hitler ordered a change of strategy on 13 February in accordance with Mansteins thinking, having heard an outline. The general was invited to the Reich Chancellery in Berlin to explain his plans to Hitler on 17 February, during a lunch in the presence of Alfred Jodl. Though Hitler felt an immediate antipathy against Manstein for being too arrogant and aloof, certainly an exceptionally clever fellow, with great operational gifts, but I dont trust him Hitler remarked after Manstein had left. Manstein took no part in the planning and returned to east Germany. Halder had to revise the plan again, which became Aufmarschanweisung N°4, the new plan conformed to Mansteins thinking in that Army Group A would provide the main thrust of the invasion through the Ardennes in southern Belgium. The revision was a change in emphasis, in which Halder no longer envisaged a simultaneous secondary attack to the west. The armoured divisions should then advance together with the infantry divisions, Halder rejected the idea simultaneous attack to the south to occupy the area that the French would want to use to deploy for a counter-offensive, to defeat the attempt before it began. The XV Corps moved through the upper Ardennes with two divisions towards Dinant as a flank guard against a counter-attack from the north. From 10–11 May, the XIX Panzer Corps engaged the two divisions of the Second Army, surprised them with a far larger force than expected and forced the French back. The Ninth Army to the north had also sent its two divisions forward, which were withdrawn on 12 May before they met German troops. Corap needed the cavalry divisions to reinforce the defences on the Meuse, because some of the infantry had not arrived. The most advanced German units reached the Meuse in the afternoon but the local French commanders thought that they were far ahead of the main body, against the plan, Guderian and the other panzer generals, Rommel among them, disobeyed orders and quickly advanced to the English Channel. The effects of the Manstein Plan were devastating for the Allied armies, as they were encircled by Army Groups A and B, leading to Operation Dynamo, the evacuation from Dunkirk
24.
Battle of the Netherlands
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The Battle of the Netherlands was part of Case Yellow, the German invasion of the Low Countries and France during World War II. The battle lasted from 10 May 1940 until the surrender of the main Dutch forces 14 May, Dutch troops in the province of Zealand continued to resist the Wehrmacht until 17 May when Germany completed its occupation of the whole nation. The Battle of the Netherlands saw one of the first mass paratroop drops, after the devastating bombing of Rotterdam by the Luftwaffe, the Germans threatened to bomb other Dutch cities if the Dutch forces refused to surrender. The General Staff knew it could not stop the bombers and ordered the Dutch army cease hostilities to avoid the threat, the last occupied parts of the Netherlands were liberated in 1945. During this time, the British and French built up their forces in expectation of a war. The Dutch were ill-prepared to resist such an invasion, when Hitler came to power, the Dutch had begun to re-arm, but more slowly than France or Belgium, only in 1936 did the defence budget start to be gradually increased. Successive Dutch governments tended to avoid openly identifying Germany as a military threat. International tensions grew in the late 1930s and these events forced the Dutch government to exercise greater vigilance, but they limited their reaction as much as they could. The most important measure was a partial mobilisation of 100,000 men in April 1939, to ensure this neutrality, the Dutch army was mobilised from 24 August and entrenched. Large sums were spent on defence and it proved very difficult to obtain new matériel in wartime, however, especially as the Dutch had ordered some of their new equipment from Germany, which deliberately delayed deliveries. Moreover, a part of the funds were intended for the Dutch East Indies. The strategic position of the Low Countries, located between France and Germany on the flanks of their fortification lines, made the area a logical route for an offensive by either side. In a 20 January 1940 radio speech, Winston Churchill tried to convince them not to wait for an inevitable German attack, but to join the Anglo-French Entente. Both the Belgians and Dutch refused, even though the German attack plans had fallen into Belgian hands after a German aircraft crash in January 1940 in what known as the Mechelen Incident. The Dutch tried on several occasions to act as an intermediary to reach a peace settlement between the Entente and Germany. They started to prepare for war, both mentally and physically. Dutch border troops were put on greater alert, reports of the presumed actions of a Fifth Column in Scandinavia caused widespread fears that the Netherlands too had been infiltrated by German agents assisted by traitors. Countermeasures were taken against an assault on airfields and ports
25.
Rotterdam
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Rotterdam is a city in the Netherlands, located in South Holland, within the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt river delta at the North Sea. Its history goes back to 1270 when a dam was constructed in the Rotte river by people settled around it for safety, in 1340 Rotterdam was granted city rights by the Count of Holland and slowly grew into a major logistic and economic centre. Nowadays it is home to Europes largest port and has a population of 633,471, ranking second in the Netherlands, just behind Amsterdam. The Greater Rijnmond area is home to approximately 1.4 million people, Rotterdam is part of the yet larger Randstad conurbation with a total population of 7,100,000. The city of Rotterdam is known for the Erasmus University, riverside setting, lively cultural life, the near-complete destruction of Rotterdams city centre during World War II has resulted in a varied architectural landscape including sky-scrapers, which are an uncommon sight in other Dutch cities. Rotterdam is home to some world-famous architecture from renowned architects like Rem Koolhaas, Piet Blom, Ben van Berkel and others. Recently Rotterdam was listed eighth in The Rough Guide Top 10 Cities to Visit, the port of Rotterdam is the largest cargo port in Europe and the 10th largest in the world. Rotterdams logistic success is based on its location on the North Sea. The rivers Rhine, Meuse, and Scheldt give waterway access into the heart of Western Europe, the extensive distribution system including rail, roads, and waterways have earned Rotterdam the nickname Gateway to Europe, and, conversely, Gateway to the World in Europe. The settlement at the end of the fen stream Rotte dates from at least 900 CE. A dam on the Rotte or Rotterdam was built in the 1260s and was located at the present-day Hoogstraat, on 7 July 1340, Count Willem IV of Holland granted city rights to Rotterdam, which then had approximately 2,000 inhabitants. The port of Rotterdam grew slowly but steadily into a port of importance, becoming the seat of one of the six chambers of the Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie, the greatest spurt of growth, both in port activity and population, followed the completion of the Nieuwe Waterweg in 1872. The city and harbor started to expand on the bank of the river. The Witte Huis or White House skyscraper, inspired by American office buildings and built in 1898 in the French Château-style, is evidence of Rotterdams rapid growth, when completed, it was the tallest office building in Europe, with a height of 45 m. During World War I the city was the worlds largest spy centre because of Dutch neutrality, many spies who were arrested and executed in Britain were led by German secret agents operating from Rotterdam. MI6 had its main European office on de Boompjes, from there the British coordinated espionage in Germany and occupied Belgium. In WWI an average of 25,000 Belgian refugees lived in the city, as well as hundreds of German deserters, during World War II, the German army invaded the Netherlands on 10 May 1940. Adolf Hitler had hoped to conquer the country in just one day, the Dutch army was finally forced to capitulate on 15 May 1940, following Hitlers bombing of Rotterdam on 14 May and threatening to bomb other Dutch cities
26.
Zeeland
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Zeeland is the westernmost province of the Netherlands. The province, located in the south-west of the country, consists of a number of islands and peninsulas and its area is about 2,930 square kilometres, of which almost 1,140 square kilometres is water, and it has a population of about 380,000. Large parts of Zeeland are below sea level, the last great flooding of the area was in 1953. Tourism is an important economic activity, in the summer, its beaches make it a popular destination for tourists, especially German tourists. In some areas, the population can be two to four times higher during the summer season. The coat of arms of Zeeland shows a lion half-emerged from water, the country of New Zealand is named after Zeeland - not Zealand in Denmark, as sometimes claimed. Nehalennia is a goddess of the ancient religion known around the province of Zeeland and her worship dates back at least to the 2nd century BC, and flourished in the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD. She was possibly a goddess, either Celtic or pre-Germanic – sources differ on the culture that first worshipped her. During the Roman Era, her main function appeared to be the protection of travelers, most of what is known about her comes from the remains of over 160 carved stone offerings which have been dredged up from the Eastern Scheldt since 1970. Two more Nehalennia offering stones have also found in Cologne. Zeeland was an area between the counts of Holland and Flanders until 1299, when the last count of Holland died. Followed by the counts of Bavaria, Burgundy and Habsburg, after 1585 Zeeland followed, as one of the 7 independent provinces, the fate of the Northern part of The Netherlands. In 1432 it became part of the Low Countries possessions of Philip the Good of Burgundy, through marriage, the Seventeen Provinces became the property of the Habsburgs in 1477. In the Eighty Years War, Zeeland was on the side of the Union of Utrecht, the area now called Zeeuws-Vlaanderen was not part of Zeeland, but a part of the county of Flanders that was conquered by the United Provinces, hence called Staats-Vlaanderen. After the French occupation and the formation of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands in 1815, during World War II, Zeeland was occupied by Nazi Germany between June 1940 and November 1944. In 1944, Zeeland was devastated by the Battle of the Scheldt, the catastrophic North Sea flood of 1953, which killed over 1800 people in Zeeland, led to the construction of the protective Delta Works. The province of Zeeland is a river delta situated at the mouth of several major rivers, namely Scheldt, Rhine. Most of the province lies below sea level and was reclaimed from the sea by inhabitants over time, what used to be a muddy landscape, flooding at high tide and reappearing at low tide, became a series of small man-made hills that stayed dry at all times
27.
Dunkirk
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Dunkirk is a commune in the Nord department in northern France. It lies 10 kilometres from the Belgian border, the population of the city at the 2012 census was 90,995 inhabitants. The name of Dunkirk derives from West Flemish dun and kerke, nowadays, Dunkirk is the worlds northernmost Francophone city. About 960AD Count Baldwin III had a wall erected, in order to protect the settlement against Viking raids. The surrounding wetlands were drained and cultivated by the monks of nearby Bergues Abbey, the name Dunkirk was first mentioned in a tithe privilege of 27 May 1067, issued by Count Baldwin V of Flanders. Count Philip I brought further large tracts of marshland under cultivation, laid out first plans to build a Canal from Dunkirk to Bergues and vested the Dunkirkers with market rights. However, in the course of the Western Schism from 1378, English supporters of Pope Urban VI disembarked at Dunkirk, captured the city and they were ejected by King Charles VI of France, but left great devastations in and around the town. Upon the extinction of the Counts of Flanders with the death of Louis II in 1384, Flanders was acquired by the Burgundian, the fortifications were again enlarged, including the construction of a belfry daymark. As Maximilian was the son of Emperor Frederick III, all Flanders was immediately seized by King Louis XI of France. However, the defeated the French troops at the 1479 Battle of Guinegate. The area remained disputed between Spain, the United Netherlands, England and France. At the beginning of the Eighty Years War, Dunkirk was briefly in the hands of the Dutch rebels, Spanish forces under Duke Alexander Farnese of Parma re-established Spanish rule in 1583 and it became a base for the notorious Dunkirkers. The Dunkirkers briefly lost their home port when the city was conquered by the French in 1646, in 1658, as a result of the long war between France and Spain, it was captured after a siege by Franco-English forces following the battle of the Dunes. The city along with Fort-Mardyck was awarded to England in the peace the following year as agreed in the Franco-English alliance against Spain and it came under French rule when Charles II of England sold it to France for £320,000 on 17 October 1662. The French government developed the town as a fortified port, the towns existing defences were adapted to create ten bastions. The port was expanded in the 1670s by the construction of a basin that could hold up to thirty warships with a lock system to maintain water levels at low tide. The basin was linked to the sea by a channel dug through coastal sandbanks secured by two jetties and this work was completed by 1678. The jetties were defended a few years later by the construction of five forts, Château dEspérance, Château Vert, Grand Risban, Château Gaillard, an additional fort was built in 1701 called Fort Blanc
28.
British Expeditionary Force (World War II)
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The British Expeditionary Force was the name of the British Army in Western Europe from 1939 to 1940, in the early stages of the Second World War. During the 1930s, the British government planned to deter war by rearming from the low level of readiness of the early 30s. The bulk of the money went to the Royal Navy. The BEF began moving to France in September 1939, the British assembled along the Belgian–French border on the left of the French First Army as part of the French 1er groupe darmées of the Front du Nord-est. Most of the BEF spent the Phoney War digging field defences on the French–Belgian border before the Battle of France began on 10 May 1940, the BEF constituted 10 percent of the Allied forces on the Western Front. The BEF, French and Belgian forces were evacuated from Dunkirk on the French North Sea coast in Operation Dynamo, Saar Force, the 51st Infantry Division, had been detached for service along the Maginot Line as part of a plan for the BEF units to gain experience. At the beginning of the 1930s, the Ten Year Rule had reduced war spending from £766 million in 1920 to £102 million when it was abolished on 23 March 1932. The British army had fewer men than in 1914, no organisation or equipment for a war in Europe and in three weeks, the War Office could only mobilise an infantry division and a cavalry brigade. The committee urged the creation of a Field Force of four infantry divisions, expenditure of £71 million was recommended, half to go in the army, which would be the defence against an invasion. The government accepted the report apart from the price and cut 1⁄3 from the estimate, in March 1937, the Regular Army stood at 121,000 men at home and 89,000 overseas, with some 716 tanks, of which 200 were obsolete First World War models. By the later 1930s, the despatch of an Expeditionary Force to France of Belgium might increase British security, the government also announced that the twelve TA divisions would be brought up to establishment and then another twelve. Anti-Aircraft Command formed seven divisions and early steps were taken to requisition the necessary to carry the Expeditionary Force to France. According to the 1939 Army Estimates, Britain had home forces of 230,000 men in the army,183,000 in reserve and 270,000 part-timers in the TA a total of 683,000 men. One lieutenant stuffed his holster with paper because he had no pistol, there were immense pressures to produce equipment, which led to a rapid increase in output. Clothing items were one example of this, greatcoats and boots being produced at up to fifty times the normal peacetime rates, twenty-five years of greatcoats were produced in six months and 18 months army boots were turned out in one week but shortages remained. Following the German invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939, the BEF was despatched to France, German submarines had been limited by Hitlers orders to avoid provoking the Allies and only a few mines were laid near Dover and Weymouth. By 19 October, the BEF had received 25,000 vehicles to complete the first deployment, Belgium and the Netherlands were neutral countries and no troops were stationed in them. Morale was high amongst the British troops but the actions of the Germans by 9 May, had led many into assuming that there would not be much chance of a big German attack in that area
29.
Lys (river)
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The Leie or Lys is a river in France and Belgium, and a left tributary of the Scheldt. Its source is in Pas-de-Calais, France, and it flows into the river Scheldt in Ghent and its total length is 202 kilometres. It is a polluted river from the high population density. Historically, the Lys valley was known for the spinning and weaving of flax, the region of the Leie was known as a favourite place for numerous painters in the first half of the 20th century. The source of the Lys is in a village, Lisbourg, east of Fruges, the river was the location of three battles between the Allies and the German Army. During the Second World War, the Battle of the Lys was part of the 1940 German offensive in Flanders towards the English Channel, geoportail. fr The Lys at the Sandre database River basin of the Lys in Flanders
30.
Merville, Nord
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Merville is a commune in the Nord department in northern France. Located at the convergence of a system and a canalised river, Merville supported an extensive boat building industry, with many different shipyards. The industry went into decline in the era and is today virtually extinct. During the course of the First World War the village was completely destroyed, the 6th Jat Light Infantry were billeted here in 1915. The Merville Communal Cemetery and Extension is also located here, the parish church of St Peter in Merville is a very large capacity parish church, whose dimensions make it a prominent landmark, visible at considerable distances from the town. Merville is a parish of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Lille, the diocesan seminary of the Lille diocese was formerly located in Merville. It is also a large structure, built on four storeys around a central cloister, with large chapel and refectory. With decreasing numbers of vocations the seminary closed in 1970, the extensive buildings were briefly occupied by a community of religious sisters, and then became the Lille dioceses retreat and conference centre, a role in which it is still employed today. The main town square is dominated by the hall, which is built in the Flemish Renaissance style. It incorporates a tall clock tower, with a working public clock. Climate in this area has mild differences between highs and lows, and there is adequate rainfall year round, the Köppen Climate Classification subtype for this climate is Cfb. Le Sart is a village located about a mile west of Merville. It forms part of the Merville commune, and is connected to the town by a bus service. It has a parish church dedicated to Notre Dame des Affigés. Communes of the Nord department INSEE commune file
31.
5th SS Panzer Division Wiking
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The 5th SS Panzer Division Wiking was a Panzer division among the thirty eight Waffen-SS divisions of Nazi Germany. It was recruited from volunteers in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Estonia. During the course of World War II, the served on the Eastern Front during World War II. It surrendered in May 1945 to the American forces in Austria, after the invasion of Poland in 1939, Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler sought to expand the Waffen-SS with foreign military volunteers for the crusade against Bolshevism. The enrolment began in April 1940 with the creation of two regiments, the Waffen-SS Regiment Nordland, and the Waffen-SS Regiment Westland, the Nordic formation, originally organised as the Nordische Division, was to be made up of Nordic volunteers mixed with ethnic German Waffen-SS personnel. The SS Infantry Regiment Germania of the SS-Verfügungs-Division, which was formed mostly from ethnic Germans, was transferred to form the nucleus of a new division in late 1940. In December 1940, the new SS motorised formation was to be designated SS-Division Germania, but after its formative period, the Wiking division was formed around three motorised infantry regiments, Germania, Westland, and Nordland, with the addition of the SS Artillery Regiment 5. Command of the newly formed division was given to Brigadeführer Felix Steiner, after formation the division was sent to Heuberg in Germany for training and by April 1941, SS Division Wiking was ready for combat. It was ordered east in mid-May, to part with Army Group Souths advance into the Ukraine during Operation Barbarossa. In June 1941 the Finnish Volunteer Battalion of the Waffen-SS was formed from volunteers from that country, after training, this unit was attached to the SS Regiment Nordland of the division. About 430 Finns who fought in the Winter War served within the SS Division Wiking division since the beginning of Operation Barbarossa, in spring 1943 the Finns 2-year contract ended, and the Finnish battalion was withdrawn. During that same timeframe, the Wikings SS-Panzergrenadier-Regiment Nordland was removed to form the core of the new 11th SS Volunteer Panzergrenadier Division Nordland. They were replaced by the Estonian infantry battalion Narwa, the division took part in Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union, advancing through Galicia, Ukraine. In August the division fought for the bridgehead across the Dniepr River, later, the division took part in the heavy fighting for Rostov-on-Don before retreating to the Mius River line in November. In the summer of 1942, Wiking took part Army Group Souths offensive Case Blue, aimed at capturing Stalingrad, in late September 1942, Wiking participated in the operation aimed to capture the city of Grozny, alongside the 13th Panzer Division. The division captured Malgobek on 6 October, but the objective of seizing Grozny, the division took part in the attempt to seize Ordzhonikidze. The Soviet Operation Uranus, the encirclement of the 6th Army at Stalingrad, after Operation Winter Storm, the failed attempt to relieve the 6th Army, Erich von Manstein, the commander of Army Group South, proposed another attempt towards Stalingrad. To that end, Wiking entrained on 24 December, however, by the time it arrived on 31 December, the division escaped through the Rostov gap on 4 February
32.
Invasion of Yugoslavia
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The invasion of Yugoslavia, also known as the April War or Operation 25, was a German-led attack on the Kingdom of Yugoslavia by the Axis powers which began on 6 April 1941 during World War II. The order for the invasion was put forward in Führer Directive No,25, which Adolf Hitler issued on 27 March 1941, following the Yugoslav coup détat. The invasion commenced with an air attack on Belgrade and facilities of the Royal Yugoslav Air Force by the Luftwaffe. These attacks were followed by German thrusts from Romania, Hungary, Italian forces were limited to air and artillery attacks until 11 April, when the Italian army attacked towards Ljubljana and through Istria and Lika and down the Dalmatian coast. On the same day, Hungarian forces entered Yugoslav Bačka and Baranya, a Yugoslav attack into the northern parts of the Italian protectorate of Albania met with initial success, but was inconsequential due to the collapse of the rest of the Yugoslav forces. The invasion ended when an armistice was signed on 17 April 1941, based on the surrender of the Yugoslav army. Yugoslavia was then occupied and partitioned by the Axis powers, some areas of Yugoslavia were annexed by neighboring Axis countries, some areas remained occupied, and in other areas Axis puppet states such as the Independent State of Croatia were created. Along with Italys stalled invasion of Greece on 28 October 1940, and the German-led invasion of Greece and invasion of Crete, in October 1940, Fascist Italy had attacked the Kingdom of Greece only to be forced back into Albania. German dictator Adolf Hitler recognised the need to go to the aid of his ally, Hitler did this not only to restore diminished Axis prestige, but also to prevent Britain from bombing the Romanian oilfields from which Nazi Germany obtained most of its oil. In 1940 and early 1941, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria all agreed to adhere to the Tripartite Pact, Hitler then pressured Yugoslavia to join as well. The Regent, Prince Paul, yielded to pressure. This move was unpopular with the Serb-dominated officer corps of the military and some segments of the public. Military officers executed a coup détat on 27 March 1941, and forced the Regent to resign, while King Peter II, upon hearing news of the coup in Yugoslavia, Hitler called his military advisers to Berlin on 27 March. On the same day as the coup he issued Führer Directive 25 which called for Yugoslavia to be treated as a hostile state, Hungary had joined the Tripartite Pact on 20 November 1940. On 12 December it also concluded a treaty with the Kingdom of Yugoslavia calling for permanent peace, the Hungarian leadership was split after Germanys War Directive 25 was delivered on 27 March 1941. Regent Miklós Horthy and the military favoured taking part in the invasion of Yugoslavia, Prime Minister Pál Teleki sought to prevent German troops passing through Hungary and cited the peace treaty with Yugoslavia as an impediment to cooperation with the Germans. On 1 April Yugoslavia redesignated its Assault Command as the Chetnik Command, the command was intended to lead a guerrilla war should the country be occupied. Its headquarters was transferred from Novi Sad to Kraljevo in south-central Serbia on 1 April and this sent the unmistakable message that Yugoslavia was about to be invaded
33.
Battle of Greece
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The Battle of Greece is the common name for the invasion of Allied Greece by Nazi Germany in April 1941 during World War II. Concomitant to the stalled Greco-Italian War, it is distinguished from the Battle of Crete. These Axis operations were part of the greater Balkan Campaign of Germany, at the time of the German invasion, Greece was at war with Fascist Italy, following the Italian invasion on 28 October 1940. The Greeks joined the Allies and defeated the initial Italian attack, when Operation Marita began on 6 April, the bulk of the Greek Army was on the Greek border with Albania, then a protectorate of Italy, from which the Italian troops had attacked. German troops invaded from Bulgaria, creating a second front, Greece had already received a small, inadequate reinforcement from British Empire forces in anticipation of the German attack, but no more help was sent afterward. The Greek army found itself outnumbered in its effort to defend against both Italian and German troops, the British Empire forces were overwhelmed and forced to retreat, with the ultimate goal of evacuation. For several days, Allied troops played an important part in containing the German advance on the Thermopylae position, allowing ships to be prepared to evacuate the units defending Greece. The German Army reached the capital, Athens, on 27 April and Greeces southern shore on 30 April, capturing 7,000 British Empire forces, the conquest of Greece was completed with the capture of Crete a month later. Following its fall, Greece was occupied by the forces of Germany, Italy. Hitler later blamed the failure of his invasion of the Soviet Union and it nevertheless had serious consequences for the Axis war effort in the North African theatre. Enno von Rintelen, who was the military attaché in Rome, emphasizes from the German point of view, at the outbreak of World War II, Ioannis Metaxas—the fascist-style dictator of Greece and former general—sought to maintain a position of neutrality. Greece was subject to increasing pressure from Italy, culminating in the Italian submarine Delfino sinking the cruiser Elli on 15 August 1940, Italian leader Benito Mussolini was irritated that Nazi leader Adolf Hitler had not consulted him on his war policy and wished to establish his independence. He hoped to match German military success by taking Greece, which he regarded as an easy opponent, on 15 October 1940, Mussolini and his closest advisers finalised their decision. Metaxas rejected the ultimatum but even before it expired, Italian troops had invaded Greece through Albania, the principal Italian thrust was directed toward Epirus. Hostilities with the Greek army began at the Battle of Elaia–Kalamas, within three weeks, the Greek army launched a counter-offensive, during which it marched into Albanian territory, capturing significant cities such as Korça and Sarandë. Neither a change in Italian command nor the arrival of substantial reinforcements improved the position of the Italian army, after weeks of inconclusive winter warfare, the Italians launched a counter-offensive on the centre of the front on 9 March 1941, which failed, despite the Italians superior forces. After one week and 12,000 casualties, Mussolini called off the counter-offensive, elementary precautions such as issuing winter clothing had not been taken. Mussolini had not considered the warnings of the Italian Commission of War Production, during the six-month fight against Italy, the Hellenic army made territorial gains by eliminating Italian salients
34.
Fritz Klingenberg
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Fritz Klingenberg was a German officer in the Waffen-SS who served with the SS Division Das Reich and was a commander of the SS Division Götz von Berlichingen. He was best known for his role in the capture of the Yugoslavian capital, in April 1941, the Germany Army invaded Yugoslavia and then Greece. Klingenberg, a commander in the Das Reich division, led his unit to the capital, Belgrade. A few days later Yugoslavia surrendered, on 21 December 1944, Fritz Klingenberg was promoted to SS-Standartenführer and two weeks later was appointed to command the SS Division Götz von Berlichingen. The division was attached to XIII SS Corps, defending southeast of Saarbrücken against the XV Corps of the Seventh United States Army. On 23 March 1945, Klingenberg was killed by a shell during a firefight on the western edge of Herxheim and is buried at the German War Cemetery in Andilly. Knights Cross of the Iron Cross on 14 May 1941 as SS-Hauptsturmführer, German Cross in Gold on 28 April 1944 as SS-Obersturmbannführer in the 2
35.
Belgrade
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Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and its name translates to White city. The urban area of the City of Belgrade has a population of 1.34 million, one of the most important prehistoric cultures of Europe, the Vinča culture, evolved within the Belgrade area in the 6th millennium BC. In antiquity, Thraco-Dacians inhabited the region, and after 279 BC Celts conquered the city and it was conquered by the Romans during the reign of Augustus, and awarded city rights in the mid-2nd century. In 1521, Belgrade was conquered by the Ottoman Empire and became the seat of the Sanjak of Smederevo and it frequently passed from Ottoman to Habsburg rule, which saw the destruction of most of the city during the Austro-Ottoman wars. Belgrade was again named the capital of Serbia in 1841, northern Belgrade remained the southernmost Habsburg post until 1918, when the city was reunited. As a strategic location, the city was battled over in 115 wars, Belgrade was the capital of Yugoslavia from its creation in 1918, to its final dissolution in 2006. Belgrade has an administrative status within Serbia and it is one of five statistical regions of Serbia. Its metropolitan territory is divided into 17 municipalities, each with its own local council, City of Belgrade covers 3. 6% of Serbias territory, and 22. 5% of the countrys population lives within its administrative limits. It is classified as a Beta- global city, chipped stone tools found at Zemun show that the area around Belgrade was inhabited by nomadic foragers in the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic eras. Some of these belong to the Mousterian industry, which are associated with Neanderthals rather than modern humans. Aurignacian and Gravettian tools have also discovered there, indicating occupation between 50,000 and 20,000 years ago. The first farming people to settle in the region are associated with the Neolithic Starčevo culture, there are several Starčevo sites in and around Belgrade, including the eponymous site of Starčevo. The Starčevo culture was succeeded by the Vinča culture, a more sophisticated farming culture that grew out of the earlier Starčevo settlements which is named for a site in the Belgrade region. Evidence of early knowledge about Belgrades geographical location comes from ancient myths, the rock overlooking the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers has been identified as one of the place in the story of Jason and the Argonauts. The Paleo-Balkan tribes of Thracians and Dacians ruled this area prior to the Roman conquest, Belgrade was inhabited by a Thraco-Dacian tribe Singi, after the Celtic invasion in 279 BC, the Scordisci took the city, naming it Singidūn. In 34–33 BC the Roman army led by Silanus reached Belgrade, jovian reestablished Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire, ending the brief revival of traditional Roman religions under his predecessor Julian the Apostate. In 395 AD, the passed to the Eastern Roman or Byzantine Empire
36.
Smolensk
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Smolensk is a city and the administrative center of Smolensk Oblast, Russia, located on the Dnieper River,360 kilometers west-southwest of Moscow. The walled city in the center of Smolensk was destroyed several times throughout its history because it was on the invasion routes of both Napoleon and Hitler. Today, Smolensk is noted for electronics, textiles, food processing, the name of the city is derived from the name of the Smolnya River. The origin of the name is less clear. One possibility is the old Slavic word смоль for black soil, an alternative origin could be the Russian word смола, which means resin, tar, or pitch. Pine trees grow in the area, and the city was once a center of resin processing, the Byzantine emperor Constantine VII recorded its name as Μιλινισκα. Within the city and its surroundings the river takes in small tributaries. In the valleys are stretched streets, high ridges, hills, Smolensk is situated on seven hills. The old part of the city occupies the high, rugged left bank of the Dnieper River, the area features undulating terrain, with a large number of tributaries, creeks and ravines. Smolensk is among the oldest Russian cities, the first recorded mention of the city was 863 AD, two years after the founding of Kievan Rus. According to Russian Primary Chronicle, Smolensk was located on the area settled by the West Slavic Radimichs tribe in 882 when Oleg of Novgorod took it in passing from Novgorod to Kiev, the first foreign writer to mention the city was the Byzantine Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus. In De Administrando Imperio he described Smolensk as a key station on the route from the Varangians to the Greeks. The Rus people sailed from the Baltics up the Western Dvina as far as they could then they portaged their boats to the upper Dnieper. It was in Smolensk that they supposedly mended any leaks and small holes that might have appeared in their boats from being dragged on the ground and they used tar to do that, the Principality of Smolensk was founded in 1054. Due to its position in Kievan Rus, the city developed rapidly. By the end of the 12th century, the princedom was one of the strongest in Eastern Europe, numerous churches were built in the city at that time, including the church of Sts. Peter and Paul and the church of St. John the Baptist, the most remarkable church in the city is called Svirskaya, it was admired by contemporaries as the most beautiful structure east of Kiev. Smolensk had its own veche since the beginning of its history
37.
Kharkiv
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Kharkiv or Kharkov is the second-largest city in Ukraine. In the northeast of the country, it is the largest city of the Slobozhanshchyna historical region, the city has a population of about 1.5 million people. Kharkiv is the centre of Kharkiv Oblast and of the surrounding Kharkiv district. The city was founded in 1654 and after a humble beginning as a small fortress grew to be a centre of Ukrainian industry, trade. Kharkiv was the first capital of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, from December 1919 to January 1934 and its industry specializes primarily in machinery and in electronics. There are hundreds of companies in the city, including the Morozov Design Bureau and the Malyshev Tank Factory, Khartron, the Turboatom. Some sources indicate that the city may have named after the Hunnic name for swan. Other sources offer that the city was named after its near-legendary founder, archeological evidence discovered in the area of present-day Kharkiv indicates that a population has existed in that area since the second millennium BC. Cultural artifacts date back to the Bronze Age, as well as those of later Scythian and Sarmatian settlers, there is also evidence that the Chernyakhov culture flourished in the area from the second to the sixth centuries. The city was founded by re-settlers who were running away from the war that engulfed Right-bank Ukraine in 1654, the years before the region was a sparsely populated part of the Cossack Hetmanate. The group of people came onto the banks of Lopan and Kharkiv rivers where a settlement stood. According to archive documents, the leader of the re-settlers was otaman Ivan Kryvoshlyk, at first the settlement was self-governed under the jurisdiction of a voivode from Chuhuiv that is 40 kilometres to the east. The first appointed voivode from Moscow was Voyin Selifontov in 1656 who started to build a local ostrog, at that time the population of Kharkiv was just over 1000, half of whom were local cossacks, while Selifontov brought along a Moscow garrison of another 70 servicemen. The first Kharkiv voivode was replaced in two years after constantly complaining that locals refused to cooperate in building the fort, Kharkiv also became the centre of the local Sloboda cossack regiment as the area surrounding the Belgorod fortress was being heavily militarized. By 1657 the Kharkiv settlement had a fortress with underground passageways, in 1658 Ivan Ofrosimov was appointed as the new voivode, who worked on forcing locals to kiss the cross to show loyalty to the Moscow tsar. The locals led by their otaman Ivan Kryvoshlyk refused, however, with the election of the new otaman Tymish Lavrynov the community sent a request to the tsar to establish a local Assumption market, signed by deans of Kharkiv churches. Relationships with the neighboring Chuhuiv sometimes were non-friendly and often their arguments were pacified by force, with the appointment of the third voivode Vasiliy Sukhotin was completely finished the construction of the city fort. Meanwhile, Kharkiv had become the centre of Sloboda Ukraine, the Kharkiv Fortress was erected around the Assumption Cathedral and its castle was at University Hill
38.
II SS Panzer Corps
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The II SS Panzer Corps was a German Waffen-SS armoured corps which saw action on both the Eastern and Western Fronts during World War II. It was commanded by Paul Hausser during the Third Battle of Kharkov, the II SS Panzer Corps was formed from SS Division Das Reich and SS Division Hohenstaufen in July 1942. In early February 1943, the corps, under the command of SS-Gruppenführer Paul Hausser, was attached to Army Group South in Ukraine, the corps was renamed II SS Panzer Corps in June 1943, after the I SS Panzer Corps was created during that same month. In July 1943, the took part in the failed Operation Citadel. The corps three SS divisions were involved in the Battle of Prokhorovka at the edge of the German penetration into the salient, after the operation was canceled in light of its failure, the corps was ordered to the Italian front. Only one division, the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler ended up being transferred, the remaining combat divisions remained on the Eastern Front to deal with the developing threats from the Soviet Belgorod-Kharkov Offensive Operation. Leibstandarte took part in operations to disarm Italian troops, in these operations, according to the Corps Headquarters Medical Department, the corps suffered total losses of 936 men. In November,1943, Leibstandarte returned to the Soviet Union, with the remaining in Slovenia, Istria. In January 1944, the corps was ordered to France to refit, before being sent back to the Eastern Front, in June 1944, the corps was ordered west to take part in the Battle of Normandy. It was involved in fighting against the British 21st Army Group in the Battle of Caen. During this period, SS-Obergruppenführer Wilhelm Bittrich was placed in command of the corps, in August 1944, the corps participated in the battles in and around the Falaise Pocket. The corps then retreated across France, on 17 September 1944, the Allies launched Operation Market Garden, an airborne offensive aimed at capturing the Rhine bridge at Arnhem. The corps was involved in fighting against the British 1st Airborne Division in the Battle of Arnhem and also against the U. S. 82nd Airborne Division and British XXX Corps in Nijmegen. In preparation for the Ardennes Offensive, the corps was placed in reserve of 6th SS Panzer Army, after the northern assault stalled, the corps was transferred south to take part in the attack on Bastogne. The corps divisions suffered heavy losses in the battles against the 82nd, after the operations failure, the corps returned to the defensive, seeing action against American forces in the Eifel region. In February 1945, the corps was ordered to Hungary to take part in an offensive to recapture Budapest, the corps took part in Operation Spring Awakening, launched near Lake Balaton on 6 March 1945. After the failure of the offensive, the corps retreated, alongside the I SS and IV SS Panzer Corps, after the Soviet forces captured the city, individual units attempted to break out to the west. The elements of the corps surrendered to the U. S. Army on 8 May 1945, archived from the original on April 20,2013
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Normandy landings
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The Normandy landings were the landing operations on Tuesday,6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. The largest seaborne invasion in history, the operation began the liberation of German-occupied northwestern Europe from Nazi control, planning for the operation began in 1943. Adolf Hitler placed German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel in command of German forces, the amphibious landings were preceded by extensive aerial and naval bombardment and an airborne assault—the landing of 24,000 American, British, and Canadian airborne troops shortly after midnight. Allied infantry and armoured divisions began landing on the coast of France at 06,30, the target 50-mile stretch of the Normandy coast was divided into five sectors, Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, and Sword. Strong winds blew the landing craft east of their positions, particularly at Utah. Casualties were heaviest at Omaha, with its high cliffs, at Gold, Juno, and Sword, several fortified towns were cleared in house-to-house fighting, and two major gun emplacements at Gold were disabled, using specialised tanks. The Allies failed to any of their goals on the first day. Carentan, St. Lô, and Bayeux remained in German hands, and Caen, German casualties on D-Day have been estimated at 4,000 to 9,000 men. Allied casualties were at least 10,000, with 4,414 confirmed dead, museums, memorials, and war cemeteries in the area now host many visitors each year. Between 27 May and 4 June 1940, over 338,000 troops of the British Expeditionary Force, after the German Army invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin began pressing his allies for the creation of a second front in western Europe. In late May 1942 the Soviet Union and the United States made a joint announcement that a. full understanding was reached with regard to the urgent tasks of creating a front in Europe in 1942. Instead of a return to France, the Western Allies staged offensives in the Mediterranean Theatre of Operations. By mid-1943 the campaign in North Africa had been won, the Allies then launched the invasion of Sicily in July 1943, and subsequently invaded Italy in September the same year. By then, Soviet forces were on the offensive and had won a victory at the Battle of Stalingrad. The decision to undertake a cross-channel invasion within the year was taken at the Trident Conference in Washington in May 1943. Initial planning was constrained by the number of landing craft, most of which were already committed in the Mediterranean. At the Tehran Conference in November 1943, Roosevelt and Churchill promised Stalin that they would open the second front in May 1944. Four sites were considered for the landings, Brittany, the Cotentin Peninsula, Normandy, as Brittany and Cotentin are peninsulas, it would have been possible for the Germans to cut off the Allied advance at a relatively narrow isthmus, so these sites were rejected
40.
Avranches
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Avranches is a commune in the Manche department in the Normandy region in northwestern France. It is a subprefecture of the department, by the end of the Roman period, the settlement of Ingena, capital of the Abrincatui tribe, had taken the name of the tribe itself. This was the origin of the name Avranches, in 511 the town became the seat of a bishopric and subsequently of a major Romanesque cathedral dedicated to Saint Andrew which was dismantled during the French revolutionary period. As the region of Brittany emerged from the Roman region of Armorica, Avranchin was briefly held by Alan I, the regions that later became the Duchies of Normandy and Brittany each experienced devastating Viking raids, with Brittany occupied by Vikings from 907 to 937. In 933 Avranches and its territory, the Avranchin, were ceded to the Normans, hugh dAvranches, 1st Earl of Chester, a magnate under William the Conqueror, was the son of Richard le Goz, Vicomte dAvranches. In 1172 a council was held at Avranches in response to the murder of Anglo-Norman Saint Thomas Becket, the same council was forbidden to confer on children benefice, carrying with it the cure of souls, or on the children of priests for the churches of their fathers. Each parish was required to have an assistant, and the Advent fast was commended to all who could observe it, the town was damaged in both the Hundred Years War and the Wars of Religion. Álvaro Vaz de Almada was made 1st Count of Avranches by King Henry VI of England on August 8,1444, the liberation of Avranches during World War II was led by General George S. Patton and began on 31 July 1944. Avranches is situated at the end of the Cotentin Peninsula on the E40 road connecting Saint-Lô with Brittany. The town was founded on ground overlooking the dunes and coastal marshes along the bay forming the corner between the peninsulas of the Cotentin and Brittany. From Avranches, it is possible to see the Mont Saint-Michel, a museum houses the collection of manuscripts of Mont Saint-Michel, deposited in the municipal archives during the French Revolution. It is one of the largest collections of medieval illuminated manuscripts in France, outside national, the major church Notre Dame des Champs was constructed in Gothic Revival style in the 19th century to restore the religious life of the town after the destruction of the cathedral. A smaller church Saint Gervais houses a treasury, best known for the skull of Saint Aubert complete with hole where the archangel Michaels finger pierced it. The botanical gardens were founded in the grounds of the former Franciscan convent in the late 18th century, the expansion and introduction of exotic species in the 19th century and the location of the gardens overlooking the bay made the gardens an important sight in the town. The Manoir de Brion, an ancient Benedictine priory of Mont Saint-Michel, is located in Dragey, Avranches is twinned with St. Helier in Jersey. On 2 March 2010 a Jersey-registered boat Archangel succeeded in reaching Avranches at Marcey-les-Greves and it is believed this was the first instance of a foreign vessel reaching Avranches in modern times. Hamon de Massey, Norman lord in the barony of Chester, INSEE commune file Herbermann, Charles, ed
Nazi Germany
Waffen-SS
