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.
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
3.
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
4.
Battle for Velikiye Luki
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A new attack was launched in late August by both the LVII and XXXX Panzer Corps, and the city was recaptured on Aug.26. After its capture and with the German offensive running out of steam for the winter, marshy terrain extended to Lake Peipus from just north of the city defended by the German 16th Field Army, making operations in the region around the city difficult for both sides. Rather than maintaining a solid front in the area, the Germans established a series of thinly held outposts to the north and south of the city. Soviet counterattacks during the Winter Campaign of 1941–1942, especially the Battles of Rzhev just to the south, Velikiye Luki lay just on the western edge of the original advance, and was just as strategic for the Soviets as the German. In view of its significance, the Germans heavily fortified the city over the course of 1942. The Soviets often raided into German-held territory around the town and the town could only be supplied by armoured trains. The Soviet offensive to retake the city was developed in mid-November 1942 using troops from the 3rd and 4th Shock armies, the city itself was provided with extensive prepared defenses and garrisoned by a full regiment of the 83rd Division and other troops, totaling around 7,000. Rather than attacking the town directly, the Soviet forces advanced into the terrain to the north and south of the town. Spearheaded by four divisions to the south and one to the north. Army Group Centres commander asked the OKH for permission to conduct an operation while the situation was still relatively fluid by pulling the German lines back by around ten miles. The garrison were ordered to hold the city at all costs, the remainder of the 83rd Infantry and 3rd Mountain Divisions, encircled south of Velikiye Luki, fought their way west to meet the relieving troops. Due to Army Group Centres commitments at Rzhev, the only immediately available to man the lines opposite Velikiye Luki were those already in the area. In the meantime, Soviet attempts to take their main objective, an attempt by the Germans to reach Velikiye Luki in late December, ran into stubborn Soviet defence and halted, heavily damaged. Operation Totila, the attempt to break through to Velikiye Luki, was launched on 4 January. The two German spearheads advanced to five miles of the city, but stalled due to pressure on their flanks. The former group broke out on during the night of the 14th, the German garrison surrendered on 16 January. A military tribunal held a trial and convicted them for war crimes related to anti-partisan warfare. Nine were sentenced to death and publicly hanged in the square of Velikiye Luki in January 1946
5.
Battle of Berlin
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The Battle of Berlin, designated the Berlin Strategic Offensive Operation by the Soviet Union, was the final major offensive of the European theatre of World War II. Following the Vistula–Oder Offensive of January–February 1945, the Red Army had temporarily halted on a line 60 km east of Berlin, on 9 March, Germany established its defence plan for the city with Operation Clausewitz. The first defensive preparations at the outskirts of Berlin were made on 20 March, under the newly appointed commander of Army Group Vistula, General Gotthard Heinrici. When the Soviet offensive resumed on 16 April, two Soviet fronts attacked Berlin from the east and south, while a third overran German forces positioned north of Berlin. Before the main battle in Berlin commenced, the Red Army encircled the city after successful battles of the Seelow Heights, on 23 April General Helmuth Weidling assumed command of the forces within Berlin. The garrison consisted of several depleted and disorganized Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS divisions, along with poorly trained Volkssturm, over the course of the next week, the Red Army gradually took the entire city. Before the battle was over, Hitler and a number of his followers committed suicide. Starting on 12 January 1945, the Red Army began the Vistula–Oder Offensive across the Narew River, and, from Warsaw, an operation on a broad front. On the fourth day, the Red Army broke out and started moving west, up to 30 to 40 km per day, taking East Prussia, Danzig, and Poznań, drawing up on a line 60 km east of Berlin along the Oder River. The newly created Army Group Vistula, under the command of Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler, attempted a counter-attack, the Red Army then drove on to Pomerania, clearing the right bank of the Oder River, thereby reaching into Silesia. In the south the Siege of Budapest raged, three German attempts to relieve the encircled Hungarian capital city failed, and Budapest fell to the Soviets on 13 February. Adolf Hitler insisted on a counter-attack to recapture the Drau-Danube triangle, the goal was to secure the oil region of Nagykanizsa and regain the Danube River for future operations, but the depleted German forces had been given an impossible task. By 16 March, the German Lake Balaton Offensive had failed, on 30 March, the Soviets entered Austria, and in the Vienna Offensive they captured Vienna on 13 April. Between June and September 1944, the Wehrmacht had lost more than a million men, and it lacked the fuel and armaments needed to operate effectively. On 12 April 1945, Hitler, who had decided to remain in the city against the wishes of his advisers. No plans were made by the Western Allies to seize the city by a ground operation, the major Western Allied contribution to the battle was the bombing of Berlin during 1945. The Soviet offensive into central Germany, what later became East Germany, had two objectives, but the overriding objective was to capture Berlin. The two goals were complementary because possession of the zone could not be won quickly unless Berlin were taken, another consideration was that Berlin itself held useful post-war strategic assets, including Adolf Hitler and the German atomic bomb programme
6.
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
7.
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
8.
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
9.
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
10.
Colonel general
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Colonel general is a four-star rank in the army, equivalent to that of a full general in the US Army. North Korea and Russia are two countries that have used the rank extensively throughout their histories, the rank is also closely associated with Germany, where Generaloberst has formerly been a rank above full General and below Generalfeldmarschall. Colonel general was the second-highest rank in the Austro-Hungarian Army, introduced following the German model in 1915, the rank was not used after World War I in the Austrian Army of the Republic. The Peoples Liberation Army had a rank of Da Jiang from 1955 to 1965, Da Jiang corresponded to the Soviet rank of colonel general. The rank system of the Peoples Liberation Army was abolished in 1965, the 1988 system introduced a rank of Yi Ji Shang Jiang. No one had held such rank and it was abolished in 1994, the rank of colonel general was created in the Czechoslovak army in 1950, it was dropped after the 1993 dissolution of the state. The Egyptian Army uses a rank that translates as colonel general and it is equal to the rank of 4-star or full general. Colonel general is, however, junior to the rank of marshal and is an honorary distinction usually held only by defense ministers. In the French Army, under the Ancien régime, the officer in command of all the regiments of a particular branch of service was known as the colonel general. This was not a rank, but an office of the Crown, however, the Bundeswehr does not use the rank. Rank insignia Generaloberst In Hungary, the rank of general was introduced to the Imperial and Royal Army in 1915. The rank replaced the ranks of gyalogsági tábornok, lovassági tábornok, the equivalent rank for Colonel general in Iraq is called Ferik Awwal, in Arabic فريق اول, which is considered the highest rank in Iraqi Army now a days. The North Korean rank of sangjang translates as colonel general, sangjang is senior to that of jungjang and junior to that of daejang. This rank is held by the commanding officer of units along the Korean DMZ. It is also the rank held by the KPA Pyongyang Defense Commands commanding general, the rank of colonel general did not exist in Imperial Russia and was first established in the Red Army on 7 May 1940, as a replacement for previously existing командарм второго ранга. During World War II, about 199 officers were promoted to colonel general, before 1943, Soviet colonel generals wore four stars on their collar patches. Since 1943, they have three stars on their shoulder straps, so Charles Pettibone compares the rank to the US lieutenant general. The rank still exists in the contemporary Russian Army, the combrig rank that corresponded to one-star general only existed in the Soviet Union during 1935–1940
11.
Hermann Hoth
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Hermann Hoth was a German army commander and war criminal during World War II. He fought in the Battle of France and as a commander on the Eastern Front. Hoth commanded the 3rd Panzer Group during Operation Barbarossa in 1941, following the encirclement of the 6th Army in the Battle of Stalingrad in November 1942, Hoths panzer army unsuccessfully attempted to relieve it during Operation Winter Storm. After Stalingrad, Hoth was involved in the Third Battle of Kharkov, the Battle of Kursk in the summer of 1943, Hoth implemented the criminal Commissar Order during the invasion of the Soviet Union. After the war, Hoth was convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the High Command trial and he was released on parole in 1954. Born in 1885, Hoth joined the army in 1903 and was awarded both classes of the Iron Cross during World War I and he remained in the Reichswehr in the interwar period. Following the reorganization of the German military into the Wehrmacht in 1935, Hoth was promoted to Lieutenant-General and given command of the XV Motorised Corps in 1938, leading it in the invasion of Poland the following year. During the invasion of France in May 1940, his corps was on Guderians right flank during their advance through the Ardennes. Hoth was promoted to Generaloberst in July 1940, in Operation Barbarossa in 1941, Hoth commanded the 3rd Panzer Group which captured Minsk and Vitebsk as part of Army Group Centers operations. In mid July, the 3rd Panzer Group was subordinated to Army Group North to shore up the flanks, the divisions attack ran into fortified Soviet lines and was repulsed with the loss of 30 tanks. As all German armies on the Eastern Front, Hoths Panzer Group implemented the criminal Commissar Order, according to reports from the subordinate units, the order was carried out on a widespread basis. In October Hoth was appointed commander of the 17th Army in Ukraine, Hoth was an active supporter of the war of annihilation against the Soviet Union. He called upon his men to understand the need for punishment of Jewry. These circles are the supports of Bolshevism, the bearers of its murderous organisation. Their extermination is a dictate of our own survival, under Hoths command, units of the 17th Army took part in the hunt for and murder of Jews in its territory of control. During the Soviet winter offensives of early 1942, the army was back in the Second Battle of Kharkov. In June 1942, he took over from General Richard Ruoff as commander of 4th Panzer Army, as part of Operation Blue, the German offensive in southern Russia, the army reached the Don River at Voronezh. Hoth was then ordered to drive to Rostov-on-Don and it then advanced to the north in support of the Sixth Armys attempt to capture Stalingrad
12.
Colonel
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Colonel is a senior military officer rank below the general officer ranks. However, in small military forces, such as those of Iceland or the Vatican. It is also used in police forces and paramilitary organizations. Historically, in the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, a colonel was typically in charge of a regiment in an army, the rank of colonel is typically above the rank of lieutenant colonel. The rank above colonel is typically called brigadier, brigade general or brigadier general, equivalent naval ranks may be called captain or ship-of-the-line captain. In the Commonwealth air force rank system, the equivalent rank is group captain, the word colonel derives from the same root as the word column and means of a column, and, by implication, commander of a column. The word colonel is therefore linked to the column in a similar way that brigadier is linked to brigade. By the end of the medieval period, a group of companies was referred to as a column of an army. Since the word is believed to derive from sixteenth-century Italian, it was presumably first used by Italian city states in that century. The first use of colonel as a rank in an army was in the French National Legions created by King Francis I by his decree of 1534. Building on the reforms of Louis XIIs decree of 1509. Each colonel commanded a legion with a strength of six thousand men. With the shift from primarily mercenary to primarily national armies in the course of the seventeenth century, the Spanish equivalent rank of coronel was used by the Spanish tercios in the 16th and 17th centuries. Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba, nicknamed the Great Captain, divided his armies in coronelías or colonelcies, however, the Spanish word probably derives from a different origin, in that it appears to designate an officer of the crown, rather than an officer of the column. This makes the Spanish word coronel probably cognate with the English word coroner and this regiment, or governance, was to some extent embodied in a contract and set of written rules, also referred to as the colonels regiment or standing regulation. By extension, the group of companies subject to a colonels regiment came to be referred to as his regiment as well, the position, however, was primarily contractual and it became progressively more of a functionless sinecure. By the late 19th century, colonel was a military rank though still held typically by an officer in command of a regiment or equivalent unit. As European military influence expanded throughout the world, the rank of colonel became adopted by every nation
13.
General der Panzertruppe
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General der Panzertruppe was a General of the branch OF8-rank rank of German Army, introduced in 1935. A General der Panzertruppe was a Lieutenant General, above Major General, the rank was equivalent to the long established General der Kavallerie, General der Artillerie and General der Infanterie. The Wehrmacht also introduced General der Gebirgstruppe, General der Pioniere, General der Fallschirmtruppe, General der Flieger, General der Nachrichtentruppe and General der Luftnachrichtentruppe. In the modern German Army of the Bundeswehr, there is a General der Panzertruppen, which is not a rank but a position, the General der Panzertruppen commands the Armoured Corps Training Centre. The following officers were General der Panzertruppe, General Comparative officer ranks of World War II Reinhard Stumpf, rang- und Herkunftsstruktur der deutschen Generale und Admirale 1933–1945. Harald Boldt Verlag, Boppard am Rhein,1982
14.
Georg-Hans Reinhardt
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Georg-Hans Reinhardt was a German general and war criminal during World War II. He commanded Third Panzer Army from 1941 to 1944, and Army Group Centre in 1944 and 1945, following the war, Reinhardt was tried in the High Command Trial, as part of the Subsequent Nuremberg Trials. He was found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity, born in 1887, Reinhardt fought during World War I. He commanded the 4th Panzer Division during the Invasion of Poland in September 1939, afterwards, Reinhardt was awarded the Knights Cross of the Iron Cross. In the 1940 Battle of France, Reinhardt commanded the XXXXI Panzer Corps, in 1941, Reinhardt and XXXXI Panzer Corps were deployed on the Eastern Front for Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union in June. His force led the advance of Army Group North to the outskirts of Leningrad in October, as all German corps on the Eastern Front, Reinhardts corps implemented the criminal Commissar Order. According to reports from subordinate units, the order was carried out on a widespread basis, on October 5 Reinhardt was given command of the 3rd Panzer Army in Army Group Centre and took park in the advance towards Moscow, Operation Typhoon. After the German defeat in the Battle of Moscow, his army was back by Soviet counter-attack during the winter of 1941−42. From early 1942 until June 1944, the 3rd Panzer Army operated around Vitebsk and Smolensk, in the course of anti-partisan operations in the area, troops under Reinhardt destroyed entire communities. A report of February 1943 stated, In order to keep bands from resettling in this territory, the army engaged in deportation of civilians to concentration camps. Between September and December 1943, nearly 4,000 civilians were evacuated from Vitebsk and surrounding areas, on 26 May 1944, Reinhardt was awarded Swords to his Knights Cross. In June 1944, Third Panzer and the rest of Army Group Centre were shattered in the Soviet Operation Bagration and driven back into Poland, on 16 August 1944, Reinhardt was given command of Army Group Centre. In December, renewed Soviet attacks drove Army Group Centre out of Poland into northern Prussia, Reinhardt was retired from active duty in January 1945. In June 1945, Reinhardt was arrested by the United States Army and he was tried in the High Command Trial, as part of the Subsequent Nuremberg Trials. He was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment, and served time in the Landsberg Prison and his sentence was reviewed in January 1951, with no changes. Reinhardt was released in 1952 on compassionate grounds, Reinhardt served as president of the Gesellschaft für Wehrkunde, present-day Gesellschaft für Sicherheitspolitik. He was awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1962, panzer-Division Oak Leaves on 17 February 1942 as General der Panzertruppe and commander of 3. Panzergruppe Swords on 26 May 1944 as Generaloberst and commander of 3, panzer-Armee Great Cross of Merit US Military Tribunal Nuremberg
15.
1st Panzer Division (Wehrmacht)
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The 1st Panzer Division was an elite armoured division in the German Army, the Wehrmacht, during World War II. The division was one of the three tank divisions established by Germany in 1935. It took part in pre-war occupations of Austria and Czechoslovakia and the invasions of Poland in 1939 and Belgium, from 1941 to 1945 it fought on the Eastern Front, except for a period in 1943 when it was sent for refitting to France and Greece. At the end of the war the division surrendered to US forces in Bavaria, the 1st Panzer Division was formed on 15 October 1935 from the 3rd Cavalry Division, and was headquartered in Weimar. It was one of three tank divisions created at the time, the two being the 2nd and 3rd Panzer Division. Initially the division was equipped with the sub-standard light Panzer I, despite this the division was also equipped with obsolete Panzer IIs up until 1941. In 1938 the division participated in the Anschluss of Austria and the occupation of the Sudetenland in 1938, in September 1939 the 1st Panzer Division took part in the invasion of Poland, reaching the outskirts of Warsaw after eight days. After Warsaw the division was moved to support the 18th Infantry Division before returning to Germany in November 1939, in May 1940 the 1st Panzer Division was part of the invasion of France, Luxembourg and Belgium. It took part in the battles of Sedan and Dunkirk before swinging south to participate in the attack on the Weygand Line and it advanced towards the Swiss border and occupied Belfort before the surrender of France. During the battle of France the division suffered relatively low casualties, the 1st Panzer Division remained in France until September 1940 when it was moved to East Prussia. It supplied a substantial amount of units to the new 16th and 18th Panzer Divisions, from 22 June 1941 it took part of Operation Barbarossa, crossing the former German-Lithuanian frontier as part of the Army Group North and the 4th Panzer Group. The division was involved in fighting and, by mid-August, had only 44 of the 155 tanks it had started out less than two month earlier left in serviceable condition. It continued to advance towards Leningrad until early October when it was transferred to the Army Group Centre to take part in the advance on Moscow, the division advanced within 32 kilometres on Moscow before being forced to retreat during the Soviet counterattack. The division was part of the defence of the Rzhev Salient during early 1942, initially being very short on tanks, the 1st Panzer Division was engaged in the defence of the supply lines of the 9th Army in the centre of the Eastern Front. It suffered heavy casualties during the defence against repeated Soviet attacks in the Winter of 1942–43 before eventually being transferred back to France in January 1943 for refitting. After month in northern France the division was sent to occupied Greece in June 1943 because of the threat of an Allied landing there. Instead the landing place in Sicily and the division participated in the disarming of Italian forces in Greece when the former defected from the Axis in September 1943. The 1st Panzer Division was brought up to strength again in October when it received a substantial number of Panther and Tiger I tanks
16.
Friedrich Kirchner
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Friedrich Kirchner was a German general during World War II who commanded 1st Panzer Division and the LVII Panzer Corps. He was a recipient of the Knights Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves, friedrich Kirchner joined the Royal Saxon Army in 1899 and became an officer in 1907. During World War II he served with the 23d Division, after World War I he was retained in the Reichsheer. Kirchner was promoted to Major in 1928 and from 1929 he served in the staff of a cavalry division. Kirchner was promoted to Oberst in 1934 and appointed to command a regiment in the 1st Panzer Division on 15 October 1935. He was promoted to Generalmajor in March 1938 and he participated in the invasion of Poland as a brigade commander, he was appointed command of the 1st Panzer Division in November 1939. On 1 April 1940 he was promoted to Generalleutnant, Kirchner led the division in the Battle of France and was awarded the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross on 20 May 1940. He then took command of the LVII Armeekorps on 15 November 1941, Iron Cross 2nd Class & 1st Class Clasp to the Iron Cross 2nd Class &1st Class German Cross in Gold on 22 April 1942 as Generalleutnant and commander of the 1. Panzer-Division Knights Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords Knights Cross on 20 May 1940 as Generalleutnant, panzer-Division 391st Oak Leaves on 12 February 1944 as General der Panzertruppe and commanding general of the LVII. Panzer-Korps 127th Swords on 26 January 1945 as General der Panzertruppe, panzer-Korps Mentioned twice in the Wehrmachtsbericht
17.
36th Infantry Division (Wehrmacht)
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The 36th Infantry Division was a German infantry formation of World War II. It was formed in Kaiserslautern on 1 October 1936, during World War II it was mobilized in August 1939, as part of the first wave. It was later reorganized and re-designated the 36th Infantry Division in November 1940 and it was then de-motorized, reorganized and re-designated the 36th Infantry Division on 1 May 1943. The division was destroyed at Bobruysk in June 1944 during the Soviet Operation Bagration and it was reformed on 3 August 1944 as the 36th Grenadier Division and renamed the 36th Volksgrenadier Division in October 1944. The division was formed in October 1936 with men from Kaiserslautern, during the German invasion of France the 36th Infantry Division was part of Army Group As 16th Army, where it served with VII Corps. Crossing into France through the Chiers, the objective was a commune by the name of La Ferté. The 70th Infantry Regiment was transferred to the 111th Infantry Division during this stay, the division took part in Operation Barbarossa as part of XXXXI Panzer Corps, itself attached to Army Group North. In late October the division helped establish a bridgehead near Kalinin, in December 1941, the division had reached just west of Klin when it came under fire from the Soviets 365th Rifle Division. The Soviet division was forced to retreat after German forces began flanking them from the east, during the winter the division took heavy-casualties. In Summer 1942 the division fought at Rzhev and Baranovo, taking heavy casualties, the division was de-motorized in May 1943, though retained more motorized vehicles than other Infantry Divisions. On July 1943, during the Battle of Kursk, the division was part of the XXXXVII Panzer Corps, with Soviet forces slowing down Walter Models advance, the division was put on active duty on July 6. On the 12th, Field Marshal Günther von Kluge ordered the division to retreat from Oryol to rejoin the 9th Army as the Soviets began to storm into the city outskirts. Changing his mind, he sent it north with the 12 Panzer Divisions arrived in their full nearly four hours later. In the summer of 1944, as the Red Army launched Operation Bagration and it was here that the divisions commanding officer, Generalmajor Conrady, was captured. With the army pulling back to the Franco-German border, by November the division had worn out in the two months of fighting. The division was part of the January 1945 Operation Nordwind, where it served as part of the XIII SS Infantry Corps under Obergruppenführer-SS Max Simon, by now the division was reduced to the size of a single regiment, though its morale remained stable. On March 28, the formed part of the 7th Armys left wing as LXXXII Corps
18.
Ferdinand Schaal
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Ferdinand Schaal was a general in the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany during World War II. He commanded the 10th Panzer Division in the 1939 Invasion of Poland, later, he became involved in the unsuccessful 20 July plot against Adolf Hitler and the implementation of Operation Walküre that was to follow. For this, he was imprisoned until the end of the war, ferdinand was born on 7 February 1889 in Brunswick, Lower Saxony. In 1908, at the age of 19, Schaal joined the military as an officer in a regiment of dragoons, after World War I, he became a captain of cavalry in the Reichswehr. In April 1939, as part of the lead-up to the invasion of Poland and he continued to command that unit through the invasions of Poland, France, and the USSR. He served in capacity until 1 August 1943, when he became Wehrmacht commander in the military district of Bohemia and Moravia. His role in Operation Walküre was to involve subduing the Nazi party, on the evening of 20 July 1944, Schaal waited for clarification on how to proceed from General Friedrich Fromm, a co-conspirator in Berlin. None came, however, as the attempt had failed. Schaal was arrested the day on the orders of Heinrich Himmler. Unlike many members of the German resistance, Schaal avoided execution, knights Cross of the Iron Cross on 13 July 1940 as Generalleutnant and commander of 10
19.
6th Panzer Division (Wehrmacht)
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The 6th Panzer Division was an armoured division in the German Army, the Heer, during World War II, established in 1939. The division, initially formed as a brigade, participated in the invasions of Poland, Belgium, France. From 1941 to 1945 it fought on the Eastern Front, interrupted only by periods of refitting spend in France and it eventually surrendered to US forces in Czechoslovakia in May 1945 but was handed over to Soviet authorities. The 1st Light Brigade was a unit established in October 1937 in imitation of the French Division Légère Mécanique. It was intended to take on the roles of army-level reconnaissance and it included mechanized recon units, motorized infantry, and a battalion of tanks. The concept of the Light Brigade, of three were planned by the Wehrmacht, quickley showed its flawed nature and was abandoned. Following the latter the division received 130 Czech-build tanks which were superior to the Panzer I, in 1939, the division fought in the Invasion of Poland. The division was part of the German advance to the English Channel through Belgium and it then swung back towards the French-Swiss border before relocating to Eastern Prussia in September 1940 where it remained until June 1941. At the time of the German invasion of the Soviet Union the division had 239 tanks, but only twelve of those were Panzer III, in June 1941, it joined Operation Barbarossa, fighting at first under Army Group North for Leningrad. 6th Panzer Division was soon transferred to Army Group Center, where it fought in the Battle of Moscow, with the Soviet counter offensive in December 1941 the division was pushed back and suffered the loss of all its tanks and most of its vehicles. Severely decimated the 6th Panzer Division was sent to France to be rebuilt in March 1942 and equipped with more modern tanks. It was moved to southern France after the US landing in North Africa and it was part of the failed German attempt to break through to the encircled forces but then had to retreat to escape encirclement itself. The division was part of the German retreat and counter offensive at Kharkov, the 6th Panzer Division was part of the only partially successful relief operation at the Korsun-Cherkassy Pocket as well as the escape from the Kamenets-Podolsky pocket. It was part of the German defence of northern Poland and East Prussia before being relocated to Hungary in December 1944 and it took part in the battles around Budapest before retreating into Austria and taking part in the defence of Vienna. When the city fell it moved into Czechoslovakia where it surrendered to US 3rd Army in May 1945 but was handed over to Soviet forces, soldier of the division executed an unknown number of black prisoners of war from the 12th Senegalese Tirailleurs regiment in mid-June 1940. V. Generalleutnant Rudolf Freiherr von Waldenfels Oberst Friedrich-Wilhelm Jürgens Generalleutnant Rudolf Freiherr von Waldenfels The organisation of the division, Mitcham, die Gepanzerten und Motorisierten Deutschen Grossverbände 1935 –1945
20.
Major general
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Major general is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the rank of sergeant major general. In the Commonwealth, major general is equivalent to the rank of rear admiral. In some countries, including much of Eastern Europe, major general is the lowest of the officer ranks. In the old Austro-Hungarian Army, the general was called a Generalmajor. Todays Austrian Federal Army still uses the same term, see also Rank insignias of the Austro-Hungarian armed forces General de Brigade is the lowest rank amongst general officers in the Brazilian Army. AGeneral de Brigada wears two-stars as this is the level for general officers in the Brazilian Army. In tha Brazilian Air Force, the two-star, three-star and four-star rank are known as Brigadeiro, Major-Brigadeiro, see Military ranks of Brazil and Brigadier for more information. In the Canadian Armed Forces, the rank of major-general is both a Canadian Army and Royal Canadian Air Force rank equivalent to the Royal Canadian Navys rank of rear-admiral, a major-general is a general officer, the equivalent of a naval flag officer. The major-general rank is senior to the ranks of brigadier-general and commodore, prior to 1968, the Air Force used the rank of air vice-marshal, instead. In the Canadian Army, the insignia is a wide braid on the cuff. It is worn on the straps of the service dress tunic. On the visor of the cap are two rows of gold oak leaves. Major-generals are initially addressed as general and name, as are all general officers, major-generals are normally entitled to staff cars. In the Estonian military, the general rank is called kindralmajor. The Finnish military equivalent is kenraalimajuri in Finnish, and generalmajor in Swedish and Danish, the French equivalent to the rank of major general is général de division. In the French military, major général is not a rank but an appointment conferred on some generals, usually of général de corps darmée rank, the position of major général can be considered the equivalent of a deputy chief of staff. In the French Army, Major General is a position and the general is normally of the rank of corps general
21.
7th Panzer Division (Wehrmacht)
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The 7th Panzer Division was an armored formation of the German Army in World War II. It participated in the Battle of France, the invasion of the Soviet Union, the occupation of Vichy France, the division fought successfully in France in 1940, and then again in the Soviet Union in 1941. In May 1942, the division was withdrawn from the Soviet Union and sent back to France to replace losses and refit. The division fought in the offensive at Kursk in the summer of 1943, suffering heavy losses in men. Through 1944 and 1945, the division was understrength and continuously engaged in a series of defensive battles across the eastern front. It was twice evacuated by sea, leaving what was left of its equipment behind each time. After fighting defensively across Prussia and northern Germany, the men escaped into the forest. In October 1939, the 2nd Light Division became the 7th Panzer Division and it consisted of 218 tanks in three battalions, with two rifle regiments, a motorcycle battalion, an engineer battalion, and an anti-tank battalion. Newly promoted General Erwin Rommel, who had served on Hitlers staff during the Invasion of Poland, was able, with an intervention from Hitler, upon taking command on 10 February 1940, Rommel quickly set his unit to practicing the maneuvers they would need in the upcoming campaign. The invasion began on 10 May 1940, Rommel was active in the forward areas, directing the efforts to make a crossing, which were initially unsuccessful due to suppressive fire by the French on the other side of the river. By 16 May the division had reached his objective at Avesnes. On 20 May the division reached Arras, General Hermann Hoth received orders that the town should be bypassed and its British garrison thus isolated. He ordered the 5th Panzer Division to move to the west and 7th Panzer Division to the east, the following day the British launched a counterattack, deploying two infantry battalions supported by heavily armoured Matilda Mk I and Matilda II tanks in the Battle of Arras. The German 37 mm anti-tank gun proved ineffective against the heavily armoured Matildas, the 25th Panzer Regiment and a battery of 88 mm anti-aircraft guns were called in to support, and the British withdrew. On 24 May, Hitler issued a halt order, the reason for this decision is still a matter of debate. He may have overestimated the size of the British forces in the area, the halt order was lifted on 26 May. 7th Panzer continued its advance, reaching Lille on 27 May, for the assault, Hoth placed the 5th Panzer Division under Rommels command. The Siege of Lille continued until 31 May, when the French garrison of 40,000 men surrendered
22.
14th Infantry Division (Wehrmacht)
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The 14th Infantry Division was a German military unit which fought during World War II. The division was formed in 1934 in Leipzig, by expanding the 11th Infantry Regiment of the 4th Division of the old Reichswehr. As this was a breach of the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, its existence was initially concealed. This history, particularly of Infantry Regiment 11, made it one of the infantry divisions of the Wehrmacht. Mobilised in the 1st wave in 1939, the division was involved in the German invasion of Poland, where it attacked towards Częstochowa and Lublin, and the following years invasion of France. In October 1940 it was motorised, i. e. provided with motor transport as opposed to the horse and foot mobility of Wehrmacht infantry divisions. 1944 saw the division transferred to 3rd Panzer Army, some elements made a last stand around Bogushevsk before being overwhelmed, Infantry Regiment 11 was left as a rearguard on the road to Minsk. Only a handful of troops were able to retreat to the German lines, the division was eventually destroyed in fighting in the kessel, most of its surviving troops entering Soviet captivity, while a few were evacuated via the Frisches Haff. Das Heer vom Beginn des Feldzuges gegen die Sowjetunion bis zum Kriegsende, mittler, Frankfurt am Main 1969, p.285. Georg Tessin, Verbände und Truppen der deutschen Wehrmacht und Waffen-SS im Zweiten Weltkrieg,1939 -1945, vol. III, Die Landstreitkräfte 6 -14
23.
VI Army Corps (Wehrmacht)
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The VI Corps was an infantry corps in the German Army. It fought in several actions during World War II. The corps was formed around the 6th Division of the Reichswehr in October 1934 in Münster. Organisation, 15th and 205th Infantry Divisions Under the command of Otto-Wilhelm Förster, the Corps took part in the Nazi Invasion of France, for the remainder of the year it was stationed on the coast as part of the occupation forces. As part of the Ninth Army, it took part in the series of battles in the Rzhev salient throughout 1942. During the fighting in the Rzhev salient, the population of the area suffered greatly from starvation, partly due to the requisition of stocks by the Wehrmacht. Many civilians were deported as forced labour, between May and July 1942 alone VI Corps itself deported over 4,000 civilians in this manner. The town of Rzhev lost 93% of its population in just thirteen months, in the winter of 1943-44, now assigned to Third Panzer Army, it took part in the defensive battles around Vitebsk. The commanders of the 256th and 197th Divisions, Wustenhagen and Hahne, were also killed, most of their 40-50,000 troops met a similar fate. In mid-July the scratch formation Sperrgruppe Weidling, which included remnants of some of the units of VI Corps, was renamed as VI Corps. The Corps took part in the defence against the Russian strategic operations for the remainder of the summer. It was encircled in the Heiligenbeil pocket on the Baltic coast, and destroyed there in March
24.
6th Infantry Division (Wehrmacht)
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The 6th Infantry Division was a unit of the German Army during World War II. Formed in October 1934 from Infanterieführer V in Bielefeld, the division was mobilized on 26 August 1939 for the invasion of Poland. In 1944 the division was first renamed 6, the division was destroyed during the Soviet Vistula–Oder Offensive in January 1945 and reestablished as 6. Infanterie-Division using elements of Shadow Division Dresden, das Heer vom Beginn des Feldzuges gegen die Sowjetunion bis zum Kriegsende. Mittler, Frankfurt am Main 1969, p.285, georg Tessin, Verbände und Truppen der deutschen Wehrmacht und Waffen-SS im Zweiten Weltkrieg,1939 –1945. Vol. III, Die Landstreitkräfte 6 –14
25.
Helge Auleb
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Helge Arthur Auleb was a German general of infantry, serving during World War II. Auleb commanded the 6. Infanterie-Division as part of VI, armeekorps during Operation Typhoon in October 1941. He received the German Cross in Gold on 26 December 1941, German Cross in Gold on 26 December 1941 as Generalleutnant in the 6. Infanterie-Division 1914 Iron Cross 2nd Class & 1st Class 1939 Clasp to the Iron Cross 2nd Class & 1st Class
26.
26th Infantry Division (Wehrmacht)
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The 26th Infantry Division was a pre-World War II German Infantry Division of the 1st mobilisation wave. Remnants of the Division entered U. S. captivity in the Harz region in 1945, the division was transferred to the Eastern Front in June 1941 to serve under Army Group Centre. It participated in the Battle of Kursk in July 1943, after this action the 26th Infantry Division absorbed the 174th Reserve Division. The division was disbanded after casualties were sustained near Kowel on September 10,1944, a new 26th Volksgrenadier Division was formed on September 17,1944 in the Warthelager, near Poznań by absorption of the 582nd Volksgrenadier Division and remnants of the old 26th Infantry Division. This new division spent the rest of the war on the Western Front under Army Group B until it entered U. S. captivity in the Harz in 1945, das Heer vom Beginn des Feldzuges gegen die Sowjetunion bis zum Kriegsende. Verbände und Truppen der deutschen Wehrmacht und Waffen-SS im Zweiten Weltkrieg,1939 -1945, vol. IV, Die Landstreitkräfte 15 -30
27.
110th Infantry Division (Wehrmacht)
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The 110th Infantry division was formed in April 1940 in Lüneburg, Germany under the 11. Armee and was commanded by Generalleutnant Ernst Seifert, until June 1941 and the commencement of Operation Barbarossa on the 22nd day of that month, it was stationed in Poland. The division was destroyed by Soviet forces in July 1944, the division itself consisted of three infantry regiments and an artillery regiment
28.
Barysaw
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Barysaw is a city in Belarus situated near the Berezina River in the Minsk Region. Barysaw is first mentioned in the Laurentian Codex as being founded in 1102 by the Polotsk prince Rogvolod Vseslavich, during the next couple of centuries it was burned and then rebuilt slightly south of its original location. At the end of the 13th century it became a part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, in 1569 it became part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, and then became part of the Russian Empire in 1793 as a result of the Second Partition of Poland. At that time, Barysaw was an uyezd town, in 1812, Barysaw became a crucial location when Napoleons troops crossed the Berezina river. The French feinted a crossing at the town itself, but successfully escaped the pursuing armies by building two bridges north of the city, at Studianka. This event is reenacted by military locals during town festivals, a cannon from the Napoleonic era is kept by the towns museum. In 1871, the railway between Brest and Moscow passed near Barysaw, and a station was built there, in 1900 the area around the station was annexed the town. In November 1917 the area became a part of Soviet Russia but was occupied by Germany, during World War II, Barysaw was occupied by Nazi Germany from July 2,1941, to July 1,1944, and most of the city was destroyed. More than 33,000 people were killed in six death camps which were constructed around the town. Since May 1948 the city has been home to the headquarters of the 7th Tank Army, in 2000s the Head of City Administration, or Mayor, was Vassily Burgun. After World War II Barysaw became an industrial centre, and as of 2002 there are 41 large factories, whose goods are exported to Russia, the CIS. The railroad is still an important artery, but now it is powered by overhead electric lines, the total industrial staff reaches 31019 people. Railway station, international road, Ispolkom, military staff and central place are in the new part. As usual for this region, families live mostly in flats in large, modern apartment buildings, the water comes from an artesian well and is very clean and healthy. President of the Republic of Belarus Lukashenko January 9,2009 has assigned Vladimir Miranovich to the position of Head of Regional Administration, borisovskiye Novosti newspaper, privately owned independent media on both languages. A recent scandal related to an attempt by the Mayor to stop distribution of the paper and they have won the Belarusian Premier League 13 times, and competed in the UEFA Cup and UEFA Champions League. There is also a basketball team Berezina-RCOR. European basketball championship for women was organized in Barysaw, Barysaw is twinned with, Kapan, Armenia Narva, Estonia Podolsk, Russia Pazardzhik, Bulgaria Website of the City of Barysaw Barysaw Online Photos of Borisov Uyezd by Prokudin-Gorsky Rayispolkom
29.
Lithuania
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Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in Northern Europe. One of the three Baltic states, it is situated along the shore of the Baltic Sea, to the east of Sweden. It is bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, Poland to the south, Lithuania has an estimated population of 2.9 million people as of 2015, and its capital and largest city is Vilnius. The official language, Lithuanian, along with Latvian, is one of two living languages in the Baltic branch of the Indo-European language family. For centuries, the shores of the Baltic Sea were inhabited by various Baltic tribes. In the 1230s, the Lithuanian lands were united by Mindaugas, the King of Lithuania, and the first unified Lithuanian state, with the Lublin Union of 1569, Lithuania and Poland formed a voluntary two-state union, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The Commonwealth lasted more than two centuries, until neighboring countries systematically dismantled it from 1772–95, with the Russian Empire annexing most of Lithuanias territory. As World War I neared its end, Lithuanias Act of Independence was signed on 16 February 1918, in the midst of the Second World War, Lithuania was first occupied by the Soviet Union and then by Nazi Germany. As World War II neared its end and the Germans retreated, Lithuania is a member of the European Union, the Council of Europe, a full member of the Eurozone, Schengen Agreement and NATO. It is also a member of the Nordic Investment Bank, the United Nations Human Development Index lists Lithuania as a very high human development country. Lithuania has been among the fastest growing economies in the European Union and is ranked 21st in the world in the Ease of Doing Business Index, the first people settled in the territory of Lithuania after the last glacial period in the 10th millennium BC. Over a millennium, the Indo-Europeans, who arrived in the 3rd – 2nd millennium BC, mixed with the local population, the first written mention of Lithuania is found in a medieval German manuscript, the Annals of Quedlinburg, in an entry dated 9 March 1009. Initially inhabited by fragmented Baltic tribes, in the 1230s the Lithuanian lands were united by Mindaugas, after his assassination in 1263, pagan Lithuania was a target of the Christian crusades of the Teutonic Knights and the Livonian Order. Despite the devastating century-long struggle with the Orders, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania expanded rapidly, by the end of the 14th century, Lithuania was one of the largest countries in Europe and included present-day Belarus, Ukraine, and parts of Poland and Russia. The geopolitical situation between the west and the east determined the multicultural and multi-confessional character of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the ruling elite practised religious tolerance and Chancery Slavonic language was used as an auxiliary language to the Latin for official documents. In 1385, the Grand Duke Jogaila accepted Polands offer to become its king, Jogaila embarked on gradual Christianization of Lithuania and established a personal union between Poland and Lithuania. It implied that Lithuania, the fiercely independent land, was one of the last pagan areas of Europe to adopt Christianity, after two civil wars, Vytautas the Great became the Grand Duke of Lithuania in 1392. During his reign, Lithuania reached the peak of its expansion, centralization of the state began
30.
Courland
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Courland or Kurzeme is one of the historical and cultural regions of Latvia. The regions of Semigallia and Selonia are sometimes considered as part of Courland as they were held by the same duke. Situated in western Latvia, Courland roughly corresponds to the former Latvian districts of Kuldīga, Liepāja, Saldus, Talsi, Tukums, when combined with Semigallia and Selonia, Courlands northeastern boundary is the river Daugava, which separates it from the regions of Latgale and Vidzeme. To the north, Courlands coast lies along the Gulf of Riga, on the west it is bordered by the Baltic Sea, and on the south by Lithuania. It lies between 55° 45′ and 57° 45′ North and 21° and 27° East, the area comprises 27,286 km², of which 262 km² is made up of lakes. The landscape generally has a low and undulating character, with flat, the interior features wooded dunes, covered with pine, spruce, birch, and oak, with swamps and lakes, and fertile patches between. Courlands elevation never rises more than 213 m above sea level, the Jelgava plain divides Courland into two parts, the western side, which is fertile and densely inhabited, except in the north, and the eastern side, less fertile and thinly inhabited. Nearly one hundred rivers drain Courland, but only three of these rivers – the Daugava, the Lielupe and the Venta – are navigable and they all flow northwestward and discharge into the Baltic Sea. Owing to its numerous lakes and marshes, Courland has a damp, often foggy, in ancient times the Curonians, a pagan tribe, inhabited Courland. The Brethren of the Sword, a German military order, subdued the Curonians, in 1237 the area passed into the rule of the Teutonic Knights owing to the amalgamation of this order with that of the Brethren of the Sword. The Livonian Confederation was a loosely organized confederation formed by the German-led Livonian Order and it existed from 1228 to the 1560s, when it was dismembered during the Livonian Wars. The Duchy of Courland and Semigallia was a semi-independent duchy that existed from 1561 until 1795, encompassing the areas of Courland, although nominally a vassal state of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the dukes operated autonomously. In the 18th century Russia acquired great influence over the Duchy, in 1795, the last Duke, Peter von Biron, ceded the Duchy to the Russian Empire. The former Bishopric of Courland was directly incorporated into the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth as the Piltyń County of the Wenden, after annexation by the Russian Empire, the territory of the former Duchy formed the Courland Governorate. From the time of the Northern Crusades in the early 13th century, in 1863, the Russian authorities issued laws to enable Latvians, who formed the bulk of the population, to acquire the farms which they held, and special banks were founded to help them. By this means, some occupants bought their farms, but the mass of the population remained landless. Agriculture was the occupation, with the principal crops being rye, barley, oats, wheat, flax. The large estates conducted agriculture with skill and scientific knowledge, excellent breeds of cattle, sheep and pigs were kept
31.
Army Group Vistula
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Army Group Vistula was an Army Group of the Wehrmacht, formed on 24 January 1945. It was put together elements of Army Group A, Army Group Centre. It was formed to protect Berlin from the Soviet armies advancing from the Vistula River, heinz Guderian had originally urged the creation of a new army group as an essentially defensive measure to fill the gap opening in German defences between the lower Vistula and the lower Oder. The new Army Group Vistula was duly formed from an assortment of rebuilt, new, Guderian intended to propose Field-Marshal Maximilian von Weichs as commander. However, in a reflection of Hitlers desire to control of the conflict from the Wehrmacht to the SS. This now held lines on the Oder and was progressively rebuilt, the Second Army of Colonel-General Walter Weiss, which as part of Army Group Centre had been defending the line of the Narew river on the borders of East Prussia. The East Prussian Offensive had cut it off from the remnants of its parent formation and it therefore formed the new army groups northern and eastern flank. The Eleventh SS Panzer Army was a new formation which had assembled in western Pomerania. Soon after its formation it received the staff of the Third Panzer Army, during the East Pomeranian Offensive, the Second Army was finally cut off from the remainder of the army group and withdrew into Danzig, where it was eventually destroyed. The rest of Army Group Vistula was forced west of the Oder, towards the end of April, the Twenty-First Army was added to Army Group Vistula
32.
Hasso von Manteuffel
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Hasso-Eccard Freiherr von Manteuffel was a German general during World War II. He was one of only 27 holders of the Knights Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds, after the war, he was elected to the Bundestag and was the spokesman for defense of the Liberal Party. A proponent of rearmament, he was responsible for coining the new name for the post-World War II German armed forces, hasso von Manteuffel began his military career during the First World War. In 1919, he joined the Freikorps and then the newly created Reichswehr, in February 1937 he joined the Panzer Troop Command of the OKH, and in February 1939 became a senior professor at Panzer Troop School II in Berlin. During Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union, Manteuffel commanded a battalion in the 7th Panzer Division, in early 1943, Manteuffel was sent to Africa, where on 5 February he became the commander of the Division von Broich/von Manteuffel, serving in 5th Panzer Army. Here Manteuffel took part in the Battle of Tunisia, the division retreated during the resulting Battle of the Dnieper. Manteuffel was appointed commander of the Grossdeutschland Division on 1 February 1944, the division engaged the Red Army west of Kirovograd, then retreated across Ukraine. In late July Großdeutschland was ordered to East Prussia, following the collapse of Army Group Centre in Soviet Operation Bagration, the division failed to break through to the Army Group North in the Courland Pocket. On 1 September 1944, Manteuffel was promoted to General of Panzer Troops and given command of the 5th Panzer Army on the Western Front, which took part in the Ardennes Offensive. Manteuffel’s 5th Panzer Army achieved one of the deepest penetrations of Allied lines during the offensive, almost reaching the Meuse River, on 10 March 1945 Manteuffel was made the commander of the 3rd Panzer Army on the Eastern Front, attached to Army Group Vistula. His army was assigned to defend the banks of the Oder River north of the Seelow Heights, on 25 April the Soviet 2nd Belorussian Front broke through Third Panzer Armys line, forcing a German retreat. On 3 May 1945 Manteuffel surrendered his troops to the British Army at Hagenow, at first Manteuffel was interned at the British-administered Island Farm Special Camp 11 for high-ranking Wehrmacht officers. In 1946 he was handed over to the Americans and took part in the U. S. Army Historical Division project, for which he produced a monograph on the mobile warfare aspect of the Ardennes Offensive. After his release in December 1946, he entered politics and was a representative of the Free Democratic Party of Germany in the German Bundestag from 1953 to 1957, in 1957 he joined the German Party. In the early 1950s Manteuffel advised on the redevelopment of the Bundeswehr, Manteuffel was charged in 1959 for having a deserter shot in 1944. He was convicted and sentenced to two years in prison, in 1968 he lectured at the United States Military Academy at West Point, speaking about combat in deep snow conditions and worked as a technical adviser on war films. Panzer-Division 50th Swords on 22 February 1944 as Generalleutnant and commander of the 7, panzer-Division 24th Diamonds on 18 February 1945 as General der Panzertruppe and commander-in-chief of 5
33.
Oder
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The Oder is a river in Central Europe. It rises in the Czech Republic and flows through western Poland, the river ultimately flows into the Szczecin Lagoon north of Szczecin and then into three branches that empty into the Gulf of Pomerania of the Baltic Sea. Ptolemy knew the modern Oder as the Συήβος – a name derived from the Suebi. While he also refers to an outlet in the area as the Οὐιαδούα Ouiadoua, the name Suebos may be preserved in the modern name of the Świna river – an outlet from the Szczecin Lagoon to the Baltic. In the Old Church Slavonic language, the name of the river is Vjodr, the Oder is 854 kilometres long,112 km in the Czech Republic,742 km in Poland and is the second longest river in Poland. It drains a basin of 118,861 square kilometres,106,056 km2 of which are in Poland,7,217 km2 in the Czech Republic, channels connect it to the Havel, Spree, Vistula system and Kłodnica. It flows through Silesian, Opole, Lower Silesian, Lubusz, and West Pomeranian voivodeships of Poland, the main branch empties into the Szczecin Lagoon near Police, Poland. The Szczecin Lagoon is bordered on the north by the islands of Usedom, between these two islands, there is only a narrow channel going to the Bay of Pomerania, which forms a part of the Baltic Sea. The largest city on the Oder is Wrocław, in Lower Silesia, the Oder is navigable over a large part of its total length, as far upstream as the town of Koźle, where the river connects to the Gliwice Canal. The upstream part of the river is canalized and permits larger barges to navigate between the sites around the Wrocław area. Further downstream the river is flowing, passing the towns of Eisenhüttenstadt. Downstream of Frankfurt the river Warta forms a connection with Poznań. At Hohensaaten the Oder–Havel Canal connects with the Berlin waterways again, near its mouth the Oder reaches the city of Szczecin, a major maritime port. The river finally reaches the Baltic Sea through the Szczecin Lagoon, the river in Germania Magna was known to the Romans as the Viadrus or Viadua in Classical Latin, as it was a branch of the Amber Road from the Baltic Sea to the Roman Empire. In German language it was and is called the Oder, written in older records as Odera or Oddera in Medieval Latin documents and it was mentioned in the Dagome iudex, which described territory of the Duchy of Poland under Mieszko I of Poland ca. 990, as a part of western frontier. Before Slavs settled along its banks, Oder was an important trade route, a document of the Bishopric of Prague mentions Zlasane, Trebovyane, Poborane, and Dedositze in Silesia. In the 13th century, the first dams were built to protect agricultural lands, the Finow Canal, built for the first time in 1605, connects Oder and Havel
34.
Western Pomerania
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The name Pomerania comes from Slavic po more, which means Land at the Sea. The adjective for the region is Pomeranian, inhabitants are called Pomeranians, forming part of the southern coast of the Baltic Sea, Western Pomeranias boundaries have changed through the centuries and it belonged to countries such as Poland, Sweden, Denmark, and Prussia. Before 1945, it embraced the whole area of Pomerania west of the Oder River, today the cities of Szczecin, Świnoujście and Police are part of Poland, with the remainder of the region staying part of Germany. German Vorpommern now forms about one-third of the present-day north-eastern state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, German Western Pomerania had a population of about 470,000 in 2012 - while the Polish districts of the region had a population of about 520,000 in 2012. So overall, about 1 million people live in the region of Western Pomerania today. Towns on the German side include Damgarten, Bergen, Anklam, Wolgast, Demmin, Pasewalk, Grimmen, Sassnitz, Ueckermünde, Torgelow, the German prefix Vor- denotes a location closer to the speaker, and is the equivalent of Hither in English and Citerior/Cis- in Latin. Historically the name Hither Pomerania has been used, but in modern English the German region is commonly called Western Pomerania or by its native name. The local dialect term is Low German, Vörpommern, the toponym Pomerania comes from Slavic po more, which means Land at the Sea. Poland has both a historic and geographic term Western Pomerania as well as a province called West Pomerania, the major feature of Western Pomerania is its long Baltic Sea and lagoons coastline. Typical is a distinct double coast, whereby offshore islands separate lagoons from the open sea, the islands Rügen and Usedom are located in Western Pomerania The largest town in Western Pomerania is Szczecin on the Polish side and Stralsund on the German side. Today it is still an important town economically, the towns of Stralsund and Greifswald together, after Rostock, are the second largest centres of population in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. In addition the region has the highest population density of the four planning regions in the state, consideration was given during an unsuccessful district reform project in 1994 to restoring the old boundary, but this was not implemented. The Ribnitz, Marlow and Fischland area of Vorpommern-Rügen were historically part of Mecklenburg, the old western boundary line is preserved in the division between the two Protestant church bodies of the Evangelical Lutheran State Church of Mecklenburg and the Pomeranian Evangelical Church. Major cities and towns in Vorpommern include Stralsund, Greifswald, Bergen auf Rügen, Demmin, Anklam, Wolgast, Sassnitz, heringsdorf does not have city rights, but is a semi-urban center. With Polish entry into the European Union and the opening of borders and you can sort the table of the 20 largest towns by clicking one of the upper columns. Popular tourist resorts can be all along the Baltic beaches of the Fischland-Darß-Zingst peninsula. The old Haneseatic towns are popular tourist destinations due to their brick gothic medieval architecture. In Mukran near Sassnitz on Rügen, there is a ferry terminal linking Western Pomerania to Sweden, Denmark, Lithuania
35.
Berlin
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Berlin is the capital and the largest city of Germany as well as one of its constituent 16 states. With a population of approximately 3.5 million, Berlin is the second most populous city proper, due to its location in the European Plain, Berlin is influenced by a temperate seasonal climate. Around one-third of the area is composed of forests, parks, gardens, rivers. Berlin in the 1920s was the third largest municipality in the world, following German reunification in 1990, Berlin once again became the capital of all-Germany. Berlin is a city of culture, politics, media. Its economy is based on high-tech firms and the sector, encompassing a diverse range of creative industries, research facilities, media corporations. Berlin serves as a hub for air and rail traffic and has a highly complex public transportation network. The metropolis is a popular tourist destination, significant industries also include IT, pharmaceuticals, biomedical engineering, clean tech, biotechnology, construction and electronics. Modern Berlin is home to world renowned universities, orchestras, museums and its urban setting has made it a sought-after location for international film productions. The city is known for its festivals, diverse architecture, nightlife, contemporary arts. Since 2000 Berlin has seen the emergence of a cosmopolitan entrepreneurial scene, the name Berlin has its roots in the language of West Slavic inhabitants of the area of todays Berlin, and may be related to the Old Polabian stem berl-/birl-. All German place names ending on -ow, -itz and -in, since the Ber- at the beginning sounds like the German word Bär, a bear appears in the coat of arms of the city. It is therefore a canting arm, the first written records of towns in the area of present-day Berlin date from the late 12th century. Spandau is first mentioned in 1197 and Köpenick in 1209, although these areas did not join Berlin until 1920, the central part of Berlin can be traced back to two towns. Cölln on the Fischerinsel is first mentioned in a 1237 document,1237 is considered the founding date of the city. The two towns over time formed close economic and social ties, and profited from the right on the two important trade routes Via Imperii and from Bruges to Novgorod. In 1307, they formed an alliance with a common external policy, in 1415 Frederick I became the elector of the Margraviate of Brandenburg, which he ruled until 1440. In 1443 Frederick II Irontooth started the construction of a new palace in the twin city Berlin-Cölln
36.
Konstantin Rokossovsky
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Konstantin Konstantinovich Rokossovsky was a Soviet officer of Polish origin who became Marshal of the Soviet Union, Marshal of Poland and served as Polands Defence Minister. Rokossovsky was born in Warsaw, then part of Congress Poland under Russian rule and his family had moved to Warsaw following the appointment of his father as the inspector of the Warsaw Railways. The Rokossovsky family were members of the Polish nobility, and over generations had produced many cavalry officers, however, Konstantins father, Ksawery Wojciech Rokossowski, was a railway official in the Russian empire and his Belarusian mother Antonina Ovsyannikova was a teacher. Orphaned at 14, Rokossovsky earned a living by working in a stocking factory, in 1911, he became an apprentice stonemason. Much later in his life, the government of Peoples Republic of Poland used this fact for propaganda and he was wounded twice during the war and awarded the Cross of St George. In 1917, he joined the Bolshevik Party and soon thereafter, Rokossovsky received Soviet Russias highest military decoration at the time, the Order of the Red Banner. In 1921 he commanded the 35th Independent Cavalry Regiment stationed in Irkutsk and played an important role in bringing Damdin Sükhbaatar, Rokossovsky was again wounded, this time in the leg. The combined Mongol and Soviet forces soon thereafter captured Ulaanbaatar and it was in Mongolia that he met his wife Julia Barminan, a high school teacher who was fluent in four languages and who had studied Greek mythology, whom he married in 1923. Their daughter Ariadna was born in 1925, in 1924 and 1925 he attended the Leningrad Higher Cavalry School, where he first met Georgy Zhukov. He returned to Mongolia, where he was a trainer for the Mongolian Peoples Army, both became principal actors in his life during World War II, where he served directly under both at different times. Often demonstrates initiative and skillfully applies it, demanding and persistent in his demands. A somewhat ungracious and not sufficiently sympathetic person, broadly experienced as a military leader. Absolutely cannot be used in staff or teaching jobs because constitutionally he hates them, Rokossovsky was among the first to realize the potential of armoured assault. He was a supporter of the creation of a strong armoured corps for the Red Army. Rokossovsky held senior commands until August 1937 when he caught up in Joseph Stalins Great Purge. Tchaikovsky who, like Rokossovsky, served in the far east in the early 1930s and he described Rokossovskys refusal to sign a false confession, Those who refused to sign a false statement were beaten up, as long as the false statement was not signed. There were steadfast people who stubbornly did not sign, K. K. Rokossovsky, as he sat with me in the same cell did not sign a false statement. But he was a brave and strong man, tall and broad-shouldered, but my grandfather knew very well that Yushkevich died in Perekop
Nazi Germany
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