1.
Nazi Germany
–
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
Nazi Germany
–
Hitler became Germany's head of state, with the title of
Führer und Reichskanzler, in 1934.
Nazi Germany
–
Flag
Nazi Germany
–
Joseph Goebbels,
Reich Minister of Propaganda
Nazi Germany
–
Ethnic Germans in
Saaz, Czechoslovakia, greet German soldiers with the
Nazi salute, 1938
2.
German Army (Wehrmacht)
–
The German Army was the land forces component of the Wehrmacht, the regular German Armed Forces, from 1935 until it was demobilized and later dissolved in August 1946. The Wehrmacht also included the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe, during World War II, a total of about 13 million soldiers served in the German Army. Only 17 months after Adolf Hitler announced publicly the rearmament program, during the autumn of 1937, two more corps were formed. In 1938, four corps were formed with the inclusion of the five divisions of the Austrian Army after the Anschluss in March. During the period of its expansion by Adolf Hitler, the German Army continued to develop concepts pioneered during World War I, combining ground, the German Army entered the war with a majority of its infantry formations relying on horse-drawn transport. The infantry remained foot soldiers throughout the war, artillery also remained primarily horse-drawn, however their motorized and tank formations accounted for only 20% of the Heers capacity at their peak strength. The armys lack of trucks was a handicap to infantry movement especially during. Panzer movements also depended upon rail, driving a tank over 150 kilometers wore out its tracks, the Oberkommando des Heeres was Germanys Army High Command from 1936 to 1945. In theory the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht served as the military General Staff for the German Reichs armed forces, in practice OKW acted in a subordinate role as Hitlers personal military staff, translating his ideas into military plans and orders, and issuing them to the three services. However, as the war progressed the OKW found itself exercising increasing amounts of direct command authority over military units and this created a situation where by 1943 the OKW was the de facto command of Western Theatre forces while the Army High Command is the same on the Eastern Front. The Abwehr was the Army intelligence organization from 1921 to 1944, the term Abwehr was used as a concession to Allied demands that Germanys post-World War I intelligence activities be for defensive purposes only. After 4 February 1938, its title was Overseas Department/Office in Defence of the Armed Forces High Command, the method OKW adopted was to separate the Field Army from the Home Command, and to entrust the responsibilities of training, conscription, supply and equipment to Home Command. The German Army was mainly structured in Army groups consisting of several armies that were relocated, restructured or renamed in the course of the war, Forces or allied states as well as units made up of non-Germans were also assigned to German units. The army used the German term Kampfgruppe which equates to the English combat group or battle group and these provisional combat groupings ranged from an Army Corps size such as Army Detachment Kempf to commands composed of several companies and even platoons. They were named for their commanding officers, German operational doctrine emphasized sweeping pincer and lateral movements meant to destroy the enemy forces as quickly as possible. This approach, referred to as Blitzkrieg, was an operational doctrine instrumental in the success of the offensives in Poland, the military strength of the German army was managed through mission-based tactics, and an almost proverbial discipline. Once an operation began, whether offensive or defensive, speed in response to changing circumstances was considered more important than careful planning and coordination of new plans. These technologies were featured by propaganda, but were only available in small numbers or late in the war, as overall supplies of raw materials
German Army (Wehrmacht)
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Adolf Hitler with generals
Keitel,
Paulus and
von Brauchitsch, discussing the situation on the
Eastern Front in October 1941
German Army (Wehrmacht)
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Balkenkreuz, a stylized version of the
Iron Cross, used after
Operation Weserübung on Army vehicles
German Army (Wehrmacht)
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German soldiers in Greece, April 1941
German Army (Wehrmacht)
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An ex-Soviet volunteer, serving in the German army on the Eastern Front, January 1943
3.
Panzer
–
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
Panzer
–
Leopard 2A5 of the
German Army
Panzer
–
Two
Panzer IIIs during the
Battle of Greece, April 1941
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
Armoured warfare
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Modern American and French armoured vehicles during an exercise
Armoured warfare
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A
Renault FT tank with 37mm cannon
Armoured warfare
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A
German Tiger I tank in combat during the
Battle of Kursk in 1943
Armoured warfare
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A T-34-85 tank on display at
Musée des Blindés in April 2007.
5.
Division (military)
–
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
Division (military)
–
A
Priest 105mm self-propelled gun of British 3rd Infantry Division, 1944
Division (military)
–
Standard
NATO symbol for an infantry division. The Xs do not replace the division's number; instead, the two Xs represent a division (one would denote a brigade; three, a corps).
Division (military)
–
Members of the Australian 6th Division at
Tobruk, 22 January 1941
Division (military)
–
British soldiers from the 1st Armoured Division engage Iraqi Army positions with their 81mm Mortar in Iraq, 26 March 2003.
6.
Military district (Germany)
–
The Field Army was separate from the Home Command. The responsibilities of training, conscription, supply, and equipment were entrusted to the Home Command, in peacetime, the Wehrkreis was the home to the army corps of the same number and all subordinate units of that formation. The corps commander also commanded the Wehrkreis, Command of the Wehrkreis passed to the corps second-in-command at the outbreak of war. Before the start of the war, there were also four Motorized Army Corps and these had no corresponding military districts, but were served by the districts in which Corps headquarters or subordinate formations had their Home Garrison Stations. Armeekorps Each Wehrkreis controlled Wehrbezirk Hauptquartier and Wehrersatzbezirk Hauptquartier and these in turn controlled Bereich Hauptsitze, which controlled Unterregion Hauptsitze. At the start of the war, there were fifteen Districts in Germany, during the war, four were added, and some Districts had territory added to them from other countries conquered by Germany. XX - Danzig XXI - Posen Two additional Wehrkreise were established after the conquest of Poland, Wehrkreis General-Government controlled the remainder of Poland. Wehrkreis Böhmen-Mähren controlled the so-called Protectorate of Bohemia-Moravia, those parts of the Czech lands not part of the Sudetenland, hogg, Ian V. German Order of Battle 1944, The Regiments, Formations and Units of the German Ground Forces London
Military district (Germany)
–
The Wehrkreise after the
Anschluss
Military district (Germany)
–
Map of the Wehrkreise in 1943-1944
7.
Wuppertal
–
Wuppertal is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located in and around the river Wupper valley, and is situated east of the city of Düsseldorf, with a population of approximately 350,000, it is the largest city in the Bergisches Land. Wuppertal is known for its steep slopes, its woods and parks, and its suspension railway and it is the greenest city of Germany with two-thirds green space of the total municipal area of Wuppertal. From any part of the city, it is only a walk to one of the public parks or woodland paths. During the 18th and 19th centuries, the Wupper valley was one of the largest industrial regions of continental Europe, the increasing demand for coal from the textile mills and blacksmith shops encouraged the expansion of the nearby Ruhrgebiet. Wuppertal still is an industrial centre, being home to industries such as textiles, metallurgy, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, electronics, automobiles, rubber, vehicles. Aspirin originates from Wuppertal, patented in 1897 by Bayer, as is the Vorwerk-Kobold vacuum cleaner, the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy and the European Institute for International Economic Relations are located in the city. Wuppertal in its present borders was formed in 1929 by merging the cities of Barmen and Elberfeld with the communities Vohwinkel, Ronsdorf, Cronenberg, Langerfeld. The initial name Barmen-Elberfeld was changed in a 1930 referendum to Wuppertal, the new city was administered as part of the Prussian Rhine Province. Uniquely for Germany, it is a city, owing to the steep hillsides along the River Wupper. Its highest hill is the Lichtscheid, which is 351 metres above sea level, the dominant urban centres Elberfeld and Barmen have formed a continuous urbanized area since 1850. During the succeeding decades, “Wupper-Town” became the dominant industrial agglomeration of northwestern Germany, during the 20th century, this conurbation had been surpassed by Cologne, Düsseldorf, and the Ruhr area, all with a more favourable topography. From July 5,1933 to January 19,1934, the Kemna concentration camp was established in Wuppertal and it was one of the early Nazi concentration camps, created by the Third Reich to incarcerate their political opponents after the Nazi Party first gained power in 1933. The camp was established in a factory on the Wupper river in the Kemna neighborhood of the Barmen part of Wuppertal. Wuppertal is famous as an important place of resistance in Germany, the Barmen Declaration or The Theological Declaration of Barmen was a document adopted by Christians in Nazi Germany who opposed the Deutsche Christen philosophy. During World War II, about 40% of buildings in the city were destroyed by Allied bombing, as were many other German cities and industrial centres. However, a number of historic sites have been preserved, such as, Ölberg, literally “Oil mountain”. The name came about during the 1920s as the district continued using oil lamps while the surrounding bourgeois residential quarters were electrified, in traditional use, the name Ölberg refers to the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem
Wuppertal
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View of Wuppertal
Wuppertal
–
The Schwebebahn floating tram in Wuppertal-Barmen
Wuppertal
–
Sankt Laurentius church in Wuppertal
Wuppertal
–
The Schwebebahn in Wuppertal-Elberfeld
8.
World War II
–
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
World War II
–
Clockwise from top left: Chinese forces in the
Battle of Wanjialing, Australian
25-pounder guns during the
First Battle of El Alamein, German
Stuka dive bombers on the
Eastern Front in December 1943, a U.S. naval force in the
Lingayen Gulf,
Wilhelm Keitel signing the
German Instrument of Surrender, Soviet troops in the
Battle of Stalingrad
World War II
–
The
League of Nations assembly, held in
Geneva,
Switzerland, 1930
World War II
–
Adolf Hitler at a German
National Socialist political rally in
Weimar, October 1930
World War II
–
Italian soldiers recruited in 1935, on their way to fight the
Second Italo-Abyssinian War
9.
Invasion of Poland
–
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
Invasion of Poland
–
Vyacheslav Molotov signs the
Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, a German–Soviet non-aggression pact.
Invasion of Poland
–
From left to right:
Luftwaffe preparing to bomb
Wieluń,
SMS Schleswig-Holstein attacking the port of
Danzig,
Wehrmacht soldiers destroying the Polish-German border post, German tank and armored car formation, German and Soviet troops shaking hands following the invasion,
Bombing of Warsaw.
Invasion of Poland
–
Polish Infantry
Invasion of Poland
–
Polish
PZL.37 Łoś medium bomber
10.
Battle of Belgium
–
It took place over 18 days in May 1940 and ended with the German occupation of Belgium following the surrender of the Belgian Army. On 10 May 1940, Germany invaded Luxembourg, the Netherlands, the Allied armies attempted to halt the German Army in Belgium, believing it to be the main German thrust. The German Army reached the Channel after five days, encircling the Allied armies, the Germans gradually reduced the pocket of Allied forces, forcing them back to the sea. The Belgian Army surrendered on 28 May 1940, ending the battle, the Battle of Belgium included the first tank battle of the war, the Battle of Hannut. It was the largest tank battle in history at the time but was surpassed by the battles of the North African Campaign. The battle also included the Battle of Fort Eben-Emael, the first strategic airborne operation using paratroopers ever attempted, the German official history stated that in the 18 days of bitter fighting, the Belgian Army were tough opponents, and spoke of the extraordinary bravery of its soldiers. The Belgian collapse forced the Allied withdrawal from continental Europe, France reached its own armistice with Germany in June 1940. Belgium was occupied by the Germans until the autumn of 1944, the Belgian strategy for a defence against German aggression faced political as well as military problems. In terms of strategy, the Belgians were unwilling to stake everything on a linear defence of the Belgian–German border. Such a move would leave the Belgians vulnerable to a German assault in their rear, such a strategy would also rely on the French to move quickly into Belgium and support the garrison there. Politically, the Belgians did not trust the French, marshal Philippe Pétain had suggested a French strike at Germanys Ruhr area using Belgium as a spring-board in October 1930 and again in January 1933. Belgium feared it would be drawn into a war regardless, the Belgians also feared being drawn into a war as a result of the French–Soviet pact of May 1935. The Franco-Belgian agreement stipulated Belgium was to if the Germans did. The Belgians much preferred an alliance with the United Kingdom, the British had entered the First World War in response to the German violation of Belgian neutrality. But the British government paid little attention to the concerns of the Belgians, the lack of this commitment ensured the Belgian withdrawal from the Western Alliance, the day before the remilitarisation of the Rhineland. The lack of opposition to the served to convince the Belgians that France and Britain were unwilling to fight for their own strategic interests. The Belgian General Staff was determined to fight for its own interests, the French were infuriated at King Leopold IIIs open declaration of neutrality in October 1936. The French were dependent on how much cooperation they could extract from the Belgians, the French considered invading Belgium immediately in response to a German attack on the country
Battle of Belgium
–
Belgian soldiers under German guard following the
fall of Fort Eben-Emael on 11 May 1940
Battle of Belgium
–
A pacifist rally in
Heysel, near
Brussels, in 1936
Battle of Belgium
–
King Leopold III, Belgian head of state, who was partisan of the policy of neutrality
Battle of Belgium
–
Leopold III, Belgium's monarch from 1934, reviewing Belgian troops in early 1940
11.
Battle of France
–
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
Battle of France
–
Clockwise from top left: German
Panzer IV tanks passing through a town in
France;
German soldiers marching past the
Arc de Triomphe after the surrender of
Paris, 14 June 1940; column of French
Renault R35 tanks at
Sedan,
Ardennes; British and French prisoners at
Veules-les-Roses; French soldiers on review within the
Maginot Line fortifications.
Battle of France
–
Newly arrived British troops move up to the front, May 1940
Battle of France
–
A burnt out German
Junkers Ju 52 transport lying in a Dutch field
Battle of France
–
An abandoned Belgian tank is inspected by German soldiers
12.
Operation Barbarossa
–
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
Operation Barbarossa
–
Clockwise from top left: German soldiers advance through Northern Russia, German flamethrower team in the
Soviet Union, Soviet planes flying over German positions near
Moscow, Soviet POW's on the way to German prison camps, Soviet soldiers fire at German positions.
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa
–
German soldiers (Flamethrower team) in the Soviet Union, June 1941
Operation Barbarossa
–
Marshal Zhukov speaking at a military conference in Moscow, September 1941
13.
Battle of Kursk
–
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
Battle of Kursk
–
Soldiers of the 2nd SS Panzer Division and a Tiger I tank
Battle of Kursk
–
German soldiers in Orel pass by the Church of the Intercession, early 1943.
Battle of Kursk
–
Waffen-SS soldiers aboard a Panzer IV in Kharkov, March 1943
Battle of Kursk
–
Ernst-Georg Buchterkirch (left) in discussion with General Model
14.
Korsun-Cherkassy Pocket
–
The Korsun–Shevchenkovsky Offensive led to the Battle of the Korsun–Cherkasy Pocket which took place from 24 January to 16 February 1944. The offensive was part of the Dnieper–Carpathian Offensive, in it, the 1st and 2nd Ukrainian Fronts, commanded, respectively, by Nikolai Vatutin and Ivan Konev, encircled German forces of Army Group South in a pocket near the Dnieper River. During weeks of fighting, the two Red Army Fronts tried to eradicate the pocket, the encircled German units attempted a breakout in coordination with a relief attempt by other German forces, resulting in heavy casualties, estimates of which vary. The Soviet victory in the Korsun–Shevchenkovsky Offensive marked the successful implementation of Soviet deep operations, the arrival of large numbers of U. S. and British built trucks and halftracks gave the Soviet forces much greater mobility than they had in the earlier portion of the war. This, coupled with the Soviet capacity to hold large formations in reserve gave the Red Army the ability to drive deep behind German defenses again and again, mobile Soviet offensives were the hallmark of the Eastern front for the remainder of the war. By 1 December 1943 the line had broken and the Soviet Army had crossed the Dnieper in force. Only two corps, the XI under Gen. Wilhelm Stemmermann, the XLII Army Corps under Lt. Gen, theobald Lieb and the attached Corps Detachment B from the 8th Army were holding a salient in the new Soviet line. Despite repeated warnings from Manstein and others, Hitler refused to allow the units to be pulled back. General Konev held a conference at his headquarters at Boltushki on 15 January with his commanders, additionally, from Vatutins 1st Ukrainian Front, 27th and 40th Armies were to be deployed from the northwest, with 6th Tank Army to exploit penetrations supported by 2nd Air Army. Many of these formations had received an inflow of new personnel, the Soviet attack started on 24 January when Konevs 2nd Ukrainian Front attacked the salient from the southeast. Breakthrough was quickly achieved, and the penetration was exploited by the 5th Guards Tank Army, despite the awareness of German 8th Armys staff that an attack was imminent, they were surprised by the appearance of the 1st Ukrainian Fronts newly formed 6th Tank Army. The 6th Tank Army, with 160 tanks and 50 self-propelled guns, was inexperienced, here, these troops of the 6th Tank Army met the 2nd Ukrainian Fronts 20th Tank Corps. The Soviets were optimistic over the progress of the operation, Stalin was promised a second Stalingrad, and he expected it. Konev wired, There is no need to worry, Comrade Stalin, the encircled enemy will not escape. Inside the pocket were nearly 60,000 men from six German divisions, operating at about 55% of their authorized strength, General Wilhelm Stemmermann, the commander of XI Corps, was placed in command of the forces in the pocket. These forces were designated Gruppe Stemmermann, the 5th SS Panzer Division, with some 11,400 personnel, had 30 operational Panzer III/IV tanks and assault guns left, and six more in repair. The division further had 47 artillery pieces, of which 12 were self-propelled guns, Manstein moved quickly, and by early February the III and XLVII Panzer Corps were assembled for a relief effort. Hitler intervened, however, and ordered the attack be transformed into an effort to counter-encircle the two Soviet army groups, General Hermann Breith, commander of III Panzer Corps requested the relief formations be united to attempt to force a corridor to the encircled Gruppe Stemmermann
Korsun-Cherkassy Pocket
–
Tiger Is of the III Panzer Corps, February 1944
Korsun-Cherkassy Pocket
–
A Soviet light tank carries men into battle
Korsun-Cherkassy Pocket
–
The great expanse of Russia made controlling a "front line" difficult
Korsun-Cherkassy Pocket
–
Sweeping
Soviet advances that created the pocket.
15.
Kamenets-Podolsky pocket
–
The Battle of the Kamianets-Podilskyi pocket was a Soviet effort to surround and destroy the Wehrmachts 1st Panzer Army of Army Group South. The envelopment occurred in March 1944 on the Eastern Front during the Second World War, the Red Army successfully created the pocket, trapping some 200,000 German soldiers inside. Under the command of General Hans-Valentin Hube and with the direction of Field Marshal Erich von Manstein and this breakout is sometimes referred to as Hubes Pocket. In February 1944, the 1st Panzer Army—commanded by Generaloberst Hans-Valentin Hube—consisted of four Corps, together with attached Army units the 1st Panzer Army included over 200,000 troops and was the most powerful formation of Field Marshal Erich von Mansteins Army Group South. Zhukov planned a multi-Front offensive, involving his own 1st and Marshal Ivan Konevs 2nd Ukrainian Front, the operations were to take place on the extreme north and south of the Army Group Souths front. The Soviet offensives began in early March, with Zhukov taking personal command of Vatutins 1st Ukrainian front, the Red Armys massive concentration in troops and material forced Hube to withdraw his northern flank to south-west until it reached the Dniester river. Despite constant Red Army attacks, this position held until late March, the force reached the Dniester and continued toward Chernivtsi. Behind them followed infantry and antitank units which began establishing defensive positions along the path of the advance behind the German positions, Manstein requested that the position be withdrawn to avoid encirclement, but Hitler refused, persisting with his no retreat orders. Hube ordered all non-combat personnel out of the salient along the last remaining open roadway, seeing this movement to the south Zhukov concluded that Hube was in full retreat. In a matter of days, Zhukov and Konevs forces had crossed the Dniester and were in position to complete the encirclement, on 25 March, the last line of communications corridor out of Hubes bridgehead located on the northern bank of the Dniester was severed at Khotyn. The entire 1st Panzer Army was now encircled in a centered around the city of Kamianets-Podilskyi. While the encircled forces had food and ammunition enough to them for over two weeks, the vehicles were extremely low on fuel. Hube had ordered all service units south of the Dniester to withdraw away from the main Red Army penetration which were taking place to the south on the 2nd Ukrainian Fronts 40th Army front, Zhukov believed Hube would attempt to breakout to the south. To prevent this, he stripped units from the encircling forces, Hube now ordered the pocket to be reduced in size, shortening the positions lines to increase defence density. As the 1st Ukrainian Front prepared to complete the encirclement Hube requested the authorization to use mobile defence tactics, however, once the encirclement was complete, the situation changed. Manstein had been arguing with Hitler for the trapped Army to be allowed to attempt a breakout, with the loss of the entire Panzer army in the balance, Hitler finally gave in and ordered Hube to attempt a breakout. Though supplies were still being brought in, they were insufficient to maintain the Armys fighting strength, Zhukov sent a terse ultimatum, Surrender, or every German soldier in the pocket would be shot. Moving west would mean fighting through the Soviet armoured forces that created the breach, Hube preferred to head south, over the Dniester
Kamenets-Podolsky pocket
–
Eastern Front, December 1943-April 1944
Kamenets-Podolsky pocket
–
Soviet advances leading to the creation of the pocket.
Kamenets-Podolsky pocket
–
A German soldier takes cover near a knocked out T-34, March 1944
Kamenets-Podolsky pocket
–
Soviet soldiers pass a destroyed Panzer in Tarnopol
16.
Reconnaissance
–
In military operations, reconnaissance is the exploration outside an area occupied by friendly forces to gain information about natural features and enemy presence. Examples of reconnaissance include patrolling by troops, ships or submarines, manned/unmanned reconnaissance aircraft, satellites, espionage normally is not reconnaissance, because reconnaissance is a militarys special forces operating ahead of its main forces, spies are non-combatants operating behind enemy lines. Often called recce or recon, the verb is reconnaître. Traditionally, reconnaissance was a role that was adopted by the cavalry, speed was key in these maneuvers, thus infantry was ill suited to the task. From horses to vehicles, for warriors throughout history, commanders procured their ability to have speed and mobility, to mount and dismount, skirmishing is a traditional skill of reconnaissance, as well as harassment of the enemy. Reconnaissance conducted by ground forces includes special reconnaissance, armored reconnaissance, amphibious reconnaissance, aerial reconnaissance is reconnaissance carried out by aircraft. The purpose is to weather conditions, map terrain, and may include military purposes such as observing tangible structures, particular areas. Naval forces use aerial and satellite reconnaissance to observe enemy forces, navies also undertake hydrographic surveys and intelligence gathering. Reconnaissance satellites provide military commanders with photographs of enemy forces and other intelligence, military forces also use geographical and meteorological information from Earth observation satellites. A tracker needs to pay attention to both the environment and the psychology of his enemy. Knowledge of human psychology, sociology, and cultural backgrounds is necessary to know the actions of the enemy and this is almost as necessary as to know the physical character of the country, its climate and products. Certain people will do certain things almost without fail, certain other things, perfectly feasible, they will not do. There is no danger of knowing too much of the habits of an enemy. One should neither underestimate the enemy nor credit him with superhuman powers, fear and courage are latent in every human being, though roused into activity by very diverse means. Types of reconnaissance, Terrain-oriented reconnaissance is a survey of the terrain, force-oriented reconnaissance focuses on the enemy forces and may include target acquisition. Civil-oriented reconnaissance focuses on the dimension of the battlespace. The techniques and objectives are not mutually exclusive, it is up to the commander whether they are carried out separately or by the same unit, some military elements tasked with reconnaissance are armed only for self-defense, and rely on stealth to gather information. Others are well-enough armed to also deny information to the enemy by destroying their reconnaissance elements, reconnaissance-in-force is a type of military operation or military tactics used specifically to probe an enemys disposition
Reconnaissance
–
Tatar horsemen in the painting “On Reconnaissance” by
Józef Brandt, 1876.
Reconnaissance
–
A
Scimitar as used by armoured reconnaissance regiments of the
British Army.
Reconnaissance
–
A two-man
JGSDF team mans Kawasaki KLX250
dirt bikes in the reconnaissance role during a public demonstration.
Reconnaissance
–
U.S.
Seabee Engineer Reconnaissance Team on a mission to determine if a bridge can be used to support troop and convoy movements
17.
Cavalry
–
Cavalry or horsemen were soldiers or warriors who fought mounted on horseback. Cavalry were historically the most mobile of the combat arms, an individual soldier in the cavalry is known by a number of designations such as cavalryman, horseman, dragoon or trooper. The designation of cavalry was not usually given to any military forces that used animals, such as camels. Cavalry had the advantage of improved mobility, and a man fighting from horseback also had the advantages of greater height, speed, another element of horse mounted warfare is the psychological impact a mounted soldier can inflict on an opponent. In Europe cavalry became increasingly armoured, and eventually became known for the mounted knights, in the period between the World Wars, many cavalry units were converted into motorized infantry and mechanized infantry units, or reformed as tank troops. Most cavalry units that are horse-mounted in modern armies serve in purely ceremonial roles, modern usage of the term generally refers to specialist units equipped with tanks or aircraft. The shock role, traditionally filled by heavy cavalry, is filled by units with the armored designation. Before the Iron Age, the role of cavalry on the battlefield was largely performed by light chariots, the chariot originated with the Sintashta-Petrovka culture in Central Asia and spread by nomadic or semi-nomadic Indo-Iranians. The power of mobility given by mounted units was recognized early on, Cavalry techniques were an innovation of equestrian nomads of the Central Asian and Iranian steppe and pastoralist tribes such as the Persian Parthians and Sarmatians. The photograph above left shows Assyrian cavalry from reliefs of 865–860 BC, at this time, the men had no spurs, saddles, saddle cloths, or stirrups. Fighting from the back of a horse was more difficult than mere riding. The cavalry acted in pairs, the reins of the archer were controlled by his neighbours hand. Even at this time, cavalry used swords, shields. The sculpture implies two types of cavalry, but this might be a simplification by the artist, Later images of Assyrian cavalry show saddle cloths as primitive saddles, allowing each archer to control his own horse. As early as 490 BC a breed of horses was bred in the Nisaean plain in Media to carry men with increasing amounts of armour. However, chariots remained in use for purposes such as carrying the victorious general in a Roman triumph. The southern Britons met Julius Caesar with chariots in 55 and 54 BC, the last mention of chariot use in battle was by the Caledonians at the Mons Graupius, in 84 AD. During the classical Greek period cavalry were usually limited to citizens who could afford expensive war-horses
Cavalry
–
French 4th Hussars at the
battle of Friedland, 1807
Cavalry
–
African horseman of
Baguirmi in full
padded armour suit
Cavalry
–
Assyrian cavalry
Cavalry
–
Parthian horseman, now on display at the
Palazzo Madama, Turin.
18.
Sudetenland
–
The Sudeten crisis of 1938 was provoked by the demands of Nazi Germany that the Sudetenland be annexed to Germany, which in fact took place after the later infamous Munich Agreement. Part of the borderland was invaded and annexed by Poland, when Czechoslovakia was reconstituted after the Second World War, the Sudeten Germans were largely expelled, and the region today is inhabited almost exclusively by Czech speakers. Parts of the current Czech regions of Karlovy Vary, Liberec, Olomouc, Moravia-Silesia, the Celtic and Boii tribes settled there and the region was first mentioned on the map of Ptolemaios in the 2nd century AD. The Germanic tribe of the Marcomanni dominated the core of the region in later centuries. Those tribes already built cities like Brno, but moved west during the Migration Period, in the 7th century AD Slavic people moved in and were united under Samos realm. Later in the High Middle Ages Germans settled into the less populated border region, in the Middle Ages the regions situated on the mountainous border of the Duchy and the Kingdom of Bohemia had since the Migration Period been settled mainly by western Slavic Czechs. In the course of the Ostsiedlung German settlement from the 13th century onwards continued to move into the Upper Lusatia region, after the extinction of the Přemyslid dynasty in 1306, the Bohemian nobility backed John of Luxembourg as king against his rival Duke Henry of Carinthia. His son, Bohemian King Charles IV, was elected King of the Romans in 1346 and he added the Lusatias to the Lands of the Bohemian Crown, which then comprised large territories with a significant German population. In the hilly border regions German settlers established major manufactures of forest glass, the situation of the German population was aggravated by the Hussite Wars, though there were also some Germans among the Hussite insurgents. The city of Prague had a German-speaking majority from the last third of the 17th century until 1860, from the Luxembourgs, the rule over Bohemia passed through George of Podiebrad to the Jagiellon dynasty and finally to the House of Habsburg in 1526. Both Czech and German Bohemians suffered heavily in the Thirty Years War, Bohemia lost 70% of its population. From the defeat of the Bohemian Revolt that collapsed at the 1620 Battle of White Mountain, during the subsequent Counter-Reformation, less populated areas were resettled with Catholic Germans from the Austrian lands. Also in 1749 Austrian Empire enforced German as the language again. Emperor Joseph II in 1780 renounced the coronation ceremony as Bohemian king, nevertheless, German cultural influence grew stronger during the Age of Enlightenment and Weimar Classicism. The Bohemian Kingdom remained a part of the Austrian Empire and Austria-Hungary until its dismemberment after the First World War, in the wake of growing nationalism, the name Sudetendeutsche emerged by the early 20th century. Of these three terms, only the term Sudetendeutsche survived, because of the ethnic and cultural conflicts within Bohemia, thirty-four of each 1,000 inhabitants were killed. Austria-Hungary broke apart at the end of World War I, late in October 1918, an independent Czechoslovak state, consisting of the lands of the Bohemian kingdom and areas belonging to the Kingdom of Hungary, was proclaimed. The German deputies of Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia in the Imperial Council referred to the Fourteen Points of U. S, on 20 September 1918, the Prague government asked the United Statess opinion for the Sudetenland
Sudetenland
–
A
Sudeten German Voluntary Force unit in 1938
Sudetenland
–
The native German-speaking regions, within the borders of the current Czech Republic, which in the
interwar period were referred to as the Sudetenland.
Sudetenland
–
Czech inscriptions smeared by Sudeten German activists, March 1938,
Teplice (
German: Teplitz).
Sudetenland
–
Konrad Henlein speaking in
Carlsbad, 1937
19.
Panzer I
–
The Panzer I was a light tank produced in Germany in the 1930s. The name is short for the German Panzerkampfwagen I, abbreviated PzKpfw I, the tanks official German ordnance inventory designation was SdKfz 101. Design of the Panzer I began in 1932 and mass production began in 1934, experiences with the Panzer I during the Spanish Civil War helped shape the German Panzerwaffes invasion of Poland in 1939 and France in 1940. By 1941, the Panzer I chassis design was used as the basis of tank destroyers, there were attempts to upgrade the Panzer I throughout its service history, including by foreign nations, to extend the designs lifespan. It continued to serve in the Spanish Armed Forces until 1954, the Panzer Is performance in combat was limited by its thin armour and light armament of two machine guns. As a design intended for training, the Panzer I was not as capable as other light tanks of the era, although weak in combat, it formed a large part of Germanys tank forces and was used in all major campaigns between September 1939 and December 1941. Later in that war the turrets of the then obsolete PzKpfw Is and PzKpfw IIs were repurposed as gun turrets on specially built defensive bunkers, the post-World War I Treaty of Versailles of 1919 prohibited the design, manufacture and deployment of tanks within the Reichswehr. There was also minor military cooperation with Sweden, including the extraction of data that proved invaluable to early German tank design. As early as 1926 the German companies Krupp, Rheinmetall and Daimler-Benz were contracted to develop prototype tanks armed with a large and these were designed under the cover name Großtraktor to veil the true purpose of the vehicle. By 1930 a light tank armed with rapid-fire machineguns was to be developed under the cover name Leichttraktor, the six produced Großtraktor were later put into service for a brief period with the 1 Panzer Division, the Leichttraktor remained in testing until 1935. A In the late 1920s and early 1930s, German tank theory was pioneered by two figures, General Oswald Lutz and his chief of staff, Lieutenant Colonel Heinz Guderian, Guderian became the more influential of the two and his ideas were widely publicized. Like his contemporary, Sir Percy Hobart, Guderian initially envisioned an armored corps composed of types of tanks. This included an infantry tank, armed with a small-caliber cannon. The infantry tank, according to Guderian, was to be armored to defend against enemy anti-tank guns. He also envisioned a fast breakthrough tank, similar to the British cruiser tank, lastly, Germany needed a heavy tank, armed with a 150-millimeter cannon to defeat enemy fortifications, and even stronger armor. Such a tank required a weight of 70 to 100 tonnes and was impractical given the manufacturing capabilities of the day. Soon after rising to power in Germany, Adolf Hitler approved the creation of Germanys first panzer divisions, simplifying his earlier proposal, Guderian suggested the design of a main combat vehicle, which would be developed into the Panzer III, and a breakthrough tank, the Panzer IV. No existing design appealed to Guderian, as a stopgap, the German Army ordered a preliminary vehicle to train German tank crews
Panzer I
–
Panzerkampfwagen I Ausf. A on display at the Deutsches Panzermuseum Munster, Germany
Panzer I
–
Panzer I Ausf A at El Goloso Museum of Armored Vehicles, in Spain. Notice the tracks and drive sprockets are M113 APC's parts.
Panzer I
–
PzKpfw I Ausf. F on display at the
Belgrade Military Museum
Panzer I
–
4 September 1939 PzKpfw I Ausf. A on the
Brda river
20.
Panzer II
–
The Panzer II is the common name used for a family of German tanks used in World War II. The official German designation was Panzerkampfwagen II, the Panzer II was the most numerous tank in the German Panzer divisions beginning with the invasion of France. It was used in both North Africa against the Western Allies and on the Eastern Front against the Soviet Union, the Panzer II was supplanted by the Panzer III and IV by 1940/1941. By the end of 1942, it had largely removed from front line service and it was used for training. The turrets of the then-obsolete PzKpfw Is and PzKpfw IIs were reused as gun turrets on specially built defensive bunkers, in 1934, delays in the design and production of the Panzer III and Panzer IV medium tanks were becoming apparent. Designs for a tank were solicited from Krupp, MAN, Henschel. The final design was based on the Panzer I, but larger, production began in 1935, but it took another eighteen months for the first combat-ready tank to be delivered. The Panzer II was designed before the experience of the Spanish Civil War of 1936–39 showed that shell-proof armor was required for tanks to survive on a modern battlefield, prior to that, armor was designed to stop machine gun fire and high-explosive shell fragments. The Panzer II A, B, and C had 14 mm of slightly sloped homogenous steel armor on the sides, front, many IIC were later given increased armor in the front of the vehicle. Starting with the D model, the front armor was increased to 30 mm, the Model F had 35 mm front armor and 20 mm side armor. This amount of armor could be penetrated by towed antitank weapons, such as the Soviet 45mm and French canon de 25, most tank versions of the Panzer II were armed with a 2 cm KwK30 L/55 autocannon. Some later versions used the similar 2 cm KwK38 L/55 and this autocannon was based on the 2 cm FlaK30 anti-aircraft gun, and was capable of firing at a rate of 600 rounds per minute from 10-round magazines. A total of 180 shells were carried, the Panzer II also had a 7.92 mm Maschinengewehr 34 machine gun mounted coaxially with the main gun. The 2 cm autocannon proved to be ineffective against many Allied tanks, and experiments were conducted with a view to replacing it with a 37 mm cannon, but nothing came of this. Prototypes were built with a 50 mm tank gun, but by then the Panzer II had outlived its usefulness as a tank regardless of armament, all production versions of the Panzer II were fitted with a 140 PS, gasoline-fuelled six-cylinder Maybach HL62 TRM engine and ZF transmissions. Models A, B, and C had a top speed of 40 km/h, all versions had a range of 200 km. The Panzer II had a crew of three men, the driver sat in the forward left hull with the gearbox on the right. The commander sat in a seat in the turret, and was responsible for aiming and firing the cannon and co-axial machine gun and he had a radio on the left and several 20mm ammunition storage bins
Panzer II
–
Panzer II at the
Belgrade Military Museum
Panzer II
–
Panzer II on Western front May 1940 (Panzer I to the rear)
Panzer II
–
PzKpfw II Ausf. C at the
Musée des Blindés
Panzer II
–
Panzer II Ausf. L in the
Musée des Blindés,
Saumur.
21.
Invasion of Poland (1939)
–
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
Invasion of Poland (1939)
–
Vyacheslav Molotov signs the
Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, a German–Soviet non-aggression pact.
Invasion of Poland (1939)
–
From left to right:
Luftwaffe preparing to bomb
Wieluń,
SMS Schleswig-Holstein attacking the port of
Danzig,
Wehrmacht soldiers destroying the Polish-German border post, German tank and armored car formation, German and Soviet troops shaking hands following the invasion,
Bombing of Warsaw.
Invasion of Poland (1939)
–
Polish Infantry
Invasion of Poland (1939)
–
Polish
PZL.37 Łoś medium bomber
22.
English Channel
–
The English Channel, also called simply the Channel, is the body of water that separates southern England from northern France, and links the southern part of the North Sea to the Atlantic Ocean. It is about 560 km long and varies in width from 240 km at its widest to 33.3 km in the Strait of Dover and it is the smallest of the shallow seas around the continental shelf of Europe, covering an area of some 75,000 km2. The International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the English Channel as follows, a line joining Isle Vierge to Lands End. The southwestern limit of the North Sea, the IHO defines the southwestern limit of the North Sea as a line joining the Walde Lighthouse and Leathercoat Point. The Walde Lighthouse is 6 km east of Calais, and Leathercoat Point is at the end of St Margarets Bay. The Strait of Dover, at the Channels eastern end, is its narrowest point and it is relatively shallow, with an average depth of about 120 m at its widest part, reducing to a depth of about 45 m between Dover and Calais. Eastwards from there the adjoining North Sea reduces to about 26 m in the Broad Fourteens where it lies over the watershed of the land bridge between East Anglia and the Low Countries. It reaches a depth of 180 m in the submerged valley of Hurds Deep,48 km west-northwest of Guernsey. The eastern region along the French coast between Cherbourg and the mouth of the Seine river at Le Havre is frequently referred to as the Bay of the Seine. There are several islands in the Channel, the most notable being the Isle of Wight off the English coast. The coastline, particularly on the French shore, is indented, several small islands close to the coastline, including Chausey. The Cotentin Peninsula in France juts out into the Channel, whilst on the English side there is a parallel channel known as the Solent between the Isle of Wight and the mainland. The Celtic Sea is to the west of the Channel, the Channel is of geologically recent origins, having been dry land for most of the Pleistocene period. The first flood would have lasted for months, releasing as much as one million cubic metres of water per second. The flood started with large but localized waterfalls over the ridge, the flow eroded the retaining ridge, causing the rock dam to fail and releasing lake water into the English Channel. The erosion of the Lobourg Channel was probably the final opening of the Strait, the time difference of about six hours between high water at the eastern and western limits of the Channel is indicative of the tidal range being amplified further by resonance. It was never defined as a border and the names were more or less descriptive. It was not considered as the property of a nation, strangely, before the development of the modern nations, British scholars very often referred to it as Gaulish and the French one as British or English
English Channel
–
English Channel
English Channel
–
Three French river mouths. Top to bottom: the
Somme, the
Authie and the
Canche
English Channel
–
The Hermitage of
St Helier lies in the bay off
Saint Helier and is accessible on foot at low tide.
English Channel
–
British radar facilities during the
Battle of Britain 1940
23.
Panzer III
–
The Panzerkampfwagen III, commonly known as the Panzer III, was a medium tank developed in the 1930s by Germany, and was used extensively in World War II. The official German ordnance designation was Sd. Kfz, the Panzer III effectively became obsolete in this role and was supplanted by the Panzer IV. From 1942, the last version of Panzer III mounted the 7.5 cm KwK37 L/24, production of the Panzer III ended in 1943. However, the Panzer IIIs capable chassis provided hulls for the Sturmgeschütz III assault gun until the end of the war, the first task was direct combat against other tanks and other armoured vehicles, requiring the tank to fire armour piercing shells. On January 11,1934, following specifications laid down by Heinz Guderian, the Army Weapons Department drew up plans for a tank with a maximum weight of 24,000 kg. Such supportive tanks designed to operate with friendly infantry against the enemy generally were heavier, the direct infantry-support role was to be provided by the turret-less Sturmgeschütz assault gun, which mounted a short-barrelled gun on a Panzer III chassis. Daimler-Benz, Krupp, MAN, and Rheinmetall all produced prototypes, testing of these took place in 1936 and 1937, leading to the Daimler-Benz design being chosen for production. The first model of the Panzer III, the Ausführung A. came off the line in May 1937, ten. Between 1937 and 1940, attempts were made to standardize parts between Krupps Panzer IV and Daimler-Benzs Panzer III, much of the early development work on the Panzer III was a quest for a suitable suspension. Several varieties of leaf-spring suspensions were tried on Ausf, D, usually using eight relatively small-diameter road wheels before the torsion-bar suspension of the Ausf. E was standardized, using the six wheel design that became standard. The Panzer III, along with the Soviet KV heavy tank, was one of the tanks to use this suspension design first seen on the Stridsvagn L-60 a few years earlier. A distinct feature of the Panzer III, influenced by British Vickers tanks, was the three-man turret and this meant that the commander was not distracted with another role in the tank and could fully concentrate on maintaining awareness of the situation and directing the tank. Most tanks of the time did not have this capability, providing the Panzer III with a combat advantage versus such tanks, for example, the French Somua S-35s turret was manned only by the commander, and the Soviet T-34 originally had a two-man turret crew. The Panzer III, as opposed to the Panzer IV, had no turret basket, the Panzer III was intended as the primary battle tank of the German forces. However, when it met the KV-1 and T-34 tanks it proved to be inferior in both armour and gun power. As a result, production of self-propelled guns, as well as the up-gunning of the Panzer IV was initiated, in 1942, the final version of the Panzer III, the Ausf. N was equipped with rounds of HEAT ammunition that could penetrate 70 to 100 millimetres of armour depending on the rounds variant, the Japanese government bought two Panzer IIIs from their German allies during the war
Panzer III
–
Panzer III Ausf. H (auf Ausf. H Fahrgestell).
Musée des Blindés, France (2006)
Panzer III
–
Panzerbefehlswagen (command tank) III ausf E or F in Greece, fitted with a 37 mm gun and two coaxial machine guns (1941).
Panzer III
–
A Panzerkampfwagen III Ausf L formerly on display at the
US Army Ordnance Museum in Aberdeen, Maryland and currently housed at the National Armor and Cavalry Restoration Shop at Fort Benning, Georgia.
Panzer III
–
The crew of a Panzer III of the
2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich rest during the
Battle of Kursk.
24.
Siege of Leningrad
–
The siege started on 8 September 1941, when the last road to the city was severed. Although the Soviets managed to open a land corridor to the city on 18 January 1943. It was one of the longest and most destructive sieges in history, Leningrads capture was one of three strategic goals in the German Operation Barbarossa and the main target of Army Group North. By 1939 the city was responsible for 11% of all Soviet industrial output and it has been reported Adolf Hitler was so confident of capturing Leningrad that he had invitations printed to the victory celebrations to be held in the citys Hotel Astoria. According to a sent to Army Group North on 29 September, After the defeat of Soviet Russia there can be no interest in the continued existence of this large urban center. Following the citys encirclement, requests for surrender negotiations shall be denied, since the problem of relocating and feeding the population cannot, in this war for our very existence, we can have no interest in maintaining even a part of this very large urban population. Hitlers ultimate plan was to raze Leningrad to the ground and give areas north of the River Neva to the Finns, Army Group North under Feldmarschall Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb advanced to Leningrad, its primary objective. Finnish military forces were north of Leningrad, while German forces occupied territories to the south, thus, it is argued that much of the Finns participation was merely defensive. The Germans planned on lack of food being their weapon against the citizens. On 27 June 1941, the Council of Deputies of the Leningrad administration organised First response groups of civilians, in the next days, Leningrads civilian population was informed of the danger and over a million citizens were mobilised for the construction of fortifications. Several lines of defences were built along the perimeter to repulse hostile forces approaching from north and south by means of civilian resistance. In the south, the line ran from the mouth of the Luga River to Chudovo, Gatchina, Uritsk, Pulkovo. Another line of defence passed through Peterhof to Gatchina, Pulkovo, Kolpino, in the north the defensive line against the Finns, the Karelian Fortified Region, had been maintained in Leningrads northern suburbs since the 1930s, and was now returned to service. Even the guns from the cruiser Aurora were moved inland to the Pulkovo Heights to the south of Leningrad, the 4th Panzer Group from East Prussia took Pskov following a swift advance and managed to reach Novgorod by 16 August. The Soviet defenders fought to the death, despite the German discovery of the Soviet defence plans on an officers corpse, after the capture of Novgorod, General Hoepners 4th Panzer Group continued its progress towards Leningrad. However, the 18th Army — despite some 350,000 men lagging behind — forced its way to Ostrov and Pskov after the Soviet troops of the Northwestern Front retreated towards Leningrad. On 10 July, both Ostrov and Pskov were captured and the 18th Army reached Narva and Kingisepp, from where advance toward Leningrad continued from the Luga River line. This had the effect of creating siege positions from the Gulf of Finland to Lake Ladoga, the Finnish Army was then expected to advance along the eastern shore of Lake Ladoga
Siege of Leningrad
–
Leningraders on
Nevsky Prospect during the siege, 1942
Siege of Leningrad
–
Antiaircraft guns guarding the sky of Leningrad, in front of
St. Isaac's Cathedral
Siege of Leningrad
–
Hitler with Finland's Marshal
Carl Gustav Mannerheim and President
Risto Ryti meeting in
Imatra in 1942
Siege of Leningrad
–
Two Soviet soldiers, one armed with a
DP machine gun, in the trenches of the Leningrad Front on 1 September 1941
25.
Battle of Raseiniai
–
The Battle of Raseiniai was a large tank battle that took place in the early stages of Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union. The battle was fought between the elements of the German 4th Panzer Group and the Soviet 3rd Mechanized Corps with the 12th Mechanised Corps, Army Group North controlled the 18th Army and the 16th Army, along with the 4th Panzer Group. The Germans had 20 infantry divisions, three Panzer and three motorized infantry divisions, Air support was provided by Luftflotte 1. The front had the 8th and 11th Armies with the 27th Armies in its second echelon, the 4th Panzer Group advanced in two spearheads, led by the XLI Panzer Corps and LVI Panzer Corps. Their objective was to cross the Neman and Daugava, the most difficult obstacles in front of the Army Group North. German bombers destroyed many of the signals and communications centers, naval bases, Šiauliai, Vilnius and Kaunas were also bombed. Soviet aircraft had been on alert but were held on their airfields after the first wave of German bombers passed. By noon, the Soviet divisions began to back and the German columns then began to swing towards Raseiniai. By the evening, Soviet formations had fallen back to the Dubysa, north-west of Kaunas, forward elements of LVI Panzer Corps reached the Dubysa and seized the vital Ariogala road viaduct across it. By the end of 22 June, the German armoured spearheads over the Niemen had penetrated 80 km, the next day, Kuznetsov committed his armoured forces to battle. Near Raseiniai, the XLI Panzer Corps was counter-attacked by the Soviet 3rd, the concentration of Soviet armour was detected by the Luftwaffe, which immediately attacked tank columns of the 12th Mechanised Corps south-west of Šiauliai. German forces encountered a unit equipped with the Soviet KV heavy tanks for the first time, the Germans fired at the tracks of the KVs, bombarded them with artillery, anti-aircraft guns or sticky bombs. A report of the 1st Panzer Division described the engagement, The KV-1 and KV-2 and our companies opened fire at about 800 yards, but it remained ineffective. We moved closer and closer to the enemy, who for his continued to approach us unconcerned. Very soon we were facing each other at 50 to 100 yards, a fantastic exchange of fire took place without any visible German success. The Russian tanks continued to advance, and all armour-piercing shells simply bounced off them, thus we were presently faced with the alarming situation of the Russian tanks driving through the ranks of 1st Panzer Regiment towards our own infantry and our hinterland. Our Panzer Regiment therefore about turned and rumbled back with the KV-1s and KV-2s, in the course of that operation we succeeded in immobilizing some of them with special purpose shells at very close range 30 to 60 yards. A counter attack was launched and the Russians were thrown back, a protective front established and defensive fighting continued
Battle of Raseiniai
–
A
KV-2 tank; a single tank of this type held for one day the entire
6th Panzer Division
26.
Kampfgruppe
–
The Kampfgruppe was an Ad hoc combined arms formation, usually employing combination of tanks, infantry, and artillery elements, generally organised for a particular task or operation. A Kampfgruppe could range in size from a corps to a company, Kampfgruppen were generally referred to by either their commanding officers name or the parent division. The Stormtroopers were specialist military troops which were formed in the last years of World War I as the German army developed new methods of attacking enemy trenches, men trained in these methods were known in German as Sturmmann, formed into companies of Sturmtruppen. Other armies have used the term assault troops, shock troops or fire teams for specialist soldiers who perform the infiltration tasks of stormtroopers. However, given the equipment of the Finnish forces, the combined-arms aspect of the Kampfgruppen could not have been applied. Hundreds of Kampfgruppen are documented to have part in operations ranging from a few days to over a year during the war. They left a significant impact in the culture and the picture of the Second World War. Famous examples include, Kampfgruppe Peiper was a mechanised brigade-sized formation formed under the command of SS-Standartenführer Joachim Peiper which took part in the 1944 Battle of the Bulge, KG Peiper was to be the striking arm of the 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler. Kampfgruppe 1001 Nacht was a German kampfgruppe formed on the Oder front during the final German offensive of the Second World War, the formation is most notable for its unusual title, referring to the medieval Persian book of 1001 Nights, a collection of tales and fables. During the Allied invasion of France Major Hans von Luck took command of the 125th Panzergrenadier Regiment of the 21st Panzer Division, stationed near Caen, France. While the original concept of Kampfgruppe is usually reserved to the warfare, some of the German tacticians. The most obvious change was the design and the type of units involved, the examples include German Kampfgruppe 5 employed during Operation Weserübung. This unit consisted of the heavy cruiser Blücher, the heavy cruiser Lützow, currently, the formation closest in use is US Army Task force or the battlegroup formation used by several NATO countries, notably the UK. Kampfgruppen der Arbeiterklasse, or in English Combat Groups of the Working Class a paramilitary organisation in East Germany, founded in 1953 and it numbered about 400,000 for much of its existence
Kampfgruppe
–
The
Panzerjäger -
Abteilung 39 (part of " Kampfgruppe Gräf", from the
21. Panzer Division) of the
Afrika Korps on the move. The vehicles are a
SdKfz 231 8-rad and motorcycle sidecar combination
27.
Panzer 35(t)
–
The Panzerkampfwagen 35, commonly shortened to Panzer 35 or abbreviated as Pz. Kpfw. 35, was a Czechoslovak-designed light tank used mainly by Nazi Germany during World War II, in Czechoslovak service, it had the formal designation Lehký tank vzor 35, but was commonly referred to as the LT vz.35 or LT-35. Others were exported to Bulgaria and Romania and it was used for the remainder of the war by other countries and as a training tank in Bulgaria into the 1950s. The Panzerkampfwagen 35 was assembled from a framework of steel angle iron beams to which the plates were riveted. A4 mm firewall separated the engine compartment from the crew and it had several mesh-covered openings to allow access to the engine and improve ventilation by drawing air in through the commanders hatch. This had the advantage of rapidly dispersing gun combustion gases when firing, the driver sat on the right side of the tank using a 390 by 90 millimetres observation port protected by 50 millimetres of bulletproof glass and an armoured shutter 28 millimetres thick. To his right was a vision slit 120 by 3 millimetres with a thickness of bulletproof glass. The Germans replaced the three colored lights used by the Czechs to communicate with the driver with an intercom system. The radio operator sat on the left and had his own 150 by 75 millimetres observation port with the protection as the drivers. His radios were mounted on the wall of the hull. The hull machine gun was between the driver and radio operator in a ball mount capable of 30° of traverse, 25° of elevation, most of the machine guns barrel protruded from the mount and was protected by an armoured trough. The mount had a telescope, but open sights could be used if the plug at the top of the ball mount was removed. If necessary, the driver could lock the mount into position, the drivers hatch was exposed to direct fire and could be damaged from the front. The turret ring had a diameter of 1.267 metres, the turret had a flat face in the center of which was mounted the 3.72 centimetres main armament. On the right side was another 7.92 millimetres machine gun in a ball mount. The commander had four episcopes in his cupola and a mirror,1.3 x 30° periscope which he could extend, once he had removed its armoured cover in his hatch. As the sole occupant of the turret, the commander was responsible for loading, aiming and firing the main gun, the Germans added an extra crewman on the right side of the turret to load the main gun and to operate the turret machine gun. Some ammunition had to be removed to accommodate him, the 8. 62-litre Škoda T-11/0 four-cylinder, water-cooled engine produced 120 horsepower at 1,800 rpm
Panzer 35(t)
–
Panzer 35(t) at the
Belgrade Military Museum.
Panzer 35(t)
–
Panzer 35(t) in France, 1940
Panzer 35(t)
–
PzKpfw 35(t) in the USSR
Panzer 35(t)
–
R-2 tanks in February 1939, before being delivered to Romania by
Škoda Works
28.
Artillery
–
Artillery is a class of large military weapons built to fire munitions far beyond the range and power of infantrys small arms. Early artillery development focused on the ability to breach fortifications, and led to heavy, as technology improved, lighter, more mobile field artillery developed for battlefield use. This development continues today, modern self-propelled artillery vehicles are highly mobile weapons of great versatility providing the largest share of an armys total firepower, in its earliest sense, the word artillery referred to any group of soldiers primarily armed with some form of manufactured weapon or armour. In common speech, the artillery is often used to refer to individual devices, along with their accessories and fittings. However, there is no generally recognised generic term for a gun, howitzer, mortar, and so forth, the United States uses artillery piece, the projectiles fired are typically either shot or shell. Shell is a widely used term for a projectile, which is a component of munitions. By association, artillery may also refer to the arm of service that customarily operates such engines, in the 20th Century technology based target acquisition devices, such as radar, and systems, such as sound ranging and flash spotting, emerged to acquire targets, primarily for artillery. These are usually operated by one or more of the artillery arms, Artillery originated for use against ground targets—against infantry, cavalry and other artillery. An early specialist development was coastal artillery for use against enemy ships, the early 20th Century saw the development of a new class of artillery for use against aircraft, anti-aircraft guns. Artillery is arguably the most lethal form of land-based armament currently employed, the majority of combat deaths in the Napoleonic Wars, World War I, and World War II were caused by artillery. In 1944, Joseph Stalin said in a speech that artillery was the God of War, although not called as such, machines performing the role recognizable as artillery have been employed in warfare since antiquity. The first references in the historical tradition begin at Syracuse in 399 BC. From the Middle Ages through most of the era, artillery pieces on land were moved by horse-drawn gun carriages. In the contemporary era, the artillery and crew rely on wheeled or tracked vehicles as transportation, Artillery used by naval forces has changed significantly also, with missiles replacing guns in surface warfare. The engineering designs of the means of delivery have likewise changed significantly over time, in some armies, the weapon of artillery is the projectile, not the equipment that fires it. The process of delivering fire onto the target is called gunnery, the actions involved in operating the piece are collectively called serving the gun by the detachment or gun crew, constituting either direct or indirect artillery fire. The term gunner is used in armed forces for the soldiers and sailors with the primary function of using artillery. The gunners and their guns are usually grouped in teams called either crews or detachments, several such crews and teams with other functions are combined into a unit of artillery, usually called a battery, although sometimes called a company
Artillery
–
French naval piece of the late 19th century
Artillery
–
French soldiers in the
Franco-Prussian War 1870–71.
Artillery
–
British 64 Pounder Rifled Muzzle-Loaded (RML) Gun on a Moncrieff disappearing mount, at Scaur Hill Fort,
Bermuda. This is a part of a fixed battery, meant to protect against over-land attack and to serve as coastal artillery.
Artillery
–
7-person gun crew firing a US
M777 Light Towed Howitzer,
War in Afghanistan, 2009.
29.
Hafthohlladung
–
The Hafthohlladung, also known as the Panzerknacker was a magnetically-adhered, shaped charge anti-tank grenade used by German forces in World War II. The device is described as a mine, but as it is manually placed this is not correct terminology. The Hafthohlladung was primarily used by Wehrmacht tank killer squads, however this required direct placement made use of the device very dangerous, as that infantryman would be highly vulnerable to enemy fire. The Hafthohlladung device was effective against armour, able to penetrate 140 mm of Rolled Homogeneous Armour. The H3 and H3.5 models are distinguishable, the H3 is bottle-shaped. Weight,3 kg or 3. 5kg First issued, November 1942 Penetration, At 0°, 140mm of RHA or 508 mm of concrete Fuse, Friction ignited,4.5 second delay, later 7
Hafthohlladung
–
An example of the Hafthohlladung on display in a museum
30.
Battle of Moscow
–
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
Battle of Moscow
–
December 1941. Fresh forces going to the front from Moscow.
Battle of Moscow
–
With all the men at the Front, Moscow women dig anti-tank trenches around Moscow in 1941
Battle of Moscow
–
The German offensives during operation Typhoon
Battle of Moscow
–
The mud of the
rasputitsa before Moscow, November 1941
Germany
