1.
Battle of the Bulge
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The Battle of the Bulge was the last major German offensive campaign of World War II. It was launched through the densely forested Ardennes region of Wallonia in Belgium, France, the surprise attack caught the Allied forces completely off guard. American forces bore the brunt of the attack and incurred their highest casualties of any operation during the war, the battle also severely depleted Germanys armoured forces on the Western Front, and they were largely unable to replace them. German personnel and later, Luftwaffe aircraft, also sustained heavy losses, the Germans officially referred to the offensive as Unternehmen Wacht am Rhein, while the Allies designated it the Ardennes Counteroffensive. The phrase Battle of the Bulge was coined by contemporary press to describe the bulge in German front lines on wartime news maps, once that was accomplished, the German dictator Adolf Hitler believed he could fully concentrate on the Soviets on the Eastern Front. The offensive was planned by the German forces with utmost secrecy, with minimal radio traffic and movements of troops, intercepted German communications indicating a substantial German offensive preparation were not acted upon by the Allies. The Germans achieved total surprise on the morning of 16 December 1944, due to a combination of Allied overconfidence, preoccupation with Allied offensive plans, and poor aerial reconnaissance. The Germans attacked a weakly defended section of the Allied line, columns of armor and infantry that were supposed to advance along parallel routes found themselves on the same roads. This, and terrain that favored the defenders, threw the German advance behind schedule, improved weather conditions permitted air attacks on German forces and supply lines, which sealed the failure of the offensive. In the wake of the defeat, many experienced German units were left severely depleted of men and equipment, the Germans initial attack involved 406,000 men,1,214 tanks, tank destroyers, and assault guns, and 4,224 artillery pieces. These were reinforced a couple of later, bringing the offensives total strength to around 450,000 troops. Between 67,200 and 125,000 of their men were killed, missing, for the Americans, out of 610,000 troops involved in the battle,89,000 were casualties. While some sources report that up to 19,000 were killed, British historian Antony Beevor reports the number killed as 8,407. It was the largest and bloodiest battle fought by the United States in World War II, after the breakout from Normandy at the end of July 1944 and the Allied landings in southern France on 15 August 1944, the Allies advanced toward Germany more quickly than anticipated. The Allies were faced with several military logistics issues, - troops were fatigued by weeks of continuous combat supply lines were stretched extremely thin supplies were dangerously depleted. General Dwight D. Eisenhower and his staff chose to hold the Ardennes region which was occupied by the U. S, the Allies chose to defend the Ardennes with as few troops as possible due to the favorable terrain and limited Allied operational objectives in the area. They also had intelligence that the Wehrmacht was using the area across the German border as an area for its troops. The speed of the Allied advance coupled with a lack of deep-water ports presented the Allies with enormous supply problems
2.
World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
3.
Malmedy
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Malmedy is a Walloon city and municipality of Belgium. It lies in the province of Liège, on January 1,2006, Malmedy had a total population of 11,829. The total area is 99.96 km² which gives a density of 118 inhabitants per km². The municipality consists of the following sub-municipalities, Malmedy proper, Bellevaux-Ligneuville, but since it has a German speaking minority, it is one of Belgiums municipalities with language facilities. Malmedy and Waimes are the two Walloon municipalities with facilities for German speakers, the population of Malmedy is approximately 95% French speakers and 5% German speakers. The variety of German spoken is Moselle Franconian, the name of “Malmedy” comes from the Latin sentence “A malo mundarum, ” meaning “purifying from evil”. The name originated due to flooding in the past from the Warche river. The city was created in 648 by Saint Remacle, Provost of Solignac abbey in France and he had established his Benedictine Monastery in Malmedy. Between this date and 1794, the history of Malmedy is linked to the religious Principality of Stavelot-Malmedy, for 1,146 years, Malmedy and Stavelot together formed the Principality of Stavelot-Malmedy. Seventy-seven successive prince abbots of the Germanic Holy Roman Empire and the County of Logne leaded the state, however, a rivalry grew up rapidly between the two towns, because Saint Remacle decided to choose Stavelot as the main city of the Principality. In the 16th Century a lot of industries appeared in the area of Malmedy, cloth, in the 17th Century, Stavelot-Malmedy became the most important tannery centre in Europe. But the main industry in Malmedy was the papermaking industry and it brought considerable wealth to the town. In 1795, during the French Revolution and the Liège Revolution, Malmedy was a lower prefecture in the département de lOurthe. After the defeat of Napoléon in 1815, during the Congress of Vienna, the decision was made to link Malmedy, a Roman and Walloon town, to Prussia and this special situation of Malmedy caused a lot of problems in the first 50 years. However, the inhabitants were free to speak French as they pleased and this situation changed when Chancellor Bismarck took power following the Franco-German War of 1870. For the Prussian Administration, Malmedy suffered a disadvantage as it was both francophone and the majority of the inhabitants were Catholic. From this moment, Malmedy was forced to be Germanised, in schools, lessons in French were banned and the German language was mandatory. The priests were not allowed to any longer in French
4.
Belgium
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Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a sovereign state in Western Europe bordered by France, the Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg, and the North Sea. It is a small, densely populated country which covers an area of 30,528 square kilometres and has a population of about 11 million people. Additionally, there is a group of German-speakers who live in the East Cantons located around the High Fens area. Historically, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg were known as the Low Countries, the region was called Belgica in Latin, after the Roman province of Gallia Belgica. From the end of the Middle Ages until the 17th century, today, Belgium is a federal constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. It is divided into three regions and three communities, that exist next to each other and its two largest regions are the Dutch-speaking region of Flanders in the north and the French-speaking southern region of Wallonia. The Brussels-Capital Region is a bilingual enclave within the Flemish Region. A German-speaking Community exists in eastern Wallonia, Belgiums linguistic diversity and related political conflicts are reflected in its political history and complex system of governance, made up of six different governments. Upon its independence, declared in 1830, Belgium participated in the Industrial Revolution and, during the course of the 20th century, possessed a number of colonies in Africa. This continuing antagonism has led to several far-reaching reforms, resulting in a transition from a unitary to a federal arrangement during the period from 1970 to 1993. Belgium is also a member of the Eurozone, NATO, OECD and WTO. Its capital, Brussels, hosts several of the EUs official seats as well as the headquarters of major international organizations such as NATO. Belgium is also a part of the Schengen Area, Belgium is a developed country, with an advanced high-income economy and is categorized as very high in the Human Development Index. A gradual immigration by Germanic Frankish tribes during the 5th century brought the area under the rule of the Merovingian kings, a gradual shift of power during the 8th century led the kingdom of the Franks to evolve into the Carolingian Empire. Many of these fiefdoms were united in the Burgundian Netherlands of the 14th and 15th centuries, the Eighty Years War divided the Low Countries into the northern United Provinces and the Southern Netherlands. The latter were ruled successively by the Spanish and the Austrian Habsburgs and this was the theatre of most Franco-Spanish and Franco-Austrian wars during the 17th and 18th centuries. The reunification of the Low Countries as the United Kingdom of the Netherlands occurred at the dissolution of the First French Empire in 1815, although the franchise was initially restricted, universal suffrage for men was introduced after the general strike of 1893 and for women in 1949. The main political parties of the 19th century were the Catholic Party, French was originally the single official language adopted by the nobility and the bourgeoisie
5.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
6.
Mass murder
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Mass murder is the act of murdering a number of people, typically simultaneously or over a relatively short period of time and in close geographic proximity. The FBI defines mass murder as murdering four or more persons during an event with no cooling-off period between the murders, a mass murder typically occurs in a single location where one or more people kill several others. Many acts of mass murder end with the perpetrator dying by suicide or suicide by cop, a mass murder may be committed by individuals or organizations whereas a spree killing is committed by one or two individuals. Mass murder is the hypernym of genocide, which requires additional criteria, some of these mass murders have been found to be genocides and others to be crimes against humanity, but often such crimes have led to few or no convictions of any type. The concept of state-sponsored mass murder covers a range of potential killings and it is defined as the intentional and indiscriminate murder of a large number of people by government agents. Examples are shooting of unarmed protesters, lobbing of grenades into prison cells, actions in which the state caused the death of large numbers of people, which political scientist R. J. Many terrorist groups in recent times have used the tactic of killing many victims to fulfill their political aims, certain cults, especially religious cults, have committed a number of mass killings and mass murder-suicides. Mass murderers may fall into any of a number of categories, including killers of family, of coworkers, of students, a notable motivation for mass murder is revenge, but other motivations are possible, including the need for attention or fame. Average response time by law enforcement to a shooting is typically much longer than the time the shooter is engaged in killing. In many instances, immediate action by victims, bystanders, or law enforcement officers has saved lives, commentators have pointed out that there are a wide variety of ways that homicides with more than several victims might be classified. Such incidents can be, and have been even in recent decades, classified many different ways including as a shooting, as a school shooting, as mass murder. As a crime involving a rifle, as a case of a mentally ill person committing acts of violence. How such rarely occurring incidents of homicide are classified tends to change significantly with time and it was understood that the key feature of cases was a high body count. Place, Did the killings occur in a location, or in a variety of places. Method, How were the victims killed, in the late decades of the 20th century and early years of the 2000s, the most popular classifications moved to include method, time and place. Crimes against humanity List of mass murderers List of rampage killers Mass grave Massacre School shooting Suicide attack Terrorism War crime What makes a Mass Killer. Mass Murder, A Small Persons Way to Immortality Mass shootings interactive map Online Encyclopedia of Mass Violence The real causes of mass murder by James Alan Fox
7.
Execution by firing squad
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Execution by firing squad, in the past sometimes called fusillading, is a method of capital punishment, particularly common in the military and in times of war. Execution by shooting is an old practice. Some reasons for its use are that firearms are usually readily available, a firing squad is normally composed of several military personnel or law enforcement officers. Usually, all members of the group are instructed to fire simultaneously, to avoid the disfigurement of multiple shots to the head, the shooters are typically instructed to aim at the heart, sometimes aided by a paper target. The prisoner is typically blindfolded or hooded, as well as restrained, executions can be carried out with the condemned either standing or sitting. There is a tradition in some jurisdictions that such executions are carried out at first light, or at sunrise and this gave rise to the phrase shot at dawn. Execution by firing squad is distinct from other forms of execution by firearms, however, the single shot by the squads officer with a pistol is sometimes incorporated in a firing squad execution, particularly if the initial volley turns out not to be immediately fatal. The method is often the punishment or disciplinary means employed by military courts for crimes such as cowardice, desertion, espionage, murder, mutiny. For servicemen, the squad is symbolic. The condemned serviceman is executed by a group of his peers indicating that he is found guilty by the entire group. Although a court-martial might be presided over and prosecuted by officers, finally, the group action on one side, with the condemned standing opposite, presents a visual contrast that reinforces to all witnesses that solidarity is an overriding necessity in a military unit. If the condemned prisoner is an ex-officer who is acknowledged to have shown bravery in their past career, an example of this is Marshal of France Michel Ney. In some cases, all but one member of the squad may be issued a weapon containing a blank cartridge. Sometimes all but one member has live rounds, no member of the firing squad is told beforehand if he is using live ammunition. This is believed to reinforce the sense of diffusion of responsibility among the squad members. It also allows each member of the squad to believe afterwards that he did not personally fire a fatal shot—for this reason. According to a Private W. A, the firing squad was then given a short speech by an officer before they fired a volley at the condemned man. He said about the episode, I had the satisfaction of knowing that as soon as I fired, the absence of any recoil, that I had merely fired a blank cartridge
8.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
9.
Joachim Peiper
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Joachim Peiper, also known as Jochen Peiper, was a field officer in the Waffen-SS during World War II and personal adjutant to Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler between November 1940 and August 1941. Peiper was convicted of war crimes committed in Belgium and imprisoned for almost 12 years and he was accused of war crimes in Italy, but Italian and German courts concluded that there was insufficient evidence to warrant prosecution. After his release from prison, Peiper worked for both Porsche and Volkswagen, before moving to France, where he translated books from English to German under the nom de plume Rainer Buschmann. Peiper was killed in France in July 1976, when unknown assailants burned his house to the ground, Peiper was born on 30 January 1915 into a middle class family from the Silesian region of Germany. His father, Captain Waldemar Peiper, served in the Imperial German Army, in 1915, he retired from active duty for health reasons after contracting malaria. After the war, Waldemar Peiper joined the Freikorps and took part in the Silesian Uprisings, Peiper did not obtain the grades needed to continue to university. In 1926, Peiper followed his other brother Horst and joined the Scout movement, Peiper’s brother Horst joined the SS, eventually reaching the rank of Hauptsturmführer. Horst participated in the Battle of France with the 3rd SS Division Totenkopf before being transferred to Poland, Peiper turned 18 years old on the day that Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany. He volunteered to join the Hitler Youth together with his oldest brother Horst, Peiper wanted to join a cavalry division of the German Reichswehr. To gain skill at horseriding, he followed the advice of a friend, General Walther von Reichenau. On 23 January 1934, he was promoted to SS-Mann with SS number 132,496, in 1934, during the annual Nuremberg Rally, Peiper was promoted to SS-Sturmmann and later gained the attention of Heinrich Himmler. In his 1935 résumé, Peiper wrote, As a result of an exhortation by the Reichsführer-SS, Himmler. In January 1935, he was sent to a camp for Hitler Youth, SA, after he completed the course, he was promoted to SS-Unterscharführer. In April 1935, Peiper enrolled in the newly created SS-Junkerschule Bad Tölz under the command of Paul Hausser and he graduated from Junkerschule in January 1936, he then attended training at the Dachau concentration camp in February and March 1936. On 20 April 1936, Peiper was promoted to SS-Untersturmführer and was posted to the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler under the command of Sepp Dietrich and he remained with the unit until June 1938. On 4 July 1938, Peiper was appointed to an administrative post as an adjutant to Heinrich Himmler, under the command of Karl Wolff, Peiper worked in Himmler’s anteroom in the SS-Hauptamt at Prinz-Albrecht-Straße. As a member of the Reichsführer-SS staff, Peiper was close to high ranking SS officers. He became one of Himmlers favourite adjutants, Peiper later served on Himmlers personal staff and accompanied him on a state visit to Italy
10.
Kampfgruppe
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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
11.
Battle of Vianden
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As soon as the country was liberated, Luxembourgish resistance members formed a militia across the country who were equipped with arms and ammunitions by the United States Army. Most of the Luxembourgish militia took up positions at the German border and occupied the important observation posts along the Rivers Our, one of the most important posts was Vianden Castle from which the Luxembourgers could look deep into German territory and report German troop movements to the Allied Forces. On November 15, Luxembourgish militia members spotted a German patrol between Wiesen and Bettel and decided to strike, five of the 11 German soldiers were killed by the Luxembourgers who themselves suffered no casualties. The leader of the resistance, Victor Abens, evacuated the civilians of Vianden but nevertheless decided that his 30 militia men should remain in the town and in the castle to defend it. In the following days, the U. S. Army supported the Luxembourgers in Vianden with weapons and ammunition, on Sunday morning, November 19, the Germans attacked the town with 250 soldiers of the Waffen-SS. After bombing the town and the castle with grenade launchers the German soldiers began to attack the castle itself which was defended and fortified by 4 members of the Luxembourgish militia. After heavy fighting around the castle,6 German soldiers managed to open the gate of the castle and enter it,18 German soldiers were killed during the main battle. The 30 men of the Luxembourgish militia suffered only one dead, a single civilian was killed when a grenade exploded in her home. Most of them continued their engagement by helping the U. S, Forces during the Battle of the Bulge. Unheilvolle Jahre für Luxemburg - Années néfastes pour le Grand-Duché, the Unknown Dead, Civilians in the Battle of the Bulge. MILIZ VIANDEN - FÉDÉRATION DES ENRÔLÉS DE FORCE
12.
Battle of Kesternich
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Kesternich is a small village just inside the German border from Belgium. It was the site of two battles during World War II. These battles are tied to the Siegfried Line Campaign, the Battle of the Huertgen Forest, the Battle of the Bulge, Kesternich is a small village, which in 1944-1945 consisted of about 112 houses constructed in a method of timber-frame and stucco construction called fachwerkhäuser. Poised on top of a ridge, the land inside the village along the main east-west road is relatively flat. The land falls off sharply to the north into a known as the Weidenbachtal. To the east, at the end of the village, the slopes down to the Roer river gorge. Surrounding the village along the ridge was a series of small fields, the houses were not tightly packed, but were surrounded by small yards containing many outbuildings and sheds. The yards, like the fields, were often separated by a form of traditional tall. Defenders inside the village commanded excellent fields of fire, the First Battle for Kesternich took place from 13 to 16 December 1944. This battle pitted the 2nd Battalion of the 309th Infantry Regiment, volksgrenadier-Division, including elements of the 326. The attack by the 78th Division interrupted Hitlers plans for the shoulder of the Battle of the Bulge. While it may be questionable that the Germans had enough strength to push the attack west of Simmerath and Kesternich, as a result, the northern pivot-point of the German offensive was pushed from Simmerath to south of Monschau. The 78th Divisions Mechanized Reconnaissance Troop and its 311th RCT had been attached to the 8th Infantry Division just to the north. For the offensive operations against Kesternich, the 78th Division had the 309th and 310th RCTs, as well as the attached, combat-experienced, 709th Tank Battalion, the 1st Battalion of the 309th RCT was to attack in the direction of Witzerath and Simmerath. The 3rd Battalion was to move on Bickerath and seize the ridge near Simmerath, the 2nd Battalion with its attached tanks was to capture Kesternich. The 2nd Battalion, 310th RCT, was to wait in the woods near Lammersdorf as a reserve, since the key objective of Kesternich was considered a tougher assignment, the 2nd Battalion of the 310th was attached to the 309th, giving it four battalions. This left the 310th with two battalions for their blocking assignment at Rollesbroich, a storm the night before left 12 inches of snow on the ground. A thick ground fog permeated the landscape making visibility difficult until mid-day, the attack by the 309th Infantry Regiment was a surprise to the Germans defending the vaulted Siegfried Line and the Americans quickly took Bickerath, Paustenbach, Witzerath, and Simmerath
13.
Battle of Heartbreak Crossroads
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On the eastern side of the West Wall was an excellent road network leading to the Roer River dams a few miles to the northeast and the Allies next goal. The Americans were assigned with capturing the crossroads with the goal of destroying the dams, or failing that, the dams were important to the Germans because they could be used defensively to control the flow and depth of the Roer River, blocking and delaying Allied advances. During the first two days of the battle, the Americans failed to advance and experienced significant losses, on the third day a platoon infiltrated the German lines and late on 15 December, the U. S. troops captured the crossroads. On 16 December, the German Unternehmen Wacht am Rhein offensive threatened to cut the Americans rear lines, the villages lay astride a key rollbahn to the west that the Germans wanted to capture in their attack west towards Antwerp. This turned into the Battle of Elsenborn Ridge, which was the portion of the Battle of the Bulge where the Allies didnt yield to the Germans. Some parts were not defended from fixed positions and only patrolled and that left a gap on the northeastern side of the road where the southeastward curve of the 99th Division’s line left the sector open to enemy penetration from the east. This prompted General Leonard T.4 miles southeast of Wahlerscheid, the 3 miles of dense woods between Krinkelt-Rocherath and Wahlerscheid made accurate estimations of enemy strength difficult. The U. S. infantry were supported by a battalion of 105-mm, howitzers, another of 4. 5-inch rockets, a battery of 155-mm. Self-propelled guns, a company of chemical mortars, a tank battalion. This was reinforced by the 406th Field Artillery Group and their four battalions of 155-mm, combat Command B of the 9th Armored Division was attached to exploit a possible breakthrough. An hour after sunrise on 13 December, the American infantry set off through the brush and thick woods on either side of the road, avoiding the mines known to block the road. The GIs were slowed by knee-deep snow in places, the dense, unfamiliar forest that dropped wet snow on them, troops were carrying up to 120 pounds of gear. The Germans had cleared the ground near the crossroads of trees to give their troops a clear field of fire, and laced the area with antipersonnel mines and masses of barbed wire six to ten deep. On about December 12, the 2nd ID was brought to the rear of the yet untested 99th ID on Elsenborn Ridge and he ordered the 38th Infantry Regiment to attack northeast from the road junction along the Dreiborn ridge, in the direction of the Roer River dams. The 23rd Infantry was held in reserve, the 277th Volksgrenadier Divisions 991st Regiment was in the Monschau Forest about 1.5 miles southeast of Wahlerscheid. The 2nd ID intended to surprise the Germans and advanced without artillery preparation, the U. S. soldiers were met with concentrated fire from hundreds of German weapons. One squad managed to crawl forward to a rise about 80 yards from the edge of the forest. From there, they were able to call in artillery fire, but could not penetrate the barbed wire
14.
Battle of Losheim Gap
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The Losheim Gap is a 5 miles long, narrow valley at the western foot of the Schnee Eifel, on the border of Belgium and Germany. In this region of the border between Belgium and Germany, it is the region conducive to military movement. In 1944, Operation Wacht am Rhein was planned by Hitler to trade space for time by an attack which would advance through the Allied armies to Antwerp. This would be through the Ardennes, a region that had long fascinated Hitler, during 1940 when the Germans invaded Belgium and then France, Field Marshal Erwin Rommel’s division sped through the Losheim Gap to gain the Meuse River and then push onto the English Channel. Hitler held similar hopes for 1944, however, they didnt succeed because of multiple factors, hitting definite resistance first at the approaches to Losheim and later near the village of Roth. Towards the twin villages of Rocherath and Krinkelt but were held up by the broken railroad overpasses, mostly untried U. S. troops succeeded in severely limiting the Germans advance, halting them at Elsenborn Ridge for most of the first day of the battle. Lanzerath, a village of about 15 homes, lay about 5 kilometres to the east of Losheim, in a calculated risk, the Allies had only a few men stretched very thinly across a wide area. The German forces were located on the edge of the Losheim Gap in Losheim. The Siegfried Line between them divided the Losheim Gap, during their earlier retreat, the Germans had destroyed two key railroad overpasses which they planned to repair on the first day of the counterattack. The 5th Panzer Army was given the task of capturing St. Vith, dietrichs plan was for the 6th SS Panzer Army to advance east through Lanzerath and Bucholz Station and then drive 72 miles through Honsfield and Büllingen. The infantry would continue north through Losheimergraben to push the 2nd and this would allow the 12th SS Panzer Division to advance eastward towards a group of villages named Trois-Ponts, connect to Belgian Route Nationale N-23, and cross the River Meuse. It was then another 53 miles to Antwerp, the Losheim Gap was also the origin of another key route from Germany into Belgium. The 18th Volksgrenadier Division under the command of Generalmajor Günther Hoffmann-Schönborn patrolled the Schnee Eifel area, on December 16 at 4,00 a. m. they took the twenty-two foot macadam road route following the Our River valley towards Manderfield. The route terminated at several vital crossroads in the city of St. Vith, the 5th Panzer Army planned to bypass St. Vith to the north. On the German side of the Siegfried Line, the Germans positioned their troops and armor around, on December 16,1944, at 5,30 a. m. the Germans launched a 90-minute artillery barrage using 1,600 artillery pieces across an 80 miles front. The infantry of the 9th Fallschirmjaeger Regiment, 3rd Fallschirmjaeger Division led the way through the Losheim Gap, to spare the armor, they operated in advance of Kampfgruppe SS Standartenführer Joachim Peipers 1st SS Panzer Division, the spearhead of SS Oberstgruppenführer Sepp Dietrich’s Sixth Panzer Army. The infantry would then secure the flank of the attack route near Losheimergraben. The 12th Volksgrenadier Division reached Losheimgraben at 7,00 a. m, Peiper himself tried to sort out the mess at one crossroads
15.
Battle of Clervaux
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The Battle of Clervaux or the Battle for Clervaux was part of the Battle of the Bulge and took place in the town of Clervaux in northern Luxembourg. It lasted from December 16 to 18,1944, German forces encircled numerically inferior American forces, primarily from the 110th Regiment and the 109th Field Artillery Battalion, and, after heavy fighting, forced them to surrender. The battle has been referred to as the Luxembourg Alamo, striking at 5,30 a. m. on Saturday,16 December, the Germans achieved almost total surprise in breaking through Allied lines, beginning what is commonly called the Battle of the Bulge. The German goal was to separate the American forces from the British and Canadian forces, by late afternoon the Germans had 14 divisions operating in the Ardennes, but the number would swell to an estimated 25 divisions with 600 tanks and 1,000 aircraft. The U. S. 106th Division, located in the most exposed positions along the line. The 106th was later described as being newly arrived and unpracticed, for their part, the German forces were hampered by a lack of adequate preparatory reconnaissance. Major General Troy H. Middleton, headquartered in Bastogne, was awakened by a guard, throughout the day, the 106th was able to hold its position, but additional German units poured in during the night. Much of the 106th was on the German side of the Our River in a known as the Schnee Eifel. The divisions commander, Major General Alan Jones, concerned about his two regiments east of the river, called Middleton, the conversation was interrupted by another call and then resumed. At the end of the conversation Middleton told an aide that he had given his approval to have the two regiments back to the west side of the river. Jones, on the hand was convinced that Middleton had directed these units to stay and was further convinced of this by a written order from earlier in the day. As a result of the miscommunication, the pullback did not occur, the 110ths regimental headquarters, and most of its strength, were in the town of Clervaux. Fuller described the forces as two Panzer divisions and one infantry division. At 09,30 on the 17th, the 2nd Panzer Division attacked Clervaux, with six German Stug IIIs and they were repulsed by five Shermans from the 707th Tank Battalion, which knocked out two Stug IIIs, while losing three Shermans themselves. The burning vehicles blocked any further German progress along the narrow road, the Germans then detoured by attacking the railway station north of town. Their attack was a success as the Sherman tanks of the 2nd Tank Battalion were no match for the Panzer IVs of Panzer-Regiment 3. The Panzergrenadiers and Panzer IVs raced to the center of the town from the north, Fuller requested permission to withdraw from Major General Norman Cota, the commander of the 28th Infantry Division, but he was denied it. Some 100 American defenders still held Clervaux Castle, some troops made it out of Clervaux but many, like Colonel Fuller, were taken prisoner before they reached the Allied lines
16.
Battle of Lanzerath Ridge
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It was fought between two squads totalling 18 men belonging to an American reconnaissance platoon, four U. S. Forward Artillery Observers, and a battalion of about 500 German paratroopers, the Germans finally flanked the American forces at dusk, capturing them. Only one American, an artillery observer, was killed, while 14 were wounded. The Germans paused, believing the woods were filled with more Americans, only when SS-Standartenführer Joachim Peiper and his Panzer tanks arrived at midnight, twelve hours behind schedule, did the Germans learn the nearby woods were empty. S. Lt. Lyle Bouck considered the wounding of most of his men, when the war ended five months later, the platoons men, who were split between two prisoner-of-war camps, just wanted to get home. It was only after the war that Bouck learned that his platoon had prevented the lead German infantry elements from advancing and had delayed by about 20 hours their armored units advance. Prior to the Battle of the Bulge, the U. S. Army was engaged in a campaign to attack the Roer River dams before invading the rest of Germany. The green 99th Infantry Division was supporting the battle-weary 2nd Infantry Division in their attack on the German West Wall at Wahlerscheid, during two days of hard fighting, the U. S. Army had finally managed to slip through the heavily fortified lines and penetrate the German defenses. Much of the region was quiet, lending the area the title of Ghost Front. During early December 1944, the Americans defensive line in the Ardennes had a gap south of Losheimergraben, General Leonard T. Gerow, in command of V Corps, recognized this area as a possible avenue of attack by the Germans. This area, which lay between V Corps and Troy H. Middletons VIII Corps, was undefended, just patrolled by jeep and this was the key route through which the German Sixth and Fifth Panzer Armies planned to advance. On December 11, General Walter M. Robertson, commander of the battle-hardened 2nd Infantry Division, was ordered to attack, in case he had to pull back, he chose Elsenborn Ridge as his defensive line. General Walter E. Lauer, commanding the 99th Infantry Division, was charged with building up the defenses around Elsenborn Ridge, Lauer knew his front was extremely long and very thinly manned, he gave instructions to his divisions soldiers to dig in and build cover for their foxholes. The troops of the 99th Infantry Division, who lacked experience, were deployed to the Ardennes in November 1944. Among the units was the 394th I&R platoon consisting of well-trained soldiers, some of the men were college-educated and were former members of the U. S. Armys abruptly terminated ASTP program. This platoon was led by 20-year-old Lt. Lyle Bouck, one of the youngest officers in the Army, for the next few weeks his platoon established and maintained regimental listening and observation posts, conducted patrols behind enemy lines, and gathered information. They lived in a building in Hünningen, taking advantage of a basement full of potatoes. The platoon consisted of two nine-man reconnaissance squads and a headquarters section, which was attached to the 394th regimental S2 section
17.
Operation Greif
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Operation Greif was a special operation commanded by Waffen-SS commando Otto Skorzeny during the Battle of the Bulge in World War II. The operation was the brainchild of Adolf Hitler, and its purpose was to one or more of the bridges over the Meuse river before they could be destroyed. German soldiers, wearing captured British and US Army uniforms and using captured Allied vehicles, were to cause confusion in the rear of the Allied lines. A lack of vehicles, uniforms, and equipment limited the operation, following his return to Germany, Skorzeny was summoned to meet Hitler at his headquarters at Rastenburg in East Prussia on 22 October 1944. After congratulating Skorzeny, Hitler outlined the planned Ardennes Offensive and the role he was to play in it. Skorzeny was to form a special brigade - Panzer Brigade 150 - whose purpose would be to one or more of the bridges over the Meuse river before they could be destroyed. Hitler informed him that he had decided this could be accomplished quickly and with fewer losses if Skorzeny. Hitler also remarked that small units disguised in enemy uniforms could cause confusion among the enemy by giving false orders, upsetting communications. I want you to command a group of American and British troops and get them across the Meuse, not, my dear Skorzeny, real Americans or British. I want you to special units wearing American and British uniforms. They will travel in captured Allied tanks, think of the confusion you could cause. I envisage a whole string of orders which will upset communications. The timing of the Ardennes Offensive meant that Skorzeny had only 5 or 6 weeks to recruit, within four days he sent his plans for Panzer Brigade 150 to Generaloberst Alfred Jodl. Despite asking for 3,300 men he was given an immediate go-ahead, the equipment delivered fell short of the requirements, including only two Sherman tanks in poor condition, and Skorzeny had to use German substitutes,5 tanks and 6 armoured cars. The brigade was also flooded by Polish and Russian equipment sent by units who had no idea what the request was for. Faced with these setbacks, Skorzeny scaled down Panzer Brigade 150 from three battalions to two and assembled the 150 best English speakers into a unit named Einheit Stielau. A total of 2,500 men were assembled at Grafenwöhr,800 less than had been hoped. Only a single Sherman tank was available, and the brigades Panther tanks were disguised as M10 tank destroyers by removing their cupolas and disguising their hulls and it was not until 10 December that Skorzenys own commanders were made aware of the brigades true plans
18.
Battle of Elsenborn Ridge
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The Battle of Elsenborn Ridge was the only sector of the American front lines during the Battle of the Bulge where the Germans failed to advance. The battle centered on the Elsenborn Ridge east of Elsenborn, Belgium in the Ardennes forest, West of Elsenborn Ridge, near the cities of Liège and Spa, Belgium, was a vast array of Allied supplies and the well-developed road network leading to the Meuse River and Antwerp. The Germans planned on using two key rollbahns or routes through the area to seize Antwerp and force a peace with the United States. The green, untested troops of the 99th Infantry Division had been placed in the sector during mid-November because the Allies thought it was an area unlikely to see battle. Their soldiers were stretched thin over a 22-mile front, and all three regiments were on line, with no reserve and they transitioned through the 99th divisions lines and after a deadly, costly battle, captured the crossroads. But the Germans counterattacked in what the Americans initially thought was a localized spoiling action, the 2nd ID consolidated their lines, pulling back into Hünningen, and then to the twin villages of Rocherath-Krinkelt, and finally at the dug-in positions held by the 99th ID at Elsenborn Ridge. In a fierce battle lasting 10 days, the American and German lines were often confused. During the first three days, the battle was for the villages of Rocherath-Krinkelt, during which American G. I. s were at times isolated in individual buildings surrounded by German armor. Attacking Elsenborn Ridge itself, the Germans, although superior in numbers, were stopped by the Americans well-prepared, U. S. artillery batteries repeatedly pounded the German advance. While the Germans employed a combined arms tactic and penetrated the U. S. lines several times. U. S. reserve forces consisting of clerks and headquarters personnel were rushed in at one point to reinforce the 395th Infantry Regiments lines, the Sixth Panzer Army was unable to break through and advance to its immediate objectives on the Meuse River. The stubborn American resistance forced Kampfgruppe Peiper to choose a route well south of Monschau. As a result, the German forces were strung out over miles of winding, single-track roads, Peipers units were repeatedly stymied by U. S. Army Engineers, who blew essential bridges along their route of advance. One column of roughly 40 tanks and support vehicles was destroyed on 17 December when they were discovered by an L4 air observer of the 62nd AFA Bn and they were attacked by the 62nds 105 howitzers mounted on M7 SPs, Corps 155s and Army 240s. The Panzers finally reached the Ambleve River, only about halfway to the Meuse River, food and ammunition also ran low. After 10 days, the German forces had reduced to an ineffective strength. The Americans had about 5,000 casualties, while exact German losses are not known, while the Americans had considerable supplies and enough troops to re-equip their forces, German losses couldnt be replaced. Monschau lay on the very northernmost sector of the German offensive, capturing it, the nearby town of Höfen, and the twin villages of Krinkelt-Rocherath were critical to the success of the German offensive because of the road network that lay to their west
19.
Battle of St. Vith
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The town of St. Vith, a vital road junction, was close to the boundary between the 5th and Sepp Dietrich’s Sixth Panzer Army, the two strongest units of the attack. St. Vith was also close to the end of the Losheim Gap, a critical valley through the densely forested ridges of the Ardennes Forest. Opposing this drive were units of the U. S. VIII Corps and these units, which operated under the command of Generals Robert W. Hasbrouck and Alan W. Jones, successfully resisted the German attacks, thereby significantly slowing the German advance. By 23 December, as the Germans shattered their flanks, the position became untenable. As the German plan called for the capture of St. Vith by 18,00 on 17 December, adolf Hitler, dictator of the Third Reich, first outlined his plan for a decisive counteroffensive on the Western Front on 16 September 1944. This assaults goal was to pierce the thinly held lines of the U. S, the main purpose of the counteroffensive was both political and diplomatic. Germany could then make a peace with the Western Allies. In the months following the pronouncement, Hitler gathered reserves for his plan in great secrecy. His chosen commander for the Western Front and figurehead behind which new armies would rally was Gerd von Rundstedt, under his banner was recreated a rebuilt Army Group B consisting of three armies, 6th SS Panzer, 5th Panzer and 7th Army. These armies would drive west through the Ardennes in a repeat of the western offensive of 1940. The 5th Panzer Army would support the flank of the 6th. The center army for the offensive was the 5th Panzer Army. It was neither as politically favored nor as well equipped as the 6th SS Panzer Army, Manteuffel had a reputation for meticulous planning and daring execution, along with a flair for independent thinking that had led to trouble in the past with his superiors. As a technical expert, he retained enough of a reputation to be trusted with a supporting role in the grand plan. Though second in power to 6th SS Panzer Army, the 5th Panzer Army still represented considerable mobile strength, four Panzer Divisions and one Panzer Brigade were supported by five Volksgrenadier divisions. Supporting these mobile fighting forces were numerous artillery, antiaircraft, after being informed of the nature of the offensive in a meeting with Hitler, von Rundstedt, and Model on 27 October 1944, Manteuffel proceeded to place his personal imprint on the grand plan. At first he supported Model’s and Rundstedt’s attempt to narrow the scope of the operation to the means that Army Group B could bring to bear, the 1944 offensive could not equal the strength of the 1940 invasion of the west. The number of vehicles and particularly the number of supporting aircraft would be lacking, therefore, Manteuffel supported what came to be called the “small solution”, a limited envelopment that would destroy the American First and Ninth armies
20.
Siege of Bastogne
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The Siege of Bastogne was an engagement in December 1944 between American and German forces at the Belgian town of Bastogne, as part of the larger Battle of the Bulge. The goal of the German offensive was the harbour at Antwerp, in order to reach it before the Allies could regroup and bring their superior air power to bear, German mechanized forces had to seize the roadways through eastern Belgium. The siege was from 20 to 27 December, until the besieged American forces were relieved by elements of General George Pattons Third Army. After the successful invasion of Normandy and the subsequent eastward push through France, the valuable port city of Antwerp had been captured during the push, and by the time winter arrived, the Allies even had control of German territory near the city of Aachen. Despite major misgivings from his commanders, including Gerd von Rundstedt and Walther Model, the plan was not modified. Meanwhile, the Allied commanders considered the Ardennes area to be unsuitable for a large-scale German attack, the Allies believed only an infantry division was present opposite the 28th Infantry, and they believed any attack along this sector would be limited in scale. The seven roads in and out of Bastogne were critical to the movement of German armor, hasso von Manteuffel—commanding the 5th Panzer Army—gave Heinrich Freiherr von Lüttwitz′s XLVII Panzer Corps the responsibility of capturing Bastogne, before crossing the Meuse near Namur. Lüttwitz planned to attack a 7 mi front with three divisions, the 26th Volksgrenadier and the 2nd Panzer would lead the assault, with the Panzer-Lehr-Division behind them. The Allied forces were gathered into groups at major Luxembourgish villages. The forces were too thin to maintain an even battle line, the 2nd Panzer Division was assigned to cross the river along this road, while the 26th Volksgrenadier Division would construct a bridge near Gemünd for its crossing. Lüttwitz realized the importance of the network of Bastogne—he knew that the town had to be captured before his corps could venture too far westward. Therefore, he ordered the Panzer-Lehr Division to push forward to Bastogne as soon as his troops had crossed the Clerf River in Northern Luxembourg. On the evening of 15 December, the 26th Volksgrenadier established an outpost line on the west bank of the Our, at 03,00, engineers began ferrying men and equipment over the river where they began assembling at the departure point, quite close to the American garrisons. At 05,30, the German artillery began bombarding the American positions, knocking out telephone lines, the Germans attacked swiftly, their advances made possible by sheer weight of numbers. German engineers completed bridges over the Our before dark, and armor began moving to the front, but in the end, the Germans were significantly delayed by the American defenders—their plan to cross the Clerf River by nightfall on the first day was delayed by two days. On 19 December, the 28th Division command post transferred to Bastogne from Wiltz, at Wiltz, the division put up its last stand, 3rd Battalion of the 110th—supported by armor and artillery—arrived at the town around noon of that day. The 44th Engineer Battalion was set up north of the town and this small force—numbering no more than 500 in total—held out until the evening, when their position became completely untenable and they retreated to the west. With the 110th Infantry completely destroyed as a combat unit, it would be up to the rest of the Allied army to defend Bastogne
21.
Battle of Bure
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The Battle of Bure was part of the Battle of the Bulge, which lasted from the 2 to 5 January 1945 during the final months of the Second World War. The battle was fought as part of the counterattack to rid the German held ground of the Bulge which forced them on the defensive. British XXX Corps with British 6th Airborne Division attached was tasked with clearing the area East of Dinant, Rochfort, Gupont, in a tough battle Bure was secured after nearly three days of heavy fighting whilst Gupont and Rochefort were both cleared with little resistance and the advance continued. In December 1944, the German armies launched a massive counter-attack through the forests of the Ardennes, the plan was to drive across the River Meuse and on to Antwerp to split the Allied armies and their lines of communication. As part of the First Allied Airborne Army, 6th Airborne Division was available as a component of the reserve for the Allied forces in northwest Europe. Soon after British XXX corps eliminated the most furthest Western German penetration, the 3rd Parachute Brigade were on the left, 5th Parachute Brigade on the right, and the 6th Airlanding Brigade in reserve. By the time they arrived in position the German advance had faltered, just before New Year’s Day the brigades were ordered to advance against the tip of the German salient. On 2 January 1945, they were to capture the villages of Bure and Grupont supported by the Sherman tanks of the Fife and Forfar Yeomanry detached from the 11th Armoured Division. Once these had been captured, a crossing over the River Lomme would be seized in order to halt any German breakthrough, the following day the 13th Parachute Battalion of the 5th Parachute Brigade left Resteigne on foot and at 13,00 started the attack on Bure. Supported by the tanks, A Company was to secure the village, while B Company secured the high ground, the attack was met immediately with sustained heavy mortar and machine gun fire, supported by German armour and casualties began to rise in both companies. After being repelled they regrouped and attacked again and this time A Company managed to gain a foothold in the village while B Company reached the ground by which it was able to enter Bure. At 17,00 C Company was sent in to reinforce A and B Companies, German counterattacks now began but the battalion was able to form a tight perimeter around half the village and develop strong points in all occupied buildings. As a result, they carried out fighting patrols and fought off four German counterattacks with one on A Company which was defeated when they called down artillery fire on their own positions. In the closeness of the fighting, the paratroopers used their knives to avoid giving away their locations. On 4 January the battalion was subjected to an artillery barrage. At one stage in the battle an ambulance did get in to Bure from which stepped a Sergeant of the 225th Field Ambulance from the Regimental Aid Post accompanied by a padre. By now the town of Bure was nearly a heap of rubble but the Germans clung to the houses and ruins, hid in cellars and catacombs, tiger tanks were still operating in the village which made mopping up extremely difficult. However, by 21,00 the last German outpost was eliminated by A Company, during the same time the 7th Parachute Battalion had captured Grupont with only light resistance and with 5th Parachute Brigades objectives now taken the battle came to an end
22.
Operation Bodenplatte
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Operation Bodenplatte, launched on 1 January 1945, was an attempt by the Luftwaffe to cripple Allied air forces in the Low Countries during the Second World War. The goal of Bodenplatte was to air superiority during the stagnant stage of the Battle of the Bulge so that the German Army. The operation was planned for 16 December 1944, but was delayed due to bad weather until New Year’s Day. Secrecy for the operation was so tight that not all German ground and naval forces had informed of the operation. British signals intelligence recorded the movement and buildup of German air forces in the region, the operation achieved some surprise and tactical success, but was ultimately a failure. A great many Allied aircraft were destroyed on the ground but replaced within a week, Allied aircrew casualties were quite small, since the majority of Allied losses were empty planes sitting on the ground. The Germans, however, lost many pilots that they could not readily replace, post-battle analysis suggests only 11 of the Luftwaffes 34 air combat Gruppen made attacks on time and with surprise. The operation failed to air superiority, even temporarily, while the German ground forces continued to be exposed to Allied air attack. Bodenplatte was the last large-scale strategic offensive operation mounted by the Luftwaffe during the war, the armies of the Western Allies were supported by the Allied Air Forces as they advanced across Western Europe in 1944. The RAF harassed the German air, sea and ground forces by hitting strong points, with Allied air superiority, the German Army could not operate effectively. The Luftwaffe, equally, found it difficult to provide air cover for the German Army. Although German aircraft production peaked in 1944 the Luftwaffe was critically short of pilots and fuel, the land battles moved towards the River Rhine, to the east of which lay the German heartland. Most of France had been liberated, as had the Belgian cities Brussels, although Operation Market Garden had failed in 1944, by 1945 the Allies had overrun most of the southern Netherlands and the Scheldt Estuary. As the ground forces moved across Europe, the Allied tactical air forces moved into new bases on the continent, the only limiting factor for the Allies was the weather. As winter came, the rains and mud turned airfields into quagmires, so large-scale air, the situation might well have continued until the spring thaw had the German High Command not launched Unternehmen Wacht am Rhein on 16 December 1944. The land offensive was to improve the German military position by capturing Antwerp and separating the British Army from United States Army forces. Part of the planning for the German land operation required the attack to be conducted under the cover of bad weather, which kept the main Allied asset. It initially succeeded, but the weather also grounded the Luftwaffe for the most part, nevertheless, the Luftwaffe did manage to put 500 aircraft into the air on 16 December, more than had been achieved for a long time
23.
Operation Nordwind
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Operation North Wind was the last major German offensive of World War II on the Western Front. It began on 31 December 1944 in Alsace and Lorraine in northeastern France, there is not a matter of prestige involved here. It is a matter of destroying and exterminating the enemy wherever we find them. The goal of the offensive was to break through the lines of the U. S, seventh Army and French 1st Army in the Upper Vosges mountains and the Alsatian Plain, and destroy them. This would leave the way open for Operation Dentist, a major thrust into the rear of the U. S. Third Army which would lead to the destruction of that army. S, Operation Nordwind soon had the understrength U. S. 7th Army in dire straits. The 7th Army —at the orders of U. S, general Dwight D. Eisenhower— had sent troops, equipment, and supplies north to reinforce the American armies in the Ardennes involved in the Battle of the Bulge. On the same day that the German Army launched Operation Nordwind and this attempt to cripple the Allied air forces based in northwestern Europe was known as Operation Bodenplatte, which failed without having achieved any of its key objectives. The initial attack was conducted by three Corps of the German 1st Army of Army Group G, and by 9 January, another, smaller, attack was made against the French positions south of Strasbourg, but it was finally stopped. The U. S. VI Corps—which bore the brunt of the German attacks—was fighting on three sides by 15 January and their arrival was delayed, and the American forces were forced to withdraw to defensive positions on the south bank of the Moder River on 21 January. The German offensive finally drew to a close on 25 January, after the US 222nd Infantry Regiment stopped their advance near Haguenau and this was the same day that the reinforcements began to arrive from the Ardennes. Strasbourg was saved but the Colmar Pocket was a danger which had to be eliminated, Battle of the Bulge Operation Spring Awakening Engler, Richard. The Final Crisis, Combat in Northern Alsace, January 1945, ISBN 978-0-9666389-1-2 Clarke, Jeffrey J. and Smith, Robert Ross. Center of Military History, United States Army, Washington, DC,1993, Nordwind & the US 44th Division *Battle History of the 44th I. D. The Other Battle of the Bulge, Operation Northwind, the U. S. Army Campaigns of World War II. United States Army Center of Military History, the NORDWIND Offensive on the website of the 100th Infantry Division Association contains a list of German primary sources on the operation
24.
Wehrmacht forces for the Ardennes Offensive
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Although the Wehrmacht was keeping the Allied forces contained along the Siegfried Line, the campaign had cost the Wehrmacht nearly 750,000 casualties, mostly irreplaceable. However, the advance of the Allied armies in August. By October, the progress of the Western Allies three army groups had slowed considerably, allowing the Germans to partly rebuild their strength and prepare for the defense of Germany itself, Hitler earmarked three field armies for the offensive, the 7th and the Fifth and Sixth Panzer. These accumulated over 240,000 soldiers, spread over seven panzer divisions, the bulk of the offensives armored strength was in the Sixth Panzer Army, which was tasked with the capture of the Belgian port of Antwerp. To its south was the Fifth Panzer Army, outfitted to protect the Sixths flank while it crossed the Meuse river. The southernmost flank was covered by the Seventh Army, composed of three corps and ordered to protect the Fifth Armys southern flank and tie down American reserves in Luxembourg. Apart from these three armies the Wehrmacht also designed two special units to aid the offensive, the second unit was a panzer brigade, intending to go behind enemy lines dressed in American uniforms to give false orders and spread confusion among American defenders in the Ardennes. Also earmarked for the offensive were around 800 aircraft, deployed by the Luftwaffe, to air support to German forces. Hastily organized into new divisions, these infantrymen lacked training and sometimes even weapons, even the elite Waffen-SS divisions were often deficient in manpower. By 1 December 1944, the sector of the front where the Western Allies were not on the offensive was along the Ardennes. In late July 1944, Allied forces in fighting in Normandy were able to out of the Normandy beachhead in Operation Cobra. General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied Commander on the Western Front, in an effort to reverse their misfortunes, the Wehrmacht launched Operation Lüttich on 7 August in the vicinity of the town of Mortain. Despite efforts to break through the U. S. 30th Infantry Division to cut off Allied forces in Northern France, although a much larger number of German soldiers were able to escape eastwards, they were forced to leave behind their heavy weapons and equipment. Paris was liberated on 25 August 1944, marking the end of Operation Overlord, by early September, as the Allies pushed to the German border, Model calculated that the actual strength of the 74 divisions at his disposal was no more than that of 25. In an effort to stabilize German lines in the West, von Rundstedt was reappointed as Commander-in-Chief West on 7 September 1944. Approaching the Belgian border in early September the Allied offensive came to a grinding halt, for example, on 2 September, Lieutenant General George Pattons U. S. Third Army requested 2,840,000 liters of gasoline, the Wehrmacht began to reorganize itself along a defensive front known as the Siegfried Line. In an effort to open the Scheldt estuary, Eisenhower approved Field Marshal Bernard Montgomerys Operation Market Garden, however, by 21 September the operation had failed to dislodge German defenders from the southern Netherlands and open the seaway to Antwerp, the supply problem was at its worst
25.
War crime
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A war crime is an act that constitutes a serious violation of the law of war that gives rise to individual criminal responsibility. The concept of war crimes emerged at the turn of the century when the body of customary international law applicable to warfare between sovereign states was codified. Moreover, trials in national courts during this period further helped clarify the law, following the end of World War II, major developments in the law occurred. Numerous trials of Axis war criminals established the Nuremberg principles, such as notion that war crimes constituted crimes defined by international law, additionally, the Geneva Conventions in 1949 defined new war crimes and established that states could exercise universal jurisdiction over such crimes. The trial of Peter von Hagenbach by an ad hoc tribunal of the Holy Roman Empire in 1474 was the first international war crimes trial, and also of command responsibility. He was convicted and beheaded for crimes that he as a knight was deemed to have a duty to prevent, although he had argued that he was only following orders. In 1654 a Major Connaught was tried at Chester Assizes and hanged for his part in the massacre of villagers in the church at the village of Boughton, twelve villagers were smoked out, stripped naked and had their throats cut. He was hanged at the scene of the crime having been convicted of striking a blow to the head of John Fowler with an axe. The Geneva Conventions are four related treaties adopted and continuously expanded from 1864 to 1949 that represent a legal basis, accordingly, states retain different codes and values with regard to wartime conduct. Some signatories have routinely violated the Geneva Conventions in a way which either uses the ambiguities of law or political maneuvering to sidestep the laws formalities and principles. Three conventions were revised and expanded with the one added in 1949, First Geneva Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded. Second Geneva Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of Wounded, Sick, third Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War. Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, Protocol II relating to the Protection of Victims of Non-International Armed Conflicts. Protocol III relating to the Adoption of an Additional Distinctive Emblem, a small number of German military personnel of the First World War were tried in 1921 by the German Supreme Court for alleged war crimes. The modern concept of war crime was further developed under the auspices of the Nuremberg Trials based on the definition in the London Charter that was published on August 8,1945. Along with war crimes the charter also defined crimes against peace and crimes against humanity, on July 1,2002, the International Criminal Court, a treaty-based court located in The Hague, came into being for the prosecution of war crimes committed on or after that date. Several nations, most notably the United States, China, Russia, the United States still participates as an observer. Article 12 of the Rome Statute provides jurisdiction over the citizens of non-contracting states in the event that they are accused of committing crimes in the territory of one of the state parties
26.
Prisoner of war
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A prisoner of war is a person, whether combatant or non-combatant, who is held in custody by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the prisoner of war dates to 1660. The first Roman gladiators were prisoners of war and were named according to their ethnic roots such as Samnite, Thracian, typically, little distinction was made between enemy combatants and enemy civilians, although women and children were more likely to be spared. Sometimes, the purpose of a battle, if not a war, was to capture women, a known as raptio. Typically women had no rights, and were legally as chattel. For this he was eventually canonized, during Childerics siege and blockade of Paris in 464, the nun Geneviève pleaded with the Frankish king for the welfare of prisoners of war and met with a favourable response. Later, Clovis I liberated captives after Genevieve urged him to do so, many French prisoners of war were killed during the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. In the later Middle Ages, a number of religious wars aimed to not only defeat, in Christian Europe, the extermination of heretics was considered desirable. Examples include the 13th century Albigensian Crusade and the Northern Crusades, likewise, the inhabitants of conquered cities were frequently massacred during the Crusades against the Muslims in the 11th and 12th centuries. Noblemen could hope to be ransomed, their families would have to send to their captors large sums of wealth commensurate with the status of the captive. In feudal Japan there was no custom of ransoming prisoners of war, in Termez, on the Oxus, all the people, both men and women, were driven out onto the plain, and divided in accordance with their usual custom, then they were all slain. The Aztecs were constantly at war with neighbouring tribes and groups, for the re-consecration of Great Pyramid of Tenochtitlan in 1487, between 10,000 and 80,400 persons were sacrificed. During the early Muslim conquests, Muslims routinely captured large number of prisoners, aside from those who converted, most were ransomed or enslaved. Christians who were captured during the Crusades, were either killed or sold into slavery if they could not pay a ransom. The freeing of prisoners was highly recommended as a charitable act, there also evolved the right of parole, French for discourse, in which a captured officer surrendered his sword and gave his word as a gentleman in exchange for privileges. If he swore not to escape, he could gain better accommodations, if he swore to cease hostilities against the nation who held him captive, he could be repatriated or exchanged but could not serve against his former captors in a military capacity. Early historical narratives of captured colonial Europeans, including perspectives of literate women captured by the peoples of North America. The writings of Mary Rowlandson, captured in the fighting of King Philips War, are an example
27.
Massacre
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A massacre is a specific incident which involves the killing of people, although not necessarily a crime against humanity. Further origins are dubious, though may be related to Latin macellum provisions store, robert Melsons basic working definition, reads, by massacre we shall mean the intentional killing by political actors of a significant number of relatively defenseless people. The motives for massacre need not be rational in order for the killings to be intentional, Mass killings can be carried out for various reasons, including a response to false rumors. Should be distinguished from criminal or pathological mass killings, as political bodies we of course include the state and its agencies, but also nonstate actors. Equally important is that massacres are not carried out by individuals, the use of superior, even overwhelming force. Levene excludes legal, or even some quasi-legal, mass executions and he also points out that it is. most often. When the act is outside the normal bounds of the society witnessing it. List of events named massacres Disaster Ethnic cleansing Genocide Killing spree Mass murder Pogrom Tragedy Tragedy War crime
28.
Baugnez
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Baugnez is a hamlet in Belgium, outside the town of Malmedy. It is notable as being the site of a massacre during the Second World War. Baugnez is situated two miles southeast of the town of Malmedy, on route N62 between Malmedy and Ligneuville and it stands at the crossroads between N62 and N632. After Baugnez the Route les Waimes follows N632 to Waimes and N62 becomes Route de Luxembourg, in December 1944 the crossroads at Baugnez was the site of the massacre of more than 70 American prisoners of war by Waffen SS troops under the command of Joachim Peiper. The site is marked by a memorial comprising a low stone wall bearing a plaque recounting the incident and 72 black stones inset into the wall, location at malmedy. be American War Memorial at malmedy. be
29.
Dachau trials
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The Dachau Military Tribunals chief prosecutor was 32 year-old William Denson, a U. S. Army lawyer. The chief defence counsel was Lieutenant Colonel Douglas T. Bates Jr. an artillery officer and lawyer from Centerville, the proceedings were similar to the 12 post-1946 Nuremberg trials that were also conducted solely by the United States. During almost three years, the American military tribunals tried 1,672 German alleged war criminals in 489 separate proceedings, in total 1,416 former members of the Nazi regime were convicted, of these,297 received death sentences and 279 were sentenced to life in prison. All convicted prisoners were sent to War Criminals Prison #1 at Landsberg am Lech to serve their sentences or to be hanged, two of the most highly publicised trials concerned the activities of German forces during the Battle of the Bulge in late 1944. In the Malmedy massacre trial,73 members of the Waffen-SS were found guilty of summarily executing 84 American prisoners of war during the attack, the Dachau Camp Trials,40 officials were tried,36 of the defendants were sentenced to death on 13 December 1945. Of these,23 were hanged on the 28 May and 29 May 1946, including the former commandant Martin Gottfried Weiss, smaller groups of Dachau camp officials and guards were included in several subsequent trials by the U. S. court. On 21 November 1946 it was announced that, up to date,116 defendants of this category had been convicted and sentenced to terms of imprisonment. The Mauthausen Camp Trials,61 officials of this camp were tried by a U. S. military court at Dachau in March/April,1946,58 defendants were sentenced to death on 11 May 1946 and those executed included the commandant of the SS-Totenkopfverbände. The Flossenbürg Camp Trial,52 officials and guards of this camp were tried between 12 June 1946 and 19 January 1947, of the defendants,15 sentenced to death and 25 to terms of imprisonment. The Buchenwald Camp Trial, Between April and August,1947,31 defendants were found guilty, of these 22 were sentenced to death,9 to imprisonment. The Mühldorf Camp Trial, five officials were sentenced to death by a U. S. war crimes court at Dachau on 13 May 1947, the Dora-Nordhausen Trial, On 7 August 1947 it convicted 15 former SS guards and Kapos. The trial also addressed the question of liability of Mittelwerk V-2 rocket scientists, richard Drauz, Former Nazi Party official, Kreisleiter of Heilbronn and member of the Reichstag. Sentenced to death on 11 December 1945 for his involvement in the execution of an Allied prisoner of war on 24 March 1945. Executed in Landsberg prison on 4 December 1946, August Eigruber, Ex SS-Obergruppenführer, Gauleiter of Oberdonau and Landeshauptmann of Upper Austria. Condemned to death on 11 May 1946 for his involvement in the establishment, otto Förschner, Ex SS-Sturmbannführer and former commandant of the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp and commander of the Dachau satellite-camp of Kaufering. Sentenced to death on 13 December 1945 for crimes against humanity committed during his tenure at Kaufering, executed in Landsberg prison on 28 May 1946. Eduard Krebsbach, Ex SS-Sturmbannführer and chief officer of Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp. Convicted on 11 May 1946 of killing hundreds of ill and disabled inmates by administering lethal injections of the chemical compound Benzene, julius Ludolf, Ex SS-Obersturmführer in the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp system
30.
Adolf Hitler
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Adolf Hitler was a German politician who was the leader of the Nazi Party, Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and Führer of Nazi Germany from 1934 to 1945. As dictator of the German Reich, he initiated World War II in Europe with the invasion of Poland in September 1939 and was central to the Holocaust, Hitler was born in Austria, then part of Austria-Hungary, and raised near Linz. He moved to Germany in 1913 and was decorated during his service in the German Army in World War I and he joined the German Workers Party, the precursor of the NSDAP, in 1919 and became leader of the NSDAP in 1921. In 1923 he attempted a coup in Munich to seize power, the failed coup resulted in Hitlers imprisonment, during which he dictated the first volume of his autobiography and political manifesto Mein Kampf. Hitler frequently denounced international capitalism and communism as being part of a Jewish conspiracy, by 1933, the Nazi Party was the largest elected party in the German Reichstag, which led to Hitlers appointment as Chancellor on 30 January 1933. Hitler aimed to eliminate Jews from Germany and establish a New Order to counter what he saw as the injustice of the post-World War I international order dominated by Britain, Hitler sought Lebensraum for the German people in Eastern Europe. His aggressive foreign policy is considered to be the cause of the outbreak of World War II in Europe. He directed large-scale rearmament and on 1 September 1939 invaded Poland, resulting in British, in June 1941, Hitler ordered an invasion of the Soviet Union. By the end of 1941 German forces and the European Axis powers occupied most of Europe, failure to defeat the Soviets and the entry of the United States into the war forced Germany onto the defensive and it suffered a series of escalating defeats. In the final days of the war, during the Battle of Berlin in 1945, Hitler married his long-time lover, on 30 April 1945, less than two days later, the two killed themselves to avoid capture by the Red Army, and their corpses were burned. Hitler and the Nazi regime were also responsible for the killing of an estimated 19.3 million civilians, in addition,29 million soldiers and civilians died as a result of military action in the European Theatre of World War II. The number of civilians killed during the Second World War was unprecedented in warfare, Hitlers father Alois Hitler Sr. was the illegitimate child of Maria Anna Schicklgruber. The baptismal register did not show the name of his father, in 1842, Johann Georg Hiedler married Aloiss mother Maria Anna. Alois was brought up in the family of Hiedlers brother, Johann Nepomuk Hiedler, in 1876, Alois was legitimated and the baptismal register changed by a priest to register Johann Georg Hiedler as Aloiss father. Alois then assumed the surname Hitler, also spelled Hiedler, Hüttler, the Hitler surname is probably based on one who lives in a hut. Nazi official Hans Frank suggested that Aloiss mother had been employed as a housekeeper by a Jewish family in Graz, and that the familys 19-year-old son Leopold Frankenberger had fathered Alois. No Frankenberger was registered in Graz during that period, and no record has been produced of Leopold Frankenbergers existence, Adolf Hitler was born on 20 April 1889 in Braunau am Inn, a town in Austria-Hungary, close to the border with the German Empire. He was one of six born to Alois Hitler and Klara Pölzl
31.
Sepp Dietrich
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Josef Sepp Dietrich was an Oberst-Gruppenführer in the Waffen-SS, the armed paramilitary branch of the Schutzstaffel, who commanded units up to army level during World War II. He later commanded 6th Panzer Army during the Battle of the Bulge, after the war he was imprisoned by the United States for war crimes and later by West Germany for his involvement in the 1934 purge. Sepp Dietrich was born on 28 May 1892 in Hawangen, near Memmingen in the Kingdom of Bavaria, in 1911 he joined the Bavarian Army with the 4. In the First World War he served with the Bavarian Field artillery, He was promoted to Gefreiter in 1917, in 1918 he was promoted to Unteroffizier. Last Bavarian army record lists Dietrich as recipient of Iron Cross 1st class, after the Great War Dietrich worked at several jobs, including policeman and customs officer. He joined the Nazi Party in 1928, got a job at Eher Verlag, the NSDAP publisher and his NSDAP number was 89,015 and his SS number was 1,117. Dietrich had been introduced to Nazism by Christian Weber, who was his employer at the Tankstelle-Blau-Bock filling station in Munich and he accompanied Hitler on his tours around Germany. Later Hitler arranged other jobs, including various SS posts, on 5 January 1930 Dietrich was elected to the Reichstag as a delegate for Lower Bavaria. By 1931 he had become SS-Gruppenführer, when the Nazi Party seized power in 1933, he rose swiftly through the hierarchy. He became the commander of Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler and member of the Prussian state council, as one of Hitlers intimates, Dietrich was often able to disregard his SS superior, Heinrich Himmler, at one time even banning Himmler from the Leibstandarte barracks. The LSSAH eventually grew into a division of the Waffen-SS. Although the unit was nominally under Himmler, Dietrich was the real commander, in the summer of 1934 Dietrich played a key role in the Night of the Long Knives. Hitler, along with Dietrich and a unit from the Leibstandarte, later at around 17,00 hours, Dietrich received orders from Hitler for the Leibstandarte to form an execution squad and go to Stadelheim prison where certain SA leaders were being held. There in the courtyard, the Leibstandarte firing squad shot five SA generals. Additional alleged traitors were shot in Berlin by a unit of the Leibstandarte after Hitler told him to six men. Shortly thereafter, Dietrich was promoted to SS-Obergruppenführer, Dietrichs role later earned him a 19-month sentence from a postwar court. After World War II began, Dietrich led the Leibstandarte during the German advance into Poland, after the Dutch surrender, the Leibstandarte moved south to France on 24 May 1940. They took up a position 15 miles southwest of Dunkirk along the line of the Aa Canal and that night the OKW ordered the advance to halt, with the British Expeditionary Force trapped
32.
Allies of World War II
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The Allies of World War II, called the United Nations from the 1 January 1942 declaration, were the countries that together opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War. The Allies promoted the alliance as seeking to stop German, Japanese, at the start of the war on 1 September 1939, the Allies consisted of France, Poland and the United Kingdom, and dependent states, such as the British India. Within days they were joined by the independent Dominions of the British Commonwealth, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Poland was a minor factor after its defeat in 1939, France was a minor factor after its defeat in 1940. China had already been into a war with Japan since the Marco Polo Bridge Incident of 1937. The alliance was formalised by the Declaration by United Nations, from 1 January 1942, however, the name United Nations was rarely used to describe the Allies during the war. The leaders of the Big Three – the UK, the Soviet Union, in 1945, the Allied nations became the basis of the United Nations. The origins of the Allied powers stem from the Allies of World War I, Germany resented signing Treaty of Versailles. The new Weimar republics legitimacy became shaken, by the early 1930s, the Nazi Party led by Adolf Hitler became the dominant revanchist movement in Germany and Hitler and the Nazis gained power in 1933. The Nazi regime demanded the cancellation of the Treaty of Versailles and made claims to German-populated Austria. The likelihood of war was high, and the question was whether it could be avoided through strategies such as appeasement, in Asia, when Japan seized Manchuria in 1931, the League of Nations condemned it for aggression against China. Japan responded by leaving the League of Nations in March 1933, after four quiet years, the Sino-Japanese War erupted in 1937 with Japanese forces invading China. The League of Nations condemned Japans actions and initiated sanctions on Japan, the United States, in particular, was angered at Japan and sought to support China. In March 1939, Germany took over Czechoslovakia, violating the Munich Agreement signed six months before, Britain and France decided that Hitler had no intention to uphold diplomatic agreements and responded by preparing for war. On 31 March 1939, Britain formed the Anglo-Polish military alliance in an effort to avert a German attack on the country, also, the French had a long-standing alliance with Poland since 1921. The Soviet Union sought an alliance with the powers. The agreement secretly divided the independent nations of eastern Europe between the two powers and assured adequate oil supplies for the German war machine, on 1 September 1939, Germany invaded Poland, two days later Britain and France declared war on Germany. Then, on 17 September 1939, the Soviet Union invaded Poland from the east, a Polish government-in-exile was set up and it continued to be one of the Allies, a model followed by other occupied countries. After a quiet winter, Germany in April 1940 invaded and quickly defeated Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Britain and its Empire stood alone against Hitler and Mussolini
33.
Monschau
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Monschau is a small resort town in the Eifel region of western Germany, located in the district Aachen, North Rhine-Westphalia. The town is located in the hills of the North Eifel, the historic town center has many preserved half-timbered houses and narrow streets have remained nearly unchanged for 300 years, making the town a popular tourist attraction nowadays. An open-air, classical music festival is staged annually at Burg Monschau, historically, the main industry of the town was cloth-mills. On the heights above the city is Monschau castle, which dates back to the 13th century — the first mention of Monschau was made in 1198, beginning in 1433, the castle was used as a seat of the dukes of Jülich. In 1543, Emperor Charles V besieged it as part of the Geldern Feud, captured it, however, the castle stayed with Jülich until 1609, when it became part of Palatinate-Neuburg. In 1795, the French captured the area and, under the name Montjoie, after the area became part of the Kingdom of Prussia in 1815, Monschau became the district capital of the Kreis Montjoie. During World War I, some argued that Monschau should be annexed to Belgium since they believed it historically to be a Walloon area that had been Germanized by the Prussians. In 1918, William II, German Emperor, changed the name to Monschau, in 1972, the town was enlarged with the previous independent municipalities of Höfen, Imgenbroich, Kalterherberg, Konzen, Mützenich and Rohren. Mützenich, to the west of the center, is an exclave of German territory surrounded by Belgium. It is separated from Germany by the Vennbahn railway line, which was assigned to Belgium by the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. The arts and cultural Monschau shows changing art exhibitions Red House, Foundation-Scheibler Museum,1768 the double house was completed. Johann Heinrich Scheibler, the owner had brought the Monschau cloth industry to full success, the highlight of the equipment is the wooden staircase in the house. Caffee roasting Wilhelm Maassen, founded in 1862, there is roasted coffee in old family tradition on an old PROBAT drum roaster. Brewery Museum Felsenkeller,150 years of brewing in the historical Monschau brewery, erlebnismuseum Lernort natur, Since 2014, Museum of the stuffed animals Monschau has over 330 listed buildings, so that only a selection can be called. Monschau Castle The Protestant Stadtkirche Monschau was built from 1787 to 1789 by Wilhelm Hellwig as a rectangular quarry stone, the Red House of the cloth manufacturers family Scheibler is accessible as a museum today. It is a duplex and was completed in 1768 by Johann Heinrich Scheibler and it has long been attributed to the Aachen architect Jakob Couven, but this is unlikely. St. Mariä Geburt in the style of peasant Baroque, built from 1649 to 1650, instead of a tower, the church has a ridge turret with a pointed roof. At two meetings in the spring meet canoeists for about 50 years in Monschau international events, nationally known is the Monschau Marathon more than 760 meters of altitude, which takes place in August
34.
Meuse
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The Meuse or Maas is a major European river, rising in France and flowing through Belgium and the Netherlands before draining into the North Sea. It has a length of 925 km. Its lower Belgian portion, part of the sillon industriel, was the first fully industrialized area in continental Europe. The Meuse and its crossings were a key objective of the last major German WWII counter-offensive on the Western Front, the Meuse River is represented in the documentary The River People released in 2012 by Xavier Istasse. The name Meuse is derived from the French name of the river, the Dutch name Maas descends from Middle Dutch Mase, which comes from the presumed but unattested Old Dutch form *Masa, from Proto-Germanic *Masō. Only modern Dutch preserves this Germanic form, however, despite the similarity, the Germanic name is not derived from the Latin name, judging from the change from earlier o into a, which is characteristic of the Germanic languages. Therefore, both the Latin and Germanic names were derived from a Proto-Celtic source, which would have been *Mosā. The Meuse rises in Pouilly-en-Bassigny, commune of Le Châtelet-sur-Meuse on the Langres plateau in France from where it flows northwards past Sedan, at Namur it is joined by the River Sambre. Beyond Namur the Meuse winds eastwards, skirting the Ardennes, the river then forms part of the Belgian-Dutch border, except that at Maastricht the border lies further to the west. The river has been divided near Heusden into the Afgedamde Maas on the right, the Bergse Maas continues under the name of Amer, which is part of De Biesbosch. Near Lage Zwaluwe, the Nieuwe Merwede joins the Amer, forming the Hollands Diep, between Maastricht and Maasbracht, an unnavigable section of the Meuse is bypassed by the 36 km Juliana Canal. South of Namur, further upstream, the river can carry more modest vessels. From Givet, the river is canalized over a distance of 272 kilometres, the canalized Meuse used to be called the Canal de lEst — Branche Nord but was recently rebaptized into Canal de la Meuse. The waterway can be used by the smallest barges that are still in use commercially, just upstream of the town of Commercy, the Canal de la Meuse connects with the Marne–Rhine Canal by means of a short diversion canal. The Cretaceous sea reptile Mosasaur is named after the river Meuse, the first fossils of it were discovered outside Maastricht 1780. An international agreement was signed in 2002 in Ghent, Belgium about the management of the river amongst France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, also participating in the agreement were the Belgian regional governments of Flanders, Wallonia, and Brussels. Most of the area is in Wallonia, followed by France. An International Commission on the Meuse has the responsibility of the implementation of the treaty, the map of the basin area of Meuse was joined to the text of the treaty
35.
Antwerp
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Antwerp is a city in Belgium, the capital of Antwerp province in the region of Flanders. With a population of 510,610, it is the most populous city proper in Belgium and its metropolitan area houses around 1,200,000 people, which is second behind Brussels. Antwerp is on the River Scheldt, linked to the North Sea by the Westerschelde estuary, the Port of Antwerp is one of the biggest in the world, ranking second in Europe and within the top 20 globally. Antwerp has long been an important city in the Low Countries, the inhabitants of Antwerp are nicknamed Sinjoren, after the Spanish honorific señor or French seigneur, lord, referring to the Spanish noblemen who ruled the city in the 17th century. The city hosted the 1920 Summer Olympics, according to folklore, notably celebrated by a statue in front of the town hall, the city got its name from a legend about a giant called Antigoon who lived near the Scheldt river. He exacted a toll from passing boatmen, and for those who refused, he severed one of their hands, eventually the giant was killed by a young hero named Silvius Brabo, who cut off the giants own hand and flung it into the river. Hence the name Antwerpen, from Dutch hand werpen, akin to Old English hand and wearpan, a longstanding theory is that the name originated in the Gallo-Roman period and comes from the Latin antverpia. Antverpia would come from Ante Verpia, indicating land that forms by deposition in the curve of a river. Note that the river Scheldt, before a period between 600 and 750, followed a different track. This must have coincided roughly with the current ringway south of the city, however, many historians think it unlikely that there was a large settlement which would be named Antverpia, but more something like an outpost with a river crossing. However, John Lothrop Motley argues, and so do a lot of Dutch etymologists and historians, aan t werp is also possible. This warp is a hill or a river deposit, high enough to remain dry at high tide. Another word for werp is pol hence polders, historical Antwerp allegedly had its origins in a Gallo-Roman vicus. Excavations carried out in the oldest section near the Scheldt, 1952–1961, produced pottery shards, the earliest mention of Antwerp dates from the 4th century. In the 4th century, Antwerp was first named, having been settled by the Germanic Franks, the name was reputed to have been derived from anda and werpum. The Merovingian Antwerp was evangelized by Saint Amand in the 7th century, at the end of the 10th century, the Scheldt became the boundary of the Holy Roman Empire. Antwerp became a margraviate in 980, by the German emperor Otto I, in the 11th century Godfrey of Bouillon was for some years known as the marquis of Antwerp. In the 12th century, Norbert of Xanten established a community of his Premonstratensian canons at St. Michaels Abbey at Caloes
36.
Stavelot
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Stavelot is a Walloon municipality in the Belgian province of Liège. In 2006, Stavelot had a population of 6,671, the town grew up around the Abbey of Stavelot, founded ca 650, out of what had been a villa, by Saint Remaclus. The villas lands occupied the borderland between the bishoprics of Cologne and Tongeren, the Abbey of Stavelot was secularized and demolished at the time of the French Revolution, of the church just the west end doorway remains, as a free-standing tower. The foundations of the church are presented as a footprint, with walls. The binding of the Stavelot Bible, and the fragments from the retable at Stavelot are also high points of medieval art. In the 16th century, the monk Jean Delvaux claimed to have seen witches and demonic rituals, Stavelot was the seat of the Principality of Stavelot-Malmedy, a small independent region of the Holy Roman Empire, ruled by the abbots of Stavelot. The principality was dissolved in 1795 during the French Revolution, at the Congress of Vienna in 1815, Stavelot was added to the Kingdom of the Netherlands while Malmedy was added to the Prussian Rhineland. In 1830 it became part of Belgium, the towns coat of arms, granted in 1819, is parted fesswise between Stavelots founding bishop, and the wolf which in Stavelots founding legend carried bricks for the building of the Abbey. During the Battle of the Bulge in World War II, the city was the scene of severe fighting, peiper and some of his officers were after the war tried and convicted for this war crime along with others perpetrated during the same period. Stavelot is home to the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, the venue of the Formula One Belgian Grand Prix. Stavelot also has a carnival, the Laetare des Blancs-Moussis
37.
Trois-Ponts
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Trois-Ponts is a municipality of Belgium. It lies in the countrys Walloon Region and Province of Liege, on January 1,2006, Trois-Ponts had a total population of 2,445. The total area is 68.90 km² which gives a density of 35 inhabitants per km². It is situated at the confluence of the rivers Amblève and Salm, the municipality consists of the following sub-municipalities, Basse-Bodeux, Fosse, and Wanne. A railway junction at Trois-Ponts connected the Vennbahn with the Liège-Troisvierges, list of protected heritage sites in Trois-Ponts Coo-Trois-Ponts Hydroelectric Power Station Media related to Trois-Ponts at Wikimedia Commons
38.
Huy
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Huy is a municipality of Belgium. It lies in the countrys Walloon Region and Province of Liege, Huy lies along the river Meuse, at the mouth of the small river Hoyoux. It is in the sillon industriel, the industrial backbone of Wallonia. The Huy municipality includes the sub-municipalities of Ben-Ahin, Neuville-sous-Huy, the first village originated around the Roman castrum, an early fortress located on the right bank of the River Meuse. The village was evangelized by Saint Domitian, bishop of Tongeren in the 6th century and the town is mentioned for the first time in a 7th-century testament. In the early Middle Ages, Huy was one of the most prosperous cities on the Meuse, with an economy based mostly on metallurgy, but also on tanning, sculpting, woodworking. In the 10th century, Huy was promoted to county status, Huy was the recipient of the first historically known charter north of the Alps, confirming it as a city in 1066. It is around that time that Peter the Hermit harangued the locals, in the 13th and 14th centuries, the economy boomed thanks to the cloth industry. The castle on a right in the middle of town, was used in times of war. By the 15th century, it had become the symbol of the city, the following two centuries, however, witnessed a gradual decline in the city’s fortunes, due in large part to the strategic value of its location on the Meuse. A new fortress was built by the Dutch in 1818 at the strategic location above the town. The 19th century was a period of relative prosperity based on the paper and other industries, the decline of heavy industry in the 20th century was felt here, as in other parts of Wallonia. Today, the city has started to again, thanks in part to its tin products. In 1970 the Tihange Nuclear Power Station was built, every seven years, a religious procession takes place in the so-called septennial festivities in commemoration of the end of a drought in 1656. The last one took place on August 15,2012, the race traverses, and finishes, at the summit of the Mur de Huy, a climb of about 1 kilometer with an average gradient of 10%, with sections of 20%. Huy has also used in the Tour de France four times,1995,2001,2006 and 2015. Huy was used as the location for the 2014 BBC television drama series The Missing, cavalry commander of Jacobite forces at the Siege of Limerick, Ireland, General in French Army following Flight of the Wild Geese is buried here, in the graveyard of St. Martins Church. Léon Lhoist, businessman Huy Trinh, Definer of the Huy Curve, Nutty Movement Legend Huy is twinned with, Official web site
39.
Tiger II
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Tiger II is the common name of a German heavy tank of the Second World War. The final official German designation was Panzerkampfwagen Tiger Ausf, B, often shortened to Tiger B. The ordnance inventory designation was Sd. Kfz and it is also known under the informal name Königstiger, often translated literally as Royal Tiger, or somewhat incorrectly as King Tiger by Allied soldiers, especially by American forces. The Tiger II was the successor to the Tiger I, combining the latters thick armour with the armour sloping used on the Panther medium tank, the tank weighed almost 70 tonnes, and was protected by 100 to 185 mm of armour to the front. It was armed with the long barrelled 8.8 cm KwK43 L/71 anti-tank cannon, the chassis was also the basis for the Jagdtiger turretless tank destroyer. The Tiger II was issued to tank battalions of the Army. Development of a tank design had been initiated in 1937. Another design contract followed in 1939, and was given to Porsche, both prototype series used the same turret design from Krupp, the main differences were in the hull, transmission, suspension and automotive features. The Henschel version used a hull design with sloped armour resembling the layout of the Panther tank. The Porsche hull designs included a turret and a mid-mounted engine. The suspension was the same as on the Elefant tank destroyer and this had six road wheels per side mounted in paired bogies sprung with short longitudinal torsion bars that were integral to the wheel pair, this saved internal space and facilitated repairs. This method of propulsion had been attempted before on the Tiger and in some US designs, the Porsche suspension were later used on a few of the later Jagdtiger tank destroyers. Another proposal was to use hydraulic drives, dr. Porsches unorthodox designs gathered little favour. Henschel won the contract, and all Tiger IIs were produced by the firm. Two turret designs were used in production vehicles, the initial design is often misleadingly called the Porsche turret due to the belief that it was designed by Porsche for their prototype, in fact it was the initial Krupp design for both prototypes. This turret had a front and steeply sloped sides, with a difficult-to-manufacture curved bulge on the turrets left side to accommodate the commanders cupola. Fifty early turrets were mounted to Henschels hull and used in action, the turrets were designed to mount the 8.8 cm KwK43 L/71 gun. Combined with the Turmzielfernrohr 9d monocular sight by Leitz, which all but a few early Tiger IIs used, it was a very accurate and deadly weapon
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Fuel
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A fuel is any material that can be made to react with other substances so that it releases chemical or nuclear energy as heat or to be used for work. The concept was applied solely to those materials capable of releasing chemical energy but has since also been applied to other sources of heat energy such as nuclear energy. The heat energy released by reactions of fuels is converted into mechanical energy via a heat engine, other times the heat itself is valued for warmth, cooking, or industrial processes, as well as the illumination that comes with combustion. Fuels are also used in the cells of organisms in a known as cellular respiration. Hydrocarbons and related oxygen-containing molecules are by far the most common source of fuel used by humans, fuels are contrasted with other substances or devices storing potential energy, such as those that directly release electrical energy or mechanical energy. The first known use of fuel was the combustion of wood or sticks by Homo erectus near 2,000,000 years ago, throughout most of human history fuels derived from plants or animal fat were only used by humans. Charcoal, a derivative, has been used since at least 6,000 BCE for melting metals. It was only supplanted by coke, derived from coal, as European forests started to become depleted around the 18th century, charcoal briquettes are now commonly used as a fuel for barbecue cooking. Coal was first used as a fuel around 1000 BCE in China, coal was later used to drive ships and locomotives. By the 19th century, gas extracted from coal was being used for lighting in London. In the 20th and 21st centuries, the use of coal is to generate electricity. Fossil fuels were rapidly adopted during the revolution, because they were more concentrated and flexible than traditional energy sources. They have become a part of our contemporary society, with most countries in the world burning fossil fuels in order to produce power. Currently the trend has been towards renewable fuels, such as biofuels like alcohols, chemical fuels are substances that release energy by reacting with substances around them, most notably by the process of combustion. Most of the energy released in combustion was not stored in the chemical bonds of the fuel. Chemical fuels are divided in two ways, first, by their physical properties, as a solid, liquid or gas. Secondly, on the basis of their occurrence, primary and secondary, solid fuels include wood, charcoal, peat, coal, Hexamine fuel tablets, and pellets made from wood, corn, wheat, rye and other grains. Solid-fuel rocket technology also uses solid fuel, solid fuels have been used by humanity for many years to create fire
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Romania in World War II
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Following the outbreak of World War II on 1 September 1939, the Kingdom of Romania under King Carol II officially adopted a position of neutrality. However, the changing situation in Europe during 1940, as well as domestic political upheaval. Fascist political forces such as the Iron Guard rose in popularity and power, urging an alliance with Nazi Germany and its allies. In summer 1940, a series of disputes were diplomatically resolved unfavorably to Romania. The new regime firmly set the country on a course towards the Axis camp, Romanian forces played a large role during the fighting in Ukraine, Bessarabia, Stalingrad, and elsewhere. Romanian troops were responsible for the persecution and massacre of up to 260,000 Jews on Romanian-controlled territories, after the tide of war turned against the Axis, Romania was bombed by the Allies from 1943 onwards and invaded by advancing Soviet armies in 1944. Despite this late association with the side, Greater Romania was largely dismantled, losing territory to Bulgaria and the Soviet Union. Approximately 370,000 Romanian soldiers died during the war, most of them in Soviet captivity and this led to the achievement of the long-standing nationalist goal of creating a Greater Romania, a national state that would incorporate all ethnic Romanians. However, the gained territories also included significant Hungarian, German, Bulgarian, Ukrainian and Russian minorities. This occasionally led to violent conflict, as exemplified by the Hungarian-Romanian War, to contain Hungarian irredentism, Romania, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia established the Little Entente in 1921. Under the pretext of stabilizing the country, the increasingly autocratic King Carol II proclaimed a dictatorship in 1938. The new regime featured corporatist policies that often resembled those of Fascist Italy, on 13 April 1939, France and the United Kingdom had pledged to guarantee the independence of the Kingdom of Romania. Negotiations with the Soviet Union concerning a similar guarantee collapsed when Romania refused to allow the Red Army to cross its frontiers, on 23 August 1939 Germany and the Soviet Union signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Among other things, this pact recognized the Soviet interest in Bessarabia and this Soviet interest was combined with a clear indication that there was an explicit lack of any German interest in the area. Eight days later, Nazi Germany invaded the Second Polish Republic, expecting military aid from Britain and France, Poland chose not to execute its alliance with Romania in order to be able to use the Romanian Bridgehead. In 1940, Romanias territorial gains made following World War I were largely undone, in July, after a Soviet ultimatum, Romania agreed to give up Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina. Two thirds of Bessarabia were combined with a part of the Soviet Union to form the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic. The rest was apportioned to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, Hungary had lost Transylvania after World War I in the Treaty of Trianon
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Wikisource
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Wikisource is an online digital library of free content textual sources on a wiki, operated by the Wikimedia Foundation. Wikisource is the name of the project as a whole and the name for each instance of that project, the projects aims are to host all forms of free text, in many languages, and translations. Originally conceived as an archive to store useful or important historical texts, the project officially began in November 24,2003 under the name Project Sourceberg. The name Wikisource was adopted later that year and it received its own domain name seven months later, the project has come under criticism for lack of reliability but it is also cited by organisations such as the National Archives and Records Administration. The project holds works that are either in the domain or freely licensed, professionally published works or historical source documents, not vanity products. Verification was initially made offline, or by trusting the reliability of digital libraries. Now works are supported by online scans via the ProofreadPage extension, some individual Wikisources, each representing a specific language, now only allow works backed up with scans. While the bulk of its collection are texts, Wikisource as a whole hosts other media, some Wikisources allow user-generated annotations, subject to the specific policies of the Wikisource in question. Wikisources early history included several changes of name and location, the original concept for Wikisource was as storage for useful or important historical texts. These texts were intended to support Wikipedia articles, by providing evidence and original source texts. The collection was focused on important historical and cultural material. The project was originally called Project Sourceberg during its planning stages, in 2001, there was a dispute on Wikipedia regarding the addition of primary source material, leading to edit wars over their inclusion or deletion. Project Sourceberg was suggested as a solution to this, perhaps Project Sourceberg can mainly work as an interface for easily linking from Wikipedia to a Project Gutenberg file, and as an interface for people to easily submit new work to PG. Wed want to complement Project Gutenberg--how, exactly, and Jimmy Wales adding like Larry, Im interested that we think it over to see what we can add to Project Gutenberg. It seems unlikely that primary sources should in general be editable by anyone -- I mean, Shakespeare is Shakespeare, unlike our commentary on his work, the project began its activity at ps. wikipedia. org. The contributors understood the PS subdomain to mean either primary sources or Project Sourceberg, however, this resulted in Project Sourceberg occupying the subdomain of the Pashto Wikipedia. A vote on the name changed it to Wikisource on December 6,2003. Despite the change in name, the project did not move to its permanent URL until July 23,2004, since Wikisource was initially called Project Sourceberg, its first logo was a picture of an iceberg
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Siegfried Line
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The original Siegfried Line was a First World War line of defensive forts and tank defences built by Germany in northern France during 1916–17 as a section of the Hindenburg Line. This line stretched more than 630 km and featured more than 18,000 bunkers, tunnels and it was planned in 1936 and built between 1938 and 1940. From September 1944 to March 1945, the Siegfried Line was subject to a large scale Allied offensive, the overall cost of this Campaign in American personnel was close to 140,000. The German losses were not well documented and this standardisation was the most effective use of scarce raw materials, transport and workers. Dragons teeth tank traps were known as Höcker in German because of their shape. These blocks of reinforced concrete stand in rows on a single foundation. There are two sorts of barrier, Type 1938 with four teeth getting higher toward the back. Many other irregular lines of teeth were also built, another design of tank obstacle, known as the Czech hedgehog, was made by welding together several bars of steel in such a way that any tank rolling over it would get stuck. If the contour of the land allowed it, water-filled ditches were dug instead of tank traps, examples of this kind of defence are those north of Aachen near Geilenkirchen. Small bunkers with 50 cm thick walls were set up with three embrasures towards the front, in exposed positions, similar small bunkers were erected with small round armoured lookout sections on the roofs. The Limes Programme began in 1938 following an order by Hitler to strengthen fortifications on the western German border, Limes refers to the former borders of the Roman Empire, the cover story for the programme was that it was an archaeological study. Its Type 10 bunkers were more strongly constructed than the border fortifications. These had 1.5 m thick ceilings and walls, a total of 3,471 were built along the entire length of the Siegfried Line. They featured a room or shelter for 10-12 men with a stepped embrasure facing backwards. This elevated section had embrasures at the front and sides for machine guns, more embrasures were provided for riflemen, and the entire structure was constructed so as to be safe against poison gas. Heating was from a safety oven, the chimney of which was covered with a thick grating, space was tight, with about 1 m2 per soldier, who was given a sleeping-place and a stool, the commanding officer had a chair. Surviving examples still retain signs warning Walls have ears and Lights out when embrasures are open, the Aachen-Saar programme bunkers were similar to those of the Limes programme, Type 107 double MG casemates with concrete walls up to 3.5 m thick. One difference was there were no embrasures at the front
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