Hitler's Armed Forces Auxiliaries
Hitler's Armed Forces Auxiliaries

Author: Jean-Denis G.G. Lepage

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2015-11-20

Total Pages: 217

ISBN-13: 1476620881

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The story of Hitler's Wehrmachtsgefolge (armed forces auxiliaries) is less well known than that of Germany's other armed forces in World War II, such as the panzer divisions, the Luftwaffe and the Kriegsmarine. The Organization Todt (construction company), Reichsarbeitsdienst (labor service), Nationalsozialistische Kraftfahrer Korps (driver's corp) and Volkssturm (people's militia) were given the status of armed forces auxiliaries to protect their members under the Geneva Conventions should they be taken prisoner. By 1944, the Wehrmachtsgefolge comprised 40 percent of the German armed forces, and their contribution to the war effort was far from negligible. This illustrated history documents the development, structure and organization, uniforms, regalia and technical data of these units and discusses their role in the war and during the prewar period.

The German Defense Of Berlin
The German Defense Of Berlin

Author: Oberst a.D. Wilhem Willemar

Publisher: Pickle Partners Publishing

Published: 2015-11-06

Total Pages: 126

ISBN-13: 1786251469

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Often written during imprisonment in Allied War camps by former German officers, with their memories of the World War fresh in their minds, The Foreign Military Studies series offers rare glimpses into the Third Reich. In this study Oberst a.D. Wilhem Willemar discusses his recollections of the climatic battle for Berlin from within the Wehrmacht. “No cohesive, over-all plan for the defense of Berlin was ever actually prepared. All that existed was the stubborn determination of Hitler to defend the capital of the Reich. Circumstances were such that he gave no thought to defending the city until it was much too late for any kind of advance planning. Thus the city’s defense was characterized only by a mass of improvisations. These reveal a state of total confusion in which the pressure of the enemy, the organizational chaos on the German side, and the catastrophic shortage of human and material resources for the defense combined with disastrous effect. “The author describes these conditions in a clear, accurate report which I rate very highly. He goes beyond the more narrow concept of planning and offers the first German account of the defense of Berlin to be based upon thorough research. I attach great importance to this study from the standpoint of military history and concur with the military opinions expressed by the author.”-Foreword by Generaloberst a.D. Franz Halder.

Hitler's Army
Hitler's Army

Author: David Stone

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2014-04-15

Total Pages: 753

ISBN-13: 1844862542

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'I swear by God this sacred oath that I shall render unconditional obedience to Adolf Hitler, the Führer of the German Reich, supreme commander of the armed forces, and that I shall at all times be prepared, as a brave soldier, to give my life for this oath.' (German armed forces oath of loyalty, instituted 2 August 1934) This extensively illustrated new title from renowned historian, David Stone, describes and analyses every significant aspect of the rise and fall of 'Hitler's Army' within the Wehrmacht from 1933 to 1945, including its creation, organisation, weapons, equipment, training and tactics. The book also considers its conduct in battle and its strengths and weaknesses, together with the motivation, lifestyle, performance and nature of its officers and soldiers, both prior to and during the conflict. Hitler's Army is an essential reference for anyone seeking a definitive explanation and analysis of one of Europe's most formidable fighting forces. It is also a balanced and indispensable aid for those wishing to understand how the much vaunted and apparently unbeatable German army that went to war in 1939 and so speedily achieved military pre-eminence in Europe, was consigned just over five years later to total military defeat and the ignominy of unconditional surrender in a devastated, demoralised and shattered Germany.

Soviet Nationalities in German Wartime Strategy, 1941-1945
Soviet Nationalities in German Wartime Strategy, 1941-1945

Author: Alex Alexiev

Publisher: RAND Corporation

Published: 1982

Total Pages: 56

ISBN-13:

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This study examines the determinants and character of German policies toward the Soviet non-Russian nationalities and their effects on the Soviet and German war efforts and on the nationalities themselves. Particular emphasis is placed on the analysis of the nature and magnitude of military collaboration with the Germans by the non-Russian nationalities, in an attempt to examine the military exploitability of the political warfare opportunities that presented themselves. Section II outlines the attitudes toward the Soviet nationalities prevalent among the Nazi leadership and the role envisaged for them in a postwar German-dominated Europe, and juxtaposes them on the views of German officials who did not share Nazi dogma and advocated a more pragmatic approach. German policies in the occupied non-Russian territories and their implications are examined in Sec. III. Section IV describes the different types and degrees of military collaboration with the Germans. The main conclusions are summarized in Sec. V.

The Wehrmacht
The Wehrmacht

Author: Wolfram Wette

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2006-05-15

Total Pages: 422

ISBN-13: 9780674022133

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This book is a profound reexamination of the role of the German army, the Wehrmacht, in World War II. Until very recently, the standard story avowed that the ordinary German soldier in World War II was a good soldier, distinct from Hitler's rapacious SS troops, and not an accomplice to the massacres of civilians. Wolfram Wette, a preeminent German military historian, explodes the myth of a "clean" Wehrmacht with devastating clarity. This book reveals the Wehrmacht's long-standing prejudices against Jews, Slavs, and Bolsheviks, beliefs that predated the prophecies of Mein Kampf and the paranoia of National Socialism. Though the sixteen-million-member German army is often portrayed as a victim of Nazi mania, we come to see that from 1941 to 1944 these soldiers were thoroughly involved in the horrific cleansing of Russia and Eastern Europe. Wette compellingly documents Germany's long-term preparation of its army for a race war deemed necessary to safeguard the country's future; World War II was merely the fulfillment of these plans, on a previously unimaginable scale. This sober indictment of millions of German soldiers reaches beyond the Wehrmacht's complicity to examine how German academics and ordinary citizens avoided confronting this difficult truth at war's end. Wette shows how atrocities against Jews and others were concealed and sanitized, and history rewritten. Only recently has the German public undertaken a reevaluation of this respected national institution--a painful but necessary process if we are to truly comprehend how the Holocaust was carried out and how we have come to understand it.

Stalingrad
Stalingrad

Author: Antony Beevor

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 1999-05-01

Total Pages: 560

ISBN-13: 1101153563

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The Battle of Stalingrad was not only the psychological turning point of World War II: it also changed the face of modern warfare. From Antony Beevor, the internationally bestselling author of D-Day and The Battle of Arnhem. In August 1942, Hitler's huge Sixth Army reached the city that bore Stalin's name. In the five-month siege that followed, the Russians fought to hold Stalingrad at any cost; then, in an astonishing reversal, encircled and trapped their Nazi enemy. This battle for the ruins of a city cost more than a million lives. Stalingrad conveys the experience of soldiers on both sides, fighting in inhuman conditions, and of civilians trapped on an urban battlefield. Antony Beevor has itnerviewed survivors and discovered completely new material in a wide range of German and Soviet archives, including prisoner interrogations and reports of desertions and executions. As a story of cruelty, courage, and human suffering, Stalingrad is unprecedented and unforgettable. Historians and reviewers worldwide have hailed Antony Beevor's magisterial Stalingrad as the definitive account of World War II's most harrowing battle.

Wehrmacht Auxiliary Forces
Wehrmacht Auxiliary Forces

Author: Nigel Thomas

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2012-08-20

Total Pages: 50

ISBN-13: 1782002596

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Though the 'Wehrmachtsgefolge' (Armed Forces Auxiliaries) were generally inferior to their armed forces equivalents, their contribution to the German war-effort was far from negligible. Auxiliaries including the NSKK, Transportkorps Speer, Reichsarbeitsdienst and Organization Todt supported the Wehrmacht in their duties. In 1944, the strength of these organizations peaked at 3,800,000-40% of the size of the armed forces. As they became increasingly aware of their importance, the Auxiliaries introduced uniform and insignia modifications which made them virtually indistinguishable from their comrades in the armed forces. This book examines the organization, uniforms and history of the various Wehrmacht auxiliary forces.

Four Days in Hitler’s Germany
Four Days in Hitler’s Germany

Author: Robert Teigrob

Publisher: University of Toronto Press

Published: 2019-05-09

Total Pages: 313

ISBN-13: 1487505663

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In 1937, Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie King travelled to Nazi Germany in an attempt to prevent a war that, to many observers, seemed inevitable. The men King communed with in Berlin, including Adolf Hitler, assured him of the Nazi regime’s peaceful intentions, and King not only found their pledges sincere, but even hoped for personal friendships with many of the regime's top officials. Four Days in Hitler’s Germany is a clearly written and engaging story that reveals why King believed that the greatest threat to peace would come from those individuals who intended to thwart the Nazi agenda, which as King saw it, was concerned primarily with justifiable German territorial and diplomatic readjustments. Mackenzie King was certainly not alone in misreading the omens in the 1930s, but it would be difficult to find a democratic leader who missed the mark by a wider margin. This book seeks to explain the sources and outcomes of King’s misperceptions and diplomatic failures, and follows him as he returns to Germany to tour the appalling aftermath of the very war he had tried to prevent.

Hitler’s Armies
Hitler’s Armies

Author: Chris McNab

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2011-10-20

Total Pages: 424

ISBN-13: 1849089167

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The illustrated history of Hitler's land forces – from the Panzer crewman on the Eastern Front to the infantryman in Normandy and the last ditch defence units of Waffen-SS and Hitler Youth. Hitler's Armies is the definitive work on Hitler's war machine charting its evolution from the formidable force which won stunning victories during the Blitzkrieg in 1940, to the hard campaigns it fought in the deserts of North Africa and the frozen wastelands of the Soviet Union to the eventual retreat to the Fatherland itself. Drawing upon Osprey Publishing's unique archive, this volume expertly weaves together the story of the development and deployment of Hitler's armies displayed alongside a stunning collection of original artwork and photographs to show the kit and equipment of the various land forces.

Hitler's Monsters
Hitler's Monsters

Author: Eric Kurlander

Publisher: Yale University Press

Published: 2017-06-06

Total Pages: 411

ISBN-13: 0300190379

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“A dense and scholarly book about . . . the relationship between the Nazi party and the occult . . . reveals stranger-than-fiction truths on every page.”—Daily Telegraph The Nazi fascination with the occult is legendary, yet today it is often dismissed as Himmler’s personal obsession or wildly overstated for its novelty. Preposterous though it was, however, supernatural thinking was inextricable from the Nazi project. The regime enlisted astrology and the paranormal, paganism, Indo-Aryan mythology, witchcraft, miracle weapons, and the lost kingdom of Atlantis in reimagining German politics and society and recasting German science and religion. In this eye-opening history, Eric Kurlander reveals how the Third Reich’s relationship to the supernatural was far from straightforward. Even as popular occultism and superstition were intermittently rooted out, suppressed, and outlawed, the Nazis drew upon a wide variety of occult practices and esoteric sciences to gain power, shape propaganda and policy, and pursue their dreams of racial utopia and empire. “[Kurlander] shows how swiftly irrational ideas can take hold, even in an age before social media.”—The Washington Post “Deeply researched, convincingly authenticated, this extraordinary study of the magical and supernatural at the highest levels of Nazi Germany will astonish.”—The Spectator “A trustworthy [book] on an extraordinary subject.”—The Times “A fascinating look at a little-understood aspect of fascism.”—Kirkus Reviews “Kurlander provides a careful, clear-headed, and exhaustive examination of a subject so lurid that it has probably scared away some of the serious research it merits.”—National Review