Kommando

Kommando

Author: James Lucas

Publisher: Frontline Books

Published: 2014-02-24

Total Pages: 266

ISBN-13: 1848327374

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This gripping book tells the remarkable story of Germany's special forces _ military, naval and aerial _ during the Second World War. Although capable of stunning achievements against all the odds, the absence of proper coordination and planning resulted in a lost opportunity for Germany. Units were raised ad hoc, as an increasingly desperate response to Germany's ever-weakening position and the growing strength of the Allies. ??At sea, flotillas of manned torpedoes and explosive motor boats were introduced. In the air, the world's first operational jet planes were grouped into special squadrons in an effort to cripple the US air offensive. On the ground, battalions of over-age men set out on foot or on bicycles towards Berlin to protect the city from the Soviet Army's tank armadas. In other parts of Germany the Werewolf was recruiting and training young people to carry out partisan warfare. Then there were the children of the Hitler Youth, some not even in their 'teens, who committed acts of sabotage against military installations and attacked British and Americans soldiers.??Packed with useful detail and incisive analysis, this is one of the fullest and most accessible accounts of Germany's special forces and their efforts to stave off impending military defeat.


Kommando

Kommando

Author: James Lucas

Publisher: Frontline Books

Published: 2014-02-24

Total Pages: 401

ISBN-13: 1473834619

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The story of Nazi Germany’s special forces and their efforts to reclaim military, naval and aerial superiority is recounted in this WWII history. Though Germany’s Special Forces Command had stunning capabilities, its fearsome potential was squandered due to poor coordination and planning. Units were raised ad hoc, in a desperate response to Germany's weakening position. In Kommando, historian James Lucas presents a comprehensive account of Germany's special forces and their efforts to stave off impending military defeat. At sea, flotillas of manned torpedoes and explosive motorboats were introduced. In the air, the world's first operational jet planes were grouped into special squadrons in an effort to cripple the US air offensive. On the ground, battalions of over-age men set out on foot or on bicycles towards Berlin to protect the city from the Soviet Army's tank armadas. In other parts of Germany, so-called Werewolf units recruited young people to carry out partisan warfare. Then there were the children of the Hitler Youth who committed acts of sabotage against military installations and attacked British and Americans soldiers. This classic work by a British veteran of the war presents the full story with fascinating detail and incisive analysis.


A History of the Dora Camp

A History of the Dora Camp

Author: Andre Sellier

Publisher: Ivan R. Dee

Published: 2003-05-27

Total Pages: 560

ISBN-13: 1461739497

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In mid-1943 Nazi Germany entered a crisis from which it was to emerge vanquished. Faced with a shortage of manpower in armaments factories, the Third Reich sent concentration camp prisoners to work as slaves. While the genocide of the Jews and the Gypsies continued at extermination camps, numerous outside "Kommandos" were set up in the vicinity of the large concentration camps. The Dora Camp, located in the center of Germany, was one of the most notorious. Originally a mere Kommando attached to Buchenwald, it became one of the largest Nazi concentration camps. There prisoners were put to work in a huge underground factory, building V-2 rockets, the secret weapon developed by German scientists in an attempt to reverse the course of the war, under the direction of Wernher von Braun. In this dispassionate but powerful account, André Sellier, himself a former prisoner at Dora, tells the dramatic story of the camp, the tunnel factory, and the underground work sites. He has utilized all available documents as well as unpublished testimony from several dozen fellow prisoners. He recounts the horrors of everyday life at Dora—prisoners dying by the hundreds and indescribable suffering—and the murderous "evacuation" of the camp by railroad convoys and death marches, which took place in early 1945 and led to the death of thousands of prisoners. Illustrated with 20 pages of photographs and drawings, and 24 maps.


Kommando

Kommando

Author: Leo Kessler

Publisher: Leo Cooper Books

Published: 1995

Total Pages: 216

ISBN-13:

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An examination of Hitler's special commando forces in the Second World War, led by Admiral Canaris, head of the German Secret Service, looking a operations which ranged over a dozen countries and three continents.


The Union Kommando in Auschwitz

The Union Kommando in Auschwitz

Author: Lore Shelley

Publisher:

Published: 1996

Total Pages: 456

ISBN-13:

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The Weichsel Union fuse factory was installed at Auschwitz in September 1943, after having been evacuated from Zaporozhe, Ukraine. Workers at the Union factory, the largest employer of female slave labor in Auschwitz, soon came to number ca. 2,500 and were known as the Union Kommando. Their work and living conditions were relatively good. The book comprises 36 memoirs of Jewish men and women, most of whom were Union Kommando members. Includes a memoir by Yisrael Gutman (pp. 144-160); he and some others also describe Jewish resistance at Auschwitz and the role of Union workers in the Sonderkommando uprising of October 1944. Discusses, also, unsuccessful efforts of former Weichsel Union slave laborers to receive compensation, while the firm received 2.5 million marks for the loss of its Auschwitz fuse factory.