Author: Gerry Villani

Publisher: CreateSpace

Published: 2015-05-18

Total Pages: 266

ISBN-13: 9781511776370

The year 1935 was one of Germany's crossroads in the pre war period; not only were jobs created but the militarization of the nation was set. 1935 was also the year of the German rearmament program. A new army was born: the Wehrmacht (defence force), which was a replacement of the Reichswehr (1919-1935). The Wehrmacht were the unified armed forces of Germany: the Heer (army), the Luftwaffe (air force), and the Kriegsmarine (navy). Hitler started the expansion of the military and created a new air force (Luftwaffe) which was, of course, against the Treaty of Versailles. The League of Nations ignored this possible threat from Germany which gave Hitler carte blanche to expand and develop his new army. By creating/expanding the army and the rearmament program, the German economy was booming again. The pride of a nation was restored. By 1939, before the start of WWII, unemployment in Germany was gone. The Wehrmacht fought on all fronts: from Western Europe to Russia and from Scandinavia to North Africa. The Germans dominated upwards of 3,898,000 square kilometers of territory by 1942. It is estimated that between 1935 and 1945 more than 18 million men were part of the Wehrmacht. The Wehrmacht's name alone will resonate in eternity, mostly in a bad way, because of the stigma that the German soldier received after WWII. Lots of crimes had been committed during the war by just a few (Wehrmacht and SS) but it's because of that small percentage of people that had committed these crimes that the Wehrmacht received such a bad name... The only component of the Wehrmacht that was never convicted for war crimes or other brutalities was the Deutsches Afrikakorps under the command of Generalfeldmarschall Erwin Rommel. Even the English POWs testified that they were treated with great respect by their German opponents in Africa. With this book I want to show you the faces, or better said the person behind the uniform. I want to show you that humanity still existed, even in Nazi Germany or in the territories under its control. At last I want to portray the regular German soldier that was not involved in politics but who answered the call to fight for the fatherland. These soldier's stories will reflect the horror of the war, a horror that only the ones can understand that actually have been there. We, the generations after the war can only imagine what happened back in those days. Even when we're reading their stories, how long or short they might be, we'll never fully understand what these veterans have experienced back in those days. The Third Reich destroyed millions of people their hopes and dreams. War is a bad thing and at the end there are no winners. Millions of dead remind us! This document is intended for future generations as a historical reference of members of the Wehrmacht. It is a bundle of stories - not a collage! - of the men that once where part of the Wehrmacht in the period of 1939-1945. It is the voice of the unheard...