wehrmacht
Wehrmacht Pioneer Mathias Hansen Laid to Rest 70 Years After Operation Barbarossa
By Wilhelm R. Gehlen & Don A. GregoryLetters home provide us with a glimpse into the daily lives of soldiers during the best and worst times. Read more
wehrmacht
Soviet Military Intelligence: Richard Sorge
By Pat McTaggartThe Siberians are coming!” It was a cry that spread terror through the ranks of the German Wehrmacht in the winter of 1941. Read more
wehrmacht
The Battle of Targul Frumos: A Defensive Stand on the Eastern Front
By Pat McTaggartMay 1, 1944. Marshal of the Soviet Union Ivan Stepanovich Konev had a right to be pleased with himself and his men as he gazed at the maps spread before him. Read more
wehrmacht
Waffen SS General Felix Steiner’s WWII Legacy
By Pat McTaggart“Where is Steiner?” Adolf Hitler demanded as his Thousand Year Reich crumbled around him in April 1945. “Is he attacking yet?” Read more
wehrmacht
How Did Benito Mussolini Die? The Story Behind Il Duce’s Last Moments.
By Wil DeacIt was shortly before seven o’clock on the rain-drenched morning of April 27, 1945, the day before the death of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. Read more
wehrmacht
The Hidden Freedom Trail
by Adam LynchA few moments after his stricken Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bomber tore apart, co-pilot Ralph Patton hurriedly put his bail-out plan into action. Read more
wehrmacht
The Siege of Tobruk: WWII’s Debacle in the Desert
by Michael D. HullSidi Barrani, Bardia, Sollum, Sidi Rezegh, Mersa Matruh, Bir Hacheim, El Agheila, Beda Fomm, Sidi Omar, Benghazi … The names of many remote villages in North Africa were written into history in 1941-1942 as British and Axis armies battled back and forth across the scrubby desert wastelands of northern Egypt and Libya. Read more
wehrmacht
The End of the Battle of the Bulge
By Arnold BlumbergWednesday, December 27, 1944, found the military situation in the Ardennes Forest of Belgium stalemated. After 12 days of unrelenting struggle, the American and German forces on this part of the Western Front found themselves locked in brutal combat, unable to drive each other back. Read more
wehrmacht
Sturgeon Catch 1942: The Siege of Sevastopol
by Ludwig Heinrich DyckBy late October 1941, the armies of the Third Reich had swept deep into western Soviet Russia. Read more
wehrmacht
The Volkswagen Beetle
By Albert MrozThe Volkswagen, or “People’s Car,” that so many millions have known for more than half a century had its genesis in Nazi Germany. Read more
wehrmacht
Commando Paddy Mayne: Ireland’s Wolf of the Desert
By Kelly BellThe night of December 14, 1941, was bitterly cold in the North African desert. Midway between El Agheila and Tripoli, Libya, was the German and Italian air base outside the town of Tamet. Read more
wehrmacht
The Krag Jorgensen Rifle: How it Defined the Future of American Warfare
By Christopher MiskimonDuring the era in which the Krag Jorgensen rifle came into its own, an arms race was in effect among the nations of Europe. Read more
wehrmacht
Johann Georg Elser’s Treasonous Plot to Prevent World War II
By Blaine TaylorAt exactly 8 PM on November 8, 1939, German Chancellor Adolf Hitler strode briskly into Munich’s Burgerbraukeller beer hall at the head of his glowering entourage, brushing past a forest of hands raised in the Nazi salute. Read more
wehrmacht
Wekusta: Weathermen of the Wehrmacht
By William McPeakThe fundamental pillars of war—strategy and tactics— inevitably depend on an imponderable and uncontrollable factor: the weather. With the increasing sophistication of weather data gathering, analysis, and forecasting in the early 20th century, predicting the weather became an integral part of World War II. Read more
wehrmacht
WWII: German Rations and Feeding the Troops of the Third Reich
By G. Paul GarsonIt was Napoleon Bonaparte who purportedly said, “An army travels on its stomach.” Toward the goal of feeding his particular army’s stomach more efficiently, in 1795 the French general came up with an interesting solution to the problem. Read more
wehrmacht
The Hitler Jugend SS Panzergrenadier and the Uniform of the Hitler Youth
By Johnny Shumate The paramilitary wing of the Nazi Party known as the Sturmabteilung established the Hitler Jugend in 1926 for the purpose of indoctrinating German youth into Nazi ideology. Read more
wehrmacht
The Bombing of Dresden: Was the Attack Fully Justified?
By Mason B.WebbIt was February 1945, and the Bombing of Dresden had yet to commence. At this point in the war, the citizens of the capital of the German state of Saxony were beginning to think that they were living a charmed life. Read more
wehrmacht
Operation Dragoon: The Allied Invasion of France in the South
By Patrick J. Chaisson“This was war deluxe,” observed Brig. Gen. Frederic B. Butler as his command car entered the French village of Quincon during Operation Dragoon, the Allied invasion of France in the country’s southern region, in August 1944. Read more
wehrmacht
The Nazi Invasion of Poland, Adolf Hitler’s First Gamble in the East
By Christopher Miskimon
Historians often compare Adolf Hitler to a gambler. He kept making risky bets that paid off time and again—until they didn’t. Read more
wehrmacht
The History of Third Reich Uniforms
By G. Paul GarsonThe evolution of Third Reich uniforms followed from a long history of European uniforms in general and Imperial German uniforms in particular. Read more
