Author: Steven Zaloga Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield ISBN: 0811767620 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 385
Book Description
In this riveting book, Steven Zaloga describes how American foot soldiers faced down Hitler’s elite armored spearhead—the Hitler Youth Panzer Division—in the snowy Ardennes forest during one of World War II’s biggest battles, the Battle of the Bulge. The Hitler Youth division was assigned one of the most important missions of Hitler’s Ardennes offensive: the capture of the main highway to the primary objective of Antwerp, the seizure of which Hitler believed would end the war. Had the Germans taken the Belgian port, it would have cut off the Americans from the British and perhaps led to a second, more devastating Dunkirk. In Zaloga’s careful reconstruction, a succession of American infantry units—the 99th Division, the 2nd Division, and the 1st Division (the famous Big Red One)—fought a series of battles that denied Hitler the best roads to Antwerp and doomed his offensive. American GIs—some of them seeing combat for the very first time—had stymied Hitler’s panzers and grand plans.
Author: Steven J. Zaloga Publisher: ISBN: 9780811772303 Category : Languages : en Pages : 384
Book Description
In this riveting book, Steven Zaloga describes how American foot soldiers faced down Hitler's elite armored spearhead--the Hitler Youth Panzer Division--in the snowy Ardennes forest during one of World War II's biggest battles, the Battle of the Bulge. Zaloga carefully reconstructs how American G.I.s stymied Hitler's panzers and grand plans.
Author: R.H.S. Stolfi Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press ISBN: 080617353X Category : History Languages : en Pages : 289
Book Description
How close did Germany come to winning World War II? Did Hitler throw away victory in Europe after his troops had crushed the Soviet field armies defending Moscow by August 1941? R.H.S. Stolfi offers a dramatic new picture of Hitler’s conduct in World War II and a fundamental reinterpretation of the course of the war. Adolf Hitler generally is thought to have been driven by a blitzkrieg mentality in the years 1939 to 1941. In fact, Stolfi argues, he had no such outlook on the war. From the day Britain and France declared war, Hitler reacted with a profoundly conservative cast of mind and pursued a circumscribed strategy, pushing out siege lines set around Germany by the Allies. Interpreting Hitler as a siege Führer explain his apparent aberrations in connection with Dunkirk, his fixation on the seizure of Leningrad, and his fateful decision in the summer of 1941 to deflect Army Group Center into the Ukraine when both Moscow and victory in World War II were within its reach. Unaware of Hitler’s siege orientation, the German Army planned blitz campaigns. Through daring operational concepts and bold tactics, the army won victories over several Allied powers in World War II, and these led to the great campaign against the Soviet Union in summer of 1941. Stolfi postulates that in August 1941, German Army Group Center had the strength both to destroy the Red field armies defending the Soviet capital and to advance to Moscow and beyond. The defeat of the Soviet Union would have assured victory in World War II. Nevertheless, Hitler ordered the army group south to secure the resources of the Ukraine against a potential siege. And a virtually assured German victory slipped away. This radical reinterpretation of Hitler and the capabilities of the German Army leads to a reevaluation of World War II, in which the lesson to be learned is not how the Allies won the war, but how close the Germans came to a quick and decisive victory?long before the United States was drawn into the battle.
Author: Robert Kirchubel Publisher: Grub Street Publishers ISBN: 1848847009 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 475
Book Description
An in-depth look at the role armored formations played in the struggle between the Nazis and the Soviets. Hitler’s panzer armies spearheaded the blitzkrieg on the Eastern Front. They played a key role in every major campaign, not simply as tactical tools but also as operational weapons that shaped strategy. Their extraordinary triumphs—and their eventual defeat—mirrors the fate of German forces in the East. And yet no previous study has concentrated on the history of these elite formations in the bitter struggle against the Soviet Union. Robert Kirchubel’s absorbing and meticulously researched account of the operational history of the panzer armies fills this gap, using German sources including many firsthand accounts never before seen in English. And it gives a graphic insight into the organization, tactics, fighting methods, and morale of the Wehrmacht at the height of its powers and as it struggled to defend the Reich.
Author: Dennis Showalter Publisher: Penguin ISBN: 1101151684 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 464
Book Description
From Dennis Showalter, recipient of the Samuel Eliot Morison Prize and the Pritzker Literature Award for Lifetime Achievement, a fascinating account of Nazi Germany's armored forces during World War II Determined to secure a quick, decisive victory in his quest of conquer Europe, Adolf Hitler adopted an attack plan that combined tools with technique—the formidable Panzer divisions. Self-contained armored units able to operate independently, the Panzers became the German army's fighting core as well as its moral focus, establishing an entirely new military doctrine. In Hitler's Panzers, Showalter presents a comprehensive study of Germany's armored forces. By delving deeply into a detailed history of the theory, strategy, myths, and realities of Germany's technologically innovative approach to warfare, Showalter provides a look at the military lessons of the past, and a speculation on how the Panzer ethos may be implemented in the future of international conflict.
Author: Steven J. Zaloga Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing ISBN: 1472812506 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 84
Book Description
World War II saw tanks assume a dominant role in warfare, capable of tearing through the enemy lines if left unchecked. To combat the threat posed by these armoured behemoths the United States developed the M1 Anti-Tank Rocket Launcher, better known as the Bazooka. First employed in combat during 1942, the weapon required a great deal of skill and courage to use effectively. By late 1944 it was a mainstay of the US infantry's anti-tank capabilities, alongside towed weapons, anti-tank grenades and other longer-established measures. Focusing on the savage close-quarters fighting between Germany's armoured divisions and the US infantry during the Battle of the Bulge, Steven Zaloga's absorbing study compares and assesses the strengths and limitations of the cutting-edge technology used by both sides. Featuring specially commissioned full-colour artwork and explosive battle reports, this volume casts new light on the evolving nature of infantry-versus-tank combat in the closing months of World War II.
Author: David Stahel Publisher: Cambridge University Press ISBN: 113950360X Category : History Languages : en Pages : 485
Book Description
In just four weeks in the summer of 1941 the German Wehrmacht wrought unprecedented destruction on four Soviet armies, conquering central Ukraine and killing or capturing three quarters of a million men. This was the Battle of Kiev - one of the largest and most decisive battles of World War II and, for Hitler and Stalin, a battle of crucial importance. In this book, David Stahel charts the battle's dramatic course and aftermath, uncovering the irreplaceable losses suffered by Germany's 'panzer groups' despite their battlefield gains, and the implications of these losses for the German war effort. He illuminates the inner workings of the German army as well as the experiences of ordinary soldiers, showing that with the Russian winter looming and Soviet resistance still unbroken, victory came at huge cost and confirmed the turning point in Germany's war in the East.
Author: Stephen G. Fritz Publisher: University Press of Kentucky ISBN: 0813140501 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 609
Book Description
On June 22, 1941, Germany launched the greatest land assault in history on the Soviet Union, an attack that Adolf Hitler deemed crucial to ensure German economic and political survival. As the key theater of the war for the Germans, the eastern front consumed enormous levels of resources and accounted for 75 percent of all German casualties. Despite the significance of this campaign to Germany and to the war as a whole, few English-language publications of the last thirty-five years have addressed these pivotal events. In Ostkrieg: Hitler's War of Extermination in the East, Stephen G. Fritz bridges the gap in scholarship by incorporating historical research from the last several decades into an accessible, comprehensive, and coherent narrative. His analysis of the Russo-German War from a German perspective covers all aspects of the eastern front, demonstrating the interrelation of military events, economic policy, resource exploitation, and racial policy that first motivated the invasion. This in-depth account challenges accepted notions about World War II and promotes greater understanding of a topic that has been neglected by historians.
Author: Massimiliano Afiero Publisher: Casemate ISBN: 9781636241685 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 0
Book Description
A full account of the infamous 12th SS Panzer Division Hiterjugend, from their formation through to the end of the war. Created in 1943 from members of the Hitler Youth born in 1926, the division was attached to I SS Panzer Corps in March 1944 and transferred to Normandy. Based around Caen, it was intended to repel a possible and expected invasion from the sea. When the invasion came in June, it was one of the two closest panzer divisions to the landing beaches. The defensive battles that took place in Normandy, particularly the four battles around the city of Caen, saw the young soldiers of the Hitlerjugend demonstrate determined resistance, conceding only due to being greatly outnumbered. After the battles fought in Normandy, the division was withdrawn first to the Franco-Belgian border, where it was engaged in hard defensive fighting and then to Germany for reorganization. Other difficult and demanding battles followed during the offensive in the Ardennes, on the Bastogne front, in Hungary and finally the last battles fought in Austria, on the sacred ground of the Reich, where the soldiers of the Hitlerjugend, despite the desperate situation and the superiority of the enemy, managed to achieve local success and launch desperate counterattacks even into the last weeks of the war, in the name and in defense of their homeland. Packed with photographs, maps and profiles, this Casemate Illustrated follows the actions of the 12th SS Panzer Division throughout its existence.
Author: Steven Zaloga
Author: Steven J. Zaloga
Author: R.H.S. Stolfi
Author: Robert Kirchubel
Author: Dennis Showalter
Author: Steven J. Zaloga
Author: David Stahel
Author: Stephen G. Fritz
Author: Timothy A. Wray
Author: Massimiliano Afiero