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272nd Infantry Division (Wehrmacht)
The 272nd Infantry Division was a Type 1944 Infantry division of the German Wehrmacht during World War II, that was originally formed in December 1943. The division fought in many of the major battles throughout Operation Overlord, culminating in the Retreat from Northern France and the Low Countries in late August/early September 1944. Unit origins The 272nd Infantry Division was formed in Belgium beginning on 12 December 1943 from the remnants of the 216th Infantry Division, which had been decimated on the Eastern Front and disbanded the month before. The entire staff of the 216th, its signal battalion, divisional support units, and most of its artillery regiment were simply re-designated with the new divisional number. Grenadier Regiments 396 and 398 were disbanded, except the 2nd Battalion, Grenadier Regiment 396, which was re-designated as Füsilier Battalion 272. Its commander, Generalleutnant Friedrich August Schack, was carried over from his previous command of the 21 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
German Army (Wehrmacht)
The German Army (, 'army') is the land component of the armed forces of Federal Republic of Germany, Germany. The present-day German Army was founded in 1955 as part of the newly formed West German together with the German Navy, ''Marine'' (German Navy) and the German Air Force, ''Luftwaffe'' (German Air Force). , the German Army had a strength of 63,047 soldiers. History Overview A German army equipped, organized, and trained following a single doctrine and permanently unified under one command was created in 1871 during the unification of Germany under the leadership of Prussia. From 1871 to 1919, the title ''German Army (German Empire), Deutsches Heer'' (German Army) was the official name of the German land forces. Following the German defeat in World War I and the end of the German Empire, the main army was dissolved. From 1921 to 1935 the name of the German land forces was the ''Reichswehr, Reichsheer'' (Army of the Realm) and from 1935 to 1945 the name ''German Army (We ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hiwis
Hiwi (), the German abbreviation of the word ''Hilfswilliger'' or, in English, auxiliary volunteer, designated, during World War II, a member of different kinds of voluntary auxiliary forces made up of recruits indigenous to the territories of Eastern Europe occupied by Nazi Germany. Adolf Hitler reluctantly agreed to allow recruitment of Soviet citizens in the Rear Areas during Operation Barbarossa. In a short period of time, many of them were moved to combat units. Overview Hiwis comprised 50% of the 2nd Panzer Army's 134th Infantry Division in late 1942, while the 6th Army at the Battle of Stalingrad was composed of 25% Hiwis. By 1944, their numbers had grown to 600,000. Both men and women were recruited. Veteran Hiwis were practically indistinguishable from regular German troops, and often served in entire company strengths. Between September 1941 and July 1944 the '' SS'' employed thousands of collaborationist auxiliary police recruited as Hiwis directly from the Soviet POW ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Military Units And Formations Established In 1943
A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. Militaries are typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with their members identifiable by a distinct military uniform. They may consist of one or more military branches such as an army, navy, air force, space force, marines, or coast guard. The main task of a military is usually defined as defence of their state and its interests against external armed threats. In broad usage, the terms "armed forces" and "military" are often synonymous, although in technical usage a distinction is sometimes made in which a country's armed forces may include other paramilitary forces such as armed police. Beyond warfare, the military may be employed in additional sanctioned and non-sanctioned functions within the state, including internal security threats, crowd control, promotion of political agendas, emergency services and reconstruction, pr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Max Hastings
Sir Max Hugh Macdonald Hastings (; born 28 December 1945) is a British journalist and military historian, who has worked as a foreign correspondent for the BBC, editor-in-chief of ''The Daily Telegraph'', and editor of the ''Evening Standard''. He is also the author of thirty books, most significantly histories, which have won several major awards. Hastings currently writes a bimonthly column for ''Bloomberg Opinion'' and contributes to ''The Times'' and ''The Sunday Times''. Early life Hastings' parents were Macdonald Hastings, a journalist and correspondent, and Anne Scott-James, sometime editor of ''Harper's Bazaar''. He was educated at Charterhouse and University College, Oxford, which he left after a year. Career Hastings moved to the United States, spending a year (1967–68) as a Fellow of the World Press Institute, following which he published his first book, ''America, 1968: The Fire This Time'', an account of the US in its tumultuous election year. He became ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Invasion Of Normandy
Operation Overlord was the codename for the Battle of Normandy, the Allied operation that launched the successful liberation of German-occupied Western Europe during World War II. The operation was launched on 6 June 1944 ( D-Day) with the Normandy landings (Operation Neptune). A 1,200-plane airborne assault preceded an amphibious assault involving more than 5,000 vessels. Nearly 160,000 troops crossed the English Channel on 6 June, and more than two million Allied troops were in France by the end of August. The decision to undertake cross-channel landings in 1944 was made at the Trident Conference in Washington in May 1943. American General Dwight D. Eisenhower was appointed commander of Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force, and British General Bernard Montgomery was named commander of the 21st Army Group, which comprised all the land forces involved in the operation. The Normandy coast in northwestern France was chosen as the site of the landings, with the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Panzerfaust
The (, or , plural: ) was a development family of single-shot man-portable anti-tank systems developed by Nazi Germany during World War II. The weapons were the first single-use light anti-tank weapons based on a pre-loaded disposable launch tube, a weapon configuration which is still used today (a contemporary example being the 84mm AT4). The -design consisted of a light recoilless launcher tube outfitted with a single pre-loaded high-explosive anti-tank warhead protruding from the muzzle. It was an inexpensive, easy-to-use anti-tank weapon for the common infantry man, being issued as a single unit of ammunition meant to be operated by a single soldier. Firing was done from under the arm at an upward angle as the effective firing range was barely beyond that of hand grenades ( max). After use the launcher was discarded. Development of the started in 1942. The initial design was dubbed ( "fist-cartridge") and was smaller than the later designs. Later dubbed ("tank-f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Operation Goodwood
Operation Goodwood was a British offensive during the Second World War, which took place between 18 and 20 July 1944 as part of the larger battle for Caen in Normandy, France. The objective of the operation was a limited attack to the south, from the Orne bridgehead, to capture the rest of Caen and the Bourguébus Ridge beyond. Goodwood was preceded by Operations Greenline and Pomegranate in the Second Battle of the Odon west of Caen, to divert German attention from the area east of Caen. Goodwood began when the British VIII Corps, with three armoured divisions, attacked to seize the German-held Bourguébus Ridge, the area between Bretteville-sur-Laize and Vimont and to inflict maximum casualties on the Germans. On 18 July, the British I Corps conducted an attack to secure a series of villages to the east of VIII Corps; to the west, the II Canadian Corps launched Operation Atlantic, synchronised with Goodwood, to capture the Caen suburbs south of the Orne River. When t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Falaise Pocket
The Falaise pocket or battle of the Falaise pocket (; 12–21 August 1944) was the decisive engagement of the Battle of Normandy in the Second World War. Allied forces formed a pocket around Falaise, Calvados, in which German Army Group B, consisting of the 7th Army and the Fifth Panzer Army (formerly ), were encircled by the Western Allies. The battle resulted in the destruction of most of Army Group B west of the Seine, which opened the way to Paris and the Franco-German border. Six weeks after the 6 June 1944 Allied invasion of Normandy, German forces were in turmoil, having expended irreplaceable resources defending the frontline and with Allied air superiority threatening the availability of food and ammunition. However, on the Allied side, British forces had expected to liberate Caen immediately after the invasion, an operation which ended up taking nearly two months, and US forces had expected to control Saint-Lô by the 7 June, yet German resistance delayed this u ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Waffen SS
The (; ) was the combat branch of the Nazi Party's paramilitary ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) organisation. Its formations included men from Nazi Germany, along with volunteers and conscripts from both German-occupied Europe and unoccupied lands. With the start of World War II, tactical control was exercised by the (OKW, "High Command of the Armed Forces"), with some units being subordinated to the (Command Staff ''Reichsführer-SS'') directly under Himmler's control. It was disbanded in May 1945. The grew from three regiments to over 38 divisions during World War II. Combining combat and police functions, it served alongside the German Army (''Heer''), ''Ordnungspolizei'' (Order Police), and other security units. Originally, it was under the control of the (SS operational command office) beneath Heinrich Himmler, the head of the SS. Initially, in keeping with the racial policy of Nazi Germany, membership was open only to people of Germanic origin (so-called " Aryan ancestr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) Of Canada
The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada is a Primary Reserve, reserve infantry regiment in 34 Canadian Brigade Group, 2nd Canadian Division, of the Canadian Army. The regiment is at 2067, rue Bleury (2067, Bleury Street) in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and is currently commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel R.M. Unger. The Black Watch Armoury, regiment's armoury was designated a National Historic Sites of Canada, National Historic Site of Canada in 2008. They are the senior Canadian-Scottish Regiment. Lineage and history File:RHC Regt Colour.jpg, The regimental colour of The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada. File:RHC Camp Flag.jpg, The camp flag of The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada File:Black Watch (Old Campbell) tartan, tileable.png, Black Watch tartan, also known as the "Government sett". Volunteers have served since the regiment's inception in Montreal on 31 January 1862, as the 5th Battalion, Volunteer Militia Rifles of Canada. The rise of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bourguébus
Bourguébus () is a commune in the Calvados department in the Normandy region in northwestern France. Population See also *Communes of the Calvados department The following is a list of the 526 Communes of France, communes of the Calvados (department), Calvados Departments of France, department of France. The communes cooperate in the following Communes of France#Intercommunality, intercommunalities ... References Communes of Calvados (department) Calvados communes articles needing translation from French Wikipedia {{Caen-geo-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Orne (river)
The Orne () is a river in Normandy, within northwestern France. It is long. It discharges into the English Channel at the port of Ouistreham. Its source is in Aunou-sur-Orne, east of Sées. Its main tributaries are the Odon and the Rouvre. Geography The Orne flows through the following departments and towns: *Orne (named after the river): Sées, Argentan * Calvados: Thury-Harcourt, Saint-André-sur-Orne, Caen, Ouistreham It also flows through the area known as Suisse Normande. Its longest tributaries are, from source to mouth: *Don *Ure *Cance *Udon * Baize * Rouvre * Noireau *Laize * Odon Name The name of the Orne in Normandy, which is referred to as the ''Olinas'' by Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; , ; ; – 160s/170s AD) was a Greco-Roman mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were important to later Byzantine science, Byzant ..., is a homonym of Fluvius Olne, the Orn ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
