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Kholm Pocket
The Kholm Pocket (; ) was the name given for the encirclement of German troops by the Red Army around Kholm, south of Leningrad, in World War II's the Eastern Front, from 23 January 1942 to 5 May 1942. The pocket was created by the Soviet Toropets–Kholm offensive. A much larger pocket was meanwhile surrounded in Demyansk, about to the northeast. Both were the results of the German retreat following the defeat during the Battle of Moscow.Zabecki, p. 695–696 The air supply of Kholm and Demyansk was successful but led to an overconfidence in the German High Command on the Luftwaffe's ability to supply encircled forces by air, which would lead to disastrous consequences at the Battle of Stalingrad in late 1942 and early 1943. Overview At the Kholm pocket, 5,500 German soldiers held out for 105 days. The pocket was supplied by air but since it was too small for planes to land, supplies had to be dropped in and recovered by the German defenders. Among the airdropped su ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eastern Front (World War II)
The Eastern Front, also known as the Great Patriotic War (term), Great Patriotic War in the Soviet Union and its successor states, and the German–Soviet War in modern Germany and Ukraine, was a Theater (warfare), theatre of World War II fought between the European Axis powers and Allies of World War II, Allies, including the Soviet Union (USSR) and Polish Armed Forces in the East, Poland. It encompassed Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Northern Europe, Northeast Europe (Baltic states, Baltics), and Southeast Europe (Balkans), and lasted from 22 June 1941 to 9 May 1945. Of the estimated World War II casualties, 70–85 million deaths attributed to World War II, around 30 million occurred on the Eastern Front, including 9 million children. The Eastern Front was decisive in determining the outcome in the European theatre of World War II, European theatre of operations in World War II, eventually serving as the main reason for the defeat of Nazi Germany and the Axis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maschinenkarabiner 42(H)
The Maschinenkarabiner 42(H) or MKb 42(H) (machine carbine Model 1942 (Haenel)) was an early German assault rifle firing an intermediate round of World War II. Designed in 1940 – 1941 by Hugo Schmeisser working for ''C. G. Haenel Waffen und Fahrradfabrik'', several thousand were made and the gun was used on the Eastern Front in 1943. The MKb 42(H), along with the less successful Maschinenkarabiner 42(W) (MKb 42(W)) by ''Walther Waffenfabrik AG'', were predecessors of the MP 43 assault rifle. History As early as 1918 the German Army (''Heer'') began to study the feasibility of an intermediate round and rifle. However, a combination of military orthodoxy, limited funds and the arms development restrictions of the Versailles Treaty led Germany to adopt the Mauser Karabiner 98K on 21 June 1935 to replace the Gewehr 98. From 1939 onwards the German Army gathered combat reports which were analyzed to determine combat conditions and tactical trends in order to develop new tactic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gotha Go 242
The Gotha Go 242 was a transport glider used by the ''Luftwaffe'' during World War II. It was an upgrade over the DFS 230 in both cargo/troop capacity and flight characteristics. It saw limited combat action. There were multiple glider variants, and it became the basis for a transport aircraft, the: Gotha Go 244. Development The Go 242 was designed by Dipl-Ing Albert Kalkert in response to a '' Reichsluftfahrtministerium'' (RLM) requirement for a heavy transport glider to replace the DFS 230 then in service. The requirement was for a glider capable of carrying 20 fully laden troops or the equivalent cargo. The aircraft was a high-wing monoplane with a simple square-section fuselage ending in clamshell doors used to load cargo. The empennage was mounted on twin booms linked by a tailplane. The fuselage was formed of steel tubing covered with doped fabric. The flight characteristics of the design were better than those of the DFS 230. Cargo versions of the glider featured a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nazi Concentration Camps
From 1933 to 1945, Nazi Germany operated more than a thousand concentration camps (), including subcamp (SS), subcamps on its own territory and in parts of German-occupied Europe. The first camps were established in March 1933 immediately after Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany. Following the Night of Long Knives, 1934 purge of the Sturmabteilung, SA, the concentration camps were run exclusively by the Schutzstaffel, SS via the Concentration Camps Inspectorate and later the SS Main Economic and Administrative Office. Initially, most prisoners were members of the Communist Party of Germany, but as time went on different groups were arrested, including "habitual criminals", "Black triangle (badge), asocials", and Jews. After the beginning of World War II, people from German-occupied Europe were imprisoned in the concentration camps. About 1.65 million people were registered prisoners in the camps, of whom about Holocaust victims, a million died during their imprisonment. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural and socio-economic connotations. Its eastern boundary is marked by the Ural Mountains, and its western boundary is defined in various ways. Narrow definitions, in which Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe are counted as separate regions, include Belarus, Russia and Ukraine. In contrast, broader definitions include Moldova and Romania, but also some or all of the Balkans, the Baltic states, the Caucasus, and the Visegrád Group, Visegrád group. The region represents a significant part of Culture of Europe, European culture; the main socio-cultural characteristics of Eastern Europe have historically largely been defined by the traditions of the Slavs, as well as by the influence of Eastern Christianity as it developed through the Byzantine Empire, Eastern Roman Empire and the Ottoman Empire. Another definition was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ethnic Cleansing
Ethnic cleansing is the systematic forced removal of ethnic, racial, or religious groups from a given area, with the intent of making the society ethnically homogeneous. Along with direct removal such as deportation or population transfer, it also includes indirect methods aimed at forced migration by coercing the victim group to flee and preventing its return, such as murder, rape, and property destruction. Both the definition and charge of ethnic cleansing is often disputed, with some researchers including and others excluding cultural genocide, coercive assimilation or mass killings as a means of depopulating an area of a particular group, or calling it a euphemism for genocide or cultural genocide. In 21st century Europe, the term ''remigration'' has been used for similar policies. Although scholars do not agree on which events constitute ethnic cleansing, list of ethnic cleansing campaigns, many instances have occurred throughout history. The term was first used to descri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dortmund
Dortmund (; ; ) is the third-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia, after Cologne and Düsseldorf, and the List of cities in Germany by population, ninth-largest city in Germany. With a population of 614,495 inhabitants, it is the largest city (by area and population) of the Ruhr as well as the largest city of Westphalia. It lies on the Emscher and Ruhr (river), Ruhr rivers (tributaries of the Rhine) in the Rhine-Ruhr, Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Region, the List of EU metropolitan regions by GDP#2021 ranking of top four German metropolitan regions, second biggest metropolitan region by GDP in the European Union, and is considered the administrative, commercial, and cultural centre of the eastern Ruhr. Dortmund is the second-largest city in the Low German dialect area, after Hamburg. Founded around 882,:File:Boevinghausen erwaehnung.jpg, Wikimedia Commons: First documentary reference to Dortmund-Bövinghausen from 882, contribution-list of the Werden Abbey (near Essen), North-Rhine ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gelsenkirchen
Gelsenkirchen (, , ; ) is the List of cities in Germany by population, 25th-most populous city of Germany and the 11th-most populous in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia with 262,528 (2016) inhabitants. On the Emscher, Emscher River (a tributary of the Rhine), it lies at the centre of the Ruhr, Ruhr area, the largest urban area of Germany, of which it is the fifth-largest city after Dortmund, Essen, Duisburg and Bochum. The Ruhr is located in the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region, the List of EU metropolitan regions by GDP#2021 ranking of top 4 German metropolitan regions, second-biggest metropolitan region by GDP in the European Union. Gelsenkirchen is the fifth-largest city of Westphalia after Dortmund, Bochum, Bielefeld and Münster, and it is one of the southernmost cities in the Low German dialect area. The city is home to the Association football, football club FC Schalke 04, Schalke 04, which is named after Gelsenkirchen-Schalke. The club's current stadium Veltins-Arena, h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming Chancellor of Germany#Nazi Germany (1933–1945), the chancellor in 1933 and then taking the title of in 1934. His invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939 marked the start of the Second World War. He was closely involved in military operations throughout the war and was central to the perpetration of the Holocaust: the genocide of Holocaust victims, about six million Jews and millions of other victims. Hitler was born in Braunau am Inn in Austria-Hungary and moved to German Empire, Germany in 1913. He was decorated during his service in the German Army in the First World War, receiving the Iron Cross. In 1919 he joined the German Workers' Party (DAP), the precursor of the Nazi Party, and in 1921 was app ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Knight's Cross Of The Iron Cross With Oak Leaves
The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross (), or simply the Knight's Cross (), and its variants, were the highest awards in the military and paramilitary forces of Nazi Germany during World War II. While it was lower in precedence than the Grand Cross of the Iron Cross, the Grand Cross was never awarded at-large to Nazi German military and paramilitary forces. The Grand Cross's sole award was made to '' Reichsmarschall'' Hermann Göring in September 1939, making the Knight's Cross (specifically, the Knight's Cross with Golden Oak Leaves, Swords, and Diamonds grade) the ''de facto'' highest award among the decorations of Nazi Germany. The Knight's Cross was awarded for a wide range of reasons and across all ranks, from a senior commander for skilled leadership of his troops in battle to a low-ranking soldier for a single act of military valour. Presentations were made to members of the three military branches of the : the (army), the (navy) and the (air force), as well as the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Demyansk Shield
Demyansk Shield () was a World War II German military decoration awarded to Wehrmacht personnel who fought in the Demyansk pocket on the Eastern Front in the early months of 1942. The pocket of German troops had been encircled and cut off by the Red Army around Demyansk (Demjansk), south of Leningrad, and was successfully defended with the aid of an airbridge. The shield was instituted on 25 April 1943 by Adolf Hitler and was not bestowed after 1 July 1944. Design The shield was die-struck and produced in silver-washed zinc and later in plain zinc. It features at its apex an eagle with swooped down wings clutching a laurel wreath that surrounds a swastika. This is flanked by two log pillboxes with gun ports, with "DEMJANSK" in capitals below. The central portion of the shield features a head-on single engine aircraft behind two crossed swords and, at the base, the year "1942". Two minor variations of the aircraft's propeller exist with either a curved or straight propeller. T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cholm Shield
The Cholm Shield () was a World War II German military decoration awarded to those who fought in the Cholm Pocket on the Eastern Front between 21 January and 5 May 1942. It was instituted on 1 July 1942 and is the rarest of the German combat shields, with approximately 5,500 recipients. Awards ceased to be bestowed on 1 April 1943. Background and design In January 1942, the Soviet Red Army began a series of counteroffensives against the German Army. In the course of these operations, the German occupied town of Cholm (or Kholm) was attacked on 18 January 1942. By the 21 January the town was surrounded and cut off, creating the Cholm Pocket. Led by Generalmajor Theodor Scherer, a mixed group of Wehrmacht Heer, Luftwaffe fallschirmjager, Waffen-SS panzergrenadiers and Ordnungspolizei personnel were supplied by air until relieved on 5 May 1942. After the relief of Cholm, a commemorative shield was suggested by General Scherer to Adolf Hitler, who agreed to the award. A desig ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
