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Kurt Pflugbeil
__NOTOC__ Kurt Leopold Pflugbeil (9 May 1890 – 31 May 1955) was a German general (General der Flieger) in the Luftwaffe during World War II who commanded 4th Air Corps and Luftflotte 1. He was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves of Nazi Germany. Pflugbeil commanded the 4th Air Corps during the Second Battle of Kharkov, Battle of Stalingrad and Siege of Sevastopol. He surrendered to the Red Army in the Courland Pocket in 1945. In 1950 he was sentenced to 25 years in a labour camp. Pflugbeil was released in 1954. Awards and decorations * Iron Cross (1914) 2nd Class (14 September 1914) & 1st Class (7 October 1916)Thomas 1998, p. 151. * Clasp to the Iron Cross (1939) 2nd Class (7 October 1939) & 1st Class (15 June 1940) * Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves ** Knight's Cross on 5 October 1941 as ''Generalleutnant'' and commander of IV. Fliegerkorps ** 562nd Oak Leaves on 27 August 1944 as ''General der Flieger () was a General ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Königstein, Saxony
Königstein (, ) is a town on the river Elbe in Saxony in Germany. Königstein lies in the Sächsische Schweiz-Osterzgebirge District and had a population of 2,089 in 2018. It includes land on both banks of the Elbe, but the centre and most of the town lies to the south of the river. The Königstein Fortress is situated above and to the south-west of the town. Geography Königstein is located in the Elbe Sandstone Mountains. The town lies in between Pirna and the Czech border at the confluence of the Biela with the Elbe. Königstein was damaged during the flooding of the Elbe in 2002. History The town of Königstein was first mentioned in 1379 as a settlement near the castle of Königstein. It was named after a King of Bohemia, but eventually passed to the Saxon Margraves of Meißen. However, Königstein still retains the double-tailed lion of Bohemia in its coat of arms. During World War II the prisoner-of-war camp for Allied officers, Oflag IV-B, was located i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and several of its European Axis allies starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during World War II. More than 3.8 million Axis troops invaded the western Soviet Union along a front, with the main goal of capturing territory up to a line between Arkhangelsk and Astrakhan, known as the A-A line. The attack became the largest and costliest military offensive in history, with around 10 million combatants taking part in the opening phase and over 8 million casualties by the end of the operation on 5 December 1941. It marked a major escalation of World War II, opened the Eastern Front—the largest and deadliest land war in history—and brought the Soviet Union into the Allied powers. The operation, code-named after the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa ("red beard"), put into action Nazi Germany's ideological goals of eradicating communism and conquering the western Soviet Union to repopulate it w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Honour Cross Of The World War 1914/1918
The Honour Cross of the World War 1914/1918 (), commonly referred to as the Hindenburg Cross or the German WWI Service Cross, was established by Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg, President of the German Weimar Republic, by an order dated 13 July 1934, to commemorate service of the German people during the World War I, First World War. This was Germany's first official service medal for soldiers of Imperial Germany who had taken part in the war, and where they had since died it was also awarded to their surviving next-of-kin. Shortly after its issuance, the government of Nazi Germany declared the award as the only official service decoration of the First World War and further forbade the continued wearing of most Awards of the German Freikorps, German Free Corps awards on any military or paramilitary uniform of a state or Nazi Party organization. The Honour Cross was awarded in three forms: * - for front-line veterans, with swords * - for non-combatant veterans, without swords * ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Military Order Of St
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, pro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
House Order Of Hohenzollern
The House Order of Hohenzollern ( or ') was a dynastic order of knighthood of the House of Hohenzollern awarded to military commissioned officers and civilians of comparable status. Associated with the various versions of the order were crosses and medals which could be awarded to lower-ranking soldiers and civilians. History The Princely House Order of Hohenzollern originated in 1841, by joint decree of Prince Konstantin of and Prince Karl Anton of . These two principalities in southern Germany were Catholic collateral lines of the House of Hohenzollern, cousins to the Protestant ruling house of Prussia. On 23 August 1851, after the two principalities had been annexed by Prussia, the order was adopted by the Prussian branch of the house. Also, although the two principalities had become an administrative region of the Prussian kingdom, the princely lines continued to award the order as a house order. The Prussian version was then known as the Royal House Order of Hohenzollern (' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Iron Cross
The Iron Cross (, , abbreviated EK) was a military decoration in the Kingdom of Prussia, the German Empire (1871–1918), and Nazi Germany (1933–1945). The design, a black cross pattée with a white or silver outline, was derived from the insignia of the medieval Teutonic Order and borne by its knights from the 13th century. As well as being a military medal, it has also been used as an emblem by the Prussian Army, the Imperial German Army, and the of the Weimar Republic, while the ''Balkenkreuz'' (bar cross) variant was used by the ''Wehrmacht''. The Iron Cross is now the emblem of the , the modern German armed forces. King Frederick William III of Prussia established the Iron Cross award on 17 March 1813 during the Napoleonic Wars (EK 1813). The award was backdated to the birthday (10 March) of his late wife, Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Queen Louise, who was the first person to receive it (posthumously). The Iron Cross was also awarded during the Franco-Prussian War ( ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People's Commissars to oppose the military forces of the new nation's adversaries during the Russian Civil War, especially the various groups collectively known as the White Army. In February 1946, the Red Army (which embodied the main component of the Soviet Armed Forces alongside the Soviet Navy) was renamed the "Soviet Army". Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union it was split between the post-Soviet states, with its bulk becoming the Russian Ground Forces, commonly considered to be the successor of the Soviet Army. The Red Army provided the largest land warfare, ground force in the Allies of World War II, Allied victory in the European theatre of World War II, and its Soviet invasion of Manchuria, invasion of Manchuria assisted the un ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Second Battle Of Kharkov
The Second Battle of Kharkov or Operation Fredericus was an Axis powers, Axis counter-offensive in the region around Kharkov against the Red Army Izium bridgehead offensive conducted 12–28 May 1942, on the Eastern Front (World War II), Eastern Front during World War II. Its objective was to eliminate the Izium bridgehead over Seversky Donets or the "Barvenkovo bulge" () which was one of the Soviet offensive's staging areas. After a Battle of Moscow, winter counter-offensive that drove German troops away from Moscow but depleted the Red Army's reserves, the Kharkov offensive was a new Soviet attempt to expand upon their strategic initiative, although it failed to secure a significant element of surprise. On 12 May 1942, Soviet forces under the command of Marshal Semyon Timoshenko launched an offensive against the German 6th Army (Wehrmacht), 6th Army from a salient established during the Barvenkovo–Lozovaya Offensive, winter counter-offensive. After a promising start, the off ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalitarianism, totalitarian dictatorship. The Third Reich, meaning "Third Realm" or "Third Empire", referred to the Nazi claim that Nazi Germany was the successor to the earlier Holy Roman Empire (800–1806) and German Empire (1871–1918). The Third Reich, which the Nazis referred to as the Thousand-Year Reich, ended in May 1945, after 12 years, when the Allies of World War II, Allies defeated Germany and entered the capital, Berlin, End of World War II in Europe, ending World War II in Europe. After Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany in 1933, the Nazi Party began to eliminate political opposition and consolidate power. A 1934 German referendum confirmed Hitler as sole ''Führer'' (leader). Power was centralised in Hitler's person, an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Johann Pflugbeil
__NOTOC__ Johann Pflugbeil (24 August 1882 – 21 October 1951) was a German general during World War II. During 1941 and 1942, he commanded the 221st Security Division in the Army Group Centre Rear Area. Under Pflugbeil's command, the division took part in Nazi security warfare and was responsible for numerous war crimes and crimes against humanity. World War II On June 27, 1941, the 221st Security Division held the Polish city of Białystok, which had been in the Soviet zone of occupation. That day, the 309th Police battalion started a pogrom on the Jewish community: Jews were arrested, beaten, beards were cut, and people were shot. The Jewish community chiefs went to see general Pflugbeil, and asked him to stop that pogrom. They were in his office, on their knees to implore him. A policeman of the 309th Police Battalion urinated on them; the general offered his back, to see elsewhere. After that "meeting", the pogrom became slaughter and massacre: the Jews on the market pla ... [...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] |
Courland Pocket
The Courland Pocket was a Pocket (military), pocket located on the Courland Peninsula in Latvia on the Eastern Front (World War II), Eastern Front of World War II from 9 October 1944 to 10 May 1945. Army Group North of the ''Wehrmacht'' were surrounded in western Latvia by the Red Army after the Baltic Offensive, when forces of the 1st Baltic Front reached the Baltic Sea near Klaipėda, Memel (Klaipėda) after the collapse of Army Group Centre during Operation Bagration. Army Group North retreated to the Courland Pocket and was renamed Army Group Courland on 25 January, holding off six Red Army Offensive (military), offensives until the German Instrument of Surrender was signed on 8 May 1945. Army Group Courland were in a communication "Blackout (broadcasting), blackout" and did not get the official order until 10 May, becoming one of the last German groups to European theatre of World War II, surrender in Europe. Background In June 1941, Nazi Germany launched Operation Bar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
