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Festung
''Festung'' is the German word for fortress. Although it is not in common usage in English, it is used in contexts related to Central European, especially German, history. The term is used: * In the names of fortresses in German speaking Europe * For fortified areas in Switzerland's National Redoubt * In German World War Two propaganda for: ** Festung Europa — The defensive buildup of Western Europe against the Allies *** Vital locations along the Atlantic wall, including the entirety of Norway ** For key strategic locations which were to be held at all costs, especially towards the end of the war *** Festung Stalingrad following the city's encirclement in Operation Uranus *** Festung Warschau — used in different contexts in 1939 and 1944 *** Festung Posen *** Festung Kolberg *** Festung Breslau *** Festung Budapest *** Festung Königsberg *** Alpenfestung — the planned national redoubt ** For proposed post war German exclaves in key places such as Brest and Trond ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
National Redoubt (Switzerland)
The Swiss National Redoubt (; ; ; ) is a defensive plan developed by the Swiss government beginning in the 1880s to respond to foreign invasion. In the opening years of the Second World War the plan was expanded and refined to deal with a potential German invasion. The term "National Redoubt" primarily refers to the fortifications begun in the 1880s that secured the mountainous central part of Switzerland, providing a defended refuge for a retreating Swiss Army. The National Redoubt encompassed a widely distributed set of fortifications on a general east–west line through the Alps, centering around the major fortress complexes of St. Maurice, St. Gotthard, and Sargans. These fortresses primarily defended the alpine crossings between Germany and Italy and were outside the industrialized and populated regions of Switzerland. These regions were defended by the "Border Line", and the "Army Position" somewhat farther back. While not intended as an impassable barrier, these lines c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Festung Warschau
In the German language, ''Festung Warschau'' ("Fortress Warsaw") is the term used to refer to a fortified and well-defended Warsaw. In the 20th century, the term was in use on three occasions during World War I and World War II. It was used when the Germans threw back the Russian advance in 1914, where Warsaw came within distance of the fighting in October. The term resurfaced during the September 1939 German invasion of Poland. Later in the second war, the term resurfaced between July 1944 and January 1945, when the retreating Germans tried to establish a defense in the city against the advancing Soviet Union. 1939 During the invasion of Poland in 1939 the German troops reached the outskirts of Warsaw on 9 September. The Oberkommando des Heeres (OKH) assumed that the unfortified city damaged by countless terror bombing raids would be taken by German motorized units without any resistance and issued a press and radio release stating that the capital of Poland was taken. Howe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Festung Königsberg
''Festung'' is the German word for fortress. Although it is not in common usage in English, it is used in contexts related to Central European, especially German, history. The term is used: * In the names of fortresses in German speaking Europe * For fortified areas in Switzerland's National Redoubt * In German World War Two propaganda for: ** Festung Europa — The defensive buildup of Western Europe against the Allies *** Vital locations along the Atlantic wall, including the entirety of Norway ** For key strategic locations which were to be held at all costs, especially towards the end of the war *** Festung Stalingrad following the city's encirclement in Operation Uranus *** Festung Warschau — used in different contexts in 1939 and 1944 *** Festung Posen *** Festung Kolberg *** Festung Breslau *** Festung Budapest *** Festung Königsberg *** Alpenfestung — the planned national redoubt ** For proposed post war German exclaves in key places such as Brest and Trond ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Die Festung
''Die Festung'' ('The Fortress') is a German-language novel by Lothar-Günther Buchheim, the sequel to his 1973 ''Das Boot''. It was published in 1995 by Hoffmann und Campe and reissued in 2005 by Piper. Plot ''Die Festung'' is a novelised version of Buchheim's experiences after his second tour of duty as a volunteer and war artist on a German submarine, as he witnesses the collapse of the German occupation of France after D-Day. Buchheim said his purpose in writing it, like ''Das Boot'', was to record the reality of war. It begins in 1944, when on his return to port in Saint-Nazaire Buchheim is summoned to Berlin. There he is informed that his publisher, Peter Suhrkamp, has been imprisoned by the Gestapo but that his book about the submarine war in the Atlantic, ''Jäger im Weltmeer'', has nonetheless been approved for publication. In his other profession of war artist, he is commissioned to paint a group portrait of Admiral Karl Dönitz and distinguished ''U-Boot'' captains, bu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battle Of Poznań (1945)
The Battle of Poznań (Battle of Posen) during World War II in 1945 was an assault by the Soviet Union's Red Army that had as its objective the elimination of the Nazi German garrison in the stronghold city of Poznań (Posen) in occupied Poland. The defeat of the German garrison required a month-long reduction of fortified positions, urban combat, and a final assault on the city's citadel by the Red Army, complete with medieval touches. Background Following the invasion of Poland in 1939, the city of Poznań (Ger.: ''Posen'') was annexed by Nazi Germany and became the capital of Reichsgau Wartheland. By 1945, the Red Army advances on the Eastern Front had driven the Germans out of eastern Poland as far as the Vistula River. The Red Army launched the Vistula–Oder offensive on 12 January 1945, inflicted a huge defeat on the defending German forces, and advanced rapidly into western Poland and eastern Germany. Certain cities which lay on the path of the Soviet advance were d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Festung Breslau
The siege of Breslau, also known as the battle of Breslau, was a three-month-long siege of the city of Breslau in Lower Silesia, Germany (now Wrocław, Poland), lasting to the end of World War II in Europe. From 13 February 1945 to 6 May 1945, German troops in Breslau were besieged by the Soviet forces which encircled the city as part of the Lower Silesian Offensive Operation. The German garrison's surrender on 6 May was followed by the surrender of all German forces two days after the battle. Background In August 1944, Adolf Hitler declared the city of Breslau a fortress ('' Festung''), and ordered that it must be defended at all costs. He named Karl Hanke, ''Gauleiter'' of Silesia since 1941, to be the city's "Battle Commander" (''Kampfkommandant''). On 19 January 1945, the civilian population was forced to leave. Many thousands died in the bitter cold of the makeshift evacuation;HITLER'S FINAL FORTRESS - BRESLAU 1945 (2011) -- Richard Hargreaves many more arrived in Dr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Festung Norwegen
Festung Norwegen () was the extensive defense and fortification system constructed in Norway, part of the Atlantic Wall, after the conquest and occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany in World War II. Some, including ''Reichskommissar'' Josef Terboven, thought that these fortifications would serve effectively as a last perimeter of defense of the Third Reich in the event of Allied victory on the continent. This led to German troops being diverted from mainland Europe, which resulted in a quicker end to the war. Atlantic Wall Considered an essential part of the Atlantic Wall in anticipation of an Allied invasion, the fortifications in Norway were primarily based around coastal artillery, but also included anti-aircraft batteries, tanks and infantry forces. There were as many as 400,000 German troops in Norway during the occupation, a large proportion of whom were dedicated to the defense of this northern flank of the Atlantic Wall. The scope of Festung Norwegen originally included ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Atlantic Wall
The Atlantic Wall () was an extensive system of coastal defence and fortification, coastal defences and fortifications built by Nazi Germany between 1942 and 1944 along the coast of continental Europe and Scandinavia as a defense (military), defence against an anticipated Operation Overlord, Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied Europe from the United Kingdom, during World War II. The manning and operation of the Atlantic Wall was administratively overseen by the German Army (Wehrmacht), German Army, with some support from ''Luftwaffe'' ground forces. The ''Kriegsmarine'' (German Navy) maintained a separate coastal defence network, organised into a number of sea defence zones. Hitler ordered the construction of the fortifications in 1942 through his Führer Directive No. 40. More than half a million French people, French workers were drafted to build it. The wall was frequently mentioned in Nazi propaganda, where its size and strength were usually exaggerated. The fortifications i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battle Of Kolberg (1945)
The Battle of Kolberg or Battle of Kołobrzeg (also, battle for Festung Kolberg) was the taking of the city of ''Kolberg'', now the city of Kołobrzeg, in Pomerania Province (1815-1945), Pomerania by the First Polish Army (1944–1945), Polish Army and Red Army, Soviet Army from Nazi Germany, Nazi German forces during the World War II East Pomeranian Offensive. Between 4 and 18 March 1945 there was major urban fighting of the Soviet Union, Soviet and Polish forces against the German army for the control over the city. The Germans succeeded in evacuating much of their military personnel and refugees from the city via sea before it was taken by the Poles on 18 March. Background On 4 March 1945 Kolberg, a large Baltic Sea, Baltic seaport in the Province of Pomerania, was designated German World War II strongholds, a stronghold as ''Festung Kolberg''. It was one of the key German positions in the Pomeranian Wall, a vital link between Pomerania and Prussia. The German High Command ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fortress Europe
Fortress Europe () was a military propaganda term used by both sides of World War II which referred to the areas of Continental Europe occupied by Nazi Germany, as opposed to the United Kingdom across the Channel. World War II defences In British phraseology, Fortress Europe meant the battle honour accorded to Royal Air Force and Allied squadrons during the war, but to qualify, operations had to be made by aircraft based in Britain against targets in Germany, Italy and other parts of German-occupied Europe, in the period from the fall of France to the Normandy invasion. Simultaneously, the term Festung Europa was being used by Nazi propaganda, namely to refer to Hitler's and the Wehrmacht's plans to fortify the whole of occupied Europe, in order to prevent an invasion by Allied forces. These measures included the construction of the Atlantic wall, along with the reorganization of the ''Luftwaffe'' for air defence. At the end of 1942, instructions by propaganda ministe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nordstern (city)
''Nordstern'' (), usually referred to as ''Neu Drontheim'' (), was a Nazi plan for the creation of a new metropolis located in German-occupied Norway. It was planned to be built in Øysand, southwest of the city of Trondheim, and have a population of around 250,000 to 300,000 German inhabitants. Nordstern's construction would be in conjunction with a major ''Kriegsmarine'' base due to the significant strategic importance of Trondheim Fjord to the German military. The new city and base would give Germany unprecedented maritime control over the North Atlantic area, a move strongly supported by ''Großadmiral''s Erich Raeder and Karl Dönitz. German leader Adolf Hitler envisioned the city as "a German Singapore", and it became one of his favorite architectural projects. Strategic importance The conquest of Norway by the ''Wehrmacht'' presented the military leadership of the Nazi Germany with new opportunities for expansion. The city of Trondheim and its accompanying bay were det ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alpine Fortress
The Alpine Fortress () or Alpine Redoubt was the World War II German national redoubt planned by Heinrich Himmler in November and December 1943."Himmler started laying the plans for underground warfare in the last two months of 1943.... The plans are threefold, embracing (1) Open warfare directed from Hitler's mountain headquarters; (2) Sabotage and guerrilla activity conducted by partisan bands organized by districts, and (3) Propaganda warfare to be carried on by some 200,000 Nazi followers in Europe and elsewhere. Strongholds Established Already picked S.S. (elite) troops have been established in underground strongholds and hospitals in the Austrian, Bavarian and Italian Alpine area and it is the plan of Nazi leaders to flee to that region when the German military collapse comes." . Plans envisaged Germany's government and armed forces retreating to an area from "southern Bavaria across western Austria to northern Italy"."But what of the top Nazis who cannot hide? With a c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
