Defense of the Rhine 1944–45

Defense of the Rhine 1944–45 PDF Author: Steven J. Zaloga
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472803795
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 153

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Book Description
The Rhine River represented the last natural defensive barrier for the Third Reich in the autumn of 1944. Although Hitler had been reluctant to allow the construction of tactical defence lines in France, the final defense of the Reich was another matter. As a result, construction of a Rhine defence line began in September 1944. Steven J. Zaloga examines the multiple phases of construction undertaken to strengthen the Westwall (Siegfried Line), to fortify many of the border villages, and finally to prepare for the demolition of the Rhine bridges. Using detailed maps, colour artwork, and expert analysis, this book takes a detailed look at Germany's last line of defence.

Defense of the Rhine 1944–45

Defense of the Rhine 1944–45 PDF Author: Steven J. Zaloga
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472803795
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 153

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Book Description
The Rhine River represented the last natural defensive barrier for the Third Reich in the autumn of 1944. Although Hitler had been reluctant to allow the construction of tactical defence lines in France, the final defense of the Reich was another matter. As a result, construction of a Rhine defence line began in September 1944. Steven J. Zaloga examines the multiple phases of construction undertaken to strengthen the Westwall (Siegfried Line), to fortify many of the border villages, and finally to prepare for the demolition of the Rhine bridges. Using detailed maps, colour artwork, and expert analysis, this book takes a detailed look at Germany's last line of defence.

Defense of the Rhine 1944–45

Defense of the Rhine 1944–45 PDF Author: Steven J. Zaloga
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1849083886
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 66

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Book Description
The Rhine River represented the last natural defensive barrier for the Third Reich in the autumn of 1944. Although Hitler had been reluctant to allow the construction of tactical defence lines in France, the final defense of the Reich was another matter. As a result, construction of a Rhine defence line began in September 1944. Steven J. Zaloga examines the multiple phases of construction undertaken to strengthen the Westwall (Siegfried Line), to fortify many of the border villages, and finally to prepare for the demolition of the Rhine bridges. Using detailed maps, colour artwork, and expert analysis, this book takes a detailed look at Germany's last line of defence.

The Race for the Rhine Bridges

The Race for the Rhine Bridges PDF Author: Alexander McKee
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780760723180
Category : World War, 1939-1945
Languages : en
Pages : 508

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Book Description
Few World War II actions rival the dramatic battles for the bridges crossing the Rhine and its branches. In 1940, capture of the Arnhem, Nijmegen, and Maas-Waal crossings was the key to Germany's lightning conquest of the Netherlands; in 1944, the Allies' recapture of those bridges was vital to the planned invasion of north-western Germany and thrust into the Ruhr Valley industrial heartland. The strategy and execution of the Allies' airborne strikes are still debated because of their mixed results and high human costs. A participant in the 1945 battle for the Emmerich bridge, Alexander McKee provides an enthralling account of the 1940, 1944, and 1945 operations, all ambitious and innovative in their combinations of airpower and paratroop units with ground forces. He tellingly contrasts Germany's brilliant 1940 success at Arnhem, carried off with bravura against determined Dutch resistance, with the Allies' strategically costly failures in 1944 and their hard-won success in 1945, including the Remagen coup -the capture of an intact bridge that carried the Allied forces deep into Germany. McKee's account covers not only the foresights and flaws in planning and the successes and setbacks of execution, but also the intensity and horrors of battle.

The Battle for the Rhine

The Battle for the Rhine PDF Author: Robin Neillands
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 360

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Book Description


The Battle for the Rhine, 1944

The Battle for the Rhine, 1944 PDF Author: Robin Neillands
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781407221274
Category : Ardennes, Battle of the, 1944-1945
Languages : en
Pages : 335

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Book Description
History.

Roer River Battles

Roer River Battles PDF Author: David R. Higgins
Publisher: Casemate
ISBN: 1935149598
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 265

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Book Description
An account of the ups and downs of a six-month-long WWII campaign with “a well detailed chronological order of the battles [and] interesting photographs” (Armorama). A selection of the Military Book Club. Following the Allied breakout from the Normandy beachhead in July 1944, the vaunted German Army seemed on the verge of collapse. As British and US forces fanned out across northwestern France, enemy resistance unexpectedly dissolved into a headlong retreat to the German and Belgian borders. In early September, an elated Allied High Command had every expectation of continuing their momentum to cripple the enemy’s warmaking capability by capturing the Ruhr industrial complex and plunging into the heart of Germany. After a brief pause to allow for resupply, Courtney Hodge’s First Army prepared to punch through the ominous but largely outdated Westwall, the Siegfried Line, surrounding Aachen. But during the lull, German commanders such as the “lion of defense,” Walter Model, reorganized depleted units and mounted an increasingly potent defense. Though the German Replacement Army funneled considerable numbers to the front, they too often strained an overburdened supply system and didn’t greatly enhance existing combat formations. More importantly, the panzer divisions, once thought irretrievably destroyed, were resupplied and reinvigorated. When the Allied offensive resumed, it ran into a veritable brick wall—gains measured in yards, not miles, if any were made at all. While both sides suffered equally in an urbanized environment of pillbox-infested hills, impenetrable forests, and freezing rain, the Germans were on the defensive and better able to inflict casualties out of proportion to their own. For the US First Army, what was originally to be a walk-through turned into a frustrating six-month campaign that decimated infantry and tank forces alike. The “broad front,” as opposed to a “Schwerpunkt” strategy, led to the demise of many a citizen-soldier. Drawing on primary Wehrmacht and US sources, including battle analysis and daily situation and after-action reports, The Roer River Battles provides insight into the desperate German efforts to keep a conquering enemy at the borders of their homeland. Tactical maps down to battalion-level help clarify the very fluid nature of the combat. Combined, they serve to explain not just how, but why decisions were made and events unfolded, and how reality often differed from doctrine in one of the longest US campaigns of World War II.

The German Defense Of Berlin

The German Defense Of Berlin PDF Author: Oberst a.D. Wilhem Willemar
Publisher: Pickle Partners Publishing
ISBN: 1786251469
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 72

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Book Description
Often written during imprisonment in Allied War camps by former German officers, with their memories of the World War fresh in their minds, The Foreign Military Studies series offers rare glimpses into the Third Reich. In this study Oberst a.D. Wilhem Willemar discusses his recollections of the climatic battle for Berlin from within the Wehrmacht. “No cohesive, over-all plan for the defense of Berlin was ever actually prepared. All that existed was the stubborn determination of Hitler to defend the capital of the Reich. Circumstances were such that he gave no thought to defending the city until it was much too late for any kind of advance planning. Thus the city’s defense was characterized only by a mass of improvisations. These reveal a state of total confusion in which the pressure of the enemy, the organizational chaos on the German side, and the catastrophic shortage of human and material resources for the defense combined with disastrous effect. “The author describes these conditions in a clear, accurate report which I rate very highly. He goes beyond the more narrow concept of planning and offers the first German account of the defense of Berlin to be based upon thorough research. I attach great importance to this study from the standpoint of military history and concur with the military opinions expressed by the author.”-Foreword by Generaloberst a.D. Franz Halder.

Four Hours of Fury

Four Hours of Fury PDF Author: James M. Fenelon
Publisher: Scribner
ISBN: 1501179373
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 448

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Book Description
In this viscerally exciting account, a paratrooper-turned-historian reveals the details of World War II’s largest airborne operation—one that dropped 17,000 Allied paratroopers deep into the heart of Nazi Germany. On the morning of March 24, 1945, more than two thousand Allied aircraft droned through a cloudless sky toward Germany. Escorted by swarms of darting fighters, the armada of transport planes carried 17,000 troops to be dropped, via parachute and glider, on the far banks of the Rhine River. Four hours later, after what was the war’s largest airdrop, all major objectives had been seized. The invasion smashed Germany’s last line of defense and gutted Hitler’s war machine; the war in Europe ended less than two months later. Four Hours of Fury follows the 17th Airborne Division as they prepare for Operation Varsity, a campaign that would rival Normandy in scale and become one of the most successful and important of the war. Even as the Third Reich began to implode, it was vital for Allied troops to have direct access into Germany to guarantee victory—the 17th Airborne secured that bridgehead over the River Rhine. And yet their story has until now been relegated to history’s footnotes. Reminiscent of A Bridge Too Far and Masters of the Air, Four Hours of Fury does for the 17th Airborne what Band of Brothers did for the 101st. It is a captivating, action-packed tale of heroism and triumph spotlighting one of World War II’s most under-chronicled and dangerous operations.

Defense of the Third Reich 1941–45

Defense of the Third Reich 1941–45 PDF Author: Steven J. Zaloga
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1849085943
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 66

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Book Description
Starting in 1940, Germany was subjected to a growing threat of Allied bomber attack. The RAF night bombing offensive built up in a slow but unrelenting crescendo through the Ruhr campaign in the summer of 1944 and culminating in the attacks on Berlin in the autumn and early winter of 1943-44. They were joined by US daylight raids which first began to have a serious impact on German industry in the autumn of 1943. This book focuses on the land-based infrastructure of Germany's defense against the air onslaught. Besides active defense against air attack, Germany also invested heavily in passive defense such as air raid shelters. While much of this defense was conventional such as underground shelters and the dual use of subways and other structures, Germany faced some unique dilemmas in protecting cities against night fire bomb raids. As a result, German architects designed massive above-ground defense shelters which were amongst the most massive defensive structures built in World War II.

Busting the Bocage

Busting the Bocage PDF Author: Michael Dale Doubler
Publisher: Fort Leavenworth, Kan. : U.S. Army Command and General Staff College
ISBN:
Category : Bocage normand (France)
Languages : en
Pages : 92

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Book Description