Prelude to Blitzkrieg

Prelude to Blitzkrieg PDF Author: Michael B. Barrett
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 0253008700
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 426

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Book Description
An authoritative study of World War I’s often-overlooked Romanian front. In contrast to the trench-war deadlock on the Western Front, combat in Romania and Transylvania in 1916 foreshadowed the lightning warfare of World War II. When Romania joined the Allies and invaded Transylvania without warning, the Germans responded by unleashing a campaign of bold, rapid infantry movements, with cavalry providing cover or pursuing the crushed foe. Hitting where least expected and advancing before the Romanians could react―even bombing their capital from a Zeppelin soon after war was declared―the Germans and Austrians poured over the formidable Transylvanian Alps onto the plains of Walachia, rolling up the Romanian army from west to east, and driving the shattered remnants into Russia. Prelude to Blitzkrieg tells the story of this largely ignored campaign to determine why it did not devolve into the mud and misery of trench warfare, so ubiquitous elsewhere. “This work will stand as the definitive study of the Central Powers part of the campaign for some time to come.” —Journal of Military History “Barnett’s book is a valuable addition to the field. He writes well and with authority. He has been able to illuminate a little-known corner of the First World War and provide a state-of-the-art operational history combining detailed narrative with prescient analysis.” —American Historical Review

Prelude to Blitzkrieg

Prelude to Blitzkrieg PDF Author: Michael B. Barrett
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 0253008700
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 426

Get Book Here

Book Description
An authoritative study of World War I’s often-overlooked Romanian front. In contrast to the trench-war deadlock on the Western Front, combat in Romania and Transylvania in 1916 foreshadowed the lightning warfare of World War II. When Romania joined the Allies and invaded Transylvania without warning, the Germans responded by unleashing a campaign of bold, rapid infantry movements, with cavalry providing cover or pursuing the crushed foe. Hitting where least expected and advancing before the Romanians could react―even bombing their capital from a Zeppelin soon after war was declared―the Germans and Austrians poured over the formidable Transylvanian Alps onto the plains of Walachia, rolling up the Romanian army from west to east, and driving the shattered remnants into Russia. Prelude to Blitzkrieg tells the story of this largely ignored campaign to determine why it did not devolve into the mud and misery of trench warfare, so ubiquitous elsewhere. “This work will stand as the definitive study of the Central Powers part of the campaign for some time to come.” —Journal of Military History “Barnett’s book is a valuable addition to the field. He writes well and with authority. He has been able to illuminate a little-known corner of the First World War and provide a state-of-the-art operational history combining detailed narrative with prescient analysis.” —American Historical Review

Blitzkrieg

Blitzkrieg PDF Author: Robert Wallace
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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Book Description


Operation Albion

Operation Albion PDF Author: Michael B. Barrett
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
Although the invasion had achieved its objectives and placed the Germans in an excellent position for the resumption of warfare in the spring, within three weeks of the operation, the Bolsheviks took power in Russia (November 7, 1917) and Albion faded into obscurity as the war in the East came to a slow end.

A Small Nation in the Turmoil of the Second World War

A Small Nation in the Turmoil of the Second World War PDF Author: Herman van der Wee
Publisher: Leuven University Press
ISBN: 9058677591
Category : Banks and banking
Languages : en
Pages : 495

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Book Description
This monograph presents an in-depth analysis of Belgium's monetary and financial history during the Second World War. Exploring Belgium's financial and business links with Germany, France, The Netherlands, Great Britain, the United States, and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, the study focuses on the roles played by the Central Bank and private bankers in Brussels, by the Belgian government in exile in London, and by the Belgian minister plenipotentiary in New York. Among the subjects arising are: German attempts to plunder Belgium and Belgian resistance strategies; the peripeteia of the Belgian gold reserve; the role of the Belgian Congo; Belgium's participation in the discussions leading up to the Bretton Woods conference; and the negotiations for creating a Customs Union, blueprint for the 1958 Treaty of Rome. The final part of the book analyzes the famous monetary reform devised by Belgian Minister of Finance Camille Gutt at the liberation of the country in September 1944.

Blitzkrieg

Blitzkrieg PDF Author: Lloyd Clark
Publisher: Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
ISBN: 0802190340
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 526

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Book Description
A “masterly account” of the juggernaut offensive that conquered France—but also marked the beginning of the end for Nazi Germany in World War II (Kirkus Reviews). In the spring of 1940, the German forces launched an attack on France that combined superb intelligence, cutting edge strategy, and new technology—the blitzkrieg, or “lightning war.” In just six weeks, it would achieve what their fathers had failed to do in all four years of the First World War. It was a stunning victory. But here, leading British military historian and academic Lloyd Clark argues that much of our understanding of this victory is based on myth. Far from being a foregone conclusion, Hitler’s plan could easily have failed had the Allies been even slightly less inept or the Germans less fortunate. The Germans recognized that success depended not only on surprise, but also avoiding a protracted struggle for which they were not prepared—making defeat a very real possibility. Their surprise victory proved the apex of their achievement; far from being undefeatable, Clark argues, the Battle of France revealed Germany and its armed forces to be highly vulnerable. And Hitler dismissed this fact as he planned his next move—and greatest blunder: the invasion of the Soviet Union. In this eye-opening reassessment, complete with maps and illustrations, Clark “presents a well-balanced narrative that highlights the knife-edge victory of the German forces” and reveals how very close the Nazi war machine came to catastrophe in the early days of World War II (New York Journal of Books).

Imperial Germany and War, 1871–1918

Imperial Germany and War, 1871–1918 PDF Author: Daniel J. Hughes
Publisher: University Press of Kansas
ISBN: 070062600X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 696

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Book Description
An in-depth, finely detailed portrait of the German Army from its greatest victory in 1871 to its final collapse in 1918, this volume offers the most comprehensive account ever given of one of the critical pillars of the German Empire—and a chief architect of the military and political realities of late nineteenth-century Europe. Written by two of the world’s leading authorities on the subject, Imperial Germany and War, 1871–1918 examines the most essential components of the imperial German military system, with an emphasis on such foundational areas as theory, doctrine, institutional structures, training, and the officer corps. In the period between 1871 and 1918, rapid technological development demanded considerable adaptation and change in military doctrine and planning. Consequently, the authors focus on theory and practice leading up to World War I and upon the variety of adaptations that became necessary as the war progressed—with unique insights into military theorists from Clausewitz to Moltke the Elder, Moltke the Younger, Schlichting, and Schlieffen. Ranging over the entire history of the German Empire, Imperial Germany and War, 1871–1918 presents a picture of unprecedented scope and depth of one of the most widely studied, criticized, and imitated organizations in the modern world. The book will prove indispensable to an understanding of the Imperial German Army.

The Romanian Battlefront in World War I

The Romanian Battlefront in World War I PDF Author: Glenn E. Torrey
Publisher: University Press of Kansas
ISBN: 0700620176
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 440

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Book Description
Despite a strategically vulnerable position, an ill-prepared army, and questionable promises of military support from the Allied Powers, Romania intervened in World War I in August 1916. In return, it received the Allies' formal sanction for the annexation of the Romanian-inhabited regions of Austria-Hungary. As Glenn Torrey reveals in his pathbreaking study, this soon appeared to have been an impulsive and risky decision for both parties. Torrey details how, by the end of 1916, the armies of the Central Powers, led by German generals Falkenhayn and Mackensen, had administered a crushing defeat and occupied two-thirds of Romanian territory, but at the cost of diverting substantial military forces they needed on other fronts. The Allies, especially the Russians, were forced to do likewise in order to prevent Romania from collapsing completely. Torrey presents the most authoritative account yet of the heavy fighting during the 1916 campaign and of the renewed attempt by Austro-German forces, including the elite Alpine Corps, to subdue the Romanian Army in the summer of 1917. This latter campaign, highlighted here but ignored in non-Romanian accounts, witnessed reorganized and rearmed Romanian soldiers, with help from a disintegrating Russian Army, administer a stunning defeat of their enemies. However, as Torrey also shows, amidst the chaos of the Russian Revolution the Central Powers forced Romania to sign a separate peace early in 1918. Ultimately, this allowed the Romanian Army to reenter the war and occupy the majority of the territory promised in 1916. Torrey's unparalleled familiarity with archival and secondary sources and his long experience with the subject give authority and balance to his account of the military, strategic, diplomatic, and political events on both sides of the battlefront. In addition, his use of personal memoirs provides vivid insights into the human side of the war. Major military leaders in the Second World War, especially Ion Antonescu and Erwin Rommel, made their careers during the First World War and play a prominent role in his book. Torrey's study fosters a genuinely new appreciation and understanding of a long-neglected aspect of World War I that influenced not only the war itself but the peace settlement that followed and, in fact, continues today.

The Ottoman Army and the First World War

The Ottoman Army and the First World War PDF Author: Mesut Uyar
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000295184
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 470

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Book Description
This is a comprehensive new operational military history of the Ottoman army during the First World War. Drawing from archives, official military histories, personal war narratives and sizable Turkish secondary literature, it tells the incredible story of the Ottoman army’s struggle from the mountains of the Caucasus to the deserts of Arabia and the bloody shores of Gallipoli. The Ottoman army, by opening new fronts, diverted and kept sizeable units of British, Russian and French forces away from the main theatres and even sent reinforcements to Austro-Hungary and Bulgaria. Against all odds the Ottoman army ultimately achieved some striking successes, not only on the battlefield, but in their total mobilization of the empire’s meagre human and economic resources. However, even by the terrible standards of the First World War, these achievements came at a terrible price in casualties and, ultimately, loss of territory. Thus, instead of improving the integrity and security of the empire, the war effectively dismantled it and created situations and problems hitherto undreamed of by a besieged Ottoman leadership. In a unique account, Uyar revises our understanding of the war in the Middle East.

War of Words: Hitler's Diplomatic Blitzkrieg from the Eagle's Nest

War of Words: Hitler's Diplomatic Blitzkrieg from the Eagle's Nest PDF Author: Douglas Mossman
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781440181320
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
"To look out in any direction was like looking down from an airplane," is how French Ambassador Francois Poncet described his impression of the Eagle's Nest, Adolf Hitler's solid granite and marble pavilion built at great expense on the Kehlstein mountain peak, at 6,000 ft altitude. It was in this luxurious appointed pavilion one year before World War II began that Hitler invited an assortment of high placed diplomats to make the impression he was using diplomacy to avert war, but all the while snarling that his empire required more land in the East. As a place, Hitler accepted the Eagle's Nest as a 50th birthday gift from his confidant and Reichs Leader, Martin Bormann. Former Smithsonian Institution museum exhibitionist and U.S. State Department Diplomacy Center Program Officer, Douglas Mossman invites readers into this hidden getaway to witness secret negotiations between Western diplomats and Der Fuhrer. War of Words: Hitler's Diplomatic Blitzkrieg is a unique work that reveals for the first time many photographs of Hitler meeting with world leaders and diplomats in the Eagle's Nest, and it tells their story how they shook up the geo-political map with cataclysmic results.

Soviet Blitzkrieg

Soviet Blitzkrieg PDF Author: Walter S. Dunn Jr.
Publisher: Stackpole Books
ISBN: 1461751691
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
Two weeks after the Americans, British, and Canadians invaded Western Europe on D-Day, June 6, 1944, the Soviet Union launched Operation Bagration on the Eastern Front, its massive attempt to clear German forces from Belarus. In one of the largest military campaigns of all time, involving 2 million Soviets and 800,000 Germans, the Red Army advanced 170 miles in two weeks and destroyed German Army Group Center. Using recently declassified Soviet documents as well as German and Soviet unit histories, Dunn recounts this landmark operation of World War II.