Panzer Soldiers for "God, Honor and Fatherland"

Panzer Soldiers for Author: Hans-Joachim Jung
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Tanks (Military science)
Languages : en
Pages : 456

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Panzer Soldiers for "God, Honor and Fatherland"

Panzer Soldiers for Author: Hans-Joachim Jung
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Tanks (Military science)
Languages : en
Pages : 456

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Book Description


God, Honor, Fatherland

God, Honor, Fatherland PDF Author: Thomas McGuirl
Publisher: Pen & Sword
ISBN: 9780965758406
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 226

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Book Description
Panzergrenadier Division Grossdeutschland was one of Germany's most celebrated military formations of the Second World War. Formed in 1942 by the expansion of Infantry Regiment (motorized) Grossdeutschland, the new division quickly earned its reputation on the Eastern Front of being the elite of the German Army. Twice the size of most other divisions, it was an immensely powerful and hard-hitting mechanized formation that cut a large swath through the Red Army, whether in the attack or on the defense. Its carefully selected officer and non-commissioned officer corps ensured that no matter what the odds, the division would always give a good account of itself in battle and would possess an esprit de corps enjoyed by few other comparable divisions, including those of the Waffen-SS. The thousands of volunteers from every land and province in Germany who fought and died while serving in the ranks of Panzergrenadier Division Grossdeutschland represented a cross-section of German society, a radical departure from the manner in which most German divisions of the era were created. Now for the first time, the faces of these men, at rest and in battle, can be seen through the images gleaned from hundreds of photographs taken by the division's war correspondents or Kriegsberichter. This outstanding selection of photographs, which until recently remained unseen for decades in a European archive, have been recovered and painstakingly researched by authors Remy Spezzano and Thomas McGuirl. Together with the assistance of the division's Veterans' association, they identified hundreds of men, living and dead, as well as dozens of combat vehicles, items of equipment, and specificengagements the division took part in from April 1942 to September 1944. Accompanied by a detailed narrative that ties each of the photos within the context of the war on the Eastern Front, God, Honor, Fatherland represents a milestone in the study of the war in the East and shows the face of the German soldier as he has never been shown before.

Deathride

Deathride PDF Author: John Mosier
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1416577025
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 482

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Book Description
Originally published as Deathride, this is the true story of the Eastern Front in World War II, emphasizing how close Germany came to winning and the USSR to losing; the severity of the Soviet losses, which have been minimized due to Soviet propaganda; and the importance of the Allied invasions of North Africa and Sicily, among other factors, in forcing Hitler to re-deploy troops, saving the Soviets from disaster. The German invasion of the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, began a war that lasted nearly four years and created by far the bloodiest theater in World War II. In the conventional narrative of this war, Hitler was defeated by Stalin because, like Napoleon, he underestimated the size and resources of his enemy. In fact, says historian John Mosier, Hitler came very close to winning and lost only because of the intervention of the western Allies. Stalin’s great triumph was not winning the war, but establishing the prevailing interpretation of the war. The Great Patriotic War, as it is known in Russia, would eventually prove fatal, setting in motion events that would culminate in the collapse of the Soviet Union. Mosier argues that the Soviet losses in World War II were unsustainable and would eventually have led to defeat. The Soviet Union had only twice the population of Germany at the time, but it was suffering a casualty rate more than two and a half times the German rate. Because Stalin had a notorious habit of imprisoning or killing anyone who brought him bad news (and often their families as well), Soviet battlefield reports were fantasies, and the battle plans Soviet generals developed seldom responded to actual circumstances. In this respect the Soviets waged war as they did everything else: through propaganda rather than actual achievement. What saved Stalin was the Allied decision to open the Mediterranean theater. Once the Allies threatened Italy, Hitler was forced to withdraw his best troops from the eastern front and redeploy them. In addition, the Allies provided heavy vehicles that the Soviets desperately needed and were unable to manufacture themselves. It was not the resources of the Soviet Union that defeated Hitler but the resources of the West. In this provocative revisionist analysis of the war between Hitler and Stalin, Mosier provides a dramatic, vigorous narrative of events as he shows how most previous histories accepted Stalin’s lies and distortions to produce a false sense of Soviet triumph. This is the real story of the Eastern Front, fresh and different from what we thought we knew.

The Devil's General

The Devil's General PDF Author: Raymond Bagdonas
Publisher: Casemate
ISBN: 1612002234
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 356

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Book Description
A detailed military biography of the most highly decorated Nazi regimental commander in WWII. The most highly decorated German regimental commander of World War II, Hyazinth Graf Strachwitz first won the Iron Cross in the Great War. He was serving with the 1st Panzer Division when the Polish campaign inaugurated World War II. Strachwitz’s exploits as commander of a panzer battalion during the French campaign earned him further decorations before he transferred to the newly formed 16th Panzer Division. There, he participated in the invasion of Yugoslavia and then Operation Barbarossa, where he earned the Knight’s Cross. At Stalingrad, he reached the Volga and fought on the northern rim of Sixth Army’s perimeter. Severely wounded during battle, he was flown out of the Stalingrad pocket and was thus spared the fate of the rest of Sixth Army. Upon recuperation, he was named commander of the Grossdeutschland Division’s panzer regiment and won the Swords to the Knight’s Cross during Manstein’s counteroffensive at Kharkov. Wounded twelve times during the war, and barely surviving a lethal car crash, Strachwitz finally surrendered to the Americans in May 1945. Historian Raymond Bagdonas, though impaired by the disappearance of 16th Panzer Division’s official records at Stalingrad, and the fact that many of the Panzer Graf’s later battlegroups never kept them, has written a vividly detailed account of this combat leader’s life, as well as ferocious armored warfare in World War II.

The Complete Guide to National Symbols and Emblems [2 volumes]

The Complete Guide to National Symbols and Emblems [2 volumes] PDF Author: James B. Minahan
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 0313344973
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 1097

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Book Description
These two volumes offer an unprecedented collection of flags, seals, and symbols used every day around the world. In today's global society it is necessary to recognize and identify not only our own symbols, but symbols from nations and territories far removed from home. Empowering readers to identify symbols in daily use all over the world, The Complete Guide to National Symbols and Emblems features an extensive collection of international symbols and cultural emblems never before compiled in such a concise and easy-to-use work. It is inclusive of all the UN member states and some of the most prominent stateless nations. This refreshing alternative to other commonly used sites blends both the political and cultural, including not only flags, national seals, and national anthems, but also foods and recipes, national heroes, sports teams, festivals, and pivotal events that figure in the formation of national identity. This versatile source will prove valuable to a wide audience, benefiting not only high school and undergraduate student researchers, but international businesses, journalists, and government offices.

The Didache

The Didache PDF Author: Aaron Milavec
Publisher: Paulist Press
ISBN: 9780809105373
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 1062

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Book Description
"In this study, Aaron Milavec comprehensively examines how the first-century pastoral manual known as the Didache enumerated the step-by-step training of converts for the full, active participation in the earliest Jewish-Christian communities. Milavec shows how the Didache can, in turn, illuminate our understanding of how these first Christian men and women organized their community life socially, religiously, and politically in order to safeguard its members from the challenges of the surrounding Roman, pagan society of the first-century Mediterranean basin. He argues not only that the Didache's textual and contextual clues demonstrate the document's organic unity from beginning to end, but also that it dates from a period before the gospels were written and had gained acceptance."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Ritual and Religion in the Making of Humanity

Ritual and Religion in the Making of Humanity PDF Author: Roy A. Rappaport
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521296908
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 566

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Book Description
Roy Rappaport argues that religion is central to the continuing evolution of life, although it has been been displaced from its original position of intellectual authority by the rise of modern science. His book, which could be construed as in some degree religious as well as about religion, insists that religion can and must be reconciled with science. Combining adaptive and cognitive approaches to the study of humankind, he mounts a comprehensive analysis of religion's evolutionary significance, seeing it as co-extensive with the invention of language and hence of culture as we know it. At the same time he assembles the fullest study yet of religion's main component, ritual, which constructs the conceptions which we take to be religious and has been central in the making of humanity's adaptation. The text amounts to a manual for effective ritual, illustrated by examples drawn from anthropology, history, philosophy, comparative religion, and elsewhere.

Traitors and True Poles

Traitors and True Poles PDF Author: Karen Majewski
Publisher: Ohio University Press
ISBN: 0821441116
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 265

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Book Description
During Poland’s century-long partition and in the interwar period of Poland’s reemergence as a state, Polish writers on both sides of the ocean shared a preoccupation with national identity. Polish-American immigrant writers revealed their persistent, passionate engagement with these issues, as they used their work to define and consolidate an essentially transnational ethnic identity that was both tied to Poland and independent of it. By introducing these varied and forgotten works into the scholarly discussion, Traitors and True Poles recasts the literary landscape to include the immigrant community’s own competing visions of itself. The conversation between Polonia’s creative voices illustrates how immigrants manipulated often difficult economic, social, and political realities to provide a place for and a sense of themselves. What emerges is a fuller picture of American literature, one vital to the creation of an ethnic consciousness. This is the first extended look at Polish-language fiction written by turn-of-the-century immigrants, a forgotten body of American ethnic literature. Addressing a blind spot in our understanding of immigrant and ethnic identity and culture, Traitors and True Poles challenges perceptions of a silent and passive Polish immigration by giving back its literary voice.

Mortar Gunner on the Eastern Front Volume I

Mortar Gunner on the Eastern Front Volume I PDF Author: Hans Heinz Rehfeldt
Publisher: Greenhill Books
ISBN: 1784383627
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 521

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Book Description
The first volume of the World War II diaries of Nazi mortar gunner constantly pushed to the brink of death while fighting against Russia. Following his Abitur (A-levels) in 1940, Hans Heinz Rehfeldt volunteered for Germany’s Panzer Arm but was trained on the heavy mortar and heavy MG with Grossdeutschland Division. In 1941, he was on the Front fighting for the city of Tula, south of Moscow. Battling in freezing conditions without winter clothes, they resorted to using those taken from Soviet corpses. In 1942, his battalion fought near Oriel, suffered heavy losses, and disbanded. Ill with frostbitten legs, Rehfeldt was treated in hospital, and once recovered, was dispatched back to the Front. Following various battles (Werch, Bolchov) his battalion again suffered heavy losses and it merged. In agony from severe frostbite to his legs, Rehfeldt defied the odds and astonished his surgeon when he walked again. He was promoted from Gunner to Trained Private Soldier in 1942, and to Corporal for bravery in the field in 1943. He was also awarded numerous honors, including the Wound Badge and the Infantry Assault Badge. On 3 May 1945, he was captured by U.S. Forces and held as a POW for one month in a camp at Waschow before internment in Holstein where he was released in July 1945, after agreeing to work on the land. Then, in December 1945, he put his past behind him and began studying for his future career: veterinary medicine.

Embattled Europe

Embattled Europe PDF Author: Konrad H. Jarausch
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691225532
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 344

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Book Description
A bracing corrective to predictions of the European Union’s decline, by a leading historian of modern Europe Is the European Union in decline? Recent history, from the debt and migration crises to Brexit, has led many observers to argue that the EU’s best days are behind it. Over the past decade, right-wing populists have come to power in Poland, Hungary, and beyond—many of them winning elections using strident anti-EU rhetoric. At the same time, Russia poses a continuing military threat, and the rise of Asia has challenged the EU's economic power. But in Embattled Europe, renowned European historian Konrad Jarausch counters the prevailing pessimistic narrative of European obsolescence with a rousing yet realistic defense of the continent—one grounded in a fresh account of its post–1989 history and an intimate understanding of its twentieth-century horrors. An engaging narrative and probing analysis, Embattled Europe tells the story of how the EU emerged as a model of democratic governance and balanced economic growth, adapting to changing times while retaining its value system. The book describes the EU’s admirable approach to the environment, social welfare, immigration, and global competitiveness. And it presents underappreciated European success stories—including Denmark’s transition to a green economy, Sweden’s restructuring of its welfare state, and Poland’s economic miracle. Embattled Europe makes a powerful case that Europe—with its peaceful foreign policy, social welfare solidarity, and environmental protection—offers the best progressive alternative to the military adventurism and rampant inequality of plutocratic capitalism and right-wing authoritarianism.