|
343rd Infantry Division (Wehrmacht)
The 343rd Infantry Division (german: 343. Infanterie-Division) was an infantry division of the German Heer during World War II. History The 343. Infanterie-division was formed on 1 October 1942 on the ''Truppenübungsplatz'' (training ground) of Grafenwöhr in Wehrkreis XIII. In November 1942, it was sent to France in the Brest region of Brittany as an occupation and coastal defense force. It found itself surrounded by American forces in Brest from August 1944 and withdrew to the Crozon peninsula. The division was destroyed on 19 September 1944 with the fall of Brest Fortress and officially dissolved on 29 September 1944. Commanders * Generalleutnant Friedrich Zickwolff (28 September 1942 - 25 August 1943) : died of wounds inflicted by French Partisans * Generalmajor Hermann Kruse (25 August 1943 - 1 February 1944) * Generalleutnant Erwin Rauch __NOTOC__ Erwin Rauch (19 October 1889 – 26 February 1969) was a German general in the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany during World War ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Infantry Division
A division is a large military unit or Formation (military), formation, usually consisting of between 6,000 and 25,000 soldiers. In most armies, a division is composed of several regiments or brigades; in turn, several divisions typically make up a corps. Historically, the division has been the default combined arms unit capable of independent Military tactics, operations. Smaller combined arms units, such as the American regimental combat team (RCT) during World War II, were used when conditions favored them. In recent times, modern Western militaries have begun adopting the smaller brigade combat team (similar to the RCT) as the default combined arms unit, with the division they belong to being less important. While the focus of this article is on army divisions, in naval usage "division (naval), division" has a completely different meaning, referring to either an administrative/functional sub-unit of a department (e.g., fire control division of the weapons department) aboar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was the German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a dictatorship. Under Hitler's rule, Germany quickly became a totalitarian state where nearly all aspects of life were controlled by the government. The Third Reich, meaning "Third Realm" or "Third Empire", alluded 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 Hitler and the Nazis referred to as the Thousand-Year Reich, ended in May 1945 after just 12 years when the Allies defeated Germany, ending World War II in Europe. On 30 January 1933, Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany, the head of gove ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
German Army (1935–1945)
The German Army (german: Heer, ; ) was the Army, land forces component of the ''Wehrmacht'', the regular German Armed Forces, from 1935 until it effectively ceased to exist in 1945 and then was formally dissolved in August 1946. During World War II, a total of about 13.6 million soldiers served in the German Army. Army personnel were made up of volunteers and conscripts. Only 17 months after Adolf Hitler announced the German rearmament program in 1935, the army reached its projected goal of 36 Division (military), divisions. During the autumn of 1937, two more corps were formed. In 1938 four additional corps were formed with the inclusion of the five divisions of the Austrian Army after the ''Anschluss'' in March. During the period of its expansion under Hitler, the German Army continued to develop concepts pioneered during World War I, combining ground and air assets into combined arms forces. Coupled with operational and tactical methods such as encirclements and "battle of a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis powers. World War II was a total war that directly involved more than 100 million personnel from more than 30 countries. The major participants in the war threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. Aircraft played a major role in the conflict, enabling the strategic bombing of population centres and deploying the only two nuclear weapons ever used in war. World War II was by far the deadliest conflict in human history; it resulted in 70 to 85 million fatalities, mostly among civilians. Tens of millions died due to genocides (including the Holocaust), starvation, ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grafenwöhr
Grafenwöhr (, Northern Bavarian: ''Groafawehr'') is a town in the district of Neustadt an der Waldnaab, in the region of the Upper Palatinate (german: Oberpfalz) in eastern Bavaria, Germany. It is widely known for the United States Army military installation and training area, called Grafenwoehr Training Area (Tower Barracks), located directly south and west of the town. History Early history The town of Grafenwöhr (Island of the Count), was founded in the 9th century on an island (wöhr), located between the river Creussen and the Thum stream. In its early history, the inhabitants and the town of Grafenwöhr proper belonged to nobles from Schweinfurt, Bamberg, and Leuchtenberg. 20th century In 1907, Prince Luitpold, regent of the Kingdom of Bavaria, selected the area near the town of Grafenwöhr as the place best suited for training of the Bavarian Army (1806–1919). Construction began in 1908, and, by 1915, the training reservation was in area. The first artillery ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wehrkreis XIII
The military districts, also known in some English-language publications by their German name as Wehrkreise (singular: ''Wehrkreis''), were administrative territorial units in Nazi Germany before and during World War II. The task of military districts was the organization and the handling of reinforcements and resupplies for local military units. The Replacement Army (''Ersatzheer'') managed the districts. Responsibilities such as training, conscription, supply, and equipment were (at least partially) entrusted to the Ersatzheer. History On 30 September 1919, much of the Imperial German Army was dissolved. The Reichswehr (of the Weimar Republic) took its place, and four commands of the type '' Reichswehrgruppenkommando'' were created, as well as seven ''Wehrkreiskommando'' commands, each assigned to one of the seven initial Wehrkreise of the Weimar Republic (numbered I through VII). The ''Reichswehrgruppenkommandos'' (which combined under them several military units across Wehr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brest, France
Brest (; ) is a port city in the Finistère department, Brittany. Located in a sheltered bay not far from the western tip of the peninsula, and the western extremity of metropolitan France, Brest is an important harbour and the second French military port after Toulon. The city is located on the western edge of continental France. With 142,722 inhabitants in a 2007 census, Brest forms Western Brittany's largest metropolitan area (with a population of 300,300 in total), ranking third behind only Nantes and Rennes in the whole of historic Brittany, and the 19th most populous city in France; moreover, Brest provides services to the one million inhabitants of Western Brittany. Although Brest is by far the largest city in Finistère, the ''préfecture'' (regional capital) of the department is the much smaller Quimper. During the Middle Ages, the history of Brest was the history of its castle. Then Richelieu made it a military harbour in 1631. Brest grew around its arsenal unti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brittany
Brittany (; french: link=no, Bretagne ; br, Breizh, or ; Gallo language, Gallo: ''Bertaèyn'' ) is a peninsula, Historical region, historical country and cultural area in the west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica during the period of Roman occupation. It became an Kingdom of Brittany, independent kingdom and then a Duchy of Brittany, duchy before being Union of Brittany and France, united with the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a provinces of France, province governed as a separate nation under the crown. Brittany has also been referred to as Little Britain (as opposed to Great Britain, with which it shares an etymology). It is bordered by the English Channel to the north, Normandy to the northeast, eastern Pays de la Loire to the southeast, the Bay of Biscay to the south, and the Celtic Sea and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. Its land area is 34,023 km2 . Brittany is the site of some of the world's oldest standing architecture, ho ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crozon Peninsula
Crozon (, ; br, Kraozon, , ) is a commune in the department of Finistère and the administrative region of Brittany, northwestern France. As well as the town of Crozon, the village of Morgat is part of the commune. Crozon is located on the Crozon peninsula on the west coast of Finistère. It is bordered by the communes of Camaret-sur-Mer to the west, Roscanvel to the northwest, Lanvéoc to the north, Landévennec to the north-east and Telgruc-sur-Mer to the east. Crozon is the chef-lieu of the arrondissement of Châteaulin. Louis Jouvet, a French actor, was born in Crozon in 1887. Crozon harbours Île Longue, the base of the French strategic nuclear submarines. Tourism In common with many other French towns, Crozon has a number of fêtes and festivals at various times of year. Probably the best known festival held in Crozon is the ''Festival du Bout du Monde'' ("World's End Festival"), a live music festival held on the first weekend in August. Crozon has various shops an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battle For Brest
The Battle for Brest was fought in August and September 1944 on the Western Front during World War II. Part of the overall Battle for Brittany and the Allied plan for the invasion of mainland Europe called for the capture of port facilities, in order to ensure the timely delivery of the enormous amount of war materiel required to supply the invading Allied forces. It was estimated that the 37 Allied divisions to be on the continent by September 1944 would need 26,000 tons of supplies each day. The main port the Allied forces hoped to seize and put into their service was Brest, in northwestern France. Background Early in the war, after the Fall of France in 1940, the United States and the United Kingdom began planning an eventual "Invasion of Western Europe" to be put into effect when and if the United States joined the war. American and Canadian troops would be moved from North America to England (as long as the United Kingdom was still in the war), until an Allied invasion c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Friedrich Zickwolff
__NOTOC__ Friedrich Zickwolff (1 August 1893 – 17 September 1944) was a German general during World War II. He was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross of Nazi Germany. Zickwolff died on 17 September 1944 from an infectious disease contracted while serving on the Eastern Front. He was buried in the military cemetery in Ludwigsburg on 21 September 1944. In October 2021, against the background of official commemorations marking the 80th anniversary of the Babi Yar Massacre, Zickwolff's name appeared among the 161 names of the perpetrators of that crime, released by the Babi Year Holocaust Memorial Center. Awards and decorations * Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on 2 June 1942 as ''Generalleutnant is the Germanic variant of lieutenant general, used in some German speaking countries. Austria Generalleutnant is the second highest general officer rank in the Austrian Armed Forces (''Bundesheer''), roughly equivalent to the NATO rank of O ...'' commander of 11 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Erwin Rauch
__NOTOC__ Erwin Rauch (19 October 1889 – 26 February 1969) was a German general in the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany during World War II. He was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. Rauch surrendered to the American troops in September 1944 after the fall of Brest. Awards and decorations * Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on 22 December 1941 as '' Generalmajor'' and commander of 123. Infanterie-DivisionFellgiebel 2000, p. 285. References Citations Bibliography * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Rauch, Erwin 1889 births 1969 deaths Lieutenant generals of the German Army (Wehrmacht) Military personnel from Berlin German Army personnel of World War I Prussian Army personnel Recipients of the clasp to the Iron Cross, 1st class Recipients of the Gold German Cross Recipients of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross German prisoners of war in World War II held by the United States People from the Province of Brandenburg German Army generals of World War II ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
