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361st Infantry Regiment (Wehrmacht)
The 361st Africa Infantry Regiment (''Infanterie-Regiment Afrika 361'') was a unit of the German Army (''Wehrmacht'') which served with the 90th Africa Division of the Africa Corps in the Western Desert campaign. It was constituted from Germans who had formerly been members of the French Foreign Legion before the Battle of France (1940). In the aftermath of the Battle of France in May–June 1940, the German Armistice Commission exercised pressure on Vichy France to repatriate Germans serving in its forces in French North Africa. Although the Legion established significant obstacles to prevent repatriation, some Germans did volunteer out of fear of incurring worse sanctions from the Nazi regime if they refused. According to the historian Douglas Porch, "most of these men must have been legionnaires of fairly ancient vintage, as those Germans coming into the Legion after 1934 were increasingly Jews and other political refugees who would not have risked repatriation". Initially f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
German Army (Wehrmacht)
The German Army (, "army") is the land component of the armed forces of Federal Republic of Germany, Germany. The present-day German Army was founded in 1955 as part of the newly formed West German ''Bundeswehr'' together with the German Navy, ''Marine'' (German Navy) and the German Air Force, ''Luftwaffe'' (German Air Force). , the German Army had a strength of 62,766 soldiers. History Overview A German army equipped, organized, and trained following a single doctrine and permanently unified under one command in 1871 during the unification of Germany under the leadership of Prussia. From 1871 to 1919, the title ''German Army (German Empire), Deutsches Heer'' (German Army) was the official name of the German land forces. Following the German defeat in World War I and the end of the German Empire, the main army was dissolved. From 1921 to 1935 the name of the German land forces was the ''Reichswehr, Reichsheer'' (Army of the Empire) and from 1935 to 1945 the name ''German Army (We ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
90th Light Infantry Division (Wehrmacht)
The 90th Light Infantry Division was a light infantry division of the German Army during World War II that served in North Africa as well as Sardinia and Italy. The division played a major role in most of the actions against the British Eighth Army in the Western Desert Campaign and eventually surrendered to the Allies in the final stages of the Tunisia Campaign in May 1943. It was re-constituted later in 1943 and deployed to Sardinia and when the expected Allied invasion of Sardinia failed to materialise, the division was moved to Italy. It was engaged in actions against the Allies in Italy from 1943 to April 1945 when the division was listed as "destroyed" in the Po River valley. Formation On 26 June 1941, the OKH ordered the creation of a Division HQ staff for ''Kommando zbV Afrika'' in Germany. The planned division was intended for deployment to Africa to re-balance, and add infantry troops to the DAK deployed in the Western Desert. The formation headquarters was sent ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Africa Corps
The Afrika Korps or German Africa Corps (, }; DAK) was the German expeditionary force in Africa during the North African Campaign of World War II. First sent as a holding force to shore up the Italian defense of its African colonies, the formation fought on in Africa, under various appellations, from March 1941 until its surrender in May 1943. The unit's best known commander was Field Marshal Erwin Rommel. History Organization The Afrika Korps formed on 11 January 1941 and one of Hitler's favourite generals, Erwin Rommel, was designated as commander on 11 February. Originally Hans von Funck was to have commanded it, but Hitler loathed von Funck, as he had been a personal staff officer of Werner von Fritsch until von Fritsch was dismissed in 1938. The German Armed Forces High Command ('' Oberkommando der Wehrmacht'', OKW) had decided to send a "blocking force" to Italian Libya to support the Italian army. The Italian 10th Army had been routed by the British Commonwealth We ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
French Foreign Legion
The French Foreign Legion (french: Légion étrangère) is a corps of the French Army which comprises several specialties: infantry, Armoured Cavalry Arm, cavalry, Military engineering, engineers, Airborne forces, airborne troops. It was created in 1831 to allow List of militaries that recruit foreigners, foreign nationals into the French Army. It formed part of the Army of Africa (France), Armée d’Afrique, the French Army's units associated with France's colonial project in Africa, until the end of the Algerian War, Algerian war in 1962. Legionnaires are highly trained soldiers and the Legion is unique in that it is open to foreign recruits willing to serve in the French Armed Forces. The Legion is today known as a unit whose training focuses on traditional military skills and on its strong Morale, esprit de corps, as its men and women come from different countries with different cultures. Consequently, training is often described as not only physically challenging, but also ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battle Of France
The Battle of France (french: bataille de France) (10 May – 25 June 1940), also known as the Western Campaign ('), the French Campaign (german: Frankreichfeldzug, ) and the Fall of France, was the Nazi Germany, German invasion of French Third Republic, France during the Second World War. On 3 September 1939, France French declaration of war on Germany (1939), declared war on Germany following the German invasion of Poland. In early September 1939, France began the limited Saar Offensive and by mid-October had withdrawn to their start lines. German armies German invasion of Belgium (1940), invaded Belgium, German invasion of Luxembourg, Luxembourg and German invasion of the Netherlands, the Netherlands on 10 May 1940. Fascist Italy (1922-1943), Italy entered the war on 10 June 1940 and attempted an Italian invasion of France, invasion of France. France and the Low Countries were conquered, ending land operations on the Western Front (World War II), Western Front until the Normandy l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
German Armistice Commission
The German Armistice Commission (german: Waffenstillstandskommission, WAKO) was a military body charged with supervising the implementation of the Franco-German Armistice, signed on 22 June 1940, in German-occupied France during World War II.United States Department of State, Publication No. 6312 The armistice came into effect at the same time as the Franco-Italian Armistice on 25 June monitored by a comparable Italian Armistice Commission. The commission's seat was at Wiesbaden in Germany, in the building that is now the Hessian State Chancellery. The German Armistice Commission was created under Article 22 of the Armistice which stated that the "Armistice Commission, acting in accordance with the direction of the German High Command, will regulate and supervise the carrying out of the armistice agreement. It is the task of the Armistice Commission further to insure the necessary conformity of this agreement with the Italian-French armistice." In addition, the "French Governmen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vichy France
Vichy France (french: Régime de Vichy; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State ('), was the fascist French state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II. Officially independent, but with half of its territory occupied under harsh terms of the armistice, it adopted a policy of collaboration with Nazi Germany, which occupied the northern and western portions before occupying the remainder of Metropolitan France in November 1942. Though Paris was ostensibly its capital, the collaborationist Vichy government established itself in the resort town of Vichy in the unoccupied "Free Zone" (), where it remained responsible for the civil administration of France as well as its colonies. The Third French Republic had begun the war in September 1939 on the side of the Allies. On 10 May 1940, it was invaded by Nazi Germany. The German Army rapidly broke through the Allied lines by bypassing the highly fortified Maginot Line and invading through ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
French North Africa
French North Africa (french: Afrique du Nord française, sometimes abbreviated to ANF) is the term often applied to the territories controlled by France in the North African Maghreb during the colonial era, namely Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia. In contrast to French West Africa and French Equatorial Africa which existed as federations of French colonies and administrative entities in their own right, French North Africa was never more than a term of convenience to refer to the three separately governed territories under different forms of colonial regime. In the 19th century, the decline of the Ottoman Empire, which had loosely controlled the area since the 16th century, left the region vulnerable to other forces. In 1830, French troops captured Algiers and from 1848 until independence in 1962, France treated Algeria as an integral part of France, the ''Métropole'' or metropolitan France. In subsequent decades, a substantial European settler population emerged in Algeria known ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Douglas Porch
Douglas Porch (born December 29, 1944) is an American military historian and academic. He currently serves as a Professor of National Security Affairs at the Naval Postgraduate School, and is the former Chair of the Department of National Security Affairs for the Naval Postgraduate School at Monterey, California. __TOC__ Biography He obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee in 1967 and a Ph.D. from Cambridge University in 1972. He has been a professor of strategy at the Naval War College, a guest lecturer at the Marine Corps University, a post-doctoral research fellow at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris and the Mark W. Clark Professor of History at The Citadel. Dr. Porch has written more than eight books and numerous other publications, mostly about French military history and French Colonialism The French colonial empire () comprised the overseas colonies, protectorates and mandate territories that came under French ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battle Of Bir Hakeim
The Battle of Bir Hakeim () took place at Bir Hakeim, an oasis in the Libyan desert south and west of Tobruk, during the Battle of Gazala (26 May – 21 June 1942). The 1st Free French Brigade under Marie-Pierre Kœnig defended the position from against Axis forces of ''Panzerarmee Afrika'' commanded by Erwin Rommel. The captured Tobruk ten days later. The delay imposed on the Axis offensive by the defence of Bir Hakeim influenced the cancellation of Operation Herkules, the Axis invasion of Malta. Rommel invaded Egypt, slowed by British delaying actions until the First Battle of El Alamein in July, where the Axis advance was stopped. Both sides used the battle for propaganda, Winston Churchill declared the Free French to be the "Fighting French". Friedrich von Mellenthin wrote, Background Eighth Army At the beginning of 1942, after its defeat in western Cyrenaica during Unternehmen Theseus, the British Eighth Army under Lieutenant-General Neil Ritchie faced the Ax ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
13th Demi-Brigade Of The Foreign Legion
) and veteran foreign regiments (french: Anciens régiment étranger, link=no) of the Legion, in case of the CEPs, BEPs & REPs, the context reference is referring to the paratrooper veterans (french: Anciens legionnaires parachutistes, link=no) and veteran foreign paratrooper companies (CEP)s, battalions (BEP)s (french: Anciens bataillons étrangers de parachutistes, link=no) and regiments (REP)s (french: Anciens régiments étrangers de parachutistes, link=no) of the Legion, in this case the 2e REP (french: 2e Régiment étrangers de parachutistes, link=no) of the Legion. (in the manner, ways and traditions of our veterans foreign regiments) , march = Nos képis blancs(Sous le soleil brulant d'Afrique) , mascot = , battles = World War II * Battles of Narvik * Battle of Dakar * Battle of Gabon * Battle of Keren * Syria-Lebanon Campaign * Battle of Bir Hakeim * Second Battle of El Alamein * Tunisia Campaign ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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