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551st Volksgrenadier Division (Germany)
The 551st Volksgrenadier Division () was a Volksgrenadier infantry division of the German Army during World War II, active from 1944 to 1945. The division was established on 11 July 1944 at the Thorn military training area in West Prussia under the designation 551st Sperr-Division. On 19 July 1944 the division was renamed the 551. Grenadier Division. In October, the division was involved in heavy fighting in Lithuania. On 9 October 1944 it was renamed 551. Volksgrenadier Division. Afterwards, the division fought in the Tilsit area of East Prussia and was taken prisoner by the Soviets. Its commander was Generalleutnant Siegfried Verhein __NOTOC__ Siegfried Verhein (1 October 1897 – 30 June 1963) was a German general in the Wehrmacht during World War II. He was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross of Nazi Germany. Verhein surrendered to the Red Army in the cours .... Sources 551. Grenadier-Division {{Infantry Divisions of the Wehrmacht Volksgrenadier divisi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Volksgrenadier
''Volksgrenadier'' was the name given to a type of German Army division formed in the Autumn of 1944 after the double loss of Army Group Center to the Soviets in Operation Bagration and the Fifth Panzer Army to the Allies in Normandy. The name itself was intended to build morale, appealing at once to nationalism (''Volk'') and Germany's older military traditions (''Grenadier''). Germany formed 78 VGDs during the war. ''Volksgrenadier'' divisions were professional military formations with standardized weapons and equipment, unlike the unrelated ''Volkssturm'' militia. History and organisation The strategic emergency and concomitant manpower shortage resulting from the losses in mid-1944 required the creation of infantry divisions that economized on personnel and emphasized defensive strength over offensive strength. The ''Volksgrenadier'' divisions met this need by using only six line infantry battalions instead of the normal nine for infantry divisions – already a common reali ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Infantry
Infantry is a military specialization which engages in ground combat on foot. Infantry generally consists of light infantry, mountain infantry, motorized infantry & mechanized infantry, airborne infantry, air assault infantry, and marine infantry. Although disused in modern times, heavy infantry also commonly made up the bulk of many historic armies. Infantry, cavalry, and artillery have traditionally made up the core of the combat arms professions of various armies, with the infantry almost always comprising the largest portion of these forces. Etymology and terminology In English, use of the term ''infantry'' began about the 1570s, describing soldiers who march and fight on foot. The word derives from Middle French ''infanterie'', from older Italian (also Spanish) ''infanteria'' (foot soldiers too inexperienced for cavalry), from Latin '' īnfāns'' (without speech, newborn, foolish), from which English also gets '' infant''. The individual-soldier term ''infantry ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Division (military)
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] |
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] |
Toruń
)'' , image_skyline = , image_caption = , image_flag = POL Toruń flag.svg , image_shield = POL Toruń COA.svg , nickname = City of Angels, Gingerbread city, Copernicus Town , pushpin_map = Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship#Poland#Europe , pushpin_relief=1 , pushpin_label_position = top , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = , subdivision_type1 = Voivodeship , subdivision_name1 = , leader_title = City mayor , leader_name = Michał Zaleski , established_title = Established , established_date = 8th century , established_title3 = City rights , established_date3 = 1233 , area_total_km2 = 115.75 , population_as_of = 31 December 2021 , population_total = 196,935 (16th) Data for territorial unit 0463000. , population_density_km2 = 1716 , population_metro = 297646 , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST = CEST , utc_offset_DST = +2 , coordinates = , elevation_m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
West Prussia
The Province of West Prussia (german: Provinz Westpreußen; csb, Zôpadné Prësë; pl, Prusy Zachodnie) was a province of Prussia from 1773 to 1829 and 1878 to 1920. West Prussia was established as a province of the Kingdom of Prussia in 1773, formed from Royal Prussia of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth annexed in the First Partition of Poland. West Prussia was dissolved in 1829 and merged with East Prussia to form the Province of Prussia, but was re-established in 1878 when the merger was reversed and became part of the German Empire. From 1918, West Prussia was a province of the Free State of Prussia within Weimar Germany, losing most of its territory to the Second Polish Republic and the Free City of Danzig in the Treaty of Versailles. West Prussia was dissolved in 1920, and its remaining western territory was merged with Posen to form Posen-West Prussia, and its eastern territory merged with East Prussia as the Region of West Prussia district. West Prussia's prov ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tilsit
Sovetsk (russian: Сове́тск; german: Tilsit; Old Prussian: ''Tilzi''; lt, Tilžė; pl, Tylża) is a town in Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia, located on the south bank of the Neman River which forms the border with Lithuania. Geography Sovetsk lies in the historic region of Lithuania Minor at the confluence of the Tilse and Neman rivers. Panemunė in Lithuania was formerly a suburb of the town; after Germany's defeat in World War I, the trans-Neman suburb was detached from Tilsit (with the rest of the Klaipėda Region) in 1920. Climate Sovetsk has a borderline oceanic climate (''Cfb'' in the Köppen climate classification) using the boundary, or a humid continental climate (''Dfb'') using the boundary. History Tilsit, which received civic rights from Albert, Duke of Prussia in 1552,''Słownik geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego i innych krajów słowiańskich, Tom XII'', p. 703 developed around a castle of the Teutonic Knights, known as the Schalauer Haus, founded in 128 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
East Prussia
East Prussia ; german: Ostpreißen, label=Low Prussian; pl, Prusy Wschodnie; lt, Rytų Prūsija was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1773 to 1829 and again from 1878 (with the Kingdom itself being part of the German Empire from 1871); following World War I it formed part of the Weimar Republic's Free State of Prussia, until 1945. Its capital city was Königsberg (present-day Kaliningrad). East Prussia was the main part of the region of Prussia along the southeastern Baltic Coast. The bulk of the ancestral lands of the Baltic Old Prussians were enclosed within East Prussia. During the 13th century, the native Prussians were conquered by the crusading Teutonic Knights. After the conquest the indigenous Balts were gradually converted to Christianity. Because of Germanization and colonisation over the following centuries, Germans became the dominant ethnic group, while Masurians and Lithuanians formed minorities. From the 13th century, East Prussia was part of the mon ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Siegfried Verhein
__NOTOC__ Siegfried Verhein (1 October 1897 – 30 June 1963) was a German general in the Wehrmacht during World War II. He was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross of Nazi Germany. Verhein surrendered to the Red Army in the course of the Soviet 1945 Zemland Offensive. Convicted as a war criminal in the Soviet Union, he was held until 1955. Awards and decorations * Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on 28 February 1945 as ''Generalmajor'' and leader of a Kampfgruppe In military history, the German term (pl. ; abbrev. KG, or KGr in usage during World War II, literally "fighting group" or "battle group") can refer to a combat formation of any kind, but most usually to that employed by the of Nazi Germa ... in the 551. Volks-Grenadier-DivisionFellgiebel 2000, p. 349. References Citations Bibliography * {{DEFAULTSORT:Verhein, Siegfried 1897 births 1963 deaths Lieutenant generals of the German Army (Wehrmacht) German Army personnel of World War ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Volksgrenadier Divisions
''Volksgrenadier'' was the name given to a type of German Army division formed in the Autumn of 1944 after the double loss of Army Group Center to the Soviets in Operation Bagration and the Fifth Panzer Army to the Allies in Normandy. The name itself was intended to build morale, appealing at once to nationalism (''Volk'') and Germany's older military traditions (''Grenadier''). Germany formed 78 VGDs during the war. ''Volksgrenadier'' divisions were professional military formations with standardized weapons and equipment, unlike the unrelated ''Volkssturm'' militia. History and organisation The strategic emergency and concomitant manpower shortage resulting from the losses in mid-1944 required the creation of infantry divisions that economized on personnel and emphasized defensive strength over offensive strength. The ''Volksgrenadier'' divisions met this need by using only six line infantry battalions instead of the normal nine for infantry divisions – already a common realit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Military Units And Formations Established In 1944
A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct military uniform. It may consist of one or more military branches such as an army, navy, air force, space force, marines, or coast guard. The main task of the military is usually defined as defence of the state and its interests against external armed threats. In broad usage, the terms ''armed forces'' and ''military'' are often treated as synonymous, although in technical usage a distinction is sometimes made in which a country's armed forces may include both its military and other paramilitary forces. There are various forms of irregular military forces, not belonging to a recognized state; though they share many attributes with regular military forces, they are less often referred to as simply ''military''. A nation's military may f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
