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Infantry Division Ferdinand Von Schill (Wehrmacht)
The Infantry Division Ferdinand von Schill (german: Infanterie-Division Ferdinand von Schill) was an infantry division of the German Wehrmacht during World War II. It was formed in April 1945, within a month of the end of the war, and was the last division fielded by the German army during the war. The division was named after the Prussian commander at the Battle of Stralsund of 1809, Ferdinand von Schill (1776–1809). History The Infantry Division Ferdinand von Schill was formed on 24 April 1945 by ''Sturmgeschützschule Burg'' personnel, the former Kampfgruppe Burg, and assigned to the 12th Army ( Wenck). Its commander was Alfred Müller. Müller held the rank of Oberstleutnant (lieutenant colonel) and thus deviated from the typical Wehrmacht divisional commander in that he was not a general. The division was the last infantry division fielded by the German Army in World War II. Its deployment was so late in the war that it does not even appear in the listings of the Germ ... [...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] |
12th Army (Wehrmacht)
The 12th Army (German: ''12. Armee'') was a World War II field army of the Wehrmacht. History The 12th Army was activated on October 13, 1939, with General Wilhelm List in command. First seeing defensive action along the Siegfried Line, the army was involved in the invasion and occupation of France. The army was then relocated to Romania as part of the Axis offensive in the Balkans. In February 1941, an agreement between Field Marshal List and the Bulgarian General Staff allowed the passage of German troops. On the night of February 28, German Army units crossed the Danube from Romania and took up strategic positions in Bulgaria. On 6 April, units of the 12th army advanced into Yugoslavia and Greece. The Yugoslavians crumbled first. But, after six months of fighting the Italians, the Greeks could not stand up to the 12th Army's fifteen divisions, four of which were armored. The British subsequently rushed four divisions from Libya to aid the Greeks but they, like the Greeks, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ferdinand Von Schill
Ferdinand Baptista von Schill (6 January 1776 – 31 May 1809) was a Kingdom of Prussia, Prussian major who revolted unsuccessfully against First French Empire, French domination of Prussia in May 1809. Schill's rebellion ended at the Battle of Stralsund (1809), Battle of Stralsund, a battle which also saw Schill's own death in action. Outnumbered 3 to 1, Schill's Prussian forces succumbed to a Napoleonic force supported by Dutch and Danish auxiliaries. Life Schill was born at Wilmsdorf (now a part of Bannewitz, Saxony) and entered the Prussian Army's cavalry at the age of twelve or fourteen (sources differ).Sam Mustafa, ''The Long Ride of Major von Schill'' (Boulder: Rowman & Littlefield, 2008), pgs. 109, 124–136, 132 His father, Johann-Georg Schill, had been an ambitious commoner from Bohemia, who attained the aristocratic "von" for his services to Austria and Saxony during the Seven Years' War. J.-G. von Schill had raised a "Freikorps", a small raiding party of cavalry and ... [...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] |
Wehrmacht
The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmacht''" replaced the previously used term and was the manifestation of the Nazi regime's efforts to rearm Germany to a greater extent than the Treaty of Versailles permitted. After the Nazi rise to power in 1933, one of Adolf Hitler's most overt and audacious moves was to establish the ''Wehrmacht'', a modern offensively-capable armed force, fulfilling the Nazi régime's long-term goals of regaining lost territory as well as gaining new territory and dominating its neighbours. This required the reinstatement of conscription and massive investment and defense spending on the arms industry. The ''Wehrmacht'' formed the heart of Germany's politico-military power. In the early part of the Second World War, the ''Wehrmacht'' employed combined arms tactics (close-cover ... [...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] |
Prussia
Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an emergency decree transferring powers of the Prussian government to German Chancellor Franz von Papen in 1932 and ''de jure'' by an Allied decree in 1947. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, expanding its size with the Prussian Army. Prussia, with its capital at Königsberg and then, when it became the Kingdom of Prussia in 1701, Berlin, decisively shaped the history of Germany. In 1871, Prussian Minister-President Otto von Bismarck united most German principalities into the German Empire under his leadership, although this was considered to be a "Lesser Germany" because Austria and Switzerland were not included. In November 1918, the monarchies were abolished and the nobility lost its political power during the Ger ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battle Of Stralsund (1809)
The Battle of Stralsund on 31 May 1809 was a battle during the Dano-Swedish War of 1808–1809 and Franco-Swedish War, part of the Napoleonic Wars, between Ferdinand von Schill's freikorps and Napoleonic forces in Stralsund. In a "vicious street battle", the freikorps was defeated and Schill was killed in action. Prelude Stralsund, a port at the Baltic Sea in Swedish Pomerania, was surrendered to France after the siege of 1807 during the War of the Fourth Coalition. During this war, Prussian captain Ferdinand von Schill distinguished himself by cutting off French supply lines using guerrilla tactics in 1806. In 1807, he raised a freikorps and successfully fought the French forces in what he intended to become a patriotic insurrection. When his corps was disbanded after the Peace of Tilsit on 9 July 1807, Schill was promoted to the rank of a major, decorated with the Pour le Mérite, and became a hero of German resistance and patriotic movements. In January and February 1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kampfgruppe Burg (Wehrmacht)
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 Germany and its allies during World War II and, to a lesser extent, of the German Empire in World War I. It also referred to bomber groups in ''Luftwaffe'' usage, which themselves consisted of three or four (squadrons), and usually (but not exclusively) existed within bomber wings of three or four per wing. Nature The ''Kampfgruppe'' was an ''ad hoc'' combined arms formation, usually employing a combination of tanks, infantry, and artillery (including anti-tank) elements, generally organised for a particular task or operation.While the word ''Kampfgruppe'' in German literally refers to any battle group, the modern usage in the English-speaking world is restricted to World War II. ''Kampfgruppen'' in World War I lacked the panzer componen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Walther Wenck
Walther Wenck () (18 September 1900 – 1 May 1982) was a German officer and industrialist. He was the youngest General of the branch (''General der Truppengattung'') in the German Army and a staff officer during World War II. At the end of the war, he commanded the German Twelfth Army that took part in the Battle of Berlin. Wenck left the military after surrendering to the Allies. He was asked to become Inspector General of the Bundeswehr as West Germany was re-arming in 1957, but declined to take the post when conditions he set were not met, such as the Inspector General being the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, not just an administrative leader. Historians consider Wenck a capable commander and a brilliant improviser, although incapable of the impossible task he was given of saving Berlin in 1945. Early life The third son of officer Maximilian Wenck, Walter was born in Wittenberg, Germany in 1900. In 1911 he joined the Naumburg Cadet Corps of the Prussian Army. From t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alfred Müller (lieutenant Colonel) (1940-2020), former (1993-1997) French deputy
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Alfred Müller or Alfred Mueller may refer to: * Alfred Müller (entrepreneur) (1888–1945), Croatian entrepreneur *Alfred Müller-Armack (1901–1978), German economist and politician *Alfred Müller (runner) (1905–1959), German Olympic middle-distance runner * Alfred Müller (general) (1915–1997), German Wehrmacht general * Alfred Müller (swimmer) (born 1948), German Olympic swimmer * Alfred Mueller (born 1939), American theoretical physicist * Alfred Müller-Felsenburg, honored by the Alfred-Müller-Felsenburg-Preis literary prize in Germany *Alfred Muller Alfred Muller (23 December 1940 – 13 November 2020), was a French politician who served as a member of the National Assembly of France from 1993 to 1997. Biography Alfred Muller was born on 23 December 1940 in Strasbourg, Bas-Rhin. In 1971 he ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oberstleutnant
() is a senior field officer rank in several German-speaking and Scandinavian countries, equivalent to Lieutenant colonel. It is currently used by both the ground and air forces of Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, and Norway. The Swedish rank is a direct translation, as is the Finnish rank . Austria Austria's armed forces, the ''Bundesheer'', uses the rank Oberstleutnant as its sixth-highest officer rank. Like in Germany and Switzerland, Oberstleutnants are above Majors and below Obersts. The term also finds usage with the Austrian Bundespolizei (federal police force) and Justizwache (prison guards corps). These two organizations are civilian in nature, but their ranks are nonetheless structured in a military fashion. Belgium File:Army-BEL-OF-04.svg, nl-BE, Luitenant-kolonelgerman: Oberstleutnant Denmark The Danish rank of is based around the German term. Ranked OF-4 within NATO and having the paygrade of M401, it is used in the Royal Danish Army and the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
