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Lehr-Brigade (mot.) 900
Lehr-Brigade (mot.) 900 (Motorized Demonstration Brigade) was formed 17 June 1941 by the German Army from school units in preparation for Operation Barbarossa. As such it was considered an elite as many of its personnel were instructors in tactics from various branch schools. It fought in most of the battles in the central sector of the Eastern Front during Barbarossa, notably the Battles of Minsk, Smolensk, Operation Typhoon and the Battle of Moscow before its remnants were withdrawn in April–May 1942. Composition The first battalion of ''Motorized Infantry Regiment (Infanterie-Regiment (mot.)) 900'' was drawn from the ''School for Mobile Troops (Schule für Schnelle Truppen)'' in Wünsdorf.Tessin, p. 103 The battalion headquarters and the second company were mounted on Sd.Kfz. 251 half-tracksJentz (2005), p. 43 while the first company was mounted on motorcycles.Niehorster, p. 12 The second battalion came from ''Infantry School (Infanterieschule) Döberitz''.Tessin, p. 103 '' ... [...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] |
Tver
Tver ( rus, Тверь, p=tvʲerʲ) is a city and the administrative centre of Tver Oblast, Russia. It is northwest of Moscow. Population: Tver was formerly the capital of a powerful medieval state and a model provincial town in the Russian Empire, with a population of 60,000 on 14 January 1913. It is situated at the confluence of the Volga and Tvertsa Rivers. The city was known as Kalinin ( rus, Кали́нин, Kalínin) from 1931 to 1990. The city is where three rivers meet, splitting the town into northern and southern parts by the Volga River, and divided again into quarters by the Tvertsa River, which splits the left (northern) bank into east and west halves, and the Tmaka River which does the same along the southern bank. History Medieval origins Tver's foundation year is officially accepted to be 1135,Charter of Tver, Article 1 although there is no universal agreement on this date and some estimates place it as late as the second half of the 13th century. The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1st Panzer Division (Wehrmacht)
The 1st Panzer-Division (short: 1. Pz.Div. german: 1. Panzer-Division, en, 1st Tank Division) was an armoured division in the German Army during World War II. The division was one of the original three tank divisions established by Germany in 1935. It took part in pre-war occupations of Austria and Czechoslovakia and the invasions of Poland in 1939 and Belgium and France in 1940. From 1941 to 1945, it fought on the Eastern Front, except for a period in 1943 when it was sent for refitting to France and Greece. At the end of the war, the division surrendered to US forces in Bavaria. History The 1st Panzer Division was formed on 15 October 1935 from the 3rd Cavalry Division, and was headquartered in Weimar. It was one of three tank divisions created at the time, the other two being the 2nd and 3rd Panzer Division. Earlier in the year, Germany had renounced the Treaty of Versailles, which had forbidden the country, among other things, from having tank forces, a treaty Germany h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Western Front (Soviet Union)
The Western Front was a front of the Red Army, one of the Red Army Fronts during World War II. The Western Front was created on 22 June 1941 from the Western Special Military District (which before July 1940 was known as Belorussian Special Military District). The first Front Commander was Dmitry Pavlov (continuing from his position as District Commander since June 1940). The western boundary of the Front in June 1941 was long, from the southern border of Lithuania to the Pripyat River and the town of Włodawa. It connected with the adjacent North-Western Front, which extended from the Lithuanian border to the Baltic Sea, and the Southwestern Front in Ukraine. Operational history Front dispositions 22 June 1941 The 1939 partition of Poland according to the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact established a new western border with no permanent defense installations, and the army deployment within the Front created weak flanks. At the outbreak of war with Germany, the Western Special ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
11th Guards Army
The 11th Guards Army () was a field army of the Red Army, the Soviet Ground Forces, and the Russian Ground Forces, active from 1943 to 1997. History World War II For its prowess in battle, the second formation of the 16th Army was redesignated as the 11th Guards Army on 1 May 1943 in accordance with a Stavka directive of 16 April, under the command of Lieutenant General Ivan Bagramyan, who was promoted to colonel general on 27 August. The army included the 8th and 16th Guards Rifle Corps and one rifle division directly controlled by the army headquarters. On 1 June 1943 the 11th Guards Army consisted of the 8th Guards Rifle Corps ( 11th, 26th and 83rd Guards Rifle Divisions), 16th Guards Rifle Corps ( 1st, 16th & 31st Guards, and 169th Rifle Divisions), and the 5th, 18th, and 84th Guards, and the 108th and 217th Rifle Divisions, several artillery divisions, armoured units, and other support units. The army fought in Operation Kutuzov, during which it included the 8th, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Army Group Center
Army Group Centre (german: Heeresgruppe Mitte) was the name of two distinct strategic German Army Groups that fought on the Eastern Front in World War II. The first Army Group Centre was created on 22 June 1941, as one of three German Army formations assigned to the invasion of the Soviet Union (Operation Barbarossa). On 25 January 1945, after it was encircled in the Königsberg pocket, Army Group Centre was renamed Army Group North (), and Army Group A () became Army Group Centre. The latter formation retained its name until the end of the war in Europe on 11 May after VE Day. Formation The commander in chief on the formation of the Army Group Centre (22 June 1941) was Fedor von Bock. Order of battle at formation Campaign and operational history Operation Barbarossa On 22 June 1941, Nazi Germany and its Axis allies launched their surprise offensive into the Soviet Union. Their armies, totaling over three million men, were to advance in three geographical directi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
9th Army (Wehrmacht)
The 9th Army (german: 9. Armee) was a World War II field army. It was activated on 15 May 1940 with General Johannes Blaskowitz in command. History 1940 The 9th Army first saw service along the Siegfried Line during its involvement in the invasion of France. It was kept as a strategic reserve and saw little combat. 1941 By 1941, the 9th Army was heavily strengthened and was deployed with Army Group Center for the invasion of the Soviet Union. During the initial phase of Operation Barbarossa the 4th Army formed the Southern pincer of a massive encirclement of Soviet troops deployed at Białystok, with the German 9th Army forming the Northern pincer. It continued its advance, and soon launched another pincer movement of Soviet troops at Smolensk. Even though successful in encircling Soviet troops, many Soviet troops escaped the pockets due to the large distances it had to secure. Hitler then sent the Panzer forces from Army Group Center to the northern and southern fronts to infli ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dessau-Roßlau
Dessau-Roßlau () is a ''kreisfreie Stadt'' (urban district) in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. It is situated at the confluence of the rivers Elbe and Mulde. The town was formed by merger of the towns of Dessau and Roßlau in the course of the "Kreisreform Sachsen-Anhalt" ''(Sachsen-Anhalt Regional Boundary Reforms)'' on 1 July 2007. The reform involved a reduction in the number of rural districts in Sachsen-Anhalt from 21 to 11 and reflected an expected continuation of the significant population decline being experienced. Dessau-Roßlau is the third largest town of Saxony-Anhalt by population, after Magdeburg and Halle. Its area is . Dessau Dessau is the largest population centre within Dessau-Roßlau, with approximately 77,000 inhabitants (2006). Most of the town is located on the left bank of the Mulde, south of its confluence with the Elbe. Dessau was first mentioned in 1213, and became the capital of a small state (Anhalt-Dessau) in the 14th century. Between 1863 a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Assault Guns
Assault gun (from german: Sturmgeschütz - "storm gun", as in "storming/assaulting") is a type of self-propelled artillery which uses an infantry support gun mounted on a motorized chassis, normally an armored fighting vehicle, which are designed to provide direct fire support for infantry attacks, especially against other infantry or fortified positions. Assault guns were pioneered by the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany during the 1930s, initially being self-propelled guns with direct fire in mind (such as the Soviet SU-5-1), with Germany introducing the first purpose-built (and purpose-named) assault gun, the Sturmgeschütz III, in 1940. Historically, the concept of assault guns was very similar to that of the infantry tank, as both were combat vehicles intended to accompany infantry formations into battle. However, during World War II assault guns were more mobile than tanks and could be utilized as both direct and indirect fire artillery. Although they could approximate the firepo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Howitzers
A howitzer () is a long-ranged weapon, falling between a cannon (also known as an artillery gun in the United States), which fires shells at flat trajectories, and a mortar, which fires at high angles of ascent and descent. Howitzers, like other artillery equipment, are usually organized in a group called a battery. Howitzers, together with long-barreled guns, mortars, and rocket artillery, are the four basic types of modern artillery. Mortars fire at angles of elevation greater than 45°, and are useful for mountain warfare because the projectile could go over obstacles. Cannons fire at low angles of elevation (<45°), and the projectile lands much faster at its target than it would in the case of a mortar. But the cannon is not useful if there is an obstacle like a hill/wall in front of its target. Etymology The English word ''howitzer'' comes from the Czech word , from , 'crowd', and is in turn a borrowing from the Middle High German word or (moder ...[...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Artillery Battery
In military organizations, an artillery battery is a unit or multiple systems of artillery, mortar systems, rocket artillery, multiple rocket launchers, surface-to-surface missiles, ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, etc., so grouped to facilitate better battlefield communication and command and control, as well as to provide dispersion for its constituent gunnery crews and their systems. The term is also used in a naval context to describe groups of guns on warships. Land usage Historically the term "battery" referred to a cluster of cannon in action as a group, either in a temporary field position during a battle or at the siege of a fortress or a city. Such batteries could be a mixture of cannon, howitzer, or mortar types. A siege could involve many batteries at different sites around the besieged place. The term also came to be used for a group of cannon in a fixed fortification, for coastal or frontier defence. During the 18th century "battery" began to be used as a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
