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Milag
Marlag und Milag Nord was a Second World War German prisoner-of-war camp complex for men of the British and Canadian Merchant Navy and Royal Navy. It was located around the village of Westertimke, about north-east of Bremen, though in some sources the camp's location is given as Tarmstedt, a larger village about to the west. There were also American merchant seamen detained here as well as some U.S. Navy personnel. Status of merchant seamen Of more than 5,000 Allied merchant seamen captured by the Germans during the war, most were held at ''Marlag-Milag''. As civilian non-combatants, according to Section XI, Article 6, of the 1907 Hague Conventions, merchant seamen "...are not made prisoners of war, on condition that they make a formal promise in writing, not to undertake, while hostilities last, any service connected with the operations of the war." The Germans, however, always treated Merchant Navy seamen as POWs (as did the British from 1942). In 1943 the Germans suggested ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
German Prisoner-of-war Camps In World War II
Nazi Germany operated around 1,000 prisoner-of-war camps (german: Kriegsgefangenenlager) during World War II (1939-1945). Germany had signed the Third Geneva Convention of 1929, which established provisions relating to the treatment of prisoners of war. * Article 10 required that PoWs should be lodged in adequately heated and lighted buildings where conditions were the same as for German troops. * Articles 27-32 detailed the conditions of labour. Enlisted ranks were required to perform whatever labour they were asked if able to do, so long as it was not dangerous and did not support the German war-effort. Senior Non-commissioned officers (sergeants and above) were required to work only in a supervisory role. Commissioned officers were not required to work, although they could volunteer. The work performed was largely agricultural or industrial, ranging from coal- or potash-mining, stone quarrying, or work in saw mills, breweries, factories, railroad yards, and forests. PoWs hire ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stalag X-B
Stalag X-B was a World War II German prisoner-of-war camp located near Sandbostel in Lower Saxony in north-western Germany. Between 1939 and 1945 several hundred thousand POW's of 55 nations passed through the camp. Due to the bad conditions in which they were housed, thousands died there of hunger, disease, or were killed by the guards. Estimates of the number of dead range from 8,000 to 50,000. Establishment and operation Sandbostel lies 9 km south of Bremervörde, 43 km northeast of Bremen. In what was then the Province of Hanover, the Lutheran Church of the State of Hanover opened a camp for out of work singles and employed them in public works (roadworks, amelioration) in 1932, during the Great Depression. In 1933, the ''Reichsarbeitsdienst'' took over the camp and used it later as a Nazi internment camp for undesirables. In August 1939, a commission of ''Heeresbauamt Bremen'' (military construction department) decided to create a ''Mannschafts-Stammlager'' (POW cam ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Westertimke
Westertimke is a municipality in the district of Rotenburg, in Lower Saxony, Germany. Westertimke belonged to the Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen, established in 1180. In 1648 the Prince-Archbishopric was transformed into the Duchy of Bremen, which was first ruled in personal union by the Swedish Crown - interrupted by a Danish occupation (1712–1715) - and from 1715 on by the Hanoverian Crown. In 1807 the ephemeral Kingdom of Westphalia annexed the Duchy, before France annexed it in 1810. In 1813 the Duchy was restored to the Electorate of Hanover, which - after its upgrade to the Kingdom of Hanover in 1814 - incorporated the Duchy in a real union Real union is a union of two or more states, which share some state institutions in contrast to personal unions; however, they are not as unified as states in a political union. It is a development from personal union and has historically bee ... and the Ducal territory, including Westertimke, became part of the new Stade Regio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Batman (military)
A batman or an orderly is a soldier or airman assigned to a commissioned officer as a personal servant. Before the advent of motorized transport, an officer's batman was also in charge of the officer's "bat-horse" that carried the officer's kit during a campaign. The British English term is derived from the obsolete ''bat'', meaning "pack saddle" (from French ''bât'', from Old French ''bast'', from Late Latin ''bastum'') The military term long predates the appearance of the fictional superhero Batman. Duties A batman's duties often include: * acting as a "runner" to convey orders from the officer to subordinates * maintaining the officer's uniform and personal equipment as a valet * driving the officer's vehicle, sometimes under combat conditions * acting as the officer's bodyguard in combat * digging the officer's foxhole in combat, giving the officer time to direct his unit * other miscellaneous tasks the officer does not have time or inclination to do The action of servi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
River Elbe
The Elbe (; cs, Labe ; nds, Ilv or ''Elv''; Upper and dsb, Łobjo) is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Giant Mountains of the northern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia (western half of the Czech Republic), then Germany and flowing into the North Sea at Cuxhaven, northwest of Hamburg. Its total length is . The Elbe's major tributaries include the rivers Vltava, Saale, Havel, Mulde, Schwarze Elster, and Ohře. The Elbe river basin, comprising the Elbe and its tributaries, has a catchment area of , the twelfth largest in Europe. The basin spans four countries, however it lies almost entirely just in two of them, Germany (65.5%) and the Czech Republic (33.7%, covering about two thirds of the state's territory). Marginally, the basin stretches also to Austria (0.6%) and Poland (0.2%). The Elbe catchment area is inhabited by 24.4 million people, the biggest cities within are Berlin, Hamburg, Prague, Dresden and Leipzig. Etymology Firs ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Volkssturm
The (; "people's storm") was a levée en masse national militia established by Nazi Germany during the last months of World War II. It was not set up by the German Army, the ground component of the combined German ''Wehrmacht'' armed forces, but by the Nazi Party on the orders of Adolf Hitler and established on 25 September 1944. It was staffed by conscripting males between the ages of 16 and 60 years, who were not already serving in some military unit. The ''Volkssturm'' comprised one of the final components of the total war promulgated by Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels, part of a Nazi endeavor to overcome their enemies' military strength through force of will. ''Volkssturm'' units fought unsuccessful futile battles against the Allied forces at the end of the war and on several occasions, its members participated in atrocities accompanied by German civilians and the Hitler Youth, which were overseen by members of the SS or Gau leaders. Origins and organization The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Feldgendarmerie
The ''Feldgendarmerie'' (, "field gendarmerie") were a type of military police units of the armies of the Kingdom of Saxony The Kingdom of Saxony (german: Königreich Sachsen), lasting from 1806 to 1918, was an independent member of a number of historical confederacies in Napoleonic through post-Napoleonic Germany. The kingdom was formed from the Electorate of Saxon ... (from 1810), the German Empire and Nazi Germany until the conclusion of World War II in Europe. Early history From 1810 to 1812 Saxony, Kingdom of Württemberg, Württemberg, Kingdom of Prussia, Prussia and Kingdom of Bavaria, Bavaria founded a rural police force after the model of the Napoleonic National Gendarmerie, French Gendarmerie. The Prussian Gendarmerie staff (''Königlich Preußische Landgendarmerie''; Royal Prussian State Gendarmerie) were well-proven infantry and cavalry NCOs after serving their standard service time at the army and some COs. Officially they were still military personnel, equipp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stalag Luft III
, partof = ''Luftwaffe'' , location = Sagan, Lower Silesia, Nazi Germany (now Żagań, Poland) , image = , caption = Model of the set used to film the movie ''The Great Escape.'' It depicts a smaller version of a single compound in ''Stalag Luft III''. The model is now at the museum near where the prison camp was located. , map_alt = Sagan, Germany (pre-war borders, 1937) , map_type = Poland#Germany 1937 , coordinates = , type = Prisoner-of-war camp , controlledby = , open_to_public = , condition = , built = , builder = , used = March 1942January 1945 , materials = , demolished = , battles = World War II , events = The "Great Escape" , past_commanders = ''Oberst'' Friedrich Wilhelm von Lindeiner-Wildau , garrison = , occupants = Allied air crews Stalag Luft III (german: Stammlager Luft III; literally "Main Camp, Air, III"; SL III) was a ''Luftwaffe''-run prisoner-of-war (POW) camp during the Second World War, which held captured Western Allied air force ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wilhelmshaven
Wilhelmshaven (, ''Wilhelm's Harbour''; Northern Low Saxon: ''Willemshaven'') is a coastal town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the western side of the Jade Bight, a bay of the North Sea, and has a population of 76,089. Wilhelmshaven is the centre of the "Jade Bay" business region (which has around 330,000 inhabitants) and is Germany's main military port. The adjacent Lower Saxony Wadden Sea National Park (part of the Wattenmeer UNESCO World Natural Heritage Site) provides the basis for the major tourism industry in the region. History The , built before 1383, operated as a pirate stronghold; the Hanseatic League destroyed it in 1433. Four centuries later, the Kingdom of Prussia planned a fleet and a harbour on the North Sea. In 1853, Prince Adalbert of Prussia, a cousin of the Prussian King Frederick William IV of Prussia, Frederick William IV, arranged the Jade Treaty (''Jade-Vertrag'') with the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg, in which Prussia and the Grand Duchy ente ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kriegsmarine
The (, ) was the navy of Germany from 1935 to 1945. It superseded the Imperial German Navy of the German Empire (1871–1918) and the inter-war (1919–1935) of the Weimar Republic. The was one of three official branches, along with the and the , of the , the German armed forces from 1935 to 1945. In violation of the Treaty of Versailles, the grew rapidly during German naval rearmament in the 1930s. The 1919 treaty had limited the size of the German navy and prohibited the building of submarines. ships were deployed to the waters around Spain during the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) under the guise of enforcing non-intervention, but in reality supported the Nationalists against the Spanish Republicans. In January 1939, Plan Z, a massive shipbuilding program, was ordered, calling for surface naval parity with the British Royal Navy by 1944. When World War II broke out in September 1939, Plan Z was shelved in favour of a crash building program for submarines (U-boat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Non-commissioned Officer
A non-commissioned officer (NCO) is a military officer who has not pursued a commission. Non-commissioned officers usually earn their position of authority by promotion through the enlisted ranks. (Non-officers, which includes most or all enlisted personnel, are of lower rank than any officer.) In contrast, commissioned officers usually enter directly from a military academy, officer candidate school (OCS), or officer training school (OTS) after receiving a post-secondary degree. The NCO corps usually includes many grades of enlisted, corporal and sergeant; in some countries, warrant officers also carry out the duties of NCOs. The naval equivalent includes some or all grades of petty officer. There are different classes of non-commissioned officers, including junior (lower ranked) non-commissioned officers (JNCO) and senior/staff (higher ranked) non-commissioned officers (SNCO). Function The non-commissioned officer corps has been referred to as "the backbone" of the armed se ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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