|
Otto Fretter-Pico
__NOTOC__ Otto Fretter-Pico (2 February 1893 – 30 July 1966) was a German general in the Wehrmacht during World War II. A veteran of WWI and the younger brother of General Maximilian Fretter-Pico, he took part in operations from Poland to France, and from the Soviet Union to Italy. Fretter-Pico commanded artillery units before commanding the 57th Infantry Division and the 148th Infantry Division. He was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross of Nazi Germany. Ahead of his 148th Infantry Division, he was blocked and surrounded by Brazilian forces in Collecchio when trying to retreat to Germany. He surrendered to the Brazilian division on 29 April 1945. First World War Otto Fretter-Pico was born on 2 February 1893, in Karlsruhe, formerly Grand Duchy of Baden, today Baden-Württemberg, in the German Empire, joining the Württemberg Army on July 14, 1914, as a ''Fahnenjunker'' (officer cadet). Like his older brother, who later became General of the Artillery Maximi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Karlsruhe
Karlsruhe ( , , ; South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the third-largest city of the German state (''Land'') of Baden-Württemberg after its capital of Stuttgart and Mannheim, and the 22nd-largest city in the nation, with 308,436 inhabitants. It is also a former capital of Baden, a historic region named after Hohenbaden Castle in the city of Baden-Baden. Located on the right bank of the Rhine near the French border, between the Mannheim/ Ludwigshafen conurbation to the north and Strasbourg/Kehl to the south, Karlsruhe is Germany's legal center, being home to the Federal Constitutional Court (''Bundesverfassungsgericht''), the Federal Court of Justice (''Bundesgerichtshof'') and the Public Prosecutor General of the Federal Court of Justice (''Generalbundesanwalt beim Bundesgerichtshof''). Karlsruhe was the capital of the Margraviate of Baden-Durlach (Durlach: 1565–1718; Karlsruhe: 1718–1771), the Margraviate of Baden (1771–1803), the Electorate of Baden (1803–1806), th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brazilian Expeditionary Force
The Brazilian Expeditionary Force ( pt, Força Expedicionária Brasileira, FEB), nicknamed Cobras Fumantes (literally "the Smoking Snakes"), was a military division of the Brazilian Army and Air Force that fought with Allied forces in the Mediterranean Theatre of World War II. It numbered around 51,600 men, including a full infantry division, liaison flight, and fighter squadron.Ibidem Maximiano, Bonalume, Ricardo N. & Bujeiro, 2011. Placed under United States command, Brazilian troops fought primarily in the liberation of Italy from September 1944 to May 1945, while the Brazilian Navy and Air Force participated in the Battle of the Atlantic from mid-1942 until the end of the war. The FEB operated mostly at the platoon level, seeing heavy combat at the arduous Gothic Line and during the 1945 final offensive. By the end of the war, it took 20,573 Axis prisoners, including two generals and close to 900 officers. The division lost 948 men killed in action across all three ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was the German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a dictatorship. Under Hitler's rule, Germany quickly became a totalitarian state where nearly all aspects of life were controlled by the government. The Third Reich, meaning "Third Realm" or "Third Empire", alluded to the Nazi claim that Nazi Germany was the successor to the earlier Holy Roman Empire (800–1806) and German Empire (1871–1918). The Third Reich, which Hitler and the Nazis referred to as the Thousand-Year Reich, ended in May 1945 after just 12 years when the Allies defeated Germany, ending World War II in Europe. On 30 January 1933, Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany, the head of gove ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
148th Reserve Division (Wehrmacht)
The German 148th Reserve Division (German: ''148. Reserve-Division'') was a German reserve infantry formation during the Second World War. It was made up of three infantry regiments (the 281st, 285th, and 286th) and an artillery regiment. Initially an occupation force in southern France, serving as a depot for rest and rifitting, it was activated as an infantry division and fought in Italy from 1944 to 1945. Redesignated the 148th Infantry Division (German: ''148. Infanterie-Division'') in September 1944 to fight the allied invasion during Operation Dragoon, it later fought in the Po River battles, surrendering to the Brazilian Expeditionary Force on April 28, 1945, after being encircled in the Battle of Collecchio, near the city of Fornovo di Taro at Galano. History During Operation Dragoon, the 148th was ordered to counterattack against the beaches at Le Muy, where the US 45th Infantry Division had landed. The German plan was to throw the Allies in the Le Muy – Saint-Raph ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Artillery
Artillery is a class of heavy military ranged weapons that launch munitions far beyond the range and power of infantry firearms. Early artillery development focused on the ability to breach defensive walls and fortifications during sieges, and led to heavy, fairly immobile siege engines. As technology improved, lighter, more mobile field artillery cannons developed for battlefield use. This development continues today; modern self-propelled artillery vehicles are highly mobile weapons of great versatility generally providing the largest share of an army's total firepower. Originally, the word "artillery" referred to any group of soldiers primarily armed with some form of manufactured weapon or armor. Since the introduction of gunpowder and cannon, "artillery" has largely meant cannons, and in contemporary usage, usually refers to shell-firing guns, howitzers, and mortars (collectively called ''barrel artillery'', ''cannon artillery'', ''gun artillery'', or - a layman t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eastern Front (World War II)
The Eastern Front of World War II was a Theater (warfare), theatre of conflict between the European Axis powers against the Soviet Union (USSR), Polish Armed Forces in the East, Poland and other Allies of World War II, Allies, which encompassed Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Northern Europe, Northeast Europe (Baltic states, Baltics), and Southeast Europe (Balkans) from 22 June 1941 to 9 May 1945. It was known as the Great Patriotic War (term), Great Patriotic War in the Soviet Union – and still is in some of its successor states, while almost everywhere else it has been called the ''Eastern Front''. In present-day German and Ukrainian historiography the name German-Soviet War is typically used. The battles on the Eastern Front of the Second World War constituted the largest military confrontation in history. They were characterised by unprecedented ferocity and brutality, wholesale destruction, mass deportations, and immense loss of life due to combat, starvation, expos ... [...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] |
Maximilian Fretter-Pico
__NOTOC__ Maximilian Fretter-Pico (6 February 1892 – 4 April 1984) was a German general during World War II. He was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves of Nazi Germany. A veteran of WWI, he would serve in the Battle of France, in the Eastern Front and in Hungary. Early life Fretter-Pico was born on 6 February 1892 in Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg, in the German Empire, joining the Field Artillery Regiment "Grand Duke" (1st Badisches) No. 14 (German: ''Feldartillerie-Regiment „Großherzog“ (1. Badisches) Nr. 14'') of the Prussian Army in Karlsruhe on 20 September 1910 as an officer candidate, and attended the Military School in Danzig from March to November 1911. On 27 January 1912 he was promoted to lieutenant (German: ''Leutnant'') and completed a course at the artillery school in Jüterbog from September 1913 to January 1914. First World War With his regiment he went to the First World War as an adjutant and took over an anti-balloon ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Knight's Cross Of The Iron Cross
The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross (german: Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes), or simply the Knight's Cross (), and its variants, were the highest awards in the military and paramilitary forces of Nazi Germany during World War II. The Knight's Cross was awarded for a wide range of reasons and across all ranks, from a senior commander for skilled leadership of his troops in battle to a low-ranking soldier for a single act of military valour. Presentations were made to members of the three military branches of the : the (army), the (navy) and the (air force), as well as the , the Reich Labour Service and the (German People storm militia), along with personnel from other Axis powers. The award was instituted on 1 September 1939, at the onset of the German invasion of Poland. The award was created to replace the many older merit and bravery neck awards of the German Empire. A higher grade, the Oak Leaves to the Knight's Cross, was instituted in 1940. In 1941, two higher grades ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battle Of Collecchio
The Battle of Collecchio-Fornovo (26–29 April 1945) was a battle of the Second World War between the Brazilian Expeditionary Force (''Força Expedicionária Brasileira'' – FEB), along with Italian partisans and units from the American 1st Armored and 92nd Infantry Divisions, against the ''Wehrmacht''s 148th Infantry Division, 90th Panzergrenadier Divisions and the fascist National Republican Army's 1st Bersaglieri "''Italia''" and the 4th Mountain "''Monterosa''" Divisions. The battle was fought around the town of Fornovo di Taro, about to the southwest of Parma, Italy. The Allies defeated the Axis forces, which were attempting to break through to the north. On 28 April, the Brazilian 6th RCT followed up with an attack on Fornovo, with German General Otto Fretter-Pico surrendering the 148th Division, with almost 15,000 German and Fascist Italian troops at the morning of 29 April. Background of main forces 1st Brazilian (Expeditionary) Infantry Division The Brazilian ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
