German Army (1935–1945)
The German Army (german: Heer, ; ) was the land forces component of the ''Wehrmacht'', the regular Armed Forces of Nazi Germany, 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 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 annihilation", the ...
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German Instrument Of Surrender
The German Instrument of Surrender (german: Bedingungslose Kapitulation der Wehrmacht, lit=Unconditional Capitulation of the "Wehrmacht"; russian: Акт о капитуляции Германии, Akt o kapitulyatsii Germanii, lit=Act of capitulation of Germany; french: Actes de capitulation du Troisième Reich, lit=Acts of capitulation of the Third Reich) was a legal document effecting the unconditional surrender of the remaining Nazi German armed forces to the Allies, and ended World War II in Europe; the signing took place at 22:43 CET on 8 May 1945 and the surrender took effect at 23:01 CET on the same day. The document was signed at the seat of the Soviet Military Administration in the Karlshorst quarter (Berlin, Germany) by representatives of the three German armed services of the " Oberkommando der Wehrmacht" (OKW) and Allied Expeditionary Force together with the Supreme High Command of the Soviet Red Army, with further French and American representatives signing as th ...
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