The Myth And Reality Of German Warfare

Author : Gerhard P. Gross
Publisher : University Press of Kentucky
Page : 464 pages
File Size : 52,6 Mb
Release : 2016-09-16
Category : History
ISBN : 9780813168395

Get Book

The Myth and Reality of German Warfare by Gerhard P. Gross Pdf

Surrounded by potential adversaries, nineteenth-century Prussia and twentieth-century Germany faced the formidable prospect of multifront wars and wars of attrition. To counteract these threats, generations of general staff officers were educated in operational thinking, the main tenets of which were extremely influential on military planning across the globe and were adopted by American and Soviet armies. In the twentieth century, Germany's art of warfare dominated military theory and practice, creating a myth of German operational brilliance that lingers today, despite the nation's crushing defeats in two world wars. In this seminal study, Gerhard P. Gross provides a comprehensive examination of the development and failure of German operational thinking over a period of more than a century. He analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of five different armies, from the mid--nineteenth century through the early days of NATO. He also offers fresh interpretations of towering figures of German military history, including Moltke the Elder, Alfred von Schlieffen, and Erich Ludendorff. Essential reading for military historians and strategists, this innovative work dismantles cherished myths and offers new insights into Germany's failed attempts to become a global power through military means.

Author : Gerhard Paul Gross
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 128 pages
File Size : 51,7 Mb
Release : 2016
Category : Germany
ISBN : 0813168406

Get Book

The Myth and Reality of German Warfare by Gerhard Paul Gross Pdf

In this seminal study, Gerhard P. Gross provides a comprehensive examination of the development and failure of German operational thinking over a period of more than a century. He analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of five different armies, from the mid-nineteenth century through the early days of NATO. He also offers fresh interpretations of towering figures of German military history.

Author : Wolfram WETTE
Publisher : Harvard University Press
Page : 395 pages
File Size : 44,8 Mb
Release : 2009-06-30
Category : History
ISBN : 9780674045118

Get Book

The Wehrmacht by Wolfram WETTE Pdf

This book is a profound reexamination of the role of the German army, the Wehrmacht, in World War II. Until very recently, the standard story avowed that the ordinary German soldier in World War II was a good soldier, distinct from Hitler's rapacious SS troops, and not an accomplice to the massacres of civilians. Wolfram Wette, a preeminent German military historian, explodes the myth of a "clean" Wehrmacht with devastating clarity. This book reveals the Wehrmacht's long-standing prejudices against Jews, Slavs, and Bolsheviks, beliefs that predated the prophecies of Mein Kampf and the paranoia of National Socialism. Though the sixteen-million-member German army is often portrayed as a victim of Nazi mania, we come to see that from 1941 to 1944 these soldiers were thoroughly involved in the horrific cleansing of Russia and Eastern Europe. Wette compellingly documents Germany's long-term preparation of its army for a race war deemed necessary to safeguard the country's future; World War II was merely the fulfillment of these plans, on a previously unimaginable scale. This sober indictment of millions of German soldiers reaches beyond the Wehrmacht's complicity to examine how German academics and ordinary citizens avoided confronting this difficult truth at war's end. Wette shows how atrocities against Jews and others were concealed and sanitized, and history rewritten. Only recently has the German public undertaken a reevaluation of this respected national institution--a painful but necessary process if we are to truly comprehend how the Holocaust was carried out and how we have come to understand it.

Author : Ernst Hans Gombrich
Publisher : Burns & Oates
Page : 42 pages
File Size : 55,7 Mb
Release : 1970
Category : Propaganda
ISBN : UOM:39015004868009

Get Book

Myth and Reality in German War-time Broadcasts by Ernst Hans Gombrich Pdf

Author : Lloyd Clark
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 42,7 Mb
Release : 2016
Category : Lightning war
ISBN : 0857897322

Get Book

Blitzkrieg by Lloyd Clark Pdf

The German campaign in France and the Low Countries during the summer of 1940 was pivotal to Hitler's ambitions and fundamentally affected the course of the Second World War. In achieving in just six weeks what their fathers' had failed to achieve in four years of the First World War, Germany altered the balance of power in Europe at a stroke. Having honed the Blitzkrieg technique in preceding engagements, the German forces provided Hitler with a swift, efficient and decisive military victory over the Allied forces in France. Yet, as Lloyd Clark shows in this enthralling new book, it was far from being a foregone conclusion - Hitler's plan could easily have failed had the enemy been slightly less inept and the Germans been slightly less fortunate. Blitzkrieg will tell the story of the campaign, while highlighting the key technologies, decisions and events that led to German success, and will detail the mistakes, good fortune and chronic weaknesses in their planning process and approach to war fighting. There are also compelling portraits of the officers who played key roles, including Heinz Guderian, Ewin Rommel, Kurt Student, Charles de Gaulle and Bernard Montgomery. Lloyd Clark reveals that far from the being undefeatable, the France 1940 campaign revealed Germany and its armed forces to be highly vulnerable - a fact dismissed by Hitler as he began to plan for his invasion of the Soviet Union - and offers a gripping reassessment of the myths that have built up around one of the Second World War's greatest military victories.

Author : Anonim
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 128 pages
File Size : 50,8 Mb
Release : 2006
Category : Germany
ISBN : OCLC:768706601

Get Book

The Wehrmacht by Anonim Pdf

Author : Pier Paolo Battistelli,Andrew Sangster
Publisher : Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Page : 310 pages
File Size : 55,5 Mb
Release : 2017-01-06
Category : History
ISBN : 9781443869249

Get Book

Myths, Amnesia and Reality in Military Conflicts, 1935-1945 by Pier Paolo Battistelli,Andrew Sangster Pdf

Stalin fabricated the myth that the Germans carried out the Katyń massacre and the West accepted it while always suspecting the reality. In the same way, each country tried to forget the more painful memories of its past and construct its own mythology. The Germans were never taken to task at Nuremberg for bombing because the Anglo-Americans virtually carried out a war of annihilation. The French Gaullist myth was that it was decadent politicians who caused the defeat, and that fighting France freed itself. In a similar vein, the Italian resistance was fostered as a myth and used postwar to cover the fascist period of their history. British and American popular history tends to portray their countries as the main victors often ignoring the massive Russian contribution, and generally concentrates on the barbarity of the Eastern war. Much is forgotten and much enhanced; both incidents and leaders. The Italian military historian of this book writes in depth about the Italian war so often ignored in western history, and tackles the myth of Italian cowardice, while the British author takes a cold, calculated look at Anglo-American leaders such as Montgomery, Mountbatten, Clark, Patton, and questions the myth of the special relationship between Great Britain and the USA, as well as the official and unofficial amnesia relating to self-inflicted gas wounds in Italy.

Author : Kenneth Macksey
Publisher : Frontline Books
Page : 224 pages
File Size : 46,5 Mb
Release : 2018
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 1526713675

Get Book

Why the Germans Lose at War by Kenneth Macksey Pdf

'This book is a brilliant account of German military history which makes for thought-provoking reading.' - Military Modelcraft International The German armed forces suffered crushing defeat in the last century. Kenneth Macksey examines the reasons behind these catastrophic military failures. Were they the random fortunes of war, or the inevitable result of a particular structure, leadership and history? A nation with few natural defensive boundaries, Germany traditionally had to struggle to survive, and developed an aggressive and militant outlook. Its great strengths were the brilliance of individual generals and military thinkers, the innovative development of the military forces, and the skill and tenacity of the fighting men. Set against all this was a short-term war policy, a tendency to underestimate the enemy and believe its own propaganda, and the politicisation of the military staffs. These and many other factors were to lead Germany from nineteenth-century success, and dreams of world domination, to twentieth-century defeat. AUTHOR: Kenneth Macksey was a distinguished military historian and former Army officer who served in the Second World War. Amongst many other books, Macksey wrote 'Guderian: Panzer General' and 'Kesselring: Master Strategist of World War II'. He also edited two alternate histories: 'The Hitler Options' and 'Invasion'. 16 pages of b/w plates

Author : Hans Ehlert,Michael Epkenhans,Gerhard P. Gross,David T. Zabecki
Publisher : University Press of Kentucky
Page : 592 pages
File Size : 45,9 Mb
Release : 2014-10-14
Category : History
ISBN : 9780813147475

Get Book

The Schlieffen Plan by Hans Ehlert,Michael Epkenhans,Gerhard P. Gross,David T. Zabecki Pdf

With the creation of the Franco-Russian Alliance and the failure of the Reinsurance Treaty in the late nineteenth century, Germany needed a strategy for fighting a two-front war. In response, Field Marshal Count Alfred von Schlieffen produced a study that represented the apex of modern military planning. His Memorandum for a War against France, which incorporated a mechanized cavalry as well as new technologies in weaponry, advocated that Germany concentrate its field army to the west and annihilate the French army within a few weeks. For generations, historians have considered Schlieffen's writings to be the foundation of Germany's military strategy in World War I and have hotly debated the reasons why the plan, as executed, failed. In this important volume, international scholars reassess Schlieffen's work for the first time in decades, offering new insights into the renowned general's impact not only on World War I but also on nearly a century of military historiography. The contributors draw on newly available source materials from European and Russian archives to demonstrate both the significance of the Schlieffen Plan and its deficiencies. They examine the operational planning of relevant European states and provide a broad, comparative historical context that other studies lack. Featuring fold-out maps and abstracts of the original German deployment plans as they evolved from 1893 to 1914, this rigorous reassessment vividly illustrates how failures in statecraft as well as military planning led to the tragedy of the First World War.

Author : Frank Mcdonough
Publisher : Coronet
Page : 320 pages
File Size : 43,5 Mb
Release : 2015-08-27
Category : History
ISBN : 9781444778083

Get Book

The Gestapo by Frank Mcdonough Pdf

Name as a 2016 Book of the Year by the Spectator A Daily Telegraph 'Book of the Week' (August 2015) Longlisted for 2016 PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize Ranked in 100 Best Books of 2015 in the Daily Telegraph Professor Frank McDonough is one of the leading scholars and most popular writers on the history of Nazi Germany. Frank McDonough's work has been described as, 'modern history writing at its very best...Ground-breaking, fascinating, occasionally deeply revisionist' by renowned historian Andrew Roberts. Drawing on a detailed examination of previously unpublished Gestapo case files this book relates the fascinating, vivid and disturbing accounts of a cross-section of ordinary and extraordinary people who opposed the Nazi regime. It also tells the equally disturbing stories of their friends, neighbours, colleagues and even relatives who were often drawn into the Gestapo's web of intrigue. The book reveals, too, the cold-blooded and efficient methods of the Gestapo officers. This book will also show that the Gestapo lacked the manpower and resources to spy on everyone as it was reliant on tip offs from the general public. Yet this did not mean the Gestapo was a weak or inefficient instrument of Nazi terror. On the contrary, it ruthlessly and efficiently targeted its officers against clearly defined political and racial 'enemies of the people'. The Gestapo will provide a chilling new doorway into the everyday life of the Third Reich and give powerful testimony from the victims of Nazi terror and poignant life stories of those who opposed Hitler's regime while challenging popular myths about the Gestapo.

Author : John Mosier
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 381 pages
File Size : 51,6 Mb
Release : 2001
Category : World War, 1914-1918
ISBN : 1861972768

Get Book

The Myth of the Great War by John Mosier Pdf

Based on previously unused French and German sources, this challenging and controversial new analysis of the war on the Western front from 1914 to 1918 reveals how and why the Germans won the major battles with one-half to one-third fewer casualties than the Allies, and how American troops in 1918 saved the Allies from defeat and a negotiated peace with the Germans.

Author : Jeffrey Verhey
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 285 pages
File Size : 51,8 Mb
Release : 2000-05-04
Category : History
ISBN : 9781139426770

Get Book

The Spirit of 1914 by Jeffrey Verhey Pdf

This book, first published in 2000, is a systematic analysis of German public opinion at the outbreak of the Great War and the first treatment of the myth of the 'spirit of 1914', which stated that in August 1914 all Germans felt 'war enthusiasm' and that this enthusiasm constituted a critical moment in which German society was transformed. Jeffrey Verhey's powerful study demonstrates that the myth was historically inaccurate. Although intellectuals and much of the upper class were enthusiastic, the emotions and opinions of most of the population were far more complex and contradictory. The book further examines the development of the myth in newspapers, politics and propaganda, and the propagation and appropriation of this myth after the war. His innovative analysis sheds light on German experience of the Great War and on the role of political myths in modern German political culture.

Author : Clive Ponting
Publisher : Library of Social Science; 618
Page : 284 pages
File Size : 51,9 Mb
Release : 1991
Category : History
ISBN : UOM:39015025299887

Get Book

1940 by Clive Ponting Pdf

Examines British government policy during World War II, arguing that widely held beliefs about Britain's role in the events of 1940 are largely myth.

Author : Werner Maser
Publisher : HarperCollins Publishers
Page : 488 pages
File Size : 44,8 Mb
Release : 1973
Category : Dictators
ISBN : UOM:49015000254913

Get Book

Hitler: Legend, Myth & Reality by Werner Maser Pdf

Author : Kristie Macrakis,Thomas Wegener Friis,Helmut Müller-Enbergs
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 256 pages
File Size : 54,8 Mb
Release : 2009-09-10
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781135214500

Get Book

East German Foreign Intelligence by Kristie Macrakis,Thomas Wegener Friis,Helmut Müller-Enbergs Pdf

This edited book examines the East German foreign intelligence service (Hauptverwaltung Aufklärung, or HVA) as a historical problem, covering politics, scientific-technical and military intelligence and counterintelligence. The contributors broaden the conventional view of East German foreign intelligence as driven by the inter-German conflict to include its targeting of the United States, northern European and Scandinavian countries, highlighting areas that have previously received scant attention, like scientific-technical and military intelligence. The CIA’s underestimation of the HVA was a major intelligence failure. As a result, East German intelligence served as a stealth weapon against the US, West German and NATO targets, acquiring the lion’s share of critical Warsaw Pact intelligence gathered during the Cold War. This book explores how though all of the CIA’s East German sources were double agents controlled by the Ministry of State Security, the CIA was still able to declare victory in the Cold War. Themes and topics that run through the volume include the espionage wars; the HVA's relationship with the Russian KGB; successes and failures of the BND (West German Federal Intelligence Service) in East Germany; the CIA and the HVA; the HVA in countries outside of West Germany; disinformation and the role and importance of intelligence gathering in East Germany. This book will be of much interest to students of East Germany, Intelligence Studies, Cold War History and German politics in general. Kristie Macrakis is Professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta. Thomas Wegener Friis is an Assistant Professor at the University of Southern Denmark’s Centre for Cold War Studies. Helmut Müller-Enbergs is currently a Visiting Professor at the University of Southern Denmark and holds a tenured senior staff position at the German Federal Commission for the STASI Archives in Berlin.