German Newsreel 2.1944 EUROPA WOCHE № 52 KERCH BRIDGEHEAD
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Episode 286
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Europa Woche Nr. 52
February 22, 1944
00:51 - Inauguration of Seyss-Inquart as the new President of the
Germany Academy
01:42 - Report on a sawmill powered by water power
02:49 - Processing of herrings
04:18 - Performances of the Circassian dance and choir group
05:17 - German Film Ballet during training and dance rehearsal
07:26 - Four-man bobsleigh competition
08:15 - Rounding up reindeer herds in Lapland
09:24 - Celebration with young workers
10:28 - Henkell sparkling wine cellar
11:53 - German soldiers during operations against the Kerch bridgehead
Battle of the Parpach Narrows, 27 February – 11 April
Stavka reinforced the Caucasus Front Front with nine rifle divisions. Soviet engineers built an ice road across the frozen Kerch Strait, enabling 96,618 men, 23,903 horses and 6,519 motor vehicles to reinforce the Kerch peninsula forces. The 47th Army was deployed to the area, initially with only two rifle divisions. The Stavka created the Crimean Front under, with Kozlov as its commander, on 28 January, with the 44th, 47th and 51st Armies belonging to it organically and the Separate Coastal Army and Black Sea Fleet falling under its operational command. Kozlov had little command experience beyond the regimental level and his staff was as inept. Stavka representative Lev Mekhlis arrived at the Crimean Front HQ in late January and introduced his own ideas into the planning stage. Stalin and Mekhlis wanted to liberate Crimea with an offensive on 13 February, but the Soviet forces were unequal to the task. Soviet troops lacked food and three 76mm artillery regiments had no ammunition at all. The backward nature of the Kerch peninsula's road network, the muddy roads and the Luftwaffe's bombing campaign against ports and Soviet cargo shipping prevented a sufficient logistical buildup and made Stalin's demand unrealistic. On 27 February Kozlov finally had available for his operation the required 93,804 troops, 1,195 guns and mortars, 125 anti-tank guns, 194 tanks and 200 aircraft. These forces were assembled in nine rifle divisions at the front along with numerous tank brigades containing T-26, T-34 and 36 KV-1 tanks. The Soviets were far from ready. Their tanks and aircraft lacked fuel supplies, many weapons did not work, the Soviet artillery had not organized a fire system, communications between Kozlov's HQ and the Crimean Front armies were repeatedly cut off, and engineers had not constructed field works of any kind. Under pressure from Stalin, Kozlov started his attack anyway.
First Offensive, 27 February – 3 March
The 51st Army planned to attack in the north on 27 February across a flat, 80-square kilometer plain dotted only by a handful of small villages. The Germans fortified the villages of Tulumchak, Korpech’ [ru], and Koi-Asan. The German 46th and 132nd Infantry Divisions held the XXXXII Corps front along with the Romanian 18th Infantry Division. Gruppe Hitzfeld waited in reserve. The Axis defensive preparations were extensive and in accordance with German tactical doctrine. Reinforced German strongpoints had all-around defenses, neutralizing the effects of simultaneous Soviet frontal and flank attacks, and the Germans created a system of engineering works permeated with augmented artillery fires. Mattenklott made the mistake of putting the Romanian 18th Infantry Regiment into a difficult and exposed position in a salient on the northern part of the line. The Soviet planners, led by Tolbukhin, failed to account for the warm weather that turned the terrain into a sea of mud.
51st Army's offensive kicked off at 0630 hours on 27 February with a 230-gun artillery preparation of which most were light 76 mm guns and only 30 were heavy 122 mm guns. The fortified German strongpoints were largely unharmed by the light high-explosive rounds. German artillery responded with its own fire and the Soviets lacked the counter-battery capabilities to suppress them. The open terrain provided no cover for the Red Army soldiers, who were systematically killed and wounded in great numbers by incessant German artillery strikes. The heavy Soviet KV-1s sank into the mud and could not get forward. Vehicles were also stuck and Soviet artillery shells had to be carried by hand. Confused Soviet soldiers trampled their comrades to death in the mud.
Catastrophic damage caused by RADIO-BOMBS in occupied KIEV, Sept 24-28 of 1941 with UNSEEN FOOTAGE
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Episode 184
This raw footage is part of a sensational collection from a German army film crew that was produced in September of 1941 after the Battle for Kiev. The material, being processed for use in Deutsche Wochenschau newsreels, had at this stage in the production cycle not yet received the recorded voiceover and more importantly had not yet been censored. That first scenes, for example, would never be shown to the general public and you can probably imagine why.
Using footage from this unique collection we’ll get an uncensored look at occupied Kiev and its population. We’ll then witness the staggering moment that soviet radio bombs were triggered which caused destruction on an enormous scale in an otherwise relatively undamaged city. It was in direct response to these attacks that the German authorities organized the 3-day massacre in the ravines of Babi Yar. At the end of this video we’ll see part of the newsreel that contains some of this raw footage so stick around, it’s worth it.
The city of Kiev was occupied by German forces on September 19th 1941. Contrary to the supplement to directive 34 in which Hitler ordered the city to be raised to the ground, since there had been no fighting within the city limits, it had been spared.
To some this might have seemed an indication that the war against the Soviet Union might progress in a less brutal fashion. If the civil population was willing to trade the autocratic rule of the Soviets to that of the new German occupiers then a relatively peaceful transition might be possible. Either way those in the German High Command had no intention of creating an independent Ukrainian state.
Here we see the German authorities providing papers to Ukrainian families which released the Soviet soldiers from the army and gave them the supposed right to return to their former agricultural activities.
This soldier standing next to his family is removing his Porlyanki, the traditional Russian soldiers’ foot wraps which had been in use since the 17th century. He happily trades in his Soviet uniform for civilian clothing.
This scene filmed in Kiev probably around September 22, shows German produced newspapers being passed out to the civilian population. Although filmed clearly for its propaganda value, there seems to be authentic interest in learning about the progression of the war from a non-Soviet source.
These urban scenes portray an uncanny normality. To what extent had the population acclimated to the new normal?
On September 24th the first of the soviet F-10 radio-bombs exploded in central Kiev with more attacks following up until the 28th. It’s believed that these were detonated by stay behind Soviet engineer units that sent out the activation signal on the designated radio frequency. The Germans tended to occupy large office buildings recently vacated by the Soviets knowing that they were to a large extent in better condition, offered space and sometimes even had communications lines that were left intact. Using this knowledge boobytrapped locations offered the opportunity to kill high value targets much as a sniper does on the battlefield.
The Soviets would even sometimes leave behind poorly camouflaged more simplistic booby traps in the area which, once deactivated, gave the occupier a false sense of security. An F-10 that was detonated on September 24th managed to hit the Rear Headquarters of the Wehrmacht Army Group South killing many officers including the artillery commander of the 29th Army Corps.
Appropriately, in the Lenin Museum, stashes of such F-10 radio-bomb detonators and thousands of kilos of explosives was found. Within a few days the Germans had developed counter measures which included using an electronic listening device which could localize the radio-bombs mechanical clock component, broadcasting a blocking radio wave at a discovered F-10 frequency or simply digging to find the radio antennae. But in Kiev, with the combination of the explosions and the resulting fires, the damage had already been done. In response the occupiers organized the largest reprisal massacre to date in the ravines of nearby Babi Yar. The downward spiral of increasing violence was accelerating.
RAW & UNCENSORED Wochenschau film crew material shows treatment of Soviet POWs - Sept.1941
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Episode 185
This is part two in a series that uses sensational raw footage from a German film crew that was produced in early September of 1941. The material, being processed for use in Deutsche Wochenschau newsreels, had at this stage in the production cycle not yet received the recorded voiceover and more importantly had not yet been censored. Much of the material will be completely new but If you know your stuff you’ll recognize some of the clips, and might even know which newsreel it was shown in.
In part 2 we’ll follow Army Group South as it advances into the Ukraine, get an uncensored feel for the magnitude of the prisoners of war taken and delve into their miserable fate that has gone largely untold. At the end of the video we’ll see part of the released news reel with subtitles so stick around, it’s worth it.
The quick advance of the German armies into the Ukraine in the summer of 1941 created a temporary power vacuum and left the majority of the civilian population to their own devices. This level of individual freedom hadn’t been present during the Soviet’s decades long rule. Under the tight control of their well established terror apparatus, the Soviets squeezed the Ukrainian agricultural base which lead to the death by starvation of around 3.9 million Ukrainians.
Had the war in the east been quickly won by the Germans, the planned “extinction of industry as well as a great part of the population” would have taken place. Cities would have been leveled and entire regions depopulated in preparation for colonization by German agrarian settlers. This was expected to lead to the death by starvation of approximately 30 million.
The whole of the Crimea, for example, was to be integrated into Greater Germany and converted into a massive tourist destination but here the Soviets struck first. Following the beginning of Operation Barbarossa, over 60,000 ethnic Germans, all that the Soviet authorities could get their hands on, were deported from Crimea to Siberia.
For the German “Hunger Plan” to be realized they would need to have complete control of the territories and population which they never fully accomplished and so the Slavic population was largely spared from this horrific fate. The millions of completely vulnerable Soviet POWs, however, were not spared.
POW camps were set up by the Germans in the Ukraine, Belarus and in Poland but weren’t allocated the resources to support the lives of the millions of former Soviet soldiers. In these camps the names of the POWs were not even registered which was an ominous indication as to what was in store for them.
Those that couldn’t work were systematically left to starve to death. In one instance POWs from the camp at Molodechno in Belarus, prisoners submitted a written petition asking to be shot rather than dying slowly of hunger in the cold. During the war some 3.1 million died in German captivity. About 500,000 were shot and the remaining 2.6 million died of starvation and hunger related disease.
This crime has been forgotten to a large extent because Stalin considered the POWs as deserters. After the war, of the few that had managed to somehow survive and were repatriated, most were simply shot by the Soviets. There was no going back. And unlike other victimized groups no-one was specifically interested in correctly representing their memory.
If you are interested in finding out more about the subject I can whole heartedly recommend Timothy Snyder’s book Bloodland’s, Europe between Hitler and Stalin. And now here’s that clip from the produced Wochenschau that some of the footage is found it. If you know which reel number this is write it in the comment section below.
Liberating the Slavs in 1941 wins the war? - RAW UNCENSORED WOCHENSCHAU Pt. 3
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Episode 186
In part 3 we’ll watch more raw footage of the Wehrmacht advancing into the Ukraine. Then I'll respond to some interesting comments from Part 2 of the series. At the end of the video I’ll touch on why the war in the East was destined to become one of complete annihilation. There was no room for sincere compromise.
These films scenes, meant to cleverly contrast the supposedly cultured and racially pure Waffen-SS soldiers to the barbarian Bolsheviks that they were facing. Finding and filming individuals with pronounced asiatic features was no accident. The message was these were the men that civilization needed to be saved from.
In part 2 of the series I talked about the fate of millions of Soviet POWs and touched on Görings hunger plan. Comments were generally positive however there was also push back. Some claimed that the invaders had no intention of leveling cities or depopulating entire regions of slavs to make space for ethnic Germans. It went as far as to claim that they were liberating the Slavs and that Soviet POWs were treated well. Many are incapable to disentangle Hitler from Stalin; that Stalin was responsible for all of the evils done and that’s it. One of these comments ended simply with the words - LIES Judah! Which of course is a conversation stopper. You can’t help stupid.
Then I came across a comment that literally stopped me in my tracks. It was in response to my statement that Stalin had considered returning POWs as traitors and had most of them shot -
"The germans should have released the captured Russians soldiers, since Stalin would've killed them anyway. A win win situation."
The one reply was:
That’s pretty sick, you should be ashamed….
Which of course is true, but… the question he’s answering is “What should be done with all the Soviet POWs?”.
Although what he suggests wasn’t viable, obviously they wouldn’t simply release the POWs, his solution to a complicated problem with complete disregard to traditional moral constraints, is authentic. These are the kinds of questions and types of answers behind most of the worst atrocities.
An example: In May of 1942 Heydrich was assassinated. It was believed that residents from the Czech town Lidice had helped the assassins. Question: “How should the authorities respond?” Solution: kill all Lidice’s men by firing squad, to divide the women from the children and send them to Ravensbruck, to slaughter all of the town’s pets and animals, to burn the town and then to blow up the remains of the buildings, to dig up Lidice’s cemetery to loot the graves and dessecrate the remains, to reroute the stream that ran through the town, to completely cover the former area of the town with topsoil and to plant crops, finally to put a barbed wire fence around the entire area. The complete destruction of Lidice was filmed for posterity. Problem solved.
And now, regarding the question as to whether the Germans could have liberated the Slavic populations and so possibly won the war in 1941.
This is the 1933 book commemorating that year’s NSDAP Party Day in Nuremberg which was the first held during the 3rd Reich. The book was produced by Julius Streicher the man responsible for publishing the racist periodical Der Stürmer and self proclaimed Frankenführer. Sorry, I really can’t stand listening to Streichers racist rants.
Interpretation:
An armored knight rides through a narrow gorge accompanied by his loyal dog who has complete trust in his master. They are flanked by a goat-headed devil and the figure of death. Death's rotting corpse holds an hourglass, a reminder of the shortness of life. The rider moves through the scene looking away from the creatures lurking around him, and appears almost contemptuous of the threats, and is thus a symbol of courage. The knight's armor, the horse which towers in size over the beasts, and the fortress on the mountaintop are symbolic of the resilience of faith.
It’s clear who was seen as the 3rd Reich’s shining knight. Hitler’s fanatical crusade for Lebensraum in the east was clearly spelled out in Mein Kampf. The war of annihilation was to end with conquered lands dominated by ethnic Germans. The liberation of foreign populations was totally out of the question.
This 1942 pamphlet titled, Der Untermensch, clearly show that the Slavic populations were also considered racially inferior. The first illustration compares them to the Mongul hoards that terrorized Eastern Europe in the 13th century. Ironically it was actually the Slavic populations that suffered most. Being trampled by the hooves of these supposed “horsemen of the devil” as they advance west can be seen a murdered baby and a bound and raped European women.
The message here was that the Slavs were the destroyers of civilization and culture. So was it really possible for Hitler to go down in history as the “Great Liberator of the Slavs?” I think not.
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German Newsreel 29.2.44 EUROPA WOCHE Nr. 53
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Episode 203
EUROPA WOCHE
Reel 53
29th Feb. 1944
1:11 - Preparation for a bombing raid on London
3:25 - German boys choir in Budapest
4:33 - German soldiers with sled dogs in Lappland
5:18 - Final game in the German hockey league
6:38 - Motorcycle acrobats
7:36 - Tennis match in Spain
8:29
- Production of children's toys
9:14 - Romanian general
10:29
- German S-Boats in action
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As the name of the weekly news series implies, Europa Woche was created for an international audience, specifically for populations in German occupied and allied countries. The content was carefully orchestrated mixing military themes showing the superiority and success of German arms and light hearted segments focusing on cultural and leisure activities. Reel 53 in the series was released on February 29, 1944.
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German Newsreel 1942 MONATSSCHAU Nr. 7
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Episode 204
Descheg-Monatsschau (07 / 1942)
Descheg-Monatsschau was a monthly German news series that compiled reports of the most important events. In the second half of episode 7 from 1942 the content covered was the operation of German U-boots off the Eastern Coast of the United States, the Deutsche Afrikakorps, and on the Eastern Front the Wolchow bridgehead and operations in the Caucasus.
1:05 - German submarine on patrol against the USA
3:00 - North Africa Font
4:48 - Eastern Front
7:04 - Caucasian Front
10:24 - Elbrus
CONTENT
8) German submarine on patrol against the USA. Dolphins accompany the boat on its journey in the Atlantic; crew members playing skat; Pancake making in the galley; Navigation work on the map: the commander at the periscope; the bank at the mouth of the St. Lawrence River through the periscope; Torpedo is moored; burning tanker.
II)
9) North Africa Font.
Watch post on the coast of Tobruk; German-Italian coastal defense units take up positions; Coastal batteries fire on English prisoners on land: transported away on trucks; captured English speedboat; Unloading barrels in the port of Tobruk; Supply columns on the move.
10) Eastern Front.
Volkhov Bridgehead area. Scout troop advances through completely devastated terrain and ruins; Remote camera shots of the Soviet positions; anti-tank and artillery fire; Assault guns advance; destroyed battle area.
11) Caucasian Front.
Attack on a town outside Novorossisk; Flak in ground combat operations; Me 110 on enemy mission, bombing the port facilities of Novorossisk; Air combat with a Soviet attack aircraft and a rata, shot down; Bursts of fire from on-board weapons on a village.
12) Caucasus Front.
Shot up Soviet tanks on the side of the road; Caucasian fascist militia at the police station in Pyatigorsk; Mountain soldiers on the march into the Elbrus area, a flock of sheep blocking the way; Capture of the meteorological station on Elbrus by a company of the Swabian-Bavarian Mountain Division; Captain Groth's group climbs to the summit, climbing over glaciers; Flight over Elbrus.
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German Newsreel 21.3.44 EUROPA WOCHE 56 - 20th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Estonian)
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Episode 205
1:21 - Fifth anniversary celebration of independence in Slovakia
2:25 - Windischleuba Castle (near Altenburg). The lyricist Borries
Freiherr von Münchhausen’s 70th birthday
3:00 - The artist Karl Truppe working
4:34 - Rotterdam. Women’s waterpolo
5:40 - Fashion show in Brussels
6:31 - Diamond cutting work in Amsterdam.
7:18 - German craft exhibition in Croatia
8:19 - Testing of a new train design
9:32 - Wood extraction and processing in Germany
11:14 - Northern section of the Eastern Front at Narwa and the Lake
Pskov
As the name of the weekly news series implies, Europa Woche was created for an international audience, specifically for populations in German occupied and allied countries. The content was carefully orchestrated mixing military themes showing the superiority and success of German and allied arms, political and economic themes, and light hearted segments focusing on cultural and leisure activities. Reel 56 in the series was released on March 21, 1944.
#DeutscheWochenschau #worldwar2 #GermanNewsreels #Goebbels #GermanPropaganda #Monatsschau #Blitz #EasternFront #WaffenSS
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German Newsreel 1942 MONATSSCHAU Nr. 8 - Danish Freikorps and STALINGRAD
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Episode 206
Descheg-Monatsschau (08 / 1942)
Descheg-Monatsschau was a monthly German news series that compiled reports of the most important events. In the second half of episode 8 from 1942 the content covered was:
1:20 - Arrival of the Donmark Freikorps (Waffen SS) on leave in Copenhagen by train after deployment on the Eastern Front; March through the city;
2:12 - Battle for Stalingrad. Artillery shelling industrial facilities; shell impacts; Infantry advances across devastated terrain; infantry battles in industrial areas; Soviet prisoner train; Stuka attack on Stalingrad
4:47 - Caucasus Front
a. Rail trucks bring supplies forward; destroyed Bakonskaya train station near Novorossisk; Advance towards Tuappe; Antiaircraft artillery shelling Nalchik; Capture of Nalchik by Romanian mountain troops; Shooting targets in houses.
6:32 - b. Flight of a fighter unit over the Caucasus; bomb drops and impacts at depth; Aircraft strafe ground targets.
7:23 - Battle Group of the Navy leaves Norwegian waters.
7:42 - a. The Italian submarine "Barbarigo" under the commanding officer Captain Enzio Grossi on patrol; alarm diving; Grossi on the periscope; Torpedo attack on a convoy.
8:25 - b. return of the submarine to its home port; Grossi is congratulated and receives the RK from Admiral Karl Dönitz.
8:52 - Japanese Navy on patrol to the South Pacific; combat alert; Artillery fire on enemy ships.
The Frikorps Danmark or Danish Free Corps was a Danish volunteer corps that was created by the Danish National Socialist Workers Party (DNSAP) in cooperation with Nazi Germany, to fight against the Soviet Union during World War II. On June 29, 1941, days after the German invasion of the Soviet Union, the DNSAP newspaper Fædrelandet proclaimed the creation of the body. Its formation was later sanctioned by the democratically elected Danish government and authorized Danish Army officers to join the unit.1 The corps was disbanded in 1943. During the course of the war, approximately 6,000 Danes joined the corps, including 77 officers of the Royal Danish Army.
At the end of July 1941, with approximately 1,000 recruits, the corps was sent to the Langenhorn barracks in Hamburg. She was deemed ready for action on 15 September and was shipped to Owińska in Poland.
C.P. Kryssing was dismissed in February 1942 for insufficient ideological support for Nazism. He was transferred to the artillery where he actually finished his career as a general.
Christian Frederik von Schalburg, a Danish-Russian aristocrat, anti-communist and member of the DNSAP who had grown up in Russia and had seen the consequences of the Russian revolution in 1917, replaced Kryssing as leader of the Frikorps Danmark.
On May 8, 1942, the corps was brought to the front line. They fought near Demiansk, south of Lake Ilmen and Novgorod. During the night of June 2, Schalburg was murdered. Hans Albert von Lettow-Vorbeck, his German replacement, was assassinated a few days later. On 11 July 1942, Knud Børge Martinsen took command of the Corps.
From August to October, they returned to Denmark and were met with much hostility from the civilian population. On 13 November 1942, the Corps was deployed to Jelgava, Latvia. Originally, it was intended for anti-partisan activities, but was later moved to the front line. In December, the corps met at the Battle of Velikiye Luki in intense fighting, together with the 1st SS Infantry Brigade.
Members of the Frikorps Danmark taking the oath in 1941.
In March, the body was moved to Grafenwöhr, near Nuremberg, Germany. Then, on June 6, 1943, the Corps was disbanded. Most of the soldiers were transferred to the "24th Dänemark Regiment" of the 11th SS Grenadier Division "Nordland". Others joined groups such as the HIPO Corps or the Schalburg Corps.
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German Newsreel 1942 MONATSSCHAU Nr. 10 - ATLANTIS auxiliary cruiser
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Episode 207
1:29 - The Japanese ambassador in Berlin, General Hirosho Oshima; visits a unit of German night fighters; a major (RK) explains to him an Me 109
1:57 - Croatian air-force soldiers return home after their deployment on the Eastern Front; Prime Minister Dr. Ante Pavelic greets the pilots upon their arrival; March past Pevelic.
2:57 - Army Group Center on the Eastern Front
Helmets are painted with white camouflage paint; Walls of snow are built.
3:45 - b) deployment of a communications line repair team; line test; the line is being repaired in the snowy forest; Soviet snipers fire on the team, a light MG returns fire ; a wounded man is brought back in the snowstorm.
5:37 - c) artillery spotting; night artillery fire on Soviet positions; Prisoners are brought back by military police, captured military equipment.
6:45 - Caucasus Front
floodplain in the Caucasus; Slovaks cross a flooded area in a dinghy; Romanian mountain troops on the Terek; high water crossings; German infantry gun fires at a house, it's blown up.
8:29 - Cultivating the fields in Tunisia, farmers plowing.
8:52 - General Wolfgang Fischer goes to the front positions in the Tebaorda area in an armored reconnaissance vehicle; Observation of enemy positions in the foothills of the Atlas Mountains; Viewing of downed American tanks and aircraft; American prisoners.
10:31 - German submarines in the South Atlantic. The crew of the sunk German auxiliary cruiser "Atlantis" is picked up by "U 126"; Boats are towed; Entrance to the base on the Atlantic coast; Farewell to the Italian sailors. The commander, Captain Bernhard Rogge, reports the return of the crew of the "Atlantis" to Grand Admiral Erich Raeder; Raeder awards crew members with the Hilfskreuzer badge. (End of December 1941) Small film footage of the "Atlantis"; alarm on the ship; an English tanker is set on fire by on-board artillery and sunk.
The German auxiliary cruiser Atlantis (HSK 2), known to the Kriegsmarine as Schiff 16 and to the Royal Navy as Raider-C, was a converted German Hilfskreuzer (auxiliary cruiser), or merchant or commerce raider of the Kriegsmarine, which, in World War II, travelled more than 161,000 km (100,000 mi) in 602 days, and sank or captured 22 ships with a combined tonnage of 144,384. Atlantis was commanded by Kapitän zur See Bernhard Rogge, who received the Oak Leaves to the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. She was sunk on 22 November 1941 by the British cruiser HMS Devonshire.
Commerce raiders do not seek to engage warships, but rather attack enemy merchant shipping; the measures of success are tonnage destroyed (or captured) and time spent at large. Atlantis was second only to Pinguin in tonnage destroyed, and had the longest raiding career of any German commerce raider in either world war. She captured highly secret documents from Automedon. A version of the story of Atlantis is told in the film Under Ten Flags with Van Heflin appearing as Captain Rogge.
Journey to the South Atlantic
In 1939, she became the command of Kapitän Bernhard Rogge. Commissioned in mid-December, she was the first of nine or ten merchant ships armed by Nazi Germany for the purposes of seeking out and engaging enemy cargo vessels. Atlantis was delayed by ice until 31 March 1940,[9] when the former battleship Hessen was sent to act as an icebreaker, clearing the way for Atlantis, Orion, and Widder.[citation needed]. Weather information was supplied to Atlantis by the weather ships WBS 3 Fritz Homann, WBS 4 Hinrich Freese and WBS 5 Adolf Vinnen.[10]
Atlantis headed past the North Sea minefields, between Norway and Britain, across the Arctic Circle, between Iceland and Greenland, and headed south. By this time, Atlantis was pretending to be a Soviet vessel named Kim by flying the Soviet naval ensign, displaying a hammer and sickle on the bridge, and having Russian and English warnings on the stern, "Keep clear of propellers". The Soviet Union was neutral at the time.[citation needed]
After crossing the equator, on 24–25 April, she took the guise of the Japanese vessel Kasii Maru. The ship now displayed a large K upon a red-topped funnel, identification of the K Line transportation company. She also had rising sun symbols on the gun flaps and Japanese characters (copied from a magazine) on the aft hull.
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German Newsreel EUROPA WOCHE 61 - 25.4.1944
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Episode 209
EUROPA WOCHE
61/1944 (25 April)
1:37
- The sculptor Josef Thorak at work
3:01 - Concert at the Berlin Opera celebrating
5:42 - Fashion show
6:51 - Segment of the show "Theater Theater" from W. Forster and C. Michalski
8:04 - Technical training at a Dutch school
8:47 - High voltage experiments
10:16 - Combat operations in the southern sector of the Eastern Front
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German Newsreel Monatsschau 11, 1943 - Spanish Blue Division
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Episode 210
MONATSSCHAU
Nr. 11, 1943
German submarines in the South Atlantic
Tunesian Front, impressions of Tunis and of several front posts
Logistics in the north of the Eastern Front
The Spanish "Blue Division" near Leningrad
Area around elikije Luki
Middle sector of the Eastern Front.
The 250th Infantry Division (German: 250. Infanterie-Division), better known as the Blue Division (Spanish: División Azul, German: Blaue Division), was a unit of volunteers from Francoist Spain operating from 1941 to 1944 within the German Army (Wehrmacht) on the Eastern Front during World War II. It was officially designated the Spanish Volunteer Division (Spanish: División Española de Voluntarios) by the Spanish Army.
Francisco Franco had secured power in Spain after the Nationalist victory in the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), during which the Nationalists received support from Nazi Germany. Franco's authoritarian regime remained officially non-belligerent in World War II but sympathised with the Axis powers. After lobbying by the Spanish Foreign Minister Ramón Serrano Suñer and by senior figures within the Spanish Army following the 22 June 1941 launch of Operation Barbarossa, Franco agreed that Spanish people would be permitted to enlist privately in the German Army and undertook to provide tacit support. An infantry division was raised from Falangist and Spanish Army cadres and was sent for training in Germany. The unit fought on the Eastern Front and notably participated in the 1941–1944 siege of Leningrad, but was withdrawn from the Front after Allied pressure in October 1944 and returned to Spain soon afterwards. Several thousand non-returners were incorporated into the 121st Infantry Division, the short-lived Blue Legion, and eventually into the Waffen-SS.
On 31 July, after taking the Hitler Oath, the Blue Division was formally incorporated into the German Wehrmacht as the 250th Division. It was initially assigned to Army Group Center, the force advancing towards Moscow. The division was transported by train to Suwałki, Poland (August 28), from where it had to continue by foot on a 900-kilometre (560 mi) march. It was scheduled to travel through Grodno, and Lida in Belarus, Vilnius (Lithuania), and Maladzyechna, Minsk, and Orsha in Belarus to Smolensk, and from there to the Moscow front. While marching towards the Smolensk front on September 26, the Spanish volunteers were rerouted from Vitebsk and reassigned to Army Group North (the force closing on Leningrad), becoming part of the German 16th Army. The Blue Division was first deployed on the Volkhov River front, with its headquarters in Grigorovo, on the outskirts of Novgorod. It was in charge of a 50-kilometre (31 mi) section of the front north and south of Novgorod, along the banks of the Volkhov River and Lake Ilmen.
The division's soldiers used the iconostasis of the Church of Saint Theodore Stratelates on the Brook for firewood. The iconostases of the Cathedral of St. Sophia, Sts. Peter and Paul Church in Kozhevniki, and the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Mother of God in the Antoniev Monastery were taken to Germany at the end of 1943. According to the museum curator in the Church of the Transfiguration on Ilyina Street, the division used the high cupola as a machine-gun nest. As a result, much of the building was seriously damaged, including many of the medieval icons by Theophanes the Greek. Vladimir Kovalevskii, one of the division's White Russian emigre interpreters, left a particularly acerbic memoir account describing the low discipline and the crimes committed by the Spanish volunteers.
In August 1942, the Blue Division was transferred north to the southeastern flank of the siege of Leningrad, just south of the Neva River near Pushkin, Kolpino and Krasny Bor in the Izhora River area. After the collapse of the German southern front following the Battle of Stalingrad, more German troops were deployed southwards. By this time, General Emilio Esteban Infantes had taken command. The Blue Division faced a major Soviet attempt to break the siege of Leningrad in February 1943, when the Soviet 55th Army, reinvigorated after the victory at Stalingrad, attacked the Spanish positions at the Battle of Krasny Bor, near the main Moscow-Leningrad road. Despite very heavy casualties, the Spaniards were able to hold their ground against a Soviet force seven times larger and supported by tanks. The assault was contained and the siege of Leningrad was maintained for a further year. The division remained on the Leningrad front where it continued to suffer heavy casualties due to weather and to enemy action.
German Newsreel MONATSSCHAU 12, 1943 Waffen SS
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Episode 211
MONATSSCHAU
Nr. 12, 1943
1:32 Loading of a Honved formation for use on the Eastern Front; a chimney sweep is attacked as a good luck charm; Farewell at the train station, the train leaves.
2:13 Swearing-in of new Dutch volunteers to a Waffen-SS battalion in Amsterdam; March past SS Obergruppenführer Hanns Rauter.
2:49 Tunisian Front.
Panzer advance in central Germany; drive through a cactus field; Tank battle with American tanks, burning tanks; Medical tank drives up. The wounded are bandaged and brought back; shot up American tanks, captured English and Americans.
5:17 Counter attack of the LSAAH on the Eastern Front
8:40 Stukas Ju 86 take off for an enemy flight; Me 109 flying escort; Deep attacks by fighters on ground targets, air battles with Soviet fighters.
German Newsreel 1943 MONATSSCHAU Nr. 13, War Periodical SIGNAL Nr. 5
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Episode 212
MONATSSCHAU
Nr. 13, April 1943
Greece
2:16 - Heavy weapons and newly arrived German soldiers marching through the streets of Athens; loading of tanks, trucks in Athen's port and then transport to the island of Crete; destroyer secures the convoy.
5:17 - Crete's coastline; construction of tank obstacles on the southern coast; barbed wire is set up, camouflaged gun emplacements; German fighters take off from Crete's airbase.
4:39 - Japanese troops in operations in the province of Junnan; advancing through the jungle; Budhist priest; advance in Tshkiang Provence; fighting in mountainous areas against enemy partisan groups.
6:41 - Awarding of the Knights Cross to the 19 year old Dutch volunteer Mooyman by General Sinhuber south of Lake Ladoga (20.02.1943),
Battle for Charkow.
7:16 - Armored and motorized units of the Waffen-SS advancing on Charkow; motorcycle troops; Flak batteries against land targets; German troops enter Charkow; tanks and infantry support guns in street fighting; the city is retaken on 14.03.1943.
SIGNAL Nr. 5, March 1943
11:46 - The photographs and this article were produced by a propaganda company reporter embedded with a unit on the Easter Front. It’s titled "Motorcycle Troops behind Stuka". It describes how the fast moving elements of a division including armor, PzGr, and motorcycle troops race forwards hot on the heels of a retreating enemy while the majority of the division moves up slowly with little more to do than collect POWs and break up what’s left of local pockets of enemy resistance. Fuel for the quick advance of the mobile units is taken from stocks that had been flown in the evening before.
During the night the Bolsheviks had broken contact and retreated out of the area abandoning their injured and those who couldn’t keep up to their fate. German night reconnaissance planes flew in low and reported that the Soviets had set up defensive positions about 30 km ahead in a rail hub.
In the early morning a squadron of Stukas flys over head and bombards the new enemy positions effectively. In the meantime artillery has been brought up, and in cooperation with well positioned spotters, also begin firing on the enemy positions.
The motorcycle troops, approaching the town, come under heavy enemy fire. They leave their motorcycles outside of the range of the enemy MGs and move forwards in groups, some directly and others on the flanks. They concentrate their fire on the industrial rail area that the enemy is holed up in and after a short but intense exchange of fire the enemy positions are taken.
3rd Battle of Kharkov
The Third Battle of Kharkov was a series of battles on the Eastern Front of World War II, undertaken by German Army Group South against the Soviet Red Army, around the city of Kharkov between 19 February and 15 March 1943. Known to the German side as the Donets Campaign, and in the Soviet Union as the Donbas and Kharkov operations, the German counterstrike led to the recapture of the cities of Kharkov and Belgorod.
As the German 6th Army was encircled in the Battle of Stalingrad, the Red Army undertook a series of wider attacks against the rest of Army Group South. These culminated on 2 January 1943 when the Red Army launched Operation Star and Operation Gallop, which between January and early February broke German defenses and led to the Soviet recapture of Kharkov, Belgorod, Kursk, as well as Voroshilovgrad and Izium. These victories caused participating Soviet units to over-extend themselves. Freed on 2 February by the surrender of the German 6th Army, the Red Army's Central Front turned its attention west and on 25 February expanded its offensive against both Army Group South and Army Group Center. Months of continuous operations had taken a heavy toll on the Soviet forces and some divisions were reduced to 1,000–2,000 combat-effective soldiers. On 19 February, Field Marshal Erich von Manstein launched his Kharkov counterstrike, using the fresh II SS Panzer Corps and two panzer armies. Manstein benefited greatly from the massive air support of Field Marshal Wolfram von Richthofen's Luftflotte 4, whose 1,214 aircraft flew over 1,000 sorties per day from 20 February to 15 March to support the German ground troops, a level of airpower equal to that during the Case Blue strategic offensive a year earlier.[5]
The Wehrmacht flanked, encircled, and defeated the Red Army's armored spearheads south of Kharkov. This enabled Manstein to renew his offensive against the city of Kharkov proper on 7 March. Despite orders to encircle Kharkov from the north, the SS Panzer Corps instead decided to directly engage Kharkov on 11 March. This led to four days of house-to-house fighting before Kharkov was recaptured by the SS Division Leibstandarte on 15 March.
German War Periodical - Division Reich (mot.) vs. MOSCOW, Episode 31
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Episode 214
The defensive zone in front of the Soviet capital meant to hold back the advancing Germans has a depth of 14 km. There are 7 different layers, some quite thin and others that extend for kilometers, are meant to make the defensive network impenetrable. The first layer of defense is made up of automatic Flamethrowers that have been dug into the ground with only their nozzles sticking out. With approaching German soldiers these would be activated to function automatically from a hidden bunker. The second layer is made up of multiple lines of trenches which have been dug in a zig zag pattern. These trenches are heavily mined and meant to stop tanks from passing. Right behind these is the 3rd layer which is made up of extensive barbed fixtures in a swampy area around the Moskva river basin which extends for kilometers. In the 4th layer are additional extra deep and wide trenches meant to hinder tanks. In the 5th layer are endless rows of so-called Spanish Riders which are lengths of rail track that have been welded together in the shape of pyramids. In the 6th layer are densely placed bunkers of every shape and size. Finally in the 7th layer come the normal infantry and artillery positions. This 14 km defensive zone stretches from Kaluga to Kalinin and has a width of about 300 km. At the strongest point, specifically blocking the Smolensk-Moscow highway, after days of fighting the Germans were finally able to break through. The area was systematically de-mined and one defensive layer after the next was overcome. The Soviets believed that their defensive positions were impenetrable but the German soldiers managed to make their way through.
PANTHER tank crew training footage + COLOR German Newsreel 1944
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Episode 213
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Reel 1
1:38 HJ and BdM working at the countryside
3:17 Ströbeck/Harz Mountains: the "chess town" (Orig.: Schachdorf)
4:52 Medau near Coburg (Franconia): Girls' morning training in gymnastic school
6:31 Impressions of a Berlin Sunday of the fifth war summer
7:00 In the zoo
7:30 Boxing fight
7:46 Lido Wannsee
Reel 2
9:17 Cossack unit in German service on maneuver
10:58 Tank workshop at the east front
12:38 Torpedo boat manoeuvre
14:33 Paratroopers' training
---
17:32 Signal 1944-45 Collection (for sale, ask about it)
18:25 Panther crew training footage
PANTHER TANK
The Panther tank, officially Panzerkampfwagen V Panther (abbreviated PzKpfw V) with ordnance inventory designation: Sd.Kfz. 171, is a German medium tank of World War II. It was used on the Eastern and Western Fronts from mid-1943 to the end of the war in May 1945.
On 27 February 1944 it was redesignated to just PzKpfw Panther, as Hitler ordered that the Roman numeral "V" be deleted. In contemporary English-language reports it is sometimes referred to as the "Mark V".
The Panther was intended to counter the Soviet T-34 medium tank and to replace the Panzer III and Panzer IV. Nevertheless, it served alongside the Panzer IV and the heavier Tiger I until the end of the war. The Panther was a compromise. While having essentially the same Maybach V12 petrol (690 hp) engine as the Tiger I, it had better gun penetration, was lighter and faster, and could traverse rough terrain better than the Tiger I. The trade-off was weaker side armour, which made it vulnerable to flanking fire and a weaker high explosive shell. The Panther proved to be effective in open country and long-range engagements.[8] Although it had excellent firepower, protection and mobility, its reliability was less impressive.[9] The Panther was far cheaper to produce than the Tiger I. Key elements of the Panther design, such as its armour, transmission, and final drive, were simplifications made to improve production rates and address raw material shortages. Despite this, the overall design has still been described by some as "overengineered".
The Panther was rushed into combat at the Battle of Kursk in the summer of 1943 despite numerous unresolved technical problems, leading to high losses due to mechanical failure. Most design flaws were rectified by late 1943 and early 1944, though the bombing of production plants, increasing shortages of high-quality alloys for critical components, shortage of fuel and training space, and the declining quality of crews all impacted the tank's effectiveness. Though officially classified as a medium tank, at 44.8 metric tons the Panther was closer in weight to contemporary foreign heavy tanks. The Panther's weight caused logistical problems, such as an inability to cross certain bridges, otherwise the tank had a very high power-to-weight ratio which made it highly mobile.
The naming of Panther production variants did not, unlike most German tanks, follow alphabetical order: the initial variant, Panther "D" (Ausf. D), was followed by "A" and "G" variants.
DESIGN
Albert Speer examines a T-34 Model 1940 in June 1943
The Panther was born out of a project started in 1938 to replace the Panzer III and Panzer IV tanks. The initial requirements of the VK 20 series called for a fully tracked vehicle weighing 20 tonnes and design proposals by Krupp, Daimler Benz and MAN ensued. These designs were abandoned and Krupp dropped out of the competition entirely as the requirements increased to a vehicle weighing 30 tonnes, a direct reaction to the encounters with the Soviet T-34 and KV-1 tanks and against the advice of Wa Prüf 6. The T-34 outclassed the existing models of the Panzer III and IV. At the insistence of General Heinz Guderian, a special tank commission was created to assess the T-34.] Among the features of the Soviet tank considered most significant were the sloping armour, which gave much improved shot deflection and also increased the effective armor thickness against penetration, the wide track, which improved mobility over soft ground, and the 76.2 mm (3 in) gun, which had good armour penetration and fired an effective high-explosive round. Daimler-Benz (DB), which designed the successful Panzer III and StuG III, and Maschinenfabrik Augsburg-Nürnberg AG (MAN) were given the task of designing a new 30- to 35-tonne tank, designated VK 30.02, by April 1942.
German Newsreel 1943 MONATSSCHAU Nr. 14 - SIGNAL 1944/45 Complete
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MONATSSCHAU
Nr. 14, May 1943
1:40 Big parade in front of General Francisco Franco on April 1, 1943 in Madrid on the occasion of the 4th anniversary of the end of the civil war; Infantry, cavalry, motorcycles, tanks, anti-aircraft guns, artillery and the fascist organization Falango.
2:58 Community camp of the Dutch, Norwegian, Danish, Flemish and Walloon fascist youth organizations at Lake Milchstätter See in Austria; young people arriving, greeting by a Hitler Youth leader; Morning exercise (gymnastics and games).
4:21 Battle of the Japanese in the South Pacific. Japanese Navy units advancing on New Guinea; Repelling an American bombing attack with anti-aircraft guns; Japanese infantry advancing in the jungles of New Guinea; the destroyed British Salomao airfield; Launch of Japanese fighter squadron to attack Port Darwin (Northern Australia); on enemy flight, crew members eat canned food; Bombing of Port Darwin.
6:35 Construction of the Atlantic Wall in France; Installation of the guns and a gun platform; Transport and installation of a huge gun barrel; Building a gun for the heaviest artillery, cleaning the gun barrel; Bunkers and gun emplacements. (Operation Overlord)
12:27 Complete 1944 & 45 original SIGNAL periodical collection intro
12:59 Takeoff of German He 111 fighter aircraft from a field airfield on the Eastern Front; Bombing of a Soviet city; Bombs hit a large train station.
ATLANTIC WALL
The Atlantic Wall (German: Atlantikwall) was an extensive system of coastal defences and fortifications built by Nazi Germany between 1942 and 1944 along the coast of continental Europe and Scandinavia as a defence against an anticipated Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied Europe from the United Kingdom, during World War II. The manning and operation of the Atlantic Wall was administratively overseen by the German Army, with some support from Luftwaffe ground forces. The Kriegsmarine (German Navy) maintained a separate coastal defence network, organised into a number of sea defence zones.
Hitler ordered the construction of the fortifications in 1942 through his Führer Directive No. 40. More than half a million French workers were drafted to build it. The wall was frequently mentioned in Nazi propaganda, where its size and strength were usually exaggerated. The fortifications included colossal coastal guns, batteries, mortars, and artillery, and thousands of German troops were stationed in its defences. Today, ruins of the wall exist in all of the nations where it was built, although many structures have fallen into the ocean or have been demolished over the years.
Prior to the Atlantic Wall decision, following a number of commando raids, on 2 June 1941 Adolf Hitler asked for maps of the Channel Islands. These were provided the next day and by 13 June 1941 Hitler had made a decision. Ordering additional men to the Islands and having decided the defences were inadequate, lacking tanks and coastal artillery, the Organisation Todt (OT) was instructed to undertake the building of 200–250 strong points in each of the larger islands. The plan was finalised by the OT and submitted to Hitler. The original defence order was reinforced with a second dated 20 October 1941, following a Fuhrer conference on 18 October to discuss the engineers' assessment of requirements. :197 The permanent fortification of the Channel Islands was to make them into an impregnable fortress to be completed within 14 months.: 448 Festungspionierkommandeur XIV was created to command the project of fortifying the Channel Islands.
It was six months later on 23 March 1942 that Hitler issued Führer Directive No. 40, which called for the creation of an "Atlantic Wall". He ordered naval and submarine bases to be heavily defended. Fortifications remained concentrated around ports until late in 1943, when defences were increased in other areas. This decision required the army engineers and the OT to organise quickly. Massive supplies of cement, steel reinforcing and armour plate would be required and everything would need to be transported.
Nazi propaganda claimed that the wall stretched from the cape of Norway down to the Spanish border.
PRIVATE 29th (mot.) ID footage - 2nd COLOR German Newsreel 1944
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Episode 216
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1:40 - Glass blowing workshop
2:49 - Circus acts
4:49 - Mountain troops on in the Italian Alps
6:21 - Die Wehrmacht periodical from 1944, Nr 3 article
9:01 - Soviet bombing raid on a Luftwaffe base in Norway
9:28 - With a Kriegsmarine unit setting up anti-submarine nets
11:40 - 29th (mot.) Infantry Division (Falcon Division)
The content of the Die Wehrmacht periodicals included military life, stories from all branches of the German military, the Luftwaffe, Kriegsmarine, Heer and Waffen-SS. Articles covered current political events, battlefield results in all the theaters of war including the French Campaign, Belgium and the Netherlands, Battle of Britain, invasion of Norway, Balkan campaign, and the war against the Soviet Union. Although heavily laden with German propaganda, much information about important historical events can be found. Over the years this collection has been widely collected and collections have become quite valuable.
The 29th Infantry Division was a unit of the German army created in the fall of 1936. It was based on the old Reichswehr 15th Infantry Regiment and drew its initial recruits from Thuringia. It was upgraded to 29th Motorized Infantry Division in the fall of 1937. The division was also known as the Falke-Division (Falcon Division).
Taking part in Operation Barbarossa it was attached to the German 4th Army and took part in a number of actions against isolated Soviet formations at Minsk, Smolensk and Bryansk. It was then sent to support Guderian's 2nd Panzer Army near Tula. The division lost most of its vehicles and many killed and captured during the retreat from Moscow at Mordves, south of Kashira in the Moscow oblast. In 1942 it spent the first 6 months in action near Orel and then in July 1942 was assigned to the German 6th Army as part of Army Group South. It took part in the fighting on the approaches to Stalingrad, and in the city itself. It was redeployed to serve as the 4th Panzer Army's mobile reserve at the end of September, and relocated behind the IV Corps guarding the southern flank of the 6th Army forces in Stalingrad.
When the Red Army's second pincer attack was launched from the south, the division was pushed into the south-west corner of the pocketed German forces. Having been held in reserve for most of the Stalingrad campaign, the division was at 90% combat strength according to its situation reports. On 21 January 1943 it was attacked by the Soviet 21st Army, and was destroyed.
It was then reconstituted in France in the early spring from the recently formed 345th Infantry Division. It was transferred to the Sicilian Campaign as the 29th Panzergrenadier Division for sometime in the defence of the Northern Route to Messina. Thereafter it fought in Italy at Salerno, Anzio, and San Pietro and was destroyed by the British in northern Italy just before the end of the war.
In the final days of the war, on 29 April 1945, the division was involved in the San Martino di Lupari massacre, where it used Italian civilians as human shields against partisan attacks and eventually executed 125 hostages.
FI 282 CALIBRI HELICOPTER - 3rd COLOR German Newsreel 1945
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Episode 217
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2:00 - Grape harvest on the Rhine: women harvesting in a vineyard, air force soldiers helping with the grape harvest.
3:32 - Cattle drive of cows in the Bavarian Alps: women making jewelry for the cows, ferrying the animals across the Königssee, view of the Watzmann massif. The animals are placed on land and decorated.
5:36 - German troops leave Finland: shoeing horses in a field forge, driving trucks on forest roads and over a bridge. German soldiers and Lapps, these in national costumes, greet each other in Norway.
6:47 - Anti-aircraft position in a Norwegian fjord: anti-aircraft searchlights and operating crew, 8.8 cm anti-aircraft gun in firing position, a soldier on a twin machine gun. German maritime patrol aircraft lying in the water before take-off, crew members at an operational briefing, start of the machines. Alarm in the anti-aircraft position, crew running to the guns, presumably enemy aircraft in the clouds of explosive shells, soldiers to heavy and light fire control devices.
8:16 - Review of the Battle of Solferino, pictures and documents from the founding of the Red Cross by Henri Dunant.
8:43 - Red Cross sisters pack books and die soldiers who have been captured. Package label: "German Red Cross, Presidium, Potsdam-Babelsberg 2, Sergeant Kurt Riemann No. 52043, Internment Camp 133/5, Ottawa/Canada", packaging of food.
9:18 - The wounded are brought aboard the hospital ship “Tübingen” in lifeboats. The “Tübingen” (long shot), hoisting up the wounded, wounded in deck chairs on the deck of the ship.
10:18 - Red Cross sisters care for the wounded, soldiers are loaded onto a Red Cross railway train, soldiers in a home on Lake Garda.
10:57 - Air force juniors are trained on gliders, taking off from a school glider with a motorized winch in a dune landscape and taking off while towing a motorized aircraft.
STUKA v TANKS w twin 37mm canons Hans-Ulrich Rudel 1945 COLOR Newsreel Nr. 4
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2:06 - Vienna: Morning training at the Spanish Riding School. - Group of riders on Lippizaners, individual training of the horses, exercises on long reins and with riders.
3:45 - Germany: hay harvesting - Alpine farmers mowing, bringing in the hay.
4:55 - Albania: market in a village. - Farmers on the way to the market, market scenes, fruits, vegetables, metal dishes and jewelry as goods on offer.
6:19 - Germany: Marine HJ exercises. - Flag exercise of a Marine HJ unit, cutter race.
7:40 - Germany: Excerpt from the feature film "Große Freiheit No. 7" with Hans Albers (Albers sings: "On the Reeperbahn")
9:27 - Germany: Obstacle race at a soldier's sports festival. "Landscapes of War" (according to K-tone)
10:47 - Carpathians: Carpathian Pass at dawn, departure of the troops.
11:10 - Western Front: Forest fire after an air raid. Destroyed city. Wehrmacht unit on the move, air raid, Wehrmacht unit taking cover on the side of the road
11:35 - Italy: landscape, quadruple anti-aircraft guns in defensive battle against planes.
11:45 - Northern Sea: German convoy protected by aircraft and light naval forces, combat alarm, artillery deployment against coastal positions, fogging of the convoy.
14:17 - Eastern Front: German attack pilot on a field airfield, Stuka in action, tipping over for attack, effects of hits, Stuka formation, bombs dropped, impacts.
15:36 - Complete 1944 & 45 Signal collection. Going through an article showing Hans-Ulrich Rudel and his 3.7 cm mounted Ju-87
17:12 - July 1943 at the Kuban Bridgehead, Stukas armed with 3.7 cm mounted guns attack landing craft
HANS-ULRICH RUDEL
He was the most decorated German pilot of the war and the only recipient of the Knight's Cross with Golden Oak Leaves, Swords, and Diamonds, Rudel was credited with the destruction of 519 tanks, one battleship, one cruiser, 70 landing craft and 150 artillery emplacements. He claimed nine aerial victories and the destruction of more than 800 vehicles. He flew 2,530 ground-attack missions exclusively on the Eastern Front, usually flying the Junkers Ju 87 "Stuka" dive bomber.
Rudel surrendered to US forces in 1945 and emigrated to Argentina.
KUBAN BRIDGEHEAD
The Kuban Bridgehead (German: Kuban-Brückenkopf), also known as the "Goth's head position" (Gotenkopfstellung), was a German military position on the Taman Peninsula, Russia, between the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea. Existing from January to October 1943, the bridgehead formed after the Germans were pushed out of the Caucasus. The heavily fortified position was intended as a staging area for the Wehrmacht which was to be used to renew attacks towards the oil wells of the Caucasus. Axis positions in the bridgehead were repeatedly subjected to large Soviet offensives, but none ever comprehensively broke the Axis defensive lines. The bridgehead was abandoned when the Red Army breached the Panther–Wotan line, forcing an evacuation of the German forces across the Kerch Strait to Crimea.
Case Blue (Fall Blau), launched 28 June 1942, saw Army Group South divided into two Army Groups, Army Group A and Army Group B, the former participating in the Battle of the Caucasus. Throughout the operation the German situation, especially that of Army Group B centered on Stalingrad, began to deteriorate. As Army Group B began collapsing in the North, Army Group A quickly found itself at risk of being flanked. It was forced to abandon its task of securing the oilfields of the Caspian, and began withdrawing down the Terek River toward the Taman Peninsula.
Following the encirclement of the 6th Army at Stalingrad, Army Group A withdrew towards the Black Sea and Crimea. The 17th Army, commanded by Richard Ruoff and Erwin Jaenecke, constructed a defensive position across the Kuban River delta in the Taman Peninsula, which was completed in January 1943. The main, first defense line started by Novorossiysk and ran roughly northwards all the way across the peninsula. Consisting of 5 defense lines, the total depth of the defense area was up to 60 km. German forces, moving from positions along the Terek River, fully occupied the new defensive network in February 1943 while under constant attack by the Red Army. The bridgehead, originally intended to provide a staging area for future attempts to gain control of the Caspian oil fields, was re-tasked on 3 September 1943, as the German situation on the Eastern Front continued to deteriorate. The Kuban Bridgehead then served to evacuate German forces as the withdrawal of Army Group South to the Dnieper Line had become inevitable.
German Newsreel Monatsschau 16 Pt 2 - Cossack fighters of the Wehrmacht 1943
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MONATSSCHAU Nr 16
Part 2
July, 1943
1:41 - Building of bridges in Denmark during time of war
2:39 - Football match between Hungarians and Swiss in Genf
3:31 - Recruiting of Galician volunteers for the Waffen SS
4:28 - Swearing in of foreign volunteers to the German air force and the
Waffen SS Battalion Narva
4:50 - Training of new Waffen SS volunteers
5:31 - Combat operations on the Kuban Bridgehead
6:46 - Bombing of Soviet supply depots far behind the front
7:46 - Introduction of an article from periodical Nr. 13 from the Die
Wehrmacht series which covers Cossack volunteers fighting for the
Wehrmacht
The 1st Cossack Cavalry Division was a Russian Cossack division of the German Army that served during World War II. It was created on the Eastern Front mostly with Don Cossacks already serving in the Wehrmacht, those who escaped from the advancing Red Army and Soviet POWs. In 1944, the division was transferred to the Waffen SS, becoming part of the XV SS Cossack Cavalry Corps, established in February 1945. At the end of the war, the unit ceased to exist. It was one of two cossack cavalry divisions, the other being the 2nd Cossack Cavalry Division.
Adolf Hitler authorized the formation of the division on 6 April 1943, ordering that all Cossacks serving in the Wehrmacht to be concentrated into the division.
The division was and trained at Mielau in the spring-summer of 1943. The Cossacks brought their wives and children with them, forcing the Germans to establish another camp to house the dependents.
The division was formed starting 4 August 1943 by merging the Platow and von Jungschulz Cossack regiments under the command of the Reiterverband Pannwitz, which had all existed since 1942.
Many of the German officers were Baltic German émigrés who possessed the necessary knowledge of Russian.
However, owing to a shortage of officers with the necessary Russian language skills, the Wehrmacht was forced to relax its policy against accepting émigré officers, and a number of Cossack émigré officers living in Yugoslavia, France, Germany and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia were recruited into the division.[4] Other officers were the sons of Cossack émigrés who had served in the armies of France, Yugoslavia and Bulgaria before the war. A disproportionate number of the German officers were cavalrymen, and Austrians were over-represented as it was felt that Austrians were more "tactful" in dealing with Slavs than the Prussians.
Anti-Partisan operations
Initially organized to fight the Red Army in southern Russia, the division was deployed to the puppet Independent State of Croatia, where they were placed under the command of the Second Panzer Army and were used to protect the railroad line from Austria through Zagreb to Belgrade. Some units were also used to fight partisans.
The division's first fighting engagement was on 12 October 1943, when it was dispatched against Yugoslav partisans in the Fruška Gora Mountains. In the operation the Cossacks, aided by 15 tanks and one armored car, captured the village of Beocin, a partisan HQ. In that operation many villages were burned, including a monastery on Fruška Gora, and around 300 innocent Serbian villagers were killed. Subsequently, the unit was used to protect the Zagreb-Belgrade railroad and the Sava Valley. Several regiments of the division took part in security warfare (Bandenbekämpfung) and guarded the Sarajevo railroad. As part of a wide security sweep, Napfkuchen, the Cossack division was transferred to Croatia, where it fought against partisans and Chetniks in 1944.
In Croatia the division quickly established a reputation for undisciplined and ruthless behavior, not only towards the partisans but also the civilian population, prompting Croatian authorities to complain to the Germans and finally to Adolf Hitler himself. Besides raping women, killing people and plundering and burning towns suspected of harboring partisans and their supporters, the division used telegraph poles along the railroad tracks for mass hangings as a warning to the partisans and others. Although the behavior of the Cossacks was not as ruthless as portrayed by Partisan propaganda, nevertheless during its first two months of deployment in Croatia, special divisional courts-martial imposed at least 20 death sentences in each of the four regiments for related crimes.
The Cossacks' first engagement against the Red Army occurred in December 1944 near Pitomača. The fighting resulted in Soviet withdrawal from the area.
German ONE-MAN-TORPEDO 1944 raw film footage of MARDER mini-sub
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Episode 222
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Neger (Negro)
Neger human torpedo
A pilot enters a Neger with his Drager breathing apparatus. Despite the carbon dioxide filter, the fatality rate due to suffocation was very high.
The Neger was named after its designer Richard Mohr, a naval engineer in Germany. Mohr in German means Negro, hence the name Neger. It consisted of two G7e torpedoes, with one torpedo mounted atop the other. The lower torpedo was a modified conventional torpedo and could be launched at enemy ships whereas the upper torpedo did not have a warhead. Instead of carrying a warhead, the space was converted into a cockpit from which the pilot could steer the Neger. The cockpit was covered by a watertight plastic canopy and was only about 18 inches above the surface. This meant that visibility was poor with the resulting effect that many pilots lost their way or failed to spot any targets. The Neger could not dive and had a range of 30nm at 3 knots, but the watertight cockpit carried enough breathing air for only one or two hours. The pilots for these weapons were often volunteers and not necessarily from the U-boat arm.
The first Negers entered service on March 1944 and the first mission took place on the night of April 20 and 21 1944. Thirty Negers were launched against Allied ships berthed in Anzio, but only 17 of them managed to deploy, with the other 13 capsizing upon reaching the water. Three failed to return and up until then, the Allies had no knowledge of this new unusual weapon. None had made any successful attacks.
The second deployment was against the Allied invasion fleet in Normandy on the night of July 5 and 6 1944. The Neger flotilla which numbered to forty in strength sortied from the Villers-sur-Mer, west of Honfleur. 24 of them executed attacks which resulted in the sinking of two British minesweepers, the HMS Magic and HMS Cato. Only 9 Negers returned.
The next mission was on the night of July 7 and 8 1944, which saw 21 Negers being deployed and resulted in the sinking of the British cruiser HMS Dragon and the minesweeper HMS Pylades. A further attack, which was also the last was made on the night of August 16 and 17, 1944. During that attack, the British destroyer HMS Isis was sent to the bottom. Thereafter, the Neger was retired and withdrawn from service. About 200 of these crafts were built.
Marder (Marten)
The inability of the Neger to submerge made it very vulnerable to attack. The Marder was the succession of the Neger in which a diving tank was added in front of the cockpit which enabled the craft to dive up to a depth of 10 meters. The craft was slightly lengthened in order to accommodate the diving tank.
Although it was an improved version of the Neger, the Marder still suffered from two main disadvantages. First, underwater mobility was extremely poor and constantly required the pilot’s full attention to maneuver the craft. Second, the lack of a periscope meant that it was virtually blind underwater. The pilot still had to surface to find his way and a submerged attack was not possible.
Very few attacks involving Marders were carried out. They were used against US warships in the Gulf of St. Tropez in the Mediterranean, but the mission was a dismal failure. There were also plans for U-997, a Type VII U-boat to transport these Marders for an attack against Russian warships in Murmansk, but owing to technical difficulties, the mission was called off. About 300 Marders were built.
Did the Germans use SUICIDE BOATS against the Allies in 1944? The evidence some GIs found ...
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Episode 223
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Here In episode 223 we’ll take a look at the German Blasting boat which came into service just after the Normandy invasion.
From this periodical we’ll go through an article which covers these boats and see some German Navy footage which shows exactly how this new weapons platform was used. Then we’ll see some footage taken by American soldiers just after the German capitulation which shows how they were secretively assembled and what the American GI’s had believed that they’d found. As that rare footage rolls I’ll provide a more technical description of the boats characteristics so stick around, it’s worth it, I promise.
The title reads, Mit der Geschwindigkeit eines… With the speed of a fast car, the blasting boat races towards the enemy target
The invasion on the Normandy coast has lead to a concentration of enemy war and transport ships. Their proximity to the coast makes engaging these targets with traditional war ships and submarines difficult. In response, speed boats and improvised craft are being used with totally new combat methods. These speed boats along with the one-man-torpedo have shown themselves to be effective.
Specifically, these small wooden boats are in fact modified race boats. They have the speed, are built in a similar manner and can be launched basically from any location along the coast. Around the top edge of the front of the boats deck, which can be seen easily in the photo to the left, is a mechanical frame structure which is connected to the boats explosive charge. When the boat is aligned and racing towards its target, the pilot can flip a switch which arms the triggering mechanism. When it collides with the target the charge of hundreds of kilos detonates. The explosive charge makes up about a quarter of the total weight of the boat.
The power of the explosion is able to defeat pretty much any enemy target. In addition to its speed, at night the boats are very difficult to spot. Its manoverability gives the boat’s pilot the opportunity to choose its attacking angle and so reduce enemy’s ability to take defensive action.
Along with the blasting boats, a command boat is present with an officer who chooses the targets and generally organizes the attack. When the boat is in position for a combat run the pilot activates the charge, locks the steering mechanism and then flings himself backwards into the water. The officer in the command boat is then able to steer the now unmanned blasting boats by radio control into their targets.
The command boat that has stayed back during the attack retrieves the pilot. The blasting boats, now unmanned, were steered to the targets by the command boat by radio control.
In the photo to the right, we see the moment the pilot, after completing his run, has been picked up out of the water by the command boat. Under his leather suit the pilot wears a wetsuit that keeps him warm in the water. He has life vest, a signal torch that can be easily seen at night and even carries emergency rations.
Sprengboot
This American footage was taken in May of 1945. As we can see by the film’s title, the Americans believed that these boats were meant to be piloted by suicide pilots. Like the Me-262 these boats were assembled in unusual locations, for example here in a forested area, to avoid allied bombing.
By October 1944, 385 of the light explosive boat type Linse had been manufactured. The cruising range was 100 nautical miles at a speed of 15 knots.
The purpose of the Linse was for the pilot to approach a targeted ship head-on at full speed and then jump off the boat about 300 meters away. The metal springed frame that ran around the bow of the ship didn’t actually trigger the main charge but rather a 3-7 second delay fuse. On impact the Linse itself sank immediately due to its light but rear-heavy construction. Finally the delay fuse would detonate the main charge under the target’s hull to ensure maximum damage. The main charge located at the stern initially consisted of 300 kg and later 480 kg of explosives.
The overall success of the Linse was poor. Ships were damaged, but no Allied ships were sunk. A spectacular success was Operation Bruno in September 1944, in which combat swimmers used lenses to blow up the lock gates of the port of Antwerp. As a result, the port was unable to serve as an Allied logistical hub for months.
Europa Woche Nr. 95 + COLOR TURKESTAN LEGION - German Newsreel Dec. 1944
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Episode 227
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EUROPA WOCHE Nr. 95
19.12.44
1:07 - The sculptor Professor Georg Türke turns 60.
2:00 - Excerpt from the feature film "Soloist Anna Alt"
3:54 - Hitler Youth and BDM girls making toys
4:46 - Christmas presents for the Norwegian volunteers
5:10 - Technical training of housewives
5:46 - Presentation of the Sarassani Circus
6:43 - Barcelona (Spain): Race through the city
7:29 - Heart researcher Professor Dr. Weber
8:14 - Germany: Production of prostheses for war disabled people
9:38 - Establishment of Mohammedan volunteer associations
+ BONUS COLOR FOOTAGE - WAFFEN SS
11:03 - Rally with Josef Goebbels in a West German city
The Turkestan Legion (German: Turkistanische Legion) was the name of the military units composed of the Turkic peoples who served in the Wehrmacht during World War II. Most of these troops were Red Army prisoners of war who formed a common cause with the Germans (cf. Turkic, Caucasian, Cossack, and Crimean collaborationism with the Axis powers). Its establishment was spearheaded by Nuri Killigil, a Turkish theorist of Pan-Turkism, which sought to separate territories inhabited by Turkic peoples from their countries and eventually unite them under Turkish rule.
Turkmen volunteers in France.
Although Asian peoples had been perceived as "racially inferior" by the Nazis they were ready to use them for war effort.
The first Turkestan Legion was mobilized in May 1942, originally consisting of only one battalion but expanded to 16 battalions and 16,000 soldiers by 1943. Under the Wehrmacht's command, these units were deployed exclusively on the Western Front in France and Italy, isolating them from contact with the Red Army.
The battalions of the Turkestan Legion formed part of the 162nd Infantry Division and saw much action in Axis-occupied Yugoslavia (especially modern-day Croatia) and Italy.
A large portion of the Turkestan Legion was captured by Allied forces and repatriated into the Soviet Union after the war's end, where they faced execution or incarceration by the Soviet government for having collaborated with the Nazis. Notable members of the legion include Baymirza Hayit, a Turkologist who after the war settled in West Germany and became an advocate for Pan-Turkist political causes.
The units of the Turkestan Legion were:
Turkestanisches Infanterie-Bataillon 450
Turkestanisches Infanterie-Bataillon 452
Turkestanisches Infanterie-Bataillon 781
Turkestanisches Infanterie-Bataillon 782
Turkestanisches Infanterie-Bataillon 783
Turkestanisches Infanterie-Bataillon 784
Turkestanisches Infanterie-Bataillon 785
Turkestanisches Infanterie-Bataillon 786
Turkestanisches Infanterie-Bataillon 787
Turkestanisches Infanterie-Bataillon 788
Turkestanisches Infanterie-Bataillon 789
Turkestanisches Infanterie-Bataillon 790
Turkestanisches Infanterie-Bataillon 791
Turkestanisches Infanterie-Bataillon 792
Turkestanisches Infanterie-Bataillon 793
Turkestanisches Infanterie-Bataillon 794
Turkestanisches Infanterie-Bataillon 811
Turkestanisches Infanterie-Bataillon 839
Turkestanisches Infanterie-Bataillon 840
Turkestanisches Infanterie-Bataillon 841
Turkestanisches Infanterie-Bataillon 842
German Newsreel EUROPA WOCHE Nr. 94 - Combat in Hungary 1944
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Episode 228
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EUROPA WOCHE Nr. 94
12.12.1944
0:56 - The carillon of the Maria Loretto pilgrimage church in Prague
2:10 - Exhibition of handmade dolls
3:08 - The dancing couple Liselotte Köster and Jockel Stahl at a Bavarian folk dance
4:19 - Kindergarten in Zagreb
5:27 - Airplane model competition
6:15 - Hitler Youth at the riding license test
7:06 - Reich Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia: cross-country running
8:02 - Day of the German Railwayman
9:12 - Hungary: Fighting on the Southeast Front
11:20 - BONUS FOOTAGE - Hungarian combat footage (sorry, no translation)
DEUTSCHE REICHSBAHN
during the war
In all the occupied lands the Reichsbahn endeavored to incorporate the captured railways (rolling stock and infrastructure) into their system. Even towards the end of the war the Reichsbahn continued to move military formations. For example, in the last great offensive, the Battle of the Bulge (from 16 December 1944), tank formations were transported from Hungary to the Ardennes.
The railways managed by the "Eastern Railway Division" (Generaldirektion der Ostbahn) were initially run from that part of the Polish State Railways within the so-called General Government-assigned part of the Polnischen Staatsbahnen (PKP), but from November 1939 by the Ostbahn (Generalgouvernement).
WWII Reichsbahn military marked railwayman's carbide burner lantern (c. 1942)
In the campaigns against Poland, Denmark, France, Yugoslavia, Greece etc. the newly acquired standard gauge networks could be used without difficulty. By contrast, after the start of the invasion of Russia on 22 June 1941, the problem arose of transferring troops and materiel to Soviet broad gauge lines or converting them to German standard gauge. Confounding German plans, the Red Army and Soviet railways managed to withdraw or destroy the majority of its rolling stock during its retreat. As a result, German standard gauge rolling stock had to be used for an additional logistic role within Russia; this required the laying of standard gauge track. The price was high: Reichsbahn railway staff and the railway troops of the Wehrmacht had to convert a total of 16,148 kilometres (10,034 mi) of Soviet trackage to German standard gauge track between 22 June and 8 October 1941.
During the war, locomotives in the war zones were sometimes given camouflage livery. In addition, locomotives were painted with the Hoheitsadler symbol (the eagle, Germany's traditional symbol of national sovereignty) holding a swastika. On goods wagons the name "Deutsche Reichsbahn" was replaced by the letters "DR". Postal coaches continued to bear the name "Deutsche Reichspost".
The logistics of the Reichsbahn were crucial to the conduct of Germany's military offensives. The preparations for the invasion of Russia saw the greatest troop deployment by rail in history.
Me-262 Ace WALTER NOWOTNY German newsreel EUROPA WOCHE 11.1944 + Private Footage
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Episode 235
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EUROPA WOCHE Nr. 91
November 23, 1944
1:19 - Vienna: Funeral service on November 23rd, 1944 for the fallen Major Walter Nowotny
2:39 - Zagreb (Croatia): All Saints Day 1944
3:46 - Germany: Training of young people in an Adolf Hitler school
5:05 - Prague (Reich Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia): Chess tournament
6:03 - Spain: grape harvest
7:15 - Germany: Production of horse feed
8:33 - Germany: Cossack stud farm
9:57 - Germany: Train station helpers making winter clothing
11:12 - Lorient (France): German soldiers in the enclosed Atlantic base
12:33 - BONUS: Me 262 raw footage
Messerschmidt Me 262
The Messerschmitt Me 262, nicknamed Schwalbe (German: "Swallow") in fighter versions, or Sturmvogel (German: "Storm Bird") in fighter-bomber versions, is a fighter aircraft and fighter-bomber that was designed and produced by the German aircraft manufacturer Messerschmitt. It was the world's first operational jet-powered fighter aircraft.
The design of what would become the Me 262 started in April 1939, before World War II. It made its maiden flight on 18 April 1941 with a piston engine, and its first jet-powered flight on 18 July 1942. Progress was delayed by problems with engines, metallurgy, and interference from Luftwaffe chief Hermann Göring and Adolf Hitler. The German leader demanded that the Me 262, conceived as a defensive interceptor, be redesigned as ground-attack/bomber aircraft. The aircraft became operational with the Luftwaffe in mid-1944. The Me 262 was faster and more heavily armed than any Allied fighter, including the British jet-powered Gloster Meteor. The Allies countered by attacking the aircraft on the ground and during takeoff and landing.
One of the most advanced WWII combat aircraft, the Me 262 operated as a light bomber, reconnaissance, and experimental night fighter. The Me 262 proved an effective dogfighter against Allied fighters; German pilots claimed 542 Allied aircraft were shot down, although higher claims have sometimes been made. The aircraft had reliability problems because of strategic materials shortages and design compromises with its Junkers Jumo 004 axial-flow turbojet engines. Late-war Allied attacks on fuel supplies also reduced the aircraft's readiness for combat and training sorties. Armament production within Germany was focused on more easily manufactured aircraft. Ultimately, the Me 262 had little effect on the war because of its late introduction and the small numbers that entered service.
On 19 April 1944, Erprobungskommando 262 was formed at Lechfeld just south of Augsburg, as a test unit (Jäger Erprobungskommando Thierfelder, commanded by Hauptmann Werner Thierfelder) to introduce the Me 262 into service and train a corps of pilots to fly it. On 26 July 1944, Leutnant Alfred Schreiber, while flying over Munich, with the 262 A-1a W.Nr. 130 017, encountered a Mosquito PR Mark XVI reconnaissance aircraft, of No. 540 Squadron RAF, piloted by Fl. Lt. A.E. Wall.[58] Schreiber attempted to shoot down the unarmed Mosquito, though Wall evaded Schreiber's three attack runs, to land safely at Fermo, Italy, after the first air-to-air use of a jet fighter. Sources state the Mosquito had a hatch fall out, during the evasive manoeuvres, though the aircraft returned to RAF Benson on 27 July 1944, and remained in service till it was lost in a landing in October 1950. On the 8 August 1944, Lt. Joachim Weber of EKdo 262 claimed the first kill by a 262, of a reconnaissance Mosquito, PR.IX LR433, of 540 squadron, over Munich, killing the pilot, Fl. Lt. Desmond Laurence Mattewman and navigator Flight Sergeant William Stopford.
Major Walter Nowotny was assigned as commander in July 1944, and the unit redesignated Kommando Nowotny. Essentially a trials and development unit, it mounted the world's first jet fighter operations. Trials progressed at a slow pace; it was not until August 1944 that initial operational missions were flown against the Allies; the unit made claims for 19 Allied aircraft in exchange for six Me 262s lost. Despite orders to stay grounded, Nowotny chose to fly a mission against an enemy bomber formation flying some 9,100 m (30,000 ft) above, on 8 November 1944. He claimed two P-51Ds destroyed before suffering engine failure at high altitude.[66] Then, while diving and trying to restart his engines, he was attacked by other Mustangs, forced to bail out, and died. The Kommando was then withdrawn for further flight training and a revision of combat tactics to optimize the Me 262's strengths.
GERMAN NEWSREEL, Europa Woche 85 from 10.44 Defense of the SIEGFRIED LINE
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Episode 256
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Europa Woche Nr 85
10.10.1944
- Prof. Martin Moebius visits cactus nurseries
- Tobacco cultivation in Denmark
- Women from Austria knitting for the soldiers
- Norway: fishing on the high seas
- Women doing sports training
- Basketball game
- Typesetting and printing of sheet music
- Concert in an armaments factory
- Fighting in the area of Luneville, France
With the D-Day landings in Normandy on 6 June 1944, war in the West broke out once more.[5] On 24 August 1944, Hitler gave a directive for renewed construction on the Siegfried Line. 20,000 forced labourers and members of the Reichsarbeitsdienst (Reich Labour Service), most of whom were 14 to 16-year-old boys, attempted to re-equip the line for defensive purposes. Local people were also called in to carry out work, mostly building anti-tank ditches.
Even during construction, it was becoming clear that the bunkers could not withstand newly developed armour-piercing weapons. At the same time as the reactivation of the Siegfried Line, small concrete "Tobruks" were built along the borders of the occupied area. Those bunkers were mostly dugouts for single soldiers.
Clashes
In August 1944, the first clashes took place on the Siegfried Line. The section of the line where most fighting took place was the Hürtgenwald (Hürtgen Forest) area in the Eifel, 20 km (12 mi) south-east of Aachen. The Aachen Gap was the logical route into Germany's Rhineland and its main industrial area, so it was where the Germans concentrated their defence.
The Americans committed an estimated 120,000 troops plus reinforcements to the Battle of Hürtgen Forest. The battle in the heavily forested area claimed the lives of 24,000 American soldiers, along with 9,000 so-called non-battle casualties — those evacuated because of fatigue, exposure, accidents and disease. The German death toll is not documented. After the Battle of Hürtgen Forest, the Battle of the Bulge began, a last-ditch attempt by the Germans to reverse the course of the war in the West. The offensive started in the area south of the Hürtgenwald, between Monschau and the Luxembourgish town of Echternach. German loss of life and material was severe and the effort failed. There were serious clashes along other parts of the Siegfried Line and defending soldiers in many bunkers refused to surrender, often fighting to the death. By early 1945, the last Siegfried Line bunkers had fallen at the Saar and Hunsrück.
The British 21st Army Group, which included US formations, also attacked the Siegfried Line. The resulting fighting brought total US losses to approximately 68,000. In addition, the First Army incurred over 50,000 non-battle casualties and the Ninth Army over 20,000. That brought the overall cost of the Siegfried Line Campaign, in US personnel, close to 140,000.
German Newsreel ATW 697 1945 Sepp Dietrich's 6th Panzer Army + US POWs paraded through streets RAW
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Episode 265
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AUSLAND-TONWOCHE Nr. 697
01.1945
01:21 - Members of the Hitler Youth celebrate the Winter solstice
01:57 - Training of German Mountain Troops
02:45 - Germany: Christmas celebration for orphans
04:30 - Ante Pavelic inspects Coratian soldiers
05:15 - Combat operations on the Eastern Front
06:34 - Ardennes Offensive (Battle of the Bulge) combat footage
13:43 - BONUS: 1944 Allied POs paraded through the streets of Paris
After World War II in Europe began, Dietrich led the Leibstandarte during the German advance into Poland and later the Netherlands. After the Dutch surrender, the Leibstandarte moved south to France on 24 May 1940. They took up a position 15 miles southwest of Dunkirk along the line of the Aa Canal, facing the Allied defensive line near Watten. That night the OKW ordered the advance to halt, with the British Expeditionary Force trapped. The Leibstandarte paused for the night. However, on the following day, in defiance of Hitler's orders, Dietrich ordered his III Battalion to cross the canal and take the heights beyond, where British artillery observers were putting the regiment at risk. They assaulted the heights and drove the observers off. Instead of being censured for his act of defiance, Dietrich was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. During this campaign members of the Leibstandarte 2nd Battalion were responsible for the murder of 80 British and French POWs, in what became known as the Wormhoudt massacre
Dietrich remained in command of the Leibstandarte throughout the campaigns in Greece and Yugoslavia before being promoted to command of the 1st SS Panzer Corps, attached to Army Group Center, on the Eastern Front. In 1943, he was sent to Italy to recover Benito Mussolini's mistress Clara Petacci. He received numerous German military medals.
Dietrich commanded the 1st SS Panzer Corps in the Battle of Normandy. He rose to command 5th Panzer Army during the later stages of this campaign. Hitler gave him command of the newly created 6th Panzer Army. Dietrich led it in the Battle of the Bulge (December 1944-January 1945). He had been assigned to that task because, due to the 20 July Plot, Hitler distrusted Wehrmacht officers. On 17 December, Kampfgruppe Peiper—an SS unit under his overall command—murdered 84 U.S. prisoners of war near Malmedy, Belgium, in what is known as the Malmedy massacre.
In March 1945 Dietrich's 6th Panzer Army and the LSSAH spearheaded Operation Spring Awakening, an offensive in Hungary near Lake Balaton aimed at securing the last oil reserves still available to Germany. Despite early gains, the offensive was too ambitious in scope and failed.[18] After that failure, the 6th SS Panzer Army (and LSSAH) retreated to the Vienna area. As a mark of disgrace, the Waffen-SS units involved in the battle were ordered by Hitler to remove their treasured cuff titles bearing his name. Dietrich did not relay the order to his troops.[18] Shortly thereafter, Dietrich's troops were forced to retreat from Vienna by Soviet Red Army forces.[20] Dietrich, accompanied by his wife, surrendered on 9 May 1945 to the U.S. 36th Infantry Division in Austria.
GERMAN NEWSREEL ATW 689 - TRAINING on StG 44, Panzerschreck, Flame Thrower, Panzerfaust - Sept 1944
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Episode 268
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Ausland-Tonwoche
Nr. 689 September, 1944
01:32 - Deutsche Arbeitsfront (German Labor Union)
04:23 - Morning calisthenics
05:38 - Combat operations in the east
07:29 - Combat operations in the west
09:29 - Panzerfaust training
09:52 - Panzerschreck training
10:30 - Sturmgewehr training
11:07 - Heavy mortar training
11:25 - Flame thrower training
The Deutsche Arbeitsfront (German Labor Front) was the primary labor organization and trade union body established in May 1933, shortly after Adolf Hitler came to power. It replaced traditional trade unions, which were disbanded and banned. The Deutsche Arbeitsfront was part of the regime's efforts to control all aspects of the German workforce.
The primary goals of the Deutsche Arbeitsfront were to organize workers and manage labor relations in a way that aligned with NSDAP ideology. It aimed to promote the interests of the German economy and ensure the loyalty of workers to the state. The organization emphasized the idea of "Volksgemeinschaft," or a people's community, which sought to unify workers and employers in a nationalistic spirit.
One of the key initiatives of the Deutsche Arbeitsfront was the establishment of a program known as Kraft durch Freude, KdF or “Strength Through Joy", which provided leisure activities and benefits to workers, including access to travel, recreational activities, and cultural events. This program was intended to improve the workers' quality of life while reinforcing their loyalty to the regime.
Overall, the Deutsche Arbeitsfront played a significant role in the economic and social policies of the German government, acting as an instrument of state control over labor and suppressing independent worker movements.
After the war, the Deutsche Arbeitsfront was disbanded by the Allied forces. Some of it higher officials and organizers were tried for war crimes or crimes agains humanity, particularly those who were significantly involved in the regime’s oppressive labor policies and forced labor practices. Less important leaders underwent denazification processes.
Panzerfaust
The Panzerfaust was a German anti-tank weapon. It was a portable, single-shot, recoilless launcher designed to be operated by infantry soldiers.
The weapon consisted of a tube with a warhead mounted at one end and an ignition mechanism at the other. It could fire a shaped charge projectile designed to penetrate tank armor. The Panzerfaust was easy to use and economical to produce, making it widely distributed among German troops, especially toward the later stages of the war when the supply of conventional anti-tank weapons was dwindling.
Panzerschreck
The Panzerschreck, a German anti-tank rocket launcher, fired a large, fin-stabilized rocket propelled by a solid-fuel rocket motor, which was capable of penetrating the armor of most contemporary tanks. It was similar in concept to the American Bazooka but had a larger caliber and was generally more effective against armored vehicles.
The launcher itself resembled a shoulder-fired rifle and was typically operated by a two-man crew: one to aim and fire the weapon and another to reload and assist with positioning. The Panzerschreck was effective in ambush tactics, allowing German troops to take out enemy tanks at relatively close range.
Due to its powerful warhead and relatively simple design, the Panzerschreck became a significant part of German anti-tank strategy during the war, despite being somewhat cumbersome and limited by its short effective range.
Sturngewehr 44
- StG 44 -
The Sturngewehr 44, the world's first modern assault rifle, combined features which blended the firepower of a submachine gun with the range and accuracy of a rifle. This new class of weapon was designed to be effective in both close-quarters and longer-range combat.
It’s introduction coincided with German changes in infantry tactics during the war emphasizing a shift towards more mobile and flexible combat styles.
Flame Thrower
The Germans employed Flamenwerfer or flamethrowers as an effective weapon in various combat scenarios, particularly in assaults on fortified positions, urban combat, and against enemy troops in the open. Flamethrowers were valued for their psychological impact and the ability to clear obstacles such as bunkers and entrenched positions.
The Flammenwerfer 41 developed in 1941 as the name suggests was an improved version that offered greater range and efficiency. It had a larger fuel capacity and more effective propulsion mechanisms, allowing it to shoot a longer stream of flame.
German newsreel, VITEBSK DEFENSE Europa Woche Nr. 55 from March, 1944
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Europa Woche Nr. 55
March 14, 1944
01:19 - Celebrations of Heroes' Remembrance Day on March 10, 1944
02:42 - Course as part of the Langemarck studies
05"16 - production of sleds for the front
06:47 - National Bobsledding Championships in Spain
07:45 - Carnival customs in Switzerland
09:06 - Fox breeding
10:44 - Performance by a women's music band
11:42 - Weightlifting city fight, Berlin-Breslau
13:31 - Combat operations in the Vitebsk area
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16:21 - BONUS: Wehrmacht soldiers in sever Winter conditions
HELDENGEDENKTAG
Heldengedenktag or Heroes' Remembrance day during the 3rd Reich was observed annually on the third Sunday of March. It was meant to honor fallen soldiers and to reinforce the ideals of the state.
The day was marked by various ceremonies and events that glorified the sacrifices of German soldiers, aligning with the broader propaganda goals of the German government. The focus was not only on honoring those who died in battle, but also on promoting nationalist sentiment, militarism and the idea of dying for the Fatherland. The ceremonies often included speeches by high officials, military parades, and memorial services.
As with many aspects of German propaganda, the Remembrance Day served to solidify the regime's power by constructing a narrative around heroism, sacrifice, and national pride that resonated with the populace, particularly during the tumultuous years of the war.
LANGEMARCK PROGRAM
The Langemarck studies program was an educational initiative specifically aimed at training young men who were considered to be the future leaders of the German nation. The program was part of the broader militarization and ideological indoctrination of German youth during the Third Reich.
Established in the 1930s, the Langemarck program included various elements of physical education, military training, and ideological indoctrination, often centered around themes of sacrifice, nationalism, and loyalty to Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist Party.
Like many other youth programs of the Nazi regime, the Langemarck studies were part of a broader effort to shape the values and beliefs of the younger generation, instilling in them a sense of purpose and devotion to the state. The program contributed to the militarization of German society and the preparation of young men for future military service for the nation.
The program was named after the Battle of Langemark which was fought during the First world war in August of 1917 which holds a significant place in German military history and has been surrounded by various myths and narratives particularly referring to the “student soldiers” or “the youth of Germany,” who participated in the battle. The narrative emphasized the bravery and sacrifice of these young men, framing them as noble figures who fought courageously against overwhelming odds. If you’d like to see a full video dedicated to this myth and German militarism during the 3rd Reich please let me know in the comment section below.
HORSES IN THE WEHRMACHT
Horses played a significant role in German military operations, especially in rugged, snowy terrain. When the vehicles’ motors froze horses could continue working.
On the Eastern Front, the strained logistical situation caused by the weather and the generally terrible condition of the roads often resulted in limited and irregular fuel supplies being available for the motorized and mechanized formations. This led to an increased reliance on horses.
While horses were valuable, their use also posed challenges. They required care and feeding, and the harsh winter conditions could be detrimental to their health as well as to the soldiers' morale. Additionally, the logistics of maintaining a horse-drawn army amid the rapid mechanization that characterized the war were complex.
Battle of the Bulge, EUROPA WOCHE Nr. 100 Jan. 23, 1945 GERMAN NEWSREEL
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EUROPA WOCHE Nr. 100
January 28, 1945
0:56 - Swearing-in of Volkssturm units in Prague
2:39 - War disabled soldiers learning to ski
3:19 - Women in the aircraft industry
4:10 - Processing of sugar beets
4:50 - Training of Norwegian workers
5:55 - Ceremonial handover of newly built residential buildings in Spain
7:12 - Russian Orthodox church service
7:44 - Russian volunteers from different regions with Goebbels in Berlin
9:06 - Combat operations in the Ardennes (Battle of the Bulge)
Turn on subtitles for an English translation
The Russian Liberation Army was a collaborationist formation, primarily composed of Russians, that fought under German command during World War II. The army was led by Andrey Vlasov, a Red Army general who had defected, and members of the army are often referred to as Vlasovtsy. In 1944, it became known as the Armed Forces of the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia.
Vlasov agreed to collaborate with Nazi Germany after having been captured on the Eastern Front. The soldiers under his command were mostly former Soviet prisoners of war but also included White Russian émigrés, some of whom were veterans of the anti-communist White Army from the Russian Civil War (1917–23). On 14 November 1944, it was officially renamed the Armed Forces of the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia, with the KONR being formed as a political body to which the army pledged loyalty. On 28 January 1945, it was officially declared that the Russian divisions no longer form part of the German Army, but would directly be under the command of KONR.
During the march south in May of 1945, the first division of the ROA came to the help of the Czech partisans in the Prague uprising against the German occupation, which started on May 5. Vlasov was initially reluctant to agree to that move, but ultimately did not resist General Bunyachenko's
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German use of ROCKETS FROM SHIPS - Europa Woche 99, 1945 + Evacuation from Occupied Denmark
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Episode 225
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EUROPA WOCHE Nr. 99
16.1.45
1:04 - Designer and inventor Carl Friedrich Benz
1:46 - Apprentices training to become machine operators
3:29 - Training in a state craft school
4:43 - Reindeer herd
6:00 - Equestrian tournament in Spain
6:53 - Judo school
7:53 - Electrofishing
8:33 - Fish market in Denmark
9:46 - Versatile use of freight cars
11:12 - German convoy on the high seas
—
12:27 - Bonus: Evacuation of Germans solders from Denmark
The Nebelwerfer (transl. "fog launcher") was a World War II German series of weapons. They were initially developed by and assigned to the Army's Nebeltruppen. Initially, two different mortars were fielded before they were replaced by a variety of rocket launchers ranging in size from 15 to 32 centimetres (5.9 to 12.6 in). The thin walls of the rockets had the great advantage of allowing much larger quantities of gases, fluids or high explosives to be delivered than artillery or even mortar shells of the same weight. With the exception of the Balkans Campaign, Nebelwerfer were used in every campaign of the German Army during World War II. A version of the 21 cm (8.3 in) calibre system was adapted for air-to-air use against Allied bombers.
Rudolf Nebel, a German aviator and rocket builder whose last name translates as "fog", is sometimes incorrectly named as the inventor of the Nebelwerfer artillery. Nebel did, however, develop a powder-based rocket system with the same name that he used as a fighter pilot during World War I,[5] downing two British planes.
The Nebelwerfer's name, which translates as "fog launcher", had previously been given to a smoke-generating Nebelwerfer 35, and was later used for the 10 cm Nebelwerfer 40, which could deliver shells with chemical munitions, as well as high-explosive shells. The same name was then used for later rocket launcher systems. The name Nebelwerfer did remain in use for both systems, which was possibly not originally intended. The loud, shrill howling noise of the incoming rockets led Allied soldiers in the Sicily campaign to give it the nicknames "Screaming Mimi" and "Moaning Minnie".
28/32 cm Nebelwerfer 41
The 28/32 cm Nebelwerfer 41 rockets were introduced in 1941, before Operation Barbarossa. They used the same motor, but carried different warheads. The 28 centimetres (11 in) rocket had a HE warhead, while the 32 centimetres (13 in) rockets were incendiary. The maximum range for either rocket was only 2,200 metres (2,400 yd), a severe tactical drawback. Both could be fired from their wooden packing cases or a special wooden (schweres Wurfgerät 40 – heavy missile device) or tubular metal (schweres Wurfgerät 41 (sW.G. 41)) frame. Later, a towed launcher was developed that could take six rockets. Both rockets used the same launchers, but special liner rails had to be used for the 28 centimetres (11 in) rockets. A vehicular launch frame, the schwere Wurfrahmen 40 (sWu.R. 40), was also designed to improve the mobility of the heavy rockets. These were normally mounted on the sides of Sd.Kfz. 251 half-tracks, but they were also adapted for several different captured French tracked vehicles. The sWuR 40 was nicknamed the Stuka-zu-Fuß ("Stuka on Foot"). Over six hundred thousand rockets and 700 launchers, excluding the sW.G. and sWu.R. firing frames, were made during the war. In total, 345 launchers were built from 1941.
21 cm Nebelwerfer 42
The 21 cm Nebelwerfer 42 rocket, which was introduced in 1942, had a longer range (7,850 metres (8,580 yd)) and a simpler design than the smaller 15 cm rocket. It was only made with high-explosive warheads and was fired from a five-tube launcher that used the same carriage as the smaller weapon. Liner rails were used to allow it to fire the smaller 15 cm rocket. It was also adapted for use by the Luftwaffe to break up Allied bomber formations in 1943 as the Werfer-Granate 21. Over four hundred thousand rockets and 1,400 launchers were completed.
30 cm Nebelwerfer 42
The last German-designed rocket to be introduced was the 30 cm Nebelwerfer 42 in 1943. This was intended to replace the 28 and 32 cm rockets, which had too short a range. Advances in propellant chemistry also reduced its smoke signature. It could be fired from all of the same platforms as the older rockets and many of the older launchers were converted to be used with the newer rocket by installing adapter rails, although it also had its own purpose-designed launcher, the 30 cm Raketenwerfer 56. Fewer than two hundred thousand rockets and 700 launchers were built during the war.
FREE INDIA LEGION and 1. GALICIAN Div. - 1945 Europa Woche Nr. 97 GERMAN NEWSREEL
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Episode 226
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EUROPA WOCHE Nr. 97
3.1.45
1:17 - Youth at an ice rink
2:17 - Figure skating event in Berlin
3:03 - Artistic gymnastics competition
4:13 - Girls working in a youth hostel
5:35 - Production of new leather goods
6:53 - Christmas presents for children
8:43 - Concert by a soldiers' choir (1. Galician Div. Waffen-SS)
9:24 - Use of armor-piercing weapons
10:54 - Bonus: Deutsche Wochenschau Nr. 686
10:54 - Bonus: Private footage, civilians digging anti-tank trenches with a Free India Legion soldier
THE INDIAN LEGION
The Indian Legion (German: Indische Legion), officially the Free India Legion (German: Legion Freies Indien) or 950th (Indian) Infantry Regiment (German: Infanterie-Regiment 950 (indisches)), was a military unit raised during the Second World War initially as part of the German Army and later the Waffen-SS from August 1944. Intended to serve as a liberation force for British-ruled India, it was made up of Indian prisoners of war and expatriates in Europe. Due to its origins in the Indian independence movement, it was known also as the "Tiger Legion", and the "Azad Hind Fauj". As part of the Waffen-SS it was known as the Indian Volunteer Legion of the Waffen-SS (German: Indische Freiwilligen Legion der Waffen-SS).
Indian independence leader Subhas Chandra Bose initiated the legion's formation, as part of his efforts to win India's independence by waging war against Britain, when he came to Berlin in 1941 seeking German aid. The initial recruits in 1941 were volunteers from the Indian students resident in Germany at the time, and a handful of the Indian prisoners of war who had been captured during the North African campaign. It later drew a larger number of Indian prisoners of war as volunteers.
Though it was initially raised as an assault group that would form a pathfinder to a German–Indian joint invasion of the western frontiers of British India, only a small contingent was ever put to its original intended purpose. A small contingent, including much of the Indian officer corps and enlisted leadership, was transferred to the Indian National Army in South-East Asia. The majority of the troops of the Indian Legion were given only non-combat duties in the Netherlands and in France until the Allied invasion. They saw action in the retreat from the Allied advance across France, fighting mostly against the French Resistance. One company was sent to Italy in 1944, where it saw action against British and Polish troops and undertook anti-partisan operations.
At the time of the surrender of Nazi Germany in 1945, the remaining men of the Indian Legion made efforts to march to neutral Switzerland over the Alps, but they were captured by American and French troops and eventually shipped back to India to face charges of treason. After the uproar the trials of Indians who served with the Axis caused among civilians and the military of British India, the legion members' trials were not completed.
1. GALICIAN
The 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Galician) (German: 14. Waffen-Grenadier-Division der SS (galizische Nr. 1); Ukrainian: 14-та гренадерська дивізія СС «Галичина», romanized: 14-ta hrenaderska dyviziia SS "Galychyna"), commonly referred to as the Galicia Division, was a World War II infantry division of the Waffen-SS, the military wing of the German Nazi Party, made up predominantly of volunteers with a Ukrainian ethnic background from the area of Galicia, later also with some Slovaks.
Formed in 1943, it was mainly deployed in the Eastern Front of World War II in combat against the Red Army and in the repression of Soviet, Polish, and Yugoslav guerrilla partisans. Parts of the division were said to have taken part in several massacres, such as at Huta Pieniacka, Pidkamin, and Palikrowy. It was largely destroyed in the Lvov–Sandomierz offensive, reformed, and saw action in Slovakia, Yugoslavia, and Austria before being transferred to the command of the Ukrainian National Committee on 14 April 1945, a change that was only partially implemented amidst the collapse of Germany, and surrendering to the Western Allies by 10 May 1945.
The unit went by several names during its existence. It was originally known as the SS-Volunteer Division "Galicia" (German: SS-Freiwilligen-Division "Galizien", Ukrainian: Добровільна Дивізія СС "Галичина", romanized: Dobrovilna Dyviziia SS "Halychyna") from its creation until October 1943. It then became the 14th Galician SS-Volunteer Division, before being renamed again in June 1944 as the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division (1st Galician) until November 1944, when its designation was changed to 1st Ukrainian (German: 14. Waffen-Grenadier-Division der SS (ukrainische Nr. 1)). In late April 1945 its name was changed to the 1st Division of the Ukrainian National Army for the rest of the war.
GERMAN NEWSREEL, 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend - Europa Woche 84 from Oct. 5 1944
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Europe Week 84/1944 (October 3)
1:03 - Hitler Youth at work harvesting
1:54 - Awarding of the Knights Cross of the War Merit Cross
2:52 - Production of useful items with straw
4:00 - Canoe race in Geneva
4:56 - Sports festival for foreigners in Germany
6:30 - SA military celebration in Prague
7:35 - Grand Admiral Dönitz giving a speech
8:30 - Reich Youth Leader Arthur Axmann visiting the 12th SS Panzer Division “Hitlerjugend”.
9:05 - Lone fighter of the navy visiting Berlin
The SS Division Hitlerjugend or 12th SS Panzer Division "Hitlerjugend" was a German armored division of the Waffen-SS during World War II. The majority of its junior enlisted men were drawn from members of the Hitler Youth, while the senior NCOs and officers were from other Waffen-SS divisions. Most of the enlisted men were teenagers, starting from the ages of 16 or even 15.
The division committed several war crimes while en route to and during the early battles of the Allied Normandy landings, including the Ascq and Normandy massacres, and several massacres, arsons and rapes in the cities of Plomion, Tavaux, Bouillon, Godinne, Hun, Rivere, Warnant and Namur. It first saw action on 7 June 1944 as part of the German defensive operations at Caen against Allied Forces, and suffered great casualties during the Battle of the Falaise Pocket.
In December 1944, the division was committed against the US Army in the Ardennes offensive. After the operation's failure, which became known as the Battle of the Bulge, the division was sent to Hungary to participate in fighting around Budapest. The division eventually retreated into Austria and surrendered to the 7th US Army on 8 May 1945. After the war several members of the division, including its former commander Kurt Meyer, were convicted of war crimes.
The idea for the Waffen-SS division was first proposed by Artur Axmann, the leader of the Hitler Youth, to Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler in early 1943. The plan for a division made up of Hitler Youth members born in 1926 was passed on to Adolf Hitler for his approval. Hitler approved the plan in February and SS-Gruppenführer Gottlob Berger was ordered to recruit the personnel. SS-Oberführer Fritz Witt of 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler (LSSAH) was appointed the divisional commander. Personnel from the LSSAH provided the regimental, battalion and most of the company commanders for the division.
About 2,000 personnel were transferred from the LSSAH and in September 1943, the division had over 16,000 recruits on its roster, undergoing training in Beverloo Camp in Leopoldsburg, Belgium. The indoctrination was often brutal; while in Allied captivity, an SS man from the division recalled: "In the Waffen-SS you couldn't do anything if an Unterfuhrer hit you during the training. The purpose of the training is to make you just as they are; it's pure sadism".
In March 1944 the 12th SS was attached to the I SS Panzer Corps and transferred to Caen in Normandy. At the beginning of June, the division had over 150 tanks.
On 6 June 1944, the division, along with the 21st Panzer Division, were the closest Panzer divisions to the landing beaches but they were unable to move until ordered by the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht. The division was ordered to the front at 14:30 hours on 6 June, over twelve hours after the first reports of the landings. Prior to this Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt had ordered over half of the division to deal with a parachute landing on the coast near Lisieux which was found to be dummies from Operation Titanic.
The division's advance to the areas near the British–Canadian landing beaches of Sword and Juno proceeded slowly due to Allied air attacks. The first units of the 12th SS reached their assembly area near Evrecy at 22:00 hours on 6 June but the Panther battalion ran out of fuel east of the Orne River. According to Marc Milner, "this was just the first example of sloppy staff work and command and control that characterized 12th SS Division's experience in the beachhead battles".
At 10:00 hours on 7 June, the 25th SS Panzergrenadier Regiment, along with 50 Panzer IV tanks of the 12th SS Panzer Regiment, arrived and moved into position north-west of Caen. Supported by a battalion of artillery (3rd Battalion, 12th SS Panzer Regiment), this battle group was ordered to stop the Canadian advance and drive through to the coast, a few kilometres away. They failed to break through the Canadians around Buron, a kilometre to the north. Meyer countermanded the divisional commander's order on his own initiative, feeling that objective unrealistic and hoped merely to stop the flow of Canadian units inland until the situation could be stabilized.
GERMAN NEWSREEL + Boy Scouts in Germany 1936 private footage, Europa Woche 83 9.1944
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EUROPA WOCHE Nr. 83
26.09.1944
01:08 - Concert by a boys' choir in a church
02:32 - Hitler Youth in rural service
03:39 - Japanese youth in mass gymnastics and sports
04:22 - Training of air force helpers
05:53 - Rowing competition in Spain
06:51 - Swimming championships in Denmark
07:50 - Young German women doing gymnastics and dance
09:11 - Recovering German soldiers in a woodcarving school
10:11 - Germany: Working in a tire retreading factory
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11:49 - BONUS: Boy Scouts visiting Germany in 1936
he birth of American fascism is nearly impossible to identify within the context of history. The American fascist movement in the 1930s and early 1940s, until recently, was arguably the most organized attempt to bring Nazism to the forefront of American society. While not the earliest pro-Nazi American organization, the German-American Bund was one of the most successful. The Bund was founded in 1936 with a goal to empower German-American citizens to spread Nazi ideology in the United States and to create an American counterpart to the German Nazi Party. The culmination of the German American Bund’s work would be a February 20, 1939 rally at Madison Square Garden in Midtown Manhattan where 22,000 members gathered amidst a flurry of American and Nazi imagery.
Fritz Kuhn, a German veteran of World War I, was the leader (or Bundesfuher) of the German-American Bund. Following World War I, Kuhn immigrated first to Mexico then to the United States where he became a naturalized citizen in 1934. At its height, the Bund had organized 20 youth training camps. Promoted as family-friendly summer camps, Camp Siegfried in Long Island, Camp Hindenberg in Wisconsin, and Deutschhorst Country Club in Pennsylvania were some of the camps devoted to promoting favorable views of Nazi Germany and spreading Nazi ideology in the United States. The camps’ popularity grew rapidly. The New Jersey division of the Bund opened its 100-acre Camp Norland at Sussex Hills in 1937 and the annual German Day festivities at Camp Siegfried in Long Island attracted 40,000 people in 1938.
As the Pro-Nazi and American Fascist movement grew, so did the interest of the American Government. The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC), later made famous by their Cold War Era investigations of suspected communist sympathizers in the United States, was formed in 1938 by Congressman Martin Dies, Jr. to address the German-American Bund, the Bund family summer camps, and pro-Nazi organizations and individuals in the United States. Fritz Kuhn was the first witness called by Dies’ committee. The HUAC did not have the ability to arrest any Bund members. In fact, its conclusions were that the German-American Bund was loud and racist, but fell under the protections of the first amendment. Both the Attorney General and the Federal Bureau of Investigation concluded that the Bund was not a threat to American security. During the hearings, the committee successfully painted the Bund as anti-American. False claims that Khun received orders directly from Adolf Hitler helped to discredit the German-American Bund in the press and in Congress. So much so, that The Washington Post presented Chairman Dies with the “Americanism Award of 1938.”
The height of the German-American Bund’s popularity was marked by the February 1939 rally at Madison Square Garden. Kuhn and other American Nazi leaders called the event a “mass demonstration for true Americanization” and used patriotic imagery alongside Nazi imagery and antisemitic rhetoric. Twenty-two thousand Bund members carried signs and banners with messages such as, “Wake up America! Smash Jewish Communism” and “Stop Jewish Domination of Christian Americans.” Speakers at the rally incorporated antisemitic messages and Nazi propaganda throughout their speeches. Messages which were openly praised by attendants who performed Nazi salutes toward three-story tall banners of George Washington flanked by Nazi swastikas. In Fritz Kuhn’s keynote address, he demanded that “…our government be returned to the American People who founded it.” The Bund’s definition of Americanism was actually a concrete manifestation of German racism and hatred based on racial and religious differences. Hermann Schwinn, the West Coast leader of the Bund, reinforced that idea when he labeled Jews as a threat to American identity and attacked New York City Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia as “the Jew Lumpen LaGuardia.”
Fate of Hungarian Jews PRIVATE HOLOCAUST FOOTAGE + GERMAN NEWSREEL ATW 690 10.1944
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Ausland-Tonwoche
Nr. 690 - October, 1944
01:13 - Arrow Cross fascist party takes power in Hungary
01:49 - Germany: Armaments industry
02:25 - General Vlasov of the ROA meets with General Model
05:13 - Inspection of Bulgarian (not Romanian) soldiers
06:17 - Combat around Goldap, Nemmersdorf and Gumbinnen
07:34 - France: Combat around Luneville
09:38 - Formation of Volkssturm units
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13:45 - BONUS: Historically important private footage showing Jews in forced labor battalion
The Arrow Cross Party, a far-right nationalist party in Hungary, took power on October 15, 1944. They established a government that aligned with Nazi Germany during World War II, and their rule was marked by severe repression, including the persecution and deportation of Jews and other minority groups.
In 1944, Germany's war production faced significant challenges and changes. In spite of the pressure caused by the intense Allied bombing campaign, Germany managed to increase war production through the introduction of a Total War Economy. For instance, the production of tanks increased to about 1,500 per month, and aircraft production also reached high levels at over 30,000 planes produced that year.
Andrei Vlasov, was the Soviet General responsible for organizing the defense of Moscow in the Winter of 1941/42. However, after being captured by German forces in 1942 during the Battle of Kharkov, he became disillusioned with the Soviet regime and sought to oppose Joseph Stalin's government. He would be appointed to lead the Russian Liberation Army (ROA), composed mainly of Soviet prisoners of war and anti-communist Russians. Its members fought alongside Nazi Germany against the Soviet Union, believing they were fighting for a free Russia. The ROA was involved in several battles on the Eastern Front.
Vlasov’s forces faced significant challenges, as they were often viewed with suspicion by both the Germans and the Allied forces. After the war, as the Soviets reasserted control over Eastern Europe, members of the ROA faced dire consequences. Many were captured, and Vlasov himself was tried for treason and executed by the Soviet authorities in 1946.
General Model worked as the liaison between the German Wehrmacht and the ROA. Here he is seen reviewing soldiers of the the formation with each wearing a different shoulder badge representing volunteers from different Russian geographical regions.
The relationship between the German military command and the ROA was complex. While the Germans used the ROA for little more than their own propaganda purposes the Russian involved hoped to leverage German support for their anti-Soviet objectives which would eventually lead to the forming of a new independent Russian state. Had the German’s been victorious the creation of such a state would have been allowed.
On September 5, 1944, the Soviet Union declared war on Bulgaria and launched a military invasion shortly thereafter. This invasion was part of a broader Soviet campaign to gain control over the Balkans.
Faced with the Soviet advance and internal pressure, the Bulgarian government capitulated quickly. On September 9, 1944, a coup d'état took place, leading to a change in power. The new government, backed by the Communist Party, looked to negotiate a peace agreement with the Soviet Union and align itself with the Allies. This newsreel being released after these event means that this segment’s content is purely propaganda fiction.
The Volkssturm was officially created on October 18, 1944, by Adolf Hitler in response to the pressing military crises faced by Germany, particularly as the nation was losing ground to advancing Allied forces on both the Western and Eastern fronts.
These units were made up of men aged 16 to 60 regardless of whether they had any prior military experience. The units were organized at the local level, under the leadership of local Party leaders and Nazi officials. In addition to lacking basic training the Volkssturm men often lacked proper equipment with many relying on whatever weapons could be found, such as outdated rifles and civilian arms.
The Volkssturm was supposed to support the regular Wehrmacht and protect German territory from the advancing enemy armies. The morale among the these troops was understandably generally low, as many were conscripted most were aware of the impending defeat.
The Volkssturm units suffered heavy casualties during battles, particularly during the Soviet advances into Germany and the final battles in the West as Allied forces moved into the Reich.
Liberating the Slavs in 1941 wins the war? - RAW UNCENSORED WOCHENSCHAU Pt. 3
9 months ago
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Episode 186
In part 3 we’ll watch more raw footage of the Wehrmacht advancing into the Ukraine. Then I'll respond to some interesting comments from Part 2 of the series. At the end of the video I’ll touch on why the war in the East was destined to become one of complete annihilation. There was no room for sincere compromise.
These films scenes, meant to cleverly contrast the supposedly cultured and racially pure Waffen-SS soldiers to the barbarian Bolsheviks that they were facing. Finding and filming individuals with pronounced asiatic features was no accident. The message was these were the men that civilization needed to be saved from.
In part 2 of the series I talked about the fate of millions of Soviet POWs and touched on Görings hunger plan. Comments were generally positive however there was also push back. Some claimed that the invaders had no intention of leveling cities or depopulating entire regions of slavs to make space for ethnic Germans. It went as far as to claim that they were liberating the Slavs and that Soviet POWs were treated well. Many are incapable to disentangle Hitler from Stalin; that Stalin was responsible for all of the evils done and that’s it. One of these comments ended simply with the words - LIES Judah! Which of course is a conversation stopper. You can’t help stupid.
Then I came across a comment that literally stopped me in my tracks. It was in response to my statement that Stalin had considered returning POWs as traitors and had most of them shot -
"The germans should have released the captured Russians soldiers, since Stalin would've killed them anyway. A win win situation."
The one reply was:
That’s pretty sick, you should be ashamed….
Which of course is true, but… the question he’s answering is “What should be done with all the Soviet POWs?”.
Although what he suggests wasn’t viable, obviously they wouldn’t simply release the POWs, his solution to a complicated problem with complete disregard to traditional moral constraints, is authentic. These are the kinds of questions and types of answers behind most of the worst atrocities.
An example: In May of 1942 Heydrich was assassinated. It was believed that residents from the Czech town Lidice had helped the assassins. Question: “How should the authorities respond?” Solution: kill all Lidice’s men by firing squad, to divide the women from the children and send them to Ravensbruck, to slaughter all of the town’s pets and animals, to burn the town and then to blow up the remains of the buildings, to dig up Lidice’s cemetery to loot the graves and dessecrate the remains, to reroute the stream that ran through the town, to completely cover the former area of the town with topsoil and to plant crops, finally to put a barbed wire fence around the entire area. The complete destruction of Lidice was filmed for posterity. Problem solved.
And now, regarding the question as to whether the Germans could have liberated the Slavic populations and so possibly won the war in 1941.
This is the 1933 book commemorating that year’s NSDAP Party Day in Nuremberg which was the first held during the 3rd Reich. The book was produced by Julius Streicher the man responsible for publishing the racist periodical Der Stürmer and self proclaimed Frankenführer. Sorry, I really can’t stand listening to Streichers racist rants.
Interpretation:
An armored knight rides through a narrow gorge accompanied by his loyal dog who has complete trust in his master. They are flanked by a goat-headed devil and the figure of death. Death's rotting corpse holds an hourglass, a reminder of the shortness of life. The rider moves through the scene looking away from the creatures lurking around him, and appears almost contemptuous of the threats, and is thus a symbol of courage. The knight's armor, the horse which towers in size over the beasts, and the fortress on the mountaintop are symbolic of the resilience of faith.
It’s clear who was seen as the 3rd Reich’s shining knight. Hitler’s fanatical crusade for Lebensraum in the east was clearly spelled out in Mein Kampf. The war of annihilation was to end with conquered lands dominated by ethnic Germans. The liberation of foreign populations was totally out of the question.
This 1942 pamphlet titled, Der Untermensch, clearly show that the Slavic populations were also considered racially inferior. The first illustration compares them to the Mongul hoards that terrorized Eastern Europe in the 13th century. Ironically it was actually the Slavic populations that suffered most. Being trampled by the hooves of these supposed “horsemen of the devil” as they advance west can be seen a murdered baby and a bound and raped European women.
The message here was that the Slavs were the destroyers of civilization and culture. So was it really possible for Hitler to go down in history as the “Great Liberator of the Slavs?” I think not.
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