Russia 1942/43 ▶ Battle of Stalingrad - 6th Army, 4th Tank Army, Luftflotte 4 „Gewissen in Aufruhr“ 60th Infantry Division
German History Archive ▶
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Rudolf Petershagen, (* 4. Juni 1901 in Hamburg; † 13. April 1969 in Greifswald)
Autobiographical report "Conscience in turmoil" / „Gewissen in Aufruhr“ by Rudolf Petershagen
Grenadier-Regiment 92 / 60th Infantry-Division
As company commander Petershagen was involved in the occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1938. In the summer of 1939 he was promoted to Major. In the first period after the beginning of the Second World War Petershagen belonged to the staff of the Substitute Division in Szczecin. Then he was transferred to France and fought in the Balkans. During the Russian campaign he was locked up with his battalion in the first battle for Kharkov. He did not let himself be rolled over with his battalion as commanded, but dared to break out successfully. For this he received the Knight's Cross. He was also promoted to colonel and commander of the Greifswald 92nd Panzergrenadier Regiment. With his unit he took part in the battle of Stalingrad, was seriously wounded and flown out of Stalingrad. He was sent to a military hospital in Greifswald. Als Kompaniechef war Petershagen 1938 an der Besetzung der Tschechoslowakei beteiligt. Im Sommer 1939 wurde er außerplanmäßig zum Major befördert. In der ersten Zeit nach Beginn des Zweiten Weltkrieges gehörte Petershagen zum Stab der Ersatzdivision in Stettin. Dann wurde er nach Frankreich versetzt und kämpfte auf dem Balkan. Während des Russlandfeldzuges wurde er mit seinem Bataillon bei der ersten Schlacht um Charkow eingeschlossen. Er ließ sich mit seinem Bataillon nicht befehlsgemäß überrollen, sondern wagte erfolgreich den Ausbruch. Dafür erhielt er das Ritterkreuz. Er wurde ferner zum Oberst befördert und Kommandeur des Greifswalder 92. Panzergrenadierregiments. Mit seiner Einheit nahm er an der Schlacht von Stalingrad teil, wurde schwer verwundet und aus Stalingrad ausgeflogen. Er kam in ein Lazarett nach Greifswald.
(incl. outtake from GDR feature movie 1961)

Poland / Soviet Union 1940 ▶ Katyn Massacre by Soviet NKVD - Exhumation Mass Grave 1943
21,768 Polish Officers executed in Katyn forest massacre by the Soviet NKVD - April 1940 - Joseph Stalin Lavrentiy Beria
German History Archive ▶
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Katyn Massacre:
Mass execution of Polish military officers by the Soviet Union during World War II. The discovery of the massacre precipitated the severance of diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and the Polish government-in-exile in London. After Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union concluded their Nonaggression Pact of 1939 and Germany invaded Poland from the west, Soviet forces occupied the eastern half of Poland. As a consequence of this occupation, tens of thousands of Polish military personnel fell into Soviet hands and were interned in prison camps inside the Soviet Union. But after the Germans invaded the Soviet Union (June 1941), the Polish government-in-exile (located in London) and the Soviet government agreed to cooperate against Germany, and a Polish army on Soviet territory was to be formed. The Polish general Władysław Anders began organizing this army, but when he requested that 15,000 Polish prisoners of war whom the Soviets had once held at camps near Smolensk be transferred to his command, the Soviet government informed him in December 1941 that most of those prisoners had escaped to Manchuria and could not be located. The fate of the missing prisoners remained a mystery. Then on April 13, 1943, the Germans announced that they had discovered mass graves of Polish officers in the Katyn forest near Smolensk, in western Russian S.F.S.R. A total of 4,443 corpses were recovered that had apparently been shot from behind and then piled in stacks and buried. Investigators identified the corpses as the Polish officers who had been interned at a Soviet prison camp near Smolensk and accused the Soviet authorities of having executed the prisoners in May 1940. In response to these charges, the Soviet government claimed that the Poles had been engaged in construction work west of Smolensk in 1941 and the invading German army had killed them after overrunning that area in August 1941. But both German and Red Cross investigations of the Katyn corpses then produced firm physical evidence that the massacre took place in early 1940, at a time when the area was still under Soviet control. The Polish government-in-exile in London requested that the International Committee of the Red Cross examine the graves and also asked the Soviet government to provide official reports on the fates of the remaining missing prisoners. The Soviet government refused these demands, and on April 25, 1943, the Soviets broke diplomatic relations with the Polish government in London. The Soviets then set about establishing a Polish government-in-exile composed of Polish communists.
The Katyn Massacre left a deep scar in Polish-Soviet relations during the remainder of the war and afterward. For Poles, Katyn became a symbol of the many victims of Stalinism. Although a 1952 U.S. congressional inquiry concluded that the Soviet Union had been responsible for the massacre, Soviet leaders insisted for decades that the Polish officers found at Katyn had been killed by the invading Germans in 1941. This explanation was accepted without protest by successive Polish communist governments until the late 1980s, when the Soviet Union allowed a noncommunist coalition government to come to power in Poland. In March 1989 this government officially shifted the blame for the Katyn Massacre from the Germans to the Soviet secret police, the NKVD. In 1992 the Russian government released documents proving that the Soviet Politburo and the NKVD had been responsible for the massacre and cover-up and revealing that there may have been more than 20,000 victims. In 2000 a memorial was opened at the site of the killings in Katyn.

Russia 1942/43 ▶ Battles of Don / Stalingrad in Colour - "Fall Blau" Eastern Front (Part 1)
German History Archive ▶
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLEtu_bvreispSTeS_m08OcY8sC26bJVN
German History Archive / Howdi Colour & Repair
16. and 24. Panzer-Division / 305. Infanterie-Division / Luftflotte 4
German History Archive / Howdi Colour & Repair
01: Stalingrad train station
02: 24.PD Don area
03: 16.PD Division command post General Friedrich Ernst Paulus, Stalingrad north
04: He-111 Kampfgeschwader KG 27, Don area
05: 305.ID and StuG-Abteilung 205, Stalingrad Barricady
06: Stalingrad south
07: Stalingrad city
08: Soviet HiWis (Hilfswillige), Stepp between Don and Stalingrad
09: Stalingrad train bridge

Ukraine 1943/44 ▶ Stalino Donetsk Donezk - Mass Grave Exhumation by Wehrmacht POW
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It is not certain whether these mass graves are victims of the German forces or the Soviet NKVD. There were numerous NKVD camps in the Ukrainian SSR. Between 1940 and 1943 many anti communist Ukrainians and Poles were deported by NKVD units and executed.
Donetsk (Ukrainian: Донецьк, Russian: Доне́цк) former names: Aleksandrovka, Hughesovka, Yuzovka, Stalino - is an industrial city in Ukraine on the Kalmius River. The population was estimated at 929,063 (2016 est.) in the city, and over 2,000,000 in the metropolitan area (2011). According to the 2001 Ukrainian Census, Donetsk was the fifth-largest city in Ukraine. Since April 2014, the city has been controlled by pro-Russian separatists from the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic.
Administratively, it has been the centre of Donetsk Oblast, while historically, it is the unofficial capital and largest city of the larger economic and cultural Donets Basin (Donbass) region. Donetsk is adjacent to another major city of Makiivka and along with other surrounding cities forms a major urban sprawl and conurbation in the region. Donetsk has been a major economic, industrial and scientific centre of Ukraine with a high concentration of companies and a skilled workforce.
The original settlement in the south of the European part of the Russian Empire was first mentioned as Aleksandrovka in 1779, under the Russian Empress Catherine the Great. In 1869, Welsh businessman, John Hughes, built a steel plant and several coal mines in the region; the town was named Yuzovka (Юзовка) in recognition of his role ("Yuz" being a Russian-language approximation of Hughes). During Soviet times, the city's steel industry was expanded. In 1924, it was renamed Stalino, and in 1932 the city became the centre of the Donetsk region. Renamed Donetsk in 1961, the city today remains the centre for coal mining and steel industry. Since April 2014, Donetsk and its surrounding areas have been one of the major sites of fighting in the War in Donbass.
When the Russian Civil War broke out, on 12 February 1918 Yuzovka was part of the Donetsk-Krivoy Rog Soviet Republic. The Republic was disbanded at the 2nd All-Ukrainian Congress of Soviets on 20 March 1918 when the independence of the Soviet Ukraine was announced. It failed to achieve recognition, either internationally or by the Russian SFSR, and, in accordance with the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, was abolished. In 1924, under the Soviet rule, the city's name was changed to Stalin. In that year, the city's population totaled 63,708, and in the next year, 80,085. In 1929–31 the city's name was changed to Stalino.[8] The city did not have a drinking water system until 1931, when a 55.3 km (34.4 mi) system was laid underground. In July 1933, the city became the administrative center of the Donetsk Oblast of the Ukrainian SSR. In 1933, the first 12 km (7 mi) sewer system was installed, and next year the first exploitation of gas was conducted within the city. In addition, some sources state that the city was briefly called Trotsk—after Leon Trotsky—for a few months in 1923. At the beginning of World War II, the population of Stalino consisted of 507,000, and after the war, only 175,000. The German invasion during World War II almost completely destroyed the city, which was mostly rebuilt on a large scale at the war's end. It was occupied by German forces as part of the Reichskommissariat Ukraine between 16 October 1941 and 5 September 1943. The Italians actually took Stalino [not in citation given] In 1945, young men and women aged 17 to 35, from the Danube Swabian (Schwowe) communities of Yugoslavia, Hungary and Romania (the Batschka and Banat), were forcibly sent to Russia as Allied "war reparations", being put to work as slave labour to rebuild Stalino and to work in its mines. The conditions were so poor that many died from disease and malnutrition. During Nikita Khrushchev's second wave of destalinization in November 1961, the city was renamed Donetsk, after the Seversky Donets River, a tributary of the Don in order to distance it from the former leader Joseph Stalin. In 1965, the Donetsk Academy of Sciences was established as part of the Academy of Science of the Ukrainian SSR.

Germany 1920s ▶ Deutsche Reichswehr - Maneuver Manöverbilder Reichpräsident Paul Hindenburg
German History Archive ▶
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The Reichswehr (English: Realm Defence) formed the military organisation of Germany from 1919 until 1935, when it was united with the new Wehrmacht (Defence Force). At the end of World War I, the forces of the German Empire were disbanded, the men returning home individually or in small groups. Many of them joined the Freikorps (Free Corps), a collection of volunteer paramilitary units that were involved in suppressing the German Revolution and border clashes between 1918 and 1923. The Reichswehr was limited to a standing army of 100,000 men, and a navy of 15,000. The establishment of a general staff was prohibited. Heavy weapons such as artillery above the calibre of 105 mm (for naval guns, above 205 mm), armoured vehicles, submarines and capital ships were forbidden, as were aircraft of any kind. Compliance with these restrictions was monitored until 1927 by the Military Inter-Allied Commission of Control. It was conceded that the newly formed Weimar Republic did need a military, so on 6 March 1919 a decree established the Vorläufige Reichswehr (Provisional National Defence), consisting of the Vorläufiges Reichsheer (Provisional National Army) and Vorläufige Reichsmarine (Provisional National Navy). The Vorläufige Reichswehr was made up of 43 brigades. On 30 September 1919, the army was reorganised as the Übergangsheer (Transitional Army), and the force size was reduced to 20 brigades. About 400,000 men were left in the armed forces, and in May 1920 it further was downsized to 200,000 men and restructured again, forming three cavalry divisions and seven infantry divisions. On 1 October 1920 the brigades were replaced by regiments and the manpower was now only 100,000 men as stipulated by the Treaty of Versailles. This lasted until 1 January 1921, when the Reichswehr was officially established according to the limitations imposed by the Treaty of Versailles (Articles 159 to 213).
The forced reduction of strength of the German army from 4,500,000 in 1918 to 100,000 after Treaty of Versailles, enhanced the quality of the Reichsheer because only the best were permitted to join the army.[citation needed] However the changing face of warfare meant that the smaller army was impotent without mechanization and air support, no matter how much effort was put into modernising infantry tactics. During 1933 and 1934, after Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany, the Reichswehr began a secret program of expansion. In December 1933, the army staff decided to increase the active strength to 300,000 men in 21 divisions. On 1 April 1934, between 50,000 and 60,000 new recruits entered and were assigned to special training battalions. The original seven infantry divisions of the Reichswehr were expanded to 21 infantry divisions, with Wehrkreis headquarters increased to the size of a corps HQ on 1 October 1934. These divisions used cover names to hide their divisional size, but, during October 1935, these were dropped. Also, during October 1934, the officers who had been forced to retire in 1919 were recalled; those who were no longer fit for combat were assigned to administrative positions – releasing fit officers for front-line duties. The Nazi Party came to power in Germany in 1933. The Sturmabteilung (Storm Battalion or SA), the Nazi Party militia, played a prominent part in this change. Ernst Röhm and his SA colleagues thought of their force – at that time over three million strong – as the future army of Germany, replacing the smaller Reichswehr and its professional officers, whom they viewed as old fogies who lacked revolutionary spirit. Röhm wanted to become Minister of Defense, and in February 1934 demanded that the much smaller Reichswehr be merged into the SA to form a true people's army. This alarmed both political and military leaders, and to forestall the possibility of a coup, Hitler sided with conservative leaders and the military. Röhm and the leadership of the SA were murdered, along with many other political adversaries of the Nazis, including two Reichswehr generals, in the Night of the Long Knives (30 June – 2 July 1934). The secret programme of expansion by the military finally became public in 1935. On 1 March 1935 the Luftwaffe was established. On 16 March 1935 Germany introduced conscription – in violation of the Treaty of Versailles. In the same act, the German government renamed the Reichswehr as the Wehrmacht (defence force). On 1 June 1935 the Reichsheer was renamed the Heer (army) and the Reichsmarine the Kriegsmarine.

Russia 1942 ▶ Stalingrad Cталинград Battle - Adolf Hitler Speech (Part 1)
Rede Adolf Hitlers anlässlich der Eröffnung des 4. Kriegswinterhilfswerkes im Berliner Sportpalast (30.09.1942)
German History Archive ▶
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Hitler's great misjudgements and overestimation of his own capabilities regarding the situation on the Eastern Front at the end of 1942 cost hundreds of thousands of Germans, Austrians, Romanians, Ukrainians, as well as Hungarians, Italians, Slovaks and Croats their lives by February 1943. The victims on the Soviet side resulting from Hitler's war are even greater. The whole Fall Blau / Blue Case, the attack on Stalingrad and the Caucasus, became the greatest military disaster in world history. Massive military and logistical mistakes were made, such as widely overrun front lines, lack of equipment and motorization, lack of supplies.
This video has been uploaded to accurately document history. No political agenda is propagandised or supported via this uploading. There is absolutely no intention of some racist Flamewar to be instigated.
"Das Jahr 1942 hat hinter sich schon in meinen Augen die schicksalhafteste Prüfung unseres Volkes. Es war dies der Winter 41 auf 42. Schlimmeres kann und wird nicht mehr kommen. Das wir diesen Winter, diesen General Winter besiegt haben, das endlich die deutschen Fronten standen. Und das wir in diesem Frühjahr, das heißt in diesem Frühsommer wieder antreten konnten, das glaub ich ist der Beweis, das die Vorsehung mit dem deutschen Volk zufrieden war. Es war eine sehr schwere und eine sehr harte Probe und Prüfung, das wissen sie unterdes ja alle. Und trotzdem haben wir diese schwerste Zeit nicht nur überstanden, sondern es fertiggebracht in aller Ruhe die Angriffsdivisionen, die Mot.-und Panzerverbände zu ordnen, neu aufzustellen beziehungsweise zu formieren, die bestimmt waren die weitere Offensive einzuleiten. Ich glaube wir können, wenn wir zurückblicken, mit den hinter uns liegenden drei Jahren doch zufrieden sein. Es war immer eine sehr nüchterne Zielsetzung. Oft sehr wagemutig, wo sie wagemutig sein musste. Überlegt, dort wo sie überlegt sein konnte. Bedächtig, dort wo wir Zeit hatten. Vorsichtig, dort wo wir glaubten unter allen Umständen sehr vorsichtig sein zu müssen. Aber wir sind auch sehr kühn gewesen dort wo nur die Kühnheit allein uns hatte retten können.

Russia 1942/43 ▶ Battle of Caucasus / Elbrus - Gebirgsjäger Mountain Troops
Gebirgsjäger 1. und 4. Gebirgs-Division Kaukasus / Elbruskompanie Hauptmann Heinz Groth (Ritterkreuzträger) 5630m
German History Archive ▶
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On August 14, 1942, German mountain troops of the 1st and 4th Mountain Division crossed the 4000 m high pass Khotiutau and surprised the surprised Red Army crew of the Elbrus hut, which left without a fight. On the orders of Major General Hubert Lanz, commander of the 1st Mountain Division, a group of mountain troops under Captain Gämmerle climbed the West Peak despite bad weather conditions and raised the imperial war flag there, which, however, did not withstand the prevailing snowstorm for long. When the weather improved, a second ascent by an eight-man group led by Lieutenant Leupold took place on 23 August. Originally Major General Lanz had planned to rename the mountain "Adolf-Hitler-Spitze" after the successful conquest by the mountain troops. The news of the ascent of Elbrus, however, is said to have provoked an outburst of rage in Hitler; according to Albert Speer's memoirs, he complained about the "idiotic ambition to climb an idiotic summit" instead of concentrating all his forces on the conquest of Sochumi on the Black Sea. After this negative reaction, the name was not changed. The climbing of the highest peak in the Caucasus was nevertheless exploited propagandistically. The scenes were only filmed afterwards, as the shots from the first ascent had been found unusable. The re-recording took place on 7 September in the presence of the mountaineer and cameraman Hans Ertl. On 27 September 1942 there was a high mountain battle on Elbrus between German and Soviet mountain troops. The Elbrushütte remained under German occupation until the beginning of January 1943. Legends arose on the Soviet side about its recapture, among other things about a successful bombing - but in fact only the fuel depot below the hut was hit. Due to bad weather conditions, the Red Army was initially unable to remove the Reichskriegsflagge from the summit of Elbrus after the Wehrmacht withdrew; a Soviet mountain infantry unit only succeeded in doing so in February.
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Deutsche Gebirgsjäger der 1. und 4. Gebirgs-Division überschritten am 14. August 1942 den 4000 m hohen Pass Khotiutau und überrumpelten die überraschte Rote-Armee-Besatzung der Elbrushütte, die kampflos abzog. Auf Befehl von Generalmajor Hubert Lanz, Kommandeur der 1. Gebirgs-Division, bestieg eine Gruppe Gebirgsjäger unter Hauptmann Gämmerle trotz schlechter Wetterlage den Westgipfel und hisste dort die Reichskriegsflagge, die dem vorherrschenden Schneesturm allerdings nicht lange standhielt. Bei besserer Wetterlage erfolgte daher am 23. August ein zweiter Aufstieg durch eine achtköpfige Gruppe unter Führung von Oberleutnant Leupold. Ursprünglich hatte Generalmajor Lanz geplant, den Berg nach der erfolgreichen Eroberung durch die Gebirgsjäger in „Adolf-Hitler-Spitze“ umzubenennen. Die Nachricht von der Besteigung des Elbrus soll bei Hitler jedoch einen Wutausbruch hervorgerufen haben; laut Albert Speers Erinnerungen schimpfte er über den „idiotischen Ehrgeiz, einen idiotischen Gipfel zu besteigen“, anstatt alle Kräfte befehlsmäßig auf die Eroberung von Sochumi am Schwarzen Meer zu konzentrieren. Nach dieser ablehnenden Reaktion erfolgte die Umbenennung nicht. Die Erklimmung des höchsten Gipfels im Kaukasus wurde dennoch propagandistisch ausgeschlachtet. Die Szenen wurden erst nachträglich gefilmt, da die Aufnahmen von der Erstbesteigung für unbrauchbar befunden worden waren. Der Nachdreh fand am 7. September unter Beisein des Bergsteigers und Kameramanns Hans Ertl statt.
Am 27. September 1942 kam es am Elbrus zu einem Hochgebirgsgefecht zwischen deutschen und sowjetischen Gebirgsjägern. Die Elbrushütte blieb bis Anfang Januar 1943 unter deutscher Besatzung. Um ihre Rückeroberung entstanden auf sowjetischer Seite Legenden, unter anderem um eine erfolgreiche Bombardierung – tatsächlich wurde aber nur das Treibstofflager unterhalb der Hütte getroffen. Wegen schlechter Wetterverhältnisse war es der Roten Armee zunächst nicht möglich, die Reichskriegsflagge nach dem Abzug der Wehrmacht wieder vom Gipfel des Elbrus zu entfernen; erst im Februar gelang dies einer sowjetischen Gebirgsjägereinheit.

Germany 1935 ▶ Unsere neue Wehrmacht - Panzertruppen Tank Troops
German History Archive ▶
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The Wehrmacht (defence force) was the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer (army), the Kriegsmarine (navy) and the Luftwaffe (air force). The designation "Wehrmacht" replaced the previously used term Reichswehr, and was the manifestation of the Nazi regime's efforts to rearm Germany to a greater extent than the Treaty of Versailles permitted. After the Nazi rise to power in 1933, one of Adolf Hitler's most overt and audacious moves was to establish the Wehrmacht, a modern offensively-capable armed force, fulfilling the Nazi regime's long-term goals of regaining lost territory as well as gaining new territory and dominating its neighbors. This required the reinstatement of conscription, and massive investment and defense spending on the arms industry.

Russia 1942/43 ▶ Battle of Stalingrad - Interview Gerhard Philipp Humbert (Part 1) Adjutant to General Walter Kurt von Seydlitz-Kurzbach / Oberleutnant and Ordonnanzoffizier LI. Armeekorps
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Assessment of the situation of the German associations in the Stalingrad pocket. Humbert remained in Soviet captivity for only 5 years.
"I am of the opinion that Stalingrad himself a: has never been a real goal and b: never been a real turning point in this war. At most, the last of us saw where we were led - militarily and politically. I can say that. And for me, Stalingrad was of course very formative, if only because of my experiences as a young person. September and October (1942) were fought off house by house within the city. The city itself was 100 percent never conquered. Because the commander-in-chief of the 62nd Siberian Army, Colonel General Tschuikov, later Marshal Tschuikov and his staff had a bunker built in the ruins of Stalingrad and remained there. And practically there was the core of this defence, which was very tough. There was hardly any food left. Armament, ammunition hardly still there. The supply of the wounded was not guaranteed. Horrible. We had actually up to the Christmas days of course no feeling at all the Christmas was. We lay in heavy defensive fights. And of course we knew that we could no longer count on relief. Because, now I would like to say something which probably is not to be found in all these war diaries etc.: We were naturally in the pocket in the best way informed about everything which went on outside itself."
"Ich bin der Meinung, das Stalingrad selbst a: nie ein richtiges Ziel gewesen ist und b: nie eine richtige Wende gewesen ist in diesem Krieg. Es ist höchstens dazu gekommen, dass auch der Letzte noch gesehen hat, wohin wir geführt wurden - militärisch und politisch. Das kann ich sagen. Und für mich selbst ist Stalingrad natürlich sehr prägend gewesen, schon allein aus den Erlebnissen heraus als junger Mensch. September und Oktober (1942) wurde Haus für Haus innerhalb der Stadt abgekämpft. Die Stadt selber ist ja 100 Prozent nie erobert worden. Weil der Oberbefehlshaber der 62. Sibirischen Armee, Generaloberst Tschuikov, später Marschall Tschuikov mit seinem Stab in den Ruinen von Stalingrad sich einen Bunker bauen ließ und dort sitzen blieb. Und praktisch dort das Kernstück dieser Verteidigung war, die sehr zäh war. Verpflegung war so gut wie kaum noch da. Bewaffnung, Munition kaum noch da. Die Versorgung der Verwundeten war nicht gewährleistet. Grausig. Wir hatten eigentlich bis zum Weihnachtstage selber natürlich gar kein Gefühl das Weihnachten war. Wir lagen in schweren Abwehrkämpfen. Und natürlich wussten wir, dass wir nicht mehr mit Entsatz rechnen konnten. Denn, jetzt möchte ich etwas sagen was wahrscheinlich in all diesen ganzen Kriegstagebüchern usw. nicht zu finden ist: Wir waren natürlich in dem Kessel bestens unterrichtet über alles das was draußen vor sich ging."

Germany / England 1940 ▶ Battle of Britain / Luftschlacht um England "Stuka" Sturzkampfbomber Junkers Ju 87 German Air Force / Deutsche Luftwaffe
German History Archive ▶
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The „Luftschlacht um England“ was the attempt of the German Air Force in the Second World War, after the victory over France between summer 1940 and early 1941, to force the capitulation of Great Britain with air attacks against the British armed forces and British cities or to prepare the planned invasion of the island by gaining air superiority. The Battle is a series of British air battles led by the German Air Force against the Royal Air Force (RAF). British historians determine the period of the battle from 10 July to 31 October 1940, since from this day the day attacks failed to take place on a larger scale. Some sources and statistics refer to a period up to May 1941, when the air force combat squadrons for the Operation Barbarossa were withdrawn towards the Soviet Union. The destruction of the Royal Air Force (RAF) was regarded as a basic prerequisite for a successful invasion, the planning of which had already been discussed between Hitler and Grand Admiral Raeder in December 1939 (Operation Seelöwe). Hitler later hoped, however, to force Great Britain into peace negotiations through increased bombardment. At the end of September 1940, the invasion plans were internally postponed indefinitely, i.e. effectively abandoned. On 22 June 1940 an armistice was signed between the French army and the German Wehrmacht, much to the disappointment of Great Britain. Because of the quick victory over all war opponents except Great Britain, signals were expected from Hitler, which expressed the wish for an end to the fighting on the part of the British. In fact, there were political and popular tendencies willing to do so. But Arthur Neville Chamberlain, who had until then represented the Appeasement policy, had resigned as Prime Minister on 10 May 1940, and the energetic Winston Churchill took his place. He made it clear on 13 May that the war could only end with "victory at any price". The attacks of the British RAF on German cities began with the attack on Mönchengladbach on 11 May 1940 with 35 bombers.

Russia 1942 ▶ Battle Of Kerch Crimea "Unternehmen Trappenjagd" Krim Kertsch Керчь Tatar Wall Tatarengraben - Erich von Manstein, Wolfram Freiherr von Richthofen, COS Chef des Stabes 11. Armee Otto Wöhler
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Operation "Bustard Hunt" (8 to 19 May 1942) was the code name for the German-Romanian enterprise to conquer the Kerch Peninsula on the eastern side of the Crimea. Prior to this, the German Wehrmacht had been repulsed by Soviet troops after the conquest of the Crimean peninsula with multiple landing operations in the winter of 1941/42 (Kerch-Feodossija Operation). For the planned summer offensive "Fall Blau" it was important that a possible flank threat was removed by the Crimea. For this reason the Kerch peninsula was to be reconquered first and then the fortress Sevastopol was to be taken. The Germans were confronted with blatant mistakes of the Soviet military leadership. Thus they had concentrated the majority of their troops in the northern front advance Kiet-Korpetsch. Due to their numerical superiority, the Soviet troops did not count on an attack by the Germans. For this reason they refrained from building deep defences and lines of defence, and their command posts and artillery positions were poorly camouflaged. The German surprise attack began on May 8, 1942 at 4:15 a.m. After 3 ½ hours the breakthrough through the second line of defence, an antitank ditch, was achieved. The surprise effect was intensified by landing a battalion of Infantry Regiment 436 (132nd Infantry Division) with collapsible assault boats behind the second line of defence. Targeted artillery fire and the operations of the VIII. Air Corps on the command structure of the Crimean front quickly paralysed Soviet troops. After overcoming the tank pit, the 22nd Tank Division was pulled forward. The aim was to advance to the Sea of Azov and complete the containment of the 51st Army. Furthermore, a motorized advance division of the Corps (Colonel Groddeck) was sent eastwards. Its purpose was to connect with the 436 Infantry Regiment, destroy enemy communication links, prevent the establishment of a new enemy line of defence behind the Tartar Trench and secure the eastern flank created by an encirclement of the Soviet 51st Army. It was not the Soviet resistance that stopped the German troops for the time being, but a strong thunderstorm that caused both motorized units (22nd Tank Division and Brigade Groddeck) to get completely stuck. On 11 May 1942 the 22nd Panzer Division reached the coast, thus enclosing large parts of the Soviet 51st Army. The corps that quickly advanced from the west (XXXXII. and VII. around.) removed the cauldron and pursued troops that had escaped from the cauldron along the north coast and in the middle section. Thus all three corps of the 11th Army drove the Soviet troops in front of them. It was not until Kerch that the Soviet units were able to build up a defence and put up a tough fight, because they wanted to evacuate as many units as possible across the Kerch Strait. Kerch was attacked simultaneously from the south and north, the main objective was to capture the port, which was achieved on 14 May 1942 by Infantry Regiment 213 of the 170th Infantry Division. The battles for the conquest of Kerch lasted until May 20, 1942. Some Soviet units entrenched themselves for weeks, moreover large parts of the town were undermined like mines and formed an underground labyrinth of resistance nests.
The losses of the German troops amounted to 3397 soldiers (600 of whom died), 8 tanks, 3 assault guns and 9 guns. Three Soviet armies (44., 47. and 51.) with 21 divisions were destroyed. The Soviet losses amounted to about 28,000 killed, 170,000 prisoners, 1133 destroyed guns, 258 destroyed tanks and 417 destroyed airplanes. Only about 37,000 soldiers were able to save themselves under heavy German air and artillery attacks on the Taman Peninsula beyond the Kerch Strait. In barely 14 days the 11th Army had eliminated the threat on its eastern flank and crushed a triple superior enemy. The fortress Sevastopol was now on its own.

Russia 1942 ▶ Battle of Stalingrad - Sommeroffensive "Fall Blau" 6th Army & 4th Tank Army - 6. Armee und 4. Panzerarmee August-October 1942 (Tank StuG III Infantry Artillery)
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The Battle of Stalingrad (23 August 1942 – 2 February 1943) was a major battle of World War II in which Nazi Germany and its allies fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad (now Volgograd) in Southern Russia. Marked by fierce close quarters combat and direct assaults on civilians by air raids, it is often regarded as one of the single largest (nearly 2.2 million personnel) and bloodiest (1.7–2 million wounded, killed or captured) battles in the history of warfare. It was an extremely costly defeat for German forces, and the Army High Command had to withdraw vast military forces from the West to replace their losses. The German offensive to capture Stalingrad began in August 1942, using the German 6th Army and elements of the 4th Panzer Army. The attack was supported by intensive Luftwaffe bombing that reduced much of the city to rubble. The fighting degenerated into house-to-house fighting, and both sides poured reinforcements into the city. By mid-November 1942, the Germans had pushed the Soviet defenders back at great cost into narrow zones along the west bank of the Volga River. On 19 November 1942, the Red Army launched Operation Uranus, a two-pronged attack targeting the weaker Romanian and Hungarian armies protecting the German 6th Army's flanks. The Axis forces on the flanks were overrun and the 6th Army was cut off and surrounded in the Stalingrad area. Adolf Hitler ordered that the army stay in Stalingrad and make no attempt to break out; instead, attempts were made to supply the army by air and to break the encirclement from the outside. Heavy fighting continued for another two months. By the beginning of February 1943, the Axis forces in Stalingrad had exhausted their ammunition and food. The remaining units of the 6th Army surrendered. The battle lasted five months, one week, and three days.
Attack of the German and Austrian tank and infantry divisions of Stalingrad. Regiments of the 29th (Hessen-Thuringia), 44th (Vienna Austria), 71st (Lower Saxony). 79th (Hessen), 94th (Saxony), 100th Jäger-Division (Upper Austria), 295th (Saxony-Anhalt), 305th (Baden-Württemberg), 389th (completely new formed in Prague) Infantry Division as well as supporting Storm Guns and Artillery units driving towards the city centre.
Angriff der deutschen und österreichischen Panzer- und Infanterie-Divisionen auf Stalingrad. Regimenter der 29. (Hessen-Thüringen), 44. (Wien Österrreich), 71. (Niedersachsen), 79. (Hessen), 100. Jäger-Division (Oberösterreich), 94. (Sachsen) und 295. (Sachsen-Anhalt), 305. (Baden-Württemberg) and 389. (frisch aufgestellt in Prag) Infanterie-Divisionen sowie unterstützende Sturmgeschütz-Abteilungen und Artillerie-Einheiten stoßen auf die Innenstadt vor.

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