Waffen-SS Armour on the Eastern Front, 1941–1945

Author: Ian Baxter
Publisher: Pen and Sword Military
ISBN: 1399090046
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 191

Book Description
An illustrated history of Nazi Germany’s Panzer units along the Eastern Front during World War II. Hitler’s invasion of the Soviet Union, codename Operation Barbarossa, was arguably the pivotal moment of the Second World War. Initially the onslaught was staggeringly successful with, as the superb contemporary images in this book show, Waffen-SS armored divisions leading the charge. But the Nazis had underestimated the Russians’ determination to defend their homeland and the logistical problems compounded by the extreme winter weather conditions. After early victories such as the recapture of Kharkov in early 1943 and the Kursk offensive, commanders and crews of armored vehicles such as Pz.Kpfw.I, II, III, IV, Panther, Tiger, King Tiger, assault and self-propelled guns had to adapt their tactics and equipment to what became a desperate defensive withdrawal eventually back across a scarred and devastated Eastern Front. Even during the last months of the war as the Panzers withdrew through Poland and into the Reich, these exhausted elite units, broken down into small battle groups or Kampfgruppen, fought to the bitter end. With authoritative text supported by a plethora of rare fully captioned photographs, this classic Images of War book informs and inspires the reader revealing the key role played by Waffen-SS Panzer units in this most bitter campaign.

SS: Hell on the Eastern Front

Author: Christopher Ailsby
Publisher: Spellmount, Limited Publishers
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 200

Book Description
Gives an account of the Waffen-SS on the Eastern Front, its battles, organisation, tactics and equipment.

The Eastern Front

Author: Steven J. Zaloga
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780897471428
Category : Armored vehicles, Military
Languages : en
Pages : 96

Book Description

Eastern Inferno

Author: Christine Alexander
Publisher: Casemate
ISBN: 161200024X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 241

Book Description
“Remarkable personal journals . . revealing the combat experience of the German-Russian War as seldom seen before . . . a harrowing yet poignant story” (Military Times). Hans Roth was a member of the anti-tank panzerjager battalion, 299th Infantry Division, attached to the Sixth Army, as the invasion of Russia began. As events transpired, he recorded the tension as the Germans deployed on the Soviet frontier in June 1941. Then, a firestorm broke loose as the Wehrmacht tore across the front, forging into the primitive vastness of the East. During the Kiev encirclement, Roth’s unit was under constant attack as the Soviets desperately tried to break through the German ring. At one point, after the enemy had finally been beaten, a friend serving with the SS led him to a site—possibly Babi Yar—where he witnessed civilians being massacred. After suffering through a brutal winter against apparently endless Russian reserves, his division went on the offensive again when the Germans drove toward Stalingrad. In these journals, attacks and counterattacks are described in you-are-there detail. Roth wrote privately, as if to keep himself sane, knowing his honest accounts of the horrors in the East could never pass Wehrmacht censors. When the Soviet counteroffensive of winter 1942 begins, his unit is stationed alongside the Italian 8th Army, and his observations of its collapse, as opposed to the reaction of the German troops sent to stiffen its front, are of special fascination. Roth’s three journals were discovered many years after his disappearance, tucked away in the home of his brother. After his brother’s death, his family discovered them and sent them to Rosel, Roth’s wife. In time, Rosel handed down the journals to Erika, Roth’s only daughter, who had emigrated to America. Roth was likely working on a fourth journal before he was reported missing in action in July 1944. Although his ultimate fate remains unknown, what he did leave behind, now finally revealed, is an incredible firsthand account of the horrific war the Germans waged in Russia.

Waffen-SS on the Eastern Front 1941-1945

Author: Ian Baxter
Publisher: Pen and Sword
ISBN: 1781591865
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 186

Book Description
This book in the popular Images of War series covers the deeds of the Waffen-SS on the Eastern Front during the Second World War. With extensive text and in-depth captions with many rare and unpublished photographs it is an absorbing analysis of the part they played on the Eastern Front. It reveals in detail how this elite band of men fought during the opening phase of Barbarossa, the invasion of Russia, how it supported and took part in the victory at Kharkov, Demyansk and other battles in the Soviet Union. The book reveals the Waffen-SS's role at Kursk and how it was forced to withdraw in the face of overwhelming enemy superiority and were rushed from one danger zone to another to plug gaps in the front. Often these troops faced an enemy ten-times their strength and it was for this reason they were feared and respected by their enemy. Although by early May 1945, the Waffen-SS was all but destroyed, having battled across half Russia and gone on to protect the withdrawals of the rest of the German Army to the very gates of Berlin.

The Waffen-SS at Arnhem

Author: Ian Baxter
Publisher: Pen and Sword Military
ISBN: 1399012959
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 176

Book Description
This pictorial WWII history examines the brutal Battle of Arnhem with particular focus on the SS units that fought the Allied push into the Netherlands. The 1944 Arnhem airborne operation, immortalized by the film A Bridge Too Far, will forever be remembered as a great British feat of arms. British and Polish paratroopers displayed outstanding courage and tenacity in a desperate last stand situation. And yet, as this book describes, the plan was fatally flawed as the 9th and 10th SS Panzer Divisions were recuperating and concealed nearby. What followed was a bloody battle of attrition the result of which was arguably inevitable. Drawing on rare and unpublished photographs, this volume in the Images of War series reveals the historical combat record of the Hohenstaufen and Frundsberg divisions. It describes the intensity of the fighting in and around Arnhem between these elite SS and supporting units against a lightly armed yet equally determined enemy. In spite of the increasing certainty of German defeat, the SS soldier remained fanatically motivated. This superbly illustrated book with its well-researched text and full captions captures the drama of that historic battle for a bridge over the Rhine.

Tanks of Hitler’s Eastern Allies 1941–45

Author: Steven J. Zaloga
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1780960212
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 108

Book Description
The titanic armor battles of the Russian Front are widely known, but the role of Germany's eastern allies is not as well known. Two of these countries, Romania and Hungary, manufactured their own tanks as well as purchasing tanks from Germany. These ranged from older, obsolete types such as the PzKpfw 35(t) all the way up to the latest and best German vehicles including the Tiger I and Hetzer. These tanks played a frequent role in the battles in southern Russia and Ukraine and were especially prominent in the disaster at Stalingrad where the Red Army specifically chose the weaker Romanian and Hungarian salients for their critical envelopment operation. This New Vanguard will provide a broad survey of the various and colorful tanks used. Besides covering the largest of these Axis tank forces, this book will cover the many smaller and lesser known forces including the Italian contingent in Russia, the Finnish armored force, and the small but interesting armored forces of the Russian Vlasov (RONA), Croatian, Bulgarian and Slovakian armies. This subject is seeing increasing interest in the modeling world; for example Tamiya recently announced a PzKpfw 35 (t) (suitable for Romanian, Slovak armies) a Finnish StuG III, and a Finnish BT-42.

Panzers East and West

Author: Dieter Stenger
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 0811765903
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 401

Book Description
Organized and trained during 1943, the 10th SS Panzer Division saw its first action in the spring of 1944 during the relief of an encircled German army on the Eastern Front. Several months later, in response to the Allied invasion at Normandy, the division returned to the West in mid-June 1944. Here the division engaged in a series of armored attacks and counterattacks against British and American forces. The 10th SS briefly held off a few enemy thrusts but gradually had to fall back to Falaise, where the division escaped the Allied encirclement with no tanks and only a fraction of its men. The 10th SS Panzer Division next defended against the Allied parachute assault during Operation Market Garden in September 1944. Depleted and now a division in name only, the 10th SS fought in Alsace before Hitler sent it to the Eastern Front again. There, east of Berlin, the division participated in the final battles to enable the escape of German soldiers and civilians from Soviet captivity.

The Waffen-SS in Allied Hands Volume One

Author: Terry Goldsworthy
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1527527328
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 458

Book Description
The Waffen-SS are commonly regarded as the elite of Germany’s armed forces during World War II. They gained much of this reputation while fighting on the Eastern Front in Russia during Germany’s war against the Soviet Union. They were also called to the fore in an attempt to hurl back the Western Allies’ invasion forces in Normandy, and were used in the last great offensive on the Western Front in the Ardennes and contributed to the final defence of Berlin. In adversity, they were some of the most resilient soldiers that fought for Germany in World War II and were ideologically and politically aligned with Hitler. For over 70 years, many of the manuscripts contained in this book, and sourced from the United States National Archives, have not been scrutinised by modern researchers. This book provides a unique opportunity to publish these records in order to provide an insight into the Waffen-SS. The Waffen-SS was a military organisation that is steeped in the military folklore of being a force capable of incredible military feats, but it was also capable of incredible evil. These records are exceedingly valuable as they are one of the few contemporaneous primary sources of information available in relation to the Waffen-SS.

SS Foreign Divisions & Volunteers of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, 1941–1945

Author: Ian Baxter
Publisher: Pen and Sword Military
ISBN: 1399012991
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 190

Book Description
Drawing on a superb collection of rare and unpublished photographs SS Foreign Divisions & Volunteers of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia 1942 - 1945 describes how the occupying Nazis recruited Lithuanian, Latvian, and Estonian conscripts into the Waffen-SS. Unlike her Latvian neighbor, Lithuania had no plans to provide Germany with a National Legion. Although volunteers came forward, the majority did not. This was not the case for Latvia and Estonia, which undertook huge recruitment programs, and thousands of men were drafted into their own foreign legion of Waffen-SS Grenadier divisions. After intensive training, these divisions saw action on the Eastern front, around Leningrad, in the Ukraine, before vicious defensive operations as the Red Army smashed its way through the Baltic States in 1944. Even in the last dying weeks of the war, what was left of the Baltic soldiers of the 15th, 19th, and 20th Waffen-SS Grenadier Divisions, continued to fight alongside their Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS counterparts until they were either destroyed or surrendered. The story of these divisions is graphically told with detailed captions and text together with many contemporary images in true Images of War style.