Wehrmacht

The Wehrmacht (German pronunciation: [ˈveːɐ̯maxt] , lit. 'defence force') were 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 (Reich Defence) and was the manifestation of the Nazi regime's efforts to rearm
Germany to a greater extent than the Treaty of Versailles permitted.[11]

After the Nazi rise to power in 1933, one of Adolf Hitler's most overt and bellicose 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
neighbours. This required the reinstatement of conscription and massive investment and
defence spending on the arms industry.[12]

The Wehrmacht formed the heart of Germany's politico-military power. In the early part of the
Second World War, the Wehrmacht employed combined arms tactics (close-cover air-support,
tanks and infantry) to devastating effect in what became known as Blitzkrieg (lightning war). Its
campaigns in France (1940), the Soviet Union (1941) and North Africa (1941/42) are regarded by
historians as acts of boldness.[13] At the same time, the extent of advances strained the
Wehrmacht's capacity to the breaking point, culminating in its first major defeat in the Battle of
Moscow (1941); by late 1942, Germany was losing the initiative in all theatres. The German
operational art proved no match to that of the Allied coalition, making the Wehrmacht's
weaknesses in strategy, doctrine, and logistics apparent.[14]

Closely cooperating with the SS and their Einsatzgruppen death squads, the German armed
forces committed numerous war crimes (despite later denials and promotion of the myth of the
clean Wehrmacht).[15] The majority of the war crimes took place in the Soviet Union, Poland,
Yugoslavia, Greece, and Italy, as part of the war of annihilation against the Soviet Union, the
Holocaust and Nazi security warfare.

During World War II about 18 million men served in the Wehrmacht.[16] By the time the war ended
in Europe in May 1945, German forces (consisting of the Heer, the Kriegsmarine, the Luftwaffe,
the Waffen-SS, the Volkssturm, and foreign collaborator units) had lost approximately 11,300,000
men, about 5,318,000 of whom were missing, killed or died in captivity.[17] Only a few of the
Wehrmacht 's upper leadership went on trial for war crimes, despite evidence suggesting that
more were involved in illegal actions.[18][19] According to Ian Kershaw, most of the three million
Wehrmacht soldiers who invaded the USSR participated in war crimes.[20]
Origin Wehrmacht

Etymology

The German term "Wehrmacht" stems from the

compound word of German: wehren, "to
defend" and Macht, "power, force".[c] It has
Reichskriegsflagge, the war flag and naval
been used to describe any nation's armed ensign of the Wehrmacht (1938–1945 version)
forces; for example, Britische Wehrmacht
meaning "British Armed Forces". The Frankfurt
Constitution of 1849 designated all German
military forces as the "German Wehrmacht",
consisting of the Seemacht (sea force) and the
Landmacht (land force).[21] In 1919, the term
Wehrmacht also appears in Article 47 of the
Weimar Constitution, establishing that: "The
Reich's President holds supreme command of
all armed forces [i.e. the Wehrmacht] of the Emblem of the Wehrmacht, the Balkenkreuz, a
stylized version of the Iron Cross seen in
Reich". From 1919, Germany's national
varying proportions
defense force was known as the Reichswehr, a
name that was dropped in favor of Wehrmacht Motto Gott mit uns[3]

on 21 May 1935.[22]
Founded 16 March 1935

While the term Wehrmacht has been Disbanded 20 September 1945[a]

associated, both in the German and English
languages, with the German armed forces of Service branches Heer (German Army)
Kriegsmarine
1935–45 since the Second World War, before
Luftwaffe
1945 the term was used in the German
language in a more general sense for a Headquarters Maybach II, Wünsdorf
national defense force. For instance, the 52.1826°N 13.4741°E
German-aligned formations of Poles raised (https://geohack.tool
forge.org/geohack.ph
during the First World War were known as the
p?pagename=Wehrm
Polnische Wehrmacht ('Polish Wehrmacht',
acht&params=52.182
'Polish Defense Force') in German.
6_N_13.4741_E_type:
landmark_region:DE&
title=Maybach+II)

Leadership
Background Supreme Adolf Hitler (first)
Commander Karl Dönitz (last)
(1935–1945)

Commander-in-chief Adolf Hitler (first)

(1935–1938) Werner von Blomberg
(last)

Minister of War Werner von Blomberg

(1935–1938)
Reichswehr soldiers swearing the Hitler
oath in August 1934 Commander-in-chief Wilhelm Keitel
of the Wehrmacht
In January 1919, after World War I ended with
High Command
the signing of the armistice of 11 November
1918, the armed forces were dubbed Personnel

Friedensheer (peace army).[23] In March 1919,

Military age 18–45
the national assembly passed a law founding
a 420,000-strong preliminary army, the Conscription 1–2 years;

Vorläufige Reichswehr. The terms of the Treaty compulsory service

of Versailles were announced in May, and in Reaching military 700,000 (1935)[4]

June, Germany signed the treaty that, among age annually
other terms, imposed severe constraints on
Active personnel 18,000,000 (total
the size of Germany's armed forces. The army
served)[5]
was limited to one hundred thousand men
with an additional fifteen thousand in the navy. Expenditure
The fleet was to consist of at most six
Budget 19 billion ℛ︁ℳ︁ (1939)
battleships, six cruisers, and twelve
(€85 billion in 2021)
destroyers. Submarines, tanks and heavy 89 billion ℛ︁ℳ︁ (1944)
artillery were forbidden and the air-force was (€359 billion in 2021)[b]
dissolved. A new post-war military, the
Percent of GDP 25% (1939)[7]
Reichswehr, was established on 23 March
75% (1944)[8]
1921. General conscription was abolished
under another mandate of the Versailles Industry
[24]
treaty.
Domestic suppliers See list [show]
The Reichswehr was limited to 115,000 men,
and thus the armed forces, under the Foreign suppliers Kingdom of Hungary
Second Spanish
leadership of Hans von Seeckt, retained only
Republic
the most capable officers. The American
Switzerland[9]
historians Alan Millet and Williamson Murray
wrote "In reducing the officers corps, Seeckt
chose the new leadership from the best men Annual exports 245 million ℛℳ
of the general staff with ruthless disregard for (1939) (€1090 million in
other constituencies, such as war heroes and 2021)[10]

the nobility."[25] Seeckt's determination that the

Related articles
Reichswehr be an elite cadre force that would
serve as the nucleus of an expanded military History History of Germany
when the chance for restoring conscription during World War II

came essentially led to the creation of a new

Ranks Heer ranks
army, based upon, but very different from, the Kriegsmarine ranks
army that existed in World War I.[25] In the Luftwaffe ranks
1920s, Seeckt and his officers developed new
doctrines that emphasized speed, aggression,
combined arms and initiative on the part of lower officers to take advantage of momentary
opportunities.[25] Though Seeckt retired in 1926, his influence on the army was still apparent
when it went to war in 1939.[26]

Germany was forbidden to have an air force by the Versailles treaty; nonetheless, Seeckt created
a clandestine cadre of air force officers in the early 1920s. These officers saw the role of an air
force as winning air superiority, strategic bombing, and close air support. That the Luftwaffe did
not develop a strategic bombing force in the 1930s was not due to a lack of interest, but because
of economic limitations.[27] The leadership of the Navy led by Grand Admiral Erich Raeder, a close
protégé of Alfred von Tirpitz, was dedicated to the idea of reviving Tirpitz's High Seas Fleet.
Officers who believed in submarine warfare led by Admiral Karl Dönitz were in a minority before
1939.[28]

By 1922, Germany had begun covertly circumventing the conditions of the Versailles treaty. A
secret collaboration with the Soviet Union began after the Treaty of Rapallo.[29] Major-General
Otto Hasse traveled to Moscow in 1923 to further negotiate the terms. Germany helped the
Soviet Union with industrialization and Soviet officers were to be trained in Germany. German
tank and air-force specialists could exercise in the Soviet Union and German chemical weapons
research and manufacture would be carried out there along with other projects.[30] In 1924 a
fighter-pilot school was established at Lipetsk, where several hundred German air force
personnel received instruction in operational maintenance, navigation, and aerial combat training
over the next decade until the Germans finally left in September 1933.[31] However, the arms
buildup was done in secrecy, until Hitler came to power and it received broad political support.[32]

Nazi rise to power

After the death of President Paul von Hindenburg on 2 August 1934, Adolf Hitler assumed the
office of President of Germany, and thus became commander in chief. In February 1934, the
Defence Minister Werner von Blomberg, acting on his own initiative, had all of the Jews serving in
the Reichswehr given an automatic and immediate dishonorable discharge.[33] Again, on his own
initiative Blomberg had the armed forces adopt Nazi symbols into their uniforms in May 1934.[34]
In August of the same year, on Blomberg's initiative and that of the Ministeramt chief General
Walther von Reichenau, the entire military took the Hitler oath, an oath of personal loyalty to
Hitler. Hitler was most surprised at the offer; the popular view that Hitler imposed the oath on the
military is false.[35] The oath read: "I swear by God this sacred oath that to the Leader of the
German empire and people, Adolf Hitler, supreme commander of the armed forces, I shall render
unconditional obedience and that as a brave soldier I shall at all times be prepared to give my life
for this oath".[36]

By 1935, Germany was openly flouting the military restrictions set forth in the Versailles Treaty:
German rearmament was announced on 16 March with the "Edict for the Buildup of the
Wehrmacht" (German: Gesetz für den Aufbau der Wehrmacht)[37] and the reintroduction of
conscription.[38] While the size of the standing army was to remain at about the 100,000-man
mark decreed by the treaty, a new group of conscripts equal to this size would receive training
each year. The conscription law introduced the name "Wehrmacht"; the Reichswehr was officially
renamed the Wehrmacht on 21 May 1935.[39] Hitler's proclamation of the Wehrmacht 's existence
included a total of no less than 36 divisions in its original projection, contravening the Treaty of
Versailles in grandiose fashion. In December 1935, General Ludwig Beck added 48 tank
battalions to the planned rearmament program.[40] Hitler originally set a time frame of 10 years
for remilitarization, but soon shortened it to four years.[41] With the remilitarization of the
Rhineland and the Anschluss, the German Reich's territory increased significantly, providing a
larger population pool for conscription.[42]

Personnel and recruitment

Inspection of German conscripts

Recruitment for the Wehrmacht was accomplished through voluntary enlistment and
conscription, with 1.3 million being drafted and 2.4 million volunteering in the period 1935–
1939.[43][4] The total number of soldiers who served in the Wehrmacht during its existence from
1935 to 1945 is believed to have approached 18.2 million.[16] The German military leadership
originally aimed at a homogeneous military, possessing traditional Prussian military values.
However, with Hitler's constant wishes to increase the Wehrmacht 's size, the Army was forced to
accept citizens of lower class and education, decreasing internal cohesion and appointing
officers who lacked real-war experience from previous conflicts, especially World War I and the
Spanish Civil War.[44]

The effectiveness of officer training and recruitment by the Wehrmacht has been identified as a
major factor in its early victories as well as its ability to keep the war going as long as it did even
as the war turned against Germany.[45][46]

As the Second World War intensified, Kriegsmarine and Luftwaffe personnel were increasingly
transferred to the army, and "voluntary" enlistments in the SS were stepped up as well. Following
the Battle of Stalingrad in 1943, fitness and physical health standards for Wehrmacht recruits
were drastically lowered, with the regime going so far as to create "special diet" battalions for
men with severe stomach ailments. Rear-echelon personnel were more often sent to front-line
duty wherever possible, especially during the final two years of the war where, inspired by
constant propaganda, the oldest and youngest were being recruited and driven by instilled fear
and fanaticism to serve on the fronts and, often, to fight to the death, whether judged to be
cannon fodder or elite troops.[47]

An Afro-Arab soldier of the Free

Arabian Legion

Prior to World War II, the Wehrmacht strove to remain a purely ethnic German force; as such,
minorities within and outside of Germany, such as the Czechs in annexed Czechoslovakia, were
exempted from military service after Hitler's takeover in 1938. Foreign volunteers were generally
not accepted in the German armed forces prior to 1941.[47] With the invasion of the Soviet Union
in 1941, the government's positions changed. German propagandists wanted to present the war
not as a purely German concern, but as a multi-national crusade against the so-called Jewish
Bolshevism.[48] Hence, the Wehrmacht and the SS began to seek out recruits from occupied and
neutral countries across Europe: the Germanic populations of the Netherlands and Norway were
recruited largely into the SS, while "non-Germanic" people were recruited into the Wehrmacht. The
"voluntary" nature of such recruitment was often dubious, especially in the later years of the war
when even Poles living in the Polish Corridor were declared "ethnic Germans" and drafted.[47]

After Germany's defeat in the Battle of Stalingrad, the Wehrmacht also made substantial use of
personnel from the Soviet Union, including the Caucasian Muslim Legion, Turkestan Legion,
Crimean Tatars, ethnic Ukrainians and Russians, Cossacks, and others who wished to fight
against the Soviet regime or who were otherwise induced to join.[47] Between 15,000 and 20,000
anti-communist White émigrés who had left Russia after the Russian Revolution joined the ranks
of the Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS, with 1,500 acting as interpreters and more than 10,000 serving
in the guard force of the Russian Protective Corps.[49][50]

1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945

Heer 3,737,000 4,550,000 5,000,000 5,800,000 6,550,000 6,510,000 5,300,000

Luftwaffe 400,000 1,200,000 1,680,000 1,700,000 1,700,000 1,500,000 1,000,000

Kriegsmarine 50,000 250,000 404,000 580,000 780,000 810,000 700,000

Waffen–SS 35,000 50,000 150,000 230,000 450,000 600,000 830,000

Total 4,220,000 6,050,000 7,234,000 8,310,000 9,480,000 9,420,000 7,830,000

Source:[51]

Women in the Wehrmacht

Wehrmachthelferinnen in occupied
Paris, 1940

In the beginning, women in Nazi Germany were not involved in the Wehrmacht, as Hitler
ideologically opposed conscription for women,[52] stating that Germany would "not form any
section of women grenade throwers or any corps of women elite snipers."[53] However, with many
men going to the front, women were placed in auxiliary positions within the Wehrmacht, called
Wehrmachtshelferinnen (lit. 'Female Wehrmacht Helper'),[54] participating in tasks as:

telephone, telegraph and transmission operators,

administrative clerks, typists and messengers,

operators of listening equipment, in anti-aircraft defense, operating projectors for anti-aircraft

defense, employees within meteorology services, and auxiliary civil defense personnel

volunteer nurses in military health service, as the German Red Cross or other voluntary
organizations.

They were placed under the same authority as (Hiwis), auxiliary personnel of the army (German:
Behelfspersonal) and they were assigned to duties within the Reich, and to a lesser extent, in the
occupied territories, for example in the general government of occupied Poland, in France, and
later in Yugoslavia, in Greece and in Romania.[55]

By 1945, 500,000 women were serving as Wehrmachtshelferinnen, half of whom were volunteers,
while the other half performed obligatory services connected to the war effort (German:
Kriegshilfsdienst).[54]

Command structure

Structure of the Wehrmacht (1935–

1938)

Structure of the Wehrmacht (1939–

1945)

Legally, the commander-in-chief of the Wehrmacht was Adolf Hitler in his capacity as Germany's
head of state, a position he gained after the death of President Paul von Hindenburg in August
1934. With the creation of the Wehrmacht in 1935, Hitler elevated himself to Supreme
Commander of the Armed Forces,[56] retaining the position until his suicide on 30 April 1945.[57]
The title of Commander-in-Chief was given to the Minister of the Reichswehr Werner von
Blomberg, who was simultaneously renamed the Reich Minister of War.[56] Following the
Blomberg-Fritsch Affair, Blomberg resigned and Hitler abolished the Ministry of War.[58] As a
replacement for the ministry, the Wehrmacht High Command Oberkommando der Wehrmacht
(OKW), under Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, was put in its place.[59]

Placed under the OKW were the three branch High Commands: Oberkommando des Heeres
(OKH), Oberkommando der Marine (OKM), and Oberkommando der Luftwaffe (OKL). The OKW was
intended to serve as a joint command and coordinate all military activities, with Hitler at the
top.[60] Though many senior officers, such as von Manstein, had advocated for a real tri-service
Joint Command, or appointment of a single Joint Chief of Staff, Hitler refused. Even after the
defeat at Stalingrad, Hitler refused, stating that Göring as Reichsmarschall and Hitler's deputy,
would not submit to someone else or see himself as an equal to other service commanders.[61]
However, a more likely reason was Hitler feared it would break his image of having the "Midas
touch" concerning military strategy.[61]

With the creation of the OKW, Hitler solidified his control over the Wehrmacht. Showing restraint
at the beginning of the war, Hitler also became increasingly involved in military operations at
every scale.[62]

Additionally, there was a clear lack of cohesion between the three High Commands and the OKW,
as senior generals were unaware of the needs, capabilities and limitations of the other
branches.[63] With Hitler serving as Supreme Commander, branch commands were often forced
to fight for influence with Hitler. However, influence with Hitler not only came from rank and merit
but also who Hitler perceived as loyal, leading to inter-service rivalry, rather than cohesion
between his military advisers.[64]

Branches

Army

"Foot-mobile" infantry of the Heer, in

the Soviet Union 1942

The German Army furthered concepts pioneered during World War I, combining ground (Heer)
and air force (Luftwaffe) assets into combined arms teams.[65] Coupled with traditional war
fighting methods such as encirclements and the "battle of annihilation", the Wehrmacht managed
many lightning quick victories in the first year of World War II, prompting foreign journalists to
create a new word for what they witnessed: Blitzkrieg. Germany's immediate military success on
the field at the start of the Second World War coincides the favorable beginning they achieved
during the First World War, a fact which some attribute to their superior officer corps.[66]

The Heer entered the war with a minority of its formations motorized; infantry remained
approximately 90% foot-borne throughout the war, and artillery was primarily horse-drawn. The
motorized formations received much attention in the world press in the opening years of the war,
and were cited as the reason for the success of the invasions of Poland (September 1939),
Denmark and Norway (April 1940), Belgium, France, and Netherlands (May 1940), Yugoslavia and
Greece (April 1941) and the early stage of Operation Barbarossa in the Soviet Union (June
1941).[67]

After Hitler declared war on the United States in December 1941, the Axis powers found
themselves engaged in campaigns against several major industrial powers while Germany was
still in transition to a war economy. German units were then overextended, undersupplied,
outmaneuvered, outnumbered and defeated by its enemies in decisive battles during 1941, 1942,
and 1943 at the Battle of Moscow, the Siege of Leningrad, Stalingrad, Tunis in North Africa, and
the Battle of Kursk.[68][69]

Armoured car of Panzerjäger (anti-

tank) battalion, part of the 21 Panzer
Division of the Afrika Korps, 1942

The German Army was managed through mission-based tactics (rather than order-based tactics)
which was intended to give commanders greater freedom to act on events and exploit
opportunities. In public opinion, the German Army was, and sometimes still is, seen as a high-
tech army. However, such modern equipment, while featured much in propaganda, was often
only available in relatively small numbers.[70] Only 40% to 60% of all units in the Eastern Front
were motorized, baggage trains often relied on horse-drawn trailers due to poor roads and
weather conditions in the Soviet Union, and for the same reasons many soldiers marched on foot
or used bicycles as bicycle infantry. As the fortunes of war turned against them, the Germans
were in constant retreat from 1943 and onward.[71]: 142 [72][73]

The Panzer divisions were vital to the German army's early success. In the strategies of the
Blitzkrieg, the Wehrmacht combined the mobility of light tanks with airborne assault to quickly
progress through weak enemy lines, enabling the German army to quickly take over Poland and
France.[74] These tanks were used to break through enemy lines, isolating regiments from the
main force so that the infantry behind the tanks could quickly kill or capture the enemy troops.[75]
Air Force

German paratroopers landing on

Crete

Originally outlawed by the Treaty of Versailles, the Luftwaffe was officially established in 1935,
under the leadership of Hermann Göring.[38] First gaining experience in the Spanish Civil War, it
was a key element in the early Blitzkrieg campaigns (Poland, France 1940, USSR 1941). The
Luftwaffe concentrated production on fighters and (small) tactical bombers, like the
Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter and the Junkers Ju 87 Stuka dive bomber.[76] The planes
cooperated closely with the ground forces. Overwhelming numbers of fighters assured air-
supremacy, and the bombers would attack command- and supply-lines, depots, and other
support targets close to the front. The Luftwaffe would also be used to transport paratroopers, as
first used during Operation Weserübung.[77][78] Due to the Army's sway with Hitler, the Luftwaffe
was often subordinated to the Army, resulting in it being used as a tactical support role and
losing its strategic capabilities.[64]

The Western Allies' strategic bombing campaign against German industrial targets (particularly
the round-the-clock Combined Bomber Offensive) and Germany's Defence of the Reich
deliberately forced the Luftwaffe into a war of attrition.[79] With German fighter force destroyed,
the Western Allies had air supremacy over the battlefield, denying support to German forces on
the ground and using its own fighter-bombers to attack and disrupt. Following the losses in
Operation Bodenplatte in 1945, the Luftwaffe was no longer an effective force.[80]

Navy

Karl Dönitz inspecting the Saint-

Nazaire submarine base in France,
June 1941
The Treaty of Versailles disallowed submarines, while limiting the size of the Reichsmarine to six
battleships, six cruisers, and twelve destroyers.[24] Following the creation of the Wehrmacht, the
navy was renamed the Kriegsmarine.[81]

With the signing of the Anglo-German Naval Agreement, Germany was allowed to increase its
navy's size to be 35:100 tonnage of the Royal Navy, and allowed for the construction of U-
boats.[82] This was partly done to appease Germany, and because Britain believed the
Kriegsmarine would not be able to reach the 35% limit until 1942.[83] The navy was also prioritized
last in the German rearmament scheme, making it the smallest of the branches.[84][85]

In the Battle of the Atlantic, the initially successful German U-boat fleet arm was eventually
defeated due to Allied technological innovations like sonar, radar, and the breaking of the Enigma
code.[86]

Large surface vessels were few in number due to construction limitations by international
treaties prior to 1935. The "pocket battleships" Admiral Graf Spee and Admiral Scheer were
important as commerce raiders only in the opening year of the war.[87] No aircraft carrier was
operational, as German leadership lost interest in the Graf Zeppelin which had been launched in
1938.[88]

Following the loss of the German battleship Bismarck in 1941, with Allied air-superiority
threatening the remaining battle-cruisers in French Atlantic harbors, the ships were ordered to
make the Channel Dash back to German ports.[89][90][91] Operating from fjords along the coast of
Norway, which had been occupied since 1940, convoys from North America to the Soviet port of
Murmansk could be intercepted though the Tirpitz spent most of her career as fleet in being.[92]
After the appointment of Karl Dönitz as Grand Admiral of the Kriegsmarine (in the aftermath of
the Battle of the Barents Sea), Germany stopped constructing battleships and cruisers in favor of
U-boats.[93] Though by 1941, the navy had already lost a number of its large surface ships, which
could not be replenished during the war.[94]

The Kriegsmarine 's most significant contribution to the German war effort was the deployment
of its nearly 1,000 U-boats to strike at Allied convoys.[94] The German naval strategy was to
attack the convoys in an attempt to prevent the United States from interfering in Europe and to
starve out the British.[95] Karl Doenitz, the U-Boat Chief, began unrestricted submarine warfare
which cost the Allies 22,898 men and 1,315 ships.[96] The U-boat war remained costly for the
Allies until early spring of 1943 when the Allies began to use countermeasures against U-Boats
such as the use of Hunter-Killer groups, airborne radar, torpedoes and mines like the FIDO.[97] The
submarine war cost the Kriegsmarine 757 U-boats, with more than 30,000 U-boat crewmen
killed.[98]
Coexistence with the Waffen-SS

An army Oberleutnant with a

SS-Hauptsturmführer from
the Waffen-SS in 1944

In the beginning, there was friction between the SS and the army, as the army feared the SS
would attempt to become a legitimate part of the armed forces of Nazi Germany, partly due to
the fighting between the limited armaments, and the perceived fanaticism towards Nazism.[99]
However, on 17 August 1938, Hitler codified the role of the SS and the army in order to end the
feud between the two.[100] The arming of the SS was to be "procured from the Wehrmacht upon
payment", however "in peacetime, no organizational connection with the Wehrmacht exists."[101]
The army was however allowed to check the budget of the SS and inspect the combat readiness
of the SS troops.[102] In the event of mobilization, the Waffen-SS field units could be placed under
the operational control of the OKW or the OKH. All decisions regarding this would be at Hitler's
personal discretion.[102]

Though there existed conflict between the SS and Wehrmacht, many SS officers were former
army officers, which ensured continuity and understanding between the two.[103] Throughout the
war, army and SS soldiers worked together in various combat situations, creating bonds between
the two groups.[104] Guderian noted that every day the war continued the Army and the SS
became closer together.[104] Towards the end of the war, army units would even be placed under
the command of the SS, in Italy and the Netherlands.[104] The relationship between the
Wehrmacht and the SS improved; however, the Waffen-SS was never considered "the fourth
branch of the Wehrmacht." [103]

Theatres and campaigns

The Wehrmacht directed combat operations during World War II (from 1 September 1939 – 8
May 1945) as the German Reich's armed forces umbrella command-organization. After 1941 the
OKH became the de facto Eastern Theatre higher-echelon command-organization for the
Wehrmacht, excluding Waffen-SS except for operational and tactical combat purposes. The OKW
conducted operations in the Western Theatre. The operations by the Kriegsmarine in the North
and Mid-Atlantic can also be considered as separate theatres, considering the size of the area of
operations and their remoteness from other theatres.

The Wehrmacht fought on other fronts, sometimes three simultaneously; redeploying troops from
the intensifying theatre in the East to the West after the Normandy landings caused tensions
between the General Staffs of both the OKW and the OKH – as Germany lacked sufficient
materiel and manpower for a two-front war of such magnitude.[105]

Eastern theatre

German troops in the Soviet

Union, October 1941

Major campaigns and battles in Eastern and Central Europe included:

Czechoslovakian campaign (1938–1945)

Invasion of Poland (Fall Weiss)

Operation Barbarossa (1941), conducted by Army Group North, Army Group Centre, and Army
Group South

Battle of Moscow (1941)

Battles of Rzhev (1942–1943)

Battle of Stalingrad (1942–1943)

Battle of the Caucasus (1942–1943)

Battle of Kursk (Operation Citadel) (1943)

Battle of Kiev (1943)

Operation Bagration (1944)

 Nazi security warfare – largely carried out by security divisions of the Wehrmacht, Order Police
and Waffen-SS units in the occupied territories behind Axis frontlines.

Western theatre

German soldiers in occupied Paris

Phoney War (Sitzkrieg, September 1939 to May 1940) between the invasion of Poland and the
Battle of France

Operation Weserübung
German invasion of Denmark – 9 April 1940

The Norwegian Campaign – 9 April to 10 June 1940

Fall Gelb
Battle of Belgium 10 to 28 May 1940

German invasion of Luxembourg 10 May 1940

Battle of the Netherlands – 10 to 17 May 1940

Battle of France – 10 May to 25 June 1940

Battle of Britain (1940)

Battle of the Atlantic (1939–1945)

Battle of Normandy (1944)

Allied invasion of southern France (1944)

Ardennes Offensive (1944–1945)

Defense of the Reich air-campaign, 1939 to 1945

Mediterranean theatre

German tanks during a counter-attack

in North Africa, 1942

For a time, the Axis Mediterranean Theatre and the North African Campaign were conducted as a
joint campaign with the Italian Army, and may be considered a separate theatre.

Invasion of the Balkans and Greece (Operation Marita) (1940–1941)

Battle of Crete (1941)

The North African Campaign in Libya, Tunisia and Egypt between the UK and Commonwealth
(and later, U.S.) forces and the Axis forces

The Italian Theatre was a continuation of the Axis defeat in North Africa, and was a campaign
for defence of Italy

Casualties

80% of the Wehrmacht's military

deaths were in the Eastern Front.[106]

A German war cemetery in

Estonia
More than 6,000,000 soldiers were wounded during the conflict, while more than 11,000,000
became prisoners. In all, approximately 5,318,000 soldiers from Germany and other nationalities
fighting for the German armed forces—including the Waffen-SS, Volkssturm and foreign
collaborationist units—are estimated to have been killed in action, died of wounds, died in
custody or gone missing in World War II. Included in this number are 215,000 Soviet citizens
conscripted by Germany.[107]

According to Frank Biess,

German casualties took a sudden jump with the defeat of the Sixth Army at
Stalingrad in January 1943, when 180,310 soldiers were killed in one month.
Among the 5.3 million Wehrmacht casualties during the Second World War,
more than 80 per cent died during the last two years of the war. Approximately
three-quarters of these losses occurred on the Eastern front (2.7 million) and
during the final stages of the war between January and May 1945
(1.2 million).[108]

Jeffrey Herf wrote that:

Whereas German deaths between 1941 and 1943 on the western front had not
exceeded three per cent of the total from all fronts, in 1944 the figure jumped to
about 14 per cent. Yet even in the months following D-day, about 68.5 per cent of
all German battlefield deaths occurred on the eastern front, as a Soviet blitzkrieg
in response devastated the retreating Wehrmacht.[109]

In addition to the losses, at the hands of the elements and enemy fighting, at least 20,000
soldiers were executed as sentences by the military court.[110] In comparison, the Red Army
executed 135,000,[d][111][112] France 102, the US 146 and the UK 40.[110]

War crimes

Nazi propaganda had told Wehrmacht soldiers to wipe out what were variously called Jewish
Bolshevik subhumans, the Mongol hordes, the Asiatic flood and the red beast.[113] While the
principal perpetrators of the civil suppression behind the front lines amongst German armed
forces were the Nazi German "political" armies (the SS-Totenkopfverbände, the Waffen-SS, and
the Einsatzgruppen, which were responsible for mass-murders, primarily by implementation of
the so-called Final Solution of the Jewish Question in occupied territories), the traditional armed
forces represented by the Wehrmacht committed and ordered war crimes of their own (e.g. the
Commissar Order), particularly during the invasion of Poland in 1939[114] and later in the war
against the Soviet Union.

Cooperation with the SS

Prior to the outbreak of war, Hitler informed senior Wehrmacht officers that actions "which would
not be in the taste of German generals", would take place in occupied areas and ordered them
that they "should not interfere in such matters but restrict themselves to their military duties".[115]
Some Wehrmacht officers initially showed a strong dislike for the SS and objected to the army
committing war crimes with the SS, though these objections were not against the idea of the
atrocities themselves.[116] Later during the war, relations between the SS and Wehrmacht
improved significantly.[117] The common soldier had no qualms with the SS, and often assisted
them in rounding up civilians for executions.[118][119]

The Army's Chief of Staff General Franz Halder in a directive declared that in the event of guerrilla
attacks, German troops were to impose "collective measures of force" by massacring entire
villages.[120] Cooperation between the SS Einsatzgruppen and the Wehrmacht involved supplying
the death squads with weapons, ammunition, equipment, transport, and even housing.[117]
Partisan fighters, Jews, and Communists became synonymous enemies of the Nazi regime and
were hunted down and exterminated by the Einsatzgruppen and Wehrmacht alike, something
revealed in numerous field journal entries from German soldiers.[121] With the implementation of
the Hunger Plan, hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of Soviet civilians were deliberately
starved to death, as the Germans seized food for their armies and fodder for their draft
horses.[122] According to Thomas Kühne: "an estimated 300,000–500,000 people were killed
during the Wehrmacht 's Nazi security warfare in the Soviet Union."[123]

While secretly listening to conversations of captured German generals, British officials became
aware that the German Army had taken part in the atrocities and mass-murder of Jews and were
guilty of war crimes.[124] American officials learned of the Wehrmacht 's atrocities in much the
same way. Taped conversations of soldiers detained as POWs revealed how some of them
voluntarily participated in mass executions.[125]
Crimes against civilians

Civilians executed by German

paratroopers in Kondomari

German troops marching civilians to

execution

During the war, the Wehrmacht committed numerous war crimes against the civilian population
in occupied countries. This includes massacres of civilians and running forced brothels in
occupied areas.

Massacres would in many cases come as reprisals for acts of resistance. With these reprisals,
the Wehrmacht 's response would vary in severity and method, depending on the scale of
resistance and whether it was in East or West Europe.[126] Often, the number of hostages to be
shot was calculated based on a ratio of 100 hostages executed for every German soldier killed
and 50 hostages executed for every German soldier wounded.[127] Other times civilians would be
rounded up and shot with machine guns.[128]

To combat German officials' fear of venereal disease and masturbation,[129] the Wehrmacht
established numerous brothels throughout Nazi Germany and its occupied territories.[130]
Women would often be kidnapped off the streets and forced to work in the brothels,[131] with an
estimated minimum of 34,140 women being forced to serve as prostitutes.[132]
Crimes against POWs

Sixteen blindfolded Yugoslav Partisan

youth awaiting execution by German
forces in Serbia, 20 August 1941

While the Wehrmacht 's prisoner-of-war camps for inmates from the west generally satisfied the
humanitarian requirement prescribed by international law,[133] prisoners from Poland and the
USSR were incarcerated under significantly worse conditions. Between the launching of
Operation Barbarossa in the summer of 1941 and the following spring, 2.8 million of the
3.2 million Soviet prisoners taken died while in German hands.[134]

Criminal and genocidal organization

Among German historians, the view that the Wehrmacht had participated in wartime atrocities,
particularly on the Eastern Front, grew in the late 1970s and the 1980s.[135] In the 1990s, public
conception in Germany was influenced by controversial reactions and debates about the
exhibition of war crime issues.[136]

Holocaust historian Omer Bartov, a leading expert on the Wehrmacht,[137] wrote in 2003 that the
Wehrmacht was a willing instrument of genocide and that it is untrue that the Wehrmacht was an
apolitical, professional fighting force that had only a few "bad apples".[138] Bartov argues that far
from being the "untarnished shield", as successive German apologists stated after the war, the
Wehrmacht was a criminal organization.[139] Likewise, the historian Richard J. Evans, a leading
expert on modern German history, wrote that the Wehrmacht was a genocidal organization.[113]
The historian Ben H. Shepherd writes that "There is now clear agreement amongst historians that
the German Wehrmacht ... identified strongly with National Socialism and embroiled itself in the
criminality of the Third Reich."[140] British historian Ian Kershaw concludes that the Wehrmacht 's
duty was to ensure that the people who met Hitler's requirements of being part of the Aryan
Herrenvolk ("Aryan master race") had living space. He wrote that:

The Nazi revolution was broader than just the Holocaust. Its second goal was to
eliminate Slavs from central and eastern Europe and to create a Lebensraum for
Aryans. ... As Bartov (The Eastern Front; Hitler's Army) shows, it barbarised the
German armies on the eastern front. Most of their three million men, from
 generals to ordinary soldiers, helped exterminate captured Slav soldiers and
civilians. This was sometimes cold and deliberate murder of individuals (as with
Jews), sometimes generalised brutality and neglect. ... German soldiers' letters
and memoirs reveal their terrible reasoning: Slavs were 'the Asiatic-Bolshevik'
horde, an inferior but threatening race.[20]

Several high-ranking Wehrmacht officers, including Hermann Hoth, Georg von Küchler, Georg-
Hans Reinhardt, Karl von Roques, Walter Warlimont and others, were convicted of war crimes
and crimes against humanity at the High Command Trial given sentences ranging from time
served to life.[141]

Resistance to the Nazi regime

Martin Bormann, Hermann Göring,

and Bruno Loerzer surveying the
damage made by the 20 July plot

Originally, there was little resistance within the Wehrmacht, as Hitler actively went against the
Treaty of Versailles and attempted to recover the army's honor.[142] The first major resistance
began in 1938 with the Oster conspiracy, where several members of the military wanted to
remove Hitler from power, as they feared a war with Czechoslovakia would ruin Germany.[143]
However, following the success of the early campaigns in Poland, Scandinavia and France, belief
in Hitler was restored.[142] With the defeat in Stalingrad, trust in Hitler's leadership began to
wane.[144] This caused an increase in resistance within the military. The resistance culminated in
the 20 July plot (1944), when a group of officers led by Claus von Stauffenberg attempted to
assassinate Hitler. The attempt failed, resulting in the execution of 4,980 people[145] and the
standard military salute being replaced with the Hitler salute.[146]

Some members of the Wehrmacht did save Jews and non-Jews from the concentration camps
and/or mass murder. Anton Schmid – a sergeant in the army – helped between 250 and 300
Jewish men, women, and children escape from the Vilna Ghetto in Lithuania.[147][148][149] He was
court-martialed and executed as a consequence. Albert Battel, a reserve officer stationed near
the Przemysl ghetto, blocked an SS detachment from entering it. He then evacuated up to 100
Jews and their families to the barracks of the local military command, and placed them under his
protection.[150] Wilm Hosenfeld – an army captain in Warsaw – helped, hid, or rescued several
Poles, including Jews, in occupied Poland. He helped the Polish-Jewish composer Władysław
Szpilman, who was hiding among the city's ruins, by supplying him with food and water.[151]

According to Wolfram Wette, only three Wehrmacht soldiers are known for being executed for
rescuing Jews: Anton Schmid, Friedrich Rath and Friedrich Winking.[152]

After World War II

German Instrument of Surrender, 8

May 1945 – Berlin-Karlshorst

Following the unconditional surrender of the Wehrmacht, which went into effect on 8 May 1945,
some Wehrmacht units remained active, either independently (e.g. in Norway), or under Allied
command as police forces.[153] The last Wehrmacht unit to come under Allied control was an
isolated weather station in Svalbard, which formally surrendered to a Norwegian relief ship on 4
September.[154]

On 20 September 1945, with Proclamation No. 2 of the Allied Control Council (ACC), "[a]ll German
land, naval and air forces, the S.S., S.A., S.D. and Gestapo, with all their organizations, staffs and
institution, including the General Staff, the Officers' corps, the Reserve Corps, military schools,
war veterans' organizations, and all other military and quasi-military organizations, together with
all clubs and associations which serve to keep alive the military tradition in Germany, shall be
completely and finally abolished in accordance with the methods and procedures to be laid down
by the Allied Representatives."[155] The Wehrmacht was officially dissolved by the ACC Law 34 on
20 August 1946,[156] which proclaimed the OKW, OKH, the Ministry of Aviation and the OKM to be
"disbanded, completely liquidated and declared illegal".[157]

Military operational legacy

Immediately following the end of the war, many were quick to dismiss the Wehrmacht due to its
failures and claim allied superiority.[158] However, historians have since reevaluated the
Wehrmacht in terms of fighting power and tactics, giving it a more favorable assessment, with
some calling it one of the best in the world,[159] partly due to its ability to regularly inflict higher
losses than it received, while it fought outnumbered and outgunned.[160]
Israeli military historian Martin van Creveld, who attempted to examine the military force of the
Wehrmacht in a purely military context, concluded: "The German army was a superb fighting
organization. In point of morale, elan, troop cohesion and resilience, it probably had no equal
among twentieth century armies."[161] German historian Rolf-Dieter Müller comes to the following
conclusion: "In the purely military sense [...] you can indeed say that the impression of a superior
fighting force rightly exists. The proverbial efficiency was even greater than previously thought,
because the superiority of the opponent was much higher than at that time German officers
suspected. The analysis of Russian archive files finally gives us a clear picture in this regard."[162]
Strategic thinker and professor Colin S. Gray believed that the Wehrmacht possessed
outstanding tactical and operational capabilities. However, following a number of successful
campaigns, German policy began to have victory disease, asking the Wehrmacht to do the
impossible. The continued use of the Blitzkrieg also led to Soviets learning the tactic and using it
against the Wehrmacht.[163]

Historical negationism

Soon after the war ended, former Wehrmacht officers, veterans' groups and various far-right
authors began to state that the Wehrmacht was an apolitical organization which was largely
innocent of Nazi Germany's war crimes and crimes against humanity.[164] Attempting to benefit
from the clean Wehrmacht myth, veterans of the Waffen-SS declared that the organisation had
virtually been a branch of the Wehrmacht and therefore had fought as "honourably" as it. Its
veterans organisation, HIAG, attempted to cultivate a myth of their soldiers having been "Soldiers
like any other".[165]

Post-war militaries

Former Wehrmacht generals Adolf

Heusinger and Hans Speidel being
sworn into the newly founded
Bundeswehr on 12 November 1955

Following the division of Germany, many former Wehrmacht and SS officers in West Germany
feared a Soviet invasion of the country. To combat this, several prominent officers created a
secret army, unknown to the general public and without mandate from the Allied Control
Authority or the West German government.[166][167]

By the mid-1950s, tensions of the Cold War led to the creation of separate military forces in the
Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic. The West German military,
officially created on 5 May 1955, took the name Bundeswehr (lit. 'Federal Defence'). Its East
German counterpart—created on 1 March 1956—took the name National People's Army (German:
Nationale Volksarmee). Both organizations employed many former Wehrmacht members,
particularly in their formative years,[168] though neither organization considered themselves
successors to the Wehrmacht.[169][170][171] However, according to historian Hannes Heer
"Germans still have a hard time, when it comes to openly dealing with their Nazi past", as such of
the 50 military bases named after Wehrmacht soldiers, only 16 bases have changed names.[172]

Wehrmacht veterans in West Germany have received pensions through the War Victims'
Assistance Act (German: Bundesversorgungsgesetz) from the government.[173][174] According to
The Times of Israel, "The benefits come through the Federal Pension Act, which was passed in
1950 to support war victims, whether civilians or veterans of the Wehrmacht or Waffen-SS."[175]

See also

Bribery of senior Wehrmacht officers

German resistance to Nazism

Glossary of German military terms

Glossary of Nazi Germany

Nazism and the Wehrmacht

Wehrmacht Propaganda Troops

Notes

a. The official dissolution of the Wehrmacht began with the German Instrument of Surrender of
8 May 1945. Reasserted in Proclamation No. 2 of the Allied Control Council on 20
September 1945, the dissolution was officially declared by ACC Law No. 34 of 20 August
1946.[1][2]

b. Total GDP: 75 billion (1939) & 118 billion (1944)[6]

c. See the Wiktionary article for more information.

d. 135,000 executed; 422,700 sent to penal units at the front and 436,600 imprisoned after
sentencing.[111]
References

Citations

1. Allied Control Authority 1946a, p. 81.

2. Allied Control Authority 1946b, p. 63.

3. Armbrüster 2005, p. 64.

4. Müller 2016, p. 12.

5. Overmans 2004, p. 215.

6. Harrison 2000, p. 10.

7. Tooze 2006, p. 181.

8. Evans 2008, p. 333.

9. Department of State 2016.

10. Leitz 1998, p. 153.

11. Taylor 1995, pp. 90–119.

12. Kitchen 1994, pp. 39–65.

13. Van Creveld 1982, p. 3.

14. Müller 2016, pp. 58–59.

15. Hartmann 2013, pp. 85–108.

16. Overmans 2004, p. 215; Müller 2016, p. 16; Wette 2006, p. 77.

17. Fritz 2011, p. 470.

18. Wette 2006, pp. 195–250.

19. USHMM n.d.

20. Kershaw 1997, p. 150.

21. Huber 2000.

22. Strohn 2010, p. 10.

23. Wheeler-Bennett 1967, p. 60.

24. Craig 1980, pp. 424–432.

25. Murray & Millett 2001, p. 22.

26. Wheeler-Bennett 1967, p. 22.

27. Murray & Millett 2001, p. 33.

28. Murray & Millett 2001, p. 37.

29. Wheeler-Bennett 1967, p. 131.

30. Zeidler 2006, pp. 106–111.

31. Cooper 1981, pp. 382–383.

32. Müller 2016, p. 10.

33. Förster 1998, p. 268.

34. Wheeler-Bennett 1967, p. 312.

35. Kershaw 1997, p. 525.

36. Broszat et al. 1999, p. 18.

37. Müller 2016, p. 7.

38. Fischer 1995, p. 408.

39. Stone 2006, p. 316.

40. Tooze 2006, p. 208.

41. Müller 2016, pp. 12–13.

42. Müller 2016, p. 13.

43. U.S. War Department 1945, p. I-57.

44. Müller 2016, pp. 13–14.

45. Miller 2013, pp. 292–293.

46. Kjoerstad 2010, p. 6.

47. U.S. War Department 1945, p. I-3.

48. Förster 1998, p. 266.

49. Beyda 2014, p. 448.

50. Müller 2014, p. 222.

51. Müller 2016, p. 36.

52. Greenwald 1981, p. 125.

53. Sigmund 2004, p. 184.

54. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum n.d.

55. Kompisch 2008, p. 219.

56. documentArchiv.de 2004, §3.

57. Broszat 1985, p. 295.

58. Stein 2002, p. 18.

59. Megargee 2000, pp. 41–42.

60. Hayward 1999, pp. 104–105.

61. Hayward 1999, pp. 105–106.

62. Müller 2016, pp. 18–20.

63. Hayward 1999, p. 105.

64. Hayward 1999, p. 106.

65. Palmer 2010, pp. 96–97.

66. Mosier 2006, pp. 11–24.

67. Frieser 2005, pp. 4–5.

68. Atkinson 2002, p. 536.

69. Jukes 2002, p. 31.

70. Zeiler & DuBois 2012, pp. 171–172.

71. Zhukov 1974, pp. 110–111.

72. Corrigan 2011, p. 353.

73. Bell 2011, pp. 95, 108.

74. Trueman 2015a.

75. History.com Editors 2010.

76. Tooze 2006, pp. 125–130.

77. Outze 1962, p. 359.

78. Merglen 1970, p. 26.

79. Darling 2008, p. 181.

80. Girbig 1975, p. 112.

81. documentArchiv.de 2004, §2.

82. Maiolo 1998, pp. 35–36.

83. Maiolo 1998, pp. 57–59.

 84. Müller 2016, p. 17.

85. Maiolo 1998, p. 60.

86. Syrett 2010, pp. xi–xii.

87. Bidlingmaier 1971, pp. 76–77.

88. Whitley 1984, p. 30.

89. Garzke & Dulin 1985, p. 246.

90. Hinsley 1994, pp. 54–57.

91. Richards 1974, pp. 223–225, 233, 236–237.

92. Garzke & Dulin 1985, pp. 248.

93. Trueman 2015b.

94. Müller 2016, pp. 71–72.

95. Müller 2016, p. 72.

96. Hughes & Costello 1977.

97. Hickman 2015.

98. Niestle 2014, Introduction.

99. Christensen, Poulsen & Smith 2015, pp. 433, 438.

100. Stein 2002, p. 20.

101. Stein 2002, pp. 20–21.

102. Stein 2002, p. 22.

103. Christensen, Poulsen & Smith 2015, p. 438.

104. Christensen, Poulsen & Smith 2015, p. 437.

105. Fritz 2011, pp. 366–368.

106. Duiker 2015, p. 138.

107. Overmans 2004, p. 335.

108. Biess 2006, p. 19.

109. Herf 2006, p. 252.

110. Müller 2016, p. 30.

111. Krivosheev 2010, p. 219.

112. Mikhalev 2000, p. 23.

113. Evans 1989, pp. 58–60.

114. Böhler 2006, pp. 183–184, 189, 241.

115. Stein 2002, pp. 29–30.

116. Bartov 1999, pp. 146–47.

117. Hilberg 1985, p. 301.

118. Datner 1964, pp. 20–35.

119. Datner 1964, pp. 67–74.

120. Förster 1989, p. 501.

121. Fritz 2011, pp. 92–134.

122. Megargee 2007, p. 121.

123. Smith 2011, p. 542.

124. Christensen, Poulsen & Smith 2015, pp. 435–436.

125. Neitzel & Welzer 2012, pp. 136–143.

126. Marston & Malkasian 2008, pp. 83–90.

127. Pavlowitch 2007, p. 61.

128. Markovich 2014, s. 139, note 17.

129. Gmyz 2007.

130. Joosten 1947, p. 456.

131. Lenten 2000, pp. 33–34.

132. Herbermann, Baer & Baer 2000, pp. 33–34.

133. Le Faucheur 2018.

134. Davies 2006, p. 271.

135. Wildt, Jureit & Otte 2004, p. 30.

136. Wildt, Jureit & Otte 2004, p. 34.

137. Bartov 1999, pp. 131–132.

138. Bartov 2003, p. xiii.

139. Bartov 1999, p. 146.

140. Shepherd 2003, pp. 49–81.

141. Hebert 2010, pp. 216–219.

142. Balfour 2005, p. 32.

143. Jones 2008, pp. 73–74.

144. Bell 2011, pp. 104–05, 107.

145. Kershaw 2001, p. 693.

146. Allert 2009, p. 82.

147. Schoeps 2008, p. 502.

148. Bartrop 2016, p. 247.

149. Wette 2014, p. 74.

150. Yad Vashem n.d.

151. Szpilman 2002, p. 222.

152. Timm 2015.

153. Fischer 1985, pp. 322, 324.

154. Barr 2009, p. 323.

155. Allied Control Authority 1946a.

156. Large 1996, p. 25.

157. Allied Control Authority 1946b.

158. Hastings 1985.

159. Van Creveld 1982, p. 3; Hastings 1985; Gray 2007, pp. 148.

160. O'Donnell 1978, p. 61; Hastings 1985; Gray 2007, pp. 148.

161. Van Creveld 1982, p. 163.

162. Bönisch & Wiegrefe 2008, p. 51.

163. Gray 2002, pp. 21–22.

164. Wette 2006, p. 236-238.

165. Wienand 2015, p. 39.

166. Wiegrefe 2014.

167. Peck 2017.

168. Knight 2017.

169. Bickford 2011, p. 127.

170. Christmann & Tschentscher 2018, §79.

171. Scholz 2018.

172. Groeneveld & Moynihan 2020.

173. AFP 2019.

174. Binkowski & Wiegrefe 2011.

175. Axelrod 2019.

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External links

The Wehrmacht: A Criminal Organization? (https://web.archive.org/web/20070627134826/htt

p://h-net.org/reviews/showrev.cgi?path=22564917013611) Review of Hannes Heer and
Klaus Naumann's 1995 work Vernichtungskrieg – Verbrechen der Wehrmacht 1941–1944 by
Jörg Bottger

Wehrmacht Propaganda Troops and the Jews (http://www.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsof

t%20Word%20-%202021.pdf) – an article by Daniel Uziel

The Nazi German Army 1935–1945 (https://www.feldgrau.com/ww2-german-heer-army/)

Videos

"How the Red Army Defeated Germany: The Three Alibis": Video (https://www.youtube.com/wa
tch?v=zinPbUZUHDE) on YouTube—lecture by Jonathan M. House of the U.S. Army
Command and General Staff College, via the official channel of Dole Institute of Politics.

"Fighting a Lost War: The German Army in 1943": Video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1

SdO-btKuds) on YouTube—lecture by Robert Citino, via the official channel of the U.S. Army
Heritage and Education Center.

"Mindset of WWII German Soldiers": Video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eIn0IBsnB

E) on YouTube—interview with the historian Sönke Neitzel discussing his book Soldaten: On
Fighting, Killing and Dying, via the official channel of The Agenda, a programme of TVOntario, a
Canadian public television station.

"A Blind Eye and Dirty Hands: The Wehrmacht's Crimes" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=el
_rjd9mukw) – lecture by the historian Geoffrey P. Megargee, via the YouTube channel of the
Wiener Library for the Study of the Holocaust and Genocide