Unit name	''Wehrmacht''
Dates	1935–1945
Country
Allegiance	Nazi GermanyFlensburg Government
Branch	''Heer''''Kriegsmarine''''Luftwaffe''
Role	Armed forces of Nazi Germany
Size	18,200,000 (aggregate for all years)
Garrison	Zossen
Ceremonial chief	Adolf Hitler
Notable commanders	Adolf HitlerHermann GöringWilhelm KeitelKarl DönitzRobert Ritter von Greim
Identification symbol	''Balkenkreuz''
Identification symbol 2	Swastika
Patron	Adolf Hitler
Colors	''Feldgrau''
Battles	Spanish Civil WarWorld War II
Battle honors	}}

The ''Wehrmacht'' ( – from , to defend and , the might/power) 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).

Origin and use of the term

Before the National Socialist German Workers' Party assumed control of the German government in 1933, the term ''Wehrmacht'' generically described a nation’s “home defence” forces, analogous to the German ''Streitmacht'' foreign war forces, thus, ''Britische Wehrmacht'' denoted “British defence forces.” The term ''Wehrmacht'' is in Article 47 of the 1919 Weimar Constitution, establishing that: ''Der Reichspräsident hat den Oberbefehl über die gesamte Wehrmacht des Reiches'' (“The National President holds supreme command of all armed forces of the nation”). From 1919, Germany’s national defence force was known as the ''Reichswehr'', until its renaming as ''Wehrmacht'' in 1935.

After World War II (1939–45), the Allies abolished the ''Wehrmacht.'' In 1955, when the western Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) remilitarized, its armed forces were named the ''Bundeswehr'' ("Federal Defence"). In 1956, upon formal establishment, the armed forces of the Communist, east German Democratic Republic (GDR) were named the ''Nationale Volksarmee'' (National People's Army), some of whom, with ''matériel'', were incorporated to the ''Bundeswehr'' when the German reunification consolidated the two Germanies in 1990.

In German and English usage, ''Wehrmacht'' denotes the armed forces of Nazi Germany. Using ''Wehrmacht'' to denote only the ''Heer'' (land forces) is inaccurate; nevertheless, it is a misusage common to English writing.

For branch-of-service identification, Wehrmacht vehicles bore alpha-numeric identity licence plates: WH for the ''Heer'', WL for the ''Luftwaffe'', WM for the ''Kriegsmarine''. SS vehicles bore the identity licence prefix SS.

''Waffen-SS'' and ''Wehrmacht''

The ''Waffen-SS'', the combat branch of the SS (the Nazi Party's paramilitary organization), became the ''de facto'' fourth branch of the ''Wehrmacht'', as it expanded from three regiments to 38 divisions by 1945. Although the SS was autonomous and existed in parallel to the ''Wehrmacht'', the ''Waffen-SS'' field units were placed under the operational control of the Supreme High Command of the Armed Forces (''Oberkommando der Wehrmacht'', OKW) or the Supreme High Command of the Army (''Oberkommando des Heeres'', OKH).

Competence struggles hampered organization in the German armed forces, as OKW, OKH, OKL ( had its own ground forces, including tank divisions) and often worked concurrently and not as a joint command.

History

After World War I ended with the armistice of 11 November 1918, the armed forces were dubbed ''Friedensheer'' (peace army) in January 1919. In March 1919, the national assembly passed a law founding a 420,000 strong preliminary army as ''Vorläufige Reichswehr.'' The terms of the Treaty of Versailles were announced in May, and in June Germany was forced to sign the treaty which, among other terms, imposed severe constraints on the size of Germany's armed forces. The army was limited to one hundred thousand men with an additional fifteen thousand in the navy. The fleet was to consist of at most six battleships, six cruisers, and twelve destroyers. Submarines, tanks and heavy artillery were forbidden and the air force was dissolved. A new post-war military (the ''Reichswehr'') was established on 23 March 1921. General conscription was abolished under another mandate of the Versailles treaty.

By 1922, Germany had begun covertly circumventing these conditions. A secret collaboration with the Soviet Union began after the treaty of Rapallo. 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. Around 300 German pilots received training at Lipetsk, some tank training took place near Kazan and toxic gas was developed at Saratov for the German army.

Hitler and reinstatement of conscription

After the death of President Paul von Hindenburg on 2 August 1934, Hitler assumed the office of ''Reichspräsident'', and thus became commander in chief. All officers and soldiers of the German armed forces had to swear a personal oath of loyalty to the ''Führer'', as Adolf Hitler now was called. By 1935, Germany was openly flouting the military restrictions set forth in the Versailles Treaty, and conscription was reintroduced on 16 March 1935.

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'', so not only can this be regarded as its founding date, but the organization and authority of the ''Wehrmacht'' can be viewed as Nazi creations regardless of the political affiliations of its high command (who nevertheless all swore the same personal oath of loyalty to Hitler). The insignia was a simpler version of the Iron Cross (the straight-armed so-called ''Balkenkreuz'' or beamed cross) that had been used as an aircraft and tank marking in late World War I. The existence of the ''Wehrmacht'' was officially announced on 15 October 1935.

Numbers

The total number of soldiers who served in the ''Wehrmacht'' during its existence from 1935-1945 is believed to have approached 18.2 million. This figure was put forward by historian Rüdiger Overmans and represents the total number of people who ever served in the ''Wehrmacht'', and ''not'' the force strength of the ''Wehrmacht'' at any point.

Command structure

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. In the reshuffle in 1938, Hitler became the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces and retained that position until his suicide on 30 April 1945. Administration and military authority initially lay with the war ministry under ''Generalfeldmarschall'' Werner von Blomberg. After von Blomberg resigned in the course of the Blomberg-Fritsch Affair (1938), the ministry was dissolved and the Armed Forces High Command (''Oberkommando der Wehrmacht'' or OKW) under ''Generalfeldmarschall'' Wilhelm Keitel was put in its place. It was headquartered in Wünsdorf near Zossen, and a field echelon (''Feldstaffel'') was stationed wherever the ''Führer''s headquarters were situated at a given time. Army work was also coordinated by the German General Staff, an institution that had been developing for more than a century and which had sought to institutionalize military perfection.

The OKW coordinated all military activities but Keitel's sway over the three branches of service (army, air force, and navy) was rather limited. Each had its own High Command, known as ''Oberkommando des Heeres'' (OKH, army), ''Oberkommando der Marine'' (OKM, navy), and ''Oberkommando der Luftwaffe'' (OKL, air force). Each of these high commands had its own general staff. In practice the OKW had operational authority over the Western Front whereas the Eastern Front was under the operational authority of the OKH.

Supreme High Command of the Armed Forces (OKW)

*Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces

**''Führer'' and ''Reichskanzler'' Adolf Hitler (1935–1945)

**''Großadmiral'' Karl Dönitz (1945)

*Commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces

**''Generalfeldmarschall'' Paul von Hindenburg (1933–1934), President of the'' Reich''

**''Führer'' and ''Reichskanzler'' Adolf Hitler (1934 to 1935)

**''Generaloberst'' Werner von Blomberg (1935 to 1938), Minister for War, promoted Generalfeldmarschall (1936)

***vested into the Supreme Commander (theoretically) and the Chief of the Supreme High Command (practically)

*Vice Commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces

**''General'' Werner von Blomberg (1933–1935), promoted ''Generaloberst'' 1933

*Chief of the Armed Forces Supreme High Command—''Generalfeldmarschall'' Wilhelm Keitel (1938–1945)

*Chief of the Operations Staff (''Wehrmachtführungsstab'')—''Generaloberst'' Alfred Jodl

Supreme High Command of the Army (OKH)

*Army Commanders-in-Chief

**''Generaloberst'' Werner von Fritsch (1935–1938)

**''Generaloberst'' Walther von Brauchitsch (1938–1941), promoted to ''Generalfeldmarschall'' 1940

**''Führer'' and ''Reichskanzler'' Adolf Hitler (1941–1945)

**''Generalfeldmarschall'' Ferdinand Schörner (1945)

*Chiefs of Staff of the German Army

**''General'' Ludwig Beck (1935–1938)

**''General'' Franz Halder (1938–1942)

**''General'' Kurt Zeitzler (1942–1944)

**''Generaloberst'' Heinz Guderian (1944–1945)

**''General'' Hans Krebs (1945, committed suicide in the ''Führerbunker'')

Supreme High Command of the Navy (OKM)

*War Navy Commanders-in-Chief

**''Admiral'' Erich Raeder (1928–1943), promoted to ''Generaladmiral'' 1936, ''Großadmiral'' 1940

**''Großadmiral'' Karl Dönitz (1943–1945)

**''Generaladmiral'' Hans-Georg von Friedeburg (1945)

*"Admiral Inspector": ''Großadmiral'' Erich Raeder (1943–1945) (sinecure)

Supreme High Command of the Air Force (OKL)

*Air Force Commanders-in-Chief

**''General'' Hermann Göring (1935 to 1945), promoted ''Generaloberst'' 1936, ''Generalfeldmarschal'' 1938 (!), ''Reichsmarschall'' (singularily) 1940

**''Generalfeldmarschall'' Robert Ritter von Greim (1945)

(!) Promotion to field marshal was considered as something which is only done in wartime.

The OKW was also given the task of central economic planning and procurement, but the authority and influence of the OKW's war economy office (''Wehrwirtschaftsamt'') was challenged by the procurement offices (''Waffenämter'') of the single branches of service as well as by the Ministry for Armament and Munitions (''Reichsministerium für Bewaffnung und Munition''), into which it was merged after the ministry was taken over by Albert Speer in early 1942.

War years

Army

The German Army furthered concepts pioneered during World War I, combining ground (''Heer'') and Air Force (''Luftwaffe'') assets into combined arms teams. Coupled with traditional war fighting methods such as encirclements and the "battle of annihilation", the German military 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''.

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), Norway and Denmark (April 1940), Belgium, France and Netherlands (May 1940), Yugoslavia and Greece (April 1941) and the early campaigns in the Soviet Union (June 1941).

After Hitler declared war on the United States in December 1941, Germany and other Axis powers found themselves engaged in campaigns against three major industrial powers. At this critical juncture, Hitler assumed personal control of the ''Wehrmacht'' high command, and his personal failings as a military commander arguably contributed to major defeats in early 1943, at Stalingrad and Tunis in North Africa.

The Germans' military strength was managed through mission-based tactics (rather than order-based tactics) and an almost proverbial discipline. In public opinion, the German Army was, and sometimes still is, seen as a high-tech army. However, such advanced equipment, while featured much in propaganda, was often only available in small numbers or late in the war, as overall supplies of raw materials and armaments ran low. For example, only 40% of all units were motorized, baggage trains often relied on horse-drawn trailers and many soldiers went by foot or used bicycles (''Radfahrtruppen'').

Some historians, such as British author and ex-newspaper editor Max Hastings, consider that "... there's no doubt that man for man, the German army was the greatest fighting force of the second world war". Similar views were also expressed in his book ''Overlord: D-Day and the battle for Normandy'', while in the book ''World War II : An Illustrated Miscellany'', Anthony Evans writes: "The German soldier was very professional and well trained, aggressive in attack and stubborn in defence. He was always adaptable, particularly in the later years when shortages of equipment were being felt". However, their integrity was compromised by war crimes, especially those committed on the eastern front. They were over-extended and out-maneuvered before Moscow in 1941, and in North Africa and Stalingrad in 1942, and from 1942-1943 onward, were in constant retreat. Other Axis powers fought with them, especially Hungary and Romania, as well as many volunteers from other nations. Among the foreign volunteers who served in the ''Heer'' during World War II were ethnic Germans, Dutch, and Scandinavians along with people from the Baltic states and the Balkans. Russians fought in the Russian Liberation Army or as ''Hilfswilliger''. Non-Russians from the Soviet Union formed the ''Ostlegionen''. These units were all commanded by General Ernst August Köstring and represented about five percent of the forces under the OKH.

Air Force

The ''Luftwaffe'' (German Air Force), led by Hermann Göring, was a key element in the early ''Blitzkrieg'' campaigns (Poland, France 1940, USSR 1941). The ''Luftwaffe'' concentrated on fighters and (small) tactical bombers, like the Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter and the Junkers Ju 87 (''Stuka'') dive bomber.

The planes cooperated closely with the ground forces. Massive numbers of fighters assured quick airspace control, and the bombers would attack command- and supply lines, depots, and other support targets close to the front. They soon achieved an aura of invincibility and terror, where both civilians and soldiers were struck with fear, and started fleeing as soon as the planes were spotted. This caused confusion and disorganisation behind enemy lines, and in conjunction with the "ghost" ''Panzer'' Divisions that seemed to be able to appear anywhere, made the ''Blitzkrieg'' campaigns highly effective.

As the war progressed, Germany's enemies drastically increased their aircraft production, and airspace dominance became first contested, and later altogether lost, particularly against the Western allies. In the second half of the war, the ''Luftwaffe'' was reduced to insignificance. As the Western allies started a strategic bombing campaign against German industrial targets, the ''Luftwaffe'' was unable to contest Allied dominance over German airspace, leaving German cities open to Allied carpet bombing and massive destruction.

Air Force units in a ground role

The ''Luftwaffe'' contributed many units of ground forces to the war in Russia as well as the Normandy front. In 1940, the ''Fallschirmjäger'' (paratroops) conquered the vital Belgian Fort Eben-Emael and took part in the airborne invasion of Norway, but after suffering heavy losses in the Battle of Crete, large scale airdrops were discontinued. Operating as crack infantry, the 1st ''Fallschirmjäger'' Division fought in all the theatres of the war. Notable actions include the bloody Monte Cassino, the last ditch defence of Tunisia and numerous key battles on the eastern front. A ''Fallschirmjäger'' armored division—the ''Fallschirm-Panzer'' Division 1 Hermann Göring—was also formed and was heavily engaged in Sicily and at Salerno.

Separate from the elite ''Fallschirmjäger'', the ''Luftwaffe'' also fielded regular infantry in the ''Luftwaffe'' Field Divisions. These units were basic infantry formations formed from ''Luftwaffe'' personnel. Due to a lack of competent officers and unhappiness by the recruits at having been forced into an infantry role, morale was low in these units. By Göring's personal order they were intended to be restricted to defensive duties in quieter sectors to free up front line troops for combat.

The ''Luftwaffe''—being in charge of Germany's anti-aircraft defences—also used thousands of teenage ''Luftwaffenhelfer'' to support the ''Flak'' units.

Navy

The German Navy (''Kriegsmarine'') played a major role in World War II as control over the commerce routes in the Atlantic was crucial for Germany, Britain and later the Soviet Union. 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. Large surface vessels were few in number due to construction limitations by international treaties prior to 1935. The "pocket battleships" and were important as commerce raiders only in the opening year of the war. No aircraft carrier was operational, as German leadership lost interest in the which had been launched in 1938. Following the loss of the in 1941, with Allied air superiority threatening the remaining battlecruisers in French Atlantic harbors, the ships were ordered to make the Channel Dash back to German ports. Operating from fjords of Norway, which had been occupied in 1940, convoys from the U.S. to the Soviet port of Murmansk could be intercepted even though the spent most of her career as Fleet in being. After the appointment of Karl Doenitz as Grand Admiral of the ''Kriegsmarine'', Germany stopped constructing battleships and cruisers in favor of U-boats.

Theaters 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 Theater.

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

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

The Italian "Theater" (1943–45) was in fact a continuation of the Axis defeat in North Africa, and was a Campaign for defence of Italy.

The operations by the ''Kriegsmarine'' in the North and Mid-Atlantic can also be considered as separate theaters considering the size of the area of operations and their remoteness from other theaters.

Eastern theater

The Eastern ''Wehrmacht'' campaigns included:

Czechoslovakian campaign

Austrian ''Anschluss'' campaign

Battle of Poland campaign (''Fall Weiss'')—a joint invasion by Germany, the Soviet Union and Slovakia.

Balkans and Greece (''Operation Marita'')

Operation Barbarossa Campaign, also known as the Eastern Front, was the largest and most lethal campaign that the ''Wehrmacht Heer'' fought in during World War II. The Campaign against the Soviet Union was strategically the most crucial for Germany and its allies during World War II because of the economic and political repercussions defeat of the Soviet Union would have had on the outcome of the war, including that of the conflict with the UK and the U.S. in the Western Theater. The Eastern Front was also the Theater that demanded more resources than any other Theater throughout the war. The large area covered by the Eastern Front necessitated the division of the Theatre in to four separate Strategic Directions overseen by the Army Group North, Army Group Centre, Army Group South, and the Army Norway. These commands would conduct their own interdependent strategic campaigns within the theater.

Battle of the Caucasus.

A subset of the Eastern Front was a number of anti-partisan operations against guerrilla units and counter-insurgency operations largely by ''Waffen-SS'' units behind Axis lines.

However, Hitler demanded that the ''Wehrmacht'' had to fight on other fronts, sometimes three simultaneously, thus stretching its resources too thin. By 1944, even the defence of Germany became impossible.

Western theatre

Phony War (''Sitzkrieg'').

The Denmark campaign as Operation Weserübung

The Norwegian Campaign.

The largest campaign in the Western Theatre involving combat was conducted against the Netherlands, Belgium, etc. and France (''Fall Gelb'') in 1940. This predominantly land campaign evolved into two subsequent campaigns, one by the ''Luftwaffe'' against the UK, and the other by the ''Kriegsmarine'' against the strategic supply routes linking the UK to the rest of the World.

The Western Front resumed in 1944 against the Allied forces with the Battle of Normandy.

The strategic air campaigns the ''Luftwaffe'' won in 1939 and 1940 in Poland and France ended with the Battle of Britain. From 1941 to the end of 1943, the ''Luftwaffe'' entered a long and bloody air battle with the Red Air Force that affected its participation in the campaign against the RAF. Allied air forces enjoyed aerial superiority on all three Theaters by the summer of 1944. In respect to the Battle of Britain, had the ''Luftwaffe'' pursued its early goal of bombing the RAF airfields and fighting a war of attrition, it is likely they would have been victorious. However, in response to a string of events beginning with a small-scale air raid on Berlin by British bombers, Hitler ordered the ''Luftwaffe'' bomber forces to attack British cities. These reprisal attacks shifted the weight of the ''Luftwaffe'' away from the RAF and onto British civilians, allowing the RAF to rebuild its fighting strength and, within a few short months, turn the tide against the ''Luftwaffe'' in the skies above England.

The Battle of the Atlantic resulted in early ''Kriegsmarine'' successes that forced Winston Churchill to confide after the war that the only real threat he felt to Britain's survival was the "U-Boat peril."

Casualties

The number of wounded during the entire conflict surpasses 6,000,000, and the number of prisoners of war reaches 11,000,000. In all, approximately 5,533,000 soldiers from Germany and other nationalities fighting for the German armed forces—including the ''Waffen-SS''—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.

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 percent 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)."

Politics of the ''Wehrmacht''

Due to the constitution of the Weimar Republic, no soldier of the ''Reichswehr'' was allowed to be a member of a political party nor to vote in an election. This was because in theory there was a strict separation between politics and the armed forces. The same theory applied later to the ''Wehrmacht''. In the 1920s, the military did not accept the democratic Weimar Republic as legitimate, and so the ''Reichswehr'' under the leadership of Hans von Seeckt became a “state within the state” that operated largely outside the control of politicians. Reflecting this position as a “state within the state”, the ''Reichswehr'' created the Ministeramt or Office of the Ministerial Affairs in 1928 under Kurt von Schleicher to lobby the politicians. German historian Eberhard Kolb wrote that:

“…from the mid-1920s onwards the Army leaders had developed and propagated new social conceptions of a militarist kind, tending towards a fusion of the military and civilian sectors and ultimately a totalitarian military state (''Wehrstaat'')”.

What the German military wanted to see above all was the ''Wiederwehraftmachung'' of Germany, namely the total militarization of German society in order to fight a total war and thus ensure that Germany did not lose the next war. As such, what both the Nazis and the German Army wanted to see was Germany remade into a totally militarized ''Volksgemeinschaft'' that would be ruthlessly purged of those considered to be internal enemies, such as the Jews who were believed to have "stabbed" Germany in "the back" in 1918. By 1931, Germany's reserves of experienced reservists were coming to an end, because Part V of the Treaty of Versailles forbade conscription and existing reservists were aging. General Kurt von Schleicher worried that unless conscription was restored soon, German military power would be destroyed forever. Thus Schleicher worked to replace the democracy with a dictatorship headed by himself. Thus, he played a key role in the downfall of the Weimar Republic and unintentionally helped to bring about Nazi Germany. Many officers too in the early 1930s started to express admiration for National Socialism, which they saw as a the best way of creating the much desired ''Wehrstaat'' (defence state). After the trial, many ''Reichswehr'' officers started to favour the NSDAP.

British historian A.J. Nicholls wrote that the popular stereotype of the German military in the 1920s-1930s as old-fashioned reactionary ''Junkers'' is incorrect, and a disproportionate number of officers had a technocratic bent, and instead of looking back to the Second Reich looked with confidence towards a new dynamic, [[high-tech and revolutionary future dominated by men like themselves. Bartov wrote:

"The combined gratification of personal ambitions, technological obsessions and nationalist aspirations greatly enhanced their identification with Hitler's regime as individuals, professionals, representatives of a caste and leaders of a vast conscript army. Men such as Beck and Guderian, Manstein and Rommel, Doentiz and Kesserlring, Milch and Udet cannot be described as mere soldiers strictly devoted to their profession, rearmament and the autonomy of the military establishment while remaining indifferent to and detached from Nazi rule and ideology. The many points of contact between Hitler and his young generals were thus important elements in the integration of the Wehrmacht into the Third Reich, in stark contradication of its image as a "haven" from Nazism".

Because of these conceptions of Germany remade into a totalitarian ''Wehrstaat'', the leadership of the military welcomed and embraced the National Socialist regime. The German historian Jürgen Förster wrote that it was wrong as many historians have to dismiss the Wehrmacht's self-proclaimed role as one of the "twin pillars" of Nazi Germany (the other pillar being the NSDAP). General Ludwig Beck welcomed the coming of the Nazi regime in 1933, writing "I have wished for years for the political revolution, and now my wishes have come true. It is the first ray of hope since 1918.". (Ironically, Beck was later executed for opposing National Socialism.) In addition, many soldiers had previously been in the Hitler Youth and ''Reichsarbeitsdienst'' and had thus been subjected to intensive Nazi indoctrination; as a result, many newly commissioned officers were committed Nazis. In general, the ''Luftwaffe'' (airforce) was heavily Nazi-influenced, as was the navy and army to a lesser degree, through that was only relative. On December 8, 1938, the OKW had instructed all officers in all three services to be thoroughly versed in National Socialism and to apply its values in all situations. Starting in February 1939, pamphlets were issued that were made required reading in the military. The content can be gauged by the titles: "The Officer and Politics", "Hitler's World Historical Mission", "The Army in the Third Reich", "The Battle for German Living Space", "Hands off Danzig!", and "The Final Solution of the Jewish Question in the Third Reich". In the last essay, the author, C.A. Holberg wrote:

Anti-Semitic attitudes like the views expressed above coloured all the instructions that came to ''Wehrmacht'' during the summer of 1939 as part of the preparations for the invasion of Poland. Evans wrote that Wehrmacht officers regarded the Russians as "sub-human", were from the time of the invasion of Poland in 1939 telling their troops the war was caused by "Jewish vermin" and explained to the troops that the war against the Soviet Union was a war to wipe out what were variously called "Jewish Bolshevik subhumans", the "Mongol hordes", the "Asiatic flood" and the "red beast", language clearly intended to produce war crimes by reducing the enemy to something less than human. Such views helped to explain why 3,300,000 of the 5,700,000 Soviet POWs taken by the Germans died in captivity. On May 19, 1941, the OKW issued the "Guidelines for the Conduct of the Troops in Russia" which began by declaring that "Judeo-Bolshevism" to be the most deadly enemy of the German nation and that "It is against this destructive ideology and its adherents that Germany is waging war". The "Guidelines" urged "ruthless and vigorous measures against Bolshevik inciters, guerillas, saboteurs, Jews and the complete elimination of all active and passive resistance"". Very typical of the German Army propaganda as part of the preparations for Barbarossa was the following passage from a pamphlet issued in June 1941: As a result of the very intense anti-Semitic and anti-Slavic propaganda before and during Barbarossa, most Army officers and soldiers tended to regard the war against the Soviet Union in Nazi terms, seeing their Soviet opponents as so much sub-human trash deserving to be destroyed without mercy. One German soldier wrote home to his father on August 4, 1941 that: The overwhelming majority of the German Army worked enthusiastically with the SS in murdering Jews in the Soviet Union. The British historian Richard J. Evans wrote that junior officers in the Army were inclinced to be especially zealous National Socialists with a third of them having joined the Nazi Party by 1941. Among higher ranking officers, 29.2% were NSDAP members by 1941. The ''Wehrmacht'' obeyed Hitler's criminal orders for Barbarossa not because of obedience to orders, but because they, like Hitler, believed that the Soviet Union was run by Jews, and that Germany must completely destroy "Judeo-Bolshevism". German historian Jürgen Förster wrote that most ''Wehrmacht'' officers genuinely believed that most Red Army commissars were Jews who in turn were what kept the Red Army going, and that the best way to bring about victory against the Soviet Union was to exterminate the commissars so as to deprive the Russian soldiers of their Jewish leaders.

From 1943 onwards, the influx of officers and conscripts who had been mainly educated under the Nazis, began to further increase the National Socialism in the army. Political influence in the military command began to increase later in the war when Hitler's flawed strategic decisions began showing up as serious defeats for the German Army and tensions mounted between the military and the government. When Hitler appointed unqualified personnel such as Hermann Göring to lead his Air Force, failure ensued.

War crimes

In World War II, the ''Wehrmacht'' was involved in a number of war crimes. 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'' and particularly the ''Einsatzgruppen''), the traditional armed forces represented by the ''Wehrmacht'' committed and ordered (e.g. the Commissar Order) war crimes of their own, particularly during the invasion of Poland in 1939 and later in the war against the Soviet Union. The Army's Chief of Staff General Franz Halder in a directive declared that in the event of guerrila attacks, German troops were to impose "collective measures of force" by massacring entire villages. Hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of Soviet civilians died from starvation as the Germans requisitioned food for their armies and fodder for their draft horses.

While the ''Wehrmacht's'' prisoner-of-war camps for inmates from the west generally satisfied the humanitarian requirement prescribed by international law, prisoners from Poland (which never capitulated) 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. The Nuremberg Trials of the major war criminals at the end of World War II found that the ''Wehrmacht'' was not an inherently criminal organization, but that it had committed crimes in the course of the war. Several high ranked members of the ''Wehrmacht'' like Wilhelm Keitel and Alfred Jodl were convicted for their involvement in war crimes. Among German historians, the view that the ''Wehrmacht'' had participated in war time atrocities, particularly on the Eastern Front, grew in the late 1970s and the 1980s. In the 1990s, public conception in Germany was influenced by controversial reactions and debates about the exhibition of war crime issues. More recently, the judgement of Nuremberg has come under question. The Israeli historian Omer Bartov, a leading expert on the Wehrmacht 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". Bartov argues that far from being the "untarnished shield", as successive German apologists stated after the war, the Wehrmacht was a criminal organization. Likewise, the British historian Richard J. Evans, a leading expert on modern German history wrote that the Wehrmacht was a genocidal organization.

Resistance to the Nazi regime

From all groups of German Resistance, those within the ''Wehrmacht'' were the most condemned by the NSDAP. There were several attempts by resistance members like Henning von Tresckow, Erich Hoepner or Friedrich Olbricht to assassinate Hitler as an ignition of a ''coup d'état''. Rudolf Christoph Freiherr von Gersdorff and Axel Freiherr von dem Bussche-Streithorst even tried to do so by suicide bombing. Those and many other officers in the ''Heer'' and ''Kriegsmarine'' such as Erwin Rommel, Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg and Wilhelm Canaris opposed the atrocities of the Hitler regime. Combined with Hitler's problematic military leadership, this also culminated in the famous 20 July plot (1944), when a group of German Army officers led by von Stauffenberg tried again to kill Hitler and overthrow his regime. Following this attempt, every officer who approached Hitler was searched from head to foot by his SS guards. As a special degradation all German military personnel were ordered to replace the standard military salute with the Hitler salute from this date on. To what extent the German military forces opposed or supported the Hitler regime is nevertheless highly disputed amongst historians up to the present day.

Some members of the ''Wehrmacht'' did save Jews and non-Jews from the concentration camps and/or mass executions. Anton Schmid—a sergeant in the army—helped 250 Jewish men, women, and children escape from the Vilnius ghetto and provided them with forged passports so that they could get to safety. 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. Wilm Hosenfeld—an army captain in Warsaw—helped, hid, or rescued several Poles, including Jews, in occupied Poland. Most notably, he helped the Polish Jewish composer Władysław Szpilman, who was hiding among the city's ruins, by supplying him with food and water, and did not betray him to the Nazi authorities. Hosenfeld later died in a Soviet POW camp.

Prominent members

Prominent German officers from the ''Wehrmacht'' era include:

Hans-Jürgen von Arnim – Commander of ''Army Group Africa'' after Erwin Rommel

Ludwig Beck – Chief of the General Staff of the ''Heer'' from 1933 to 1938

Fedor von Bock – Commander of the failed Operation Typhoon

Walther von Brauchitsch – Commander-in-Chief of the ''Heer'' from 1938 to 1941

Wilhelm Franz Canaris – Head of the ''Abwehr'', a ''Wehrmacht'' intelligence service

Otto Carius - ''Panzer'' ace

Karl Dönitz – Grand Admiral of the ''Kriegsmarine'' and architect of the U-boat force; last President of the Third ''Reich'' following Hitler's suicide

Nikolaus von Falkenhorst – Commander of German ground forces during Operation Weserübung

Adolf Galland, the longest-serving ''General der Jagdflieger'' in the ''Luftwaffe'', supporter of the Messerschmitt Me 262's primary use as a jet fighter

Reinhard Gehlen - Chief of military intelligence on the Eastern Front; first head of the postwar Federal Intelligence Service (BND)

Hermann Göring – Commander-in-Chief of the ''Luftwaffe'', Hitler's designated successor until April 1945

Heinz Guderian – ''Panzer'' commander and architect of the Blitzkrieg strategy

Franz Halder – Chief of the General Staff of the ''Heer'' from 1938 to 1942

Kurt von Hammerstein-Equord – Commander-in-Chief of the ''Reichswehr'' and opponent of Hitler

Erich Hartmann - Highest-scoring fighter ace of World War II

Hermann Hoth – ''Panzer'' commander on the Eastern Front

Alfred Jodl – Chief of the Operations Staff of the OKW

Wilhelm Keitel – Commander-in-Chief of the OKW

Albert Kesselring – An Air Marshal of the ''Luftwaffe''; overall commander of the Mediterranean theater

Ewald von Kleist – A Field Marshal of the ''Heer''

Hans Günther von Kluge – Field Marshal and Commander of Oberbefehlshaber West

Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb – Commander of Army Group C during the Battle of France

Hans von Luck – ''Panzer'' commander

Günther Lütjens – Admiral and Fleet Commander of the Bismarck flotilla

Erich von Manstein – Field Marshal, military strategist, and prominent proponent of the ''Blitzkrieg''

Walter Model – Field Marshal, Commanded the defence of the Eastern Front from the Soviet counterattack

Friedrich Paulus – Commander of German forces at Stalingrad

Erich Raeder- Grand Admiral of the ''Kriegsmarine'', credited with building the ''Kriegsmarine''

Walther von Reichenau – Commander of the 6th Army

Wolfram Freiherr von Richthofen - Field Marshal in command of the Stuka forces of the ''Luftwaffe'' for a time during the war, relative of the The Red Baron of World War I

Robert Ritter von Greim – Field Marshal, Commander-in-Chief of the ''Luftwaffe'' in the last days of the war

Erwin Rommel – Field Marshal, the "Desert Fox", commander of the ''Afrikakorps''

Hans-Ulrich Rudel - ''Stuka'' dive bomber pilot and most decorated German serviceman

Gerd von Rundstedt – ''Generalfeldmarschall'', held amongst the highest commands throughout World War II

Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg – generally recognized as the leader of the 20 July plot

Kurt Student – founder and commander of Germany's ''Fallschirmjäger'' airborne troops

Walther Wever - the prime exponent of strategic bombing in the pre-war ''Luftwaffe'', died in June 1936

Erwin von Witzleben – prominent conspirator of the 20 July plot

After World War II

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. By the end of August 1945, these units were dissolved, and a year later on 20 August 1946, the Allied Control Council declared the ''Wehrmacht'' as officially abolished (Kontrollratsgesetz No. 34). While Germany was forbidden to have an army, Allied forces took advantage of the knowledge of ''Wehrmacht'' members like Reinhard Gehlen.

It was over ten years before the tensions of the Cold War led to the creation of separate military forces in the Federal Republic of Germany and the socialist German Democratic Republic. The West German military, officially created on 5 May 1955, took the name ''Bundeswehr'', meaning ''Federal Defence Forces'', which pointed back to the old ''Reichswehr''. Its East German counterpart—created on 1 March 1956—took the name ''National People's Army'' (''Nationale Volksarmee''). Both organizations employed many former ''Wehrmacht'' members, particularly in their formative years.

See also

''Afrika Korps''

German General Staff (''Großer Generalstab'')

German Resistance

Glossary of German military terms

Glossary of Nazi Germany

History of Germany during World War II

List of Nazi Party leaders and officials

Military of Germany

Panzer Army Africa

''Reichswehr''

Third ''Reich''

''Waffen-SS''

World War II

World War II German Army Ranks and Insignia

World War II German uniform - covers the uniforms worn by the ''Wehrmacht''s three services

Uniforms and insignia of the Kriegsmarine

''Wehrbauer''

Notes

References

Bartov, Omer "Soldiers, Nazis and War in the Third Reich" pages 129-150 from ''The Third Reich The Essential Readings'' by Christian Leitz, London: Blackwell, 1999, ISBN 0-631-20700-7.

Evans, Richard J. ''In Hitler's Shadow West German Historians and the Attempt to Escape the Nazi Past''. New York: Pantheon, 1989, ISBN 0-394-57686-1.

Förster, Jürgen "The Wehrmacht and the War of Extermination Against the Soviet Union" pages 494-520 from ''The Nazi Holocaust Part 3 The "Final Solution": The Implementation of Mass Murder'' Volume 2 edited by Michael Marrus, Westpoint: Meckler Press, 1989 ISBN 0-88736-255-9.

Förster, Jürgen "Complicity or Entanglement? The Wehrmact, the War and the Holocaust" pages 266-283 from ''The Holocaust and History The Known, the Unknown, the Disputed and the Reexamiend'' edited by Michael Berenbaum & Abraham Peck, Bloomington: Indian University Press, 1998, ISBN 0253333741.

Max Hastings, ''Overlord: D-Day and the Battle for Normandy 1944'', 1985, reissued 1999, Pan, ISBN 0-330-39012-0

Max Hastings, ''Armageddon: The Battle for Germany 1945'', 2004, Macmillan, ISBN 0-333-90836-8

Anthony A Evans, ''World War II: An Illustrated Miscellany'', 2005, Worth Press, ISBN 1-84567-681-5

Geoffrey P. Megargee, ''War of Annihilation. Combat and Genocide on the Eastern Front, 1941'', 2006, Rowman & Littelefield, ISBN 0-7425-4481

Geoffrey P. Megargee, ''Inside Hitler's High Command'', 2000, University Press of Kansas, ISBN 978-0700611874

W.J.K. Davies, ''German Army Handbook'', 1973, Ian Allen Ltd., Shepperton, Surrey, ISBN 0-7110-0290-8

Fest, Joachim; ''Plotting Hitler's Death—The Story of the German Resistance'', Henry Holt and Company, New York, 1996. ISBN 0-8050-4213-X

Former Waffen-SS soldiers, ''Wenn alle Brueder schweigen'' (''When all our brothers are silent''), Munin Verlag GmbH, Osnabrueck, 3rd revised edition 1981, ISBN 3-921242-21-5

Lubbeck, William; Hurt, David B. ''At Leningrad's Gates: The Story of a Soldier with Army Group North''. Philadelphia, PA: Casemate, 2006 (hardcover, ISBN 1-932033-55-6).

U.S. National Archives, ''Captured German Records Microfilmed at Alexandria, Virginia'', Microfilm publications T-77 and T-78, 2,680 rolls

U.S. War Department, ''Handbook on German Military Forces'', 15 March 1945, Technical Manual TM-E 30-451

External links

Extensive history and information about German armed forces from 1919 to 1945

The Wehrmacht, the Holocaust, and War Crimes

The Wehrmacht: A Criminal Organization? A review of Hannes Heer and Klaus Naumann work on the subject

Afrikakorps.org, Allied and Axis North Africa and the Mediterranean Theater of Operations Research Group with largest collections of North African Campaign and MTO photographs on the internet

Examples of, and information about, camouflage uniforms used by the Wehrmacht Heer, Wehrmacht Luftwaffe and Waffen-SS during the Second World War

Archives of the German military manuals including secret manuals of Enigma and Cryptography

''Deutsche Welle'' article about Wehrmacht veterans

Georgische legion - Units and photos

Over 2,000 original German WWII soldier photographs from the Eastern Front

'Extension 720 with Milt Rosenberg', WGN Radio Chicago – including a link to the interview with Max Hastings (29/11/04)

Category:Military history of Germany Category:Military of Germany Category:German loanwords Category:Military history of Germany during World War II Category:Disbanded armed forces Category:1935 establishments in Germany

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