Author : Alan F. Wilt
Publisher :
Page : 296 pages
File Size : 37,34 MB
Release : 2004
Category : History
ISBN :
A study of the planning and thinking that went into the creation of Hitler's "Atlantic Wall," which was intended to prevent the D-Day invasion and throw Allied soldiers back into the sea. The book details how and why the Atlantic Wall failed to perform as Hitler intended.
Author : Alan F. Wilt
Publisher :
Page : 244 pages
File Size : 12,48 MB
Release : 1975
Category :
ISBN : 9780835758352
Author : J. E. Kaufmann
Publisher : Pen and Sword
Page : 707 pages
File Size : 32,4 MB
Release : 2012-09-19
Category : Travel
ISBN : 1783378387
This WWII history and visitor’s guide explores the extensive network of Nazi fortifications built to defend Fortress Europe. Hitler's Atlantic Wall, the complex system of coastal fortifications that stretched from Norway to the Spanish border during the Second World War, was built to defend occupied Europe from Allied invasion. Many of its principal structures survive and can be visited today. This authoritative guide provides both practical information for visitors and essential historical context. The wall, which was constructed on a massive scale between 1942 and 1944 by German engineers, forced laborers and troops, consisted of strong points, artillery casemates, bunkers, troop shelters, minefields, anti-tank and anti-boat obstacles. It also included the concrete U-boat and E-boat pens in the key ports and, behind the Channel coast, the V-weapon sites. This huge scheme of fortifications was one of the longest series of defensive lines in military history. This comprehensive volume takes readers and visitors through the entire story of the fortifications from the fall of France to the D-Day invasion on the beaches of Normandy that finally broke through. As a guide to some of the most impressive relics of the Second World War, this book is essential reading for travelers or anyone interested in the liberation of occupied Europe.
Author : Steven J. Zaloga
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
Page : 66 pages
File Size : 23,21 MB
Release : 2012-10-20
Category : History
ISBN : 1849085943
Starting in 1940, Germany was subjected to a growing threat of Allied bomber attack. The RAF night bombing offensive built up in a slow but unrelenting crescendo through the Ruhr campaign in the summer of 1944 and culminating in the attacks on Berlin in the autumn and early winter of 1943-44. They were joined by US daylight raids which first began to have a serious impact on German industry in the autumn of 1943. This book focuses on the land-based infrastructure of Germany's defense against the air onslaught. Besides active defense against air attack, Germany also invested heavily in passive defense such as air raid shelters. While much of this defense was conventional such as underground shelters and the dual use of subways and other structures, Germany faced some unique dilemmas in protecting cities against night fire bomb raids. As a result, German architects designed massive above-ground defense shelters which were amongst the most massive defensive structures built in World War II.
Author : Alain Durrieu
Publisher :
Page : 292 pages
File Size : 11,75 MB
Release : 2014-06-07
Category :
ISBN : 9782918505051
The Atlantic Wall : a name which sounds like a slogan, that German propaganda would use with advantage to present to the world the greatest and the most powerful fortification ever constructed. Pierced in a single day, the 6th June 1944, its utility and real value were, in the event, easily challenged, at once consigning the proud Atlantic Wall to a useless fortification for some, a mythical illusion for others. And yet, between these two extremes, the historic reality of the Atlantic Wall lies in the thousands of bunkers consturcted in record time along the whole coast of occupied Europe, from the north of Norway to the buttress of the Pyrenees in France. Some seventy years later, what remains of this gigantic fortification ? This book, illustrated with more than 1,400 photographs, maps and documents, takes the reader to Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, the Channel Islands and France, on a discovery of the most incredible remains
Author : Alan F. Wilt
Publisher : Iowa State Press
Page : 268 pages
File Size : 40,27 MB
Release : 1975
Category : History
ISBN :
Author : Steven J. Zaloga
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
Page : 66 pages
File Size : 10,58 MB
Release : 2013-05-20
Category : History
ISBN : 1849080364
German defenses along the Normandy beaches were part of the larger Atlantic Wall fortifications designed to defend Fortress Europe. When Field Marshal Erwin Rommel took command of the invasion front in late 1943, he began a program to enhance fortifications along the Normandy coast as he believed that any Allied assault had to be stopped on the invasion beaches themselves. His most important contribution to the defenses was an extensive program of improvised beach obstructions to complicate any landing attempt. This book analyses these fortifications and describes how the Allied forces overcame them on the morning of June 6, 1944.
Author : iMinds
Publisher : iMinds Pty Ltd
Page : 6 pages
File Size : 34,55 MB
Release : 2014-05-14
Category : History
ISBN : 1921746939
The story behind D-Day begins in 1939 when Nazi Germany, led by Adolf Hitler, attacked Poland and ignited World War Two. The following year, the Germans occupied France and Western Europe and launched a vicious air war against Britain. In 1941, they invaded the Soviet Union. Seemingly unstoppable, the Nazis now held virtually all of Europe. They imposed a ruthless system of control and unleashed the horror of the Holocaust. However, by 1943, the tide had begun to turn in favor of the Allies, the forces opposed to Germany. In the east, despite huge losses, the Soviets began to force the Germans back.
Author : David T. Zabecki
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Page : 1938 pages
File Size : 13,14 MB
Release : 2014-10-28
Category : History
ISBN : 1598849816
Written by experts for use by nonexperts, this monumental work probes Germany's "Genius for War" and the unmistakable pattern of tactical and operational innovation and excellence evident throughout the nation's military history. Despite having the best military forces in the world, some of the most advanced weapons available, and unparalleled tactical proficiency, Germany still lost both World Wars. This landmark, four-volume encyclopedia explores how and why that happened, at the same time examining Germany as a military power from the start of the Thirty Years' War in 1618 to the present day. Coverage includes the Federal Republic of Germany, its predecessor states, and the kingdoms and principalities that combined to form Imperial Germany in 1871. The Seven Years' War is discussed, as are the Napoleonic Wars, the Wars of German Unification (including the Franco-Prussian War), World War I, World War II, and the Cold War. In all, more than 1,000 entries illuminate battles, organizations, leaders, armies, weapons, and other aspects of war and military life. The most comprehensive overview of German military history ever to appear in English, this work will enable students and others interested in military history to better understand the sociopolitical history of Germany, the complex role conflict has played in the nation throughout its history, and why Germany continues to be an important player on the European continent.
Author : R. M. Douglas
Publisher : Yale University Press
Page : 696 pages
File Size : 15,45 MB
Release : 2012-06-26
Category : History
ISBN : 0300183763
The award-winning history of 12 million German-speaking civilians in Europe who were driven from their homes after WWII: “a major achievement” (New Republic). Immediately after the Second World War, the victorious Allies authorized the forced relocation of ethnic Germans from their homes across central and southern Europe to Germany. The numbers were almost unimaginable: between 12 and 14 million civilians, most of them women and children. And the losses were horrifying: at least five hundred thousand people, and perhaps many more, died while detained in former concentration camps, locked in trains, or after arriving in Germany malnourished, and homeless. In this authoritative and objective account, historian R.M. Douglas examines an aspect of European history that few have wished to confront, exploring how the forced migrations were conceived, planned, and executed, and how their legacy reverberates throughout central Europe today. The first comprehensive history of this immense manmade catastrophe, Orderly and Humane is an important study of the largest recorded episode of what we now call "ethnic cleansing." It may also be the most significant untold story of the World War II.
