Les articles en vedette sont affichés ici, qui représentent certains des meilleurs contenus sur Wikipédia en anglais.
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Destruction de la forteresse de Godesburg pendant la guerre de Cologne 1583 ; les murs ont été percés par des mines et la plupart des défenseurs ont été mis à mort. Gravure contemporaine de Frans Hogenberg .
Appelé aussi leGuerre sénéchal ( Truchsessischer Krieg ) ou soulèvement sénéchal ( Truchsessischer Wirren ) et parfois guerre des égouts , le conflit met à l'épreuve le principe de la réserve ecclésiastique , qui avait été inclus dans la paix religieuse d'Augsbourg (1555). Ce principe excluait ou "réservait" les territoires ecclésiastiques du Saint Empire romain germanique à l'application du cuius regio, eius religio, ou "dont la règle, sa religion", comme le principal moyen de déterminer la religion d'un territoire. Il stipulait plutôt que si un prince ecclésiastique se convertissait au protestantisme, il démissionnerait de son poste plutôt que de forcer la conversion de ses sujets. ( Article complet... )
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Von der Tann before the war
SMS Von der Tann was the first battlecruiser built for the German Kaiserliche Marine, as well as Germany's first major turbine-powered warship. At the time of her construction, Von der Tann was the fastest dreadnought-type warship afloat, capable of reaching speeds in excess of 27 knots (50 km/h; 31 mph). She was designed in response to the British Invincible class. While the German design had slightly lighter guns—28 cm (11 in), compared to the 30.5 cm (12 in) Mark X mounted on the British ships—Von der Tann was faster and significantly better-armored. She set the precedent of German battlecruisers carrying much heavier armor than their British equivalents, albeit at the cost of smaller guns.
Von der Tann participated in a number of fleet actions during the First World War, including several bombardments of the English coast. She was present at the Battle of Jutland, where she destroyed the British battlecruiser HMS Indefatigable in the opening minutes of the engagement. Von der Tann was hit several times by large-caliber shells during the battle, and at one point in the engagement, the ship had all of her main battery guns out of action either due to damage or malfunction. Nevertheless, the damage was quickly repaired and the ship returned to the fleet in two months. (Full article...)
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Main front of the IG Farben Building
The IG Farben Building – also known as the Poelzig Building and the Abrams Building, formerly informally called The Pentagon of Europe – is a building complex in Frankfurt, Germany, which currently serves as the main structure of the West End Campus of the University of Frankfurt. Construction began in 1928 and was complete in 1930 as the corporate headquarters of the IG Farben conglomerate, then the world's largest chemical company and the world's fourth-largest company overall.
The building's original design in the modernistNew Objectivity style was the subject of a competition which was eventually won by the architect Hans Poelzig. On its completion, the complex was the largest office building in Europe and remained so until the 1950s. The IG Farben Building's six square wings retain a modern, spare elegance, despite its mammoth size. It is also notable for its paternoster elevators. (Full article...)
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Kapitän zur See Ernst Lindemann as commander of battleship Bismarck on 24 August 1940
Lindemann joined the German Imperial Navy (German: Kaiserliche Marine) in 1913, and after his basic military training, served on a number of warships during World War I as a wireless telegraphy officer. On board SMS Bayern, he participated in Operation Albion in 1917. After World War I, he served in various staff and naval gunnery training positions. One year after the outbreak of World War II, he was appointed commander of the battleship Bismarck, at the time the largest warship in commission anywhere in the world and the pride of the Kriegsmarine (Nazi Germany's navy). (Full article...)
In the early years of the French Revolutionary Wars, Klenau distinguished himself at the Wissembourg lines, and led a battle-winning charge at Handschuhsheim in 1795. As commander of the Coalition's left flank in the Adige campaign in northern Italy in 1799, he was instrumental in isolating the French-held fortresses on the Po River by organizing and supporting a peasant uprising in the countryside. Afterward, Klenau became the youngest lieutenant field marshal in the history of the Habsburg military. (Full article...)
The Panzer I was a light tank produced in Nazi Germany in the 1930s. Its name is short for Panzerkampfwagen I (German for "armored fighting vehicle mark I"), abbreviated as PzKpfw I. The tank's official German ordnance inventory designation was Sd.Kfz. 101 ("special purpose vehicle 101").
Otto Moritz Walter Model (IPA: [ˈmoːdəl]; 24 January 1891 – 21 April 1945) was a German field marshal during World War II. Although he was a hard-driving, aggressive panzer commander early in the war, Model became best known as a practitioner of defensive warfare. His relative success as commander of the Ninth Army in the battles of 1941–1942 determined his future career path.
Model first came to Hitler's attention before World War II, but their relationship did not become especially close until 1942. His tenacious style of fighting and loyalty to the Nazi regime won him plaudits from Hitler, who considered him one of his best field commanders and repeatedly sent him to salvage apparently desperate situations on the Eastern Front. Their relationship broke down by the end of the war after the German defeat at the Battle of the Bulge. In the aftermath of the encirclement and defeat of Army Group B at the Ruhr Pocket, Model committed suicide on 21 April 1945. (Full article...)
The war arose from the failure of the Truce of Nice, which ended the Italian War of 1536–1538, to resolve the long-standing conflict between Charles and Francis—particularly their conflicting claims to the Duchy of Milan. Having found a suitable pretext, Francis once again declared war against his perpetual enemy in 1542. Fighting began at once throughout the Low Countries; the following year saw the Franco-Ottoman alliance's attack on Nice, as well as a series of maneuvers in northern Italy which culminated in the bloody Battle of Ceresole. Charles and Henry then proceeded to invade France, but the long sieges of Boulogne-sur-Mer and Saint-Dizier prevented a decisive offensive against the French. (Full article...)
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Bayern, probably during her internment at Scapa Flow
SMS Bayern was the lead ship of the Bayern class of battleships in the German Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy). The vessel was launched in February 1915 and entered service in July 1916, too late to take part in the Battle of Jutland. Her main armament consisted of eight 38 cm (15 in) guns in four turrets, which was a significant improvement over the preceding König's ten 30.5 cm (12 inch) guns. The ship was to have formed the nucleus for a fourth battle squadron in the High Seas Fleet, along with three of her sister ships. Of the other ships only one—Baden—was completed; the other two were canceled later in the war when production requirements shifted to U-boat construction.
Bayern was commissioned midway through the war, and had a limited service career. The first operation in which the ship took part was an abortive fleet advance into the North Sea on 18–19 August 1916, a month after she had been commissioned. The ship also participated in Operation Albion in the Gulf of Riga, but shortly after the German attack began on 12 October 1917, Bayern was mined and had to be withdrawn for repairs. She was interned with the majority of the High Seas Fleet at Scapa Flow in November 1918 following the end of World War I. On 21 June 1919, Admiral Ludwig von Reuter ordered the fleet to be scuttled; Bayern sank at 14:30. In September 1934, the ship was raised, towed to Rosyth, and scrapped. (Full article...)
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Baden, with her main battery trained to port
SMS Baden was a Bayern-classdreadnought battleship of the German Imperial Navy built during World War I. Launched in October 1915 and completed in March 1917, she was the last battleship completed for use in the war; two of her sisters—Sachsen and Württemberg—were incomplete when the war ended. The ship mounted eight 38-centimeter (15 in) guns in four twin turrets, displaced 32,200 metric tons (31,700 long tons; 35,500 short tons) at full combat load, and had a top speed of 21 knots (39 km/h; 24 mph). Along with her sister Bayern, Baden was the largest and most powerfully armed battleship built by the Imperial Navy.
Upon commissioning into the High Seas Fleet, Baden was made the fleet flagship, replacing Friedrich der Grosse. Baden saw little action during her short career; the only major sortie in April 1918 ended without any combat. Following the German collapse in November 1918, Baden was interned with the majority of the High Seas Fleet at Scapa Flow by the British Royal Navy. On 21 June 1919, Rear Admiral Ludwig von Reuter ordered the scuttling of the fleet. However, British sailors in the harbor managed to board Baden and beach her to prevent her sinking. The ship was refloated, thoroughly examined, and eventually sunk in extensive gunnery testing by the Royal Navy in 1921. (Full article...)
Le chef des SS , Heinrich Himmler , accompagné d'un entourage de SS et de personnel de l'armée, inspecte un camp de prisonniers pour prisonniers de guerre soviétiques à Minsk occupé , août 1941.
Pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale , l'Allemagne nazie s'est engagée dans une politique de mauvais traitements délibérés des prisonniers de guerre soviétiques (POW), contrairement à leur traitement des prisonniers de guerre britanniques et américains. Cette politique, qui revenait à affamer délibérément et à faire travailler jusqu'à la mort les prisonniers de guerre soviétiques, était fondée sur la théorie raciale nazie , qui décrivait les Slaves comme des sous-hommes ( Untermenschen ). La politique a entraîné quelque 3,3 à 3,5 millions de morts. Au cours de l'opération Barbarossa , l' invasion de l'Union soviétique par l'Axe et la guerre germano-soviétique qui a suivi , des millions de soldats de l'Armée rouge
(et d'autres forces armées soviétiques) des prisonniers de guerre ont été faits. Beaucoup ont été exécutés arbitrairement sur le terrain par les forces allemandes ou remis aux SS pour être fusillés, en vertu de l' ordre du commissaire . La plupart, cependant, sont morts lors des marches de la mort depuis les lignes de front ou dans des conditions inhumaines dans les camps de prisonniers de guerre et les camps de concentration allemands . ( Article complet... )
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The mother of a prisoner thanks Chancellor Konrad Adenauer upon his return from Moscow on September 14, 1955. Adenauer had succeeded in concluding negotiations for the release to Germany, by the end of that year, of 15,000 German civilians and prisoners of war.
Approximately three million German prisoners of war were captured by the Soviet Union during World War II, most of them during the great advances of the Red Army in the last year of the war. The POWs were employed as forced labor in the Soviet wartime economy and post-war reconstruction. By 1950 almost all surviving POWs had been released, with the last prisoner returning from the USSR in 1956. According to Soviet records 381,067 German Wehrmacht POWs died in NKVD camps (356,700 German nationals and 24,367 from other nations). A commission set up by the West German government found that 3,060,000 German military personnel were taken prisoner by the USSR and that 1,094,250 died in captivity (549,360 from 1941 to April 1945; 542,911 from May 1945 to June 1950 and 1,979 from July 1950 to 1955). According to German historian Rüdiger Overmans ca. 3,000,000 POWs were taken by the USSR; he put the "maximum" number of German POW deaths in Soviet hands at 1.0 million. Based on his research, Overmans believes that the deaths of 363,000 POWs in Soviet captivity can be confirmed by the files of Deutsche Dienststelle (WASt), and additionally maintains that "It seems entirely plausible, while not provable, that 700,000 German military personnel listed as missing actually died in Soviet custody." (Full article...)
Until the 20th century, historians considered it a continuation of the German religious struggle initiated by the Reformation and ended by the 1555 Peace of Augsburg. This divided the Empire into Lutheran and Catholic states, but over the next 50 years the expansion of Protestantism beyond these boundaries gradually destabilised Imperial authority. While religion was a significant factor in starting the war, scholars generally agree that its scope and extent was driven by the contest for European dominance between Habsburgs in Austria and Spain, and the French House of Bourbon. (Full article...)
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Between 1933 and 1945, the organization of the Luftwaffe underwent several changes. Originally, the German military high command, for their air warfare forces, decided to use an organizational structure similar to the army and navy, treating the aviation branch as a strategic weapon of war. Later on, during the period of rapid rearmament, the Luftwaffe was organized more in a geographical fashion.
Under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles (1919), Germany was prohibited from having an air force, with the former German Empire's Luftstreitkräfte disbandment in 1920. German pilots were secretly trained for military aviation, first in the Soviet Union during the late 1920s, and then in Germany in the early 1930s. In Germany, the training was done under the guise of the German Air Sports Association (German: Deutscher Luftsportverband (DLV)) at the Central Commercial Pilots School (German: Zentrale der Verkehrs Fliegerschule (ZVF)). (Full article...)
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German Lys offensive, 1918
The Battle of the Lys, also known as the Fourth Battle of Ypres, was fought from 7 to 29 April 1918 and was part of the German spring offensive in Flanders during the First World War. It was originally planned by General Erich Ludendorff as Operation George but was reduced to Operation Georgette, with the objective of capturing Ypres, forcing the British forces back to the Channel ports and out of the war. In planning, execution and effects, Georgette was similar to (although smaller than) Operation Michael, earlier in the Spring Offensive. (Full article...)
The Knight's Cross was awarded for a wide range of reasons and across all ranks, from a senior commander for skilled leadership of his troops in battle to a low-ranking soldier for a single act of military valour. Presentations were made to members of the three military branches of the Wehrmacht: the Heer (army), the Kriegsmarine (navy) and the Luftwaffe (air force), as well as the Waffen-SS, the Reichsarbeitsdienst (RAD, Reich Labour Service) and the Volkssturm (German national militia), along with personnel from other Axis powers. (Full article...)
Following the Italian invasion on 28 October 1940, Greece, with British air and material support, repelled the initial Italian attack and a counter-attack in March 1941. When the German invasion, known as Operation Marita, began on 6 April, the bulk of the Greek Army was on the Greek border with Albania, then a vassal of Italy, from which the Italian troops had attacked. German troops invaded from Bulgaria, creating a second front. Greece received a small reinforcement from British, Australian and New Zealand forces in anticipation of the German attack. The Greek army found itself outnumbered in its effort to defend against both Italian and German troops. As a result, the Metaxas defensive line did not receive adequate troop reinforcements and was quickly overrun by the Germans, who then outflanked the Greek forces at the Albanian border, forcing their surrender. British, Australian and New Zealand forces were overwhelmed and forced to retreat, with the ultimate goal of evacuation. For several days, Allied troops played an important part in containing the German advance on the Thermopylae position, allowing ships to be prepared to evacuate the units defending Greece. The German Army reached the capital, Athens, on 27 April and Greece's southern shore on 30 April, capturing 7,000 British, Australian and New Zealand personnel and ending the battle with a decisive victory. The conquest of Greece was completed with the capture of Crete a month later. Following its fall, Greece was occupied by the military forces of Germany, Italy and Bulgaria. (Full article...)
Nassau saw service in the North Sea at the beginning of World War I, in II Division of I Battle Squadron of the German High Seas Fleet. In August 1915, she entered the Baltic Sea and participated in the Battle of the Gulf of Riga, where she engaged the Russian battleship Slava. Following her return to the North Sea, Nassau and her sister ships took part in the Battle of Jutland on 31 May – 1 June 1916. During the battle, Nassau collided with the British destroyer HMS Spitfire. Nassau suffered a total of 11 killed and 16 injured during the engagement. (Full article...)
German forces invaded Poland from the north, south, and west the morning after the Gleiwitz incident. Slovak military forces advanced alongside the Germans in northern Slovakia. As the Wehrmacht advanced, Polish forces withdrew from their forward bases of operation close to the Germany–Poland border to more established defense lines to the east. After the mid-September Polish defeat in the Battle of the Bzura, the Germans gained an undisputed advantage. Polish forces then withdrew to the southeast where they prepared for a long defence of the Romanian Bridgehead and awaited expected support and relief from France and the United Kingdom. Those two countries had pacts with Poland and had declared war on Germany on 3 September; in the end their aid to Poland was very limited. France invaded a small part of Germany in the Saar Offensive, and the Polish army was effectively defeated even before the British Expeditionary Force could be transported to Europe, with the bulk of the BEF in France by the end of September. (Full article...)
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OKW secret radio service
The Abwehr (pronounced [ˈapveːɐ̯]) was the German military-intelligence service for the Reichswehr and the Wehrmacht from 1920 to 1944. Although the 1919 Treaty of Versailles prohibited the Weimar Republic from establishing an intelligence organization of their own, they formed an espionage group in 1920 within the Ministry of Defence, calling it the Abwehr. The initial purpose of the Abwehr was defence against foreign espionage: an organizational role which later evolved considerably. Under General Kurt von Schleicher (prominent in running the Reichswehr from 1926 onwards) the individual military services' intelligence units were combined and, in 1929, centralized under Schleicher's Ministeramt within the Ministry of Defense, forming the foundation for the more commonly understood manifestation of the Abwehr.
Each Abwehr station throughout Germany was based on the local army district (Wehrkreis); more offices opened in amenable neutral countries and (as the greater Reich expanded) in the occupied territories. The Ministry of Defence, renamed the Ministry of War in 1935, was replaced by Adolf Hitler altogether with the new Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW). The OKW formed part of the Führer's personal "working staff" from June 1938 and the Abwehr became its intelligence agency under Vice-Admiral Wilhelm Canaris. The Abwehr had its headquarters at 76/78 Tirpitzufer (the present-day Reichpietschufer) in Berlin, adjacent to the offices of the OKW. (Full article...)
Élevé pendant les conflits de l'entre-deux-guerres en Allemagne, Trautmann a rejoint la Luftwaffe au début de la Seconde Guerre mondiale , servant comme parachutiste . Il a combattu sur le front de l'Est pendant trois ans, remportant cinq médailles, dont une croix de fer . Plus tard dans la guerre, il a été transféré sur le front occidental , où il a été capturé par les Britanniques alors que la guerre touchait à sa fin. L'un des 90 de son régiment d'origine de 1 000 hommes à avoir survécu à la guerre, il a été transféré dans un camp de prisonniers de guerre à Ashton-in-Makerfield , dans le Lancashire. Trautmann a refusé une offre de rapatriement, et après sa libération en 1948, s'installe dans le Lancashire, combinant travail agricole et gardien de but pour une équipe de football locale, St Helens Town .
Les performances de St Helens ont valu à Trautmann une réputation de gardien de but exceptionnel, ce qui a suscité l'intérêt des clubs de la Ligue de football . En octobre 1949, il signe à Manchester City , un club évoluant au plus haut niveau de football du pays, la première division . La décision du club de signer un ancien parachutiste de l'Axe a déclenché des protestations et 20 000 personnes ont assisté à une manifestation. Au fil du temps, il a été accepté grâce à ses performances dans le but de City, jouant dans tous les 250 prochains matchs du club sauf cinq.
Après sa carrière de joueur, il est passé à la direction, d'abord avec des équipes de division inférieure en Angleterre et en Allemagne, puis dans le cadre d'un programme de développement de l'Association allemande de football qui l'a emmené dans plusieurs pays, dont la Birmanie, la Tanzanie et le Pakistan. En 2004, il a été nommé Officier honoraire de l'Ordre de l'Empire britannique (OBE) pour avoir promu la compréhension anglo-allemande par le football. ( Lire la suite )
Ceci est un bon article , un article qui répond à un ensemble de normes éditoriales élevées.
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Un des croiseurs de la classe Brummer , probablement en route vers Scapa Flow
La classe Brummer se composait de deux croiseurs légers poseurs de mines construits pour la marine impériale allemande pendant la Première Guerre mondiale : le SMS Brummer et le SMS Bremse . Lorsque la guerre a éclaté, les Allemands n'avaient que deux vieux croiseurs poseurs de mines. Bien que la plupart des croiseurs allemands aient été équipés pour la pose de mines, un besoin de navires spécialisés rapides existait. La marine impériale russe avait commandé un ensemble de turbines à vapeur pour le croiseur de bataille de classe Borodino Navarin au chantier naval AG Vulcan de Stettin .. Ces machines ont été confisquées au début de la guerre et utilisées pour ces navires. Les deux navires ont été construits par AG Vulcan.
Les deux navires ont posé une série de champs de mines au cours de leur carrière, bien que leur succès le plus significatif ait eu lieu en octobre 1917, lorsqu'ils ont attaqué un convoi britannique vers la Norvège. Ils ont coulé deux destroyers d'escorte et neuf des douze navires marchands du convoi. Ils se sont enfuis en Allemagne sans dommage. Les deux navires ont été internés à Scapa Flow après la fin de la guerre, et ont ensuite été sabordés par leurs équipages le 21 juin 1919. Brummer a été coulé en eau profonde et n'a jamais été relevé, mais Bremsea été élevé en 1929 et démantelé en 1932-1933. ( Article complet... )
Schindler grew up in Zwittau, Moravia, and worked in several trades until he joined the Abwehr, the military intelligence service of Nazi Germany, in 1936. He joined the Nazi Party in 1939. Prior to the beginning of German occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1938, he collected information on railways and troop movements for the German government. He was arrested for espionage by the Czechoslovak government but was released under the terms of the Munich Agreement that year. Schindler continued to collect information for the Nazis, working in Poland in 1939 before the invasion of Poland at the start of World War II. In 1939, Schindler acquired an enamelware factory in Kraków, Poland, which employed, at the factory's peak in 1944, about 1,750 workers, of whom 1,000 were Jews. His Abwehr connections helped Schindler protect his Jewish workers from deportation and death in the Nazi concentration camps. As time went on, Schindler had to give Nazi officials ever larger bribes and gifts of luxury items obtainable only on the black market to keep his workers safe. (Full article...)
During the French Revolutionary Wars, Schliengen was a strategically important location for the armies of both Republican France and Habsburg Austria. Control of the area gave either combatant access to southwestern German states and important Rhine crossings. On 20 October Moreau retreated from Freiburg im Breisgau and established his army along a ridge of hills. The severe condition of the roads prevented Archduke Charles from flanking the French right wing. The French left wing lay too close to the Rhine to outflank, and the French center, positioned in a 7-mile (11 km) semi-circle on heights that commanded the terrain below, was unassailable. Instead, he attacked the French flanks directly, and in force, which increased casualties for both sides. (Full article...)
UB-44 was ordered in July 1915 and was laid down at the AG Weser shipyard in Bremen in September. UB-44 was about 37 metres (121 ft 5 in) in length and displaced between 270 and 305 tonnes (266 and 300 long tons), depending on whether surfaced or submerged. She was equipped to carry a complement of four torpedoes for her two bow torpedo tubes and had an 5-centimeter (2.0 in) deck gun. As part of a group of six submarines selected for Mediterranean service, UB-44 was broken into railcar sized components and shipped to Pola where she was assembled and launched in April 1916 and commissioned in May. (Full article...)
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Map of the area between Belgium and the Netherlands near Fort Eben-Emael
The Battle of Fort Eben-Emael was a battle between Belgian and German forces that took place between 10 May and 11 May 1940, and was part of the Battle of Belgium and Fall Gelb, the German invasion of the Low Countries and France. An assault force of German paratroopers, Fallschirmjäger, was tasked with assaulting and capturing Fort Eben-Emael, a Belgian fortress whose strategic position and strong artillery emplacements dominated several important bridges over the Albert Canal. These carried roads which led into the Belgian heartland and were what the German forces intended to use to advance. As some of the German airborne forces assaulted the fortress and disabled the garrison and the artillery pieces inside it, others simultaneously captured three bridges over the Canal. Having disabled the fortress, the airborne troops were then ordered to protect the bridges against Belgian counter-attacks until they linked up with ground forces from the German 18th Army.
The battle was a strategic victory for the German forces, with the airborne troops landing on top of the fortress with gliders and using explosives and flamethrowers to disable the outer defences of the fortress. The Fallschirmjäger then entered the fortress, killing some defenders and containing the rest in the lower sections of the fortress. Simultaneously, the rest of the German assault force had landed near the three bridges over the Canal, destroyed several pillboxes and defensive positions and defeated the Belgian forces guarding the bridges, capturing them and bringing them under German control. The airborne troops suffered heavy casualties during the operation, but succeeded in holding the bridges until the arrival of German ground forces, who then aided the airborne troops in assaulting the fortress a second time and forcing the surrender of the remaining members of the garrison. German forces were then able to use two bridges over the Canal to bypass Belgian defensive positions and advance into Belgium to aid in the invasion of the country. The bridge at Kanne was destroyed, forcing German engineers to construct a new bridge. (Full article...)
He served with the Condor Legion during the Spanish Civil War with the Jagdgruppe 88. He claimed nine aircraft during the campaign, becoming one of only 28 people to earn the award of the Spanish Cross in Gold and Diamonds. (Full article...)
Of noble Burgundian descent, he was a student at the Brienne military school, then was a graduate of the Paris military school. Nansouty began his military career in 1785, as a sub-lieutenant in the regiment Bourgogne-Infanterie, where his father had served during the wars of Louis XV. A cavalry officer at the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars in 1792, Nansouty was commissioned as an aide-de-camp to MarshalNicolas Luckner. During the First Coalition, he saw service as a lieutenant-colonel and squadron commander in the 9th (heavy) Cavalry Regiment, campaigning with the French armies on the Rhine and in Germany. Promoted to colonel in 1793 and given the command of the 9th Cavalry, he was noted for several well-led cavalry actions. Finally made a brigadier general in 1799, after he had refused the promotion several times in the past, Nansouty fought the next year under General Jean Victor Moreau in southern Germany, in a decisive campaign of the Second Coalition. (Full article...)
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Front lines late January showing the efforts to displace the 18th Army (bottom) and link up the encircled Leningrad Front (left) with the Volkhov Front (right)
Operation Iskra (Russian: операция Искра, lit. 'Operation Spark'), a Soviet military operation in January 1943 during World War II, aimed to break the Wehrmacht's siege of Leningrad. Planning for the operation began shortly after the failure of the Sinyavino Offensive. The German defeat in the Battle of Stalingrad in late 1942 had weakened the German front. By January 1943, Soviet forces were planning or conducting offensive operations across the entire German-Soviet Front, especially in southern Russia; Iskra formed the northern part of the wider Soviet 1942–1943 winter counteroffensive.
The operation was conducted by the Red Army's Leningrad Front, Volkhov Front, and the Baltic Fleet from 12 to 30 January 1943 with the aim of creating a land connection to Leningrad. Soviet forces linked up on 18 January, and by 22 January, the front line had stabilised. The operation successfully opened a land corridor 8–10 kilometres (5.0–6.2 mi) wide to the city. A railroad was swiftly built through the corridor and allowed more supplies to reach the city than the Road of Life, across the frozen surface of Lake Ladoga, which significantly reduced the possibilities of the capture of the city and of any German–Finnish linkup. (Full article...)
Gold, commonly known as Gold Beach, was the code name for one of the five areas of the Allied invasion of German-occupied France in the Normandy landings on 6 June 1944, during the Second World War. Gold, the central of the five areas, was located between Port-en-Bessin on the west and La Rivière on the east. High cliffs at the western end of the zone meant that the landings took place on the flat section between Le Hamel and La Rivière, in the sectors code-named Jig and King. Taking Gold was to be the responsibility of the British Army, with sea transport, mine sweeping, and a naval bombardment force provided by the Royal Navy as well as elements from the Dutch, Polish and other Allied navies.
The Prinz Adalbert class was a group of two armored cruisers built for the German Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy) under the terms of the Second Naval Law. Two ships of the class were built, Prinz Adalbert and Friedrich Carl, between 1900 and 1904. The two ships were heavily based on the previous armored cruiser, Prinz Heinrich, with a series of incremental improvements. Their armor layout was revised slightly to improve internal protection and their main battery consisted of four 21 cm (8.3 in) guns instead of the two 24 cm (9.4 in) carried by Prinz Heinrich. The new ships also received more powerful propulsion systems, making them slightly faster. Prinz Adalbert spent her peacetime career as a gunnery training ship while Friedrich Carl initially served as the flagship of the fleet's reconnaissance forces. By 1909, she had been replaced by more modern cruisers and joined Prinz Adalbert as a training vessel.
Following the outbreak of World War I in July 1914, both vessels were mobilized; Friedrich Carl was assigned to the cruiser squadron in the Baltic Sea and was quickly sunk by Russian naval mines off Memel in November, though most of her crew was safely evacuated. Prinz Adalbert initially served in the North Sea, supporting the Raid on Yarmouth in November 1914 before transferring to the Baltic to replace her lost sister. Prinz Adalbert had little better luck, being torpedoed by British submarines twice in 1915, the first, in July, caused serious damage and necessitated lengthy repairs. The second, in October, caused an internal magazine explosion that destroyed the ship and killed almost her entire crew. Six-hundred and seventy-two men were killed, the greatest single loss of life for the German Navy in the Baltic during the war; there were only three survivors of her sinking. (Full article...)
Les forces de raid étaient principalement fournies par les commandos britanniques, mais les deux raids les plus importants, l'opération Gauntlet et l'opération Jubilee , mobilisent fortement les troupes canadiennes. La taille de la force de raid dépendait de l'objectif. Le plus petit raid était de deux hommes du Commando n ° 6 dans l' opération JV . Le plus grand raid a impliqué plus de 10 500 hommes dans l'opération Jubilee. La plupart des raids ne devaient durer que la nuit, mais certains, comme l'opération Gauntlet, se sont déroulés sur plusieurs jours. ( Article complet... )
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Fürst Bismarck, Germany's first armored cruiser, during a goodwill visit to the United States.
In the late 19th century, the German Imperial Navy (Kaiserliche Marine) experimented with a variety of cruiser types, including small avisos and larger protected cruisers. Due to budget constraints, the navy was unable to build cruisers designed solely for fleet service or for overseas duties. As a result, the naval construction department attempted to design vessels that could fulfill both roles. The protected cruisers, the first of which were the two Irene-class vessels, were laid down starting in 1886. The protected cruisers evolved into more powerful vessels, culminating in Fürst Bismarck, Germany's first armored cruiser. Fürst Bismarck was laid down in 1896, a decade after the first German protected cruiser.
Fürst Bismarck proved to be "ideally suited" to overseas duties and formed the basis for subsequent armored cruiser designs. Prinz Heinrich followed in 1898 and incorporated several alterations, including a reduced primary armament, a thinner but more comprehensive armor system, and a higher top speed. The two Prinz Adalbert-class vessels, laid down in 1900 and 1901, were designed with incremental improvements over Prinz Heinrich. Roon and Yorck, two sister ships laid down in 1902 and 1903, respectively, were similar to the two Prinz Adalbert-class cruisers and incorporated only minor improvements. The two Scharnhorst-class armored cruisers, laid down in 1904 and 1905, were marked improvements over the previous designs; they carried a much heavier armament and were more than 2 knots (3.7 km/h; 2.3 mph) faster than the earlier vessels. The last German armored cruiser, Blücher, bridged the development of larger, more powerful battlecruisers. The ship was significantly larger, better armed, and faster than the Scharnhorst class, though she remained inferior to the new Invincible-class battlecruisers then being built by the British Royal Navy. (Full article...)
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The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross (German: Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes) and its variants were the highest awards in the military and paramilitary forces of Nazi Germany during World War II. The decoration was awarded for a wide range of reasons and across all ranks, from a senior commander for skilled leadership of his troops in battle to a low-ranking soldier for a single act of extreme gallantry. The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves (Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes mit Eichenlaub) was introduced on 3 June 1940 to further distinguish those who had already received the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross and who continued to show merit in combat bravery or military success. A total of 7 awards were made in 1940; 50 in 1941; 111 in 1942; 192 in 1943; 328 in 1944, and 194 in 1945, giving a total of 882 recipients—excluding the 8 foreign recipients of the award.
The number of 882 Oak Leaves recipients is based on the analysis and acceptance of the order commission of the Association of Knight's Cross Recipients (AKCR). However, author Veit Scherzer has challenged the validity of 27 of these listings. With the exception of Hermann Fegelein, all of the disputed recipients had received the award in 1945, when the deteriorating situation during the final days of World War II in Germany left a number of nominations incomplete and pending in various stages of the approval process. Fegelein received the Oak Leaves in 1942, but was sentenced to death by Adolf Hitler and executed by SS-GruppenführerJohann Rattenhuber's Reichssicherheitsdienst (RSD) on 28 April 1945 after a court-martial led by SS-Brigadeführer and Generalmajor of the Waffen-SS Wilhelm Mohnke. The sentence was carried out the same day. The death sentence, according to German law, resulted in the loss of all orders and honorary signs. (Full article...)
The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross (German: Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes) and its variants were the highest awards in the military and paramilitary forces of Nazi Germany during World War II. This decoration was awarded for a wide range of reasons and across all ranks, from a senior commander for skilled leadership of his troops in battle to a low-ranking soldier for a single act of extreme gallantry. The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves (Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes mit Eichenlaub) was introduced on 3 June 1940 to further distinguish those who had already received the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross and who continued to show merit in combat bravery or military success. A total of 7 awards were made in 1940; 50 in 1941; 111 in 1942; 192 in 1943; 328 in 1944, and 194 in 1945, giving a total of 882 recipients—excluding the 8 foreign recipients of the award.
The number of 882 Oak Leaves recipients is based on the acceptance by the Association of Knight's Cross Recipients (AKCR). However author Veit Scherzer has challenged the validity of 27 of these listings. With the exception of Hermann Fegelein, all of the disputed recipients had received the award in 1945, when the deteriorating situation of Germany during the final days of World War II left a number of nominations incomplete and pending in various stages of the approval process. Hermann Fegelein received the Oak Leaves in 1942, but was sentenced to death and executed after a court-martial on 28 April 1945. The death sentence, according to German law, resulted in the loss of all orders and honorary signs. (Full article...)
... que l' U-F2 était un sous-marin français qui a été pris comme prix par les Allemands en 1940 dans un chantier naval, et a ensuite été converti pour un usage allemand ?
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