Osprey - Campaign 293 - Downfall 1945 The Fall of Hitler's Third Reich.pdf

(112331 KB) Pobierz
DOWNFALL 1945
The Fall of Hitler’s Third Reich
STEVEN J. ZALOGA
ILLUSTRATED BY STEVE NOON
Author
Steven J. Zaloga received his BA in History from Union College
and his MA from Columbia University. He has worked as an
analyst in the aerospace industry for over two decades,
covering missile systems and the international arms trade,
and has served with the Institute for Defense Analyses, a
federal think tank. He is the author of numerous books on
military technology and military history, with an accent on
the US Army in World War II as well as Russia and the former
Soviet Union.
Illustrator
Steve Noon was born in Kent, UK, and attended art college in
Cornwall. He’s had a life-long passion for illustration, and since
1985 has worked as a professional artist. He has provided
award-winning illustrations for the publishers Dorling
Kindersley, where his interest in historical illustration began.
Steve has illustrated over 30 books for Osprey.
Other titles in the series
CAM No:
210
•
ISBN:
978 1 84603 367 4
CAM No:
223
•
ISBN:
978 1 84603 683 5
CAM No:
236
•
ISBN:
978 1 84908 385 0
CAM No:
242
•
ISBN:
978 1 84908 591 5
CAM No:
268
•
ISBN:
978 1 4728 0271 2
CAM No:
270
•
ISBN:
978 1 78200 816 3
CAMPAIGN 293
DOWNFALL 1945
The Fall of Hitler’s Third Reich
STEVEN J ZALOGA
ILLUSTRATED BY STEVE NOON
 
Series editor Marcus Cowper
This electronic edition published in 2016 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
First published in Great Britain in 2016 by Osprey Publishing,
PO Box 883, Oxford, OX1 9PL, UK
1385 Broadway, 5th Floor, New York, NY 10018, USA
E-mail:
info@ospreypublishing.com
© 2016 Osprey Publishing Ltd
OSPREY PUBLISHING IS PART OF BLOOMSBURY PUBLISHING PLC
All rights reserved. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private
study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act, 1988, no part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by
any means, electronic, electrical, chemical, mechanical, optical,
photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written
permission of the copyright owner. Enquiries should be addressed to the
Publishers.
A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN: 978 1 4728 1143 1
PDF e-book ISBN: 978 1 4728 1144 8
e-Pub ISBN: 978 1 4728 1145 5
Editorial by Ilios Publishing Ltd, Oxford, UK (www.iliospublishing.com)
Index by Fionbar Lyons
Typeset in Myriad Pro and Sabon
Maps by Bounford.com
3D bird’s-eye views by The Black Spot
Battlescene illustrations by Steve Noon
Originated by PDQ Media, Bungay, UK
ARTIST’S NOTE
Readers may care to note that the original paintings from which the color
plates in this book were prepared are available for private sale. The
Publishers retain all reproduction copyright whatsoever. All enquiries
should be addressed to:
www.steve-noon.co.uk
The Publishers regret that they can enter into no correspondence upon this
matter.
THE WOODLAND TRUST
Osprey Publishing supports the Woodland Trust, the UK’s leading
woodland conservation charity. Between 2014 and 2018 our donations will
be spent on their Centenary Woods project in the UK.
AUTHOR’S NOTES
For brevity, the traditional conventions have been used when designating
units. The US Army used Arabic numerals for divisions and smaller
independent formations (9th Division, 756th Tank Battalion); Roman
numerals for corps (VII Corps), spelled numbers for field armies (First US
Army) and Arabic numerals for army groups (12th Army Group). British/
Canadian practice was somewhat more flexible and the period practice was
to use Arabic numerals for divisions and corps, and spelled numerals for
armies. Soviet designations are all rendered in English since the Russian
language is less familiar to most readers, so 5th Shock Army instead of “5-
aya udarnaya armiya.” The Red Army only used Arabic numerals, no Roman
numerals or spelled numbers.
In the case of German units, Arabic numerals were used for divisions and
small units. German corps were designated with Roman numerals such as
LXXXIV Armee-Korps. Field armies were designated in the fashion 7. Armee,
but army groups (Heeresgruppe) were more eccentric.
Unless otherwise noted, the photos here are from the author’s collection.
GLOSSARY
ETO
Festung
FHO
GFM
Heeresgruppe
HKL
KG
European Theater of Operations  
Fortress 
Fremde Heer Ost: Foreign Armies East; German
intelligence service for Eastern Front 
Generalfeldmarschall: German field marshal 
Army group consisting of several field armies
(Armee) 
Hauptkampflinie:
main defense line 
Kampfgruppe:
battle group, extemporized
formation a few companies to a regiment or more
in size 
Military History Institute, Army Historical
Education Center, Carlisle Barracks, PA 
National Archives and Records Administration,
College Park, MD 
Oberbefehlshaber West: High Command West
(Rundstedt’s HQ) 
Oberkommando der Heeres, army high
command, primarily responsible for the Eastern
Front 
Oberkommando der Wehrmacht: high command
of the armed forces 
Reichs Verteidigungs Kommissar: Reich Defense
Commissars; Nazi Party officials responsible for
homeland defense 
Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary
Force (Eisenhower’s HQ) 
Contraction for Stavka VGK (Verkhovnogo
glavnokomandovania: Staff of the Supreme High
Command) 
defense line 
Ukreplenniy rayon:
Red Army static defense sectors 
Defense sector (in Berlin) 
German military district 
Citadel; final defense sector in Berlin 
MHI
NARA
Key to military symbols
OB West
Corps
Division
Brigade
Regiment
Battalion
Army Group
Army
OKH
Company/Battery
Platoon
Section
Squad
Infantry
Artillery
Cavalry
OKW
RVK
Airborne
Unit HQ
Air defense
Air Force
Air mobile
Air transportable
Amphibious
Antitank
Armor
Air aviation
Bridging
Engineer
Headquarters
Maintenance
SHAEF
Medical
Missile
Mountain
Navy
Nuclear, biological, Ordnance
chemical
Parachute
Stavka
Reconnaissance
Signal
Supply
Transport
movement
Rocket artillery
Air defense artillery
Key to unit identification
Unit
identi er
Commander
Parent
unit
(+) with added elements
(–) less elements
Stellung
UR
Verteidigungssektor
Wehrkreis
Zitadelle
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
CHRONOLOGY
THE STRATEGIC SITUATION
OPPOSING COMMANDERS
German commanders
n
Soviet commanders
n
Western Allied commanders
5
7
9
14
OPPOSING ARMIES
The German Army
n
The Red Army
n
The Western Allies
21
OPPOSING PLANS
German plans
n
Allied plans
n
Soviet plans
31
THE CAMPAIGN
The Ruhr pocket
n
Reducing Festung Ruhr
n
Race to the Elbe
n
Eastern Front: preparing for Berlin
n
The battle for the Seelow Heights
n
Forcing the Neisse River
n
North of Berlin
n
The race for Berlin
n
The Berlin defenses
n
The Berlin assault begins
n
The junction of Allied forces
n
The northern Germany
campaign
n
The National Redoubt
n
The liberation of Prague
n
Ending the war
36
THE CAMPAIGN IN PERSPECTIVE
THE BATTLEFIELD TODAY
FURTHER READING
INDEX
89
93
94
95

Plik z chomika:

Inne pliki z tego folderu:

Inne foldery tego chomika:

Zgłoś jeśli naruszono regulamin