Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The German term "Wehrmacht" stems from the compound word of German: wehren, "to defend" and Macht, "power, force". [c] It has been used to describe any nation's armed forces; for example, Britische Wehrmacht meaning "British Armed Forces".
Corps colours, or Troop-function colours (German: Waffenfarben) were worn in the German Army (Heer) from 1935 until 1945 in order to distinguish between several branches, special services, corps, rank groups, and appointments of the ministerial area, the general staff, and the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW).
The first Oberabschnitte were formed in November 1933 from the five existing SS-Gruppen units and generally conformed to the existing Wehrkreise (Military Districts) of the Wehrmacht. An Oberabschnitt was usually commanded by a Gruppenführer or Obergruppenführer.
The German Army (German: Heer, German: ⓘ; lit. ' army ') was the land forces component of the Wehrmacht, [b] the regular armed forces of Nazi Germany, from 1935 until it effectively ceased to exist in 1945 and then was formally dissolved in August 1946. [4]
The SS-VT had to depend on the German Army for its supply of weapons and military training, and its local draft boards responsible for assigning conscripts to the different branches of the Wehrmacht to meet quotas set by the German High Command (Oberkommando der Wehrmacht or OKW in German); the SS was given the lowest priority for recruits. [29]
Wehrmacht – German armed forces under the Third Reich consisting of three branches: the Heer (Army), the Luftwaffe (Air Force), and the Kriegsmarine (Navy). The Waffen-SS was a separate organization, although SS combat units were usually placed under the operational control of Army High Command (OKH) or Wehrmacht High Command (OKW).
The Kriegsmarine (German pronunciation: [ˈkʁiːksmaˌʁiːnə], lit. ' War Navy ') was the navy of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It superseded the Imperial German Navy of the German Empire (1871–1918) and the inter-war Reichsmarine (1919–1935) of the Weimar Republic.
Although SS ranks generally had equivalents in the other services, the SS rank system did not copy the terms and ranks used by the Wehrmacht ' s branches. Instead, it used the ranks established by the post-World War I Freikorps and the SA. This was primarily done to emphasise the SS as being independent of the Wehrmacht. [109]