Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Prior to World War II, the Wehrmacht strove to remain a purely ethnic German force; as such, minorities within and outside of Germany, such as the Czechs in annexed Czechoslovakia, were exempted from military service after Hitler's takeover in 1938.
This article lists divisions of the Wehrmacht (German Armed Forces) and Waffen-SS active during World War II, including divisions of the Heer (army), Luftwaffe (air force), and the Kriegsmarine (navy).
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]
This is a list of German military units during World War II which contains all military units that served with the German Armed Forces . Major units above corps level are listed here. For smaller units, see list of German corps in World War II and list of German divisions in World War II .
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).
These ranks and insignia were specific to the Heer and in special cases to senior Wehrmacht officers in the independent services; the uniforms and rank systems of the other branches of the Wehrmacht, the Luftwaffe (Air Force) and Kriegsmarine (Navy), were different, as were those of the SS which was a Party organization outside the Wehrmacht.
The SS unit nomenclature can be divided into several different types of organizations, mainly the early titles used by the SS, SS unit titles of the Allgemeine SS, the military formation titles used by the Waffen-SS, titles of commands associated with the SS Security Police, and special units titles used by such SS organizations as the mobile ...
Soldaten, or military personnel in a limited sense, consisted of officers, noncommissioned officers and airmen, belonging to the flying troops, fallschirmjäger, air defense artillery, air signal troops, construction units, and medical units, as well the Luftwaffe ground combat units, such as the Division "Hermann Goering" and the Luftwaffe field divisions.