German Armed Forces

“ Our Armed Forces of Greater Germany surpassed themselves in heroism, resistance and endurance at the Front of the East, in Africa, in the air and on the sea. To insure their victory in any case, it is necessary now to produce more and better weapons, materiel and ammunition through another increased effort and endeavor of the entire German people, that is, all the producing workers, intellectual and manual, the women and the entire German Youth. ”

“ Because of their proximity to the NATO forces, the East German ground forces are reportedly in a full state of readiness.
The organization of ground forces units follows the Soviet pattern. The line divisions were the first in the Eastern European Communist countries to be completely transformed into the Soviet-type motorized rifle and tank divisions. Equipment is mostly of Soviet design and manufacture. Training has improved markedly, steadily becoming more comprehensive and involving larger forces. The officer corps is capable and loyal. ”

“ I am most deeply pained when I hear the opinion that the German army is not individually as valuable as it should be. The infantry in Poland did not accomplish what one should have expected from it. Lax discipline. I believe that the soldiers must be judged in their relative value in comparison with the opponent. There is no doubt that our armed forces are the best. Every German infantryman is better than the French. Not the exhilaration of patriotism but tough determination. I am told that the troops will only advance if the officers lead the way. ”

“ The East German armed forces are modeled along the lines of the Soviet forces, and the Soviets exercise considerable influence on East German military developments. The East German regime is dependent on Moscow, and the armed forces are ostensibly subordinate to the unified command of the Warsaw Pact in Moscow. ”

“ In unoccupied territory, air fields and ground facilities of the air force shall be under German and Italian control.
Demand may be made that such air fields be rendered unusable. The French Government is required to take charge of all foreign airplanes in the unoccupied region to prevent flights. They are to be turned over to the German armed forces.
ARTICLE XIII. The French Government obligates itself to turn over to German troops in the occupied region all facilities and properties of the French armed forces in undamaged condition. ”

“ Soldiers, in the year of war, 1940, the National Socialist Armed Forces of Greater Germany have won glorious victories of unique greatness. With unprecedented audacity, they have beaten the enemy on land, at sea and in the sky. ”

“ Germany and Italy will fix their strength. The French armed forces in the territory to be occupied by Germany are to be hastily withdrawn into territory not to be occupied and be discharged. These troops, before marching out, shall lay down their weapons and equipment at the places where they are stationed at the time this treaty becomes effective. They are responsible for orderly delivery to German troops. ”

“ By the end of the year, German troop strength had climbed to 700,000 men total of 20 Infantry, SS, and mountain divisions Despite this impressive total, however, and the attention the that was receiving from the Armed Forces High Command, the southeast still held a secondary place in order of priority. Troop replacement were invariably older men or those returned to duty after long periods in the hospital. ”

“ National defense is a function of the Reich. The organization of the armed forces of the German people shall be regulated in a uniform manner by a national law with due regard to the special regional peculiarities of the population. ”

“ These forces are organized into seven SAM regiments consisting of 20 battalions. A battalion mans one site and is one fire unit. The GSFG has nine SA-2 SAM regiments consisting of 27 battalions and, together with the German-manned firing sites, provide adequate air defense cover of East Germany. In addition to the SA-2 forces, the Soviets have deployed 20 SA-3 units to provide low-altitude air defense of airfields occupied by Soviet aircraft. ”

“ At the word of the Emperor this army can be summoned, collected, clothed, equipped and armed, and set in motion toward any frontier in a day. The German Army was thus made the largest in proportion to population, the best equipped, and the most mobile in the world. The German General Staff studied incessantly and thoroughly plans for campaigns against all the other principal States of Europe, and promptly utilized—secretly, whenever secrecy was possible—all promising inventions in explosives, ordnance, munitions, transportation, and sanitation. ”

“ I place my confidence in the best army in the world, in the best army which the German nation has ever possessed. It is numerically strong, it has the finest weapons and is better led than ever before. We have a body of young leaders who have not merely proved their worth in the present war but, I can well say, have covered themselves with glory. Wherever we look today, we see a bodyguard of chosen men to whom the German soldiers have been entrusted. They in their turn are the leaders of soldiers who are the best trained in the world, who are armed with the finest weapons on earth. ”

“ Military duty shall be regulated in accordance with the provisions of the laws of national defense. These laws shall determine also to what extent certain fundamental rights may be denied to members of the armed forces in order to assure the performance of their duties and the maintenance of discipline.
Article 134. All citizens without discrimination shall in proportion to their means contribute to all public burdens in accordance with the laws.
Section III: Religion and Religious Associations Article 135. All inhabitants of the Reich shall enjoy complete liberty of belief and conscience. ”

“ The fighting forces on the German side at the beginning of the war on or near the east front included the First Army Corps at Königsberg, the Twentieth at Allenstein, the Seventeenth at Danzig, the Fifth at Posen, and the Sixth at Breslau. These mustered a total of forty-four infantry, twenty-one cavalry, and twenty-five artillery regiments, augmented by four battalions of rifles (Jaeger) , and twelve formations of technical troops. ”

“ The brain and all prevailing power controlling its fighting force of four and half a million men--or taking the Triple Alliance into consideration--the forces of which would in the event of war be controlled from Berlin--a force in round numbers of 9,000,000 men is, however, not known. Here for the first time is published an account of the inside workings of the German War Machine as far as is possible for any one man to give. ”

“ The annihilation of the German Army is still a long way from attainment; we still have a quantity of unspent forces at our command in the recruit depôts behind the front, in the reserve battalions, and at home. But doubtless there are certain limits to all this on our side, whereas our enemies—chiefly America—are in a position to replace men and materials on an ever-increasing scale. ”

“ The progress of the allied forces in the German war seemed at first very slow, partly because of the colossal number of men engaged, but chiefly because Germany derived a great advantage at the start. It is a difficult matter to make up for a bad beginning. ”

“ In this age of rapid developments the need of quick and accurate information is even more pressing. Europe to-day is a sort of armed camp, composed of a number of nations of fairly equal strength, in which the units are more or less afraid of each other. Mutual distrust and conflicting interests compel Germany, England, France and Russia to spend billions of money each year on armaments. Germany builds one battleship; England lays down two; France adds ten battalions to her army; Germany adds twenty. So the relative strength keeps on a fair level. ”

“ Yes, that can be concluded from the order.
COL. PHILLIMORE: And what do you mean by saying that it only referred to those not captured by the Wehrmacht? Would you look at Paragraph 3.
“From now on all enemies on so-called Commando missions in Europe or Africa, challenged by German troops, even if they are to all appearances soldiers in uniform or demolition troops, whether armed or unarmed, in battle or in flight, are to be slaughtered to the last man. It does not make any difference whether they landed from ships or airplanes for their actions of whether they were dropped by parachutes. ”

“ Thus in the German army the III. army corps is composed entirely of Brandenburgers. The infantry of the corps is stationed in ten towns, the cavalry in four and the artillery in five. In countries which adhere to voluntary recruiting, the system, depending as it does on the calculable certainty of recruiting, is not so fully developed, but in Great Britain the auxiliary forces have been reorganized in divisions of all arms on a strictly territorial basis. The advantage of the system as carried into effect in Germany is obvious. ”

“ Many men with long service records could thus be dismissed. And still, mostly through the younger grades, we were in a position to strengthen the Wehrmacht at the same time. In terms of personnel the German Army looks completely different today from how it looked in the World War. Only a few days ago, I drove through Belgium and France, and as an old soldier of the World War, I must say our Wehrmacht looks magnificent today, irrespective of whether we are talking about the Army, Navy, Luftwaffe, or Waffen SS. All look equally handsome. ”

“ The collective German ground forces at the beginning of September 1944 numbered 327 divisions and brigades, of which 31 divisions and 13 brigades were armored. Again it must be noted that many of these units no longer in truth had the combat strength of either division or brigade (some had only their headquarters staff) , but again, in Hitler's eyes, this order of battle represented fighting units capable of employment. ”

“ In all the gloom, where all life was balanced on a hair, one thing was steadfast and cordial, and that was the unshaken assurance of these cheerful, expert fighting men in their power to hold the Germans and presently to resume the offensive, to which each one of them looks forward, and advance at last toward the frontier of Germany. None underestimates the enemy. They criticise him in a spirit of absolute professional impartiality, admiring quite frankly the organization and courage of the German infantry, but condemning the artillery and pooh-poohing the cavalry. ”

“ DISARMAMENT OF GERMAN LAND FORCES
6. All German Land Forces will be completely disarmed. They will hand over their arms, ammunition, equipment and all war-like stores at places and times and in a manner to be further ordered by the Commanding General, 15 Army Group or any of his subordinate Commanders.
MAINTENANCE OF GERMAN LAND FORCES
7.
The German Authority will, pending further orders from the Supreme Allied Commander, maintain its own forces from its own resources. Purchase or requisition from local sources is forbidden. ”

“ One sees that the German Army is not, as many say, a tremendous machine, but rather a great, living organism, which draws its strength and lifeblood from all classes of the whole German folk. The German Army can develop its entire strength only in a war which the folk approve, that is, when a defensive war has been forced upon them. That this is true will have been realized by our friends in the United States before this comes into their hands.
The German fleet is in like manner a weapon of defense. ”

“ The tactical value of the French troops is, of course, very high; numerically the army of our neighbour on the west is almost equal, and in some directions there may be a superiority in organization and equipment; in other directions we have a distinct advantage. The French army lacks the subordination under a single commander, the united spirit which characterizes the German army, the tenacious strength of the German race, and the esprit de corps of the officers. France, too, has not those national reserves available which would allow us almost to double our forces. ”

“ Behind the German storm troops great numbers of reserves were assembled, to fill up the gaps torn in the ranks and restore the divisions to their normal strength as fast as they were depleted by the defense. The German tactics took no account of human life, but expended it in the most reckless manner, with appalling results throughout the drive. The Allies, on the other hand, sought at all times to conserve their forces by intrenching as fast as possible at every point during the period of their retirement. Their artillery was constantly in action, and aided greatly in checking the German. ”

“ Germany, which before the war had a peace establishment of 800,000 men and reserves running into millions, has to-day a total army of 100,000 men—about one-third the size of the Polish army. The formidable German equipment which for four years pounded the cities and villages of northern France to dust is either destroyed or scattered for display amongst the towns and villages of the victors. The Austrian army, which had in 1913-14 a peace establishment of 420,000 men and a reserve of two or three millions of trained men, has to-day been reduced to a tiny force of 30,000 men. ”

“ The forces thus called out formed a total of 326,000 combatants, divided into nine army corps, [2] a reserve corps at Berlin, [3] the corps of occupation in Holstein, and the corps collected at Wetzlar from the Prussian garrisons withdrawn from fortresses of the German confederation. The arrangements made for the disposition of these forces between May 12 and June 22 form the basis of the subsequent success, and may perhaps best be described in the form of a series of problems and their solutions.
1. The first step of preparation for a war is the calculation of the force required. ”