Bøger af Jaap Jan Brouwer

Early 1943 marked a turning point in the battle on the Eastern Front. After the devastating defeat at Stalingrad, the German army was no longer able to take the initiative and control the battle. In the following years, despite tactical victories, the German army would be gradually pushed back until Soviet units eventually reached Berlin and captured the Reichstag. In the meantime, both enemies had learned a great deal and new weapons were rapidly introduced onto the battlefield. On 8 May 1945, this bloody confrontation between the two giants ended in the unconditional surrender of Germany and a new geopolitical equilibrium was created. This titanic battle is illustrated with witness accounts from generals, soldiers and civilians. Attention is not only paid to the course of the battle, but also to the tactics and organisational dimensions of the armies involved, the challenges of the vastness of the country, the dilemmas for civilians caught between the fighting parties and the flight of millions of Germans to the West in an attempt to escape from the atrocities of the Soviet army. The book also considers the role of the Reichsbahn in the field of logistics, and the importance of the innovation and production capacity of both armies. In also pays attention to the origins of the Cold War that was to follow this confrontation and which would last until 1989.

On 22 June 1941, at 0410hrs, Operation Barbarossa began. More than 3 million German soldiers crossed the border with the Soviet Union and moved east, where 4.7 million Soviet soldiers were waiting for them. Hitler expected his troops would be on the Volga before the end of the year and that important cities such as Moscow and Leningrad would have been captured. But the reality was very different; the Germans made impressive territorial gains, but their offensive eventually came to a halt at Stalingrad in December 1942, which proved to be a turning point in the war.This titanic battle is illustrated here using eyewitness accounts from generals, soldiers and civilians. Attention is not only paid to the course of the battle, but also to the tactics and organizational dimensions of the armies involved, the challenges of the vastness of the country, the dilemmas for people in the conquered areas, and the way the Germans tried to conquer their hearts while at the same time fighting a fierce guerrilla war. The role of the Reichsbahn in the field of logistics is also examined, as is the importance of the innovation and production capacity of both armies.

Includes more than 50 cases showing how the German Army successfully combined opposing characteristics, such as obedience and initiative, drill and creativity, authority and independent thinking, into a potent mix of fighting power.The German Army lost two consecutive wars and the conclusion is often drawn that it simply wasn't able to cope with its opponents. This image is constantly reinforced in literature and in the media, where seemingly brainless operating German units led by fanatical officers predominate. Nothing was as far from the truth. The records show that the Germans consistently outfought the far more numerous Allied armies that eventually defeated them: their relative battlefield performance was at least 1.5 and in most cases 3 times as high as that of its opponents.The central question in this book is why the German Army had a so much higher relative battlefield performance than the opposition. A central element within the Prussian/German Army is Auftragstaktik, a tactical management concept that dates from the middle of the nineteenth century and is still very advanced in terms of management and organization.Using more than fifty examples to illustrate the realities of the battlefield, from North Africa to Arnhem and the Hürtgen Forest, the author explains why the Prussian/German Army was such an unprecedented powerful fighting force. And why Auftragstaktik - under other guises - is still the basic form of operation for many European armies, with even the US Army introducing certain elements of Auftragstaktik into its organization, more than 150 years after its conception.

Provides an insight into one of the mightiest fighting organisations of all time.