With the same drama and excitement as Panzer Aces, Panzer Aces II relates the combat careers of six more decorated German Panzer officers. Extensively researched, these gripping accounts follow the men and their tanks across three continents into some of World War II's bloodiest engagements. They campaigned with Rommel in the deserts of North Africa, participated in the monumental tank battle at Kursk, and, maneuvering only by muzzle flashes, fought frightening small-unit contests in the dark of night. Master tacticians and gutsy leaders, these men, including Hermann von Oppeln-Bronikowski, Kurt Knispel, Karl Nicolussi-Leck, and others, are legends.

Each recipient is presented in a capsule biography including dates of birth, awarding of the various Knights Cross grades, and other particulars to rank and career. Each is also shown in a World War II era photograph.

With speed, violence, and deadly power, heavily armored tanks spearheaded the German blitzkrieg that stormed across Europe in 1939. Tracks rattling and engines roaring, these lethal machines engaged in some of the fiercest fighting of World War II, from the beaches of Normandy and the Ardennes forest to the snow-encrusted eastern front. In this reprint of the hugely popular book, prolific author Franz Kurowski tells the gritty, action-packed stories of six of the most daring and successful officers ever to command Panzers, including Michael Wittmann, Hans Bolter, Hermann Bix, and others. Timelines mark the milestones of each officer's career.

Each recipient is presented in a capsule biography including dates of birth, awarding of the various Knights Cross grades, and other particulars to rank and career. Each is also shown in a World War II era photograph.

Each recipient is presented in a capsule biography including date of birth, awarding of the various Knights Cross grades, and other particulars to rank and career. Each is also shown in a World War II era photograph.

. . . One of these events, the attempt of the Red Army to cut off and destroy the panzer formations far advanced before Moscow, is little known. In January 1942, when the 3rd, 4th and 22nd Soviet Shock armies set out from the Army Group North area to the south and attacked Kholm, Toropets, Demidov, Vitebsk and Belikie Luki, in order to roll over the rear area services approximately 160 kilometers behind the front and the strong point-like positions and cut off the main body of Army Group Center from its supply of weapons and soldiers, the Eastern Campaign appeared to be lost. The renewed major offensive of the Red Army, which began in November 1942, found these troops - hopelessly opposing massed enemy formations - in a battle to the bitter end. This is especially shown in Velikie Luki, where the defensive strength of 7,500 German soldiers fought to the end paid for with their own lives. Only a handful of soldiers escaped from this inferno. Never before has such detail on this aspect of the Russian front campaign been available in English. Reknowned author Franz Kurowski uses first-person accounts, and never before published documentation to present this, the turning point of the war in Russia.

The final stage of the Second World War, with the enemy across the Reich's borders, saw final desperate battles for numerous "fortified places" and blocking positions. Hitler ordered the defense of these fortified places such as Koenigsberg and Breslau, Wesel and Kolberg, Danzig, Posen and many others. In these isolated bastions the war-weary German units offered desperate resistance, offered for good purpose. This stubborn holding-on to the last round saved hundreds of thousands of women and children, made possible the evacuation of hospitals and the transport out of surrounded Wehrmacht female auxiliaries. The fates of German soldiers were realized in bunkers and caves, in tunnels and fields of rubble. In the Hurtgenwald as in the Reichswald, during the crossing of the Rhine between Wesel and Emmerich, in the Remagen bridgehead, on the hill at Keppeln, in the Ruhr pocket, as well as in the east of the Reich in the East Prussian pocket, in Pomerania, in Silesia and in the Reich capital. Shocking scenes of apocalyptic battle were played out wherever Hitler's last bastions held out against the onrushing enemy, whether at the frontiers of the Reich or inside Germany itself.

This is an authentic account of German infantry aces, common foot soldiers who were thrust into a blazing maelstrom of bloody horror the world had never seen. On the frozen Russian steppes, under the scorching African desert sun, and in the final desperate battles, they were outnumbered and outgunned and faced impossible odds. Here are the fascinating stories of the men who stared death in the face during some of the most brutal battles ever waged.

Following the signing of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, Germany was not permitted to build or operate submarines. However, clandestine training took place on Finnish and Spanish submarines and U-boats were still built to German designs in Dutch yards. At the outset of the Second World War, Admiral Karl Doenitz argued for a 300-strong U-boat fleet, since his force of fifty-seven assorted U-boats could not materially affect British seaborne trade on their own. In August 1939, _U-48_ left Germany, commanded by Kapitanleutnant Herbert 'Vaddi' Schultze, to take up a waiting position around the British coast. It scored its first success on 5 September, when it torpedoed the British freighter _Royal Sceptre_, followed by _Winkleigh_ on 8 September. On both occasions, the first of many, Schultze showed himself to be a notable humanitarian: he addressed signals to Churchill giving positions of the sinkings so that crews could be saved. By 1 August 1941, _U-48_, the most successful U-boat of the Second World War, had sunk fifty-six merchant ships, of 322,478 gross tons, and one corvette. She was then transferred to the Baltic as a training boat. Schultze became commander of operations at 3 U-Flotilla, before being appointed commander of II/Naval College Schleswig. He died in 1987 at the age of 78\. _U-48_ was scuttled on 3 May 1945.

As a crucial part of the blitzkrieg that swept across Western Europe in the spring of 1940, German paratroopers made combat drops in Denmark and Norway and then won a brilliant victory in their assault on the Belgian fortress of Eben-Emael. Their most famous airborne operation came in Crete in 1941 when they captured the island but with such high casualties that Hitler would not allow another major drop. Also organized as motorized infantry for ground attacks, the paratroopers saw action at Monte Cassino in Italy, in Normandy, and on the Eastern Front. Jump into Hell is the action-adventure narrative of these elite German airborne troops, covering recruitment, organization, training, and combat on all fronts.

This book presents the history of the famous Major Witzig, born on August 14, 1916, aspiring officer on April 1, 1935, head of the engineering section of the Fallschirm-Infantry Battalion in August 1938, with which he captured Fort Eben-Emael at dawn on May 10, 1940, capturing 1,200 soldiers with his 55 paratroopers. Awarded the Knight's Cross, he jumped in Crete where he was seriously injured. Afterwards, he commanded a battalion of paratroopers in Tunisia and on the Eastern Front. He was attributed the oak leaf cluster. After the war, he became a colonel in the Bundeswehr. French Language