"German invasion of Luxembourg The German invasion of Luxembourg was part of Case Yellow (), the German invasion of the Low Countries (Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands) and France during World War II. The battle began on 10 May 1940 and lasted just one day. Facing only light resistance, German troops quickly occupied Luxembourg. The Luxembourgish government, and Grand Duchess Charlotte, managed to escape the country and a government-in-exile was created in London. On 1 September 1939 Germany invaded Poland, initiating World War II. This put Luxembourg's Grand Ducal government in a delicate situation. On the one hand, the population's"
"Operation Barbarossa Operation Barbarossa (German: ""Unternehmen Barbarossa"") was the code name for the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union, which started on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during World War II. The operation stemmed from Nazi Germany's ideological aims to conquer the western Soviet Union so that it could be repopulated by Germans, to use Slavs, especially Poles, as a slave-labour force for the Axis war effort, and to seize the oil reserves of the Caucasus and the agricultural resources of Soviet territories. In the two years leading up to the invasion, Germany and the Soviet Union signed political and economic"
"their strategic mindsets for the ""next four decades"" and instigated the creation of ""an elaborate system of buffer and client states, designed to insulate the Soviet Union from any possible future attack."" As a consequence, Eastern Europe became communist in political disposition and Western Europe fell under the democratic sway of the United States, a nation uncertain about its future policies in Europe. Operation Barbarossa Operation Barbarossa (German: ""Unternehmen Barbarossa"") was the code name for the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union, which started on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during World War II. The operation stemmed from Nazi Germany's ideological"
"Operation Weserübung Operation Weserübung ( ) was the code name for Germany's assault on Denmark and Norway during the Second World War and the opening operation of the Norwegian Campaign. The name comes from the German for ""Operation Weser-Exercise"", the Weser being a German river. In the early morning of 9 April 1940 (""Wesertag"", ""Weser Day""), Germany invaded Denmark and Norway, ostensibly as a preventive manoeuvre against a planned, and openly discussed, Franco-British occupation of Norway known as Plan R 4. After the invasions, envoys of the Germans informed the governments of Denmark and Norway that the ""Wehrmacht"" had come"
"Operation Mars Operation Mars, also known as the Second Rzhev-Sychevka Offensive Operation (Russian: Вторая Ржевско-Сычёвская наступательная операция), was the codename for an offensive launched by Soviet forces against German forces during World War II. It took place between 25 November and 20 December 1942 around the Rzhev salient in the vicinity of Moscow. The offensive was a joint operation of the Soviet Western Front and Kalinin Front coordinated by Georgy Zhukov. The offensive was one in a series of particularly bloody engagements collectively known in Soviet and Russian histories as the Battles of Rzhev, which occurred near Rzhev, Sychevka and"
"Case Blue Case Blue () was the German Armed Forces' name for its plan for the 1942 strategic summer offensive in southern Russia between 28 June and 24 November 1942, during World War II. The operation was a continuation of the previous year's Operation Barbarossa, intended to knock the Soviet Union out of the war. It involved a two-pronged attack: one from the Axis right flank against the oil fields of Baku, known as Operation Edelweiss and one from the left flank in the direction of Stalingrad along the Volga River, known as Operation Fischreiher. Army Group South (""Heeresgruppe Süd"")"
"Case Blue Case Blue () was the German Armed Forces' name for its plan for the 1942 strategic summer offensive in southern Russia between 28 June and 24 November 1942, during World War II. The operation was a continuation of the previous year's Operation Barbarossa, intended to knock the Soviet Union out of the war. It involved a two-pronged attack: one from the Axis right flank against the oil fields of Baku, known as Operation Edelweiss and one from the left flank in the direction of Stalingrad along the Volga River, known as Operation Fischreiher. Army Group South (""Heeresgruppe Süd"")"
"agent and ignored Roessler's information. On 22 June 1941, Germany would began their invasion. During the Battle of Kursk (German code name """"Operation Zitadelle""""), Rudolf Roessler was able to get battle information for the sectors attacked, number of men and materials, where the supply and command posts were, where possible reinforcements could come from, and the day and hour of attack. This time, Russia was prepared. 977,000 men, 3,300 tanks and assault guns, 20,000 other guns, and 3,000 aircraft in a defensive line 70 miles deep. The Soviets planned a counter-offensive trap which included a minefield to channel German tanks"
"the invasion commenced. On 21 June, at 13:00 Army Group North received the codeword Düsseldorf, indicating Barbarossa would commence the next morning, and passed down its own codeword, Dortmund. At around 03:15 on 22 June 1941, the Axis Powers commenced the invasion of the Soviet Union with the bombing of major cities in Soviet-occupied Poland and an artillery barrage on Red Army defences on the entire front. Air-raids were conducted as far as Kronstadt near Leningrad, Ismail in Bessarabia, and Sevastopol in the Crimea. Meanwhile, ground troops crossed the border, accompanied in some locales by Lithuanian and Ukrainian fifth columnists."
"part of the second zone, while the Flensborg area was to remain on German hands. On June 15 the Southern Jutland area was formally returned to Danish control. Operation Weserübung was the code name for Germany's assault on Denmark and Norway during the Second World War and the opening operation of the Norwegian Campaign. The name comes from the German for Operation Weser-Exercise, the Weser being a German river. In the early morning of 9 April 1940, Germany invaded Denmark and Norway, ostensibly as a preventive maneuver against a planned, and openly discussed, Franco-British occupation of both these countries. After"
"Operation Fischreiher Operation Fischreiher (German for heron) was an extension to Operation Blue II during the German invasion of the Soviet Union in World War II. General Friedrich Paulus' 6th Army, and part of the 4th Panzer Army under General Hermann Hoth, was to advance across the Don river towards the city of Stalingrad on the Western bend of the Volga river. The original operational plans had called for a defensive line on the Don river by Army Group B, while Army Group A under General List was to advance south towards the oil fields in the Caucasus. The diversion"
"by the same German victories which produced this Soviet offer misled the Finns into disregarding it and continuing in the war for expansionist objectives in eastern Karelia and in the far north. The British thereupon declared war on Finland, while, in fear that the United States would do the same, refrained from even further offensives. Operation Arctic Fox Operation Arctic Fox (German: ""Unternehmen Polarfuchs""; ; Russian: ""Кандалакшская операция"") was the codename given to a World War II campaign by German and Finnish forces against Soviet Northern Front defenses at Salla, Finland in July 1941. The operation was part of the"
"Operation Arctic Fox Operation Arctic Fox (German: ""Unternehmen Polarfuchs""; ; Russian: ""Кандалакшская операция"") was the codename given to a World War II campaign by German and Finnish forces against Soviet Northern Front defenses at Salla, Finland in July 1941. The operation was part of the larger Operation Silver Fox (""Silberfuchs""; ) which aimed to capture the vital port of Murmansk. Arctic Fox was conducted in parallel to Operation Platinum Fox (""Platinfuchs""; ) in the far north of Lappland. The principal goal of Operation Arctic Fox was to capture the town of Salla and then to advance in the direction of"
"salient ""was underestimation of the rugged terrain"", and ""the shortage of supporting armour, artillery, mortars, and aircraft to pierce the enemy defences."" He also did not expect the Nazis to bring ""up considerable reinforcements to this sector from other Fronts."" Operation Mars Operation Mars, also known as the Second Rzhev-Sychevka Offensive Operation (Russian: Вторая Ржевско-Сычёвская наступательная операция), was the codename for an offensive launched by Soviet forces against German forces during World War II. It took place between 25 November and 20 December 1942 around the Rzhev salient in the vicinity of Moscow. The offensive was a joint operation of"
"Directive 21, for the invasion of the Soviet Union, code-named Operation Barbarossa. The directive envisaged three army groups, each a million men strong, undertaking a simultaneous offensive from Germany-occupied Poland and German-allied Romania and Finland. The main objectives were Leningrad, Minsk, Kiev, and Moscow. The original German goal was the destruction of the Red Army is the border battles and rapid conquest of the European part of the Soviet Union to a line connecting the cities of Arkhangelsk and Astrakhan, often referred to as the A-A line, to the west of the Ural Mountains. The purges of the 1930s affected"
"Battle of the Caucasus The Battle of the Caucasus is a name given to a series of Axis and Soviet operations in the Caucasus area on the Eastern Front of World War II. On 25 July 1942, German troops captured Rostov-on-Don, Russia, opening the Caucasus region of the southern Soviet Union, and the oil fields beyond at Maikop, Grozny, and ultimately Baku, to the Germans. Two days prior, Adolf Hitler issued a directive to launch such an operation into the Caucasus region, to be named Operation Edelweiß. German forces were compelled to withdraw from the area that winter as Operation"
"Invasion of Poland The Invasion of Poland, known in Poland as the September Campaign (""Kampania wrześniowa"") or the 1939 Defensive War (""Wojna obronna 1939 roku""), and in Germany as the Poland Campaign (""Polenfeldzug""), was an invasion of Poland by Germany that marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week after the signing of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact between Germany and the Soviet Union. The Soviets invaded Poland on 17 September following the Molotov–Tōgō agreement that terminated the Soviet and Japanese Battles of Khalkhin Gol in the east on 16 September. The campaign"
"German failure was the Siege of Leningrad, in which the city was fully blockaded on land between 1941 and 1944 by German and Finnish forces, and suffered starvation and more than a million deaths, but never surrendered. Under Stalin's administration and the leadership of such commanders as Georgy Zhukov and Konstantin Rokossovsky, Soviet forces took Eastern Europe in 1944–45 and captured Berlin in May 1945. In August 1945 the Soviet Army ousted the Japanese from China's Manchukuo and North Korea, contributing to the allied victory over Japan. The 1941–45 period of World War II is known in Russia as the"
"Reichskommissariat Moskowien Reichskommissariat Moskowien (also rendered as Moskau, abbreviated as RKM; ), literally ""Reich Commissariat of Muscovy (or Moscow)"", was the civilian occupation regime that Nazi Germany intended to create in central and northern European Russia during World War II, one of several similar ""Reichskommissariat"". It was also known initially as the Reichskommissariat Russland (Reich Commissariat of Russia). Siegfried Kasche was the projected ""Reichskomissar"", but due to the German failure to occupy the territories intended to form the ""Reichskommissariat"", it remained on paper only. Nazi Germany intended to destroy Russia permanently, irrespective of whether it was capitalist, communist or tsarist."
"Operation Regenbogen (U-boat) Regenbogen (""Rainbow"") was the code name for the planned mass scuttling of the German U-boat fleet, to avoid surrender, at the end of World War II. At the beginning of May 1945 Nazi Germany was collapsing under the Allied onslaught. The Soviets had captured Berlin, and on 30 April Hitler had committed suicide. He had appointed Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz as Head of State and Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces. US Forces from the west and Soviet forces from the east had already met at Torgau, cutting the Reich in two, while in the north 21st"
"was being read by Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park, revealed that the Germans called the wireless teleprinter transmission systems """"Sägefisch"""" (sawfish). This led the British to use the code Fish dubbing the machine and its traffic Tunny. The enciphering/deciphering equipment was called a ""Geheimschreiber"" (secret writer) which, like Enigma, used a symmetrical substitution alphabet. The teleprinter code used was the International Telegraph Alphabet No. 2 (ITA2)—Murray's modification of the 5-bit Baudot code. When the Germans invaded Russia, during World War II, the Germans began to use a new type of enciphered transmission between central headquarters and headquarters"
"Gertrude (code name) The Gertrude or Gertrud was the code name of the joint invasion plan for Turkey by Nazi Germany and Bulgaria, the idea began forming in the beginning of the summer of 1942. This code name was eventually changed. The project was abandoned because of the rapid advance of the Red Army in the Caucasus region, and the Allied invasion of Sicily. According to the documents that were supposedly found in the Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories, Nazi leaders knew very well that sooner or later Pan-Turkism would be a danger to Germany if they allowed Turkey"
"Norwegian Campaign order of battle The German operation for the invasion of Denmark and Norway in April 1940 was code-named ""Weserübung"", or ""Weser Exercise."" Opposing the invasion were the partially mobilized Norwegian military, and an allied expeditionary force composed of British, French, and Free Polish formations. The following list formed the order of battle for this campaign. On 1 March 1940, the German 21st Army Corps was renamed Group XXI and placed in charge of the invasion of Norway. The group was allotted two Mountain and five Infantry divisions for this task. It was led by the commanding officer of"
"Operation Albion Operation Albion was the codename for the German air, land and naval operation in October 1917 to occupy the West Estonian Archipelago, part of the Autonomous Governorate of Estonia, Russian Republic. The land campaign opened with landings at the Tagalaht, Saaremaa on 12 October 1917, after extensive naval operations to clear mines and subdue coastal artillery batteries. The Germans secured the island by 16 October and the Russian Army evacuated Muhu on 20 October. After two failed attempts, the Germans managed to land on Hiiumaa on 12 October and captured the island on the following day. The Russian"
"Operation Otto Operation Otto (also known as Plan Otto) was the code name for two independent plans by Nazi Germany. The 1938 plan was to occupy Austria; the second envisaged an attack on the Soviet Union and was developed from late July 1940. The original Operation Otto was the plan to occupy Austria during the Anschluss in 1938. It was named after the crown prince of Austria-Hungary at the time, Otto von Habsburg. The High Command of the German Army (OKH) also used Operation Otto as the code name in July 1940 for their original plan for the invasion of"
"XII Squadriglia MAS The XIIª Squadriglia Squadriglia MAS (""Mezzi d'Assalto"") (Italian for ""12th Assault Vessel Squadron"") was a formation of the Italian Royal Navy (""Regia Marina"") which served on Lake Ladoga as part of the Axis siege of Leningrad during World War II. On 22 June 1941 the Axis, led by Nazi Germany, launched Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union. During the summer of 1941 the Germans advanced into the USSR on three broad fronts, towards Leningrad in the north, Moscow in the centre, and Kiev in the south. By August 1941 the German Army Group North was"
"Operation Donnerschlag During World War II, the German military planned or undertook an operation named Donnerschlag (""Thunderclap"" in German). The December 1942 German Army plan called for a breakout from the besieged city of Stalingrad (now Volgograd) by the German Sixth Army and there meet up with the relief Operation Wintergewitter. ""Donnerschlag"" was to be the code word for the commencement of ""Operation Wintergewitter"". The operation was downgraded and converted into a defensive stance after Hermann Göring's boast that the ""Luftwaffe"" would resupply the surrounded troops at Stalingrad. This effort eventually failed totally, and the Sixth Army, encircled by the"
"French invasion of Russia The French invasion of Russia, known in Russia as the Patriotic War of 1812 () and in France as the Russian Campaign (), began on 24 June 1812 when Napoleon's crossed the Neman River in an attempt to engage and defeat the Russian army. Napoleon hoped to compel Tsar Alexander I of Russia to cease trading with British merchants through proxies in an effort to pressure the United Kingdom to sue for peace. The official political aim of the campaign was to liberate Poland from the threat of Russia. Napoleon named the campaign the Second Polish"
"German order of battle for the invasion of Poland This article details the order of battle of German army units invading Poland in 1939. The German forces for the invasion of Poland with the codename Fall Weiss (English - Case White) were divided into Army Group North (consisting of the German 3rd and 4th armies) and Army Group South (consisting of the German 8th, 10th, and 14th armies, and the Slovak Army Group Bernolak). Army Group North was commanded by Colonel General Fedor von Bock. Its initial objectives were to capture the ""Polish corridor"" (4th Army) and drive southwards towards"
"Operationsbefehl Hartmut Operationsbefehl Hartmut (literally ""Operation Order Hartmut"") was the code word to begin German submarine operations during Operation Weserübung - Nazi Germany's invasion of Denmark and Norway. Occasionally these operations are termed Operation Hartmut. The orders involved submarine screening actions for the German invasion fleet and reconnaissance - particularly off Narvik and Trondheim. The orders also resulted in a number of attacks on Allied forces - particularly in or near the fjords of the Norwegian coast. The operation's reconnaissance and screening objectives succeeded for the most part, however Hartmut is notable for the large number of faulty torpedoes fired"
"Operation Paula Unternehmen Paula (Undertaking or Operation Paula) is the German codename given for the Second World War ""Luftwaffe"" offensive operation to destroy the remaining units of the ""Armée de l'Air"" (ALA), or French Air Force during the Battle of France in 1940. On 10 May the German armed forces (""Wehrmacht"") began their invasion of Western Europe. By 3 June, the British Army had withdrawn from Dunkirk and the continent in Operation Dynamo, the Netherlands and Belgium had surrendered and most of the formations of the French Army were disbanded or destroyed. To complete the defeat of France, the Germans"
"On 22 June 1941, Germany, supported by Italy and Romania, invaded the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa, with Germany accusing the Soviets of plotting against them. They were joined shortly by Finland and Hungary. The primary targets of this surprise offensive were the Baltic region, Moscow and Ukraine, with the ultimate goal of ending the 1941 campaign near the Arkhangelsk-Astrakhan line, from the Caspian to the White Seas. Hitler's objectives were to eliminate the Soviet Union as a military power, exterminate Communism, generate ""Lebensraum"" (""living space"") by dispossessing the native population and guarantee access to the strategic resources needed to"
"Germany was already planning its invasion of the Soviet Union. On December 18, 1940, Hitler had signed War Directive No. 21 to the German high command for an operation now codenamed Operation Barbarossa stating: ""The German Wehrmacht must be prepared to crush Soviet Russia in a quick campaign."" Hitler directed Raeder that Germany would have to take Polyanry and Murmansk at that time to cut off access to aid that would come to the Soviet Union. During both the first period of the 1940 German–Soviet Commercial Agreement (February 11, 1940 to February 11, 1941) and the second (February 11, 1941"