Artillery (WW 2) - Germany: books - history and models (2/2)

German Artillery in World War II, 1939-1945

Never before in German military history did the German Artillery possess such variety and magnitude as in the World War II era. From North Cape to Tobruk, Biscay to Lapland, Den Helder to the Caucasus, there were more than 1000 light and about 340 heavy artillery units, as well as the light and heavy field howitzer units, assault gun units, brigades and batteries, observation units, railroad batteries, mountain artillery units, light gun units and launcher regiments.

The German Artillery included 655,000 men in 1943, or 22 percent of all the soldiers who went into action. Thirty-nine German gun types and forty captured gun types from ten different European countries were utilized by these units.

The German Artillery took on special significance in the spring of 1943 when the fighting strength of the exhausted infantry began to decrease and armored vehicles became less and less effective in their battle against overwhelming Soviet power. During this period, the Artillery again and again provided the backbone of the German resistance and defense.

This volume of photographs presents a look into the operations, action and everyday life of the German artillery - a frequently over-looked aspect of Wehrmacht history.

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German Heavy Artillery Guns 1933-1945 (Fact File)

Covers large calibre artillery guns beyond a diameter of 75 mm, used by the Germans during the Second World War. Whilst artillery was perhaps no longer the dominant force it had been in the trench warfare of the Great War, it was nevertheless essential, both in air defence and against tanks.

This volume of the Fact File series presents the most important of the largest German artillery and air defence weapons, as well as railway guns and launchers. A meticulously researched and superbly illustrated book, which provides a compact and competent overview.

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Hitler's Artillery 1939-1945 - Rare photographs from Wartime Archives (Images of War)

A highly illustrated record of the firepower of the German war machine between 1939 - 1945. Many of the photographs, all from the author's collection, come originally from the albums of individuals who took part in the war.

The images and text cover the guns in service with the Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS and provide a unique visual record of artillery pieces. These include the 7.5cm 1.IG18, the 10.5cm infantry gun, the powerful 15cm field howitzer, heavy 18cm and 21cm mortars and others including captured French, British and Russian guns.
These and other weapons are seen in action in Poland, the Low Countries, France, Balkans, North Africa, Italy and, of course, Russia.

Initially a key part of the Blitzkrieg offensive concept, the emphasis became defensive as the tide turned against the Germans. Using over 250 rare and unpublished photographs together with detailed captions and accompanying text, this book provides a unique insight into German weaponry from early Blitzkrieg campaigns to the final demise of the Nazi empire.

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L'artillerie de campagne de la Wehrmacht durant la Seconde Guerre mondiale

On 1 January 1921, in order to comply with the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles, the Reichswehr had only 204 7.7 cm guns and 84 10.5 cm howitzers. With the exception of this meager allocation, the entire artillery stock of the Deutsche Armee existing on 11 November 1918 was seized or scrapped.
In addition, any development of new equipment was prohibited, and to avoid any temptation, its stock of specialized machine tools was reduced to a bare minimum and placed under the surveillance of particularly meticulous inspection commissions. At this date, Germany no longer existed as a military power.

On September 1 1939, at the opening of hostilities with Poland, the Wehrmacht fielded nearly 11 000 field pieces grouped into 122 artillery regiments. The strictness of the clauses imposed in 1919 had at least two advantages: Germany did not have to maintain, during the interwar period, a plethora of aging pieces, like France or Great Britain, and it was thus able to build up a modern artillery fleet, with one detail and not the least... a recurring lack of dedicated tractors which would force it to use, for the most part, animal traction until the end of the Second World War!

Loïc Charpentier, a well-known author from Caraktère editions, gives us the fruit of several years of research on the Feldartillerie from 1939-1945 in this book which aims to describe each piece used by the Wehrmacht during the Second World War. A book quite simply indispensable, thanks to which you will know absolutely everything about the Wehrmacht's Field Artillery.

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