|The "Heer" was the Army land forces component of the German armed forces (Wehrmacht) from 1935 to 1945, the latter also included the Navy (Kriegsmarine) and the Air Force (Luftwaffe). During the Second World War, a total of about 15 million soldiers served in the German Army, of whom about seven million became casualties. |
|The German Africa Corps (German: Deutsches Afrikakorps, DAK ), or the Afrika Korps as it was popularly called, was the German expeditionary force in Libya and Tunisia during the North African Campaign of World War II from 1941 to 1943. |
|Gebirgsjäger, in English Mountain Huntsmen, is the German designation for mountain infantry. The word Huntsman (Jäger) is the traditional German term for rifleman.
The main tasks of the German mountain infantry are:
- Warfare in extreme weather conditions
- Winter warfare
- Warfare in urban terrain
- Warfare in arctic, mountain and desert terrain
They fought in Crete, Norway and on the Eastern Front.
|The Waffen-SS was a multi-ethnic and multi-national military force of the Third Reich. It constituted the armed wing of the Schutzstaffel ("Protective Squadron") or SS, an organ of the Nazi Party. The Waffen-SS saw action throughout World War II and grew from three regiments to over 38 divisions, and served alongside the Heer (regular army), but was never formally part of it.
The use of camouflage in the German army began with the introduction of the Zeltbahn 31 - a sheet of canvas that could be used both as a tent and as a poncho.
Much later, in 1937, the Waffen-SS started experimenting with camouflaged uniforms. These few uniforms would be used up to 1942, which saw the introduction of camouflaged field caps and helmet-covers.
In 1943, the first of the new full camouflaged uniforms appeared, which were produced with many different patterns.
The dotted pattern you see on most of the player models is called the 'Erbsenmuster' or 'pea-pattern'.
|By the end of the war in Europe, the German forces had become highly adapt to camouflaged uniforms and vehicles, a concept relatively new in the Second World War.
The soldier on the left sports a uniform covered in Eichenlaub (oakleaf) camouflage, making him virtually invisible in west European autumn conditions.
|Although the first days of Battle of the Bulge were snow free, it would soon turn out that the winter of 1944-1945 would be one of the coldest and snowiest of the century. As such, the Germans were quick to adapt special white uniform for optimum camouflage in the snow.|
|In 1935, the Soviet Union performed a series of training manoeuvres that included an impressive display of parachute deployed infantry. Hermann Göring was one of the international observers, and took these ideas with him back to the newly formed Luftwaffe. Started as a volunteer battalion in early 1936, the Fallschirmjäger were formed into their first division in 1938.
The first opposed airdrops took place in the Invasion of Norway, and were soon followed by the stunning capture of Eben Emael in Belgium. The culmination of the large strategic airborne operations of the Fallschirmjäger came in the Invasion of Crete, which despite being a victory came at a great cost of life.|
|As the war continued, the Fallschirmjäger would act more often as elite infantry, and by 1944 new units were no longer receiving even the most basic in parachute training.||