Elite of the Third Reich

Elite of the Third Reich
Author: Walther-Peer Fellgiebel
Publisher: Helion & Company Limited
Total Pages: 430
Release: 2003
Genre: History
ISBN: 9781874622468

Until now, this essential reference book has only been available in its hard-to-find German version - Helion are pleased to announce not only a complete translation of this important source. The text lists all known recipients (over 7,000 of them), giving name, rank, unit, and date of award for each. Recipients of the higher classes of this decoration, such as the Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves, are also included. Elite of the Third Reich is destined to become a standard reference work on the Second World War German Armed Forces - Army, Kriegsmarine, Luftwaffe and Waffen-SS. The publication of occasional updates is planned, containing corrections and amendments.

Knights of the Reich

Knights of the Reich
Author: Gunther Fraschka
Publisher: Schiffer Pub Limited
Total Pages: 352
Release: 1994
Genre: Germany
ISBN: 9780887405808

Biographies of the twenty-seven Holders of the Diamonds to the Knight's Cross from the Luftwaffe, Heer, Kriegsmarine and Waffen-SS: Werner Molders, Adolf Galland, Gordon Gollob, Hans-Joachim Marseilles, Hermann Graf, Erwin Rommel, Wolfgang Luth, Walter Nowotny, Adelbert Schulz, Hans-ulrich Rudel, Hyazinth Graf Strachwitz, Herbert Otto Gille, Hans Hube, Albert Kesselring, Helmut Lent, Sepp Dietrich, Walter Model, Erich Hartmann, Hermann Balck, Gerhard Ramcke, Wolfgang Schnaufer, Albrecht Brandi, Ferdinand Schorner, Hasso von Manteuffel, Theodor Tolsdorff, Dr. Karl Mauss, Dietrich von Saucken.

Shadow Knights

Shadow Knights
Author: Gary Kamiya
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 176
Release: 2011-12-06
Genre: History
ISBN: 1451683596

Pulp History brings to life extraordinary feats of bravery, violence, and redemption that history has forgotten. These stories are so dramatic and thrilling they have to be true. In SHADOW KNIGHTS, everyday men and women risk their lives on top-secret missions to sabotage Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich. Hell-bent on conquering Europe, Hitler had just set his sights on England when Winston Churchill reached into his bag of tricks and invented a secret spy network of ordinary citizens. These schoolteachers, housewives, prostitutes, and farmers abandoned their former lives, trained in covert black ops, and set Europe ablaze. Parachuting into Nazi territory under the cover of night, they destroyed factories, armed resistance networks, and turned Hitler’s juggernaut on its head.

Knights of Steel

Knights of Steel
Author: Mark C. Yerger
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 1989
Genre: World War, 1939-1945
ISBN: 9780962806803

White Knights in the Black Orchestra

White Knights in the Black Orchestra
Author: Tom Dunkel
Publisher:
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2021-09-28
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780306922183

The riveting and tension-filled story of a small group of conspirators who plotted relentlessly to obstruct and destroy the Third Reich from within. Behind the front lines of World War II, a clandestine war within a war was being waged in Nazi Germany. As the "Final Solution" unfolded and fascism swept across Europe, a network of German military officers, diplomats, politicians, and a smattering of civilians were doing everything in their power to undermine the Third Reich from the inside: reporting troop movements to the Allies, feeding disinformation to the Nazi high command, arranging risky evacuations of Jewish citizens, and hatching plots to assassinate Adolf Hitler (including the near-miss "Valkyrie" bombing). The Gestapo had a nickname for this loosely organized, shadowy confederation of traitors--the Black Orchestra. Among the key players in the Orchestra were Dietrich Bonhoeffer, an outspoken Lutheran pastor-turned-government agent, and his brother-in-law Hans von Dohnanyi, an attorney working under fellow conspirator Admiral Wilhelm Canaris at the Abwehr, the German military intelligence service. Motivated by moral and patriotic conviction, some with their own Nazi sins to atone for, these men faced constant danger of being exposed and executed. The book's tension, however, comes not just from watching these "white knights" attempt to derail the Third Reich (and sometimes succeeding), but also from what transpires when their treasonous activities are discovered--and their fates hang in the balance as the end of the war rapidly approaches.

Knight's Cross Holders of the SS and German Police 1940-45

Knight's Cross Holders of the SS and German Police 1940-45
Author: Michael D. Miller
Publisher: Helion
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2016
Genre: History
ISBN: 9781909982741

The members of the SS and German Police who received the Third Reich's highest military award have received extensive coverage from the earliest years of World War II research, however previous attempts at documenting all the Ritterkreuzträger (Knight's Cross holders) of the Waffen-SS have been highly selective in the degree of coverage allocated to each recipient, with much focus being granted to select luminaries and very little to those deemed more obscure or controversial. These earlier works, the best known of them authored by Waffen-SS veterans, have also largely reflected the political opinions of their authors rather than presenting the facts alone. In this first volume, intended as a handy reference for the use of historians and militaria collectors alike, the author presents rare and useful biographical data, derived primarily from SS personnel files and other contemporary documentation, on 178 SS and Police recipients of the Ritterkreuz. Lavishly illustrated, it contains hundreds of diverse and often striking photographs of the recipients covered. As noted military historian Hugh Page Taylor writes, '[This] fine reference [that] Mike Miller has now made available is a great relief, one I know I share with others seriously, objectively and without bias interested in the men of the Waffen-SS and Police.'

Knight's Cross and Oak-Leaves Recipients 1939–40

Knight's Cross and Oak-Leaves Recipients 1939–40
Author: Gordon Williamson
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 160
Release: 2012-05-20
Genre: Antiques & Collectibles
ISBN: 1780967926

In 1939 a new grade in the Iron Cross series was introduced, the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross (Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes). It was awarded for a variety of reasons, from skilled leadership to a single act of extreme gallantry, and was bestowed across all ranks, grades, and branches of service. As the war progresed, further distinctions were created for bestowal on existing winners, namely Oak-Leaves (Eichenlaub); Oak-Leaves with Swords (Eichenlaub und Schwertern); and Oak-Leaves with Swords and Diamonds (Eichenlaub, Schwerter und Brillanten). This book, the first in a sequence of four, covers winners of the Knights Cross and the Oak-Leaves distinction in the period 1939-40.

Knights of the Battle of Britain

Knights of the Battle of Britain
Author: Chris Goss
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Total Pages: 361
Release: 2018-06-30
Genre: History
ISBN: 1526726521

The Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes (Knights Cross of the Iron Cross), known simply as the Ritterkreuz (Knights Cross), was the highest German military award of the Second World War. Instituted on 1 September 1939, to coincide with the German invasion of Poland, it was awarded for leadership, valor or skill. As the war progressed, higher variants were instituted, namely the Knights Cross with Oak Leaves, Knights Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords, and the Knights Cross with Oak Leaves Swords and Diamonds. Similar in design, but larger, than the Eiserne Kreuz (Iron Cross), and worn around the neck as opposed to on the breast, the border and hanging loop on the Knights Cross were made of pure silver which was marked ‘800. The award was made by a number of German manufacturers. On 3 June 1940, the Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuz mit Eichenlaub (Knights Cross with Oak Leaves) was instituted, by which time 124 Rittterkreuz had been awarded to all arms of the German military, of which forty-nine had been awarded to Luftwaffe personnel. The first recipient was Generalfeldmarschal Hermann Göring on 30 September 1939; the first Luftwaffe operational Luftwaffe aircrew member recipient, and the fifth overall, was Oberst Robert Fuchs, Kommodore of Kampfgeschwader 26. His award was made on 6 April 1940. The first fighter pilot to receive the Ritterkreuz was Hauptmann Werner Mölders of III Gruppe/Jagdgeschwader 53 (III./JG 53) on 29 May 1940. Only three Luftwaffe officers would receive the Ritterkreuz mit Eichenlaub in 1940, and all of them were fighter pilots – Mölders on 21 September 1940 (he was then Geschwader Kommodore of JG 51), Major Adolf Galland (Kommodore of JG 26) on 24 September 1940, and Hauptmann Helmut Wick (Kommandeur of I Gruppe/JG 2) on 6 October 1940. Throughout the summer of 1940, many more Luftwaffe members, be they serving on fighter, bomber, dive bomber or reconnaissance units, would receive the Ritterkreuz. Some of these awards were made posthumously, whilst others would learn of their awards whilst a prisoner of war in Britain or, later, in Canada. In this book, the renowned aviation historian Chris Goss provides biographical details of all operational members of the Luftwaffe who received the Ritterkreuz during 1940 or were awarded it as a result of their actions in what became known as the Battle of Britain.

The Knight's Cross with Oakleaves, 1940-1945

The Knight's Cross with Oakleaves, 1940-1945
Author: Jeremy Dixon
Publisher: Schiffer Military History
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2013
Genre: Germany
ISBN: 9780764342660

This extensive, two-volume set presents every recipient of the Knight's Cross with Oakleaves, awarded during the Second World War, and presented personally by Hitler from 1940 until 1945. Described inside - and shown with at least one photograph - are each of the 889 recipients from the Luftwaffe, Heer, Waffen-SS, and Kriegsmarine, as well as foreign recipients. This work contains over 1000 photographs, from the author's own collection as well as other private collections. This is first time such a work has been written in the English language and is a must for anyone interested in Germany's highest decoration, as well as anyone interested in the careers of each recipient.

Knight's Cross Panzers

Knight's Cross Panzers
Author: Hans Schäufler
Publisher: Stackpole Books
Total Pages: 450
Release: 2010
Genre: History
ISBN: 0811705927

First time in English. Unit history of a tank regiment on the Eastern Front. Relies on firsthand accounts, after-action reports, letters, diaries, and newspapers.