Introduction The defeat of Germany in the Second World War has been a subject that has fascinated historians ever since the events occurred. The reasons behind this have been a hotly debated topic ever since, none more so than the balance between eastern and western theatres and the reasons behind the defeat in the Soviet Union.[1] However this picture has been obscured by two main issues, the extent of the involvement of the German Army (Heer) in atrocities in the USSR, the so called ‘clean Wehrmacht’ myth and Cold War politics. Both of these issues framed the initial post-war theories promot ..read more

Belorussia in the scheme of German occupation Introduction The German-Soviet War was a Total War, with the German state seeking the total destruction of the Soviet state, the killing or expulsion of its inhabitants beyond the Urals, and even the favoured populations who were allowed to remain, were to become helots to serve their German colonial masters. This was colonialism formed from a Spartan mould, with the aim of providing enough food and raw materials for Germany to fight and defeat the richer nations of the Atlantic world. Viewed from the point of view of the realist school of Total W ..read more

Introduction Nationalist China played a major role in the Second World War by engaging the main body of the Japanese Army. This prevented the Japanese Army either attacking the Soviet Union in the rear or reinforcing its defensive island chain in the Pacific and so causing America heavy casualties. In terms of suffering and destruction, the Soviet Union topped the list with some 27 million dead and around 40% of its economy shattered.[1] China was a close second with approximately 20 million dead, 45 million refugees and an equal level of destruction to its economy and infrastructure.[2] Yet t ..read more

“This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in the JOURNAL OF SLAVIC MILITARY STUDIES: H. G. W. Davie (2020) The Logistics of the Combined-Arms Army— the Rear: High Mobility Through Limited Means, The Journal of Slavic Military Studies, 33:4, 580-607, Volume 33 Issue 3 on 14 December 2020, See the final published article here DOI: 10.1080/13518046.2020.1845091 If you have academic access please click on this link to record your readership of this article." The author would like to thank the Russian Military Studies Archive, University of Cranfield, Defense A ..read more

Introduction The term ‘Righteous among the Nations’ or העולם אומות חסידי originates from a meeting on 31 December 1941 in Vilnius between some Jews in hiding and their rescuer, Feldwebel Anton Schmid, who was a member of the occupying German army. Although none of the participants survived, a record of the meeting was taken by a courier to Warsaw and was found after the war in the Oneg Shabbat archive.1 The term was resurrected in 1953, when Yad Vashem was created by an Act of the Knesset (Israel’s parliament,) as a memorial to those who died in the Shoah. Included in the Act was a stipulation ..read more

Introduction The usual epithet applied to the German Air Force (Luftwaffe) is one of defeat as in the first six months of 1944 the Luftwaffe fighter defences were shot out of the skies over the Reich by American long-range fighters. By the time of the Normandy invasion, the Luftwaffe was unable to mount anything other than a token response to Allied air forces which had achieved air supremacy. The underlying causes for this situation were the insufficient numbers of planes, low levels of pilot training and outdated aircraft. The factors behind these causes were long standing and went right bac ..read more

The Zettelkasten Zkn3 User Manual: Part 1 covers just the various Menu items (see Zettelkasten Zkn3 English Language Manual ) The aim of part 2 is to explore some key working practices and to give a practical guide to using the Zkn3 features. Also I want to use this blog post to record some of the more advanced features that I find useful and other tips I picked up from the GitHub Forum or web searches. This is a ‘live’ blog and I will add to it as I go along. Later I will add Part 3 which is where I will record how I get along with using a Zettelkasten and what benefits I gain from using in ..read more

Zettelkasten by Niklaus Luhmann An open source file card system / slip box for Windows, Macintosh (Mac OS X) and Linux. http://zettelkasten.danielluedecke.de/en/ Zettelkasten - Wikipedia   A Zettelkasten is a method of personal information management and a note taking methodology. This programme mimics one of the classic Zettelkasten methods that of the German social science professor, Niklas Luhmann and was originally created in German. Now it has English and Spanish variants but there is little documentation on how to use them. So I have decided to create my own guide, based largely on ..read more

“This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in the JOURNAL OF SLAVIC MILITARY STUDIES Volume 33 Issue 3 on 14 December 2020, See the final published article here https://doi.org/10.1080/13518046.2020.1824106 If you have access please click on this link to record your readership of this article." Abstract Soviet tank armies used a form of logistics different from that of Western armies that specifically allowed them a high degree of mobility and the ability to operate deeply behind enemy lines without fear of interruption. The build-up for offensives was pro ..read more

Introduction In September 1944, a major argument broke out between the Allied commanders during the Normandy Campaign. This argument was about the future strategic direction of the campaign given the shortage of the logistics, arising from the failure to capture the Brittany ports on schedule.1 This followed on from earlier clashes in June-July around the speed at which the campaign was developing, and the failure in August to destroy the German Army on the Seine river. The main focus of the majority of academic accounts has attributed these disagreements to a clash of personalities between Fi ..read more