Abstract
The aim of this chapter is to explore the conditions on the Eastern Front as experienced by the soldiers of the three divisions selected for this study. Following a brief survey of the military history of these formations, some of the more important issues relevant to the life of the combat soldier at the front are analysed. These include the rate of casualties and their impact on the manpower composition of the units; the physical and mental hardship experienced by the troops; and finally, the discipline and morale of the soldiers, with reference to records of courts-martial as well as to reports of unit commanders regarding the mental condition of their men.
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Notes
Findbttclt, BA-MA MSgl75; G. Tessin, Formationsgeschichte der Wehrmacht (Boppard am Rhein, 1959) pp. 21–2, 28–9, 114–15, 118–19, 128–9, 150–1, 174–5, 190–1; B. Mueller-Ilillebrancl, Das Heer (Darmstadt, 1945) I. 25, 57–9, 68–73, 130–5, 151; W. Deist et al., Das Deutsche Reich und der Zweite Weltkrieg (Stuttgart, 1979) I. 415–49. As a general background for the military events of the war, the following books may be helpful, together with those mentioned above: II. Boog el al., Das Deutsche Reich und der Zweite Weltkrieg, IV. (Stuttgart, 1983); M. Cooper, The German Army (London, 1978); J. Erickson, The Road to Stalingrad (London, 1975); J. F. C. Fuller, The Second World War, 2nd edn (London, 1948); W. Görlitz, Der Zweite Weltkrieg (Stuttgart, 1951/2); A. Hillgruber, Hitlers Strategic (Frankfurt/M., 1965); A. B. Leach, German Strategy Against Russia (London, 1973); K. A. Maier et al., Das deutsche Reich und der Zweite Weltkrig, II. (Stuttgart, 1979); M. van Crefeld, Hitler’s Strategy (London, 1973); E. F. Ziemke, Stalingrad to Berlin (Washington DC, 1968).
H. Spaeter and W. Ritter von Schramm, Die Geschichte des Panzer-korps Grossdeutschland (Bielefeld, 1958) I. 45–6; B. Quarrie, Panzer-Grenadier Division ‘Grossdeutschland’; (London, 1977) p. 3; BA-MA RH26–1005/82.
Spaeter/Schramm, Grossdeutschland, I. 66–76, 84–92, 194. Generally on the French campaign sec J. Benoist-Mechin, Sixty Days that Shook the West (New York, 1963). Contemporary account in W. Durian, Infanleriercgiment GD Greift An (Berlin, 1942).
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© 2001 Omer Bartov
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Bartov, O. (2001). Life, Hardship and Death at the Front. In: The Eastern Front, 1941–45, German Troops and the Barbarisation of Warfare. St Antony’s Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230598249_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230598249_2
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