In many movies and TV series about World War II, we often see a large group of big men in black uniforms and solemn expressions next to the German Nazi leader Hitler. This group of big men can be said to be Hitler's "Royal Forest Army", extremely powerful in combat, known as the most elite unit in World War II. But even such a unit will eventually be doomed. What's going on?
First, hitler formed a stormtrooper rebellion, the guard flag was born
When Hitler had just formed the Nazi Party, he realized that he had to have a team that completely obeyed his orders, protected himself, and carried out his orders. Therefore, Hitler began to recruit talents and form his own troops very early. When this force was first established, Hitler co-opted a group of very physical veterans to protect their safety. Later, the team continued to grow and eventually became a force of hundreds of thousands of people.
The strength of such a force is very strong, but there is an accident. After Hitler's SA had grown to hundreds of thousands, commander Röhm had a crooked mind to launch a rebellion to replace Hitler as the new leader of the Nazi Party in Germany. When Hitler heard this, he was very angry and ordered the stormtroopers to be washed in blood. After this incident, Hitler realized that it was important to form his own troops, but more importantly, the loyalty of the troops. So he needed to build a force that was completely loyal to himself, and this force was later the Guard Flag Corps. In order to make Hitler happy, he was very careful when selecting the soldiers of this unit, requiring each soldier not only to be tall and powerful, but also to be absolutely loyal to the Nazi Party, putting Hitler's safety first, and finally forming this guard flag team. In 1938, the Guard Flag Corps was formed, but it was not enough for this group of people to have brute force and learn combat skills. Hhilem searched for talent and eventually found retired Wehrmacht Lieutenant General Hausel and persuaded him to join the Flag Corps and put him in charge of the training of the Flag Corps. So Hausser began to think about how to train this unit, and finally established a systematic training system, that is, training according to the concept of "military essence".
Germany was defeated in World War I, and the team also studied the reasons for the defeat and realized the inadequacies of the German army in position warfare. So Hauser began to train officers suitable for sports warfare, and systematically trained this unit to strengthen their understanding of "blitzkrieg". In September 1939, the force was continuously expanded to 3,700 men, and after special training, they were all extraordinary and became a sharp blade at Hitler's side.
2. The Guard Flag Corps went out on a campaign with outstanding military achievements and was renamed the Imperial Division
After Germany annexed Austria, the Guard Flag Corps had three more troops under its command, namely the German Flag, the German Flag and the Führer Flag. In September 1939, the Germans launched a blitzkrieg against Poland, sending a large number of Stuka bombers and tanks to attack the Polish area, which was the first time that the Guard Flag Panzer Division participated in actual combat, under the command of the German officer Rundstedt, under the command of the German officer Rundstedt, under the command of the Southern Group 17th Infantry Division. And how strong is the combat effectiveness of this guard flag regiment armored division? On the first day of the Blitzkrieg, the guard flag quickly defeated the Polish Tenth Infantry Division and captured more than 5,000 Polish soldiers. In 1940, the Guard Flag Corps completed the motorization of the 227th Infantry Division of the 18th Army. On 10 May of the same year, Germany launched a war against the Netherlands, and the Guard Flag Lightning broke into the rear of the Dutch army and joined the German paratroopers parachuting into rotterdam, the Dutch capital. With the support of the paratroopers, the Guard Banner attacked the Dutch defenders with fierce firepower, and in less than 6 hours, they advanced the position forward by about 80 kilometers, directly near the Ethel River. The Dutch defenders certainly understood the importance of the Ethel River, so they blew up the bridge over the Ethel River before the Germans could capture the area around the Ethel River. But the men of the Guard Flag Were fierce, quickly found a large number of planks from the villages near the Ethel River, and forced them across the river under heavy artillery fire from the Dutch army.
Thanks to the efforts of the Guard Flag Corps, the Germans captured rotterdam, the capital of the Netherlands, in just one day, and the Queen of the Netherlands was forced to leave the Netherlands on a warship and go into exile in Britain. Shortly thereafter, the Germans attacked France, and the Guard Flags still took the lead in the charge, eventually suffering more than 600 casualties. Based on the heroic performance of the Guard Flag in battle, Hitler renamed it the Reich Division and agreed to expand the Reich Division, which numbered more than 10,000 people. Although this number was not large among the German armies, it meant that this Imperial division would no longer act in the face of others, nor would it be mobilized at will.
On June 22, 1941, Hitler again used the same routine to conduct a "blitzkrieg" against the Soviet Union, which began with the balance of the war completely tilted in favor of Germany, advancing so fast that the Soviet army was caught off guard and lost several cities in a row. The Imperial Division also made great achievements, cooperating with the German army to repulse the three Soviet armies and capture more than 100,000 Soviet soldiers. It was at this time that their reputation reached its peak and became a major force in the German army.
Third, the Imperial Division is in decline
However, the Soviet Union was a big country after all, and although the German Blitzkrieg surprised them, they reacted quickly. In 1943, the Battle of Kharkov broke out, the Soviet army rose up, the Imperial Division suffered a fierce attack, and the previously invincible Tiger tanks fell behind in this battle, because their opponent was the Soviet Union. The Soviet army fought on the mainland, and their T34 tanks were no worse than the German Tiger tanks, so the German army suffered heavy damage and the casualties of the Imperial Division reached 4500.
On March 6 of the same year, the Germans launched another attack on the Soviet Union, and the Imperial Division remained the fiercest "beast" on the battlefield. On 9 March, the Imperial Division, under Soviet artillery fire, pushed the German positions forward again by 20 kilometers, but this also left them exhausted and unable to continue advancing. But the Soviet army was fighting on its own, and the number of troops was constantly flowing. On 16 March, the Soviets counterattacked in full swing, and within a day the Germans' previously accumulated advantages were gone. On 19 March, the Soviets again poured in 400 tanks and a large number of artillery, and the Germans were no longer able to withstand the Soviet offensive and withdrew from soviet territory. On May 8, 1945, Germany surrendered, and the last 1,296 officers and men of the Imperial Division also chose to surrender to the American army, and a legendary army came to an end.