German Army ( 1935 – 45 ) The German Army ( German : " Heer " ( ) was the land forces component of the Wehrmacht , the German armed forces , from 1935 to 1945 . The Wehrmacht also included the Kriegsmarine ( Navy ) and the Luftwaffe ( Air Force ) . During World War II , a total of about 15 million soldiers served in the German Army , of whom about seven million became casualties . Separate from the Army , the Waffen - SS ( Armed SS ) was a multi - ethnic and multi - national military force of the Third Reich . Growing from three regiment s to over 38 divisions during World War II , it served alongside the army but was never formally part of it . Only 17 months after Hitler announced publicly the rearmament program , the Army reached its projected goal of 36 divisions . During the autumn of 1937 , two more corps were formed . In 1938 , four additional corps were formed with the inclusion of the five divisions of the Austrian Army after the Anschluss in March . During the period of its expansion by Adolf Hitler , the German Army continued to develop concepts pioneered during World War I , combining ground ( " Heer " ) and air ( " Luftwaffe " ) assets into combined arms teams . Coupled with operational and tactical methods such as encirclement s and the " battle of annihilation " , the German military managed quick victories in the two initial years of World War II , prompting the use of the word " Blitzkrieg " ( literally " lightning war " , meaning " lightning - fast war " ) for the techniques used . The German Army entered the war with a majority of its infantry formations relying on the horse for transportation while the infantry remained foot soldiers throughout the war , artillery also remaining primarily horse - drawn . The motorized formations received much attention in the world press in the opening years of the war , and were cited as the main reason for the success of the German invasions of Poland ( September 1939 ) , Norway and Denmark ( April 1940 ) , Belgium , France and Netherlands ( May 1940 ) , Yugoslavia ( April 1941 ) and the early campaigns in the Soviet Union ( June 1941 ) . However their motorized and tank formations accounted for only 20 % of the Heer ' s capacity at their peak strength . Structure . The " Oberkommando des Heeres " ( OKH ) was Germany ' s Army High Command from 1936 to 1945 . In theory the " Oberkommando der Wehrmacht " ( OKW ) served as the military General Staff for the German Reich ' s armed forces , coordinating the " Wehrmacht " ( Army " Heer " , Navy " Kriegsmarine " , and the Air Force " Luftwaffe " ) operations . In practice OKW acted in a subordinate role as Hitler ' s personal military staff , translating his ideas into military plans and orders , and issuing them to the three services . However , as the war progressed the OKW found itself exercising increasing amounts of direct command authority over military units , particularly in the west . This created a situation where by 1942 the OKW was the " de facto " command of Western Theatre forces while the Army High Command ( OKH ) served Hitler as his personal command Staff on the Eastern Front . The " Abwehr " was the Army intelligence organization from 1921 to 1944 . The term " Abwehr " ( German for " defense " , here referring to counter - intelligence ) was used as a concession to Allied demands that Germany ' s post - World War I intelligence activities be for " defensive " purposes only . After 4 February 1938 , its title was Overseas Department / Office in Defence of the Armed Forces High Command ( " Amt Ausland / Abwehr im Oberkommando der Wehrmacht " ) . Nazi Germany used the system of military district s ( German : " Wehrkreis " ) to relieve field commanders of as much administrative work as possible , and to provide a regular flow of trained recruits and supplies to the field forces . The method OKW adopted was to separate the Field Army ( " Oberbefehlshaber des Heeres " ) from the Home Command ( " Heimatkriegsgebiet " ) , and to entrust the responsibilities of training , conscription , supply and equipment to Home Command . The commander of an infantry Corps also commanded the " Wehrkreis " with the identical number in peacetime , but command of the " Wehrkreis " passed to his second - in command at the outbreak of the war . Before the start of the war , there were also four Motorized Army Corps ( " Armeekorps " ( mot . ) ) which were in effect , staffs to control the training of Panzer and Light Panzer formations , and which had no corresponding military districts , but were provided with conscripts and supplies by the districts in which Corps headquarters or subordinate formations had their Home Garrison Stations . The Districts were organized into a hierarchy that included Area Headquarters ( " Wehrersatzbezirk Hauptquartier " ) and Sub - area headquarters ( " Wehrbezirk Hauptquartier " ) . Organization of the field forces . The German Army was mainly structured in Army group s ( " Heeresgruppen " , see ) consisting of several armies that were relocated , restructured or renamed in the course of the war . Forces or allied states as well as units made up of non - Germans were also assigned to German units . For Operation Barbarossa in 1941 , the Army forces were assigned to three strategic campaign groupings : The troops sent to North Africa to support Italian forces were initially designated the Afrika Korps . Later the force grew into Panzer Army Afrika . Below the army group level forces included Field armies - ( see List of World War II military units of Germany ) , panzer groups , which later became army level formations themselves , corps ( see List of German corps in World War II ) , and divisions ( see List of German divisions in World War II ) . The army used the German term Kampfgruppe which equates to the English ' combat group ' or battle group . These provisional combat groupings ranged from an Army Corps size such as Kampfgruppe Kampf to commands composed of several companies and even platoons . They were named for their commanding officers using the family name , e . g . " Kampfgruppe Meyer " . The same name was used by the Luftwaffe to designate " Gruppe " - designated units dedicated to medium bomber roles , either ( rarely ) by themselves , or much more often within Kampfgeschwader that comprised USAAF wing sized units . Waffen - SS field formations also served alongside army units . Among the foreign volunteers who served in the " Wehrmacht " during World War II were ethnic Germans , Dutch , Spanish and Scandinavians along with people from the Baltic states and the Balkans who were either volunteers or later conscripted for service . Russians recruited from prisoner of war camps fought in the Russian Liberation Army or as Hilfswilliger . Non - Russians from the Soviet Union formed the " Ostlegionen " . These units were all commanded by General Ernst August Köstring and represented about five percent of the " Wehrmacht " . Luftwaffe ground formations . Four types of " Luftwaffe " formations and units served in ground roles within the German army during the Second World War : Operational methods of the Army . German operational doctrine emphasized sweeping pincer and lateral movements meant to obliterate the enemy as quickly as possible . This " strategy " , referred to as " Blitzkrieg " , was an operational doctrine instrumental in the success of the offensives in Poland and France . Tactics . The military strength of the German army was managed through mission - based tactics ( " Auftragstaktik " ) ( rather than order - based tactics ) , and an almost proverbial discipline . In public opinion , the German military was and is sometimes seen as a high - tech army , since new technologies that were introduced before and during World War II influenced its development of tactical doctrine . These technologies were featured by propaganda , but were often only available in small numbers or late in the war , as overall supplies of raw materials and armaments became low . For example only 40 per cent of all units were fully motorized , supply columns mainly relied on horses , and most soldiers moved by foot or used bicycles . Use of fortifications and field defenses . German use of fortifications included the Siegfried Line which was intended for defence of the western borders , and the Atlantic Wall erected under command of Field Marshal Rommel stretching from Denmark to France ' s border with Spain . The Germans also made great use of fortified cities ( termed " Festung en " ) such as Metz , Warsaw , and Poznań during the latter part of the war . When building temporary field defenses the " Heer " relied on the defensive tactics developed during the First World War . Infantry would occupy up to five lines of defence with the first being only lightly held advance posts . Further back would be pre - sited anti - tank and artillery positions preferably not registered by the enemy field artillery counter - battery fires . The armoured formations would stage behind these prepared positions to counter - attack any enemy breakthroughs . The armoured reserves would employ a range of counter - offensive tactics depending on the size of the breach and enemy strength . The most important consideration for the defenders would be to hold the flanks of any breach no matter how wide , and then attempt to close the breach . Weapons . Vehicles . Spietzskraftein Equipment . It is a myth that the German army in World War II was a mechanized juggernaut as a whole . In 1941 , between 74 and 80 of their forces were not motorized , relying on railroad for rapid movement and on horse - drawn transport cross country . The percentage of motorization decreased thereafter . In 1944 approximately 85 percent was not motorized . Tanks . At various times , the German forces used captured equipment , absorbing them into the German type notation with national suffixes ( e . g . " t " for " Tschechoslowakei " ( Czechoslovakia ) , " e " for " englisch " , " r " for " russisch " , etc . ) . In the case of Czechoslovakia , their contemporary tanks were found to be more reliable than German ones of the period ; captured Czech units and those manufactured for Germany after March 1939 were a significant proportion of the German armoured forces during the " blitzkriegs " in Poland and France . Assessment . Max Hastings , British author , historian and ex - newspaper editor , said in a radio interview on WGN Chicago " . . . there ' s no doubt that man for man , the German army was the greatest fighting force of the second world war " . This view was also explained in his book " Overlord : D - Day and the battle for Normandy " . In the book " World War II : An Illustrated Miscellany " , Anthony Evans writes : " The German soldier was very professional and well trained , aggressive in attack and stubborn in defence . He was always adaptable , particularly in the later years when shortages of equipment were being felt " . An often - overlooked characteristic of the late - war German Army was the liberal use of machine - guns with high rates of fire and medium - and heavy - caliber mortars . Although German battalions were often smaller than those of their opponents by 1944 , they were still capable , in terms of organic weapons , of bringing substantially higher weights of fire to bear than those of their opponents . This discrepancy in relative weights of fire made the dislodgement of defending German units difficult . After the war . Confronted with a huge number of German prisoners of war after VE Day , the Western Allies kept " Feldjägerkommando III " , which was a regimental - sized unit of German military police , active and armed to assist with the control of the POWs . " Feldjägerkommando III " remained armed and under Western Allied control until 23 June 1946 , when it was finally deactivated .