Wehrmacht

### Role

Protecting the German Empire, and its interests, by using ground and sea assets.

### Commander-in-chief

August von Mackensen

The **Wehrmacht** (Defence Force) was the unified armed forces of both Nazi Germany and the German Empire. It consisted of the *Heer* (army), the *Kriegsmarine* (navy) and the *Luftwaffe* (air force). The designation "*Wehrmacht*" replaced the previously used term *Reichswehr*, and was the manifestation of the Nazi regime's efforts to rearm Germany to a greater extent than the Treaty of Versailles permitted.

In the early part of the German Civil War, the Wehrmacht employed combined arms tactics (close cover air-support, tanks, and infantry) to devastating effect in what became known as a lightning war (German: Blitzkrieg).

As of 1938, the Wehrmacht formed the heart of the German Empire's politico-military power, becoming the permanent army on the decree of Kaiser Wilhelm, who in turn got rid of the order to convert them back to the Imperial German Army.

## Etymology

The German term "Wehrmacht" stems from the compound word of German: wehren, "to defend" and Macht, "power, force".

## Branches

### Army

The **Heer** (German Army) was the land forces component of the Wehrmacht, the regular German Armed Forces, from 1935 onwards. Army personnel was made up of volunteers and conscripts, disciplined and educated to quickly become a regular army. Though Wilhelm II was officially the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of all the Wehrmacht branches, August von Mackensen was the Chief of the General Staff, Chief of the OKW and an effective leader in the field.

### Airforce

The **Luftwaffe**(Air Force)was the airforce branch of the Wehrmacht. From its foundation, the Luftwaffe had been well-equipped and trained to become the most effective airforce in the world. Before 1936, their planes have been equipped with jet propellers and have been remodelled completely several times, throwing away the use of the old aircraft engines. Following the German Civil War and the execution of Hermann Göring, Robert Ritter von Greim is the Commander-in-Chief of the Luftwaffe.

### Navy

The ***Kriegsmarine*** (War Navy) was the navy of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1937 and then the German Empire from 1937 onwards. It superseded the Imperial German Navy of the German Empire (1871–1918) and the inter-war *Reichsmarine* (1919–1935) of the Weimar Republic. By the start of 1940, the Kriegsmarine had over 100 ships of various sizes, bolstered by their sizes, armor, and experimental weapons. The Commander-in-Chief of the Kriegsmarine was Karl Dönitz, who received the Order of the Black Eagle for turning his fleet stationed in East Prussia against the Nazi regime.

After the gradual shipments of metals from the Continent, the size of the navy increased to over 400 ships by 1941, surpassing the British Royal Navy and the Soviet Navy.

## History

   By 1922, Germany had begun covertly circumventing the conditions of the Versailles Treaty. In 1924 a training base was established at Lipetsk in central Russia, where several hundred German air force personnel received instruction in operational maintenance, navigation, and aerial combat training over the next decade until the Germans finally left in September 1933.

After the Nazi rise to power in 1933, one of Adolf Hitler's most overt and audacious moves was to establish the *Wehrmacht*, a modern offensively-capable armed force, fulfilling the Nazi regime's long-term goals of regaining lost territory as well as gaining new territory and dominating its neighbors.

In an ironic turn of events, the Wehrmacht leaders turned against Hitler in the German Civil War, a war that saw them overthrow Hitler's regime with the help of experimental technology and established themselves as the rulers of Germany until the return of the German Empire, becoming the main defense of Germany and leading power of the Central Powers. Adopting new tactics and new technologies to aid in the construction of the German war machine, they later became the most well-equipped, if not the largest, military in the world by 1940.