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108-752: Numerically the most important bomber in the world in the late 1930s, the SB was the first modern stressed skin aircraft produced in quantity in the Soviet Union and probably the most formidable bomber of the mid-1930s. It was produced in the Soviet Union and was also built under license in Czechoslovakia . Many versions saw extensive action in Spain , the Republic of China , Mongolia , Finland and at

216-421: A Warren or Pratt truss ; in either case, adding discrete diagonal members results in full frame structures in which the skin contributes very little or nothing to the structural rigidity. In a stressed-skin design, the skin or outer covering is bonded or pinned to the frame, adding structural rigidity by serving as the triangulating member which resists distortion of the rectangular structure. The skin provides

324-857: A joint campaign with the Italian Army , and may be considered a separate theatre . More than 6,000,000 soldiers were wounded during the conflict, while more than 11,000,000 became prisoners. In all, approximately 5,318,000 soldiers from Germany and other nationalities fighting for the German armed forces—including the Waffen-SS , Volkssturm and foreign collaborationist units—are estimated to have been killed in action, died of wounds, died in custody or gone missing in World War II. Included in this number are 215,000 Soviet citizens conscripted by Germany. According to Frank Biess, German casualties took

432-485: A circular- or egg-shaped cross-section. Experiments with scale models led Fairbairn to suggest a hollow rectangular beam instead, with longitudinal stringers on top and bottom fixed firmly to structural coverings: "two longitudinal plates, divided by vertical plates so as to form squares, calculated to resist the crushing strain in the first instance, and the lower parts [...], also longitudinal plates, well-connected with riveted joints, and of considerable thickness to resist

540-536: A clandestine cadre of air force officers in the early 1920s. These officers saw the role of an air force as winning air superiority, strategic bombing, and close air support. That the Luftwaffe did not develop a strategic bombing force in the 1930s was not due to a lack of interest, but because of economic limitations. The leadership of the Navy led by Grand Admiral Erich Raeder , a close protégé of Alfred von Tirpitz ,

648-486: A further 16 SBs purchased from Germany, which had captured them during the initial weeks of the invasion of the Soviet Union. These SBs employed the first air-dropped depth charges used in combat. Finland lost seven SBs to accidents during the Continuation War, with none being lost in combat, with Finnish SBs claiming three Soviet submarines and a 4,000 ton merchant ship sunk. After Stalin's post-war cleanup in

756-410: A significant portion of the overall structural rigidity by taking the in-plane shear stress; however, the skin provides very little resistance to out-of-plane loads. These types of structures may also be called semi-monocoque to distinguish them from monocoque designs. There is some overlap between monocoque, semi-monocoque (stressed skin), and rigid frame structures, depending on the proportion of

864-408: A single Joint Chief of Staff, Hitler refused. Even after the defeat at Stalingrad, Hitler refused, stating that Göring as Reichsmarschall and Hitler's deputy, would not submit to someone else or see himself as an equal to other service commanders. However, a more likely reason was Hitler feared it would break his image of having the "Midas touch" concerning military strategy. With the creation of

972-618: A successful offensive until a cease-fire was signed in September 1939. On 30 November 1939, the Soviet Union attacked Finland in the conflict that became known as the Winter War , with the forces deployed against Finland including several hundred SBs. Losses were heavy, with bomber formations often un-escorted, and forced to operate at low level, where they were vulnerable to Finnish anti-aircraft fire and fighters. While in 1936 in Spain,

1080-764: A sudden jump with the defeat of the Sixth Army at Stalingrad in January 1943, when 180,310 soldiers were killed in one month. Among the 5.3 million Wehrmacht casualties during the Second World War, more than 80 per cent died during the last two years of the war. Approximately three-quarters of these losses occurred on the Eastern front (2.7 million) and during the final stages of the war between January and May 1945 (1.2 million). Jeffrey Herf wrote that: Whereas German deaths between 1941 and 1943 on

1188-1045: A team of VVS pilots to recover the airplane. It was returned to Moscow and restored by a group of volunteer Tupolev employees. The restored aircraft was unveiled in April 1982 at the Central Air Force Museum at Monino Airfield . Another ANT-40 is displayed in Verhnyaya Pyshma. A reproduction of an SB is under construction by the La Senia Airfield Association in La Sénia, Catalonia . Data from SB:The Radical Tupolev General characteristics Performance Armament Related development Aircraft of comparable role, configuration, and era Related lists Stressed skin In mechanical engineering , stressed skin

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1296-660: A time frame of 10 years for remilitarization, but soon shortened it to four years. With the remilitarization of the Rhineland and the Anschluss , the German Reich's territory increased significantly, providing a larger population pool for conscription. Recruitment for the Wehrmacht was accomplished through voluntary enlistment and conscription, with 1.3 million being drafted and 2.4 million volunteering in

1404-517: Is a rigid construction in which the skin or covering takes a portion of the structural load, intermediate between monocoque , in which the skin assumes all or most of the load, and a rigid frame, which has a non-loaded covering. Typically, the main frame has a rectangular structure and is triangulated by the covering; a stressed skin structure has localized compression -taking elements (rectangular frame) and distributed tension -taking elements (skin). A simple framework box with four discrete members

1512-540: Is lighter than a full frame structure and not as complex to design as a full monocoque. William Fairbairn documented the development of the Britannia and Conwy tubular bridges for the Chester and Holyhead Railway in 1849; in it, Fairbairn describes how Robert Stephenson enlisted his aid to revise Stephenson's original concepts, which would route rail traffic inside riveted steel tubes, supported by chains, with

1620-432: Is not inherently rigid as it will distort from being square under relatively light loads; however, adding one or more diagonal element(s) that take either tension or compression makes it rigid, because the box cannot deviate from right angles without also altering the diagonals. Sometimes the diagonal elements are flexible like wires, which are used to provide tension, or the elements can be rigid to resist compression, as with

1728-734: The Heer (army), the Kriegsmarine (navy) and the Luftwaffe (air force). The designation " Wehrmacht " replaced the previously used term Reichswehr ( Reich Defence ) and was the manifestation of the Nazi regime's efforts to rearm Germany to a greater extent than the Treaty of Versailles permitted. After the Nazi rise to power in 1933, one of Adolf Hitler 's most overt and bellicose moves

1836-703: The Polnische Wehrmacht ('Polish Wehrmacht', 'Polish Defense Force') in German. In January 1919, after World War I ended with the signing of the armistice of 11 November 1918 , the armed forces were dubbed Friedensheer (peace army). In March 1919, the national assembly passed a law founding a 420,000-strong preliminary army, the Vorläufige Reichswehr . The terms of the Treaty of Versailles were announced in May, and in June, Germany signed

1944-525: The Reichswehr , was established on 23 March 1921. General conscription was abolished under another mandate of the Versailles treaty. The Reichswehr was limited to 115,000 men, and thus the armed forces, under the leadership of Hans von Seeckt , retained only the most capable officers. The American historians Alan Millet and Williamson Murray wrote "In reducing the officers corps, Seeckt chose

2052-693: The Battle of Moscow , the Siege of Leningrad , Stalingrad , Tunis in North Africa , and the Battle of Kursk . The German Army was managed through mission-based tactics (rather than order-based tactics) which was intended to give commanders greater freedom to act on events and exploit opportunities. In public opinion, the German Army was, and sometimes still is, seen as a high-tech army. However, such modern equipment, while featured much in propaganda,

2160-687: The Battle of Wuhan . Losses were heavy, forcing the Chinese SB units to be temporarily withdrawn from combat. The Soviet units operating the SB over China re-equipped with the Ilyushin DB-3 in 1939, allowing their SBs to be transferred to Chinese units, but the Chinese made limited use of these reinforcements. The Soviet Union supplied a further 100 SBs in 1941, just before it signed the Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact . The SB

2268-587: The Hispano-Suiza 12Y liquid-cooled V12 engines (ANT-40 IS). The skills gained in the design of the MI-3 and DI-8 aircraft were widely used. The first two prototypes were designed as ANT-40.1 and ANT-40.2. The Cyclone powered prototype flew first, on 7 October 1934, while the first Hispano-Suiza powered prototype (ANT-40 1 ), which featured a larger wing, flew on 30 December 1934, demonstrating superior performance. The second Hispano-Suiza powered aircraft,

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2376-515: The Junkers Ju 87 Stuka dive bomber. The planes cooperated closely with the ground forces. Overwhelming numbers of fighters assured air-supremacy, and the bombers would attack command- and supply-lines, depots, and other support targets close to the front. The Luftwaffe would also be used to transport paratroopers, as first used during Operation Weserübung . Due to the Army's sway with Hitler,

2484-479: The Luftwaffe was often subordinated to the Army, resulting in it being used as a tactical support role and losing its strategic capabilities. The Western Allies' strategic bombing campaign against German industrial targets (particularly the round-the-clock Combined Bomber Offensive ) and Germany's Defence of the Reich deliberately forced the Luftwaffe into a war of attrition. With German fighter force destroyed,

2592-762: The OKH became the de facto Eastern Theatre higher-echelon command-organization for the Wehrmacht , excluding Waffen-SS except for operational and tactical combat purposes. The OKW conducted operations in the Western Theatre. The operations by the Kriegsmarine in the North and Mid-Atlantic can also be considered as separate theatres, considering the size of the area of operations and their remoteness from other theatres. The Wehrmacht fought on other fronts, sometimes three simultaneously; redeploying troops from

2700-904: The Petlyakov Pe-2 . A total of 5,695 were built at Factory No 22 at Moscow before it was evacuated to Kazan , while Factory No 125 built a further 1,136 at Irkutsk. Three prototypes were built at the Tupolev design bureau, while Aero Vodochody and Avia in Czechoslovakia built 45 and 66 respectively, giving a total of 6,945 built. The SB was an all-metal monoplane powered by two Klimov M-100 12-cylinder water-cooled engines (license production version of Hispano-Suiza 12-Yrds engine) which drove fixed-pitch two-bladed metal propellers . The engines were provided with honeycomb-type frontal radiators enclosed by vertical thermostat -controlled cooling shutters . At an early production stage,

2808-471: The SS and Wehrmacht , many SS officers were former army officers, which ensured continuity and understanding between the two. Throughout the war, army and SS soldiers worked together in various combat situations, creating bonds between the two groups. Guderian noted that every day the war continued the Army and the SS became closer together. Towards the end of the war, army units would even be placed under

2916-599: The SS was to be "procured from the Wehrmacht upon payment", however "in peacetime, no organizational connection with the Wehrmacht exists." The army was however allowed to check the budget of the SS and inspect the combat readiness of the SS troops. In the event of mobilization, the Waffen-SS field units could be placed under the operational control of the OKW or the OKH. All decisions regarding this would be at Hitler's personal discretion. Though there existed conflict between

3024-445: The SS were stepped up as well. Following the Battle of Stalingrad in 1943, fitness and physical health standards for Wehrmacht recruits were drastically lowered, with the regime going so far as to create "special diet" battalions for men with severe stomach ailments. Rear-echelon personnel were more often sent to front-line duty wherever possible, especially during the final two years of the war where, inspired by constant propaganda,

3132-662: The Soviet Union , including the Caucasian Muslim Legion , Turkestan Legion , Crimean Tatars, ethnic Ukrainians and Russians, Cossacks , and others who wished to fight against the Soviet regime or who were otherwise induced to join. Between 15,000 and 20,000 anti-communist White émigrés who had left Russia after the Russian Revolution joined the ranks of the Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS , with 1,500 acting as interpreters and more than 10,000 serving in

3240-491: The Spanish Civil War . The effectiveness of officer training and recruitment by the Wehrmacht has been identified as a major factor in its early victories as well as its ability to keep the war going as long as it did even as the war turned against Germany. As the Second World War intensified, Kriegsmarine and Luftwaffe personnel were increasingly transferred to the army, and "voluntary" enlistments in

3348-616: The Spanish Republican Air Force , which at first was mainly manned by Soviet volunteers and under Soviet control. The SB could outpace the Fiat CR.32 and Heinkel He 51 biplane fighters of the nationalist forces, and was therefore difficult to intercept, with dives from high altitude being the only way to intercept the SB. On 29 May 1937 two SBs attacked the German pocket battleship Deutschland , mistaking it for

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3456-734: The Wehrmacht . By the time the war ended in Europe in May 1945, German forces (consisting of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine , the Luftwaffe , the Waffen-SS , the Volkssturm , and foreign collaborator units ) had lost approximately 11,300,000 men, about 5,318,000 of whom were missing, killed or died in captivity. Only a few of the Wehrmacht ' s upper leadership went on trial for war crimes, despite evidence suggesting that more were involved in illegal actions. According to Ian Kershaw , most of

3564-532: The Wehrmacht's capacity to the breaking point, culminating in its first major defeat in the Battle of Moscow (1941); by late 1942, Germany was losing the initiative in all theatres. The German operational art proved no match to that of the Allied coalition , making the Wehrmacht's weaknesses in strategy, doctrine, and logistics apparent. Closely cooperating with the SS and their Einsatzgruppen death squads,

3672-524: The " battle of annihilation ", the Wehrmacht managed many lightning quick victories in the first year of World War II, prompting foreign journalists to create a new word for what they witnessed: Blitzkrieg . Germany's immediate military success on the field at the start of the Second World War coincides the favorable beginning they achieved during the First World War, a fact which some attribute to their superior officer corps. The Heer entered

3780-695: The "German Wehrmacht ", consisting of the Seemacht (sea force) and the Landmacht (land force). In 1919, the term Wehrmacht also appears in Article 47 of the Weimar Constitution , establishing that: "The Reich's President holds supreme command of all armed forces [i.e. the Wehrmacht ] of the Reich". From 1919, Germany's national defense force was known as the Reichswehr , a name that

3888-552: The 1950s, many ANT-40s that survived the Second World War were scrapped. In the late 1970s, however, Vozdushni Transport (A Soviet aviation newspaper) sent an expedition led by Evgeny Konoplev to survey an ANT-40 that was forced to land during a snow storm near the Yuzhne Muiski mountain range in the Baikal region. Konoplev considered what they found encouraging, with the aircraft being in fairly decent condition, in turn leading

3996-626: The ANT-40 2 was considered a production prototype, and its performance was impressive. It was however plagued by teething problems, leading unhappy test personnel to cover the ANT-40 2 with placards listing the aircraft's defects prior to a visit by Sergo Ordzhonikidze , the Commissar for Heavy Industry. On seeing these placards, Ordzhonikidze summoned Tupolev to a meeting at the Kremlin to discuss these shortfalls. When Tupolev stated that most of

4104-951: The Armed Forces, retaining the position until his suicide on 30 April 1945. The title of Commander-in-Chief was given to the Minister of the Reichswehr Werner von Blomberg , who was simultaneously renamed the Reich Minister of War. Following the Blomberg-Fritsch Affair , Blomberg resigned and Hitler abolished the Ministry of War. As a replacement for the ministry, the Wehrmacht High Command Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW), under Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel ,

4212-555: The Avia-built Hispano-Suiza 12-Ydrs engine. A single 7.92 mm vz. 30 machine gun supplanted the twin ShKAS machine guns in the nose and similar weapons were provided for the dorsal and ventral stations. 60 aircraft were to be flown to Czechoslovakia by mid-1938. The planned licensed production program took a decidedly leisurely course, despite the increasingly dangerous political situation. By 15 March 1939, when

4320-470: The British. Karl Doenitz , the U-Boat Chief, began unrestricted submarine warfare which cost the Allies 22,898 men and 1,315 ships. The U-boat war remained costly for the Allies until early spring of 1943 when the Allies began to use countermeasures against U-Boats such as the use of Hunter-Killer groups, airborne radar, torpedoes and mines like the FIDO . The submarine war cost the Kriegsmarine 757 U-boats, with more than 30,000 U-boat crewmen killed. In

4428-535: The Far East until 1945. Many Soviet SBs crashed or force-landed on Finnish soil during the Winter War, with the Finns salvaging as many aircraft as possible, with those in the best condition being sent to Valtion lentokonetehdas for possible repair for use by the Finnish air force. By the time of the Continuation War against the Soviet Union, five SBs had been repaired (with a further three added later), being used to equip Lentolaivue 6 , flying maritime patrol and attack missions. These aircraft were supplemented by

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4536-468: The German Wehrmacht occupied Bohemia and Moravia , not one Czech-built aircraft had been delivered. Development of the SB continued, meanwhile, with revisions being made to reflect the lessons of early operations in Spain. As problems were encountered in converting pilots to fly the SB, a trainer version, the USB was built in September 1937, with a modified nose with an open cockpit for an instructor and dual controls. Problems were also encountered with

4644-402: The German armed forces committed numerous war crimes (despite later denials and promotion of the myth of the clean Wehrmacht ). The majority of the war crimes took place in the Soviet Union, Poland, Yugoslavia, Greece, and Italy, as part of the war of annihilation against the Soviet Union, the Holocaust and Nazi security warfare . During World War II about 18 million men served in

4752-423: The German armed forces prior to 1941. With the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, the government's positions changed. German propagandists wanted to present the war not as a purely German concern, but as a multi-national crusade against the so-called Jewish Bolshevism . Hence, the Wehrmacht and the SS began to seek out recruits from occupied and neutral countries across Europe: the Germanic populations of

4860-418: The German army's early success. In the strategies of the Blitzkrieg , the Wehrmacht combined the mobility of light tanks with airborne assault to quickly progress through weak enemy lines, enabling the German army to quickly take over Poland and France. These tanks were used to break through enemy lines, isolating regiments from the main force so that the infantry behind the tanks could quickly kill or capture

4968-422: The Jews serving in the Reichswehr given an automatic and immediate dishonorable discharge . Again, on his own initiative Blomberg had the armed forces adopt Nazi symbols into their uniforms in May 1934. In August of the same year, on Blomberg's initiative and that of the Ministeramt chief General Walther von Reichenau , the entire military took the Hitler oath , an oath of personal loyalty to Hitler. Hitler

5076-679: The Klimov M-100, a license-built version of the Hispano-Suiza 12Ybrs engine, but this was soon replaced by the more powerful M-100A, and from 1938 by the yet more powerful M-103. While the engine installation of the SB 2-M103 initially retained the drag inducing frontal radiators of the M-100 powered aircraft, an improved engine installation was developed with the radiators slung under the engines. On 2 September 1937 M.Yu. Alexeev set an official altitude record of 12,246 m (40,177 ft) with load of 1,000 kg (2,200 lb) in an M-103 powered SB. He had earlier set an unofficial record of 12,695 m (41,650 ft). In an attempt to further improve

5184-425: The M-100 engine gave place to an improved M-100A engine, driving ground-adjustable three-pitch propellers, with speed being boosted to 423 km/h (263 mph) at 4,000 m (13,000 ft). Because of its broad, high aspect ratio wing, that gave it a good altitude performance – Soviet crews nicknamed the SB the " Pterodactyl ". There were a number of foreign customers for the SB. They were mostly satisfied with

5292-554: The Nationalist cruiser Canarias , killing 31 and injuring an additional 83 German sailors. In June–July, a second consignment of 31 SBs were received, allowing Grupo 12 to return to full strength, and a new unit, Grupo 24, to be established. The delivery of Messerschmitt Bf 109s to re-equip the German Condor Legion meant that the SB could no longer evade Nationalist fighters by sheer speed, and losses rose. A third and final batch of 31 SBs arrived in June 1938, allowing operations to continue, although losses continued to be high. By

5400-441: The Netherlands and Norway were recruited largely into the SS , while "non-Germanic" people were recruited into the Wehrmacht . The "voluntary" nature of such recruitment was often dubious, especially in the later years of the war when even Poles living in the Polish Corridor were declared "ethnic Germans" and drafted. After Germany's defeat in the Battle of Stalingrad , the Wehrmacht also made substantial use of personnel from

5508-920: The OKW, Hitler solidified his control over the Wehrmacht . Showing restraint at the beginning of the war, Hitler also became increasingly involved in military operations at every scale. Additionally, there was a clear lack of cohesion between the three High Commands and the OKW, as senior generals were unaware of the needs, capabilities and limitations of the other branches. With Hitler serving as Supreme Commander, branch commands were often forced to fight for influence with Hitler. However, influence with Hitler not only came from rank and merit but also who Hitler perceived as loyal, leading to inter-service rivalry, rather than cohesion between his military advisers. The German Army furthered concepts pioneered during World War I , combining ground ( Heer ) and air force ( Luftwaffe ) assets into combined arms teams. Coupled with traditional war fighting methods such as encirclements and

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5616-404: The Red Army air force ( VVS RKKA ) were SBs. In 1933 the Soviet Air Force ministry (UVVS) issued an outline requirement for a high-speed bomber. Work on this proposal at TsAGI began in January 1934. The SB was designed and developed in the Tupolev KB ("Design Bureau") by a team led by A. A. Arkhangelski . Two versions were planned – with Wright Cyclone radial engines (ANT-40 RTs), and with

5724-447: The SB could outpace enemy fighters, by now it was vulnerable and poorly armed. SBs were fitted with skis for operation from snow covered airfields, slowing the aircraft and making them more vulnerable, while the need to wear heavy winter clothing made the gunner's job even harder. By the end of the 15-week war, at least 100 SBs had been lost, with the Finns claiming nearly 200 shot down, 92 of them to Finnish fighters. When Germany invaded

5832-503: The Soviet Air Forces by 1 July 1936, this did not stop the new Tupolev bomber being amongst the first shipments of military equipment sent by the Soviet Union to support the Spanish Republicans when the Spanish Civil War broke out on 17 July 1936. An initial batch of 31 SBs arrived in Cartagena aboard the Soviet Freighter Komsomol in October 1936, flying their first mission, a bombing raid by four SBs against Tablada airfield, Seville on 28 October. The SBs were used to equip Grupo 12 of

5940-426: The Soviet Union in June 1941, re-equipment with more modern aircraft such as the Pe-2 had begun. Still, 94% of the Soviet operational bomber force was equipped with SBs, with 1,500–2,000 SBs deployed along the Western border districts of the Soviet Union. The Luftwaffe started Operation Barbarossa with co-ordinated strikes against 66 major Soviet airfields, destroying a large proportion of Soviet air strength on

6048-420: The Soviet forces received heavy losses, two Regiments of SBs were deployed to Mongolia in June, flying their first missions on 26 June. SBs were used heavily against Japanese forces when they attacked in early July. The Soviet SB regiments consisted of a mixture of early and later SBs, whose differing speeds caused problems in maintaining formation, while Japanese Nakajima Ki-27 fighters proved adept in exploiting

6156-436: The Western Allies had air supremacy over the battlefield, denying support to German forces on the ground and using its own fighter-bombers to attack and disrupt. Following the losses in Operation Bodenplatte in 1945, the Luftwaffe was no longer an effective force. The Treaty of Versailles disallowed submarines, while limiting the size of the Reichsmarine to six battleships, six cruisers, and twelve destroyers. Following

6264-412: The aircraft operated by volunteers against the Japanese over China, SBs were used in combat against the Japanese during the Fighting near Lake Khasan on the eastern sector of the China–Russia border in July–August 1938, one SB being lost. Fighting between Soviet and Japanese forces broke out again at Khalkhin Gol in Eastern Mongolia in May 1939. While SBs were not involved in the May air battles, where

6372-452: The aircraft's performance. There were some complaints about the high noise level, cramped crew compartments, hard undercarriage suspension and in particular about the front gunner's position, which could be reached only through a hatch under the fuselage, preventing the gunner from escaping in the event of a ditching or belly landing . Czechoslovakia signed an agreement to produce the ANT-40 as Avia B-71. While only 54 SBs had been delivered to

6480-409: The armament, the nose guns having limited traverse and so being little use against head-on attacks and later aircraft were modified with a better field of fire. From 1940, the dorsal gun position was replaced by an enclosed turret, while the ventral gun position, which was difficult to use, was also modified. The aircraft was also progressively fitted with improved engines. At first it was equipped with

6588-446: The army that existed in World War I. In the 1920s, Seeckt and his officers developed new doctrines that emphasized speed, aggression, combined arms and initiative on the part of lower officers to take advantage of momentary opportunities. Though Seeckt retired in 1926, his influence on the army was still apparent when it went to war in 1939. Germany was forbidden to have an air force by the Versailles treaty; nonetheless, Seeckt created

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6696-412: The beginning of World War II against Germany in 1941. It was also used in various duties in civil variants, as trainers and in many secondary roles. Successful in the Spanish Civil War because it outpaced most fighters present (composed mostly of biplanes), the aircraft was obsolete by 1941 as faster fighters (such as the Bf-109 ) had by then been introduced. By June 1941, 94 percent of bombers in

6804-410: The beginning, there was friction between the SS and the army, as the army feared the SS would attempt to become a legitimate part of the armed forces of Nazi Germany, partly due to the fighting between the limited armaments, and the perceived fanaticism towards Nazism. However, on 17 August 1938, Hitler codified the role of the SS and the army in order to end the feud between the two. The arming of

6912-430: The coast of Norway, which had been occupied since 1940, convoys from North America to the Soviet port of Murmansk could be intercepted though the Tirpitz spent most of her career as fleet in being . After the appointment of Karl Dönitz as Grand Admiral of the Kriegsmarine (in the aftermath of the Battle of the Barents Sea ), Germany stopped constructing battleships and cruisers in favor of U-boats. Though by 1941,

7020-403: The command of the SS , in Italy and the Netherlands. The relationship between the Wehrmacht and the SS improved; however, the Waffen-SS was never considered "the fourth branch of the Wehrmacht ." The Wehrmacht directed combat operations during World War II (from 1 September 1939 – 8 May 1945) as the German Reich 's armed forces umbrella command-organization. After 1941

7128-418: The creation of the Wehrmacht , the navy was renamed the Kriegsmarine . With the signing of the Anglo-German Naval Agreement , Germany was allowed to increase its navy's size to be 35:100 tonnage of the Royal Navy, and allowed for the construction of U-boats. This was partly done to appease Germany, and because Britain believed the Kriegsmarine would not be able to reach the 35% limit until 1942. The navy

7236-416: The defects were trivial, Joseph Stalin said: There are no trivialities in aviation; everything is serious and any uncorrected 'triviality' could lead to the loss of an aircraft and its crew. The first production aircraft, designated SB, rolled off the production line before the end of 1935, and before ANT-40 2 had completed its flight test programme. The aircraft entered full production in 1936 , and

7344-652: The early 1920s. Dr.-Ing Adolf Rohrbach is credited with coining the term "stressed skin" in 1923. By 1940, duralumin sheets had replaced wood and nearly all new designs used monocoque construction. The adoption of stressed-skin construction resulted in improved aircraft speed and range, accomplished by reduced drag through smoother surfaces, elimination of external bracing, and providing internal space for retractable landing gear. Examples include nearly all modern all-metal airplanes , as well as some railway vehicles, buses and motorhomes . The London Transport AEC Routemaster incorporated internal panels riveted to

7452-402: The early part of the Second World War , the Wehrmacht employed combined arms tactics (close-cover air-support, tanks and infantry) to devastating effect in what became known as Blitzkrieg (lightning war). Its campaigns in France (1940) , the Soviet Union (1941) and North Africa (1941/42) are regarded by historians as acts of boldness. At the same time, the extent of advances strained

7560-452: The early stage of Operation Barbarossa in the Soviet Union (June 1941). After Hitler declared war on the United States in December 1941, the Axis powers found themselves engaged in campaigns against several major industrial powers while Germany was still in transition to a war economy. German units were then overextended, undersupplied, outmaneuvered, outnumbered and defeated by its enemies in decisive battles during 1941, 1942, and 1943 at

7668-436: The enemy troops. Originally outlawed by the Treaty of Versailles, the Luftwaffe was officially established in 1935, under the leadership of Hermann Göring . First gaining experience in the Spanish Civil War , it was a key element in the early Blitzkrieg campaigns (Poland, France 1940, USSR 1941). The Luftwaffe concentrated production on fighters and (small) tactical bombers, like the Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter and

7776-403: The frames which took most of the structure's shear load. Automobile unibodies are a form of stressed skin as well, as are some framed buildings which lack diagonal bracing. Wehrmacht The Wehrmacht ( German pronunciation: [ˈveːɐ̯maxt] , lit.   ' defence force ' ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of

7884-412: The ground or air on the first day of the invasion. The SBs that survived the carnage of the first day continued to be poorly used, many being frittered away in unescorted low-level attacks against German tanks, where the SB's relatively large size and lack of armour made it highly vulnerable to German light Flak , while German fighters continued to take a heavy toll. Within a few days, losses forced most of

7992-686: The guard force of the Russian Protective Corps . In the beginning, women in Nazi Germany were not involved in the Wehrmacht , as Hitler ideologically opposed conscription for women, stating that Germany would " not form any section of women grenade throwers or any corps of women elite snipers. " However, with many men going to the front, women were placed in auxiliary positions within the Wehrmacht , called Wehrmachtshelferinnen ( lit.   ' Female Wehrmacht Helper ' ), participating in tasks as: They were placed under

8100-855: The intensifying theatre in the East to the West after the Normandy landings caused tensions between the General Staffs of both the OKW and the OKH ;– as Germany lacked sufficient materiel and manpower for a two-front war of such magnitude. Major campaigns and battles in Eastern and Central Europe included: For a time, the Axis Mediterranean Theatre and the North African Campaign were conducted as

8208-523: The name " Wehrmacht "; the Reichswehr was officially renamed the Wehrmacht on 21 May 1935. Hitler's proclamation of the Wehrmacht ' s existence included a total of no less than 36 divisions in its original projection, contravening the Treaty of Versailles in grandiose fashion. In December 1935, General Ludwig Beck added 48 tank battalions to the planned rearmament program. Hitler originally set

8316-474: The navy had already lost a number of its large surface ships, which could not be replenished during the war. The Kriegsmarine ' s most significant contribution to the German war effort was the deployment of its nearly 1,000 U-boats to strike at Allied convoys. The German naval strategy was to attack the convoys in an attempt to prevent the United States from interfering in Europe and to starve out

8424-403: The new leadership from the best men of the general staff with ruthless disregard for other constituencies, such as war heroes and the nobility." Seeckt's determination that the Reichswehr be an elite cadre force that would serve as the nucleus of an expanded military when the chance for restoring conscription came essentially led to the creation of a new army, based upon, but very different from,

8532-584: The next decade until the Germans finally left in September 1933. However, the arms buildup was done in secrecy, until Hitler came to power and it received broad political support. After the death of President Paul von Hindenburg on 2 August 1934, Adolf Hitler assumed the office of President of Germany , and thus became commander in chief. In February 1934, the Defence Minister Werner von Blomberg , acting on his own initiative, had all of

8640-560: The oldest and youngest were being recruited and driven by instilled fear and fanaticism to serve on the fronts and, often, to fight to the death, whether judged to be cannon fodder or elite troops. Prior to World War II, the Wehrmacht strove to remain a purely ethnic German force; as such, minorities within and outside of Germany, such as the Czechs in annexed Czechoslovakia , were exempted from military service after Hitler's takeover in 1938. Foreign volunteers were generally not accepted in

8748-622: The opening year of the war. No aircraft carrier was operational, as German leadership lost interest in the Graf Zeppelin which had been launched in 1938. Following the loss of the German battleship  Bismarck in 1941, with Allied air-superiority threatening the remaining battle-cruisers in French Atlantic harbors, the ships were ordered to make the Channel Dash back to German ports. Operating from fjords along

8856-459: The other half performed obligatory services connected to the war effort ( German : Kriegshilfsdienst ). Legally, the commander-in-chief of the Wehrmacht was Adolf Hitler in his capacity as Germany's head of state, a position he gained after the death of President Paul von Hindenburg in August 1934. With the creation of the Wehrmacht in 1935, Hitler elevated himself to Supreme Commander of

8964-615: The performance of the SB, which by 1939 was becoming obsolete, the development of two second-generation versions were authorised, a direct replacement for the SB and a specialised dive bomber. The level bomber, known as the SN-MN or MMN, had a new wing of reduced wing area and was powered by more powerful Klimov M-105 engines. Performance was little better than the standard aircraft and it was abandoned. The dive-bomber, designated SB-RK (later redesignated Arkhangelsky Ar-2 after its designer, with Tupolev having been imprisoned and being in disgrace)

9072-586: The period 1935–1939. The total number of soldiers who served in the Wehrmacht during its existence from 1935 to 1945 is believed to have approached 18.2 million. The German military leadership originally aimed at a homogeneous military, possessing traditional Prussian military values. However, with Hitler's constant wishes to increase the Wehrmacht ' s size, the Army was forced to accept citizens of lower class and education, decreasing internal cohesion and appointing officers who lacked real-war experience from previous conflicts, especially World War I and

9180-521: The poor defensive armament of the SB, with the radio operator operating both the dorsal and ventral guns. To minimise losses to Japanese fighters, the Soviets changed tactics, flying SB missions at over 6,100 m (20,000 ft) where it was difficult for the Japanese to intercept. SBs continued to be used against the Japanese as the Soviets and Mongolian forces commanded by Georgy Zhukov carried out

9288-459: The popular name " Katyusha " (Catherine). In 1937, negotiations were concluded between the Soviet and Czechoslovak governments, for the supply of SB bombers and a licence for local production, in exchange for the right to produce the Škoda 75 mm Model 1936 mountain gun . The version of the SB to be supplied to, and subsequently license-built as the Avia B-71 was the SB 2M-100A but fitted with

9396-492: The remaining SBs to switch to night attacks. SBs continued to be used, in the defense of Leningrad and Moscow , mainly at night by attacking German artillery. By December 1941 almost all of the SBs had either been replaced or lost, although it remained in large-scale use until March 1942 in the North against Finland. SBs continued in use for non-combat roles such as supply dropping, glider towing and training, and continued in use in

9504-692: The remaining SBs were used for occasional training flights until withdrawn and scrapped in 1948. In July 1937, the Second Sino-Japanese War broke out. The Soviet Union signed the Sino-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact on 21 August 1937, and as part of this agreement, supplied large amounts of military equipment to the Chinese Nationalists , as well as deploying complete air force units, nominally manned by Soviet volunteers. An initial delivery of 62 SBs

9612-649: The same authority as ( Hiwis ), auxiliary personnel of the army ( German : Behelfspersonal ) and they were assigned to duties within the Reich, and to a lesser extent, in the occupied territories, for example in the general government of occupied Poland , in France , and later in Yugoslavia , in Greece and in Romania . By 1945, 500,000 women were serving as Wehrmachtshelferinnen , half of whom were volunteers, while

9720-435: The structural rigidity contributed by the skin. In a monocoque design, the skin assumes all or most of the stress and the structure has fewer discrete framing elements, sometimes including only longitudinal or lateral members. In contrast, a rigid frame structure derives only a minor portion of the overall stiffness from the skin, and the discrete framing elements provide the majority. This stressed skin method of construction

9828-511: The tensile strain in the second". This has been credited as the first instance of stressed skin design, also known as sandwich or double hull . The first aircraft from the early 1900s were constructed with full frames consisting of wood or steel tube frame members, covered with varnished fabric or plywood, although some companies began developing monocoque structures which were built by bending and laminating thin layers of tulipwood . Oswald Short patented an all-metal, stressed-skin wing in

9936-557: The terms. Germany helped the Soviet Union with industrialization and Soviet officers were to be trained in Germany. German tank and air-force specialists could exercise in the Soviet Union and German chemical weapons research and manufacture would be carried out there along with other projects. In 1924 a fighter-pilot school was established at Lipetsk , where several hundred German air force personnel received instruction in operational maintenance, navigation, and aerial combat training over

10044-474: The three million Wehrmacht soldiers who invaded the USSR participated in war crimes. The German term "Wehrmacht " stems from the compound word of German : wehren , "to defend" and Macht , "power, force". It has been used to describe any nation's armed forces; for example, Britische Wehrmacht meaning "British Armed Forces". The Frankfurt Constitution of 1849 designated all German military forces as

10152-590: The time the Civil War ended in April 1939, 73 SBs had been lost, 40 of them to enemy action. Nineteen SBs were taken over by the Nationalists, and used to form a bomber squadron. Although some were re-engined with French Hispano-Suiza 12Ybrs engines to aid maintenance, they were still subject to spares shortages, and in April 1943 only three were airworthy. When Junkers Ju 88s were received in December 1943,

10260-412: The treaty that, among other terms, imposed severe constraints on the size of Germany's armed forces. The army was limited to one hundred thousand men with an additional fifteen thousand in the navy. The fleet was to consist of at most six battleships , six cruisers , and twelve destroyers . Submarines , tanks and heavy artillery were forbidden and the air-force was dissolved. A new post-war military,

10368-480: The war with a minority of its formations motorized ; infantry remained approximately 90% foot-borne throughout the war, and artillery was 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 reason for the success of the invasions of Poland (September 1939), Denmark and Norway (April 1940), Belgium, France, and Netherlands (May 1940), Yugoslavia and Greece (April 1941) and

10476-650: Was also prioritized last in the German rearmament scheme, making it the smallest of the branches. In the Battle of the Atlantic , the initially successful German U-boat fleet arm was eventually defeated due to Allied technological innovations like sonar , radar , and the breaking of the Enigma code. Large surface vessels were few in number due to construction limitations by international treaties prior to 1935. The "pocket battleships" Admiral Graf Spee and Admiral Scheer were important as commerce raiders only in

10584-422: Was dedicated to the idea of reviving Tirpitz's High Seas Fleet. Officers who believed in submarine warfare led by Admiral Karl Dönitz were in a minority before 1939. By 1922, Germany had begun covertly circumventing the conditions of the Versailles treaty. A secret collaboration with the Soviet Union began after the Treaty of Rapallo . Major-General Otto Hasse traveled to Moscow in 1923 to further negotiate

10692-484: Was dropped in favor of Wehrmacht on 21 May 1935. While the term Wehrmacht has been associated, both in the German and English languages, with the German armed forces of 1935–45 since the Second World War, before 1945 the term was used in the German language in a more general sense for a national defense force. For instance, the German-aligned formations of Poles raised during the First World War were known as

10800-560: Was gradually phased out of front-line operations against the Japanese with the delivery of more modern American bombers from 1942, being partly replaced by Lockheed Hudsons and B-25 Mitchells . Limited numbers of SBs continued in non-combat use, including operations against opium plantations, before being used against the Communists when the Chinese Civil War flared up in 1945, being finally withdrawn in 1946. As well as

10908-573: Was made in September–October 1937, with combat operations by Soviet forces starting in December with attacks on Japanese ships on the Yangtze River . On 23 February 1938, to celebrate Soviet Army Day , Soviet SBs carried out a long range attack on Japanese airfields on Taiwan, claiming 40 Japanese aircraft destroyed on the ground. A further 60 SBs were delivered to China in early 1938, these being heavily used to attack Japanese forces during

11016-465: Was most surprised at the offer; the popular view that Hitler imposed the oath on the military is false. The oath read: "I swear by God this sacred oath that to the Leader of the German empire and people, Adolf Hitler, supreme commander of the armed forces, I shall render unconditional obedience and that as a brave soldier I shall at all times be prepared to give my life for this oath". By 1935, Germany

11124-539: Was often only available in relatively small numbers. Only 40% to 60% of all units in the Eastern Front were motorized, baggage trains often relied on horse-drawn trailers due to poor roads and weather conditions in the Soviet Union, and for the same reasons many soldiers marched on foot or used bicycles as bicycle infantry . As the fortunes of war turned against them, the Germans were in constant retreat from 1943 and onward. The Panzer divisions were vital to

11232-621: Was openly flouting the military restrictions set forth in the Versailles Treaty: German rearmament was announced on 16 March with the "Edict for the Buildup of the Wehrmacht " ( German : Gesetz für den Aufbau der Wehrmacht ) and the reintroduction of conscription. While the size of the standing army was to remain at about the 100,000-man mark decreed by the treaty, a new group of conscripts equal to this size would receive training each year. The conscription law introduced

11340-501: Was produced in two plants, State Aircraft Factory No 22 at Moscow and No 125 at Irkutsk until 1941. Despite the fact that the assembly lines were plagued with a constant string of modifications, some 400 SBs were delivered by the end of 1936—a number of these being diverted to Spain—and 24 VVS squadrons were in the process of working up with the new bomber. Giving excellent performance in the Spanish Civil War, it acquired

11448-431: Was put in its place. Placed under the OKW were the three branch High Commands: Oberkommando des Heeres (OKH), Oberkommando der Marine (OKM), and Oberkommando der Luftwaffe (OKL). The OKW was intended to serve as a joint command and coordinate all military activities, with Hitler at the top. Though many senior officers, such as von Manstein , had advocated for a real tri-service Joint Command, or appointment of

11556-501: Was similar to the MMN but was fitted with dive brakes and it was ordered into production. Even though the SB was no longer a state of the art aircraft, production continued to increase through 1939 and 1940, as the Soviet Union tried to build up the strength of their air forces to compete with the growing threat of Nazi Germany, with almost 4,000 being built in these two years. The SB was phased out of production in early 1941, being replaced by

11664-407: 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 neighbours. This required the reinstatement of conscription and massive investment and defence spending on the arms industry . The Wehrmacht formed the heart of Germany's politico-military power. In

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