Common Misconceptions Regarding the Wehrmacht

German Horse-Drawn Transport
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First off, let's clarify something regarding the word "Wehrmacht." If as a kid you watched a lot of World War II movies, you probably heard this word a few times and assumed, like I did, that it was the German word for "army."

Nope. Wehrmacht is the German word for armed forces, literally "defense force." The Wehrmacht (which really only existed under that formal term from 1935 to 1945) was composed of das Heer (the Army), die Kriegsmarine (the Navy), and die Luftwaffe (the Air Force).

For comparison, the modern German armed forces are called the Bundeswehr, which is composed of (again) das Heer and die Luftwaffe, but the modern term for the German Navy is the Deutsches Marine or simple, die Marine. (Pronounced ma-reen-na, not ma-reen.)

You may have also heard of the Waffen SS, they were not part of the Wehrmacht but were a separate force. Property of the Nazi Party for the most part.

The SS were responsible for most of the atrocities committed by the Third Reich during the war. But not all, the German Army participated in a number of "police actions" on the Eastern Front. Police action meaning the rounding up of non-combatants and murdering them. But enough on that, that is something for a different post methinks.

One of the enduring myths of Word War II is the vision of the German Army being mostly motorized. That and having lots and lots of tanks.

Note my use of the word myth...

myth
    1. a traditional story, especially one concerning the early history of a people or explaining some natural or social phenomenon, and typically involving supernatural beings or events.
    2. a widely held but false belief or idea. (Source)

I'm going with definition number 2 here. (Though a thousand years from now, definition 1 could apply...)

There are a lot of folks who think that the Germans were nearly fully motorized in World War II, when in truth, most German soldiers went to war the old fashioned way, they walked. Up until the end of the war most German transport was horse drawn. Think 80% or so.

Soldaten heading off to war...

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Here's the World War I version...

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Even the rifle they carried wasn't much different from what their grandfathers carried to war.

WWI Gewehr 98
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WWII Karabiner 98
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Basically the same action and the same caliber (7.92 mm, which is often simply referred to as 8 mm). The K98 was (as you might imagine) a shorter version of the venerable G98. (Karabiner is the German for carbine - a shorter version of a long rifle, traditionally used by cavalry.)

A weapon designed in 1898. Yes, 1898.

But, I digress...

The German Army entered World War II with 514,000 horses, and over the course of the war employed, in total, 2.75 million horses and mules; the average number of horses in the Army reached 1.1 million. They lost nearly 150,000 horses that first winter in Russia. Pretty good Wikipedia article about the horse in WWII here. Covers most of the major combatants.

Even in units which were supposed to be fully mechanized (generally indicating that the troop transports were somewhat armored and partially or fully tracked), in reality most of the infantry rode in trucks, which suck off-road compared to a half-track or fully tracked vehicle.

Who was really motorized and mechanized? The Western Allies and to some extent the Soviets, once we had supplied them with trucks. Lots and lots of trucks.

There is a great deal of truth (all of it) in this rant by PFC Webster from the excellent mini-series Band of Brothers. (Raise hands those who haven't watched that series. I would rectify that most riki-tik if I were you.)

Oh and, ahem, language alert...

(Before you watch the clip, see the screenshot below, do you recognize the actor on the left of the screen? No? Ever seen Inglourious Basterds or Centurion? That's enough hints I think...)