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The German Army ((ドイツ語:Heer), (:ˈheːɐ̯)) was the land forces component of the Wehrmacht, the regular German Armed Forces, from 1935 until it was demobilized and later dissolved in August 1946.〔Large, David Clay (1996). Germans to the Front: West German Rearmament in the Adenauer Era, p. 25〕 The Wehrmacht also included the Kriegsmarine (Navy) and the Luftwaffe (Air Force). During World War II, a total of about 18 million soldiers served in the German Army, of whom about 10 million became casualties. Most army personnel were conscripted. Only 17 months after Adolf 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.〔Haskew, Michael. ''The Wehrmacht: 1923–1945'', p 28.〕 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 encirclements 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.〔Haskew, Michael. ''The Wehrmacht: 1923–1945'', pp 61, 62.〕 The German Army entered the war with a majority of its infantry formations relying on the horse for transportation. The infantry remained foot soldiers throughout the war; artillery also remained 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. The Heer's lack of trucks (and petroleum to run them) was a severe handicap to infantry movement especially during and after the Normandy invasion when Allied air power devastated the French rail network north of the Loire. Panzer movements also depended upon rail: driving a tank over 150 kilometers wore out its tracks.〔Keegan, John ''Six Armies in Normandy'', pp 156, 157.〕 Separate from the German Army, the Waffen-SS (Armed SS) was a multi-ethnic and multi-national military force of the Third Reich. Growing from three regiments to over 38 divisions during World War II, it served alongside the Army but was never formally part of it.〔McNab, Chris. ''The SS: 1923–1945'', pp 56, 57, 66.〕 == 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.〔Haskew, Michael. ''The Wehrmacht: 1923–1945'', p 40, 41.〕 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 districts (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''). 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「German Army (Wehrmacht)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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