The U.S. Department of War

Articles from The U.S. Department of War

The German Draft and Manpower Supply
(U.S. Dept. of War, 1945)

A U.S. Government study regarding the conscription policies of the German Army during World War II. Attention is paid to the development of this policy from it’s earliest days in 1935, when the draft was introduced, to the total mobilization scheme that followed the battle of Stalingrad.

The German M.G. 34
(U.S. Dept. of War, 1945)

Two black and white photographs of the World War II German M.G. 34 (maschinengewehr 34) as well as some fast-stats that were collected by President Roosevelt’s Department of War during the closing days of the conflict.

The German M.G. 34
(U.S. Dept. of War, 1945)

Two black and white photographs of the World War II German M.G. 34 (maschinengewehr 34) as well as some fast-stats that were collected by President Roosevelt’s Department of War during the closing days of the conflict.

Advertisement

The German M.G. 34
(U.S. Dept. of War, 1945)

Two black and white photographs of the World War II German M.G. 34 (maschinengewehr 34) as well as some fast-stats that were collected by President Roosevelt’s Department of War during the closing days of the conflict.

The German M.G. 34
(U.S. Dept. of War, 1945)

Two black and white photographs of the World War II German M.G. 34 (maschinengewehr 34) as well as some fast-stats that were collected by President Roosevelt’s Department of War during the closing days of the conflict.

The German M.G. 34
(U.S. Dept. of War, 1945)

Two black and white photographs of the World War II German M.G. 34 (maschinengewehr 34) as well as some fast-stats that were collected by President Roosevelt’s Department of War during the closing days of the conflict.

Advertisement

The German M.G. 34
(U.S. Dept. of War, 1945)

Two black and white photographs of the World War II German M.G. 34 (maschinengewehr 34) as well as some fast-stats that were collected by President Roosevelt’s Department of War during the closing days of the conflict.

A Study of the German Tiger Tank
(The U.S. War Department, 1945)

Attached is the sweetest conte crayon illustration ever to depict a Tiger tank is accompanied by some vital statistics and assorted observations that were recorded by the U.S. Department of War and printed in one of their manuals in March of 1945:

This tank, originally the Pz. Kpfw. VI, first was encountered by the Russians in the last half of 1942, and by the Western Allies in Tunisia early in 1943…

Click here to read about the German King Tiger Tank.


Click here to read a 1944 article about the Tiger Tank.

German Paratroops
(U.S. Dept. of War, 1945)

Attached is the U.S. War Department study regarding the tactical uses of German airborne forces throughout the course of the Second World War; from the Battle of Crete to the Battle of the Bulge:

In Russia, the Balkans, and the December 1944 counteroffensive in the Ardennes, units varying in strength from a platoon to a battalion have been landed behind enemy lines to disrupt communications, to seize such key points as railroads, roadheads, bridges and power stations.

Advertisement

Atheist or Christian?
(U.S. Dept. of War, 1945)

Was Adolf Hitler a follower of Jesus Christ or was he a man who saw no intelligence in the universe whatever? Today, for reasons that are quite understandable, neither the atheists or the Christians are eager to count the madman in their ranks. Hoping to diffuse this never-ending argument (that has found a home on the internet) OldMagazineArticles.com offers this page of research from a U.S. Army study on Hitler’s military that indicates Hitler’s sympathy for atheists.


Read about Hitler’s persecution of the Christian Church…

Assessing the Late-War German Soldier
(U.S. Dept. of War, 1945)

The German soldier is one of several different types depending on whether he is a veteran of 4 or 5 years, or a new recruit. The veteran of many fronts and many retreats is a prematurely aged, war weary cynic, either discouraged and disillusioned or too stupefied to have any thought of his own…The new recruit, except in some crack SS units, is either too young or too old and often in poor health.

The German Army of 1945
(U.S. Dept. of War, 1945)

After five and a half years of ever growing battle against ever-stronger enemies, the German Army in 1945 looks, at a glance, much the worse for wear. It is beset on all sides and is short of everything. It has suffered appalling casualties and must resort to old men, boys, invalids and unreliable foreigners for its cannon fodder…Yet this shabby, war-weary machine has struggled on a in a desperate effort to postpone it’s inevitable demise. At the end of 1944 it was still able to mount an offensive calculated to delay for months the definitive piercing of the Western bulwarks of Germany.

Advertisement

Total War
(U.S. Dept. of War, 1945)

The introductory essay from the U.S. War Department’s intelligence manual concerning fascist Germany:

Total war is neither a contemporary invention nor a German monopoly. But total mobilization, in the sense of the complete and scientific control of all the efforts of the nation for the purpose of war, and total utilization of war as an instrument of national policy have been developed to their highest degree by the German militarists.


To gain some understanding of the nature of total war, you might want to click here and read about how the American cosmetics industry of the 1940s was forced to alter their production patters.

Advertisement

A Study of the German Tactical Doctrine
(U.S. Dept. of War, 1945)

A one page study of German World War II tactics that was created by the United States Department of War two months prior to the German surrender:

…the Germans have placed a considerable reliance on novel and sensational weapons such as the mass use of armor, the robot bomb, and the super-heavy tank. Their principal weaknesses in this regard have been their failure to integrate these new techniques with established arms and tactics –German field artillery, for example, did not maintain pace with German armor -and their devotion to automatic weapons at the expense of accuracy.

Scroll to Top