The Heer (1939 - 45)
The Heer was Nazi German's Army. It was the land based section of the Wehrmacht which was essentially Germany's Armed Forces. The Wehrmacht also contained the Luftwaffe (Air Force) and the Kriegsmarine (Navy). During WW2 about 15 million men served in the Heer and approximately 7 million of them became casualties.
The Wehrmacht entered WW2 with the majority of its Army infantry formations relying on horse drawn transportation. The infantry remained primarily foot soldiers and the artillery relied heavily on horses. However it was the motorised formations that became famous as they were used to launch Blitzkrieg in association with the Luftwaffe.
In the early years of the War the Heer was victorious and this was illustrated by successes in Poland, Norway, Denmark, Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Yugoslavia and the early part of the Russian campaign. Motorised formations only accounted for about 20% of the Heer's capacity but they were the most famous.
As the war proceeded many of the brave men serving in the Heer became casualties. This was particularly apparent in the horrendous Eastern Front and men who served in Russia during the invasion were presented with the "Frozen Meat" medal for the this campaign. Many members of the Heer surrendered to the Russians and their fate was sealed accordingly with very few of them ever returning home.
The history of the Heer is both interesting and fascinating. If you have a specific research topic please feel free to forward it to me and I will assess how the research can progress.