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Dr Philip W Blood Profile picture
Dr Philip W Blood
@HistorianBlood
Writes about Germany, war, and Holocaust history, @HurstPublishers @ibidem11 https://t.co/cSpKB6rBIr @SMH_Historians #Twitterhistorians
Aug 2, 2023 • 10 tweets • 5 min read
#WarsawUprising - a short thread about the German command.

First a map that illustrates the full extent of Operation Bagration, the Red Army offensive.

Map - Zentrum für Militärgeschichte und Sozialwissenschaften der Bundeswehr
Image
Image 20 July 1944 Guderian became Chief of the General Staff, Himmler - chief of the reserve army. On 30 July Himmler met Bach-Zelewski had been inspecting East Prussian defences. On 31 July they both met Guderian and Bronislav Kaminski.
@BundesarchivD


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Jul 21, 2023 • 18 tweets • 8 min read
During the Second World War, the Germans adopted different types of Kampfgruppe to address command decisions, whether in defence or attack. Institutionally, the concept was used by the police, the army, the Luftwaffe, the SS and the navy during military operations. Image Kampfgruppe could be small, company size, or an enlarged brigade. They could include all arms - tanks, infantry, artillery, or air units, or marine, or all of them. There were specialist Kampfgruppe, organised by engineers with some armour support, or infantry with assault guns. Image
Mar 18, 2023 • 26 tweets • 7 min read
The tale of two histories: #cultureofwar

1. 110,000 Latvian volunteer fought bravely as nationalists against Soviet oppression.
Or
2. About 42,000 Latvians of our legion served in the SS-Police units and joined Einsatzgruppen killing actions against Jews, socialists and Poles. In 1944 another 123,000 men were conscripted but only 16,000 front fighters. The rest were committed to combating Soviet, Polish and Latvian partisans.
Jan 30, 2023 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
OTD - 30 January 1943 - 11.00am Berlin. Hermann Göring was about to give a speech commemorating the 10th anniversary of the Nazis coming to power. Since referred to as the eulogy for the 6th Army in Stalingrad. He was rudely interrupted. (Picture: VB 31.1.1943) 3 RAF Mosquitos, led by Squadron Leader Ted Sismore, on a daylight raid - the first on Berlin. The German public heard the air raid sirens (dubbed Meier’s Forest Horns) sound just as Göring was being introduced and the speech was delayed.
Sep 20, 2022 • 10 tweets • 4 min read
1. Consider the Holocaust by Bullets, which you wilfully ignore.
The war in the east had been raging since June 1941. Hitler’s war against the Jews was in full progress from July 1941. Hitler had argued in 1940 that defeating Russia would isolate Britain. 2. Weeks before the attack on Soviet Russia. Hitler and the SS were issuing killing orders known as the Barbarossa directives. The killing units, the Einsatzgruppen, were raised weeks before the invasion. America had no influence on these preparations.
Jun 22, 2022 • 11 tweets • 9 min read
OTD - 1941 - Operation Barbarossa - Nazi Germany’s invasion of Soviet Russia. A thread about different German photo collections and sources.

Warning: some people might find some of the content in this thread distressing.

#CultureofWar Hitler’s war of extermination unleashed a militarized genocide and the Holocaust. From the outset, German soldiers inflicted the ‘Holocaust by Bullets’ on several million people. The legacy has deeply scarred Europe.
Jun 21, 2022 • 5 tweets • 5 min read
Aachen - brief visit to the City’s old Jewish Cemetery. It dates from the mid-19th century and holds an important record of the past. Part of my local history research. 9 Todays visit was to focus on the grave stones from the 1860s to 1940s.
Jun 13, 2022 • 25 tweets • 13 min read
Auftragstaktik - in its so-called original perspective.

A thread in response to @adam_tooze From a straw poll of more than 30 research scholars in April 2022, none had seen any pre-1945 documents with a reference or use of the word - Auftragstaktik.
Mar 10, 2022 • 10 tweets • 2 min read
The Russian Way of War - Putin’s #Anaconda plan unrolls.

A summary of observations based upon intel received.

Initial lodgements have been exploited and are beginning to join/meet closing gaps in and flanks while filtering the rear areas The most obvious consistency with Putin’s previous wars is the application of total destruction against civilians. This has been applied with brutal savagery as in previous conflicts.

We are watching mechanised genocide.
Mar 10, 2022 • 8 tweets • 4 min read
Another tweet is dreadful analogy. This is worse than the absurd analogies that followed 9-11. This latest descent into absurdity is to refer to George Washington and a future the Ukrainian insurgency. A better alternatives: Mosby as a similar style of raider guerrilla as Sidor Kovpak, the famous Ukrainian partisan leader.
Mar 10, 2022 • 14 tweets • 6 min read
Observations/thoughts about the Russian military train and #Anacondaplan

A thread about railways as a game changer in the logistics narrative. According to John, the train was seen in this vicinity - note tracks intact: We had a look at the history of military railways in a previous thread. The use of railways will be similar, but not the same in this war #Ukraine
Mar 9, 2022 • 17 tweets • 9 min read
History - Armoured Trains and the military use of railways.
A thread for all my kind friends and followers who requested more content. Mostly German with a few pictures from elsewhere.
Images: PWB Mapping why the Germans had to employ armoured trains on the eastern front. 2 maps: the main railway network; and, a map show the intensity of partisan activity in the area area of Army Group Centre in 1943.
Maps: @USArmyCMH
Mar 9, 2022 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
#armchairgeneral - preliminary thoughts about future European security.

The old scenario: in the middle of a war, planning for the next one. However, in the face of abject failure, Europe should reconsider an integrated and independent security system. Europeans watch daily as horror unfolds, feeling utterly defenceless as European people are thrown under the hammer of a dictator.

This, however, is not a demand for the tired old European army concept within the NATO agenda. We need to accept NATO has failed.
Mar 8, 2022 • 15 tweets • 8 min read
Warning some sensitive content.

2022 - is the 80th anniversary year of Hitler’s Bandenbekämpfung Directive. This thread is the first in a series of threads uploaded through this year. Bandenbekämpfung was the Nazi concept of a war against insurgency. There was much discussion over the definition of the partisan as an illegal combatant. Copy of the first discussion document, but conferences and planning began in March 1942.

Image: PWB Image
Mar 7, 2022 • 11 tweets • 3 min read
#armchairgeneral - logistics, railways and Russian failure.

The problem with the logistics argument is the absence of facts. The heavy ordinance landing on Ukrainian cities proves: either forward depots or stacked loads. Greater issue can the Ukrainians remain supplied? In regards to the railways argument, there are parallels to WW2. Without constant interdiction, the railways keep rolling. With declining air space and layers of Russian AA defences, the chance of interdiction is reducing daily.
Mar 7, 2022 • 23 tweets • 11 min read
#Ukraine - the Lions of the Ukraine - #RealKrieg

Volodymyr Zelenskyy - leading and fighting for the Ukrainian people.

Image see.news History - Sidor Kovpak - a Lion of the Ukraine

One of the greatest partisan and resistance leaders in guerrilla warfare history

Image: tracesofwar.com
Mar 7, 2022 • 15 tweets • 7 min read
Will there be a Sergei Shoygu Coup?

This thread tells the tale of how a Russian general was turned.
Image: Wiki Image Andrey Vlasov was the most famous/infamous turncoat Russian general. In July 1942 he was captured by the Germans and so began a short but odd story of collaboration.
Image: PD Image
Mar 6, 2022 • 13 tweets • 6 min read
#Armchairgeneral - re-examining the information war.

Using the Prague Spring of August 1968 as a template for events in #Ukraine
Image: BBC Image During the night Russian forces invaded Czechoslovakia and Red Army armoured forces entered Prague. The Russian pretext was the counter-revolution had to be stopped to prevent a massive breach in the Warsaw Pact. Echoes of NATO and #Ukraine
Image: BBC Image
Mar 1, 2022 • 25 tweets • 17 min read
Nazi occupation of the Ukraine and the Holocaust. A summary thread in response to Putin’s destruction of the Ukraine archives.

#Ukraine #UkraineWillResist #UkraineRussiaWar

** Warning some sensitive content ** The destruction of a national archive is the first stage to erasing Ukrainian identity, ethnic cleansing and the road to genocide.

We must stand up to Putin, reconstituting the archives digitally and restoring documents. This is a small contribution.
Feb 27, 2022 • 9 tweets • 4 min read
Putin and an aspect of brutalisation of Russian society. This short thread looks at youth sometimes overlooked when examining Putin’s use of low-level violence and soft power in his geopolitics.
#Ukraine
#UkraineWillResist During the 2016 European championships, Russian football hooligans burst into the global arena of football violence. Within hours Putin had made a comment about the hooligans, which one British newspaper headlined. ImageImage
Jan 23, 2022 • 4 tweets • 3 min read
#CultureofWar - Memories of history and public debate - Tom Bower from 1981/3. Bower was able to argue his case in a BBC discussion (1995). An uncomfortable memory at a time of British national nostalgia: (1.00 hour in this link): #CultureofWar - should Britain have saved SS men from deportation to the Soviet Union? The documentary examined the question of collaboration that had stirred public debate since Tolstoy’s publication: ‘Victims of Yalta’ (1977).