Soldiers to the Last Day: The Rhineland-Westphalian 6th Infantry Division, 1935-1945

Author(s): Denis Havel

ISBN: 9781781557440
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An in-depth account of one of the Wehrmacht’s hardest fighting divisions.
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  • Heavily researched from German sources, including the rare divisional and regimental histories as well as personal accounts and letters

  • A unique German view of the war

  • A necessary read for any student of the German Army and the war on the Eastern Front

  • Lavishly illustrated with many rare and unpublished photographs

  • New insights into the German art of war and a re-evaluation of the infantryman’s role in blitzkrieg 

Soldiers to the Last Day recounts the history of the German 6th Infantry Division from its formation in 1935 to its destruction at Bobruisk in July 1944; then its resurrection and continued fighting until the end of the war. Among the first divisions established by the Wehrmacht, the 6th Infantry Division had one of the longest and bloodiest records of continuous combat of any division – Allied or Axis.

Engaging in combat within weeks of the outbreak of hostilities, the division fought to the last hour of the war. Based primarily on German sources, in particular the rare divisional and regimental histories and war diaries, and on personal accounts and letters of its soldiers, Soldiers to the Last Day presents the German view of the war from inside divisional headquarters down to the individual Landser as the division marches across France in 1940; advances to the Volga during Operation Barbarossa; fights the brutal battles of Rzhev, Kursk and Bobruisk; and makes last desperate attempts to defend the homeland in 1945.

It is a tale of courage, determination, suffering, and in the end, betrayal.


BOOK ISBN 9781781557440
FORMAT 234 x 156 mm
BINDING Hardback
PAGES 288 pages
PUBLICATION DATE 05 December 2019
TERRITORY World
ILLUSTRATIONS 29 photographs

 

 







Denis Havel graduated from Eastern Illinois University with a degree in psychology and has taught at high school and college level. An independent historian, Havel has studied German history, language and literature, and the Prussian-German military. He is currently active in German-American organisations, notably the Germania Mannerchor, which preserve German language and traditions.