15th November 1944 15th November 1944 1/1 A duel-language Lebenszeichen (sign of life) card - imprint 357. Designed for use in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. Ref: 15.11.1944, MFP33/189 This 'Lebenszeichen' card represents the aftermath of events in Prague on 15th November 1944. At roughly midday on the 15th an estimated twelve bombs were dropped from two allied aircraft, most likely American (the R.A.F. Bomber Command Diaries document sorties around Dortmund, Karlsruhe and Berlin). The target appears to have been the Prague municipal power plant. The bombing caused little damage and no apparent deaths, although some houses were damaged. Prague was subsequently bombed twice before the end of hostilities, once on 14th February 1945 and again on 25th March 1945. The apparent lack of damage and loss of life means that Lebenszeichen cards from this date are seldom seen.

Mi.873 - 885 (11.03.1944) Wehrmacht Day Mi.873 - 885 (11.03.1944) Wehrmacht Day 1/1 Registered cover sent from Bergisch-Neukirchen to an address in Schongau, featuring three stamps from the Wehrmacht Day; Heroes Remembrance Day issue. Ref: 19.12.1944 next 3rd Reich stamp issue Mi.874 - Tracked Motorcycle. Ref: 23.05.1944 Mi.877 - Waffen-SS Mortar Soldiers. Ref: 23.05.1944 Mi.878 - Searchlight. Ref: 19.12.1944 Mi.879 - Machine Gunners. Ref: 01.06.1944 Mi.880 - Panzer III. Ref: 08.09.1944 Mi.882 - Arado Ar 196. Ref: 19.12.1944 Mi.883 - Railroad Artillery. Ref: 19.12.1944 Mi.885 - Alpine Soldier. Ref: 23.05.1944 Contact Brief History to inform us of additional information regarding this page

9th June 1944 9th June 1944 1/0

8th August 1944 Delta Film Services 8th August 1944 Delta Film Services 1/1 Self-addressed envelope for Delta Filmkopieranstalt (film copying centre) based on Rutterstraße 72 in Berlin. Ref: 08.08.1944 Delta Filmkopieranstalt Further research required Contact Brief History to inform us of additional information regarding this page

25th April 1944 Stalag VI-J 25th April 1944 Stalag VI-J 25.04.1944 Stalag VIJ reverse.jpeg 25.04.1944 Stalag VIJ reverse.jpeg 1/1 Kriegsgefangenpost from an Italian POW at Stalag VI-J in Fichtenhain/Krefeld. The printed typescript reads, '...from the date of arrival of this letter I am forbidden to receive letters or postcards other than those distributed by the German command to the Italian military internees. Therefore, if you wish your correspondence to reach me, please write to me on the attached form. In addition, please write clearly and only on the lines to make delivery more prompt.' Ref: 25.04.1944 Stalag VI-J Contact Brief History to inform us of additional information regarding this page

28th June 1944 Stalag VI-C 28th June 1944 Stalag VI-C 28.06.1944 Stalag VIC Wesuwe reverse.jpeg 28.06.1944 Stalag VIC Wesuwe reverse.jpeg 1/1 POW postcard send from Stalag VI-C to an address in Italy. Ref: 28.06.1944 Stalag VI-C Link to information regarding Wesuwe Contact Brief History to inform us of additional information regarding this page

17th June 1944 17th June 1944 1/1 Commercial postcard from the Hotel 'Astoria' in Karlsbad to a client in Bremen. With printed information regarding the hotel to the reverse. Ref: 17.06.1944

18th April 1944 Oflag 83 18th April 1944 Oflag 83 Screenshot 2021-11-27 at 09.29.50.png Screenshot 2021-11-27 at 09.29.50.png 1/1 Oflag 83 Contact Brief History to inform us of additional information regarding this page

25th April 1944 Stalag 352 25th April 1944 Stalag 352 25.04.1944 Stalag 352 reverse.jpeg 25.04.1944 Stalag 352 reverse.jpeg 1/1 Kriegsgefangenenpost letter-sheet sent from an Italian POW at Stalag 352 at Minsk. Ref: 25.04.1944 The heavily censored correspondence of the letter-sheet. Stalag 352 Minsk Notes: Mattiello (2003) records 12,165 Soviet POWs at Stalag 352 in October of 1943 but no Italians. Uncorroborated internet sources claim that 5,000 Italian 'internees' were sent to the stalag in Autumn of 1943 with less than 100 surviving the camps brutal regime. Minsk was liberated by the Soviet army on the 4th July 1944 Contact Brief History to inform us of additional information regarding this page

11th February 1944 Oflag II-E 11th February 1944 Oflag II-E Screenshot 2021-11-27 at 09.29.50.png Screenshot 2021-11-27 at 09.29.50.png 1/1 Oflag II-E Contact Brief History to inform us of additional information regarding this page

1st June 1944 1st June 1944 1/1 Cover sent from Aschaffenburg to Frankfurt featuring stamp Mi.879 and special cancellation. Ref: 01.06.1944, JB: Aschaffenburg11/46

17th November 1944 Heinz Guderian 17th November 1944 Heinz Guderian 1/1 Postcard depicting a head and shoulders portrait of Heinz Guderian (1888-1954), photographed by Tita Binz. The postcard is from the series 'Ritterkreuzträger des Heeres' (Film Foto Verlag, Berlin SW68). Ref: 17.11.1944 Heinz Guderian (1888 - 1954) Heinz Wilhelm Guderian was a German general during World War II who, after the war, became a successful memoirist. An early pioneer and advocate of the 'blitzkrieg' approach, he played a central role in the development of the panzer division concept. In 1936, he became the Inspector of Motorised Troops. In the 1930s, Guderian played a significant role in the development of both the panzer division concept and a doctrine of mechanised offensive warfare that would later become known as blitzkrieg. Guderian's 3rd Motor Transport Battalion became the blueprint for the future German armoured force. However, his role was less central than he claimed in his memoirs and that historians repeated in the postwar era. During the autumn of 1936, Lutz asked Guderian to write Achtung – Panzer! He requested a polemical tone that promoted the Mobile Troops Command and strategic mechanized warfare. In the resulting work, Guderian mixed academic lectures, a review of military history and armoured warfare theory that partly relied on a 1934 book on the subject by Ludwig von Eimannsberger. While limited, the book was in many respects a success. It contained two important questions which would require answering if the army was to be mechanised: how will the army be supplied with fuel, spares and replacement vehicles; and how to move large mechanised forces, especially those that are road-bound? He answered his own questions in discussions of three broad areas: refuelling; spare parts; and access to roads. During August, 1939 Guderian took command of the newly formed XIX Army Corps. At short notice he was ordered to spearhead the northern element of the invasion of Poland which began on 1st September. Under his corps command was one of Germany's six panzer divisions; Guderian's corps controlled 14.5 per cent of Germany's armoured fighting vehicles. His task was to advance through the former West Prussian territory (which included his birthplace of Kulm), then travel through East Prussia before heading south towards Warsaw. Guderian used the German concept of 'leading forwar', which required commanders to move to the battlefront and assess the situation. He made use of modern communication systems by travelling in a radio-equipped command vehicle with which he kept himself in contact with corps command. Guderian was involved in the strategic debates that preceded the invasion of France and the Low Countries. The plan was being developed by his classmate at the 1907 War Academy, Erich von Manstein. The Manstein Plan shifted the weight of the armoured formations away from a head-on attack through the Low Countries to one through the Ardennes. Guderian confidently proclaimed the feasibility of taking armor through the hilly Ardennes Forest and was subsequently told he may have to command the spearhead of the attack himself. He then complained about the lack of resources until he was given seven mechanised divisions with which to accomplish the task. The plan established a force for the penetration of the forest that comprised the largest concentration of German armour to that date: 1,112 out of Germany's total of 2,438 tanks. In Guderian's 1937 book Achtung – Panzer! he wrote that 'the time has passed when the Russians had no instinct for technology' and that Germany would have to reckon 'with the Eastern Question in a form more serious than ever before in history'. However, during the planning for Operation Barbarossa—the German invasion of the Soviet Union—he had become optimistic about the supposed superiority of German arms. By May, 1941 Guderian had accepted Hitler's official position that Operation Barbarossa was a preemptive strike. He had accepted some core elements of National Socialism: the Lebensraum concept of territorial expansion and the destruction of the supposed Judeo-Bolshevik threat. On 1st March 1943, after the German defeat in the Battle of Stalingrad, Hitler appointed Guderian to the newly created position of Inspector General of Armoured Troops. The latter had successfully lobbied to be reinstated, resulting in the new posting. Guderian's responsibilities were to oversee the panzer arm and the training of Germany's panzer forces. He established a collaborative relationship with Albert Speer regarding the manufacture and development of armored fighting vehicles. The military failures of 1943 prevented Guderian from restoring combat power to the armoured forces to any significant degree. He had limited success with improved tank destroyers and fixing flaws in the third generation of tanks, the Panther and the Tiger. Guderian cultivated close personal relationships with the most powerful people in the regime. He had an exclusive dinner with Himmler on Christmas Day, 1944. On 6th March 1945, shortly before the end of the war, Guderian participated in a propaganda broadcast that denied the Holocaust; the Red Army in its advance had just liberated several extermination camps. Despite the general's later claims of being anti-Nazi, Hitler most likely found Guderian's values to be closely aligned with Nazi ideology. Hitler brought him out of retirement in 1943 and especially appreciated the orders he issued in the aftermath of the failed plot. Guderian and his staff surrendered to US forces on 10th May 1945. He avoided being convicted as a war criminal at the Nuremberg Trials because there was no substantial documentary evidence against him at that time. He answered questions from the Allied forces and denied being an ardent supporter of Nazism. He joined the US Army Historical Division in 1945 and the US refused requests from the Soviet Union to have him extradited. Even after the war, Guderian retained an affinity with Hitler and National Socialism. While interned by the Americans, his conversations were secretly taped. In one such recording, while conversing with former Field Marshal Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb and former General Leo Geyr von Schweppenburg, Guderian opined: 'The fundamental principles [of Nazism] were fine'. Guderian was released from internment in 1948. Many of his peers were ill-fated. Von Manstein was sentenced to 18 years and Albert Kesselring was given a life sentence. Guderian had informed on his ex-colleagues and co-operated with the Allies, which had helped him evade prosecution. He retired to Schwangau near Füssen in Southern Bavaria and began writing. His most successful book was Panzer Leader . He remained an ardent German nationalist for the rest of his life. Guderian died on 14th May 1954 at the age of 65 and is buried at the Friedhof Hildesheimer Straße in Goslar. Source: Wikipedia Contact Brief History to inform us of additional information regarding this page