Index, bibliography, maps, ill, p.173.non-fictionThe German army in the Second World War sought to fight and win swift, decisive victories in a succession of short campaigns - blitzkrieg, or lightning war. Flexibility was as essential as the will to win. Battle groups, or shock troops, were created from miscellaneous, and often disparate military units to undertake a specific local operation; it was the army's skill in combining superior numbers, aggressive tactics and the battle group commander's ability to exploit the changing situation on the ground which brought success on the battlefield.

The actions described here cover all theatres of the war, and include battle groups large and small, deployed usually to smash a breach in the enemy line or seal off an enemy penetration. It covers operations in the first dynamic years when Wehrmacht forces defeated the armies of one European country after another in fast campaigns, through to the years after Stalingrad and Africa as they moved towards defeat. 

The battle groups' contribution to Wehrmacht fortunes offer powerful lessons in the tactics of battle management and this book by James Lucas, a military historian known for his close studies of the German soldier, is considered to be one of the most detailed and authoritative accounts on the subject. Collapse summary germany - armed forces - history, germany - regimental histories

Private Harry Nutman Derrick, a native of Tallangatta Valley in NE Victoria served with the 37th Australian Infantry Battalion 10th Brigade, 3rd Division AIF. He was wounded on three occasions. On the third occasion he was captured near the village of Clery on 30 August 1918. He died in a German military hospital on 12 November 1918 the day following the Armistice. A transcribed copy of the diary is held in the Local History Section of the Albury LibraryMuseum.This diary documents the day-to-day activities of a private soldier of the AIF during almost two years at war including two occasions on which he was wounded and evacuated to England. Its significance is enhanced by the presence of his death medallion in the 8/13 VMR Collection.Black cloth soft covered diary kept by 854 Pte Harry Derrick 37th Battalion AIF for the period 16 February 1916, the day he left Tallangatta Valley, to 31 December 1917. To fit two years into a one year diary, Derrick made use of every spare space in the small book.diary, derrick, tallangatta, wwi