The Panzerkampfwagen Tiger Ausf. B “Königstiger”, known as the Tiger II, was the largest, heaviest, and arguably the most powerful tank used in combat during World War II.
The first months of Operation Barbarossa, i.e. the Third Reich’s invasion of the USSR, were a devastating defeat for the Russians. The Red Army retreated in panic, but in the chaos of war the need to evacuate factories to the east was not forgotten, in order to continue the production of everything the USSR armed forces needed to win the Second World War. Despite the lack of equipment, people and food, it is estimated that by the end of 1941 more than 1,500 factories with millions of workers and engineers had been relocated.
When a heavy bomber B-29 was distancing itself from the Japanese city of Hiroshima, on which the crew just dropped the first atomic bomb in history, the second pilot of the “flying fortress” – Robert A. Lewis, seeing the exodus of almost 80,000 people underneath them, screamed: “My God, what have we done?”
The American did not know that in addition to the complete destruction of a large city, his crew had contributed to the end of World War II in the Pacific and the start of the nuclear arms race between the world’s superpowers.
WWII forced automakers from production of consumer vehicles to military vehicles and munitions to the tune of $29 million worth of goods from 1942-1945.
Eight kilometers from Kętrzyn, hidden among the Mazurian forests, is one of the most interesting military objects in Europe. We are talking about the famous Wolf’s Lair, the former secret headquarters of Hitler, which witnessed, among other things, the attack on the Soviet Union and the assassination attempt on the leader of the Third Reich. Below, we have compiled a collection of facts and interesting information describing this place.
On September 14, 1954, one of the deadliest military exercises in history took place. During the maneuvers codenamed “Snezhok” (Russian: Snowball) the Soviet Union dropped a nuclear bomb on the Totskoye proving ground, and a few hours later, thousands of soldiers were ordered to enter the blast zone. Both military personnel and the surrounding civilian population subsequently became victims of terrible radiation sickness without any chance of help from the communist authorities.