- "The only way the Army would support Der Führer's regime was if your stormtroopers were eliminated."
- ―Johann Schmidt to Ernst Kaufmann[src]
The Wehrmacht was the unified armed forces of Germany from the Nazi Party's rise to power until the end of World War II.
History
- "I hate these guys."
- ―Dum Dum Dugan[src]
In 1934, to gain support from the German Army for his regime, Adolf Hitler ordered the assassinations of all higher officers of the Sturmabteilung. That purge later became known as the Night of the Long Knives. The Wehrmacht patrols were guarding the German-Swiss border when Dr. Abraham Erskine attempted to escape to Switzerland with his family in 1935.
In April 1937, during the Spanish Civil War, the Spanish city of Guernica was destroyed. At the time, it was believed the German air force, the Luftwaffe, was responsible for the destruction of the city. However, the true culprit was HYDRA, the Nazi special weapons division.[1]
The German victory parade through Warsaw.
When World War II broke out in 1939, the Wehrmacht served as the spearhead of the German conquest of Poland. When Warsaw fell into the German hands, the German soldiers triumphantly goose-stepped through the city.[2] The same happened a year later when most of Western Europe was occupied. The German troops had a victory parade through the streets of Paris, the capital of France.[3]
In October 1943, a battle was fought between the Wehrmacht troops and the 107th Infantry Regiment of the United States Army near Azzano in Italy. A battalion of HYDRA soldiers suddenly intervened, wiping out the Germans and capturing dozens of American soldiers.[4] A few weeks later, the German air-defense opened fire on a plane that was carrying Steve Rogers from Italy to Austria.[5]
The German soldiers surrender to Captain America.
In 1945, at the HYDRA Research Facility Number 4, a parked Volkswagen Kübelwagen had the Wehrmacht Heer license plate. Many boxes in the facility were marked with the logo of the Deutsches Afrikakorps.[6]
In May 1945, Wilhelm Keitel, the chief of the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht, signed the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany at Soviet headquarters in Berlin.[7] One year after the war, many high-ranking German officers, including Keitel and Hermann Göring, were tried for war crimes at the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg. Several of them were sentenced to death by hanging.[8]
During the war a lot of footage of the Wehrmacht was made and preserved.[9] The actions of the Wehrmacht during World War II led Ultron to his decision to eradicate mankind from the world.[10] Following the second disbandment of S.H.I.E.L.D. the US Army stored all the confiscated S.H.I.E.L.D. equipment at Blue Raven Ridge, a secret base that held several Wehrmacht paraphernalia. When Leo Fitz and Lance Hunter broke into the base's warehouse, among the S.H.I.E.L.D. boxes they saw several old wooden crates with the Nazi Reichsadler and the inscription "Eigentum der Deutschen Wehrmacht", the property of the German Wehrmacht.[11]
Trivia
- In the non-canon video game Captain America: Super Soldier numerous portraits of the high-ranking Wehrmacht officers can be seen on the walls of Castle Zemo. The Wehrmacht logo can be seen on the Iron Cross Armor. A battalion of HYDRA soldiers that guards the castle wears the modified Wehrmacht uniforms with the HYDRA insignia. One of the trailers shows Captain America destroying a Wehrmacht tank.[12]
- Some of the concept artwork for Captain America: The First Avenger shows the Valkyrie and the HYDRA Parasits with Wehrmacht insignia. Jim Martin's concept art shows the Wehrmacht soldiers and tanks guarding the Austrian HYDRA Weapons Facility.[13]
- In the comics, Eric Koenig was a Wehrmacht soldier before he defected to the Americans and joined the Howling Commandos.
References
- ↑ Captain America: First Vengeance
- ↑ A short footage of the parade appears in a deleted scene in The Avengers
- ↑ Iron Man Novelization
- ↑ Captain America: The First Avenger Deleted Scene
- ↑ Captain America: The First Avenger
- ↑ Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: 2.01: Shadows
- ↑ Footage of the signing ceremony appears in Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
- ↑ Agent Carter: 1.04: The Blitzkrieg Button
- ↑ Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: 3.11: Bouncing Back
- ↑ Avengers: Age of Ultron
- ↑ Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: 5.05: Rewind
- ↑ Captain America: Super Soldier Prologue | Trailer E3 (2011)
- ↑ Jim Martin's concept art for Captain America: The First Avenger
