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The book Die Wehrmacht is subtitled “The Battle for Freedom of the People of Greater German Nation” and the the 320 pages cover the first War Year from 1 September 1939 until 31 August 1940. The material was assembled by Karl Fischer for the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW) and the heavily illustrated hardcover book has a foreword by Generalfeldmarschall Wilhelm Keitel.

There is a section about the Wehrmacht in Norway in April 1940 covering the Altmark Incident, troop supplies, the end of the heavy cruiser Blücher, the battle at Narvik, all accompanied by wonderful pictures of Nazi Fallschirmjäger (paratroopers), Gebirgsjäger (mountains troops) and soldiers in action, U-boat commander Günther Prien at Scapa Flow, maps and surrendering British soldiers being made prisoners of the Germans.

The following section in Die Wehrmacht is about the war against England with great pictures of Luftwaffe pilots and their gear, Heinkel Kampfflugzeuge, Me109 airplanes being manufactured, Kriegsmarine mines and the sinking of the HMS Grenville, Großadmiral Raeder, German submarines, etc.

Die Wehrmacht 1940 contains chapters about the Maginot Line bunkers, modern German officers, Nazi submarines before the section about the invasion of Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg and France in May 1940. Pictures show Fallschirmjäger after their capture of the strategically important Eben Emael bunkers on the Belgian-Dutch border near the Albert Canal, heavy fighting, German medics at work, communication troops (even a Kradmelder on a motorcycle), Moroccans in French uniforms, destroyed French equipment, Wehrmacht soldiers in Paris, French POWs and fleeing citizens, Nazi soldiers with machine guns and flame throwers, surrender at Compiègne, and photo of Hitler surrounded by newly minted Field Marshals, Keitel, Von Rundtedt, Von Bock, Von Brauchitsch, Von Leeb, List, Von Kluge, Von Witzleben and Von Reichenau as well as Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring.

Chapters cover the invasion and quick victory of the German Wehrmacht in Poland in September / October 1939, the fight for Lemberg (now Lviv in western Ukraine), Hitler visiting soldiers at the front, ethnic German civilian casualties, the victory parade in Warsaw, and the German-Soviet Demarcation Line (both countries invaded Poland).

This section is accompanied by pictures of the Polenfeldzug, Nazi soldiers in action, battle damage, Polish POWs, Polish surrender, Hitler and Keitel looking at the interior of a shot down transport plane, photo portraits of Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring and Generalfeldmarschall von Brauchitsch.

There are many battle maps interspersed in the text and gritty battlefield sketches by artists such as Theo Matejko, PK-E. Erdmann, Strobel, PK Raebiger, Erwin Pohl, and Albert Janesch throughout the book.

The book ends with a day-by-day recap of Wehrmacht action between 1 September 1939 and 31 August 1940. Die Wehrmacht 1940 is complete with the color picture of Adolf Hitler, Der Führer und Oberste Befehlshaber der Wehrmacht, facing the title page and the frequently missing fold-out color map inside the back cover.

Published by Verlag die Wehrmacht in Berlin in 1940, this 6 x 8-¾ inch, 320-page Feldgrau linen hardcover example of Die Wehrmacht 1940 is in very nice used condition. It has a tight spine and no odor. The fold-out map is complete but one fold is taped. The front flyleaf has a handwritten 1941 War Christmas dedication.

A two-page spread features a dramatic Theo Matejko rendering of the British military disaster at Dunkirk (shown at the top of this USMBOOKS web page).