ABSTRACT
The German Armys junior officer corps, i.e. between the rank of Oberst and Leutnant, was the backbone of Hitler's war machine, and it was the vital link between the Fhrer, the Wehrmachts high command, and the ordinary soldiers. The burden of leadership thus fell on men who had been commissioned as young lieutenants in the early years of Hitlers rise to power and then progressed through officer training during the 1930s. This infusion of reserve officers after 1943 transformed the German Army officer corps from a peacetime professional force into one that reflected German society as a whole. The German Army had long since dropped the idea of single-service combat units. Every corps, division, regiment, and battalion contained different types of weapons and sub-units. On the battlefield it was routine for further mixing of weapons and types of unit to occur as Kampfgruppen were formed for specific missions and then disbanded when they were completed.
