Master of Arts (MA), Wright State University, 2018, History

My thesis seeks to understand if the Wehrmacht understood the Red Army's operational doctrine following the war. I will analyze both Red Army and Wehrmacht after action reports and memoirs created after the war to accomplish this. This analysis covers the Battle for Moscow, the Battle of Stalingrad¸ Operation Zitadelle, and ends with the destruction of the Wehrmacht's Army Group Center in Operation Bagration. This period represents the marked rise and decline of the Wehrmacht's martial supremacy in Russia. The comparison of Russian and German after action reports from this period exposes a weakness in German operational doctrine, which ultimately destroys the Wehrmacht in the East. The Wehrmacht excelled in the tactical layer of strategy, but failed to exploit its tactical victories at the operational level. The Wehrmacht's obsession with victory through tactical supremacy caused them to create patterns of doctrinal behavior that the Red Army exploited time and time again.

Committee: Paul Lockhart Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Jonathan Winkler Ph.D. (Committee Member); Sean Pollock Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: History; Military History; Military Studies; Russian History

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2016, History

This dissertation analyzes secret military cooperation between the Soviet Union and Germany from 1920 until 1933. Both states found themselves internationally isolated after World War I. Unable to meet their own security needs – despite immense ideological differences – they turned to each other in an unlikely partnership. Together, they established a network of secret military bases, testing grounds and laboratories inside Russia, where they jointly developed new aircraft, armored vehicles, and chemical weapons. Their work together provided a dark glimpse of the future: Soviet military intelligence reports chronicled the rise of pro-Nazi sentiment among the German officers. German intelligence in turn described the growing cult of Stalin and the scenes of mass starvation unfolding right outside the gates of their facilities in the wake of collectivization. And both sides practiced human experimentation in their joint chemical weapons facilities. But cooperation between the two states was more than just a harbinger of what was to come: the new ideas, technologies, and factories developed in this period of cooperation would serve a vital role in the course and conduct of the coming war. At its core, the interwar exchange of Russian space for German technology was a wager upon which the Second World War depended.

Committee: Jennifer Siegel (Advisor); Peter Mansoor (Committee Member); David Hoffmann (Committee Member); Alan Beyerchen (Committee Member) Subjects: History; Technology

Doctor of Philosophy, University of Toledo, 2014, History

This dissertation investigates the worldview of German frontline soldiers during the Eastern Front conflict of the Second World War. It argues that Nazi era propaganda's creation of a racial and ideological “Other” in the Soviet Union had a significant impact on the attitude of the military in the East. These ideological imaginations of the enemy were often transformed by the realities at the front through the experiences of common enlisted men. While the Nazis constructed a racially and politically charged image of the enemy to justify a war of conquest, the German soldiers fighting in the East developed their own views of an expanding imperial landscape. An identity transformation amongst German combatants took place during the Eastern Front campaign for many reasons, including the effects of Nazi dogma, a foreign environment and local populace, the strains of combat, changing war circumstances, and genocidal policies. This project utilizes the wartime writings of Hitler's ordinary men to provide a partial reconstruction of their mentality, revealing their beliefs, fears, and perceptions of the Soviet enemy.

Committee: Larry Wilcox (Committee Chair); Beth Griech-Polelle (Committee Co-Chair); Roberto Padilla (Committee Member); Robert McCollough (Committee Member) Subjects: European Studies; History; Holocaust Studies; Military History

Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2010, History (Arts and Sciences)

As the United States Army drove deep into Germany in early-1945, American soldiers stole and appropriated objects on a large scale. While GIs did take items when marching through Allied countries, what occurred in Germany throughout the final campaigns was different and more extensive. Not only was there souvenir hunting on the battlefield—taking pistols, helmets, and flags from German soldiers—but also widespread looting of civilian homes. Servicemen justified their actions by claiming wartime necessity, opportunities for profit, keepsakes, and revenge for Nazi atrocities. Drawing on memoirs, journals, personal papers, and interviews, this thesis seeks to divide American soldiers' stealing into two categories, souvenir hunting and looting, and to extrapolate the four major reasons why GIs looted. Using archival evidence, this work will also examine the U.S. Army' reaction to soldiers' rapacity, its policy-making processes, and the civil-military relationships in Europe throughout the dying days of World War II.

Committee: Ingo Trauschweizer (Advisor); Steven Miner (Committee Member); John Brobst (Committee Member) Subjects: American History; Armed Forces; European History; History; International Relations; Military History