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During World War II, the armed or Waffen-SS branch of the Third Reich's dreaded security service expanded from two divisions in 1940 to 38 divisions by the end of the war, eventually growing to a force of over 900,000 men. Not satisfied with allowing his nascent force to be commanded in combat by army headquarters of the Wehrmacht, Heinrich Himmler, chief of the SS, began to create his own SS corps and army headquarters beginning with the SS-Panzerkorps in July 1942. As the number of Waffen-SS divisions increased, so did the number of corps headquarters, with 18 corps and two armies being planned or activated by the war's end. The histories of the first three SS corps are well known--the actions of I., II., and III. (Germanic) SS-Panzerkorps and their subordinate divisions, including the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler, Das Reich, Hitlerjugend, Hohenstaufen, Frundsberg and Nordland divisions, have been thoroughly documented. Overlooked in this pantheon is another SS corps that never fought in the west or in Berlin but did participate in many of the key battles on the Eastern Front during the last year of the war--the IV. SS-Panzerkorps. Activated during the initial stages of the defense of Warsaw in late July 1944, IV. SS-Panzerkorps, consisting of both the 3. SS-Panzer Division Totenkopf and 5. SS-Panzer Division Wiking, was born in battle and spent the last ten months of the war in combat. It was renowned for its tenacity, high morale and, above all, its lethality, whether conducting a hard-hitting counterattack or a stubborn defense even when outnumbered. The corps commander, Herbert Otto Gille, was often embroiled in heated disputes with the corps' immediate Wehrmacht higher headquarters over his seemingly cavalier conduct of operations, but his corps remained to the bitter end one of the Third Reich's most reliable and formidable field formations.

"Doug Nash addresses a crucial period of December 1944... This latest of his works, which all stand on their own merits, is the best read to date." — Marine Corps Gazette One of the most notorious yet least understood body of troops that fought for the Third Reich during World War II was the infamous Sondereinheit Dirlewanger, or the “Dirlewanger Special Unit.” Formed initially as a company-sized formation in June 1940 from convicted poachers, it served under the command of SS-Obersturmführer Oskar Dirlewanger, one of the most infamous criminals in military history. First used to guard the Jewish ghetto in Lublin and support security operations carried out in occupied Poland by SS and Police forces, the unit was soon transferred to Belarus to combat the increasingly active Soviet partisan movement. After assisting in putting down the Warsaw Uprising during August–September 1944, by November of that year it had been enlarged and retitled as the 2. SS-Sturmbrigade Dirlewanger. One month later, it fought one of its most controversial actions near the town of Ipolysag, Hungary, now known by its Slovak name of Šahy, between 13 and 18 December 1944. As a result of its overly hasty and haphazard deployment, lack of heavy armament, and a confusing chain of command, it was virtually destroyed by two Soviet mechanized corps. Consequently, the Wehrmacht leadership blamed Dirlewanger and the performance of his troops for the encirclement of the Hungarian capital of Budapest during late December 1944 that led to the annihilation of its garrison two months later. The brigade’s defeat at Ipolysag also led to its compulsory removal from the front lines by General der Panzertruppe Hermann Balck and its eventual shipment to a rest area where it would be completely rebuilt, so thorough was its destruction. Despite its lackluster performance, the brigade was rebuilt once again and sent to East Prussia in February 1945, but never recovered from the thrashing it received at the hands of the 6th Guards Army in December.

The first volume of the tactical and operational history of World War II Germany’s fourth SS-Panzerkorps division and its leader. During World War II, the armed or Waffen-SS branch of the Third Reich’s dreaded security service expanded from two divisions in 1940 to 38 divisions by the end of the war, eventually growing to a force of over 900,000 men until Germany’s defeat in May, 1945. The histories of the first three SS corps are well known—the actions of I, II, and III (Germanic) SS-Panzerkorps have been thoroughly documented and publicized. Overlooked in this pantheon is another SS corps that never fought in the west or in Berlin but one that participated in many of the key battles fought on the Eastern Front during the last year of the war: the IV SS-Panzerkorps. Activated during the initial stages of the defense of Warsaw in late July, 1944, the corps—consisting of the 3. and 5. SS-Panzer Divisions (Totenkopf and Wiking, respectively)—was born in battle and spent the last ten months of the war in combat, figuring prominently in the battles of Warsaw, the attempted Relief of Budapest, Operation Spring Awakening, the defense of Vienna, and the withdrawal into Austria where it finally surrendered to U.S. forces in May, 1945. Herbert Otto Gille’s IV SS-Panzerkorps was renowned for its tenacity, high morale, and, above all, its lethality. Often embroiled in heated disputes with its immediate Wehrmacht higher headquarters over his seemingly cavalier conduct of operations, Gille’s corps remained to the bitter end one of the Third Reich’s most reliable and formidable field formations.

The concluding volume of the battle history of IV. SS-Panzerkorps during World War II.

Written and edited by some of the world's foremost experts in the field, Trauma, Memory, and Dissociation provides comprehensive coverage of dissociation and memory alterations in trauma, an area that is being dramatically reshaped by vigorous new research. This one-of-a-kind book, written for researchers and clinicians alike, covers aspects of this subject that have not been thoroughly examined before. It presents empirical data on dissociative symptoms associated with exposure to psychological trauma, including combat, childhood abuse, and other traumas, as well as the important relationships dissociative disorder has with other conditions associated with extreme stress such as posttraumatic stress disorder. This book also examines areas where questions still linger concerning the psychopathology of trauma-related dissociation, including dissociation as a defense mechanism or a normal personality trait. Because dissociation plays an important role in the recall of traumatic memories, Trauma, Memory, and Dissociation investigates the controversial areas of delayed recall of childhood abuse and "false memory syndrome." This text also offers clinicians a detailed, step-by-step discussion of approaches to treat the dissociative patient. It reviews the neurobiology of dissociative disorders and illuminates areas where future research may lead to more effective treatments.

A groundbreaking new history, telling the stories of hundreds of African-American activists and officeholders who risked their lives for equality—in the face of murderous violence—in the years after the Civil War.

“A veritable tour de force of Eastern Front armored combat replete with slashing counterattacks, defending to the last man, and overcoming odds.” —Mark J. Reardon, author of Victory at Mortain On Christmas Eve 1944, the men of the IV. SS-Panzerkorps and its two divisions—the 3rd SS Panzer Division “Totenkopf” and the 5th SS Panzer Division “Wiking”—were eagerly anticipating what the holiday would bring, including presents from home and perhaps sharing a bottle of schnapps or wine with their comrades. This was not to be, for that very evening, the corps commander, SS-Obergruppenführer Herbert Otto Gille, received a telephone call notifying him that the 35,000 men of his corps would begin boarding express trains the following day that would take them from the relative quiet of the Vistula Front to the front lines in Hungary, hundreds of kilometers away. Their mission: Relieve Budapest! Thus would begin the final round in the saga of the IV. SS-Panzerkorps. In Hungary, it would play a key role in the three attempts to raise the siege of that fateful city. Threatened as much by their high command as by the forces of the Soviet Union, Gille and his troops overcame seemingly insurmountable obstacles in their attempts to rescue the city’s garrison, only to have their final attack called off at the last minute. At that moment, they were only a few kilometers away from the objective towards which they had striven for nearly a month. After the relief attempt’s failure sealed the fate of hundreds of thousands of Hungarians and Germans, the only course of action remaining was to dig in and protect the Hungarian oilfields as long as possible.

As existing buildings age, nearly half of all construction activity in Britain is related to maintenance, refurbishment and conversions. Building adaptation is an activity that continues to make a significant contribution to the workload of the construction industry. Given its importance to sustainable construction, the proportion of adaptation works in relation to new build is likely to remain substantial for the foreseeable future, especially in the developed parts of the world. Building Adaptation, Second Edition is intended as a primer on the physical changes that can affect older properties. It demonstrates the general principles, techniques, and processes needed when existing buildings must undergo alteration, conversion, extension, improvement, or refurbishment. The publication of the first edition of Building Adaptation reflected the upsurge in refurbishment work. The book quickly established itself as one of the core texts for building surveying students and others on undergraduate and postgraduate built environment courses. This new edition continues to provide a comprehensive introduction to all the key issues relating to the adaptation of buildings. It deals with any work to a building over and above maintenance to change its capacity, function or performance.

An “excellent and thought provoking” chronicle of the IV. SS-Panzerkorps in Hungary and Austria in the last months of World War II, with maps (Globe at War). In the closing months of World War II, with Budapest’s fall on February 12, 1945 and the breakout attempt by the IX SS-Gebirgskorps having failed, the only thing the IV. SS-Panzerkorps could do was fall back to a more defensible line and fortify the key city of Stuhlweissenburg. Exhausted after three relief attempts in January 1945 and outnumbered by the ever-increasing power of Marshal Tolbukhin’s Third Ukrainian Front, SS-Obergruppenführer Gille’s veterans dug in for a lengthy period of defensive warfare. However, Adolf Hitler had not forgotten about the Hungarian theater of operations nor the country’s rich oilfields and was sending help. To the detriment of the defense of Berlin, SS-Oberstgruppenführer Sepp Dietrich’s legendary 6. Panzerarmee was on its way, not to retake Budapest, but to encircle and destroy Tolbukhin’s forces and completely reverse the situation in southeastern Europe in Hitler’s favor. This overly ambitious offensive, known as Frühlingserwachen (Spring Awakening), was soon bogged down in the face of resolute Soviet defenses aided by the springtime thaw. Heralded as Nazi Germany’s last great offensive of World War II, it resulted in great losses to Hitler’s last armored reserve in exchange for only minor gains. Though it played a supporting role during the battle, the IV. SS-Panzerkorps was soon caught up in its aftermath, after the Red Army launched its Vienna Operation that nearly swept the armies of Heeresgruppe Süd from the battlefield. Withdrawing into Austria, Gille’s battered corps attempted to bar the route into Germany, while the Red Army bore down on Vienna. Forced to endure relentless Soviet attacks as well as the caustic leadership of the 6. Armee commander, General Hermann Balck, the men of the IV. SS-Panzerkorps fought their way through Austria to reach the safety of the demarcation line where it finally surrendered to U.S. forces on May 9, 1945 after nearly a year of relentless campaigning.