Wehrmachtsfuehrungsstab (WFST ) Red Army By August the number shifted to million men in the west compared to 2.1 million still in the east From June to November 30, 1944, the Wehrmacht lost 1,457,000 men Over 900,000 of those casualties were inflicted on the Eastern Front The Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS lost 120,000 in the Ardennes offensive (1944) Excluding that number from 1945 figures, in the last four months and one week of the war Germany suffered at least two million military casualties, mostly Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS, but also Volkssturm and sundry others By the time of the Wehrmacht’s utter defeat in May 1945, its dead and missing totaled 5.3 million men Not counting millions more taken prisoner at the surrender, Germany’s total military casualties for the war were 13,488,000, of which 10,758,000 were suffered on the Eastern Front Those grim facts are mutely remembered in the headstone inscription on millions of German war graves: “gefallen im Osten” (“died in the East”) See also various operations, campaigns, and battles, and anti-tank guns; Armeeabteilung; armor; Bewegungskrieg; Blaskowitz, Johannes; Blitzkrieg; Blomberg, Werner von; Bock, Fedor von; Brauchitsch, Walter von; Busch, Ernst; commando order; Dietl, Eduard; Ersatzheer; Falkenhorst, Nicholas von; Feldheer; Frontsoldaten; Geheime Feldpolizei; Grossdeutschland; Grosstransportraum; Guderian, Heinz; Halder, Franz; Harpe, Josef; Hiwis; Hoepner, Erich; Indian National Army; Jodl, Alfred; Kleist, Ewald von; Korück; Küchler, Georg von; Leeb, Wilhelm von; Leningrad, siege of; Löhr, Alexander; Machtstaat; Manstein, Erich von; Manteuffel, Hasso von; Model, Walter; Nationalkomitee Freies Deutschland; Oberkommando; OB West; Ostheer; Osttruppen; Panzerjägdgruppe; Paulus, Friedrich von; rations; Reichenau, Walter von; Reichstag; Reinhardt, Georg-Hans; Rommel, Erwin; Rundstedt, Gerd von; Russian Liberation Army ( ROA); Schörner, Ferdinand; Steiner, Felix; Stellungskrieg;Tirailleurs Senegalese; Vlasovites; Volksgrenadier; Volkssturm; Weichs, Maximilian von; Wellenbrecher; Widerstandsnest Suggested Reading: Andris J Kursietis, The Wehrmacht at War, 1939–1945 (1999); Geoffrey Megargee, War of Annihilation (2006 ); A Seaton, The German Army in World War II (1982) WEHRMACHTSFUEHRUNGSSTAB (WFST ) Staff See OKW Armed Forces Operations WEICHS, MAXIMILIAN VON (1881–1954) German field marshal He served in the cavalry and as a staff officer during World War I Remaining in the Reichswehr as a cavalry officer, he graduated to command of 1st Panzer Division in 1935 He was one of many generals purged by Adolf Hitler in 1938, but was reinstated for the invasion of Poland in 1939 During the invasion of France and the Low Countries in 1940 he commanded 2nd Army, also fighting with that force in later invasions of Greece and Yugoslavia He led 2nd Army in BARBAROSSA in 1941, facing heavy resistance at Brest-Litovsk, then participating with the rest of Army Group Center in mass encirclement and Kesselschlacht (“cauldron fighting”) of several Soviet armies In Operation BLAU he commanded a mixed 1178