Osprey Men-at-Arms 131 : Germany's Eastern Front Allies 1941-1945

The 1930s were a time of growing tension for the smaller states of Eastern Europe. Since the end of the First World War they had enjoyed an independence which most of them had not known for centuries, but this was now threatened by the growing power of Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia. Germany had territorial claims against her eastern neighbours and an interest in their economic resources, especially Rumania's oil. Russia wanted to recover Finland, the Baltic States, Eastern Poland and Rumanian Bessarabia, all of which had been Tsarist provinces in 1914. Instead of combining for self defence, the East European states were bitterly divided. The Munich crisis showed how little reliance could be placed on the Western democracies, whose power to intervene militarily in Eastern Europe was negligible. In effect this left the smaller East European states with little alternative but to become clients of either Germany or Russia. Peter Abbott and Nigel Thomas examine the history, uniforms and organisation of Germany's Eastern Front allies in a book containing first class illustrations, contemporary photographs and eight full page colour plates by Mike Chappell.

Contents

• Introduction
• Finland
• Rumania
• Slovakia
• Other Allies
• The Plates