Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor - All Monarchies of the World. Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor - All Monarchies of the World Ferdinand II
Ferdinand III (13.VII.1608 - 2.IV.1657) - Emperor since 1637, Archduke of Austria. Son of Ferdinand II. King of part of the Kingdom of Hungary and the Kingdom of Bohemia. After the death of Wallenstein (1634) and before accession to the imperial throne, he was commander-in-chief of the imperial troops. Ended with him Thirty Years' War 1618-1648 .
Soviet historical encyclopedia. In 16 volumes. - M.: Soviet Encyclopedia. 1973-1982. Volume 15 1974.
Ferdinand III (1608–1657), Holy Roman Emperor. The eldest son of Emperor Ferdinand II and Maria Anna, daughter of the Duke of Bavaria, Ferdinand was born on July 13, 1608 in Graz, and was raised by the Jesuits. In 1625 he was crowned as king of Hungary, and in 1627 - of the Czech Republic. Ferdinand wanted to lead the imperial army that fought in the Thirty Years' War, but this was not allowed by Wallenstein, who was then the commander-in-chief of the imperial forces. When Wallenstein was killed in 1634, Ferdinand captured Regensburg and Donauwert, and was also nominally considered the winner of the Swedes at Nordlingen (where Matthias Gallas actually commanded). In 1636 he was elected king of Rome, and after the death of his father in February 1637 he became emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. Ferdinand sought to end the Thirty Years' War, but did not want to grant religious freedom to the Protestants. At the conclusion of the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, he refused to ensure the rights of Protestants in his lands. In 1656, Ferdinand sent an army to Italy, acting in alliance with the Spaniards against the French, and in 1657 he signed an agreement with Poland on joint actions against the king of Sweden. Carla X. Ferdinand died in Vienna on April 2, 1657.
Materials of the encyclopedia "The world around us" are used.
Ferdinand III (1608-1657). From the Habsburg dynasty. King of Hungary in 1625-1655 King of Bohemia in 1627-1656 German king in 1636-1657 Emperor "Holy Roman Empire" in 1637-1657 A son Ferdinand II and Maria Anna of Bavaria.
2) from July 2, 1648, Maria Leopoldina, daughter of the Archduke Leopold V of Tyrol (b. 1632 + 1649);
3) from 30 Apr. 1651 Eleanor, daughter of Charles II, Duke of Mantua (b. 1630 + 1686).
Ferdinand succeeded his father at the height of the Thirty Years' War, when the Catholic party achieved a decisive advantage over its enemies and only the help of France saved the Protestant princes from complete defeat. The new emperor did not have a great state mind, was rather indifferent to the affairs of government and was not fond of the broad political plans of his father. True, he was a sincere Catholic, but he did not at all have that fanaticism that distinguished the spreaders of Catholic teaching. Ferdinand did not like the Jesuits, he sincerely felt sorry for his subjects, who experienced terrible hardships during the war, and, perhaps, was ready to give the Protestants religious freedom, but it was difficult for him to change his father's system of government and free himself from the heavy influence of his ministers.
Meanwhile, from the first years of Ferdinand's reign, hostilities began to take an increasingly less favorable turn for the Catholics. A huge French army entered the war in 1637 on the side of the Protestants, the Swedes still occupied northern Germany, and the Protestant leader, Duke Bernhard of Weimar, won important victories on the Rhine. In February 1638, he defeated the imperial army at Reinfeld, took Breisach in December, but died soon after. After that, the French took possession of Alsace, which they had conquered. The next year they took Arras and captured Argua. The Swedes in 1642 invaded Silesia, defeated the imperial army, penetrated into Moravia and began to threaten Vienna itself. Ferdinand, who spent all his strength on the war and did not know where to recruit new army began to seek peace. Negotiations, which began in 1643, dragged on slowly, and meanwhile the war continued to rage. In subsequent years, the imperial army was defeated by the Swedes at Leipzig (in 1642) and Jankow (in 1645), and from the French at the battles of Rocroix (in 1643) and near Freiburg (in 1644). In 1648, the Swedes were already besieging Prague, and only the conclusion of the Peace of Westphalia saved this city from falling. The terms of the peace were very difficult for the empire. France received Alsace, Sundgau, which belonged to Austria, and important fortresses: Breisach and Philippsburg. Stetin, the island of Rügen, Wismar, the bishopric of Bremen and Verden went to Sweden. Their Protestant allies also received an increase in their territories. It was decided that the Protestants would retain all the lands acquired before 1624. About the Emperor's Hateful Restorative Edict Ferdinand II remembered no more. imperial power in Germany finally lost all significance: the Peace of Westphalia legitimized the independence of the princes, giving them the right to wage war and conclude alliances both among themselves and with foreign sovereigns.
All the monarchs of the world. Western Europe. Konstantin Ryzhov. Moscow, 1999.
From the Habsburg dynasty. King of Bohemia in 1617-1627 King of Hungary
1618--1625 King of Germany in 1619-1636 Holy Roman Emperor
empire" in 1619-1637. The son of the Archduke of Central Austria Charles II and Mary
daughter of Vincenzo I, Duke of Mantua (b. 1598. Died 1655). Genus. 9
While still in infancy, Ferdinand lost his father and was brought up
with his uncle, the Bavarian Duke Wilhelm. From 1590 he studied at
Ingolstadt University, where the Jesuit fathers taught. Here is the future
the emperor was inspired with the strictest rules of faith and the most exalted
concept of his future destiny. From an early age until death
Ferdinand considered himself a warrior of the Catholic Church, ordained by God
restore its ancient teachings. In 1595 he returned to Grai, the next
year was declared an adult and took possession of his
Central Austrian duchy (which included Styria, Carinthia and
Krajina). By nature, Ferdinand was a pleasant man of the world: kind to
close and merciful to the servants, he easily converged with people, was generous,
passionately loved music and passionately fond of hunting. However, this was
an active and business-like sovereign, who never neglected his
responsibilities. But the main feature of his nature was a fanatical commitment
the Catholic Church, which he was ready to serve with both word and sword. Jesuits
had a huge impact on him. Two of them were always in his hallway
and had the right to enter him at any time, even at night, for advice and
edification. As soon as he assumed power, the young duke began to relentlessly pursue
Protestants. To all who did not want to change their religion, Ferdinand prescribed
leave the country. A few years later in the Austrian possessions, where before
half of the population consisted of Lutherans and Calvinists, not a single one remained
Protestant Church.
Soon the ambitious Habsburg was able to expand the field of his
activities. Since Ferdinand's older cousins, Rudolf and
Matvey, did not have sons, from the beginning of the 17th century they began to consider him as their
potential heir. Every year he had more and more influence on
imperial affairs. In 1617, Ferdinand was elected king of Bohemia, and the next
year came to the Hungarian throne. Difficult negotiations followed.
with the imperial princes about the election of Ferdinand as emperor. At this moment, in
May 1618, a national uprising broke out in Prague, which served as a prologue
to the devastating Thirty Years' War. Learning about the events in Prague, Ferdinand
began to act decisively and firmly. He ordered the arrest of the chief
adviser to Emperor Matthew, Cardinal Klese-la, who offered to go to
concessions to the Czechs. After that, the old and weak Matvey did not interfere with anything.
Ferdinand and obediently signed all his decrees.
Meanwhile, the uprising in the Czech Republic was supported by Protestants in the
Austria. The Czechs, under the leadership of Count Turn, moved to Vienna and in June
1619 took possession of its suburbs. At the same time, the Austrian rebels
seized the imperial palace and demanded that Ferdinand proclaim
religious freedom. One of the brave leaders of the opposition, Tonradel, seized
even for the button of the imperial jacket and pushed Ferdinand several times. TO
Fortunately, a cavalry detachment had just entered the city, and the rebels were
frightened by the loud sound of trumpets.
In August, after the death of Matthew, Ferdinand was elected emperor. He
ascended the throne under the most difficult circumstances. Czechs already
openly seceded from the Habsburgs, declared Ferdinand deposed and handed over
crown to Frederick V, Elector of the Palatinate, the Hungarians were ready to follow them
For example, all Protestants considered the emperor their enemy. Everywhere went
preparations for war. At first, the Catholics had a significant advantage over
by their opponents. Tilly, who commanded the Bavarian army, had no difficulty
suppressed the uprisings in Upper and Lower Austria, entered the Czech Republic and quickly
pushed the rebels back to the walls of Prague. The Czechs occupied an eminence in the west of
positions and won a decisive victory. This put an end to the Czech
uprising. Prague opened the gates to the victorious imperial army,
Moravia and Silesia also expressed their obedience. "Royal Rescript" and
other acts that gave the Czechs national and religious freedom were
destroyed, and the rights of the Sejm were curtailed so much that the Czech Republic was on
position of the Austrian province. But in order to completely eradicate
the spirit of freedom in the kingdom, laws alone were not enough. For participants
the uprisings fell upon severe repression: 24 nobles were beheaded in
Prague, many nobles and ordinary citizens were punished with whips, imprisoned in
prison or expelled from the country. Then began the confiscation of estates, which took
colossal dimensions. Three-quarters of all land was taken from the national
nobility, given to monasteries and German Catholics. Since the nobility
from time immemorial was considered the main force of the national movement, this action
broke the freedom-loving spirit of the Czech people. At the same time planting
Catholicism. All Czech books of suspicious content were burned.
Anyone who did not want to renounce the Protestant faith was ordered
leave the country. About 40 thousand families then went into exile.
Since the Elector of the Palatinate Friedrich did not want to give up
the title of Czech king given to him by the rebels, he became the next victim
Catholics - by 1623 the Bavarians took possession of the entire Palatinate. Then on the side
Protestants entered the war the Danish king Christian IV, who received from
England significant subsidies for the recruitment of troops. Seeing that the Protestants
multiply their forces, the leaders of the Catholic League began to demand help from
emperor. Ferdinand himself understood that it was impossible to lay all the burdens on
war on one Bavarian army, but he had absolutely no funds for
recruiting your own troops. In these difficult circumstances
Friedland Duke Wallenstein undertook to deliver an army to the emperor for his
own account. Two years later, he gathered under the banner of more than 50 thousand
adventurers from all over Europe, organized them and created a completely combat-ready
army. Wallenstein's main idea was that the army itself should
supply themselves by exacting indemnities from the population. Soon he was able to
put a case that cost the emperor almost nothing to maintain his
army. True, we had to close our eyes to the fact that everywhere they appeared
soldiers of Wallenstein, general robberies, murders and cruel
torture of civilians. But since his brave warriors were able not only
to loot, but also to fight and actually won glorious victories,
Ferdinand for a long time did not pay attention to their excesses.
In April 1626, Wallenstein inflicted a decisive defeat on the Protestants at
Dessau bridge on the Elbe. Then he moved to Hungary and forced the local
rebels to submission. Meanwhile, Tilly, beside Lutter, put to flight
Christiana. All northern Germany hurried to show obedience to the emperor
Wallenstein and Tilly, pursuing the Danes, took possession of all of Holstein, Schleswig
and Jutland In 1629, Ferdinand made peace with Christian. Danish king
got back all his possessions, but had to refuse to interfere
in German affairs In March of the same year, the emperor promulgated an edict
restitution (restoration), according to which Protestants had to return
to the Catholics all the lands seized by them after the Peace of Augsburg. This law
took from the Protestants two archbishoprics, twelve bishoprics, many
monasteries, priories and other possessions. Bringing it into execution
the Protestant party would have been finally broken. However, on the way
Ferdinand's ambitious plans stood up to the Swedish king Gustavus Adolphus. Summer
1630 he declared war on the emperor and quickly took possession of Pomerania with
Mecklenburg.
The war resumed with the same ferocity. In the same year, Tilly took
Magdenburg and betrayed him to a terrible ruin. The city burned to the ground, about 20
thousands of people died by sword, fire and horror. Tilly then invaded Saxony
and occupied Leipzig The indignant Saxons, who had previously maintained neutrality,
Breitenfeld there was a big battle, and Tilly was defeated in it.
After this important victory, Gustavus Adolf took possession of Würzburg and invaded
Rhenish Palatinate. In 1632 he moved against Bavaria. April in battle
on Lech, Tilly was defeated for the second time and received a mortal wound. But when
following this, the Swedish king attacked Wallenstein's camp near Nuremberg,
he met with a strong rebuff and retreated with heavy losses. wallenstein
battle. Under pressure from the Swedes, Wallenstein's regiments were dispersed and driven back. But
the winner Gustav Adolf fell in this battle, and this nullified all his success
army. The Protestant coalition broke up. The Swedes avoided decisive
actions and no longer seemed so dangerous. But there was another threat. TO
At the beginning of the 1930s, Wallenstein's power became so great that it became
instill fear in the emperor himself. In 1634, the highest officers of the army were
conspiracy in favor of his commander. Upon learning of this, Ferdinand ordered
loyal troops to crush the rebellion with all possible firmness, at the same time he
gave a secret order to the governor of Eger Gordon to deal with
killers in his castle and put to death the minute he left the bathroom.
The new head of the imperial army, Gallas, took Regensburg, and in
September defeated the Swedes at Nordlingen The Elector of Saxony was supposed to
retreat from his allies and in the spring of 1635 made peace with the emperor in
Prague. This treaty left to the Protestants the lands they owned
in 1552 and the right for 40 years to use the possessions appropriated
between 1552 and 1555 Other Protestant princes resented treason
Saxons, but were forced one by one to join the prisoner
the world. The war might have ended there if not for the intervention of France. V
October 1635 Cardinal Richelieu attracted Duke Bernard to his side
Weimar On French gold, he recruited a large army and led successful
actions against imperial commanders. The war began to flare up with a new
by force. Ferdinand never lived to see its end - he died two years after
"In the third week of August 1942, Hitler gave the order to stop mass production of the chassis of the VK450-1 (P) tank and at the same time ordered to start developing a heavy self-propelled artillery mount in the body of the Porsche Tiger tank - schwere Panzer Selbstfahrlafette Tiger. Soon, design and development work was suspended once again - the installation of a heavy field gun on the chassis of a heavy tank seemed unnecessarily expensive in purely financial terms... Large-caliber guns usually occupied firing positions far enough from the front line, and therefore the powerful armor of a self-propelled gun armed with such a gun simply lost its meaning.
Design work after a certain period was resumed, but now a heavy tank destroyer armed with a powerful anti-aircraft gun of the Flak-41 type was designed. The use of a tank chassis to create a tank destroyer was more in line with reality than the design of a well-armored large-caliber self-propelled artillery mount. Such vehicles could cover the flanks of tank units with fire on the offensive, and successfully fight enemy armored vehicles from pre-planned "ambush" positions on the defensive.
In both cases, the heavy tank destroyer was not required to make rapid rushes over rough terrain, which Professor Porsche's chassis was not physically capable of. At the same time, powerful armor expanded the range of use of tank destroyers, allowing them to operate even from open firing positions from which the use of light tank destroyers was not possible. At that time, the German armed forces did not have any other castle destroyers, except for the light ones created on the chassis of the Pz.Kpfw tanks. I.Pz.Kpfw. II. Pz.Kpfw. 38(t).
Video: useful lecture by Yuri Bakhurin about self-propelled guns "Ferdinand"
The crews of these tank destroyers had practically no protection from enemy fire, except for the gun shield. The armament of light tank destroyers left much to be desired. Even self-propelled guns of the Marder series, armed with 75 mm Pak-40 anti-tank guns and captured Soviet field guns of 76.2 mm caliber, penetrated the frontal armor of heavy tanks only from extremely short distances. The number of fully armored SluG III assault guns was not enough, besides, the 75-mm short-barreled guns of these self-propelled guns were not suitable for fighting serious tanks.
On September 22, Minister of Armaments Albers Speer officially ordered the Porsche team to design the Sturmgeschutz Tiger 8.8 cm L / 71. In the bowels of the Nibelungenwerke, the project received the code "type 130". A variant of the Pak-43 anti-tank gun. designed for self-propelled guns received the designation "8.8 cm Pak-43 / 2 Sf L / 71" - an 88-mm anti-tank gun of the 1943 model, 2 modifications with a barrel length of 71 mm for a self-propelled artillery mount. Even before the prototype was built, the self-propelled gun changed its designation to “8.8 cm Pak-43/2 Sll L/71 Panzerjager Tiger (P) Sd.Kfz. 184". Then there were so many more name changes that it's time to ask the question: "What's your name ... now?" The proper name "Ferdinand" stuck. It is interesting that the name "Ferdinand" appeared in an official document only on January 8, 1944, and the heavy self-propelled gun received its first official name only on May 1, 1944 - "Elephant", by analogy with a heavy self-propelled artillery mount on the Pz.Sfl chassis. III / IV "Nashorn". the rhinoceros and the elephant are both African animals.
Ferdinand was born
Self-propelled gun type 130 was designed in close cooperation with the Berlin company Alkett, who had extensive experience in designing self-propelled artillery installations. The drawings of the original project of the Type 130 self-propelled gun were signed on November 30, 1942. but two weeks earlier, WaPuf-6, the tank department of the Wehrmacht Ordnance Department, approved the conversion of 90 Porsche Tiger chassis into self-propelled guns. The conversion included numerous changes to the design and layout of the chassis.
The layout of the self-propelled guns and the reservation scheme "Elephant / Ferdinand"
The fighting compartment was transferred to the aft part of the hull, the engine compartment - to the middle of the hull. The reconfiguration of the machine was associated with the need to maintain the balance of the machine due to the placement of a heavy fixed cabin in the stern with unprecedented armor - 200 mm forehead and 80 mm sides. The felling was placed in the stern because of the long one. 7 m gun barrel. This arrangement made it possible to maintain a more or less acceptable overall length of the machine - the barrel almost did not protrude beyond the hull.
Differences between "Ferdinand" and "Elephant".
The "Elephant" had a course machine-gun mount, covered with additional patch armor. The jack and wooden stand for the pego were moved to the stern. The front fenders are reinforced with steel profiles. Attachments for spare tracks have been removed from the front fender liner. Removed headlights. A sun visor is installed above the driver's viewing devices. On the roof of the cabin, a commander's turret was mounted according to the mud of the commander's turret of the StuG III assault gun. On the frontal wall of the cabin, gutters are welded to drain rainwater. On the Elefant, a tool box is installed in the stern. The rear fenders are reinforced with steel profiles. The sledgehammer has been moved to the aft cutting sheet. Instead of handrails on the left side of the stern cutting sheet, mounts for spare tracks were made.
The factory crew of a new, not yet painted, self-propelled gun FgStNr, 150 096, just pulled out of the Nibelungenwerke factory workshop, sunny May morning 1943. The chassis number is neatly written in white paint on the front of the hull. On the frontal part of the felling there is an inscription in chalk “Fahrbar” (for a run) in Gothic type. The last production series included only four Ferdinand tank destroyers.
Even before the signing of the entire set of working drawings of self-propelled guns in December 1942, the Nibelungenwerke company subsidized the Eisenwerke Oberdanau company from Linz with the aim of starting work on the conversion of the first 15 tank hulls into tanks in January 1943. The last of the 90 hulls were manufactured and shipped by the Npbelungenwerke 12 April 1943
Meanwhile. I had to abandon plans for the final assembly of self-propelled guns by Alkiett for two reasons.
First, there was a shortage of special Ssyms rail transporters. which were used primarily for transporting Tiger tanks to threatened sectors of the Eastern Front. The second reason: the Alkett company was the only manufacturer of the StuG III assault guns, which were sorely needed by the front. in respect of the number of which the appetite of the front remained truly insatiable. The assembly of self-propelled guns "type 130" put an end to the manufacture of StuG III assault guns for a long period.
Suspension drawing of self-propelled guns "Elephant/Ferdinand"
Even the manufacture of felling self-propelled guns "type 130". for which, according to the production plan, Alkett was responsible, was transferred to Krupp from Essen, which, incidentally, had a serious impact on the pace of manufacture of Tiger tank turrets. The cooperation of the Nibelungenwerke-Alkett firms was ultimately limited to business trips of Alkett welding specialists to the Nibelungenwerke to assist in the final assembly of heavy self-propelled guns at the Porsche plant.
Brand new "Ferdinand" at the beginning of a long journey from the factory to the front. At the factory, self-propelled guns were painted in one color - Dunkeigelb, crosses were applied in three places, no numbers were drawn. Vehicles were often delivered from the factory without gun shields. There were not enough shields, in many photographs of self-propelled guns from the 654th battalion there are no shields on the Ferdinands. The tool box is located as standard - on the starboard side, the spare tracks of the caterpillar are laid on the wings immediately behind the fender liner. Tow hooks are attached to the thimble of the towing ropes.
On May 8, 1943, the last Ferdinand (FgstNn 150 100) was assembled. Later, this vehicle entered service with the 4th platoon of the 2nd company of the 653rd battalion of heavy tank destroyers. The “Jubeley” car is decorated with numerous inscriptions made in chalk. The car is festively decorated with tree branches and mock shells. One of the inscriptions reads "Ferdinand", which means that such a name appeared on the Nibelungenewerk already in May 1943.
On February 16, 1943, the first prototype of a heavy tank destroyer (Fgsr.Nr. 150 010) was assembled by the Nibelungenwerk. According to the plan, the last of the 90 gunks ordered by the fighter was to be handed over to the customer on May 12th. but the workers managed to hand over the last StuG Tiger (P) (Fgst. Nr. 150 100) ahead of schedule - on May 8th. It was a labor gift from the Nibelungenwerke to the front.
The box-shaped deckhouses were supplied by Krupp from Essen in two sections, which were bolted together during assembly.
The first tests of two Ferdinands (Fgst.Nr. 150010 and 150011) took place in Kummersdorf from April 12 to April 23, 1943. In general, the machines received a positive assessment of the test results and were recommended for operation in field conditions. Such an outcome of the test can hardly be called a surprise, since Operation Citadel was planned for the summer, in which the emphasis was on the use of the latest armored vehicles. Operation Citadel was supposed to be a real search test for heavy tank destroyers, tests of bet quotes and subtext. Just tests.
Firing passed without any special remarks.
By this time, the name "Ferdinand" was firmly entrenched in all circles for the "type 130" self-propelled gun. "Ferdinand" in its final form differed from the project "type 130" in a small but extremely important detail. On the assault gun "type 130" a course machine gun was provided for self-defense from enemy infantry. There is no doubt that if that design of the machine had been answered by Alkett, then the machine gun would have been saved.
At Krupp, however, they did not bother with the installation of a machine gun mount in a frontal armor plate 200 mm thick. By that time, there was experience in placing a machine-gun mount in the frontal armor of the Tiger tank hull, and yet its thickness was half that of the Ferdinand! In general, Krupp specialists rightly believed that any cutouts weaken the strength of the entire armor plate. The machine gun installation was abandoned, as a result, the crews lost their means of self-defense in close combat. "Excessive" losses of heavy self-propelled guns, thus, were predetermined at the design stage.
Not news - the concept of a combat vehicle is tested for truth only in battle. Artillerymen could hardly imagine the difficulties of providing nine dozen modern armored self-propelled guns, for the operation of which supply and repair problems were critical. A car weighing almost 70 tons was very prone to breakdowns, and how to tow a broken off self-propelled gun. No horses are enough here. To a large extent, it was the lack of towing facilities that contributed to the high losses of the Ferdinands at Kursk. moving forward will simply flatten the enemy’s defenses and did not provide the tank and self-propelled artillery units with the tractors necessary to tow the damaged combat vehicles.The lack of worthy tractors a few weeks after the failure of the Citadel operation gave rise to the Berge-Ferdinand evacuation vehicle project. May 1943 and the losses in self-propelled guns near Kursk could not be so significant.
The command of the German ground forces intended to form three units armed with Ferdinands as part of the artillery according to the Kriegsstarkenachweisung. K.st.N, 446b, 416b, 588b and 598 dated January 31, 1943, two units of the 654th and 653rd assault gun battalions (StuGAbt) were formed on the basis of the 190th and 197th assault artillery battalions, respectively. Third, StuGAbt. 650 were going to be formed from a "clean slate". According to the state, the battery should have nine Ferdinand self-propelled guns with three reserve vehicles at the battery headquarters. In total, according to the state, the battalion was armed with 30 Ferdinand self-propelled guns. Both the organization and tactics of the combat use of StuGAbt were based on "artillery" traditions. Batteries took part in the battle on their own. In the event of a massive strike by Soviet tanks, such tactics seemed to be erroneous.
In March, on the eve of the start of the formation of battalions, there were changes in views on the tactical use and organization of units armed with Ferdinands. The changes were personally promoted by the Inspector General of the Panzerwaffe Heinz Guderian, who achieved the inclusion of the Ferdinands in tank troops, and not in artillery. The batteries in the battalions were renamed into companies, followed by a redrawing of instructions and instructions on combat tactics. Guderian was a supporter of the massive use of heavy tank destroyers. In March, by order of the Inspector General of the Panzerwaffe, the formation of the 656th regiment of heavy tank destroyers began, consisting of three battalions. The 197th assault artillery battalion was once again renamed, becoming the 1st battalion of the 656th regiment (653rd battalion of heavy tank destroyers) - 1/656 (653), and the 190th battalion - 11/656 (654) . 3rd battalion "Ferdinands". The 600th, 656th regiment was never formed. Two battalions were armed with 45 "Ferdinads" - a complete analogy with the battalions of heavy tanks, which were armed with 45 "Tigers". The new III battalion of the 656th regiment was formed on the basis of the 216th assault tank battalion, it received 45 StuPz IV Brummbar Sd.Kfz assault howitzers. 166. armed with 15 cm StuK-43 howitzers.
The battalion of heavy tank destroyers included a headquarters company (three Ferdinands) and three line companies formed according to the state of K.St.N. 1148s dated March 22, 1943. Each line was armed with 14 Ferdinands in three platoons (four tank destroyers per platoon, two more Ferdinands were assigned to the company headquarters, which was often called the "1st platoon"). The date of formation of the headquarters of the 656th regiment is June 8, 1943. The headquarters was formed in Austria in St. Pölten from the cadres of the Bavarian 35th tank regiment. The commander of the regiment was Lieutenant Colonel Baron Ernst von Jungenfeld. Major Heinrich Steinwachs took command of the 1st (653rd) battalion, Hauptmann Karl-Heinz Noak - II (654th) battalion of the 656th regiment. Major Bruno Karl remained at the head of his 216th battalion, which was now designated III/656 (216). In addition to the Ferdinands and Brummbars, the regiment received Pz.Kpfw tanks into service with the headquarters company. Ill n advanced artillery observation vehicles Panzerbeobachtungswagen III Ausf. H. Also in the headquarters company there were half-track artillery observers Sd.Kfz. 250/5. sanitary evacuation half-track armored personnel carriers Sd.Kfz. 251/8. light reconnaissance tanks Pz.Kpfw. II Ausf. F and tanks Pz.Kpfw. Ill Ausf. N.
The 1st Battalion (653rd) was garrisoned in the Austrian town of Neusiedel am See. II (654th) battalion was stationed in French Rouen. The second battalion was the first to receive new equipment, but the drivers of the 653rd battalion brought its Ferdinands to the location of the unit.
Burnt "Ferdinand" from the 656th regiment of heavy tank destroyers. Kursk Bulge, July 1943. By the nature of the camouflage, the vehicle belongs to the 654th battalion, but there are no tactical signs on the fender liner. The shield of the gun mantlet is missing, most likely shot down by an anti-tank projectile. Marks from small-caliber projectiles or anti-tank rifle bullets are visible on the barrel in the area of the muzzle brake. In the frontal armor plate of the hull in the area of the location of the gunner-radio operator - a mark from an anti-tank projectile of 57 or 76.2 mm caliber. In the fender liner - holes from bullets of 14.5 mm caliber.
"Ferdinand" with tail number "634", from the 4th platoon of the 2nd company of the 654th battalion. The car lost its course after a mine explosion. The lid of the toolbox has been torn off. Ultimately, the tool box was moved to the rear of the hull. The picture perfectly conveys the camouflage pattern and white tail number characteristic of the self-propelled guns of the Noack battalion.
"Ferdinand" with tail number "132", the machine was commanded by non-commissioned officer Horst Golinski. Golinsky's self-propelled gun was blown up by a mine near Ponyry in the defense zone of the 70th Red Army. The photograph was dated July 7, 1943 in the Soviet wartime press. The car's undercarriage was seriously damaged. The mine explosion tore off the entire first cart with two road wheels. In general, the car was in good order, only there was nothing to evacuate it from the battlefield. Pay attention to the plug of the pistol embrasure hanging on a chain in the back of the wheelhouse.
Staged photo. A Soviet infantryman threatens the Ferdinand with an RPG-40 grenade. "Ferdinand" with tail number "623" from the 4th platoon of the 2nd company of the 654th battalion was blown up by a mine a long time ago. A whole series of photographs was taken, in the last - the self-propelled gun was enveloped in clouds of white smoke from ignited phosphorus.
Two photographs of Befehls-Ferdinand self-propelled guns from the headquarters company of the 654th battalion of Hauptmann Noak. The machine has no external damage. The number of the self-propelled gun, "1102", indicates that the vehicle belonged to the deputy battalion commander. The camouflage pattern is typical for the 654th battalion. The pattern on the barrel and mask is made in such a way that it becomes obvious that the self-propelled gun never had a mask gun shield. The Soviet press indicated that the emom self-propelled gun first hit a mine, and then drank a Molotov cocktail.
Burnt and blown up Ferdinands - cars with tail numbers "723" and "702" (the closest to the camera is FgStNr. 150 057). Both vehicles are painted in typical camouflage for the 654th battalion. The self-propelled gun closest to the camera ("792") lost its muzzle brake. Both machines do not have mask shields - it is possible that the shields were torn off by explosions.
The 653rd battalion received most of its Ferdinands in May. On May 23 and 24, the inspector general of the Panzerwaffe was personally present at the regimental exercises in Bruck an der Leith. Here the 1st company practiced shooting, the 3rd company, together with sappers, forced minefields. Sappers used remote-controlled self-propelled tankettes Borgvard
B.IV. Guderian expressed satisfaction with the results of the exercises, but the main surprise of the inspector general was expected after the exercises: all self-propelled guns made a 42-kilometer march from the training ground to the garrison without a single breakdown! At first, Guderian simply did not believe this fact.
The technical reliability demonstrated by the Ferdinands during the exercises eventually played a trick on them. It is possible that the result of the exercises was the refusal of the Wehrmacht command to equip the regiment with powerful 35-ton Zgkv tractors. 35t Sd.Kfz. 20. fifteen tractors Zgkv. 18t Sd.Kfz. 9 were for the broken Ferdinands, which is a dead poultice. Later, the 653rd battalion received two Bergpanthers, but this fact took place after the Battle of Kursk, in which many Ferdinands had to be simply abandoned due to the impossibility of towing them. The losses in equipment were so tangible that the 654th was disbanded in order to saturate the 653rd battalion with equipment.
The regiment's battalions joined up only in June 1943 before being sent to railway to the Eastern Front. The Ferdinands were to be baptized by fire during Operation Citadel, on which the head of the Reich had great hopes. In fact, there was an understanding on both sides of the front - Operation Citadel decides the outcome of the war in the East. The 653rd battalion was equipped with equipment in full compliance with the staff - 45 "Ferdinands", in the 654th battalion one self-propelled gun was missing from the regular strength, and in the 216th battalion - three "Brummbars".
In contrast to the tactics of covering the flanks of the tank wedge, which were previously planned and worked out during the exercises, now the self-propelled guns were tasked with directly accompanying the infantry in an attack on the heavily fortified enemy defenses. The people who planned such actions could hardly imagine the real combat capabilities of the Ferdinands. Shortly before the start of the operation, the 656th regiment received reinforcements in the form of two sapper companies equipped with remotely controlled demining vehicles - Panzerfunklenkkompanie 313 Lieutenant Frishkin and Panzerfunklenkkompanie 314 Hauptmann Bram. Each company was armed with 36 tankettes Borgvard V.IV Sd.Kfz. 301Ausf. A, designed to make passages in minefields.
During Operation Citadel, the 656th Regiment operated as part of General Kharpe's XXXXI Panzer Corps. The corps was part of the 9th Army of Army Group Center. The 653rd Heavy Tank Destroyer Battalion supported the operations of the 86th and 292nd Infantry Divisions. The 654th Battalion supported the strike of the 78th Infantry Division. The only real assault unit of the regiment, the 216th battalion, was intended for operations in the second echelon, together with the 177th and 244th assault gun brigades. The object of the strike was the defensive positions of the Soviet troops on the Novoarkhangelsk-Olkhovat-ka line and especially the key defense point - height 257.7. It was dominated by soft pounds, carved with trenches, anti-tank gun and machine gun emplacements, littered with mines.
On the first day of the operation, the 653rd battalion advanced in the direction of Aleksandrovka, deepening into the first line of defense. The crews of the Ferdinands reported about 25 destroyed T-34 tanks and a large number of artillery pieces. Most of the self-propelled guns of the 653rd battalion failed on the first day of the battle, hitting a minefield. The Russians perfectly equipped the defensive positions, placing thousands of thousands of YaM-5 and TMD-B anti-tank mines in wooden cases in the foreground. Such mines were hardly detected by electromagnetic mine detectors. Anti-tank and anti-personnel mines were interspersed, which greatly hampered the work of sappers armed with conventional probes. In addition, the crew of a self-propelled gun damaged by an explosion jumped out of the car straight onto anti-personnel mines. It was in this situation that the commander of the 1st company of the 653rd battalion, Hauptmann Shpilman, was mortally wounded. In addition to mines, improvised explosive devices made on the basis of shells and even air bombs of various calibers were widely used. Torsion bars suffered the most during mine explosions. The self-propelled guns themselves were not damaged. but as a result of a breakdown of the torsion bars, they lost momentum, and there was nothing to tow the blown up, but actually serviceable cars.
The offensive began according to plan with clearing passages in minefields. Passages for the Ferdinands of the 654th battalion were provided by the 314th sapper company. Hauptmann Brahm's people used up 19 of the 36 remote demining machines available. First, the control vehicles StuG III and Pz.Kpfw moved into the passage. Ill in order to launch the remaining tankettes and deepen the passage. However, the tanks and assault guns came under the strongest barrage of Russian artillery. Further clearing of the minefield became simply impossible. Moreover, most of the milestones placed on the borders of the completed passage were shot down by artillery fire. Many Ferdinand drivers drove out of the passage into the minefield. The battalion lost in one day at least 33 self-propelled guns out of 45 available! Most of the wrecked cars were subject to repair, there was a "trifle" - to tow them from the minefield. In general, the losses of the first three days of most of the 89 who took part in Operation Citadel were the result of undermining heavy tank destroyers on a single mine.
On July 8, all the surviving Fsrdinands were withdrawn from the fighting and sent to the rear. A significant number of wrecked cars still managed to be evacuated. Often, a "train" of five or more tractors was assembled to tow one self-propelled gun. Such "trains" immediately came under fire from Russian artillery. As a result, not only Ferdinands were lost, but also extremely scarce tractors.
The Ferdinands of the 654th battalion attacked along with the infantry of the 78th division at heights 238.1 and 253.3. advancing in the direction of Ponyri and Olkhovatka. The actions of self-propelled guns were provided by the 313th sapper company of Lieutenant Frishkin. The sappers suffered losses even before the start of the battle - four tankettes with demining charges exploded in a German minefield not marked on the map. Another 11 tankettes were blown up in the Soviet minefield. The sappers, like their colleagues from the 314th company, were hit by heavy fire from Soviet artillery. The 654th battalion left most of its Ferdinands in the minefields around Ponyri. especially many self-propelled guns were blown up in a minefield near the farms of the May 1 collective farm. 18 heavy tank destroyers blown up by mines could not be evacuated.
After numerous reports about the lack of tractors of sufficient power, the 653rd battalion received two Bergnanters. but "the milk has already run away." The wrecked Ferdinands remained motionless for too long and did not escape the attention of the Soviet demolition men, who visited the battlefield on short summer nights. In other words, there was nothing to be towed by the long-awaited Bergapanthers ”- Soviet sappers blew up the damaged self-propelled guns. The damaged vehicle towing activity finally ceased on July 13, when the 653rd Battalion was transferred to the XXXV Army Corps. The next day, an improvised battle group Teriete, formed from the remnants of a company of Lieutenant Heinrich Teriete and several vehicles of the anti-tank artillery battalion of the 26th Panzer-Grenadier Division, was thrown to the aid of the encircled 36th Infantry Regiment. For the first time, the Ferdinands were used according to the originally conceived tactics and were successful, despite the multiple numerical superiority of the enemy and in the absence of proper intelligence. Self-propelled guns worked from ambush, periodically changing positions, stopping the attempts of Soviet tanks to deliver flank attacks. Lieutenant Teriete modestly announced the personally destroyed 22 Soviet tanks, modesty has always adorned a warrior. In July, Teriete was awarded the Knight's Cross.
On the same day, 26 surviving Ferdinands of the 654th battalion joined the 34 Ferdinands from the 653rd battalion that survived and pulled out of the battlefield. The self-propelled fist, together with the 53rd Infantry and the 36th Panzergrenadier Divisions, held the defense in the Tsarevka area until July 25th. On July 25, only 54 Ferdinands remained in the 656th regiment, and only 25 of them were combat-ready. The regiment commander, Baron von Yushenfeld, was forced to withdraw his unit to the rear for the restoration of equipment.
During the operation Citadel, the crews of the Ferdinands of two battalions of the 656th regiment recorded 502 confirmed destroyed Soviet guns (302 of them were attributed to the combat account of the 653rd battalion), 200 anti-tank artillery guns and 100 artillery systems for other purposes. Such data are given in the report of the Supreme High Command of the German Ground Forces dated August 7, 1943. Three months later, the next OKI report already spoke of 582 Soviet tanks destroyed by the Ferdinands. 344 anti-tank guns and 133 other artillery systems, three aircraft, three armored vehicles and three self-propelled artillery mounts. The pedantic Germans also counted the anti-tank rifles destroyed by heavy tank destroyers - 104. The German headquarters were always distinguished by amazing accuracy in their reports ... Reports were transmitted upward from the depths of the regiment, in which weak and strengths"Ferdinandov". In general, the idea of a heavily protected self-propelled tank destroyer justified itself, especially if the vehicles were used specifically to fight tanks. The crews liked the range of the guns mounted on the Ferdinands, their high combat accuracy and high armor penetration. There were also disadvantages.
So high-explosive fragmentation shells got stuck in the breech of guns, steel shells of shells of all types were poorly extracted. In the end, to extract the shells, the crews of all Ferdinands acquired sledgehammers and crowbars. With a negative, the crews noted the poor visibility from the car, the lack of machine-gun weapons. If the gunner noticed near the car Soviet infantrymen, great lovers of the Molotov cocktail, he immediately inserted a machine gun into the cannon and opened fire from it through the barrel. Already after the end of the battle at Kursk, 50 kits were made in the repair company, which made it possible to fix a machine gun in the body of the gun, so that the axis of the machine gun barrel coincided with the axis of the gun barrel so that the zeros did not ricochet from the walls of the bore and muzzle brake. In the 653rd battalion they experimented with machine guns placed on the roof of the cabin. The shooter had to fire through an open hatch. exposing oneself to the opponent's bullets, except
In addition, zeros and fragments flew through the open hatch into the cabin, which other crew members were not at all happy about. By its nature, Ferdinand was a "lone hunter", which Operation Citadel fully confirmed.
On rough terrain, self-propelled guns moved at a speed of no more than 10 km / h. The attack turned out to be slow, the enemy had time to shoot, and the time spent under fire increased. If the “Ferdinands” were far from always threatened by medium and small-caliber artillery fire, then medium tanks, assault guns and armored personnel carriers, forced to “equal” with heavy tank destroyers in speed, suffered from such fire. The attack was held back by the constant expectation of clearing passages in the minefields. The concept of using the Ferdinand as a means of transporting infantry on a special platform attached to a self-propelled gun was thwarted by Soviet artillery. Under the downpour of machine-gun, mortar and artillery fire, the panzergrenadiers on these platforms turned out to be defenseless. The huge and slow monster was an ideal target for all types of weapons. As a result, Ferdinand brought the corpses of panzergrenadiers to the front line of defense of the enemy, and the dead German soldiers no longer had to protect the monster from the destructive Molotov cocktails that live Soviet infantrymen generously treated the Ferdinands. Another weak point of the Ferdinand was the power plant, which often heated up when driving on soft soils.
From above, the power plant did not have proper armor protection - the same Molotov cocktail was perfectly spilled through the ventilation holes on the motors. What is the use of an armored tube that survived the shelling, if the engines are out of order, the electric motors are burned out, the fuel lines and electrical wiring are broken by fragments of shells? Soviet artillery often fired on tanks with incendiary shells, which posed a great danger to the fuel system of self-propelled guns. The reason for the loss of most of the 19 failed not from mine explosions of the Ferdinands was damage to the power plants. There were cases of failure of engine cooling systems from close detonations of shells, as a result, the Ferdinand engines overheated and caught fire. One "Ferdinand" was lost due to self-ignition of an electric generator when the self-propelled gun got stuck in the ground.
Unexpected were the negative assessments of the entire electromechanical power plant. Four cars burned down for a reason short circuits in the engine electrical system. For their mass, the cars showed good maneuverability if the torsion bars did not break. It was not only mines that disabled Porsche's patented torsion bars, even large stones posed a threat. The tracks, which were wide in principle, turned out to be narrow for the mass of the Ferdinand - self-propelled guns got stuck in the ground. And then a fairy tale about a white bull began: an attempt to get out on its own ended, at best, in an overheating of the engine, at worst, in a fire, tractors were needed for towing, there were no tractors ...
Armor in most cases provided reliable protection crew. Again, not always. On July 8, "Ferdinands" of the 3rd company of the 653rd battalion ran into "St. The armor of the three Ferdinands could not withstand the hits of such shells. One "Ferdinand" was destroyed as a result of a completely fantastic case.
The projectile fired by the Soviet cannon hit the Borgvard demining tankette. installed on the carrier - the Pz.Kpfw. III. The 350-kg subversive charge of the tankette detonated and blew to atoms both the tankette itself and the carrier tank. A large part of the “atoms” of the tank collapsed on the Ferdinand taxiing nearby, the remnants of the tank broke the Ferdinand’s gun barrel and disabled the engine! A fire broke out in the engine compartment of the self-propelled gun. It was probably the most successful shot from an anti-tank gun in the entire Second world war. Three units of tracked combat vehicles were destroyed by one shell: the Borgvard B-IV remotely controlled mine-clearing vehicle, the Pz.Kpfw tank. III and heavy tank destroyer "Ferdinand".
The battalions armed with Ferdinand tank destroyers achieved some success, but at the cost of too many losses, which could not be replenished. Under these conditions, by order of August 23, 1943, the 654th battalion was ordered to hand over all materiel to the 653rd battalion. The 654th Battalion ceased to be II/656 (653) and simply became the 654th Battalion, as did the 216th Battalion, which ceased to be III/656 (216). The remnants of the regiment were taken to rest, repair and reorganize in Dnepropetrovsk, the largest industrial center of Ukraine in the frontline zone, in which there were opportunities for the repair of heavy tank destroyers. 50 out of 54 self-propelled guns were subject to repair, four tank destroyers were recognized as not appropriate to repair. Alas, the repair of the revolutionary products of Professor Porsche required special equipment, which was not available even in Dnepropetrovsk. Meanwhile, the front was approaching the city of Petra on the Dnieper. At the end of September, the Ferdinands were evacuated to Nikopol, where all combat-ready vehicles (at least ten) were sent to the Zaporozhye region. Alas, even the Ferdinands failed to slow down the Soviet tank rink - on October 13, German troops received an order to retreat, and a few days later, units of the Red Army crossed the Dnieper along the Dneproges dam, although the Germans managed to blow up the dam dam.
Soon the Germans also left Nikopol. Here, on November 10, the Ferdinands of the 653rd battalion entered into a fierce battle. All self-propelled guns capable of moving and shooting were sent to Mareevka and Kateripovka. where they achieved local success. The offensive of the Red Army was stopped, however, not by the Ferdinands, but by the beginning of prolonged autumn rains, which turned the roads into what is known. The offensive resumed with the first frosts. On November 26 and 27, the Ferdinands from the Nord combat group were successful in the battle for Kochasovka and Miropol. Of the 54 Soviet tanks destroyed in these places, at least 21 vehicles were shot down by the Ferdinand crew, commanded by Lieutenant Franz Kretschmer, who received the Knight's Cross for this battle.
Memo for the soldiers of the Red Army for the destruction of self-propelled guns "Ferdinand/Elephant"
By the end of November, the situation in the 656th regiment became critical. On November 29, 42 Ferdinands remained in the regiment, of which only four were combat-ready, eight were in medium repair, and 30 needed major repairs.
On December 10, 1943, the 656th regiment was ordered to evacuate from the Eastern Front to St. Poltey. The withdrawal of the regiment from the Eastern Front stretched from December 16, 1943 to January 10, 1944.
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Quote from the magazine "Military Machines" No. 81 "Ferdinand"
Emperor Charles V had a younger brother, Ferdinand. He was the fourth child of Archduke Philip the Handsome of the Habsburg family and the unfortunate Queen Juana of Castile - "Juana the Mad".
By his mother, he was the grandson of the unifiers of Spain - Queen Isabella of Castile and her husband, King Ferdinand of Aragon, nicknamed "Catholic kings" for their steel-hard commitment to Catholicism. The Inquisition began to punish even minimal deviations from the dogmas of the Faith, starting with the "Catholic king and queen."
According to his father, Ferdinand is the grandson of Emperor Maximilian, the very one who, having married Mary, the only daughter of the last duke of independent Burgundy, Charles the Bold, acquired a huge, but incredibly restless “Burgundian inheritance”, the brightest diamond of which was the “Lower Lands”, otherwise called the Netherlands.
The future emperor received his name in honor of his grandfather Ferdinand the Catholic, King of Aragon, who, in fact, built “an empire over which the sun does not set. Ferdinand from his youth was in the shadow of his ambitious brother Charles. The brother once reacted with jealousy to the fact that the younger Ferdinand, who was brought up in Spain, was loved by the Castilians - he, Charles, subjects - and sent him in the spring of 1518 to the Netherlands. Ferdinand never returned to his beloved Castile, the fate of him and his descendants now belonged undividedly to Germany and Austria.
When Charles becomes emperor in 1519, Ferdinand receives the rights of his governor in Germany, divided into a huge number of independent principalities.
Ferdinand witnessed how, at the Church Council in the German city of Worms, the monk Martin Luther spoke out with his ideas about the need to correct abuses in the Roman Church. Despite the fact that the majority reacted very calmly to the speeches of the learned monk, Karl attacked him with the most severe criticism, accusing him of schismatic activity in relation to the united Christian world. With his imperial power, he insisted on a ban on Luther's public speeches and sermons. Ferdinand could not understand why his brother went into such a frenzy, because there is so much truth in Luther's words!
Ferdinand was then 16 years old, and Charles 19.
In 1521, Ferdinand married Anna Jagiellonka, her father Vladislav II (from the family of Polish kings) was simultaneously the king of Bohemia (Czech Republic) and Hungary. These countries "rolled away" from under the scepter of the Habsburgs, and the marriage of Ferdinand pursued the goal of gradually returning them back. At the same time, he received from his older brother their main ancestral lands - Upper and Lower Austria, Carinthia and Styria, as well as Kraina (as Slovenia used to be called), and a little later - Tyrol. They were owned for several centuries by their ancestors, the archdukes of the Austrian houses of the Habsburgs.
In 1536, the marriage with Anna began to pay dividends - in the battle with the Turks at Mohacs, her childless brother Louis (in Hungarian Lajos), the king of Bohemia, Hungary and Croatia, died. Ferdinand made his legal claim to these orphaned crowns. But the Hungarians and Czechs did not recognize the heredity of royal dignity in their countries. In October 1526, the Bohemian Diet elected Ferdinand king, while setting certain conditions for him, while the diets of Moravia and Silesia recognized both Anna and Ferdinand as sovereigns by right of succession. In 1531 Ferdinand was also crowned king of Rome.
Further, Ferdinand had to fight for Hungary with the Turks for a long time, in that era the Great Ottoman Empire waged wars of conquest in Europe, and the task of stopping the Turkish invasion of Christian Europe quickly became for Ferdinand his life's work.
Ferdinand fighting the Turks for Hungary
Ferdinand was opposed by the ruler of Transylvania, Janos Zapolya, who in 1526, dissatisfied with the foreign ruler, the Hungarian nobles in the Tokay castle proclaimed king. In 1527–1528, Ferdinand's army invaded Hungary, defeated Zápolya's troops, and drove him out of the country to Poland. Janos Zapolya turned in 1528 for help to the Ottoman Empire.
In 1529 Suleiman the Magnificent invaded Hungary. Ottoman troops drove the Habsburg forces out of the country and restored Janos to power in most (eastern) parts of Hungary. Janos Zapolya in July 1529 took the vassal oath to the Turkish sultan and was recognized by him as the king of Hungary.
But the most dramatic moment in the life of Ferdinand was the appearance in the spring of 1529 of the army of Suleiman the Magnificent near the walls of Vienna! The siege of the capital of Austria is seen by some historians as a test of strength for a large-scale Turkish invasion of Germany, and by others simply as a desire to unite Hungary under Turkish rule. The Turks near Vienna suffered great hardships, the number of deserters increased, and after an unsuccessful assault, Suleiman the Magnificent ordered a retreat. Ferdinand, with the help of the troops of his elder brother Emperor Charles V, kept western Hungary under his rule.
Ferdinand - arbiter of the German lands
Charles V “spent his whole life in the saddle”, moving from one battle to another, while his younger brother Ferdinand really ruled and solved the most difficult tasks every day. Ferdinand gained invaluable long-term experience in resolving the most difficult disputes between princes and Catholic nobles and electors, princes, dukes and landgraves who went over to the Protestant camp. When the older brother did not achieve complete victory by force of arms, the younger brother stepped in, possessing the ability to reach an agreement in almost hopeless cases.
The main achievement of Ferdinand as a ruler was the inter-religious peace concluded in the City of Augsburg in 1555. He formulated the principle "Whose power, that is faith." His elder brother for a long time did not want to recognize the rights of the Protestant princes to determine the dominant religion in their state. He correctly suspected that this would mean his personal defeat, the impossibility of maintaining a single Christian Empire and the final split of Germany along religious lines.
But the day came when even the Catholic allies of the emperor spoke out that it was impossible to fight endlessly, we had to negotiate! Thus came the personal triumph of Ferdinand Habsburg!
And for his descendants, this meant that the power of the Habsburgs was preserved in that part of Germany that defended its Protestant religion by force of arms. The Peace of Augsburg lasted for more than six decades.
In 1558, Charles V abdicated the crown of the Holy Roman Empire, and it was his brother Ferdinand, and not his son Philip, who became his successor-emperor. This marked the split in the history of the Habsburgs into Spanish and Austrian parts.
Husband and co-ruler of Queen Isabella of Castile. During his almost forty-year reign, thanks to a combination of happy circumstances and his own talents, he managed to play a significant role in pan-European politics. Under him, the political unity of Spain was guaranteed (1479), the Reconquista (1492) ended with the capture of Granada, and the discovery of America (1492) took place. He began an era of Spanish power that ended with Philip II. Ferdinand was a remarkable diplomat and an unusually active and cautious politician, both in internal affairs state and in foreign relations. Like all his political rivals, devoid of anything resembling a moral sense, Ferdinand surpassed them all in intelligence, tact and dexterity.
Dynastic Union of Castile and Aragon
Even during the life of his father, Juan II of Aragon, Ferdinand in 1469 married Isabella, heiress (and then queen) of Castile, and after the death of Juan (in 1479) became the owner of the two strongest kingdoms of the peninsula: Aragon and Castile. Because of Castile, the spouses had to endure a fierce struggle with the Portuguese king, who made claims on behalf of his niece, the daughter of Isabella's older brother, Juana, who was suspected of being born not from the king, but from her lover; the struggle ended (in 1476) with a decisive defeat for Portugal.
Creation of the Holy Hermandade
In the age of the almost complete absence of the right police in most European states, Ferdinand managed to organize a whole police army, which perfectly coped with all sorts of separatist and heretical movements.
It was the so-called "Saint Hermandada" (Spanish: Santa Hermandad), which arose in the 13th century, mainly in Castilian cities. The “Brotherhood” then called itself a saint on the grounds that the townspeople who made it up and replenished its ranks with mercenaries set themselves the goal of fighting robbers and robber knights. To achieve this goal, there was a special tax. Trustworthy (that is, not robbed) knights were often invited to serve in the hermandads of the city, as people accustomed to military enterprises. This institution was very skillfully used by Ferdinand to form a special, subordinate exclusively to the king, police militia. First (in 1476) he made the hermandade obligatory even where there was none; from Castile, the "brotherhood" was soon extended to Aragon. Ferdinand used Ermandade to fight the feudal lords, who for a long time did not want to recognize the royal city police, but ended up submitting. From 1498, Ferdinand finally expelled from the hermandade all traces of the former elected city posts and subordinated it directly to the central government; the tax that ensured the existence of the “brotherhood” remained in full strength. Roads became safer, which immediately affected trade relations. Subsequently, the hermandade contributed to the fall of the Cortes, who withered under Ferdinand and died in the 16th century. In general, the hermandade was one of the main supports of royal arbitrariness. She also became an instrument of the Inquisition, in the history of which the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella is an era.
Inquisition
The Inquisition existed in Spain before Ferdinand; bishops in the 14th century. carried out a spiritual search, trial and reprisals against heretics, but this legal proceedings were not united and settled. Ferdinand and Isabella made the Inquisition a leveller, which was supposed to turn all their subjects into a "single herd" in a religious sense, just as the royal power equalized everyone in a political sense. Since 1480, the actions of the Inquisition of a new type began - the auto-da-fe of heretics and imaginary heretics, the merciless confiscation of their property. During the first 16-18 years of the existence of the Inquisition, about 104 thousand people were convicted in Spain by the Inquisition Tribunal; of these, 8,800 were burned alive.
Jews, Muslims, Christians, who had the imprudence to express dissatisfaction with the Pope, adherents of some mystical sects, first of all fell under the influence of the Inquisition. Ferdinand was especially concerned about the confiscation of the property of heretics - he got a third of them by law and usually almost as much more by right of the strong, for the three inquisitors appointed by him did not dare to protest against the violation of the privileges of the Papal Throne and the Inquisition, who, according to the law, were supposed to get the other two thirds.
Conquest of Granada
Ferdinand used the proceeds obtained through confiscations to accelerate the enterprise, which his predecessors had already unsuccessfully launched several times. The papal treasury and private individuals willingly donated money when they learned that Ferdinand was going to go against the Moors, who still held the kingdom of Granada in the south of the peninsula. New taxes, specially created for this purpose, further strengthened the royal treasury, and in 1482 it was possible to go on a campaign. This war lasted ten years and made Ferdinand extremely popular even in those parts of the kingdom where he could be looked upon as a tyrant and usurper. Granada surrendered in 1492. Ferdinand terribly devastated the newly conquered kingdom, and the Inquisition immediately began its activities, which completely ruined this entire richest industrial country.
Fight with France
Shortly after the fall of Granada, Ferdinand succeeded, through a series of false promises, intrigues and deceptions, in regaining Roussillon and other border regions of the north, which were in the hands of Charles VIII, King of France. Ferdinand studied the character of Charles to perfection and repeatedly deceived him, taking advantage of his vanity and frivolity. Almost immediately after the Treaty of Tours-Barcelona, which gave the rich northern regions into the hands of Ferdinand only under the condition of his non-interference in the wars of Charles in Italy, Ferdinand sent troops to Italy and declared war on Charles who had invaded there under the pretext that the treaty gave him the right "to defend the holy father ".
All of Charles' initial successes in the Apennine Peninsula were lost. In 1500, Charles's successor, Louis XII, concluded a treaty with Ferdinand for the joint conquest of Naples. This conquest took place, but immediately Ferdinand began a treacherous struggle against the French and in the spring of 1503 captured Naples in his hands, displacing the French army from there.
Castile under Ferdinand and Isabella
This was the last success of Ferdinand, in which Isabella took part; in 1504 she died. She obeyed the will of her husband in almost everything; During her reign, Castile was ruled by Cardinal Francisco Jimenez, a fanatic who persecuted Muslims, Jews and heretics with incredible cruelty. At the request of Isabella, the actions of the Inquisition also extended to the newly discovered American lands; redskins were tortured and burned by the hundreds. On her initiative, one of the points of the Granada capitulation was violated, which ensured freedom of religion for the Jews. The law that ordered them either to convert to Catholicism or to leave Spain forever created among the Jews a whole class of people (Marans) who outwardly accepted Catholicism, but in reality remained Jews. The Inquisition hunted them down and burned them, and confiscated their property. After the death of Isabella, religious persecution did not stop, because Ferdinand's enterprises required new and new incomes, and also because the Inquisition had already managed to firmly establish itself in all the possessions of the Spanish king.
Discovery of America
Characteristically, Ferdinand viewed the discovery of America as a fact of incomparably less importance than the almost simultaneous annexation of Roussillon. When Vasco da Gama opened the sea route to India, the Spanish government was envious of the Portuguese; but in last years life, Ferdinand could already make sure of the vastness of those material resources that endowed him with the discovery of Christopher Columbus.
Political intrigues of recent years
In 1506, Ferdinand made political use of his widowhood by marrying Germaine de Foix, niece of King Louis XII. Having become close to Louis, Ferdinand began intrigues against his son-in-law Philip, the husband of Juana the Mad, to whom her mother Isabella bequeathed Castile so that Ferdinand would remain regent of the country. Juana was mentally unstable during the life of Isabella, and Ferdinand, taking advantage of her emotional instability, tried in every possible way to remove Philip, her husband, from the inheritance. For success in this enterprise, he needed the support of Louis of France. After a whole series of intrigues, drawing up forged and secret acts, and other things, Ferdinand had to confine himself to the regency and monetary reward.
Ferdinand's successes in Italy continued. He first joined the league against Venice, then betrayed the French, in return for which he demanded and received several cities on the Adriatic Sea. Ferdinand's daughter, Catherine, was betrothed to the heir to the English throne, Henry, but Ferdinand did not give the promised dowry, and before receiving it, Henry VII did not want to marry his son. When he died in 1509, the new king Henry VIII, without waiting for the payment, married, and Ferdinand immediately began to drag him into an alliance with himself, the Pope and Venice against France. The expulsion of the French from Italy was one of the main motives for all of Ferdinand's diplomatic activities; he constantly returned to this idea, after more or less random deviations. The alliance with Henry allowed him to successfully fight against Louis and take part of Navarre from Jean d'Albret.
Having deceived Henry VIII, his father-in-law called the English troops not to the north of France, as the benefits of England demanded, but to the south, to Gascony, which Ferdinand needed. As a result, the entire burden of the war fell on Henry, and all the benefits both in Italy and on the Pyrenean border remained with Ferdinand. Simultaneously with these successes in Europe, Ferdinand completed the conquest of the North African Barbary possessions, begun in the last decade of the 15th century, which had been under the leadership of Jimenez since 1505.
The result of the reign
By the end of Ferdinand's life, his power was firmly established inside Spain, in the newly conquered possessions in Italy, America, Africa; all his enemies were who by cunning, who were defeated by force. Ferdinand himself quite frankly joked that his opponents were "drunk and stupid" and he deceived them much more often than they did him. In 1515, the king fell seriously ill, and died early the next year. He received the title of "Catholic King" from Pope Alexander VI for his expressed desire to defend the holy throne. He was distinguished all his life by great hypocrisy and superstition, but this never prevented him from deceiving and robbing the Pope when necessary or an opportunity presented itself. He prepared for his successor and grandson Charles, the son of Juana the Mad, a colossal state, but under him, the Inquisition instilled in Spain that gangrene, which, aggravated by new conditions, soon crippled the country's vitality.
King Ferdinand was buried in the Royal Chapel in Granada.
Marriages and children
First marriage
Isabella (1470-1498), first marriage to Infante Alfonso of Portugal, second to his uncle Manuel I of Portugal, the next heir to the throne.
Juan (1479-1497), was married to Margaret of Austria.
Juana the Mad, Queen of Castile, married to Philip the Handsome (brother of Margaret of Austria, these were double marriages).
Maria of Aragon - after the death of her sister Isabella, she became the next wife of Manuel I of Portugal.
Catherine of Aragon - in the first marriage, the wife of Arthur, Prince of Wales, in the second - his brother Henry VIII Tudor.
Second marriage
After the death of Isabella, with whom he lived for 35 years, in 1506, 54-year-old Ferdinand married Germaine de Foix (fr. Germaine de Foix), the 18-year-old daughter of the Navarre viscount, among other things, and in the hope of further offspring (situation with children from Isabella was very deplorable). And indeed, the child was born, but did not survive:
Juan de Aragon y de Foix (Spanish: Juan de Aragón y de Foix) (b. 1509). This boy would have inherited one crown of Aragon and would have prevented Charles V from uniting Spain.
