Why don't we ever hear the word "Heer" in documentaries?...

German Heer 1935-1945.

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L. Kafka
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Why don't we ever hear the word "Heer" in documentaries?...

Post by L. Kafka »

It's always Wehrmacht in documentaries. Is Heer pronounced "here" or "hair"?
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Re: Why don't we ever hear the word "Heer" in documentaries?...

Post by Leerhöy »

Well, I don't know how to explain that exactly, but more like "here" than "hair" :)

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L. Kafka
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Wehrmact means "armed forces"?...

Post by L. Kafka »

Or defense forces?

My guess is that the tone of the phonetics of the world "wehrmacht" sounds more serious and has more bite to it that hearing a narrator say, "The Heer crossed the Polish border..."
"What are they going to do, send me to Vietnam?"
A oft heard GI refrain in Vietnam in '68.
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Jerry
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Re: Why don't we ever hear the word "Heer" in documentaries?...

Post by Jerry »

FWIW I think it is mostly just ignorance. On the other hand, very often other branches (Luftwaffe) are a part of an operation, if only a small part, so Wehrmacht is actually correct. Take your example for instance of forces "...crossed the Polish border." There certainly were Luftwaffe forces included in the invasion of Poland, forward air observers for example.

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Paulus II
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Re: Why don't we ever hear the word "Heer" in documentaries?...

Post by Paulus II »

I agree with Jerry though in this instance I'm sort of glad about the ignorance.

In Dutch (like in most languages) we don't use capital letters for all nouns but only for names. So in this case I'm sure that Dutch documentaries would gladly report that "....the Lord crossed the Polish border".

I do prefer Wehrmacht :D

cheers,

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Re: Why don't we ever hear the word "Heer" in documentaries?...

Post by Helmut »

Servus,
Actually, the correct pronunciation is HAIR. The term Heer applies only to the Army. WEHRMACHT refers to the Armed Forcees. That is why the Armed Forces High Command is called Oberkommando der Wehrmacht and the Army High Command is referred to as the Oberkommando des Heeres.

Hope that helped.

Regards,

Helmut
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