❤️ Pig iron 🐭

"Pig iron of a type used to make ductile iron, stored in a bin Pig iron is an intermediate product of the iron industry in the production of steel, also known as crude iron, which is obtained by smelting iron ore in a blast furnace. Pig iron has a very high carbon content, typically 3.8–4.7%, along with silica and other constituents of dross, which makes it very brittle and not useful directly as a material except for limited applications. The traditional shape of the molds used for pig iron ingots was a branching structure formed in sand, with many individual ingots at right angles to a central channel or "runner", resembling a litter of piglets being suckled by a sow. When the metal had cooled and hardened, the smaller ingots (the "pigs") were simply broken from the runner (the "sow"), hence the name "pig iron". As pig iron is intended for remelting, the uneven size of the ingots and the inclusion of small amounts of sand caused only insignificant problems considering the ease of casting and handling them. History Casting pig iron, Iroquois smelter, Chicago, between 1890 and 1901 Smelting and producing wrought iron was known in ancient Europe and the Middle East, but it was produced in bloomeries by direct reduction. Pig iron was not produced in Europe before the Middle Ages. The Chinese were making pig iron by the later Zhou dynasty (which ended in 256 BC).Wagner, Donald. Iron and Steel in Ancient China. Leiden 1996: Brill Publishers Furnaces such as Lapphyttan in Sweden may date back to the 12th century; and some in Mark (today part of Westphalia, Germany) to the 13th.Several papers in The importance of ironmaking: technical innovation and social change: papers presented at the Norberg Conference, May 1995 ed. Gert Magnusson (Jernkontorets Berghistoriska Utskott H58, 1995), 143-179. It remains to be established whether these northern European developments derive from Chinese ones. Wagnerhttps://www.persee.fr/doc/befeo_0336-1519_1995_num_82_1_2347 has postulated a possible link via Persian contacts with China along the Silk Road and Viking contacts with Persia, but there is a chronological gap between the Viking period and Lapphyttan. The phase transition of the iron into liquid in the furnace was an avoided phenomenon, as decarburizing the pig iron into steel was an extremely tedious process using medieval technology. Uses Traditionally, pig iron was worked into wrought iron in finery forges, later puddling furnaces, and more recently, into steel.R. F. Tylecote, A history of metallurgy (2nd edition, Institute of Materials, London, 1992). In these processes, pig iron is melted and a strong current of air is directed over it while it is stirred or agitated. This causes the dissolved impurities (such as silicon) to be thoroughly oxidized. An intermediate product of puddling is known as refined pig iron, finers metal, or refined iron. Pig iron can also be used to produce gray iron. This is achieved by remelting pig iron, often along with substantial quantities of steel and scrap iron, removing undesirable contaminants, adding alloys, and adjusting the carbon content. Some pig iron grades are suitable for producing ductile iron. These are high purity pig irons and depending on the grade of ductile iron being produced these pig irons may be low in the elements silicon, manganese, sulfur and phosphorus. These types of pig iron are used to dilute all the elements (except carbon) in a ductile iron charge which may be harmful to the ductile iron process. = Modern uses = Until recently, pig iron was typically poured directly out of the bottom of the blast furnace through a trough into a ladle car for transfer to the steel mill in mostly liquid form; in this state, the pig iron was referred to as hot metal. The hot metal was then poured into a steelmaking vessel to produce steel, typically an electric arc furnace, induction furnace or basic oxygen furnace, where the excess carbon is burned off and the alloy composition controlled. Earlier processes for this included the finery forge, the puddling furnace, the Bessemer process, and the open hearth furnace. Modern steel mills and direct-reduction iron plants transfer the molten iron to a ladle for immediate use in the steel making furnaces or cast it into pigs on a pig-casting machine for reuse or resale. Modern pig casting machines produce stick pigs, which break into smaller 4–10 kg piglets at discharge. References Ancient Egyptian technology Ancient Roman technology Chinese inventions Ferrous alloys Iron Metalworking Smelting Steelmaking "

❤️ Division (mathematics) 🐭

"20 / 4 = 5, illustrated here with apples. This is said verbally, "Twenty divided by four equals five." Division is one of the four basic operations of arithmetic, the ways that numbers are combined to make new numbers. The other operations are addition, subtraction, and multiplication (which can be viewed as the inverse of division). The division sign , a symbol consisting of a short horizontal line with a dot above and another dot below, is often used to indicate mathematical division. This usage, though widespread in anglophone countries, is neither universal nor recommended: the ISO 80000-2 standard for mathematical notation recommends only the solidus or fraction bar for division, or the colon for ratios; it says that this symbol "should not be used" for division.ISO 80000-2, Section 9 "Operations", 2-9.6 At an elementary level the division of two natural numbers is – among other possible interpretations – the process of calculating the number of times one number is contained within another one. This number of times is not always an integer (a number that can be obtained using the other arithmetic operations on the natural numbers), which led to two different concepts. The division with remainder or Euclidean division of two natural numbers provides a quotient, which is the number of times the second one is contained in the first one, and a remainder, which is the part of the first number that remains, when in the course of computing the quotient, no further full chunk of the size of the second number can be allocated. For a modification of this division to yield only one single result, the natural numbers must be extended to rational numbers (the numbers that can be obtained by using arithmetic on natural numbers) or real numbers. In these enlarged number systems, division is the inverse operation to multiplication, that is means , as long as is not zero. If , then this is a division by zero, which is not defined. Both forms of division appear in various algebraic structures, different ways of defining mathematical structure. Those in which a Euclidean division (with remainder) is defined are called Euclidean domains and include polynomial rings in one indeterminate (which define multiplication and addition over single-variabled formulas). Those in which a division (with a single result) by all nonzero elements is defined are called fields and division rings. In a ring the elements by which division is always possible are called the units (for example, 1 and –1 in the ring of integers). Another generalization of division to algebraic structures is the quotient group, in which the result of 'division' is a group rather than a number. Introduction The simplest way of viewing division is in terms of quotition and partition: from the quotition perspective, means the number of 5s that must be added to get 20\. In terms of partition, means the size of each of 5 parts into which a set of size 20 is divided. For example, 20 apples divide into five groups of four apples, meaning that twenty divided by five is equal to four. This is denoted as , or . What is being divided is called the dividend, which is divided by the divisor, and the result is called the quotient. In the example, 20 is the dividend, 5 is the divisor, and 4 is the quotient. Unlike the other basic operations, when dividing natural numbers there is sometimes a remainder that will not go evenly into the dividend; for example, leaves a remainder of 1, as 10 is not a multiple of 3. Sometimes this remainder is added to the quotient as a fractional part, so is equal to or , but in the context of integer division, where numbers have no fractional part, the remainder is kept separately (exceptionally, discarded or rounded). When the remainder is kept as a fraction, it leads to a rational number. The set of all rational numbers is created by extending the integers with all possible results of divisions of integers. Unlike multiplication and addition, division is not commutative, meaning that is not always equal to .http://www.mathwords.com/c/commutative.htm Retrieved October 23, 2018 Division is also not, in general, associative, meaning that when dividing multiple times, the order of division can change the result.http://www.mathwords.com/a/associative_operation.htm Retrieved October 23, 2018 For example, , but (where the use of parentheses indicates that the operations inside parentheses are performed before the operations outside parentheses). However, division is traditionally considered as left- associative. That is, if there are multiple divisions in a row, the order of calculation goes from left to right:George Mark Bergman: Order of arithmetic operations Education Place: The Order of Operations : a / b / c = (a / b) / c = a / (b \times c) e a/(b/c)= (a\times c)/b. Division is right-distributive over addition and subtraction, in the sense that : \frac{a \pm b}{c} = (a \pm b) / c = (a/c)\pm (b/c) =\frac{a}{c} \pm \frac{b}{c}. This is the same for multiplication, as (a + b) \times c = a \times c + b \times c. However, division is not left-distributive, as : \frac{a}{b + c} = a / (b + c) e (a/b) + (a/c) = \frac{ac+ab}{bc}. This is unlike the case in multiplication, which is both left-distributive and right-distributive, and thus distributive. Notation Plus and minuses. An obelus used as a variant of the minus sign in an excerpt from an official Norwegian trading statement form called «Næringsoppgave 1» for the taxation year 2010. Division is often shown in algebra and science by placing the dividend over the divisor with a horizontal line, also called a fraction bar, between them. For example, "a divided by b" can written as: :\frac ab which can also be read out loud as "divide a by b" or "a over b". A way to express division all on one line is to write the dividend (or numerator), then a slash, then the divisor (or denominator), as follows: :a/b This is the usual way of specifying division in most computer programming languages, since it can easily be typed as a simple sequence of ASCII characters. Some mathematical software, such as MATLAB and GNU Octave, allows the operands to be written in the reverse order by using the backslash as the division operator: :b\backslash a A typographical variation halfway between these two forms uses a solidus (fraction slash), but elevates the dividend and lowers the divisor: :{}^{a}/{}_{b} Any of these forms can be used to display a fraction. A fraction is a division expression where both dividend and divisor are integers (typically called the numerator and denominator), and there is no implication that the division must be evaluated further. A second way to show division is to use the division sign (÷, also known as obelus though the term has additional meanings), common in arithmetic, in this manner: :a \div b This form is infrequent except in elementary arithmetic. ISO 80000-2-9.6 states it should not be used. This division sign is also used alone to represent the division operation itself, as for instance as a label on a key of a calculator. The obelus was introduced by Swiss mathematician Johann Rahn in 1659 in Teutsche Algebra. The ÷ symbol is used to indicate subtraction in some European countries, so its use may be misunderstood. In some non-English-speaking countries, a colon is used to denote division: :a : b This notation was introduced by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz in his 1684 Acta eruditorum. Leibniz disliked having separate symbols for ratio and division. However, in English usage the colon is restricted to expressing the related concept of ratios. Since the 19th century, US textbooks have used b)a or b \overline{)a} to denote a divided by b, especially when discussing long division. The history of this notation is not entirely clear because it evolved over time. Computing =Manual methods= Division is often introduced through the notion of "sharing out" a set of objects, for example a pile of lollies, into a number of equal portions. Distributing the objects several at a time in each round of sharing to each portion leads to the idea of 'chunking' a form of division where one repeatedly subtracts multiples of the divisor from the dividend itself. By allowing one to subtract more multiples than what the partial remainder allows at a given stage, more flexible methods, such as the bidirectional variant of chunking, can be developed as well. More systematic and more efficient (but also more formalised, more rule-based, and more removed from an overall holistic picture of what division is achieving), a person who knows the multiplication tables can divide two integers with pencil and paper using the method of short division, if the divisor is small, or long division, if the divisor is larger. If the dividend has a fractional part (expressed as a decimal fraction), one can continue the algorithm past the ones place as far as desired. If the divisor has a fractional part, one can restate the problem by moving the decimal to the right in both numbers until the divisor has no fraction. A person can calculate division with an abacus by repeatedly placing the dividend on the abacus, and then subtracting the divisor the offset of each digit in the result, counting the number of divisions possible at each offset. A person can use logarithm tables to divide two numbers, by subtracting the two numbers' logarithms, then looking up the antilogarithm of the result. A person can calculate division with a slide rule by aligning the divisor on the C scale with the dividend on the D scale. The quotient can be found on the D scale where it is aligned with the left index on the C scale. The user is responsible, however, for mentally keeping track of the decimal point. =By computer or with computer assistance= Modern computers compute division by methods that are faster than long division, with the more efficient ones relying on approximation techniques from numerical analysis. For division with remainder, see Division algorithm. In modular arithmetic (modulo a prime number) and for real numbers, nonzero numbers have a multiplicative inverse. In these cases, a division by may be computed as the product by the multiplicative inverse of . This approach is often associated with the faster methods in computer arithmetic. Division in different contexts = Euclidean division = Euclidean division is the mathematical formulation of the outcome of the usual process of division of integers. It asserts that, given two integers, a, the dividend, and b, the divisor, such that b ≠ 0, there are unique integers q, the quotient, and r, the remainder, such that a = bq + r and 0 ≤ r < , where denotes the absolute value of b. = Of integers = Integers are not closed under division. Apart from division by zero being undefined, the quotient is not an integer unless the dividend is an integer multiple of the divisor. For example, 26 cannot be divided by 11 to give an integer. Such a case uses one of five approaches: # Say that 26 cannot be divided by 11; division becomes a partial function. # Give an approximate answer as a "real" number. This is the approach usually taken in numerical computation. # Give the answer as a fraction representing a rational number, so the result of the division of 26 by 11 is \tfrac{26}{11} (or as a mixed number, so \tfrac{26}{11} = 2 \tfrac 4{11}.) Usually the resulting fraction should be simplified: the result of the division of 52 by 22 is also \tfrac{26}{11}. This simplification may be done by factoring out the greatest common divisor. # Give the answer as an integer quotient and a remainder, so \tfrac{26}{11} = 2 \mbox{ remainder } 4. To make the distinction with the previous case, this division, with two integers as result, is sometimes called Euclidean division, because it is the basis of the Euclidean algorithm. # Give the integer quotient as the answer, so \tfrac{26}{11} = 2. This is sometimes called integer division. Dividing integers in a computer program requires special care. Some programming languages, such as C, treat integer division as in case 5 above, so the answer is an integer. Other languages, such as MATLAB and every computer algebra system return a rational number as the answer, as in case 3 above. These languages also provide functions to get the results of the other cases, either directly or from the result of case 3. Names and symbols used for integer division include div, /, \, and %. Definitions vary regarding integer division when the dividend or the divisor is negative: rounding may be toward zero (so called T-division) or toward −∞ (F-division); rarer styles can occur – see Modulo operation for the details. Divisibility rules can sometimes be used to quickly determine whether one integer divides exactly into another. = Of rational numbers = The result of dividing two rational numbers is another rational number when the divisor is not 0. The division of two rational numbers p/q and r/s can be computed as :{p/q \over r/s} = {p \over q} \times {s \over r} = {ps \over qr}. All four quantities are integers, and only p may be 0. This definition ensures that division is the inverse operation of multiplication. = Of real numbers = Division of two real numbers results in another real number (when the divisor is nonzero). It is defined such that a/b = c if and only if a = cb and b ≠ 0. = Of complex numbers = Dividing two complex numbers (when the divisor is nonzero) results in another complex number, which is found using the conjugate of the denominator: :{p+iq \over r+is} = {(p+iq)(r-is) \over (r+is)(r-is)} = {pr+qs + i(qr-ps) \over r^2+s^2} = {pr+qs \over r^2+s^2} + i{qr-ps \over r^2+s^2}. This process of multiplying and dividing by r-is is called 'realisation' or (by analogy) rationalisation. All four quantities p, q, r, s are real numbers, and r and s may not both be 0. Division for complex numbers expressed in polar form is simpler than the definition above: :{p e^{iq} \over r e^{is}} = {p e^{iq} e^{-is} \over r e^{is} e^{-is}} = {p \over r}e^{i(q - s)}. Again all four quantities p, q, r, s are real numbers, and r may not be 0. = Of polynomials = One can define the division operation for polynomials in one variable over a field. Then, as in the case of integers, one has a remainder. See Euclidean division of polynomials, and, for hand-written computation, polynomial long division or synthetic division. = Of matrices = One can define a division operation for matrices. The usual way to do this is to define , where denotes the inverse of B, but it is far more common to write out explicitly to avoid confusion. An elementwise division can also be defined in terms of the Hadamard product. Left and right division Because matrix multiplication is not commutative, one can also define a left division or so-called backslash-division as . For this to be well defined, need not exist, however does need to exist. To avoid confusion, division as defined by is sometimes called right division or slash-division in this context. Note that with left and right division defined this way, is in general not the same as , nor is the same as . However, it holds that and . Pseudoinverse To avoid problems when and/or do not exist, division can also be defined as multiplication by the pseudoinverse. That is, and , where and denote the pseudoinverses of A and B. = Abstract algebra = In abstract algebra, given a magma with binary operation ∗ (which could nominally be termed multiplication), left division of b by a (written ) is typically defined as the solution x to the equation , if this exists and is unique. Similarly, right division of b by a (written ) is the solution y to the equation . Division in this sense does not require ∗ to have any particular properties (such as commutativity, associativity, or an identity element). "Division" in the sense of "cancellation" can be done in any magma by an element with the cancellation property. Examples include matrix algebras and quaternion algebras. A quasigroup is a structure in which division is always possible, even without an identity element and hence inverses. In an integral domain, where not every element need have an inverse, division by a cancellative element a can still be performed on elements of the form ab or ca by left or right cancellation, respectively. If a ring is finite and every nonzero element is cancellative, then by an application of the pigeonhole principle, every nonzero element of the ring is invertible, and division by any nonzero element is possible. To learn about when algebras (in the technical sense) have a division operation, refer to the page on division algebras. In particular Bott periodicity can be used to show that any real normed division algebra must be isomorphic to either the real numbers R, the complex numbers C, the quaternions H, or the octonions O. = Calculus = The derivative of the quotient of two functions is given by the quotient rule: :{\left(\frac fg\right)}' = \frac{f'g - fg'}{g^2}. Division by zero Division of any number by zero in most mathematical systems is undefined, because zero multiplied by any finite number always results in a product of zero.http://mathworld.wolfram.com/DivisionbyZero.html Retrieved October 23, 2018 Entry of such an expression into most calculators produces an error message. However, in certain higher level mathematics division by zero is possible by the zero ring and algebras such as wheels.Jesper Carlström. "On Division by Zero" Retrieved October 23, 2018 In these algebras, the meaning of division is different from traditional definitions. See also * 400AD Sunzi division algorithm * Division by two * Galley division * Inverse element * Order of operations * Repeating decimal Notes References External links * Planetmath division * Division on a Japanese abacus selected from Abacus: Mystery of the Bead * Chinese Short Division Techniques on a Suan Pan * Rules of divisibility Elementary arithmetic Binary operations "

❤️ Wilhelm Keitel 🐭

"Wilhelm Bodewin Johann Gustav Keitel (; 22 September 188216 October 1946) was a German field marshal and war criminal during the Nazi era who served as Chief of the Armed Forces High Command – the office given to the commander and highest-ranking officer of the Nazi Germany Armed Forces (Oberkommando der Wehrmacht, OKW) during World War II. In this capacity, Keitel signed a number of criminal orders and directives that led to a war of unprecedented brutality and criminality. Keitel's rise to the Wehrmacht high command began with his appointment as the head of the Armed Forces Office at the Reich Ministry of War in 1935. After Hitler took command of the Wehrmacht in 1938, he replaced the ministry with the OKW, with Keitel as its chief. Keitel was reviled among his military colleagues as Hitler's habitual "yes-man". After the war, Keitel was indicted by the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg as one of the "major war criminals". He was found guilty on all counts of the indictment: crimes against humanity, crimes against peace, criminal conspiracy, and war crimes. Keitel was sentenced to death and executed by hanging in 1946. Early life and pre-Wehrmacht career Keitel was born in the village of Helmscherode near Gandersheim in the Duchy of Brunswick, Germany. The eldest son of Carl Keitel (1854–1934), a middle-class landowner, and his wife Apollonia Vissering (1855–1888), he planned to take over his family's estates after completing his education at a gymnasium but this foundered on his father's resistance. Instead, he embarked on a military career in 1901, becoming an officer cadet of the Prussian Army. As a commoner, he did not join the cavalry, but a field artillery regiment in Wolfenbüttel, serving as adjutant from 1908. On 18 April 1909, Keitel married Lisa Fontaine, a wealthy landowner's daughter at Wülfel near Hanover. During World War I, Keitel served on the Western Front and took part in the fighting in Flanders, where he was severely wounded. After being promoted to captain, Keitel was then posted to the staff of an infantry division in 1915. After the war, Keitel was retained in the newly created Reichswehr of the Weimar Republic and played a part in organizing the paramilitary Freikorps units on the Polish border. In 1924, Keitel was transferred to the Ministry of the Reichswehr in Berlin, serving with the Truppenamt ('Troop Office'), the post-Versailles disguised German General Staff. Three years later, he returned to field command. Now a lieutenant-colonel, Keitel was again assigned to the Ministry of War in 1929 and was soon promoted to Head of the Organizational Department ("T-2"), a post he held until Adolf Hitler took power in 1933. Playing a vital role in the German re-armament, he traveled at least once to the Soviet Union to inspect secret Reichswehr training camps. In the autumn of 1932, he suffered a heart attack and double pneumonia. Shortly after his recovery, in October 1933, Keitel was appointed as deputy commander of the 3rd Infantry Division; in 1934, he was given command of the 22nd Infantry Division at Bremen. Rise to the Wehrmacht High Command In 1935, at the recommendation of General Werner von Fritsch, Keitel was promoted to the rank of major general and appointed chief of the Reich Ministry of War's Armed Forces Office (Wehrmachtsamt), which oversaw the army, navy, and air force. After assuming office, Keitel was promoted to lieutenant general on 1 January 1936. On 21 January 1938, Keitel received evidence revealing that the wife of his superior, War Minister Werner von Blomberg, was a former prostitute. Upon reviewing this information, Keitel suggested that the dossier be forwarded to Hitler's deputy, Hermann Göring, who used it to bring about Blomberg's resignation. Hitler took command of the Wehrmacht in 1938 and replaced the War Ministry with the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces (Oberkommando der Wehrmacht), with Keitel as its chief. As a result of his appointment, Keitel assumed the responsibilities of Germany's War Minister. When after von Blomberg was asked by Hitler (out of respect for him, after his dismissal in 1938) who he would recommend to replace him he had not suggested anyone, and suggested that Hitler himself should take over the job. But he said to Hitler about Keitel (who was his son-in-law) that "he's just the man who runs my office". Hitler snapped his fingers and exclaimed "That’s exactly the man I’m looking for". So on 4 February 1938 when Hitler became Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Keitel (to the astonishment of the General Staff, including himself) became Chief of Staff. He was 6 ft. 1 in. (1.85 m), a solidly built and square-jawed Prussian. Soon after his promotion, Keitel convinced Hitler to appoint Walther von Brauchitsch as Commander-in-Chief of the Army, replacing von Fritsch. He became a full general in November 1938. World War II Keitel (far left) and other members of the German high command with Adolf Hitler at a military briefing, (c. 1940). Field Marshal Ewald von Kleist labelled Keitel nothing more than a "stupid follower of Hitler" because of his servile "yes man" attitude with regard to Hitler. His sycophancy was well known in the army, and he acquired the nickname 'Lakeitel', a pun derived from ("lackey") and his surname. Hermann Göring's description of Keitel as having "a sergeant's mind inside a field marshal's body" was a feeling often expressed by his peers. He had been promoted because of his willingness to function as Hitler's mouthpiece. He was known by his peers as a "blindingly loyal toady" of Hitler, nicknamed "Laikeitel"; or "Nichgeselle" after a popular metal toy nodding donkey. During the war he was subject to verbal abuse from Hitler, who said to other officers (according to von Runstedt) that "you know he has the brains of a movie usher ... (but he was made the highest ranking officer in the Army) ... because the man’s as loyal as a dog" (said by Hitler with a sly smile). Keitel was predisposed to manipulation because of his limited intellect and nervous disposition; Hitler valued his hard work and obedience. On one occasion, asked who Keitel was: upon finding out he became horrified at his own failure to salute his superior. Franz Halder, however, told him: "Don't worry, it's only Keitel". German officers consistently bypassed him and went directly to Hitler. After Germany defeated France in the Battle of France in six weeks, Keitel described Hitler as “the greatest warlord of all time”. The planning for Operation Barbarossa, the 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union, was begun tentatively by Halder with the redeployment of the 18th Army into an offensive position against the Soviet Union. On 31 July 1940, Hitler held a major conference that included Keitel, Halder, Alfred Jodl, Erich Raeder, Brauchitsch and Hans Jeschonnek which further discussed the invasion. The participants did not object to the invasion. Hitler asked for war studies to be completed and Georg Thomas was given the task of completing two studies on economic matters. The first study by Thomas detailed serious problems with fuelling and rubber supplies. Keitel bluntly dismissed the problems, telling Thomas that Hitler would not want to see it. This influenced Thomas' second study which offered a glowing recommendation for the invasion based upon fabricated economic benefits. Keitel played an important role after the failed 20 July plot in 1944. He sat on the Army "court of honour" that handed over many officers who were involved, including Field Marshal Erwin von Witzleben, to Roland Freisler's notorious People's Court. Around 7,000 people were arrested, many of whom were tortured by the Gestapo, and around 5,000 were executed. Keitel, signing the ratified surrender terms for the German Army in Berlin, 8/9 May 1945 In April and May 1945, during the Battle of Berlin, Keitel called for counterattacks to drive back the Soviet forces and relieve Berlin. However, there were insufficient German forces to carry out such counterattacks. After Hitler's suicide on 30 April, Keitel stayed on as a member of the short-lived Flensburg government under Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz. Upon arriving in Flensburg, Albert Speer, the Minister of Armaments and War Production, said that Keitel grovelled to Dönitz in the same way as he had done to Hitler. On 7 May 1945, Alfred Jodl, on behalf of Dönitz, signed Germany's unconditional surrender on all fronts. Joseph Stalin considered this an affront, so a second signing was arranged at the Berlin suburb of Karlshorst 8 May. There, Keitel signed the German surrender to the Soviet Union. Five days later he was arrested along with the rest of the Flensburg Government, at the request of the U.S. Role in crimes of the Wehrmacht and the Holocaust Keitel had full knowledge of the criminal nature of the planning and the subsequent Invasion of Poland, agreeing to its aims in principle. The Nazi plans included mass arrests, population transfers and mass murder. Keitel did not contest the regime's assault upon basic human rights or counter the role of the Einsatzgruppen in the murders. The criminal nature of the invasion was now obvious; local commanders continued to express shock and protest over the events they were witnessing. Keitel continued to ignore the protests among the officer corps while they became morally numbed to the atrocities. Keitel issued a series of criminal orders from April 1941. The orders went beyond established codes of conduct for the military and broadly allowed the execution of Jews, civilians and non-combatants for any reason. Those carrying out the murders were exempted from court-martial or later being tried for war crimes. The orders were signed by Keitel; however, other members of the OKW and the OKH, including Halder, wrote or changed the wording of his orders. Commanders in the field interpreted and carried out the orders. In the summer and autumn of 1941, German military lawyers unsuccessfully argued that Soviet prisoners of war should be treated in accordance with the Geneva Convention. Keitel rebuffed them, writing: "These doubts correspond to military ideas about wars of chivalry. Our job is to suppress a way of life." In September 1941, concerned that some field commanders on the Eastern Front did not exhibit sufficient harshness in implementing the May 1941 order on the "Guidelines for the Conduct of the Troops in Russia", Keitel issued a new order, writing: "[The] struggle against Bolshevism demands ruthless and energetic action especially also against the Jews, the main carriers of Bolshevism". Also in September, Keitel issued an order to all commanders, not just those in the occupied Soviet Union, instructing them to use "unusual severity" to stamp out resistance. In this context, the guideline stated that execution of 50 to 100 "Communists" was an appropriate response to a loss of a German soldier. Such orders and directives further radicalised the army's occupational policies and enmeshed it in the genocide of the Jews. Plaque commemorating French victims at the Hinzert concentration camp, using the expressions "Nacht und Nebel" and "NN-Deported." The inscription translates to: "No hate, but also no forgetting." In December 1941, Hitler instructed the OKW to subject, with the exception of Denmark, Western Europe (which was under military occupation) to the Night and Fog Decree. Signed by Keitel, the decree made it possible for foreign nationals to be transferred to Germany for trial by special courts, or simply handed to the Gestapo for deportation to concentration camps. The OKW further imposed a blackout on any information concerning the fate of the accused. At the same time, Keitel increased pressure on Otto von Stülpnagel, the military commander in France, for a more ruthless reprisal policy in the country. In October 1942, Keitel signed the Commando Order that authorized the killing of enemy special operations troops even when captured in uniform. In the spring and summer of 1942, as the deportations of the Jews to extermination camps progressed, the military initially protested when it came to the Jews that laboured for the benefit of the Wehrmacht. The army lost control over the matter when the SS assumed command of all Jewish forced labour in July 1942. Keitel formally endorsed the state of affairs in September, reiterating for the armed forces that "evacuation of the Jews must be carried out thoroughly and its consequences endured, despite any trouble it may cause over the next three or four months". Trial, conviction, and execution Wilhelm Keitel's detention report from June 1945 17 October 1946 Newsreel of Nuremberg Trials Sentencing After the war, Keitel faced the International Military Tribunal (IMT), which indicted him on all four counts before it: conspiracy to commit crimes against peace, planning, initiating and waging wars of aggression, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Most of the case against him was based on his signature being present on dozens of orders that called for soldiers and political prisoners to be killed or 'disappeared'. In court, Keitel admitted that he knew many of Hitler's orders were illegal. His defence relied almost entirely on the argument he was merely following orders in conformity to "the leader principle" (Führerprinzip) and his personal oath of loyalty to Hitler. The IMT rejected this defence and convicted him on all charges. Although the tribunal's charter allowed "superior orders" to be considered a mitigating factor, it found Keitel's crimes were so egregious that "there is nothing in mitigation". In its judgment against him, the IMT wrote, "Superior orders, even to a soldier, cannot be considered in mitigation where crimes as shocking and extensive have been committed consciously, ruthlessly and without military excuse or justification." It was also pointed out that while he claimed the Commando Order, which ordered Allied commandos to be shot without trial, was illegal, he had reaffirmed it and extended its application. It also noted several instances where he issued illegal orders on his own authority. In his statement before the Tribunal, Keitel said: "As these atrocities developed, one from the other, step by step, and without any foreknowledge of the consequences, destiny took its tragic course, with its fateful consequences." To underscore the criminal rather than military nature of Keitel's acts, the Allies denied his request to be shot by firing squad. Instead, he was executed at Nuremberg Prison by hanging. Keitel's body after execution Keitel was executed by American Army Sergeant John C. Woods. His last words were: "I call on God Almighty to have mercy on the German people. More than 2 million German soldiers went to their death for the fatherland before me. I follow now my sons – all for Germany." The trap door was small, causing head injuries to Keitel and several other condemned men as they dropped. Many of the executed Nazis fell from the gallows with insufficient force to snap their necks, resulting in a suffocating death struggle that in Keitel's case lasted 24 minutes. The corpses of Keitel and the other nine executed men were, like Hermann Göring's, cremated at Ostfriedhof (Munich) and the ashes were scattered in the river Isar. Memoirs Before his execution, Keitel published his memoirs which were titled in English as In the Service of the Reich. It was later re-edited as The Memoirs of Field-Marshal Keitel by Walter Görlitz . Another work by Keitel later published in English was named Questionnaire on the Ardennes offensive. See also * References =Notes= =Bibliography= External links 1882 births 1946 deaths 19th-century German people 20th-century Freikorps personnel 20th-century German writers Articles containing video clips Executed military leaders Executed people from Lower Saxony Field marshals of Nazi Germany German memoirists German military personnel of World War I Knights of the House Order of Hohenzollern People executed by the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg German people convicted of crimes against humanity German people convicted of the international crime of aggression Major generals of the Reichswehr Ministers of the Reichswehr People executed for crimes against humanity People from Bad Gandersheim Prussian Army personnel Recipients of the clasp to the Iron Cross, 1st class Recipients of the Friedrich-August-Kreuz, 1st class Recipients of the Hanseatic Cross (Bremen) Recipients of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross 20th-century memoirists "