Download or read book Himmler s Bosnian Division written by George Lepre and published by Schiffer Publishing. This book was released on 1997 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the story of the "Handschar," a Muslim combat formation created by the Germans to "restore order in Bosnia." What actually transpired was quite different.
Download or read book The Waffen SS written by George H. Stein and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 1966 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This landmark study, first published by Cornell University Press in 1966, shows how Hitler's elite army grew from a praetorian guard of barely 28,000 men at the beginning of the Second World War to a combat-hardened army of more than 500,000 in 1945. George H. Stein examines in detail the structure and organization of the Waffen SS and describes the rigid personnel selection and intensive physical, military, and ideological training that helped to create the tough and dedicated cadre around which the larger force of the later war years was built.
Download or read book Panzergrenadier Divisions of the Waffen SS written by Rolf Michaelis and published by Schiffer Pub Limited. This book was released on 2010 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This new book is a concise combat history of the six Waffen-SS panzergrenadier divisions in World War II. The formation and combat histories of each are discussed in detailed text, along with maps and rare photographs and includes: the 4th SS-Polizei Panzergrenadier Division; 11th SS-Freiwilligen Panzergrenadier Division Nordland; 16th SS-Panzergrenadier Division Reichsführer-SS; 17th SS-Panzergrenadier Division Götz von Berlichingen; 18th SS-Freiwilligen Panzergrenadier Division Horst Wessel; 23rd SS-Freiwilligen Panzergrenadier Division Nederland.
Download or read book The 2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich written by Yves Buffetaut and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2017-08-19 with total page 173 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Certainly my first recourse from now on when looking at the SS panzer divisions. Give yourself a treat and buy a copy ASAP if tanks are your thing” (Army Rumour Service). The Das Reich Division was the most infamous unit of the Waffen-SS. Originally a paramilitary formation raised to protect the members of the Nazi Party, it was founded in 1934 as the SS-Verfügungstruppe. During the invasion of Poland, the unit fought as a mobile infantry regiment. After the Battle of France, the SS-VT was officially renamed the Waffen-SS, and in 1941, the Verfügungs-Division was renamed Reich, later Das Reich. By the time Das Reich took part in the battle of Moscow, it had lost sixty percent of its combat strength. It was pulled off the front in mid-1942 and sent to refit as a panzer-grenadier division. Returning to the Eastern Front, Das Reich took part in the fighting around Kharkov and Kursk. Late in the year, it was designated a panzer division. In 1944, the unit was stationed in southern France when the Allies landed in Normandy. The following days saw the division commit atrocities, hanging one hundred local men in the town of Tulles in reprisal for German losses, and massacring 642 French civilians in Oradour-sur-Glane, allegedly in retaliation for partisan activity in the area. Later in the Normandy fighting, Das Reich was encircled in the Roncey pocket by US 2nd Armored Division, losing most of their armored equipment. Das Reich surrendered in May 1945. “Another fascinating piece of military history from the opposite point of view . . . this doesn’t purport to be an illustrated history of the Reich, but it damn well is!” —Books Monthly
Download or read book SS Charlemagne written by Tony Le Tissier and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2010-08-19 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In May 1945, as the triumphant Red Army crushed the last pockets of German resistance in central Berlin, French soldiers fought back. They were the last surviving members of SS Charlemagne, the Waffen SS division made up of French volunteers. They were among the final defenders of the city and of Hitlers bunker. Their extraordinary story gives a compelling insight into the dreadful climax of the Battle for Berlin and into the conflicts of loyalty faced by the French in the Second World War. Yet, whatever their motivation, the performance of these soldiers as they confronted the Soviet onslaught was unwavering, and their fate after the German defeat was grim. Once captured, they were shot out of hand by their French compatriots or imprisoned. SS Charlemagne is a gripping, fluently written study of one of the most revealing side stories of the war.
Download or read book The 10th SS Panzer Division Frundsberg written by Rolf Michaelis and published by Schiffer Military History. This book was released on 2008-12-11 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 10th Waffen-SS Division "Frundsberg" was formed at the beginning of 1943 as a reserve for the expected Allied invasion of France. However, their first campaign was in the Ukraine in April 1944. Highly motivated after combat success in Ukraine the unit was then transported back to the west where they fought the Allies in France and Arnhem. The division was later transported to Pomerania then fought southeast of Berlin in the Lausitz area to the end of the war.
Download or read book The 3rd SS Panzer Regiment written by Pierre Tiquet and published by Casemate. This book was released on 2020-07-30 with total page 129 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A fascinating look into the experiences of the men of an elite armored unit that fought on the Eastern Front, written essentially in their own words.” —AMPS The 3rd SS Panzer Regiment was part of the Totenkopf Division—one of the thirty-eight Waffen-SS divisions active during World War II. Notorious for its brutality, most notably a mass execution of British prisoners in the Battle of France, Totenkopf had a fearsome reputation. The 3rd SS Panzer Regiment was formed in France in late 1942, and transferred to the Eastern Front in early 1943, where it fought for the rest of the war. The regiment participated in a number of battles, and would be reduced and rebuilt a number of times. The panzers of 3rd SS Panzer Regiment fought at Kharkov, took part in Operation Citadel, fought in the battle of Krivoi Rog, and the relief of the Korsun Pocket. The regiment then retreated over the Dniester. They fought in Poland against the Russian advance, before being moved to Hungary where they participated in the attempt to relieve Budapest. They eventually surrendered in Czechoslovakia to the 11th US Armored Division. This book tells the story of the 3rd SS Panzer Regiment through the words of the veterans themselves. Among the veterans whose accounts are included are Walter Weber, a member of a tank crew in 5. Kompanie who recounts their optimism and high spirits at the start of Operation Citadel as the Germans made initial advances, followed by retreat as winter set in and the Russians began to push them back. Unterscharführer Stettner recalls the fierce tank battles and the difficulties advancing across minefields and evading an often well-concealed foe. Corporal Fritz Edelmann records the attempts to relieve Budapest in 1945 that Totenkopf took part in, which ended in encirclement, defeat and surrender to the Americans on May 9, 1945. In addition, it is illustrated with a wealth of contemporary photographs, original documents, and artifacts.
Download or read book SS Das Reich written by Gregory Louis Mattson and published by Spellmount, Limited Publishers. This book was released on 2002 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This military history examines the Second Waffen-SS division, covering its formation, through to its involvement in the invasion of poland, Holland, France, the Balkans and Kursk on the Eastern Front, and on to Hitler's final defeat.
Download or read book Galicia Division written by Michael O. Logusz and published by Schiffer Military History. This book was released on 1997 with total page 600 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This new book is a historical account of the 14th Waffen-SS Galicia Division (also known as the 1st Ukrainian Division of the Ukrainian National Army). In 1943/1944 a determined group of young men and women in Galicia volunteered to serve in a combat division destined for eastern front combat. Their goal: to engage and destroy the Soviet hordes menacing their homeland and to counter Nazi Germany's subjugation of their country. Although initially Galicia's Volunteers would serve in a German sponsored military formation, in actuality the volunteers of the Galicia division wanted to engage all hostile ideologies-both from the east and west-in order to secure a free independent Ukraine. The division's history is presented along with a human aspect of what the soldiers endured during the brutal battles on the eastern front.
Download or read book Das Reich written by Max Hastings and published by Quarto Publishing Group USA. This book was released on 2013-06-15 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A world-renowned British historian recounts the actions of one of Hitler’s most elite armor units in one of World War II’s most horrific months. June 1944, the month of the D-Day landings carried out by Allied forces in Normandy, France. Germany’s 2nd SS Panzer Division, one of Adolf Hitler’s most elite armor units, had recently been pulled from the Eastern Front and relocated to France in order to regroup, recruit more troops, and restock equipment. With Allied forces suddenly on European ground, the division—Das Reich—was called up to counter the invasion. Its march northward to the shores of Normandy, 15,000 men strong, would become infamous as a tale of unparalleled brutality in World War II. Das Reich is Sir Max Hastings’s narrative of the atrocities committed by the 2nd SS Panzer Division during June of 1944: first, the execution of 99 French civilians in the village of Tulle on June 9; and second, the massacre of 642 more in the village of Oradour-sur-Glane on June 10. Throughout the book, Hastings expertly shifts perspective between French resistance fighters, the British Secret Service (who helped coordinate the French resistance from afar and on the ground), and the German soldiers themselves. With its rare, unbiased approach to the ruthlessness of World War II, Das Reich explores the fragile moral fabric of wartime mentality. Praise for Das Reich “A gripping blend of narrative and investigation.” —Evening Standard “This classic account of WWII is a microcosm of the global conflict. Hastings brings to life the horror that the 2nd SS Panzer division, Das Reich, inflicted upon the citizens living in a bucolic corner of France.” —Dennis Showalter, author of Patton and Rommel and Hitler’s Panzers
Download or read book Blood and Honor written by Craig W.H. Luther and published by Schiffer Publishing. This book was released on 2012-09-01 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 12th SS Panzer Division "Hitler Youth" was formed in early 1943 following the German disaster at Stalingrad in Russia, and was trumpeted by German propaganda as a symbol of the willingness of German youth to make the ultimate sacrifice for Führer und Vaterland. Most of the division s soldiers were born in 1926, and averaged barely eighteen years of age when they underwent their baptism of fire among the verdant fields and hedgerows of Normandy on 7 June 1944. Anchoring the eastern flank of the Normandy front, these young SS soldiers successfully defended the strategically vital town of Caen against British and Canadian forces until finally overwhelmed a month later by the Allies' enormous superiority in men and materiel. Although the "Hitler Youth" Division was largely annihilated in the process, it won the grudging respect of Allied forces as the finest German division faced in Normandy. The author's account of its history is based largely on primary source materials, including extensive archival holdings, published memoirs, official histories, and numerous interviews with former division members.
Download or read book Panzers East and West written by Dieter Stenger and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2017-09-01 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Organized and trained during 1943, the 10th SS Panzer Division saw its first action in the spring of 1944 during the relief of an encircled German army on the Eastern Front. Several months later, in response to the Allied invasion at Normandy, the division returned to the West in mid-June 1944. Here the division engaged in a series of armored attacks and counterattacks against British and American forces. The 10th SS briefly held off a few enemy thrusts but gradually had to fall back to Falaise, where the division escaped the Allied encirclement with no tanks and only a fraction of its men. The 10th SS Panzer Division next defended against the Allied parachute assault during Operation Market Garden in September 1944. Depleted and now a division in name only, the 10th SS fought in Alsace before Hitler sent it to the Eastern Front again. There, east of Berlin, the division participated in the final battles to enable the escape of German soldiers and civilians from Soviet captivity.
Download or read book SS Wiking written by Rupert Butler and published by Spellmount, Limited Publishers. This book was released on 2002-01-01 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This military history examines the SS-Wiking, one of Germany's top fighting units in WWII, whom were largely recruited from foreign volunteers of German occupied countries. The author provides us with a full combat record, describing their service on the Eastern Front for the Nazi cause.
Download or read book Soldiers of Destruction written by Charles Sydnor and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 1990-05-21 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Surveys the emergence of the Nazi SS and its Death's Head Division, noting the impact of this elite and powerful army upon military history.
Download or read book The 17th Waffen SS Panzergrenadier Division G tz Von Berlichingen written by Massimiliano Afiero and published by Schiffer Military History. This book was released on 2018-02-28 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 17th Waffen-SS Panzergrenadier Division "G�tz von Berlichingen" was one of the few SS formations to be employed exclusively on the western front during World War II. From the time of its formation in France in 1943, "G�tz von Berlichingen" saw bitter and bloody fighting in Normandy, the Seine front, Metz, the Saar, the Palatinate, and later the defense of the west wall until the final battles in Germany. Despite the overwhelming superiority of Allied forces, the units that comprised the division always managed to offer dogged resistance, counterattacking ferociously, and defending every foot of ground with great courage and determination. The units of "G�tz von Berlichingen" received praise, not only from the German high command, but also earned the respect of its Allied adversaries. In addition, the "G�tz von Berlichingen" division was never involved in any war crimes, or in crimes against civilians. Detailed operational history, rare combat images, maps, and personality profiles make this book the definitive history of "G�tz von Berlichingen."
Download or read book SS Leibstandarte written by Rupert Butler and published by Amber Books Ltd. This book was released on 2015-10-08 with total page 381 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: SS-Leibstandarte is an in-depth examination of the first Waffen-SS unit to be formed, the SS-Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler. The book explores the background of the unit’s formation, including its origins as the Führer’s bodyguard, the men it recruited, the key figures involved in the division, its organization, training, uniforms and insignia.
Download or read book To Battle written by Michael Melnyk and published by . This book was released on 2007-10-30 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Of all the 'foreign' Waffen-SS divisions, the 14th has arguably maintained a higher public profile and continued to attract more attention in the UK, USA, Canada, Russia, Ukraine and Poland than any other. Drawing extensively upon a wide variety of sources, the author details the abortive history of German/Ukrainian relations during the first half of the twentieth century which preceded the formation of the Galician Division in the spring of 1943. Set firmly within the political context of the time, this work demonstrates that from the outset both German and Ukrainian architects of the Division sought to exploit the formation for their own conflicting agendas. The author gives a careful assessment of the Division's military engagements and explains the reasons for its tragic demise at the Battle of Brody, emphasizing how the military initiative and vast material superiority of the Red Army led to its virtual destruction during the Soviet summer offensive of 1944. The book concludes with the cessation of hostilities, when the Division, despite being the focus of Stalin's attention, escaped the forced repatriation operations undertaken by the Western Allies in the immediate postwar period. Key Features A widely-researched, accurate, detailed and impartial account of a particular Waffen-SS division which continues to fascinate Contains detailed appendices Presents over 250 previously unpublished photographs, combined with maps, documents and other illustrations Set to become one of the most important English-language books to appear on the Waffen-SS in recent years
