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 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 The 4th Waffen SS Panzergrenadier Division Polizei written by Massimiliano Afiero and published by Schiffer Military History. This book was released on 2021-06-28 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Polizei division first took shape in 1939, drawing manpower from the civilian police. In February 1942, the unit was transferred to the Waffen-SS and redesignated SS-Polizei-Division (4.SS). The former policemen appeared on the Western Front in 1940, before being shipped to the Leningrad sector in 1941. Polizei remained on the Eastern Front for the duration of the war, including deployments in Greece, the Banat (Romania), Hungary, and Pomerania, before finally surrendering just northwest of Berlin. The subject is examined through many personal recollections, hundreds of photos and maps from private collections, and period documents, including extracts from official bulletins and the division's war diary. A brief history of the Polizei II division is included as an appendix.

Download or read book The Wallonien written by Richard Landwehr and published by Merriam Press. This book was released on 1997 with total page 120 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Sniper on the Eastern Front written by Albrecht Wacker and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2008-06-15 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A biography of the second most successful sniper of the German Wehrmacht and one of the few private soldiers to be honored with the Knights Cross award. An Austrian conscript who qualified as a Wehrmacht machine gunner, Josef “Sepp” Allerberger was drafted to the southern sector of the Russian Front in July 1942. Wounded at Voroshilovsk, he experimented with a Russian sniper-rifle while convalescing and so impressed his superiors with his proficiency that he was returned to the front as his regiment’s only sniper specialist. This sometimes-harrowing account provides an excellent introduction to the commitment in fieldcraft, discipline and routine required of the sniper, a man apart. There was no place for chivalry on the Russian Front. Away from the film cameras, no prisoner survived long after surrendering. Russian snipers had used the illegal explosive bullet since 1941, and Hitler eventually authorized its issue in 1944. The result was a battlefield of horror. Allerberger was a cold-blooded killer, but few will find a place in their hearts for the soldiers of the Red Army against whom he fought. “It is a great read and covers just about everything you would want to know about Allerberger, the weapons, techniques and employment of German snipers on the Eastern Front in WWII but does it in a manner and narrative that is never boring and is guaranteed to hold your interest.” —Argunners Magazine “A very unique story and experience worth telling of an Eastern Front Sniper.” —Sniper Central

Download or read book SS Panzergrenadier written by Hans Schmidt and published by . This book was released on 2002 with total page 407 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: True story, experiences of SS armored soldier in 1944-1945. Battle of the Bulge, Eastern front captivity in US POW stockades

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 Comrades to the End written by Otto Weidinger and published by Schiffer Military History. This book was released on 1998 with total page 464 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Written by Swords to the Knight's Cross holder and last regimental commander Otto Weidinger, Comrades to the End is the complete history of SS-Regiment "Der Führer." One of the original infantry regiments of the pre-war SS-Verfügungstruppe (Special Purpose Troops), "Der Führer" was formed in 1938 and fought throughout the war as a component of Division "Das Reich." Being among the most successful and decorated regiments of the Waffen-SS, this complete history was written with the full assistance of four highly decorated regimental commanders. In addition to Otto Weidinger, portions of the text were contributed by Georg Keppler (Knight's Cross), Sylvester Stadler (Swords to the Knight's Cross) and Otto Kumm (Swords to the Knights Cross). From its creation from primarily Austrian recruits through the Western Campaign, to the bitter battles in Russia where it was almost completely destroyed, the authors explain the engagements of this famous unit in full detail. Later it fought in Normandy and finally in Austria at the end of the war as one of the last fully battle ready units of the Waffen-SS. This classic study is now available for the first time in a complete English edition. With a preface by famed Waffen-SS commander Paul Hausser, the detailed text is illustrated by more than twenty regimental maps in addition to photographs.

Download or read book Obedient Unto Death written by Werner Kindler and published by Frontline Books. This book was released on 2014-03-06 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Between 1941 and 1944 Waffen-SS Oberscharfôhrer (Sergeant) Werner Kindler took part in 84 days of close combat, qualifying him for the Close Combat Clasp in Gold, the Third Reich's highest decoration for a frontline soldier. He was also awarded the German Cross in Gold, the Iron Cross First and Second Class and the Wound Badge in Gold.??Drafted into the SS-Totenkopf in 1939, he served with a motorised unit in Poland, and in May 1941 was selected for the Leibstandarte-SS Adolf Hitler, with which he fought in the invasion of the Soviet Union. His unit converted to a Panzer Grenadier formation in 1942, and Kindler went on to fight at Kharkov and Kursk on the Eastern Front, and later in Belgium and France in 1944. At the end of the war, he was the last man of the Leibstandarte-SS to surrender to the Americans. This is one of the most dramatic first-hand accounts to come out of the Second World War.

Download or read book 4th Waffen SS Panzergrenadier Division Polizei written by Gustavo Uruena A and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2016-09-01 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Waffen-SS, as with the Heer, possessed a great variety of divisional structures. The complexities of this variety were further complicated by a more or less continuous evolution of authorized division structures throughout the war. For example, the first Waffen-SS divisions were organized as motorized infantry ones, with little armor. Four of the earliest divisions (SS-LAH, SS-Das Reich, SS-Totenkopf, and SS-Wiking'] were then reformed as Panzer (armored)- divisions, and three new-armored divisions joined them (SS-Hohenstaufen, &S-Frundsberg, and SS-Hitlerjugend). Four additional divisions were raised as Panzer-Grenadier (armored infantry) (SS-Nordland, SS-Reichsfuhrer-SS, SS-Gotz von Berlichingen, and SS-Horst Wessel). The motorized SS-Combat Group Nord evolved into SS-Nord, which set the standard for the establishment of an SS mountain division. This was used as the intended structure for SS-Prinz Eugen, SS-Handschar, SS-Skanderbeg, and SS-Kama, though the last two didn't complete formation. Similarly, the SS-Cavalry Brigade developed into SS-Florian Geyer, which had a structure copied for SS-Maria Theresia (though not for SS-Lutzow, which had a structure similar to an infantry division). The SS infantry divisions, in particular the 14th, 15th, 19th, and 20th Waffen-Grenadier Divisions and the 31st SS-Volunteer Grenadier Division, used a standard Heer infantry division structure, first found in the 1940 version of SS-Polizei (which by the spring of 1944 had reformed into a Panzer-Grenadier division of the same structure as SS-Nordland). This was also the intended model for the 25th and 26th Waffen-Grenadier Divisions, the 27th, 28th, and 32d SS-Volunteer Grenadier Divisions, and the 35th SS-Polizei-Grenadier Division, none of which completed their formation, though they did take the field in a semblance of what was intended. The remaining divisions of the Waffen-SS were essentially enlarged brigades or combat groups, and had unique structures, especially as they often fought in several separate parts. This sounds like, and is, a complex subject. The following represents the idealized structure of Waffen-SS early war motorized, Panzer, Panzer-Grenadier, mountain, cavalry, and infantry divisions. Each division usually differed slightly in one way or another, and the divisional list in this book is the best way to trace each individual Waffen-SS division. Only the major combat elements are included; the supply regiment, for example, is not listed in detail. Units that are not described as "motorized" or "armored" can be assumed to be horse-drawn or dismounted, as appropriate."

Download or read book Grenadiers written by Kurt Meyer and published by Stackpole Books. This book was released on 2005 with total page 452 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reprint of the classic World War II memoir German General Kurt "Panzer" Meyer's autobiography is a fascinating insight into the mind of one of Germany's most highly decorated and successful soldiers of World War II. If you love small-unit actions, this is the book for you. Follow Meyer with the 1st SS-Panzer Division "Leibstandarte" and the 12th SS-Panzer Division "Hitlerjugend," from the first day of the war in Poland, through service in France, Russia, and Greece, up until his capture in Normandy in 1944 and his postwar trials and tribulations.

Download or read book SS Obersturmbannf hrer Otto Weidinger written by Mark C. Yerger and published by Schiffer Publishing. This book was released on 2000 with total page 96 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Holder of the Knight's Cross with Oakleaves and Swords, Otto Weidinger was the last commander of SS-Regiment "Der Führer". Among the best field officers of the Waffen-SS, he graduated from SS officer school and served throughout the war. This fully revised and expanded edition of his authorised biography provides a wealth of information for the historian and military collector. Lavishly illustrated with over 130 photographs and documents, many never before seen, the volume covers Weidinger's military career and life in complete detail. This vastly expanded classic is an essential study of one of the most decorated officers of the 2.SS-Panzer-Division "Das Reich".

Download or read book The Eastern Front written by Leon Degrelle and published by Institute for Historical Review. This book was released on 2014-08 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A gripping first-person memoir of soldierly sacrifice, heroism and fierce combat against numerically superior Soviet forces during World War II, by a charismatic Belgian writer and politician turned Waffen SS front-line infantryman. In a laudatory review appearing in an official US Army Department magazine, US Army Brigadier General John C. Bahnsen wrote: "The pace of the writing is fast; the action is graphic, and a warrior can learn things from reading this book. I recommend its reading by students of the art of war. It is well worth the price." Here is the epic story of the Walloon Legion, a volunteer Belgian unit of the World War II pan-European SS force, as told by the legendary figure whose unmatched frontline combat experience and literary talent made him the premier spokesman for his fallen comrades. Captures the grit, the terror and the glory of Europe's crusade against Communism in absorbing prose. Includes fascinating first-person descriptions of Hitler, Himmler and other Third Reich personalities. Degrelle vividly describes how he and his comrades endured danger, privation and torrents of shot and shell -- on the sun-baked steppes of Ukraine, at the foothills of the Caucasus, in the depths of bone-chilling winter, through the stinking mud and the flaming hell of Cherkassy, and across the rolling plains of Estonia and the Pomeranian lake country. You'll learn what moved the 35-year-old Degrelle -- a brilliant intellectual and his country's most colorful political leader -- to enlist as a private in the volun-teer legion he himself organized to join with Third Reich Germany and its allies in their titanic fight against the Bolshevik enemy."

Download or read book Norwegian Volunteers of the Waffen SS written by Geir Brenden and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Featuring 1,000 unpublished photographs, this is the first book about the 4,500 Norwegian volunteers in the Waffen SS. Written by Geir Brenden and Tommy Natedal - who has researched the Norwegian volunteers since the 1980s - the book is based on Geir and Tommy's large photo archive and covers the various fronts where most Norwegian volunteers fought: the Caucasus, Leningrad and Karelia. Also covered in detail are the formations in which the Norwegian volunteers fought: Division Wiking, Freiw. Legion Norwegen, 1, 2 and 3 Police Company, The Norwegian Ski Company, Skijegerbataljonen and Regiment Norge.

Download or read book Dietrich s Warriors written by Peter Mooney and published by Schiffer Publishing. This book was released on 2004-01-01 with total page 213 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 3. Kompanie of the 1st Panzergrenadier Regiment, 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler were formed in the summer of 1933. This work looks briefly at their pre-war activities as part of Hitlers showpiece protection squad. The main focus is upon the 3. Kompanies military actions between 1939-1945 and details the various battles that they took part in, which covered nearly every major campaign of the German Army. This work has been compiled with the help of former soldiers of the 3. Kompanie and the 1st SS Panzer Division, backed up with various other sources. It contains twelve original maps and seventy-five photographs, thirty-five of these are previously unpublished. In addition to detailing the 3. Kompanies actions between 1933-1945, this work also contains biographies on the various Kompanie Commanders, where information is available, and also biographies on the Battalion, Regimental and Divisional Commanders that they served under. This work will provide the reader, whether new to the subject or not, with an additional detailed insight into one of historys finest fighting units.

Download or read book The 29th Waffen SS Grenadier Division italienische Nr 1 And Italians in Other Units of the Waffen SS written by Massimiliano Afiero and published by Schiffer Military History. This book was released on 2022-01-28 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Italian government signed an armistice with the Allies on September 8, 1943, but that did not mean the war was over in Italy. Italians continued to fight on both sides for the duration of war. This study is focused on Italian volunteers in formations of the Waffen-SS. These include the SS Legion "Italiana" and 29th Waffen Grenadier Division "Italienische Nr. 1." Beyond the explicitly Italian units, handfuls of men found their way into other divisions, such as the 4th SS Panzergrenadier Division "Polizei," 16th SS Panzergrenadier Division "Reichsführer-SS," the Karstwehr Battallion (later 24th SS Gebirgsjäger Division "Karstjäger"), and even the famous 1st SS Panzer Division "Leibstandarte." This work includes histories of the Italian Legion and the 29th division, extensive interviews with Italian SS veterans from various units, and many excellent photographs from private collections in Europe.

Download or read book Platz Der Leibstandarte written by George M. Nipe and published by . This book was released on 2002 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the first months of 1943, the SS Panzer-Grenadier Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler was involved in all phases of the complex Kharkov campaign. During the initial defensive fighting, the division held its sector for two weeks against the full weight of the Soviet 3rd Tank Army; a remarkable feat in itself. After the city fell, the Leibstandarte withdrew to a new defensive position and protected the important supply rail centre at Krasnograd while the Das Reich and Totenkopf divisions executed the first phase of the counterattack. When the 3rd Tank Army began its move south to block the advance of these two SS divisions, Leibstandarte carried out raids and interdictory strikes that disrupted the Soviet realignment and weakened the army's fighting power. Having rejoined the SS Panzerkorps, after taking part in the destruction of the Kegitschevka pocket, the Leibstandarte led the way back to the city of Kharkov. Dynamic young officers such as Kurt Meyer, Max Wunsche and Jochen Peiper personally led attack columns that struck deep into the city, eventually forcing the Russian troops to abandon Kharkov.From these photographs, it is clear why, after enduring the losses necessary to retake the city, these renamed the enormous Red Square as Platz der Leibstandarte. High quality reproductions of original wartime photos, and compelling captions by author George Nipe illustrate in incredible detail the men, equipment, weapons, and vehicles used in this decisive Eastern Front battle.