Waffen-SS Elite Forces 2

Two famed German panzer units―both of which saw extensive action on the Eastern Front during World War II―are analysed in fascinating detail in this heavily illustrated book. The first, Hohenstaufen, the 9th SS Panzer Division, was named after the house of the medieval Emperor Frederick II. The division fought on the Eastern Front in spring 1944 before moving to the west in June. Fighting first around Caen and then in the battle to keep the neck of the Falaise Pocket open, the division acquitted itself well, and continued to do so in the retreat through France and Belgium. Ordered for a refit at Arnhem, it arrived there on 9 September, ten days before `Market Garden’ started. Hohenstaufen was the unit that was instrumental in keeping the advancing Allied thrust from making contact with British 1st Airborne Division in Arnhem. In reserve for the Battle of the Bulge, the division was committed to assist in the capture of Bastogne. Sent to Hungary in February 1945, Hohenstaufen fought against the Red Army up till its surrender to the Americans on 8 May 1945. The other unit, Grossdeutschland―often referred to as Guderian’s Eastern Front elite force―was formed in 1939 as a motorised infantry regiment, and ended World War II as a panzer corps. It fought in France and the Balkans, and from 1941 as an elite unit exclusively on the Eastern Front―at first under Guderian’s 2nd Panzer Army and later, combined with the Brandenburg Division, defending East Prussia as the Panzer Corps Grossdeutschland. Its key battles included the great encircling operations in the early days of Operation`Barbarossa’, the final thrust to Moscow as part of Operation `Typhoon’, Kharkov, and Kursk. Grossdeutschland was one of the most important units in the German order of battle and was involved in some of the fiercest fighting of the war.