Sons of the Reich: Ii Panzer Corps, Normandy, Arnhem, Ardennes, Eastern Front: II SS Panzer Corps, Normandy, Arnhem, Ardennes and on the Eastern Front (Pen & Sword Military Classics) - Softcover

The history of II SS Panzer Corps is a short and violent one. This meticulously researched book documents the actions of the 9th and 10th SS Panzer Divisions from activation until October 1944, and the 2nd and 9th SS Divisions from December 1944 until the end of the war. This period encompasses the Battle of Normandy, the escape from the Falaise Pocket, the Market Garden episode and Hitler's last great offensive in the West, the Battle of the Bulge. Sons of the Reich also dismantles the myth that the Waffen SS were a volunteer force of brainwashed thugs and fanatics, in fact II SS Panzer Division were ordinary conscripts, whose tenacity (most noteably at Arnhem in September 1944) was admired by friend and foe alike.

Major General Michael Reynolds CB joined the British Army in 1948, and was commissioned into the Queens Royal Regiment in 1950. In the course of a long and distinguished career, he served in Korea, where he was severely wounded, Northern Ireland and West Germany. On promotion to Major General he assumed command of NATO's Allied Command Europe Mobile Force (Land). In retirement, he became guest speaker on British Army and NATO battlefield tours in the Ardennes, publishing a number of detailed histories on World War 2 operations in Europe. He died in 2015.