History of the 12th SS (Hitlerjugend)

[Laconia]

I just finished a 2 volume series of the 12th SS Division (Hitlerjugend), written by Hubert Meyer, himself once a member of that Division. This is a part of the Stackpole Military History Series of books. What a great read this was. It went deeply into the history of that Division, from it's formation to it's disbandment at the end of the war. The vivid description of the it's baptism of fire in the Normandy Campaign is awesome. I was particularly struck by the massive amounts of artilliary that was used during this time period. The Germans had not only to contend with land based artilliary but with seaborne as well. For anyone out there who is interested, I highly recommend this series.

[flamethrowerguy]

Definitely a good read but also a difficult and exhausting one because of the tons of info. However the hardest thing for me was to keep up with the British and Canadian unit names.

[Laconia]

Originally Posted by flamethrowerguy

Definitely a good read but also a difficult and exhausting one because of the tons of info. However the hardest thing for me was to keep up with the British and Canadian unit names.

Oh yeah, I agree. There was definitely tons of info. I found myself many times re-reading what I had just read. In fact, I plan on reading Vol 1 again. I thought that they could have had better maps to follow the battles also. I have a map of France which i used to help me see the situation more clearly. I remember when I was about 24 years old in 1980, my Grandfather in Montreal, Canada had a friend who was an officer in one of the Canadian Regiments at that time. I met him in passing, but did not have a chance to talk to him about those days. It would have been interesting for sure.

[flamethrowerguy]

Originally Posted by Laconia

I was particularly struck by the massive amounts of artilliary that was used during this time period. The Germans had not only to contend with land based artilliary but with seaborne as well.

Indeed the allied naval artillery played a crucial role in the Caen area, e.g the HMS Rodney's 16-inch guns inflicted a lot of damage on the German defenders. Also the death of the HJ division's commander Fritz Witt (June 14, 1944) comes to mind which was also caused by naval artillery.