German Units in Normandy - 1st SS Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler, 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend, 21st Panzer Division, 17th SS Pan (Paperback)

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Pages: 45. Chapters: 1st SS Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler, 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend, 21st Panzer Division, 17th SS Panzergrenadier Division Gotz von Berlichingen, 2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich, 9th Panzer Division, 9th SS Panzer Division Hohenstaufen, 503rd heavy tank battalion, II SS Panzer Corps, 352nd Infantry Division, 709th Static Infantry Division, 10th SS Panzer Division Frundsberg, SS Heavy Panzer Battalion 101, 716th Static Infantry Division, 5th Panzer Army, SS Heavy Panzer Battalion 102, 243rd Static Infantry Division, 91st Infantry Division, 94th Infantry Division, 916th Grenadier Regiment. Excerpt: The Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler (LSSAH) was Adolf Hitler's personal Bodyguard. Initially the size of a regiment, the LSSAH eventually grew into a divisional-sized unit. ("Leibstandarte" derived partly from "Leibgarde" or "Life Guard" -- a somewhat archaic German expression for the personal bodyguard of a military leader and "Standarte" -- the SS/SA term for a regiment-sized unit). The LSSAH independently participated in combat during the Invasion of Poland. The LSSAH was amalgamated into the Waffen-SS together with the SS-VT and the combat units of the SS-TV prior to Operation Barbarossa in 1941. By the end of World War II it had been increased in size from a regiment to a Panzer division. The elite division was a component of the Waffen-SS which was found guilty of war crimes in the Nuremberg Trials. Members of the LSSAH participated in numerous atrocities and it is estimated that they murdered at least 5,000 prisoners of war in the period 1940-1945, mostly on the Eastern Front. In the earliest days of the NSDAP, leaders realized that bodyguard units composed of trustworthy and loyal men would be a wise development. Ernst Rohm formed a guard formation from the 19.Granatwerfer-Kompanie, and from this...