German 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend: Encyclopedia II - German 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend - Normandy Campaign

German 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend - Normandy Campaign

On 6 June 1944, the Western Allies launched Operation Overlord, the invasion of Normandy. The HJ, along with the 21.Panzer-Division, was the closest armoured unit to the landing beaches. Due to Hitler's authorisation being required to release the panzer units, the HJ was not ordered to the front until 1430 on 6 June. The division's advance to the areas near Sword and Juno Beaches was severely hampered by incessant allied Jabo (fighter-bomber) attacks. Forward elements of the HJ finally reached their assembly area near Evrecy at 2200 on 6 June.

On 7 June, SS-Standartenführer Kurt Meyer's ("Panzermeyer") SS-Panzergrenadier-Regiment 25, along with the II./Abteilung from SS-Obersturmbannfuhrer Max Wunsche's SS-Panzer-Regiment 12, were supported by artillery and ordered to crush advancing Canadian infantry and armour and drive through to the coast, still only a few miles away. In Meyers words they were to "throw the little fish into the sea". Although they destroyed many Canadian tanks and overran a company of the North Nova Scotia Highlanders in Authie, the attack failed to break through the advancing Canadians. Meyer had relied on the shock value of the rapid attacks that had served his units so well on the Eastern front but here in Normandy, as both sides were to discover, effective scouting was a key element to an attack. The 25 Regiment had been forced to launch their attack into the flank of the Canadian advance a full hour before Meyer initially planned to strike.

Without support from other units on his own flanks and no reconnaissance information with which to plan his attack it was initially very successful but rapidly lost its momentum. The North Novas in Authie bought time for the other companies of their regiment to establish defensive positions. The Sherbrooke Fusiliers lost over 25 Sherman tanks to the Panzer IV tanks and anti tank guns of 12th SS in the opening minutes of the counterattack. The 12 SS managed to push the portion of the Canadian spearhead they attacked back two miles but the remaining North Nova Scotia Highlanders, without artillery support or any armour halted the 25th regiment and established a firm defence.

According to accounts from Canadian prisoners who survived the events, the youth of the Hitler Jugend were frustrated and mad with rage and there were numerous incidences of North Nova prisoners being shot, bludgeoned to death and even run over with a truck while they were being marched along a road. Battle casualties for the day on both sides were virtually even. Both forces suffered approximately 80 killed and around 175 wounded or captured. It was a hard and bloody fight to a draw.

Meyer set up his command post in the Abbey Ardennes, whose towers provided an excellent view of the countryside. In the early evening of June 7th, as he planned the regiment's next moves, a further 18 Canadians were interrogated and then executed on the grounds of Abbey. In all over 100 Canadians from several regiments are documented as having been killed after surrendering to the 12SS. Meyer's regiment was deployed near the villages of Authie and Buron, in positions covering the vital Carpiquet Aerodrome. Forced to stay in place to contain the North Nova's brigade they were unavailable the next day to support the 26th Regiment in its attacks. They would remain on the same ground until driven off in vicious hand to hand fighting with the Highland Light Infantry of Canada on July 8th.

On 8 June, SS-Panzergrenadier-Regiment 26 under command of SS-Obersturmbannfuhrer Wilhelm Mohnke arrived on the battlefield. Meyers attack had pushed back one part of the Canadian advance but another brigade had occupied a group of small villages two miles into the German line. They crossed behind Meyer's regiment and the 26th took up positions to their west. After planning and positioning the regiment for a powerful thrust the 26th launched an attack towards Norrey-en-Bessin. Their orders were to drive over the Canadians and force a deep wedge between them and the British division to the west. Again, no reconnaissance of the Canadian positions was done and this time the youth of the 12th SS infantry would wade into a maelstrom of defensive fire from firmly established defensive positions.

The attack, launched at 0330 hours some 8 hours after Meyer's battle ended, had little initial success. The various companies in the attacking 12th SS failed to co-ordinate their moves towards the Canadians and despite heavy casualties during repeated attempts by the infantry, Canadian artillery and supporting heavy machine guns of the Cameron Highlanders of Ottawa took a heavy toll of each attacking company of SS troops. On the Canadian left where fighting initially began, extremely brave actions on the part of the German infantry managed to push the Winnipeg Rifles out of Norrey in vicious fighting but the attack stalled when the successes could not be followed up.

On the Canadian right, over 1,000 12 SS attacked the 250 Canadian troops defending their village areas just as the fight around Norrey was ending. Able to switch defensive fire onto the new threat, artillery, tank and heavy machine gun fire broke up the attacks and killing and wounding many infantry of 12 SS and destroying 8 Panthers of Wunche's supporting panzer company. In some cases the attacking companies broke off their attacks but others pressed in despite casualties only to be forced back by intense small arms fire from the Canadian infantry. When Monke's bloodied companies were withdrawn from their attacks on the other villages near Norrey, the Canadians were sitting in a firm position well within the critical area near Caen and the Carpiquet airfield. Again both sides had suffered serious losses. Again many Canadian prisoners were executed after their surrender. The SS-Aufklärungs-Abteilung 12(reconnaissance battalion) under SS-Sturmbannführer Gerhard Bremer participated in the attacks on June 8th and they were responsible for the after the battle killing of over a dozen Canadian troops. Bremer himself is reported to have been directly involved. The 2nd Battalion of the Monke's 26th Regiment murdered a further 20 some odd men, most from the Winnipeg Rifles in Norrey. Before their capture the men who defended Norrey had inflicted numerous casualties on the 2nd Battalion but the bodies of the murdered Canadians were found well away from the village.

Following the battle SS-Aufklärungs-Abteilung 12 deployed to the west of Mohnke's regiment, and by the evening of 8 June the division, having failed in its assignment to drive the Canadians into the sea, they had effectively halted the units of the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division in the Allied advance on Caen. These Canadian units were the only ones in the entire D-Day effort that managed to reach their assigned objectives.

Despite the ferocity and local successes of the 12th SS counterattacks, the Division failed to fulfil its orders to throw the attacking allies back into the sea. Once British troops had moved up to the positions now firmly held by the troops of the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division that faced the 12th SS, the British dug in and established a firm line of defence from which they could launch future attacks. The allies were firmly on the continent to stay. The panzer army that contained the 12SS and the 21st Army Group they opposed, settled into a bitter series of battles that would finally lead to the liberation of Normandy.

On 14 June, a British naval barrage hit the divisional command post in Venoix, killing Witt and leaving the division without a commander. The thirty-three-year-old "Panzermeyer" was ordered to take command of the division, becoming the youngest divisional commander of either side during the war.

Over the next four weeks, the division managed to halt all Allied attempts to take Caen, despite the Allies' superior numbers and overwhelming air supremacy. The ferocity of the combat during this period equalled or exceeded anything the German troops had encountered on the Eastern front. (In this case also, Meyer was convicted of war crimes - he had ordered his men not to take prisoners.) No such order was given on the Allied side of the lines but it was scarcely needed. Time and again to the consternation and often sadness of the attacking Allied troops, the brave youth of the 12SS fought to the bitter end. Despite their successes in breaking up several major attacks, the division suffered immense losses, and in the first week of July 1944, Meyer ignored orders to hold the line north of Caen and withdrew the shattered remnants of his division south of the city. In the fighting from the day after D-Day until 9 July the division had lost 4,000 dead with a further 8,000 wounded and missing.

The division was to have little respite though, and on 19 July took part in the defence against the Anglo-Canadian Operation Goodwood. Following this, the division was pulled out of the line and used to form the mobile reserve for I.SS-Panzerkorps. Rather than rest and refitting, the division found itself involved in constant fire-brigade actions. In early August, the division took part in defensive actions to halt two Allied operations, Totalize and Tractible. At the launch of Totalize, the sixty remaining panzers of the HJ were faced with over 600 tanks of the Canadian First Army. Despite these odds, the division managed to halt the offensive short of its objectives.

Hitlerjugend, reduced to a few thousand men and a handful of vehicles, now took part in operations to try and keep the Falaise Pocket open and to help trapped German forces to escape. During this period the Panzer regiment's commander, Max Wunsche, was captured by British forces. On the 20th of August as the pocket collapsed and tens of thousands of troops of the Seventh Army went into captivity. The scattered remnants of the division were pulled back behind the Seine River.

While they had established a reputation as fierce combatants, the actions of those men responsible for the murders of Canadian prisoners had forever sullied the escutcheon of the 12th SS.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Normandy Campaign", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki