The SS Division Hitlerjugend or 12th SS Panzer Division "Hitlerjugend" (german: 12. SS-Panzerdivision "Hitlerjugend") was a German armoured division of the Waffen-SS during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. The majority of its junior enlisted men were drawn from members of the

Hitler Youth The Hitler Youth (german: Hitlerjugend , often abbreviated as HJ, ) was the youth organisation of the Nazi Party in Germany. Its origins date back to 1922 and it received the name ("Hitler Youth, League of German Worker Youth") in July 1926. ...

, while the senior

NCOs A non-commissioned officer (NCO) is a military officer who has not pursued a commission. Non-commissioned officers usually earn their position of authority by promotion through the enlisted ranks. (Non-officers, which includes most or all enli ...

and officers were from other Waffen-SS divisions. The division committed several war crimes while en route to and during the early battles of the Allied

Normandy landings The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as ...

, including the

Ascq Ascq (; pcd, Ask) is a former commune on the Marque river in the Nord department in northern France, at seven kilometers from Belgium. Agricultural village until the Industrial Revolution, the former independent commune merged with others to bec ...

and

Normandy massacres The Normandy massacres were a series of killings in which up to 156 Canadian prisoners of war were murdered by soldiers of the 12th SS Panzer Division (Hitler Youth) during the Battle of Normandy in World War II. The majority of the murders oc ...

, and several massacres, arsons and rapes in cities Plomion, Tavaux, Bouillon, Godinne, Hun, Rivere, Warnant and Namur. It first saw action on 7 June 1944 as part of the German defensive operations at

Ardennes offensive The Battle of the Bulge, also known as the Ardennes Offensive, was the last major German offensive campaign on the Western Front during World War II. The battle lasted from 16 December 1944 to 28 January 1945, towards the end of the war i ...

. After the operation's failure, which became known as the Battle of the Bulge, the division was sent to Hungary to participate in fighting around

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population o ...

. The division eventually retreated into Austria and surrendered to the 7th US Army on 8 May 1945. After the war several members of the division, including its commander Kurt Meyer, were convicted of war crimes.

Formation and training

Bundesarchiv Bild 101I-297-1722-29, Im Westen, Panzer IV Recolored

Bundesarchiv Bild 101I-297-1740-19A, Frankreich, SS-Division

The idea for the Waffen-SS division was first proposed by Artur Axmann, the leader of the

, to '' Reichsführer-SS'' Heinrich Himmler in early 1943. The plan for a division made up of Hitler Youth members born in 1926 was passed on to

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Germany from 1933 until his death in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming the chancellor in 1933 and the ...

for his approval. Hitler approved the plan in February and SS-''

Gruppenführer __NOTOC__ ''Gruppenführer'' (, ) was an early paramilitary rank of the Nazi Party (NSDAP), first created in 1925 as a senior rank of the SA. Since then, the term ''Gruppenführer'' is also used for leaders of groups/teams of the police, fire d ...

'' Gottlob Berger was ordered to recruit the personnel. SS-'' Oberführer'' Fritz Witt of '' 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler'' (LSSAH) was appointed the divisional commander. Personnel from the LSSAH provided the regimental, battalion and most of the company commanders for the division. About 2,000 personnel were transferred from the LSSAH and in September 1943, the division had over 16,000 recruits on its roster, undergoing training in

Beverloo Camp Beverloo Camp (french: Camp de Beverloo, nl, Kamp van Beverloo) was a military installation at Leopoldsburg (Bourg-Léopold in French), Belgium; 70 km southeast of Antwerp. The camp was created in 1835, shortly after the independence of ...

in Leopoldsburg, Belgium. The indoctrination was often brutal; while in Allied captivity, an SS man from the division recalled: "In the Waffen-SS you couldn't do anything if an Unterfuhrer hit you during the training. The purpose of the training is to make you just as they are; it's pure sadism". (The comments have also been taken from similar transcripts). In March 1944 the 12th SS was attached to the

I SS Panzer Corps The I SS Panzer Corps (german: I.SS-Panzerkorps) was a German armoured corps of the Waffen-SS. It saw action on both the Western and Eastern Fronts during World War II. Formation and training The corps was raised on 26 July 1943 in Berlin ...

and transferred to

Caen Caen (, ; nrf, Kaem) is a commune in northwestern France. It is the prefecture of the department of Calvados. The city proper has 105,512 inhabitants (), while its functional urban area has 470,000,Walter Hauck, ordered troops to search and arrest all male members of the houses on both sides of the track. Altogether, 70 men were shot beside the railway line and another 16 killed in the village. In 1949, Hauck was put on trial in Lille, France, and was sentenced to death. His sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment. He was freed in 1957 after a further sentence reduction.

Normandy

Bundesarchiv Bild 146-1977-143-25, Frankreich, SS-Grenadier

On 6 June 1944, the division, along with the 21st Panzer Division, were the closest Panzer divisions to the landing beaches but they were unable to move until ordered by the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW, armed forces high command). The division was ordered to the front at 14:30 hours on 6 June, over twelve hours after the first reports of the landings. Prior to this Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt had ordered over half of the division to deal with a parachute landing on the coast near

Lisieux Lisieux () is a commune in the Calvados department in the Normandy region in northwestern France. It is the capital of the Pays d'Auge area, which is characterised by valleys and hedged farmland. Name The name of the town derives from the ...

which was found to be dummies from

Operation Titanic Operation Titanic was a series of military deceptions carried out by the Allied Nations during the Second World War. They formed part of tactical element of Operation Bodyguard, the cover plan for the Normandy landings. Titanic was carried out on ...

. The division's advance to the areas near the British–Canadian landing beaches of

Sword A sword is an edged, bladed weapon intended for manual cutting or thrusting. Its blade, longer than a knife or dagger, is attached to a hilt and can be straight or curved. A thrusting sword tends to have a straighter blade with a pointed ti ...

and

Juno Beach Juno or Juno Beach was one of five beaches of the Allied invasion of German-occupied France in the Normandy landings on 6 June 1944 during the Second World War. The beach spanned from Courseulles, a village just east of the British beach Gol ...

es proceeded slowly due to Allied air attacks. The first units of the 12th SS finally reached their assembly area near Evrecy at 22:00 hours on 6 June but the Panther battalion ran out of fuel east of the Orne River. According to Marc Milner, " is was just the first example of sloppy staff work and command and control that characterized 12th SS Division's experience in the beachhead battles". Dead german member of Waffen-SS

Bundesarchiv Bild 101I-738-0276-06A, Frankreich, englische Kriegsgefangene

At 10:00 hours on 7 June, the 25th SS Panzergrenadier Regiment, along with 50

Panzer IV The ''Panzerkampfwagen'' IV (Pz.Kpfw. IV), commonly known as the ''Panzer'' IV, was a German medium tank developed in the late 1930s and used extensively during the Second World War. Its ordnance inventory designation was Sd.Kfz. 161. The Panz ...

tanks of the 12th SS Panzer Regiment, arrived and moved into position north-west of Caen. Supported by a battalion of artillery (3rd Battalion, 12th SS Panzer Regiment), this battle group was ordered to stop the Canadian advance and drive through to the coast, a few kilometres away.Stacey, op. cit., p. 137 and Haller, Oliver: "The Defeat of the 12th SS 7–10 June 1944", in Canadian Military History Quarterly, Volume 3, Issue
Available online
. Accessed 6 April 2009
Archived
30 April 2009. They failed to break through the Canadians around

Buron Buron is a village in France about 6 kilometres north-west of Caen, in the communes of Cairon, Rosel and Saint-Contest in Calvados. History Buron was the site of two major battles, one on June 7, 1944, and another during Operation Charnwood ...

, a kilometre to the north. Meyer countermanded the divisional commander's order on his own initiative, feeling that objective unrealistic and hoped merely to stop the flow of Canadian units inland until the situation could be stabilized. The attack by the division was supposed to have been supported by the 21st Panzer Division but they could not disengage from fighting the British 3rd Infantry Division and were still at Couvre. Casualties of the 25th SS Panzergrenadier Regiment amounted to about 300 men, while 15 tanks from the 12th SS Panzer Regiment were also destroyed. Late on 7 June, the 26th SS Panzergrenadier Regiment under command of then SS-''Obersturmbannfuhrer'' Wilhelm Mohnke arrived on the battlefield. Meyer had pushed back one part of the Canadian advance but to the west, the

7th Canadian Infantry Brigade The 7th Canadian Infantry Brigade was an infantry brigade of the Canadian Army that fought during World War I and World War II. The brigade, along with the 8th Canadian Infantry Brigade and the 9th Canadian Infantry Brigade, formed the 3rd ...

had occupied a group of small villages three kilometres into the German line. The 26th Panzergrenadier Regiment crossed behind Meyer's regiment and took post to the west. The 1st Battalion launched an attack towards Norrey-en-Bessin, defended by the

Regina Rifles The Regina Rifles are a Junior B box lacrosse team based in Regina, Saskatchewan, playing in the top league in Saskatchewan, the Prairie Gold Lacrosse League. The expansion team entered the Saskatchewan Major Box Lacrosse League (later became ...

, 7th Canadian Infantry Brigade,

3rd Canadian Division The 3rd Canadian Division is a formation of the Canadian Army responsible for the command and mobilization of all army units in the provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia, as well as all units extending westwards from t ...

. Their orders were to overrun the Canadians and force a deep wedge between them and the British to the west. No reconnaissance of the Canadian positions was done and the infantry met intense defensive fire from firmly established positions. The attack at 03:30 hours on 8 June had little initial success. The various companies in the attacking battalion failed to coordinate effectively and suffered many casualties. Facing Canadian artillery and the supporting heavy machine guns of the

Cameron Highlanders of Ottawa The Cameron Highlanders of Ottawa (Duke of Edinburgh's Own) is a Canadian Army Primary Reserve infantry regiment. Regimental badge The regimental badge is laid out as follows: within a wreath of thistles and maple leaves, the figure of St And ...

, the 1st Battalion of the 12th SS was forced to fall back. Despite suffering losses themselves, the

stood their ground. The Hitlerjugend division was criticized for performing inadequately in the opening days of the Normandy campaign, with Canadian Brigadier Harry Foster later noting that "no use was made of the fact that the Reginas' flanks were exposed; instead, the enemy flung himself straight against the strongest points and utterly failed to exploit the undoubted weakness of his opponent's position". On the Canadian right, the 2nd Battalion attacked the Royal Winnipeg Rifles defending the village of

Putot-en-Bessin Putot-en-Bessin (, literally ''Putot in Bessin'') is a former commune in the Calvados department in the Normandy region in northwestern France. On 1 January 2017, it was merged into the new commune Thue et Mue.Canadian Scottish Regiment, with artillery, tank and tank-destroyer support, re-took Putot with the SS giving up the struggle for the town and withdrawing around midnight. Oliver Haller concluded that "It is evident that the 12th SS was not capable of conducting successful offensive operations against prepared positions in Normandy. Artillery and anti-tank guns were the key to victory, and the Allies possessed large numbers of these effective weapons. All of the German assaults were checked and defeated in detail. The 3rd Canadian Division had won a decisive victory." The 3rd Canadian Division ceased major combat operations until July, with only one day of major operations, on 11 June, at

Le Mesnil-Patry Le Mesnil-Patry () is a former commune in the Calvados department in the Normandy region in northwestern France. On 1 January 2017, it was merged into the new commune Thue et Mue.Queen's Own Rifles of Canada and the

1st Hussars , march = "Bonnie Dundee" , anniversaries = Juno Beach, Le Mesnil-Patry , battles = Fenian RaidsSecond Boer WarFirst World WarSecond World WarWar in Afghanistan , battle_honours ...

(6th Armoured Regiment) which lost 51 Sherman tanks during the attack. Also on 11 June the 46th Royal Marine Commando assaulted Rots. The official historian of Le Régiment de la Chaudière, described the "ferocious battle" including hand-to-hand fighting and "smoldering" tanks: "from each blackened turret hangs the charred corpse of a machine gunner".Battle of Caen: The Stalingrad of the Hitler Youth by Gerhard Rempel The following two weeks was a period of relative quiet, as both sides were exhausted. What did not stop was the constant Allied artillery, naval bombardment and air attacks. Major operations for both sides began again in July, including

Operation Windsor Operation Windsor was a Canadian attack, which was part of the Battle of Normandy during the Second World War. The attack was undertaken by the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division to take Carpiquet and the adjacent airfield, from troops of the of ...

and

Operation Charnwood Operation Charnwood was an Anglo-Canadian offensive that took place from 8 to 9 July 1944, during the Battle for Caen, part of the larger Operation Overlord (code-name for the Battle of Normandy) in the Second World War. The operation was i ...

Walki na froncie w Normandii na zachód od Caen

During Charnwood, the division was driven from its positions in Buron and nearby villages of Gruchy and Cussy and the divisional command post in the Ardenne Abbey, which had been occupied since before D-Day, was lost. Witt was killed in action by a

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against Fr ...

naval artillery barrage which hit the divisional command post at Venoix on 14 June 1944. Kurt Meyer was placed in command of the division. Over the course of August, the division was involved in the fighting around Falaise against the Polish 1st Armoured Division battlegroups who were trying to close the Falaise Pocket. The 12th SS, along with several other German units, was instrumental in re-opening the corridor out of the pocket on the 20th of August, allowing an estimated 10.000 German soldiers to escape encirclement. During their retreat from France, members of the LSSAH and the Hitlerjugend division murdered 34 French civilians in the towns of Tavaux and

Plomion Plomion () is a commune in the Aisne department in Hauts-de-France in northern France. History Plomion was the site of a massacre by retreating German forces on the evening of August 31, 1944 as the American army approached pushing toward the ...

. The units in the division that were not fit for combat were ordered to pull back to Germany on 8 September, leaving behind a small ''Kampfgruppe'' attached to the

SS Division Das Reich The 2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich (german: 2. SS-Panzerdivision "Das Reich") or SS Division Das Reich was an elite division of the Waffen-SS of Nazi Germany during World War II, formed from the regiments of the ''SS-Verfügungstruppe'' (S ...

. The division losses during the fighting in Normandy, in the three months from June to September, amounted to ca. 8,000 men, over 80% of its tanks, 70% of its armored vehicles, 60% of its artillery and 50% of its motor vehicles.

Ardenne Abbey massacre

Another massacre was committed by the division on its second day of operations during

Operation Overlord Operation Overlord was the codename for the Battle of Normandy, the Allied operation that launched the successful invasion of German-occupied Western Europe during World War II. The operation was launched on 6 June 1944 (D-Day) with the Norm ...

, the Allied invasion of France. During the evening of 7 June, 11 Canadian

prisoners of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of w ...

from the

North Nova Scotia Highlanders The North Nova Scotia Highlanders was an infantry regiment of the Canadian Army founded in 1936. In 1954, it was amalgamated with The Pictou Highlanders and 189 LAA RCA Battery to form 1st Battalion, The Nova Scotia Highlanders (North). History ...

, the Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry Highlanders and the 27th Armoured Regiment (The Sherbrooke Fusilier Regiment), were shot in the back of the head. After a year of investigations from August 1944 to August 1945, the Canadian War Crimes Commission (CWCC) strove to discover the details of the murders. As commander of the regiment, Kurt Meyer was the prime suspect. At Meyer's war crimes trial in December 1945, he was found guilty of inciting his troops to commit murder and of being responsible as a commander for the killings at the Abbey. He was sentenced to death on 28 December 1945; his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in 1946. He was released in 1954.

Ardennes offensive

In September, SS-''Obersturmbannführer'' Hubert Meyer was placed in command of the division. In November 1944, the division was sent to Nienburg in Germany, where it was to be reformed. The majority of reinforcements were transferred from

Luftwaffe The ''Luftwaffe'' () was the aerial-warfare branch of the German '' Wehrmacht'' before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the '' Luftstreitkräfte'' of the Imperial Army and the '' Marine-Fliegerabt ...

and

Kriegsmarine The (, ) was the navy of Germany from 1935 to 1945. It superseded the Imperial German Navy of the German Empire (1871–1918) and the inter-war (1919–1935) of the Weimar Republic. The was one of three official branches, along with the a ...

personnel. Hubert Meyer was replaced by SS-''Obersturmbannführer'' Hugo Kraas, and the division was attached to the 6th SS Panzer Army of SS-''Oberstgruppenführer'' Sepp Dietrich, which was forming up for Operation Wacht am Rhein (the Second Battle of the Ardennes, popularly known as the

Battle of the Bulge The Battle of the Bulge, also known as the Ardennes Offensive, was the last major German offensive campaign on the Western Front during World War II. The battle lasted from 16 December 1944 to 28 January 1945, towards the end of the war in ...

), a large-scale offensive to recapture

Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,

and halt the Allied advance. The operation opened on 16 December 1944, with ''Kampfgruppe Peiper'' from the 1st SS Panzer Division ''Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler'' breaking through the American lines with some difficulty. After the 12th SS reached the front, it was met with heavy resistance from American troops stationed on the

Elsenborn Ridge The Battle of Elsenborn Ridge refers to the northernmost German attacks during the Battle of the Bulge. The area from Elsenborn Ridge itself to Monschau was the only sector of the American front line attacked during the Battle of the Bulge wher ...

. Despite repeated efforts, the division could not budge the American defenders. As a result, the division was ordered to swing left and follow the advance line of the remainder of the 1st SS Panzer Division. American troops prevented the division from reaching its objective, and after the destruction of ''Kampfgruppe Peiper'' from the LSSAH, the advance of Dietrich's forces was altogether stopped. On 8 January Hitler gave the authorization to withdraw. The attack was ultimately a failure. The 12th SS had been severely mauled, with only 26 tanks and assault guns and an average of 120 men remaining in each battalion. In total during the offensive the division had lost 9,870 men which included 328 officers and 1,698 NCO's. By 28 January 1945, the 12th SS, along with all the German forces, had been pushed back to its starting positions.

1945

On 14 January 1945, Dietrich's 6th SS Panzer Army was ordered to Hungary where it was to take part in an offensive to recapture the Hungarian oilfields and open the way to

, where 45,000 men of the

IX SS Mountain Corps The IX Waffen Mountain Corps of the SS (Croatian) (german: IX. Waffen-Gebirgskorps der SS (Kroatisches)), later simply IX SS Mountain Corps, was a German Waffen-SS alpine corps during World War II. Originally set up to control Croatian and Alb ...

had been encircled. While the division was in transit, the

IV SS Panzer Corps The IV SS Panzer Corps was a panzer corps of the Waffen-SS of Nazi Germany which saw action on the Eastern Front and in the Balkans during World War II. History The Panzerkorps was formed in August 1943 in Poitiers, France. The formation wa ...

launched several unsuccessful relief operations. The division, alongside the LSSAH as a part of

arrived in Hungary in early February 1945, a few days before the city fell. The division next took part in Operation Spring Awakening, another operation to retake the Hungarian oilfields. The attack got underway on 6 March 1945; after initial success, the combination of the muddy terrain and strong Soviet resistance ground them to a halt. On 16 March, the Soviet forces counterattacked in strength, driving the entire southern front into a retreat towards

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

. The Soviet forces took Vienna on 13 April. Retreating through Odenburg and

Hirtenberg Hirtenberg is a town of approx. 2,500 inhabitants near Baden bei Wien in Lower Austria, Austria. The river Triesting is located at the south border of the town. Coming from the Vienna Woods, the valley of Triesting joins the Vienna Basin here. ...

, the division reached

Linz Linz ( , ; cs, Linec) is the capital of Upper Austria and third-largest city in Austria. In the north of the country, it is on the Danube south of the Czech border. In 2018, the population was 204,846. In 2009, it was a European Capital ...

, Austria near the American lines. On 8 May 1945, 10,000 men of the division surrendered near the town of Enns to the troops of the 65th Infantry Division commanded by Major General Stanley Eric Reinhart.

Organization

The organization structure of this SS

formation Formation may refer to: Linguistics * Back-formation, the process of creating a new lexeme by removing or affixes * Word formation, the creation of a new word by adding affixes Mathematics and science * Cave formation or speleothem, a secondar ...

was as follows:GORDON WILLIAMSON: "The SS Hitler's Instrument of the power"; published by KAISER; appendix, page 244, "Schlachtordnung der Waffen-SS / Waffen-SS order of battle"; copyright 1994 by Brown Packaging Books Ltd., London.

Commanders

References

Citations

Bibliography

* * * * * * Meyer Kurt, ''Grenadiers'', JJ Fedorowicz Publishing ltd, 2001, * Meyer Hubert, ''The 12th SS: The History of the Hitler Youth Panzer Division'', Stackpole Books, 2005, * Meyer Hubert, ''The 12th SS Volume Two: The History of the Hitler Youth Panzer Division'', Stackpole Books, 2005, * * Mitcham Samuel W, ''Panzers in Winter: Hitler's Army and the Battle of the Bulge'', Greenwood Publishing Group, 2006, * * Reynolds Michael, ''Steel Inferno'', Spellmount Publishing, 2008, * * {{DEFAULTSORT:12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend #12 German units in Normandy Hitler Youth Military units and formations established in 1943 Panzer divisions of the Waffen-SS Military units and formations disestablished in 1945