Arms and Armour

12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend

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. The division was founded in 1943; it drew the majority of its junior enlisted men from members of the Hitler Youth, while the senior NCOs and officers were from other Waffen-SS divisions. Most of the enlisted men were teenagers, starting from the ages of 16 or even 15. The division was sent to Normandy in response to the Allied invasion of France in June 1944. It was put immediately into combat on 7 June 1944 as part of the German defensive operations at Caen against British and Canadian forces. In the retreat from Normandy it suffered great casualties during the Battle of the Falaise Pocket. In December 1944, the division was committed against the US Army in the Ardennes offensive. 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. The division eventually retreated into Austria and surrendered to the 7th US Army on 8 May 1945. The division committed several war crimes while en route to and during the early battles of the Allied Normandy landings, including the Ascq and Normandy massacres, and several massacres, arsons and rapes in the cities of Plomion, Tavaux, Bouillon, Godinne, Hun, Rivere, Warnant and Namur. ,After the war several members of the division, including its former commander Kurt Meyer, were convicted of war crimes.

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See also

• ▸Boiled leather
• ▸Architecture of Seattle
• ▸44th Infantry Division (Wehrmacht)

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