Panzers East and West: The German 10th SS Panzer Division from the Eastern Front to Normandy

by Dieter Stenger, David T. Zabecki USA, (Ret.) (Foreword by)

Overview

Organized and trained during 1943, the 10th SS Panzer Division saw its first action in the spring of 1944 during the relief of an encircled German army on the Eastern Front. Several months later, in response to the Allied invasion at Normandy, the division returned to the West in mid-June 1944. Here the division engaged in a series of armored attacks and counterattacks against British and American forces. The 10th SS briefly held off a few enemy thrusts but gradually had to fall back to Falaise, where the division escaped the Allied encirclement with no tanks and only a fraction of its men. The 10th SS Panzer Division next defended against the Allied parachute assault during Operation Market Garden in September 1944. Depleted and now a division in name only, the 10th SS fought in Alsace before Hitler sent it to the Eastern Front again. There, east of Berlin, the division participated in the final battles to enable the escape of German soldiers and civilians from Soviet captivity.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780811716277
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	09/01/2017
Pages:	400
Product dimensions:	8.30(w) x 10.10(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Dieter Stenger is a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps. He has worked in the museum field for two decades and held positions at the Marine Corps Air-Ground Museum, the U.S. Naval Academy Museum, the National Museum of the Marine Corps, and the U.S. Army Center of Military History, where he serves as the Chief of Arms and Ordnance. He lives in Virginia.

Table of Contents

Foreword vii

Acknowledgments xi

Introduction xiii

Chapter 1 Organization and Training of the 10th SS Panzer Division: Dec 1942-March 1944 1

Chapter 2 Commitment of the 10th SS Panzer Division in the East: March-June 1944 53

Chapter 3 Normandy: 28 June-21 August 1944 105

Chapter 4 Withdrawal of the 10th SS Panzer Division through Northern France and Belgium to the Meuse River: 21 August-5 September 1944 165

Chapter 5 Holland: 6 September-18 November 1944 179

Chapter 6 Commitment of the 10th SS on German Soil: 19 November-10 December 1944 225

Chapter 7 Commitment of the 10th SS Panzer Division during Operation Wacht am Rhein and Northwind: 10 December 1944-February 1945 251

Chapter 8 Return to the East: Demise of the 10th SS Panzer Division 269

Epilogue 301

Appendix A Georg von Frundsberg: 10th SS Panzer Division 305

Appendix B Theoretical Table of Organization: SS Panzer Division 1943 307

Appendix C Panzer Regiment Organization: 10th SS Panzer Regiment 311

Appendix D Panzer Division Staff: 10th SS Panzer Division 313

Appendix E Training Plan, Staff Company: 10th SS Panzer Assault Gun Battalion 315

Appendix F Theoretical Table of Organization: SS Panzer Division 1944 (free organization) 318

Appendix G Table of Organization: 10th SS Panzer Pioneer Battalion, 1 April 1944 323

Appendix H Table of Organization: Soviet Divisional Strengths 325

Appendix I Thepretical Table of Organization: SS Panzer Division 1945 327

Appendix J World War II Rank Equivalents 331

Appendix K Combat Vehicles 333

Endnotes 337

Selected Bibliography 365

Index 371

About the Author 383