The 12th SS, Volume Two

Real Battles. Real Soldiers. Real Stories.

After a summer of bloody A fighting in France and the harrowing retreat through the Falaise Gap, the boy soldiers of Germany’s notorious 12th SS Panzer Division regrouped in the winter of 1944-45. During the ensuing Battle of the Bulge in the snow-encrusted Ardennes, the division fought tenaciously against combat- hardened Americans but suffered irreplaceable losses. Within days of withdrawing, the survivors were transported to Hungary to make a desperate final stand against the Soviet onslaught. Facing an increasingly hopeless situation, the battered division was driven into Austria, where it surrendered to U.S. forces on May 8, 1945. HUBERT MEYER served in various units before becoming chief of staff of the 12th SS in 1943, a position he held for the war’s duration. He lives in Germany.