The 12th Ss

Recruited from the ranks of the Hitler Youth, the elite 12th SS Panzer Division-which rapidly became one of World War II's most feared-consisted largely of seventeen- and eighteen-year-old boys who were fanatically devoted to the German cause. In the aftermath of D-Day in June 1944, the division received its baptism of fire in Normandy, launching a fierce counterattack that turned into a bloody, month-long series of battles for the French city of Caen. Using war diaries, official records, and his experiences as the division's chief of staff, Hubert Meyer follows these teenage warriors through their grueling first weeks of combat.