As another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter.
The 12th SS Panzers have been lost in the propaganda of war crimes, which were not war crimes at all, unless Dwight Eisenhower should be hung for firebombing Dresden or George Marshall should be hung for firebombing Tokyo. What the Hitler Jugend were, was a war machine, commanded by warriors of proven bravery and instilling that devotion of hard fighting to their command.
It was the fact that two of their noted leaders after Normandy were convicted of war crimes, the reality is after assassin lawyers who had never served in combat, trumped up the sentences of death, Kurt Meyer and Hugo Kraas were both saved from the gallows and in a few years released from prison.
While distasteful, the Germans shooting French men for sabotage or ordering "no prisoners to be taken" in then shooting Canadian soldiers captured is what war is. Victors make heroes of their war criminals and the vanquished have their heroes hung.
Kurt PanzerMeyer Meyer
PanzerMeyer was noted for bravery from the Eastern Front and was given command of the 12th Panzers before D Day. He was a remarkable decorated soldier and facing overwhelming odds from the Allied liberation of France, Meyer smashed Allied operations to a halt.
When the Allies took the Normandy beaches and its surrounding areas, the SS Division Hitlerjugend, which consisted of 20.540 men, marched into the area to the north and west of the city of Caen.
The British and Canadian troops had been ordered to capture Caen within 24 hours of the D-Day landings. On the morning of June 7 the Hitlerjugend Division attacked and delivered many stinging defeats to the allies on that first day of battle. This SS Division fought so ferociously that they kept the allies from taking Caen for over a month. The British and Canadian outnumbered these young German SS soldiers both in men and material, but the fighting spirit of this elite division stopped operations ‘Epsom’ and ‘Goodwood’ in their tracks.
If all of the German divisions had fought with the ferocity of the 12th Panzers, the Americans, British and Canadians would have been rolled up in days for an epic defeat.
It would be the 12th Panzers who were part of the bulge which struck the American lines in the Battle of the Bulge.
Hugo Kraas was another exceptional leader of the 12th Panzers after the capture of Meyer. He would lead his division to the end of the war in fighting the Red Army in Hungary. Following orders from the General Staff that the war was over and the Wehrmacht should make the best situation for itself, Meyer would withdraw to Austria and there find the Americans.
The SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend surrendered near the town of Enns to the troops of the 65th Infantry Division, nickname “Battle Axe” commanded by Major General Stanley Eric Reinhart. to the Americans in Enns on May 8, 1945 with a strength of about 10.000 men. Proud and defiant until the end, they refused to drape their vehicles with white flags as ordered by the Americans and instead marched into captivity as if on the parade ground.
Hugo Kraas
When General George S. Patton promoted the inception of joining his American 3rd Army to the Wehrmacht to destroy the communist menace of the Soviet Union, before Patton was himself assassinated, joining 11 million Germans eradicated in the "peace", it was the 12th Panzers which he was speaking of.
The 12th Panzers were never defeated, and in surrender, refused to be dictated terms to them. They entered confinement on parade, as they could do nothing else as they were the protectors of the heart and soul of the German flame.
Nuff Said
agtG
