This book aims to provide an overview of the formation, ideology and campaigns of the Waffen-SS. It will look at the place of the Waffen-SS in the wider SS organization, and its relationship with Hitler and other senior Nazi leaders. The selection and training of the early Waffen-SS units will be examined, as well as their role in the first Blitzkrieg victories in Poland and France. The bloody battles that followed the move eastwards in June 1941 will then be detailed. The key role of the Waffen-SS in the swirling tank battles that determined the course of the war on the Eastern Front is covered in great detail.

Efforts by the Waffen-SS to counter the US and British landings in Normandy and their advance across France in 1944 will then be considered, as will the fate of the Waffen-SS in the final cataclysmic battles in the spring of 1945 as Hitler's Reich collapsed. Finally, the legacy of the Waffen-SS will be assessed, looking at its complicity in Nazi atrocities and its contribution to Germany's defeat.

prev | next