Waffen-SS: Battle for Caen, 1944

Background

In four days of bitter fighting following D-Day, the Hitlerjugend Division effectively brought the Allied advance to a halt on the outskirts of Caen. For a unit in action for the first time, it was a remarkable performance. Caen was Montgomery's objective for the attacks on 7 and 8 June, but the young soldiers of the 12th SS Panzer Division had other ideas.

D-Day is launched

In its billets northwest of Paris, the men of the Hitlerjugend Division could clearly hear the waves of Allied bombers passing overhead on the morning of 6 June 1944. This raid was heavier than usual. Throughout the early hours of the morning, a steady stream of phone calls alerted the division to the fact that parachute landings were taking place all over Normandy. The divisional commander, 36-year-old SS-Brigadeführer Fritz Witt, put his command on alert. Commanders frantically roused their troops from bed, and reconnaissance parties were formed, ready for any move to counter the invasion.

In the German High Command, confusion reigned. No one was sure where the Allies had landed or in what strength. Rommel, Rundstedt and Hitler all prevaricated, fearing the landing in Normandy was just a feint to distract attention from an assault in the Pas de Calais, or in the mouth of the Somme. A reconnaissance force was sent to the coast south of the Somme at 02:30 hours but the rest of the Hitlerjugend Division had to wait for orders. Reports were coming in every couple of minutes, but there was still no concrete information on the Allied attack.

The Hitlerjugend moves west

At 05:00 hours orders were issued for the division to begin concentrating at Lisieux in eastern Normandy. It took several hours for the troops to get on the road, and they spent the rest of the day moving westwards under relentless Allied air attack. Swarms of fighter-bombers - "Jagdbombers" or "Jabos" as they were known to the German panzer crews - were scouting ahead of the Allied bridgehead on the lookout for German columns. Some 20 vehicles were destroyed and more than 80 Hitlerjugend soldiers killed or wounded in the attacks. More important than the materiel and human losses was the delay caused as the Waffen-SS columns had to stop, take cover and weave their way past twisted and smoking wreckage. Refugee columns clogged the roads, and this was responsible for further hindering the movement of German troops towards Normandy. As a result of these obstacles, it would be nightfall before the division found itself anywhere near striking distance of the Allied bridgehead.

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