Waffen-SS: Hill 112, 1944

Background

At the end of June 1944, General Montgomery was out-fought by the Waffen-SS in the course of his Operation Epsom. However, he was bleeding Hitler's élite panzer force white, and the likes of Rommel, Dietrich and Meyer were beginning to wonder how long their troops would be able to withstand such harsh punishment before they were annihilated.

Deadlock before Caen

With the blunting of the outflanking movement by the British 7th Armoured Division at Villers-Bocage, General Montgomery had to look again at how he was going to take Caen, and open a route for his armour to break out into the French countryside beyond. The arrival of the Panzer Lehr and 2nd Panzer Divisions in the German frontline to the west of Caen effectively closed down the option of any rapid movement by tank forces out of the Allied bridgehead. Any attack would have to punch straight through the German front.

Aware that the Allies were concentrating on pumping huge amounts of men and materiel ashore into their bridgehead, the German commanders, Rommel and Rundstedt, were constantly engaged in their efforts to muster a strong counterattack force to drive the British and Americans back into the sea.

Great hopes were now placed in the fresh divisions of Paul Hausser's II SS Panzer Corps. This unit was currently en route from the Russian Front, and was expected to be available in Normandy in the last week of June 1944.

At the same time, the Leibstandarte Division was also - at last - on its way to the front from Belgium, and Das Reich and the 17th SS Panzergrenadier Divisions were moving northwards from Toulouse and Bordeaux respectively. It was intended to launch Hausser's corps at the boundary between the British and American bridgeheads. This move would split the Allies apart and the Germans would then be able to crush each of them in turn.

The German plans, however, were constantly being thwarted by the late arrival of the armour necessary for this job. There was also a lack of infantry, which was needed to allow the panzer divisions already in the line to be pulled back and launched into the counterattack.

Allied bombing

It was for these reasons that the few panzer divisions stationed in Normandy, such as the Hitlerjugend, were still holding the front west of Caen a week after being committed to action. Under a relentless bombardment by scores of guns, battleship broadsides and thousands of fighter-bombers, German combat power was being steadily eroded. The Hitlerjugend's commander, Fritz Witt, succumbed to a naval gunfire barrage on 14 June when his command post was blasted by a huge salvo. Caught by shell splinters as he dived into a bunker, Witt was killed instantly. The 32-year-old Kurt Meyer was appointed in Witt's place, making him the youngest German divisional commander of the war.

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