12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend

Unit insignia of 12.SS-Panzer-Division Hitlerjugend. The symbol was the result of a competition.

Unit insignia of 12.SS-Panzer-Division Hitlerjugend. The symbol was the result of a competition.

SS-Panzergrenadier-Division Hitlerjugend
SS-Panzer-Division Hitlerjugend
12.SS-Panzer-Division Hitlerjugend

The 12.SS-Panzer-Division Hitlerjugend ("Hitler Youth") was a German Waffen SS armoured division which saw action on both the Eastern and Western fronts during World War II.

The Hitlerjugend was remarkable because the majority of its enlisted men were drawn from members of the Hitler Youth born in 1926.

Formation and Training

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Recruiting poster for the 12.SS-Panzer-Division Hitlerjugend.

The idea of a Waffen-SS division composed of Hitlerjugend (HJ) members was first tabled by SS-Gruppenführer Gottlob Berger in January 1943. Berger approached Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler with the proposition, and Himmler soon became an enthusiastic advocate.

The plan for a combat division made up of all HJ members born in 1926, was passed on to Adolf Hitler for his approval. Hitler was also enthusiastic about the idea, and on 10 February 1943, the official order for the creation of an HJ division was issued. Berger nominated himself as the divisional commander, but Himmler instead chose former HJ member and 1.SS-Panzergrenadier-Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler (LSSAH) veteran, SS-Oberführer Fritz Witt.

A competition was held to design insignia for the new unit. The winning design, picked from thousands of entries, depicted the Hitlerjugend sigrune crossing a key from the 1.SS-Panzergrenadier-Division LSSAH's insignia.

By 1 September 1943, over 16,000 HJ recruits had completed their six-week basic training and were listed on the rosters of the SS-Panzergrenadier-Division Hitlerjugend. As training continued in Beverloo, Belgium, the division was notified that it was to be formed as a panzer rather than a panzergrenadier unit, and the division was redesignated SS-Panzer-Division Hitlerjugend. Many of the recruits were so young that they were supplied with sweets and candies instead of the standard tobacco and alcohol ration. In late October 1943 the division received its final designation, 12.SS-Panzer-Division Hitlerjugend.

While the HJ members, who had grown up under NSDAP propaganda, were fanatically committed to the Nazi cause, they lacked any military aptitude. To provide a skilled backbone for the division, veterans from the 1.SS-Panzer-Division LSSAH were assigned to the Hitlerjugend division as officers and NCOs. Training for the division was unusual. Witt, realising that the division had to be made ready for combat as quickly as possible, ignored many rules and regulations and instead focused on realistic combat scenarios and live-fire exercises. A result of this was that the morale of the HJ was exceptionally high, and the relationship between the officers, NCOs and men was an informal one, based on mutual trust and respect.

In March 1944, the HJ was deemed ready for active service and was ordered to move to Caen in Normandy, where it was to form a part of Panzergruppe West, the German armoured reserve.

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SS-Brigadeführer Fritz Witt, commander of the Hitlerjugend division, receives a gift on his birthday, May 1944.

Throughout the spring of 1944, the division continued training exercises in the peaceful area around Caen, familiarising itself with the terrain. This was to prove invaluable in the months to come. On 27 May, Witt celebrated his 36th birthday and his recent promotion to SS-Brigadeführer. The peaceful 'holiday atmosphere', as one grenadier described it, was soon to be shattered.

At the beginning of June 1944, the division was declared ready for combat operations. The Division's tank strength at this time was 81 Panther ausf A / G and 104 Panzer IV ausf H / J tanks. The division was also equipped with Jagdpanzer IV/L70 tank destroyers, three prototype Wirbelwind flak vehicles, along with a number of 20mm, 37mm and 88mm flak guns, Hummel, Wespe and sIG 33 self-propelled guns and regular towed artillery pieces.

However, its tank destroyer unit, SS-Panzerjäger-Abteilung 12, was not ready for action and was understrength in Jagdpanzer IV.

Normandy Campaign

On 6 June 1944, the Western Allies launched Operation Overlord, the invasion of Normandy. The HJ, along with the 21.Panzer-Division, was the closest armoured unit to the landing beaches. Due to Hitler's authorisation being required to release the panzer units, the HJ was not ordered to the front until 1430 on 6 June. The division's advance to the areas near Sword and Juno Beaches was severely hampered by incessant allied Jabo (fighter-bomber) attacks. Forward elements of the HJ finally reached their assembly area near Evrecy at 2200 on 6 June.

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A Panzer IV ausf H, nicknamed Paula, of SS-Panzer-Regiment 12 goes into action near Caen, June 1944.

On 7 June, SS-Standartenführer Kurt Meyer's ("Panzermeyer") SS-Panzergrenadier-Regiment 25, along with the II./Abteilung from SS-Obersturmbannfuhrer Max Wunsche's SS-Panzer-Regiment 12, rebuffed a Canadian armoured attack, destroying 28 Canadian tanks and annihilating a company of the Nova Scotia Highlanders for the loss of only six men. Meyer set up his command post in the Abbey Ardennes, whose towers provided an excellent view of the contryside. His regiment was deployed near the villages of Authie and Buron, in positions covering the vital Carpiquet Aerodrome.

On 8 June, SS-Panzergrenadier-Regiment 26 under command of SS-Obersturmbannfuhrer Wilhelm Mohnke arrived and took up positions to the west of Meyer. Upon arrival, the regiment launched an attack towards Norrey-en-Bessin, capturing the vital village. The SS-Aufklärungs-Abteilung 12 (reconnaissance battalion) under SS-Sturmbannführer Gerhard Bremer deployed to the west of Mohnke's regiment, and by the evening of 8 June the division was in position to halt the Allied advance on Caen.

File:HJ-Norrey-en-Bessin.jpg

Exhausted grenadiers of Mohnke's SS-Panzergrenadier-Regiment 26 near Norrey-en-Bessin, Normandy, June 1944.

It is during this period that 18 Canadian prisoners of war from the Nova Scotia Highlanders were executed at the Abbey Ardennes by elements of the division. After the war Meyer would be tried for war crimes. Convicted and sentenced to death, his sentence was later commuted to life in prison. After being transferred from a Canadian prison to one in Werl, West Germany, he was released in 1954. After several ferocious counterattacks, the division resigned itself to defensive actions, infliciting heavy losses on the advancing British and Canadians.

On 14 June, a British naval barrage hit the divisional command post in Venoix, killing Witt and leaving the division without a commander. The thirty-three-year-old "Panzermeyer" was ordered to take command of the division, becoming the youngest divisional commander of either side during the war.

Over the next four weeks, the division managed to halt all Allied attempts to take Caen, despite the Allies' superior numbers and overwhelming air supremacy. The ferocity of the combat during this period was hard to fathom, with prisoners rarely being taken by either side (in this case also, Meyer was convicted of war crimes - namely of inciting his men not to take prisoners.) However, the division suffered immense losses, and in the first week of July 1944, Meyer ignored orders to hold the line north of Caen and withdrew the shattered remnants of his division south of the city. In the fighting from the day after D-Day until 9 July the division had lost 4,000 dead with a futher 8,000 wounded and missing.

The division was to have little respite though, and on 19 July took part in the defence against the Anglo-Canadian Operation Goodwood. Following this, the division was pulled out of the line and used to form the mobile reserve for I.SS-Panzerkorps. Rather than rest and refitting, the division found itself involved in constant fire-brigade actions. In early August, the division took part in defensive actions to halt two Allied operations, Totalize and Tractible. At the launch of Totalize, the sixty remaining panzers of the HJ were faced with over 600 tanks of the Canadian First Army. Despite these odds, the division managed to halt the offensive short of its objectives.

Hitlerjugend, reduced to a few thousand men and a handful of vehicles, now took part in operations to keep the Falaise Pocket open and to help trapped German forces to escape. During this period the Panzer regiment's commander, Max Wunsche, was captured by British forces. On 20 August, the scattered remnants of the division were pulled back behind the Seine River.

Withdrawal - Wacht Am Rhein

Hitlerjugend was given a brief respite, but received virtually no reinforcements or equipment. The division was soon thrown back into battle, and took part in the fighting withdrawal to the Franco-Belgian border. By September 1944, the division counted less than 2,000 men, without armour or heavy equipment. On 6 September, while on a reconnaissance mission, Meyer was captured by Belgian partisans. In the confusion of the withdrawal, the division was unable to undertake a rescue attempt. SS-Obersturmbannführer Hubert Meyer was placed in command of the division.

In November 1944, the division was pulled out of the line and sent to Neinburg in Germany, where it was to be reformed. The majority of the much-needed reinforcements were transferred Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine personnel, and the reformed division would never match the elite status it had boasted in the spring of 1944. Late in the month, Hubert Meyer was replaced by SS-Obersturmbannführer Hugo Kraas, and the division was attached to SS-Oberstgruppenführer Sepp Dietrich's 6.SS-Panzer-Armee, which was forming up for Operation Wacht Am Rhein (the Second Battle of the Ardennes, popularly known as the Battle of the Bulge), a large-scale offensive to recapture Antwerp and halt the Allied advance.

The operation opened on 16 December 1944. Kampfgruppe Peiper from the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler led the asault, breaking through the enemy lines. The HJ, which was to follow the Kampfgruppe and exploit the breakthrough, became bogged down in traffic jams caused by the 26.Volksgrenadier-Division. When the division reached the front, it was met with heavy resistance from American troops stationed on the Elsenborn Ridge. Despite several intense efforts, the division could not budge the American defenders. As a result, the division was ordered to swing left and follow the advance line of the remainder of the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler. American defenders prevented the division from reaching its objective, and after the destruction of Kampfgruppe Peiper, the advance of Dietrich's army altogether. Near the end of the year, the HJ was shifted south to take part in the efforts to capture Bastogne, and saw heavy fighting around the city. By 18 January 1945, the HJ, along with all the German forces, had been pushed back to its starting positions.

Hungary - Austria

On 20 January 1945, Dietrich's 6.SS-Panzer-Armee was ordered east to Hungary where it was to take part in an offensive to recapture the Hungarian oilfields and open the way to Budapest, where 45,000 men of the IX.SS-Gebirgskorps had been encircled.

While the division was in transit, the IV.SS-Panzerkorps launched several ill-fated relief operations. The HJ, alongside the LSSAH as a part of I.SS-Panzerkorps arrived in Hungary in early February 1945, only a few days before the city fell. The division was thrown into action against the Gran Bridgehead, a strong salient formed by the Soviets over the Danube near the town of Gran. The HJ and the LSSAH both fought well, and by the end of February the bridghead had been destroyed.

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Hitlerjugend panzergrenadiers pose for the camera. Gran, February 1945.

The division was next to take part in Operation Frühlingserwachen (Spring Awakening), the operation to retake the Hungarian oilfields. Hitler, desperate to keep the operation a secret, had ordered that no reconnaissance of the battlefield was allowed before the attack began. The attack got underway on 6 March 1945 in atrocious conditions. The spring thaw meant that the German attack was confined to a few narrow roads, and after initial successes, the offensive was aborted after a Soviet counterattack threatened to encircle the German forces. After the failure of "Frühlingserwachen", Hitler lost faith in the Waffen-SS and ordered that the honorary cuffbands issued to the divisions involved in the attack be returned. Outraged at the order, Dietrich refused to pass it on to his men.

In mid-March, a heavy Soviet counterattack near Stuhlweissenberg split Armeegruppe Balck in half and resulted in a general withdrawal towards Vienna. The HJ was involved in many desperate rearguard actions, and on 13 April fell back from Vienna. Withdrawing through Odenburg and Hirtenburg, the division reached Linz, Austria near the American lines. On 8 May 1945, 10,000 survivors of the division surrendered to the Americans near Enns. In a final act of defiance, the division refused to drape their vehicles with white flags, as the Americans had ordered.

War Crimes

When the division was first engaged in action in June 1944, there were several cases of atrocities being committed. On June 8, thirty-six Canadians were allegedly executed by Wilhelm Mohnke's SS-Panzergrenadier-Regiment 26.

Between June 7 and June 8 1944, Canadian prisoners were executed by elements of Kurt Meyer's SS-Panzergrenadier-Regiment 25 at the Abbey Ardennes south of Caen. As this was Meyer's command post, he, along with several subordinates, was charged with this crime after the war. The division also allegedly issued orders forbidding the taking of prisoners on several occasions during this period, the blame for which also was placed on Meyer.

File:12SSHJPOWAbused.jpg

A captured Panzergrenadier of the Hitlerjugend. In the ferocious fighting north of Caen, atrocities on both sides were commonplace.

The ferocity of the fighting near Carpiquet, Authie and Buron, and the political indoctrination and fanatacism of the young HJ grenadiers meant that atrocities were commonplace on both sides. The issuing of orders not to take prisoners in retaliation for a certain action by the enemy was a daily occurrence in both the German, Canadian and British commands.

After the war, Meyer was tried and condemned to death by a Canadian military court for collusion in the shooting of Canadian and British prisoners. On January 1946, his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment by Canadian Major General Christopher Vokes, who considered all evidence against him entirely circumstancial.

On September 7, 1954, with the support of several Canadian and British officers who had faced him in Normandy, he was released from prison.

Commanders

• SS-Brigadeführer Fritz Witt (24 June 1943 - 14 June 1944)
• SS-Brigadeführer Kurt Meyer (14 June 1944 - 6 Sep 1944)
• SS-Obersturmbannführer Hubert Meyer (6 Sep 1944 - 24 Oct 1944)
• SS-Brigadeführer Fritz Kraemer (24 Oct 1944 - 13 Nov 1944)
• SS-Brigadeführer Hugo Kraas (13 Nov 1944 - 8 May 1945)

Order of Battle

• Division Stab
• SS-Panzergrenadier Regiment 25
• SS-Panzergrenadier Regiment 26
• SS-Panzer Regiment 12
• SS-Panzer Artillerie Regiment 12
• SS-Kradschutzen-Regiment 12
• SS-Aufklarung-Abteilung 12
• SS-Kradschutzen-Regiment 12
• SS-Panzerjäger-Abteilung 12
• SS-Werfer-Abteilung 12
• SS-Flak-Abteilung 12
• SS-Pioneer-Abteilung 12
• SS-Panzer-Nachrichten-Abteilung 12
• SS-Instandsetzungs 12
• SS-Nachschub Truppen 12
• SS-Wirtschafts Battalion 12
• SS-Fuhrerbewerber Lehrgange
• SS-Kriegsberichter-Zug (mot) 12
• SS-Feldgendarmerie-Kompanie/Trupp 12
• SS-Feldpostamt (mot) 12
• SS-Sanitäts-Abteilung 12
• SS-Werfer-Abteilung 12

• List of German divisions in WWII

External links

• Hitler's Baby Division

• 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend entry at Axishistory.com