The Defeat and Attrition of the 12. SS-Panzer-Division “Hitlerjugend” (Hardback)
Volume II: Operations Epsom, Windsor and Charnwood, 11 June-12 July, 1944
Imprint: Casemate Publishers
Pages: 288
Illustrations: 40 photographs and maps
ISBN: 9781636243986
Published: 15th November 2025
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Following the Normandy landings, Rommel rushed Heeresgruppe B reserves towards the coast in order to crush the bridgehead and drive the Allied forces back into the sea. One of these armored reserves was the newly created 12. SS-Panzer-Division Hitlerjugend. Extremely well equipped and at near full strength by mid-1944 standards, it was seen as an extremely capable formation. As Allied forces flooded inland from the beaches, 12. SS-Panzer-Division attempted to capture and hold the battlefield initiative. However, despite this German armoured division’s best efforts, it would be bludgeoned and driven back in a series of offensive set-piece operations by the British Second Army, supported by massive artillery programs and RAF air strikes. As a result, the division failed to succeed in its new defensive role, and was slowly weakened by attrition, reducing its combat arms regiments to a weakened Kampfgruppe by mid-July.
This volume focuses on the fighting between 11 June and 12 July: the Cristot triangle; the Parc de Boislonde; Fontenay-le-Pesnel; Operation Epsom and the main events of the Battle of the Odon; Operation Windsor and the attack on Carpiquet airfield; and finally the massive Anglo-Canadian assault on Caen, Operation Charnwood. A detailed set of appendices will analyze German personnel, equipment, and armored losses during the battles, and losses inflicted on the Allies.
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About Arthur W Gullachsen
Captain Arthur W. Gullachsen is the author of four books, as well as being a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and a professor in the RMC History Department at the Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston, Ontario. He is an alumni of the University of Western Ontario and graduated with a PhD in history in 2016. He has published articles online on the Canadian Army with the Canadian Military History Journal and has provided professional development material for the US Army on the Normandy campaign. He has previously published An Army of Never-Ending Strength: Reinforcing the Canadian Army in North-West Europe 1944–1945.After joining the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) in late 2006, he gained acceptance into the PhD program in history at Western University in London, Ontario, graduating in 2016. A Second World War specialist, Captain Gullachsen’s areas of expertise include the study of the replacement of equipment and personnel losses as well as German armored forces during the late war period. He is also interested in twentieth-century airpower and seapower. He published Bloody Verrières, Volumes I and II with Casemate Publishers (2022 and 2023).