Panzers East and West

The German 10th SS Panzer Division from the Eastern Front to Normandy

Dieter Stenger

• Publisher: Stackpole Books
• Year: 2017
• eBook ISBN: 9780811765909
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: World War II
• Index: History

Organized and trained during 1943, the 10th SS Panzer Division saw its first action in the spring of 1944 during the relief of an encircled German army on the Eastern Front. Several months later, in response to the Allied invasion at Normandy, the division returned to the West in mid-June 1944. Here the division engaged in a series of armored attacks and counterattacks against British and American forces. The 10th SS briefly held off a few enemy thrusts but gradually had to fall back to Falaise, where the division escaped the Allied encirclement with no tanks and only a fraction of its men. The 10th SS Panzer Division next defended against the Allied parachute assault during Operation Market Garden in September 1944. Depleted and now a division in name only, the 10th SS fought in Alsace before Hitler sent it to the Eastern Front again. There, east of Berlin, the division participated in the final battles to enable the escape of German soldiers and civilians from Soviet captivity.

Table of contents

• Foreword
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Chapter 1 Organization and Training of the 10th SS Panzer Division: Dec 1942–March 1944
• Chapter 2 Commitment of the 10th SS Panzer Division in the East: March–June 1944
• Chapter 3 Normandy: 28 June–21 August 1944
• Chapter 4 Withdrawal of the 10th SS Panzer Division through Northern France and Belgium to the Meuse River: 21 August–5 September 1944
• Chapter 5 Holland: 6 September–18 November 1944
• Chapter 6 Commitment of the 10th SS on German Soil: 19 November–10 December 1944
• Chapter 7 Commitment of the 10th SS Panzer Division during Operation Wacht am Rhein and Northwind: 10 December 1944–February 1945
• Chapter 8 Return to the East: Demise of the 10th SS Panzer Division
• Epilogue
• Appendix A Georg von Frundsberg: 10th SS Panzer Division
• Appendix B Theoretical Table of Organization: SS Panzer Division 1943
• Appendix C Panzer Regiment Organization: 10th SS Panzer Regiment
• Appendix D Panzer Division Staff: 10th SS Panzer Division
• Appendix E Training Plan, Staff Company: 10th SS Panzer Assault Gun Battalion
• Appendix F Theoretical Table of Organization: SS Panzer Division 1944 (free organization)
• Appendix G Table of Organization: 10th SS Panzer Pioneer Battalion, 1 April 1944
• Appendix H Table of Organization: Soviet Divisional Strengths
• Appendix I Theoretical Table of Organization: SS Panzer Division 1945
• Appendix J World War II Rank Equivalents
• Appendix K Combat Vehicles
• Endnotes
• Selected Bibliography
• About the Author