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.

About the Author
Dieter Stenger is a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps. He has worked in the museum field for two decades and held positions at the Marine Corps Air-Ground Museum, the U.S. Naval Academy Museum, the National Museum of the Marine Corps, and the U.S. Army Center of Military History, where he serves as the Chief of Arms and Ordnance. He lives in Virginia.


Book Information
ISBN 9780811716277
Author Dieter Stenger
Format Hardback
Page Count 400
Imprint Stackpole Books
Publisher Stackpole Books
Weight(grams) 1179g
Dimensions(mm) 260mm * 214mm * 31mm