Hitler's Elite: The SS 1939-45 (General Military) by Mcnab Chris

Author:Mcnab, Chris [Mcnab, Chris]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Hitler’s Elite: The SS 1939–45
ISBN: 9781472806451
Publisher: Osprey Publishing
Published: 2013-10-22T00:00:00+00:00

LEIBSTANDARTE

The war record of the Leibstandarte in 1943–44 perfectly illustrates the dire straits into which the Waffen-SS tumbled during the mid–late war years. In early 1943 the Leibstandarte was rushed back to the Eastern Front as Stalingrad fell and the whole military situation deteriorated. It formed part of I SS-Panzer Korps under Paul Hausser, tasked with preventing the city of Kharkov from falling to the Red Army. Outnumbered seven to one, Hausser refused to sacrifice his new corps just to satisfy another of Hitler’s ‘no-withdrawal’ orders, and on 15 February the city was abandoned. The capture of Kharkov had left the enemy exhausted, however, while the Germans began to regroup. The German counter-attack was launched on 23 February, and after three weeks of bitter fighting the Soviets were once again thrown out of the city; more than 20,000 enemy troops were killed or wounded and over 600 Soviet tanks destroyed. The ferocity of the fighting had cost the LSSAH about 4,500 killed; the former Red Square in the centre of Kharkov was renamed ‘Platz der Leibstandarte’ in honour of the division.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.