Battles of the Waffen-SS: Hitler’s Fighting Elite, 1939-45

No military organisation has fought as well against such overwhelming odds as the Waffen-SS, but few have earned such an infamous reputation in the process. Waffen- SS soldiers embraced the concept of hardness, which meant that they showed no pity towards Germany's enemies. They were soldiers of destruction par excellence.
Battles of the Waffen SS is a detailed summary of the Waffen-SS's greatest battles between 1939 and 1945. Featured are how Das Reich Division conquered Yugoslavia almost single handedly, how the dreaded Totenkopf Division held out for 73 days against impossible odds in the Demyansk Pocket, how the foreign volunteer units halted the Red Army at Narva for six months, and much more. With the aid of 120 rarely seen photographs and 10 full-page maps, Battles of the Waffen SS tells the full, dramatic story of the Waffen-SS in action: the stunning victories, the savagery of the Eastern Front, the atrocities both on and off the battlefield, and the grim battles of attrition fought in the final two years of the war. This is the story of Hitler's Praetorian Guard at war.

Gordon Williamson is the author of, among others, The SS: Hitler’s Instrument of Terror, The Iron Cross: An Illustrated History 1813-1945, Aces of the Reich and Infantry Aces of the Reich. He lives in Scotland.