1st SS Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler

The LSSAH provided the honour guard at several of the Nuremberg Rallies and in 1935 took part in the reoccupation of the Saarland. The Leibstandarte was also in the vanguard of the March into Austria as part of the Anschluss. The LSSAH then took part in the occupation of the Sudetenland. In March 1939, it was involved in the annexation of Bohemia and Moravia. Soon after this action, the LSSAH had several motorised components attached, including an armoured car platoon and a motorcycle unit, and was redesignated Infanterie-Regiment Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler (mot.).

During the initial stages of the Invasion of Poland, the LSSAH was attached to the 17.Infanterie-Division and tasked with providing flank protection for the southern pincer. The regiment was involved in several ferocious battles against Polish cavalry brigades attempting to hit the flanks of the German advance. At Pabianice, a town near todz, the LSSAH fought off elements of the Polish 28th Infantry Division and the Wołyska Cavalry Brigade in ferocious close combat. After the success at Pabianice, the LSSAH was shifted to the area near Warsaw and attached to the 4.Panzer-Division under Generaloberst Georg-Hans Reinhardt, where it saw action preventing encircled Polish units from escaping, and repelling several desperate attempts by other Polish troops to break through. The LSSAH had proved itself an effective fighting unit during the campaign, though several Heer Generals had reservations about the high casualties which the LSSAH and the SS-VT units had sustained in combat.

The regiment was shifted to the Dutch border for the launch of Fall Gelb, and was to form the vanguard of the ground advance into the Netherlands, tasked with capturing a vital bridge over the IJssel and linking up with the Fallschirmjäger of Generaloberst Kurt Student's airborne forces, the 7.Flieger-Division and the 22.Luftlande-Infanterie-Division. The Invasion of France and the Netherlands was launched on 10 May 1940. On that day, the LSSAH covered over 75 km, securing a crossing over the IJssel near Zutphen after discovering that their target bridge had been destroyed. Over the next four days' fighting, the LSSAH covered over 215km, and earned itself dubious fame by accidentally shooting at and seriously wounding Generaloberst Student near Amsterdam. After the surrender of the Netherlands on 14 May, the regiment was used to form part of the reserve for Army Group B.

After the British armoured counterattack at Arras, the LSSAH, along with the SS-Verfügungs-Division was moved to the front lines to hold the perimeter around Dunkirk and reduce the size of the pocket containing the encircled British Expeditionary Force and French forces. Near Wormhoudt, the LSSAH ignored Hitler's orders for the advance to halt and continued the attack, suppressing the British artillery positions on the Wattenberg Heights. During this battle the regiment suffered heavy casualties. After the attack, elements of LSSAH's II.Battalion, under the command of SS-Hauptsturmführer Wilhelm Mohnke, were mistakenly informed that their divisional commander Sepp Dietrich had been killed in the fighting. In what is known as the Wormhoudt massacre, about 80 British POWs of 2nd Battalion of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment were murdered in retaliation for the supposed death of Dietrich. Although it is unarguable that the massacre occurred, Mohnke's level of involvement is impossible to know, and as such he was never brought to trial to face the allegations (see [1]). The tragic events at Wormhoudt reveal how much the men of LSSAH were politically indoctrinated to form an excellent fighting machine and disregarded the established military code of conduct. The regiment ended the campaign on the coast near Dunkirk

After the conclusion of the Western campaign, the LSSAH was expanded to brigade size. Despite this, it retained the designation regiment. A Flak battalion and a StuG Batterie were among the formations added to the LSSAH. During the later months of 1940, the regiment trained in amphibious assaults in preparation for Operation Seelöwe. After the failure of the Battle of Britain and the cancellation of the operation, the LSSAH was shifted to Bulgaria in preparation for Operation Marita, part of the planned invasion of Greece and the Balkans. The Operation was launched on April 6 1941. The LSSAH was to follow the route of the 9.Panzer-Division, part of General der Panzertruppen Georg Stumme's XL.Panzer-Korps. The regiment crossed the border near Prilep and was soon deep in Greek territory.

Following the LSSAH's outstanding performance during Marita, Himmler ordered that it should be upgraded to divisional status. As such, the Regiment, already the size of a reinforced brigade, was redesignated SS-Division (mot.) Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler. Despite this, there was no time to refit the division to full divisional status before the launch of Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union, and so the new 'Division' remained the size of a reinforced brigade.

The LSSAH spent the remainder of 1942 refitting as a panzergrenadier division. Thanks to the efforts of the Reichsführer-SS, along with SS-Obergruppenführer Paul Hausser, the SS-Panzerkorps commander, the four SS panzergrenadier divisions (LSSAH, Wiking, Das Reich and Totenkopf were to be formed with a full regiment of tanks rather than only an Abteilung. This meant that the SS Panzergrenadier divisions were full-strength Panzer divisions in all but name. Also, the division received nine Tiger 1 tanks, and these were formed into 13.(schwere)Kompanie/SS-Panzer-Regiment 1. The division travelled back from the front, stopping at Innsbruck in Austria, where it disembarked. The division was re-equipped with vehicles and continued the journey by road, travelling across the Alps and into Northern Italy. The division arrived on the Po River Plain on 8 August 1943.

The LAH's most crucial role in Normandy would be the part it played against operation Goodwood. Launched 18 July, three strong British armoured divisions, with infantry support on their flanks, were to swing through the gap between Caen and the eastern heights. There they would have to get across the hills at Bourgibus and break through towards open ground. The operation was preceded by a three hour bombing assault by 2,500 aircraft, which knocked the German infantry senseless, rendered their MG-42's useless by the vibrations, and knocked out most of the Panzers on the ground. Immediately afterwards the British tanks came rumbling on and seized all their primary objectives. 2.Kp./SS-Panzerregiment 1, located by the woods near Garcelles, received orders to attack the British at Soliers. SS-Obersturmführer Malkomes drove in the direction of Bourgubus with his 13 Panthers and discovered 60 enemy tanks S-SE of the town. He attacked them, destroying 20, and took Soliers. Around 12:00 hours the entire Panther-Battalion, I./SS-Panzerregiment 1, 46 Panther, was engaged in combat with the 29th Tank Brigade of the 11th Armoured Division. The body of Leibstandarte was rushed to the front from Falaise, where it was in reserve. It immediately counterattacked around 17:00, together with 21. Panzerdivision, which halted the British offensive on the left front. The British withdrew to Caen, leaving behind 126 destroyed tanks. At first, 19 July seemed to bring a discontinuation of Goodwood, as only some individual tanks assaults were carried out. But by 13:00 the Brits charged again, having brought up reinforcements to continue the attack. They quickly overran the forward German units and pressed on hard, a wave of tanks spearheading the attack. But when the leading Sherman/Fireflies and Cromwells approached the hill at Bourgubus at 1600 hours, squad after squad was taken under fire and blown up; the Panthers of the Leibstandarte had taken up positions on the hill itself. Around 15:00 hours the first 12. SS-Pz. Div. HJ's elements arrived, which relieved the right front. The Brits failed to break out of their bridgehead, but Caen was now fully in their hands and their bridgehead had been expanded for 9 km. They had suffered the loss of 493 tanks, and 4,011 casualties. Despite this victory, in the face of complete Allied numerical superiority, 5 days later the Americans saw the chance to break out of their beachhead. The weakened German defense could not keep up with the savage battle of attrition as little or no reinforcements had arrived, supplies were shot up, and movement by day was made impossible. They stormed into the open, one column headed towards Avranches, and another column making an encircling movement towards St. L. Hitler, never allowing a retreat, remained true to his creed and, instead, ordered an assault to be made. Leibstandarte, together with 4 other SS-Panzer Divisions and 3 Wehrmacht Panzer Divisions went on the attack on 7 August after moving to the assembly areas on 5 and 6 August. SS-Panzerregiment 1 along with two Panzergrenadier-Battalion, one Pionierkompanie and the FlaK-Abt. were used. The weather wasn't suited for flying that day, so the attack went smoothly at first, despite the fact that the Allies knew the attack was coming. Das Reich managed to recapture Mortain, and a gepanzerte Kampguppe under Jochen Peiper managed to go as far Bourlopin, but was stopped by massive swarms of Allied aircraft. Another attempt was mounted the next day, but failed After that it was over with the campaign in Normandy; Leibstandarte got encircled by the Americans and British in what would be called the Falaise pocket, but by then the unit was reduced to several small Kampfgruppen. Hausser, commander of 7. Armee was told by von Kluge (commander in chief West, as successor to von Rundstedt) to withdraw II. SS-Panzerkorps (Hohenstauffen and Frundsberg), his motors and his administrative personnel from the pocket. The Führer had still not given orders to withdraw at this point, so it all depended on the will of the units themselves to get out. Leibstandarte withdrew from the pocket with Unterführers and Führers each taking the lead of a small Kampfgruppe and smashing through the ring, on 22 August, after which no combat ready tanks or artillery pieces were reported. The whole campaign caused some 5,000 casualties to the LSSAH.