III. Germanic SS Panzer-Korps ― The History of Himmler's Favourite SS-Panzer-Korps, 1943-1945: Volume 2: From the Baltics to the Final Apocalypse in Berlin 1945

Description

“…an impressive collection of information about the III SS Panzer Corps. Pair this with Volume I for a comprehensive look at the soldiers within the SS.” -Historical Miniatures Gaming Society Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler regarded III. (Germanic) SS-Panzer-Korps under SSObergruppenführer Felix Steiner as his favourite unit and Steiner as his favourite general of the Waffen-SS. III. SS-Panzer-Korps was intended to ideologically unite SS volunteers from Denmark, Norway, The Netherlands, Finland, Sweden, Belgium and Switzerland into a Germanic brotherhood – to politically serve Himmler´s plan for a Greater Germanic Empire and the colonisation in the East. Volume 2 covers the battles against the Red Army in the Baltic states, Pomerania and BrandenburgBerlin in 1944 and 1945; including the retreat from Estonia in autumn 1944, the violent positional battles in Courland in 1944-1945, the frantic fighting in Pomerania, and last but not least, the desperate battles of defeat in Berlin in 1945. In addition to previously unpublished photographs, this volume contains a wealth of unique eyewitness accounts culled from decades of interviews and correspondence with Waffen-SS veterans, as well as detailed summaries of armoured corps operations, short biographies of important personalities, statistics and information about German and Soviet tanks and weaponry, in addition to coverage of lesser-known SS units, such as SS-Panzer-Abteilung 11 “Hermann von Salza” and schwere SS-Panzer-Abteilung 503. This content is supplemented by essays on key aspects on the Waffen-SS contributed by distinguished Scandinavian academic researchers on the Second World War as Professor Dr. Niels Bo Poulsen, Head of the Department of Strategy and War Studies at the Royal Danish Defence College in Copenhagen; Associate Professor Dr. Sigurd Sörlie at the Norwegian Institute for Defence Studies in Oslo (Norway) and Professor Dr. Lars Westerlund, former researcher at the Finnish National Archives in Helsinki. The foreword for both Volume 1 and 2 has been written by Jens Westemeier, PhD, University of Aachen with the Institute for History, Theory and Ethics in Medicine. Review: Worthwhile purchase - Well illustrated. Reliable publisher doesn’t put out junk. Review: Outstanding Work About Himmler's Favorite Volunteer SS Panzer Corps - I recently received my copy of Volume 2 of "III. Germanic SS Panzer-Korps" by Lennart Westberg, Petter Kjellander and Geir Brenden, and I could not have been any more pleased. This is a massive, magisterial book that even surpasses the high academic standards of Volume 1. Picking up where Volume 1 left off, Volume 2 covers the period in this corps' brief history from its engagement in the Baltic Nations, the giant retreat and delaying battles, the fighting along the Oder River defense line, and finally the crucial role it played in the apocalyptic Battle of Berlin in April 1945. Displaying superb scholarship and attention to detail throughout, the authors not only provide in-depth coverage of the many important battles fought by the corps, corps troops and SS divisions, but provide a wealth of detail about the post-war fates of many of the corps' key leaders, such as Felix Steiner and Juergen Wagner, as well as the actions of their men (especially Estonians) who refused to surrender and continued their struggle against the USSR for several years after the war. The Battle of Berlin receives its share of attention, and the author's description of the city immediately after the war ended is heart-rending but faithfully detailed. This book pulls no punches - it does not romanticize the Waffen-SS as some works do, but describes several of the war crimes committed by some of Steiner's men during the early phase of the war in the East. It also contains a section describing the controversy surrounding many of the corps' volunteers when they returned home after the war, especially in Norway, which provided thousands of recruits for the 11th SS Panzergrenadier Division "Nordland." Heavily endnoted and with a 15 page long bibliography, profusely illustrated and with top-notch maps, this concluding volume raises the bar on scholarship of the Third Reich in general and the Waffen-SS in particular, and will become a standard reference volume for years to come. I cannot recommend this book and Volume 1 more highly. Buy a copy now before it goes out of print!