12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend

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12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend


The Waffen SS "fighting" SS was formed early in World War 2 based upon the para-military SS schutzstaffel or protection squads (organisations) that were already in existence ,and grew rapidly in size.
On the 20th july 1943 at Antwerp , cadres of the 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler ( Adolf Hitler's life guards) were brought together with personnel of the Hitlerjugend leadership schools in a new panzer division that was ,along with additional Leibstandarte forces , to form 1 SS Panzer Corps .
On the 21st october Hitler ordered that the corps should consist of 2 panzer divisions , not one , and the following day the new division was redesignated 12th ss panzer division "Hitlerjugend".
The 12th SS panzer division had no precedent in the German army . most of the officers and NCO's were picked from able veterans of the leibstandarte on the eastern front and these seasoned men were given the responsibility of training the young recruits .
Their methods were unorthodox ,in order to prepare them for battle the youths were subjected to hunger, deprivation , and exposure to live bullet and shell attacks .
Inevitably there were casualities , yet the troops came to war fully battle hardened and eager to fight to the death .The division's rank and file constituted the new blood of Nazism , boys in the Hitler youth were introduced to doctrine and embraced it totally .Imbued with the romance of the germanic warrior , the soldiers of the Hitlerjugend were given the chance of ultimate glory death in defence of the Fatherland

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