The emergence of the German youths of the12th SS Panzer Division 'Hitlerjugend' onto the Normandy battlefields in 1944 initially caused consternation in the Allied ranks. Who were these 15 to 17 year-old Hitler Youth soldiers, why were they so fanatical, and how could they be cleanly defeated? The Allied mood turned to bitterness and hatred as the brutal cunning and sheer ruthlessness of the boy soldiers and their adult leaders became clear.

This book assembles a range of astonishing eyewitness testimony to the ferocious combat between Hitler Youth panzer troops, snipers and infantry against British and Canadian forces after D-Day.

There are the disturbing combat experiences of surviving 12th SS Panzer fighters themselves, recorded after the war; eyewitness accounts from Allied soldiers who fought tank-to-tank and hand-to-hand against these opponents in the hedgerows, fields and streets of Normandy; and accounts too from terrified French civilians caught up in the firefights.

The accounts featured are:

The Tank Destroyer (Jagdpanzer IV)

The Bocage Ambush (British Sergeant)

The Battle for the Bunkers (12th SS Panthers)

The Flail Tanks (French Civilian)

The Panzerfaust Fighters (Hitlerjugend Panzergrenadiers)

The Sniper (Canadian Captain)

The War Crimes (12th SS Panzer Radio Operator)

Panthers in the Smoke (British Cromwell Commander)

Thunderbolts, Typhoons and Flak (12th Panzer Flak Unit)

These are graphic and often shocking accounts of one of the strangest phases of the second world war in the west, and one that left a dreadful mark on so many who were involved in it.

Sprech History is an independent researcher and publisher of eyewitness testimonies to armed conflict in the 20th century.