SS: Steel Rain: Waffen-SS Panzer Battles In The West 1944-45 - Tim Ripley

If you don't know much about the operations of the SS in the Western theater this is a good starting point. If you've done a lot of background reading then this is probably one you can skip.  There are a lot of great photos and you can get a good feel for the kind of life that a front line soldier lived but the operational and tactical histories have been covered elsewhere in better detail.

There is a lot of controversy about the SS in this period as the SS was undergoing an expansion based on Hitler's directives. The ranks were being expanded through the drafting of Wehrmacht soldiers and nationalities other than Germans, contrary to the earlier requirements for SS soldiers. The book adds no new light on the issue but does touch on it briefly.

The book has sixteen chapters and a number of appendices which are, again, valuable in a general sense. This is the depth of detail you need for operational and strategic games but not necessarily detailed enough for SOTR1949 engagements. Topics covered include:

• Battle Group Peiper
• Waffen SS - Panzer Elite (Division status in 1944)
• Invasion Front
• Carnage at Caen
• Villers-Bocage
• Panzer Inferno
• "Make Peace You Fools" (The Odon Line)
• Blunting Goodwood
• Death or Glory (Cobra/Mortain)
• Death of the Hitler Youth (Operation Totalize)
• Falaise Kessel
• Flesh Against Steel  (Arnhem)
• Sixth Panzer Army (Ardennes Prep)
• Into the Ardennes
• Death Ride (Post-Ardennes)
• Last Actions

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Kampfgruppe Cottrell   | Registered | 2008-07-23 00:52:48 Be sure to pick up the Eastern volume as it is just as informative as this one. Brian

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