"The area around the ancient city of Caen will have a special temptation for enemy attacks!" The terrain around Caen, especially to the north and northwest of the city, is ideal for tank combat. After a successful landing on the Normandy coast, Caen will turn into a major battlefield. Therefore, he deployed the 12th SS Panzer Division in the area between the mouth of the Orne and the Seine, and placed most of his combat forces northwest and west of Caen.

Everything is ready, and the 12th SS Panzer Division awaits this upcoming battle. The soldiers continued to train while strengthening their defenses. In order to avoid damage from air raids, they dug out shelters for tanks and various vehicles. Just one day before the landing, the division completed its pre-battle preparations west of Caen.

The 12th SS Panzer Division had more than 20,000 soldiers in the Normandy area. Although the division's armored units are lacking, the infantry is very well armed (infantry light weapons are: kar98k rifles, G43 semi-automatic rifles, STG-44 assault rifles, MG-42 general-purpose machine guns, MP-40 submachine guns, M24/43 wooden-handled grenades, "Iron Fist" 30 anti-tank grenade projectiles, "Tank Killer" rocket launchers, etc.), RPGs now have no hunting suits, because of Allied air raids, these weapons are not convenient to deliver to the Normandy area.

After 9 months of intensive combat training, the morale of the officers and men was high and they were confident in the upcoming battle. Just before the Allies launched the largest amphibious landing in history, Team Leader (the equivalent of Wehrmacht Private 1st Class) Jocken Rekoff wrote in his diary:

"Everyone is waiting for the expected Allied landing. We all realize that the decisive battle is about to begin. We're all looking forward to our first fight. The Allies are planning to wipe out our division, the one they call the 'Cream Kids Division'.

But we are not afraid of them at all. Sometimes the thought of the upcoming battle makes our blood boil. Although we were at a disadvantage, we believed in our battle-hardened commanders, and when they saw them shooting with us in the mud with bazookas, machine guns, they felt very confident. What really scares us is the Allied bombers that 'buzz' over our heads and drop tons of bombs."

A communications officer, Walter Kruger, Captain of the 2nd Commando Group (equivalent to a Wehrmacht major), also had confidence in the 12th SS Panzer Division:

"Not only are they well trained. They are also very disciplined and have a strong fighting will." Like most officers, he realized that the tide of the war in northern France depended heavily on the performance of several armoured divisions, including the 12th SS Panzer Division.

On the evening of June 5th, when the phone rang. The commander of the 12th SS Panzer Division, the commander of the Frieze-Witt Brigade, and the officers of his staff were sitting by the fireplace in a house in the town of Tyrilles. Witte learned from the phone that Allied paratroopers had appeared in the rear of the Normandy coastal defense. At the same time, the report also states:

"The enemy's air force is active . But the sea was calm."

At about 1:30 a.m. on June 6, Kurt Meyer was woken up. The Allies may really be on the offensive. Less than an hour later, the units of the 12th SS Panzer Division were alerted. The leader of the 26th Regiment, Oswald Beck, described:

In the early hours of the 6th, Cliff Squad Leader II (equivalent to Wehrmacht Corporal II) burst into our room and shouted: "Follow me, boys, get out, get out!" The enemy has landed."

The messenger on duty ran in front of us, shouting as he ran, the Americans and the British landed . By 3 we had everything ready. But then the order came, let's go back to the barracks and wait for further instructions."

Just a few days before the Allied landing, the General Command of the Western Front assigned the 12th SS Panzer Division to the command of Army Group B. Although each unit of the 12th SS Panzer Division was ready for battle in its own alert area, the General Command of the Western Front did not give the 12SS Panzer Division and its instructors the right to move freely in the face of various chaotic and contradictory alarms.

How could Li Mo let them go out in broad daylight to be bombed by the Allies, it was absolutely impossible, an armored division without the cover of the air force was a dish, Li Mo's intentions were certainly not something that these children could understand, as long as they could faithfully carry out the order.

Even when the Allies began to land on June 30, the General Command of the Western Front still refused to allow the Panzer Division to take free action. But they tacitly agreed to their approach to the battlefield. According to the memories of the 12SS soldiers at that time:

"All day on June 6, the 12SS Panzer Division was in place without moving a single step. In the evening, the order came, and the order of the General Headquarters of the Western Front was to let them attack the Allied paratroopers in front of them.

The tank column of the 12th SS Panzer Division had to make its way through the narrow and crowded roads of Normandy under the cover of night. Then the forward troops exchanged fire with the Allied paratroopers, and the 12SS tanks quickly went up to support, but fortunately, the night was good at night, and the visibility was okay, after all, it was a full moon!

The Allied paratroopers were indeed elite, but they lacked heavy weapons. Under the combined attack of our armored divisions and infantry, the Allied paratroopers suffered heavy casualties. Many Allied paratroopers were either killed or taken prisoner, and some took advantage of the chaos to escape to the beachhead.

As the troops defending the beachhead were also flanking the Allied paratroopers. The whole space area was full of gunfire, explosions and shouts, and the night gave us good protection, and we didn't let those damn Allied planes make trouble, and the result was that a few of our divisions wiped out the three elite Allied paratrooper divisions in one night, and only a few of them slipped through the net."

Before dawn the next day, the 12SS Panzer Division received an order to retreat to Caen. They first arrived southwest of Caen. [,！ ] to. During the afternoon march, the 12th Panzer Division was constantly attacked by Allied aircraft. These attacks disrupted their marching columns and thus slowed down the advance considerably.

Captain of the 3rd Platoon of the 1st Platoon, 13th Company, 25th Regiment Martin Bessel (equivalent to First Rank Corporal of the Wehrmacht), said: "We have encountered great obstacles in our advance. Allied air attacks bring death, terror and chaos everywhere".

Their regimental commander "Armored Meyer" jumped out just in time before a bomb blew up his command vehicle. Meyer himself described it: "The march to Caen was a journey to death. A group of 'Spitfires' began to attack from the back of our column. Their rockets and machine guns took down many of us like scythes to mow grass .

A soldier was lying on the road, the bullet broke his artery, blood spurted out of his throat like mist, and it didn't take long for him to die in my arms. At the same time, the bomb industry was also detonated, and for a time the flames soared into the sky, and the fragments were scattered. But within a few minutes of the air raids, the roads were cleared. We can't stop, we have to move forward! "

…… (To be continued)

PS: Acknowledgements:

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