Angelos Mansolas – författare
Visar alla böcker från författaren Angelos Mansolas. Handla med fri frakt och snabb leverans.
2 produkter
2 produkter
12.SS Panzer Division ‘Hitlerjugend’ in the Ardennes and Hungary
December 1944–May 1945
Inbunden, Engelska, 2026
316 kr
Skickas
Refitted and reorganized after the Normandy campaign, the 12.SS Panzer Division ‘Hitlerjugend’ participated in the Ardennes Offensive in December 1944. Tasked with covering the right flank of the offensive, the division fought hard, facing unexpectedly tough opposition from US forces. Despite repeated efforts and heavy losses, it never came close to a breakthrough. By the end of January 1945, when American reinforcements surged the front, the division had been pushed back to its starting positions. Next, in early March, the division took part in Operation Frühlingserwachen on the Eastern Front, an attempt to recapture the Hungarian oilfields. After initial success the advance was ground to a halt by increasing Soviet resistance. On 16 March the Soviets counterattacked, threatening to encircle the German forces. The 12.SS was involved in desperate rearguard fighting until driven into full-scale retreat towards Vienna. On 8 May 1945 its 10,000 survivors surrendered to the US forces. Proud and defiant to the bitter end, they refused to raise white flags, ignoring orders to the contrary, and marched into captivity in perfect formation as if on parade, with their vehicles bearing their national flags.
336 kr
Skickas inom 3-6 vardagar
In early 1944, two Allied armies were poised to launch a massive assault against German forces in central Italy to open the way north to Rome. Obstructing them was the Gustav Line: the most formidably constructed defensive line the Western Allies would ever come up against. There were three routes of attack to choose from. The fastest one passed directly through the Liri valley, but it demanded the perilous fording of the Rapido River. The second possible route involved outflanking the Gustav Line to the east, but to do so the Allies would need to capture innumerable rough peaks and ridges along the massif on terrain that favoured the defenders. The third and final option was to breach the enemy's defences directly in front of the town of Cassino, crowned with its iconic medieval monastery; it would mean engaging in costly house-to-house fighting until the very last of the determined German paratroopers had been killed or captured. The Allied commanders decided to try all three options. None of them were easy, and all proved deadly.