Canadian Military History Volume 10 Issue 3 Article 4 2001 Combat Motivation and the Roots of Fanaticism: The 12th SS Panzer Division in Normandy Michael E. Sullivan Canadian War Museum Follow this and additional works at: https://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh Part of the Military History Commons Recommended Citation Sullivan, Michael E. "Combat Motivation and the Roots of Fanaticism: The 12th SS Panzer Division in Normandy." Canadian Military History 10, 3 (2001) This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Scholars Commons @ Laurier. It has been accepted for inclusion in Canadian Military History by an authorized editor of Scholars Commons @ Laurier. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Sullivan: Combat Motivation and the Roots of Fanaticism: The 12th SS Panzer Published by Scholars Commons @ Laurier, 2001 1 Canadian Military History, Vol. 10 [2001], Iss. 3, Art. 4 Combat Motivation and the Roots of Fanaticism The 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend in Nor111andy Michael E. Sullivan l"' Tar veterans generally retain a grudging the conscious or unconscious calculation by the VV respect towards their old enemy. combat soldier of the material and spiritual Statements like, "I hold no ill will against them," benefits and costs likely to be attached to various courses of action arising from his assigned or "They were only doing their jobs" are combat tasks. Hence motivation comprises the commonplace. However, no one makes these influences that bear on a soldier's choice of, statements about the 12th SS Panzer Division degree of commitment to, and persistence in Hitlerjugend. More often than not, the sentiment effecting, a certain course of action. 1 of Allied veterans towards the 12th SS is one of revulsion and hate. Even the Germans thought The task in this case is to try to determine what they were a particularly nasty bunch. Raised in influences bore on the 12th SS soldier's "choice 1943 from selected members of the Hitler Youth of, degree of commitment to, and persistence in who were born in 1926, the rank and file of the effecting" their course of action, both on and off 12th SS had been the first children to 'volunteer' the battlefield. for compulsory service in the Hitler Youth on his birthday in 1936. In the aftermath of The 12th SS inAction Stalingrad this priviledged cadre of 17 and 18 year-old Nazis was then targeted for a special ~ere is no doubt that the actions of the 12th division to be led by battle-hardened veterans ~ SS were viewed as unacceptable by their of the 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte opponents. An investigation by the Supreme Adolf Hitler (LAH). During the Normandy Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force campaign of 1944 the 12th SS gained an (SHAEF) Court of Inquiry determined that "the unenviable reputation for brutality and conduct of the 12th SS Panzer Division (Hitler­ fanaticism, much of that directed at the Jugend) presented a consistent pattern of Canadians who fought them first and met them brutality and ruthlessness." Significantly, this repeatedly throughout that summer. What view was also shared by the 12th SS's German follows here is an attempt to explain why the comrades. The SHAEF report stated that the 12th SS was so very different from the other 12th SS gained for itself "a most unsavory Axis divisions, even other SS ones, that the Allies reputation, even among the rest of the German faced in Europe. Armed Forces, [which] is evident from the fact that German prisoners taken, admit that it was Simply put, the main reason for the unique called the 'Murder Division. '" 2 A member of the (and abominable) actions of the 12th SS lay in Polish Army also recorded that the 12th SS had their combat motivation. The motivating factors a general reputation among the German troops of any soldier are numerous, complex, and never as being reckless and murders.3 Grenadier static. Anthony Kellett was the first to really focus George Mertens, a member of the 26th Panzer on the holistic and situational nature of combat Grenadier Regiment, one of the two infantry motivation, which he defined as: regiments of the 12th SS, claimed that he did ©Canadian Military History, Volume 10, Number 3, Summer 2001. pp.42-56. 43 https://scholars.wlu.ca/cmh/vol10/iss3/4 2 Sullivan: Combat Motivation and the Roots of Fanaticism: The 12th SS Panzer Soldiers from the 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend photographed during the early stages of the Normandy campaign. Atrocities commited by men from this unit led to it being referred to as "the murder division." not know that they had a bad reputation until might possibly be attributed to drugs. "9 Another he heard it in a prison camp. His reaction was member of the North Nova Scotia Highlanders "I could hardly believe it." In retrospect, though, who survived capture by the 12th SS stated: he believed that the label was deserved, and he also admitted that he heard the term "Murder They behaved like maniacs, firing their weapons Division" in his company.4 indiscriminately and acted as if they had been doped, their faces were flushed and they danced and jumped around in a very amazing manner. There is no doubt that the label of"Murder I was with a group of about l 0 men, some being Division" was entirely justified. Howard of my platoon and others from "A" company and Margolian documented the murder of 156 we were literally chased across a field, the Canadian prisoners of war at the hands of the Germans firing the sub machine guns at our 10 12th SS during the Normandy campaign. 5 In one heels and shouting and acting like Indians. instance, soldiers of the 12th SS shot at a group If their actions were not disturbing enough, of 40 Canadian prisoners in a field near the it seemed that the soldiers who were a part of Caen-Fontenayroad on 8 June 1944, killing 35.6 these atrocities were proud of their In another case, after shooting eight unarmed "accomplishments." For example, Unter­ Canadian prisoners in Authie on 7 June 1944, sturmjilhrer Karl-Walter Becker, a member of soldiers from the 12th SS pulled their bodies the reconnaissance battalion attached to the 12th onto the road and ran over the corpses with SS said: tanks. 7 Even simply being captured by the Hitler Youth was a deeply disturbing experience. Major I asked [Obersturmjiihrer] Palm who had J.D. Learmont of the North Nova Scotia committed this act [of shooting POWs] and was Highlanders described them as "wildly excited told that it had been Oberscharfiihrer Stun and and erratic."8 He noted that they "shouted and men of the M/C DR section. Stun had been screamed and behaved in an exceedingly particularly eager to distinguish himself by 11 disorderly manner. Their actions were such as committing this atrocity. 44 Published by Scholars Commons @ Laurier, 2001 3 Canadian Military History, Vol. 10 [2001], Iss. 3, Art. 4 Other members of the Wehrmacht also noted The 12th SS did not receive their reputation this arrogance among the 12th SS. A member for being fanatical solely because of their actions of the 271st Infantry Division stated that he ran against their prisoners. Rather, they gained the into members of the 12th SS who informed him label of fanatical also as a result of their actions that they had shot five or six Canadian POWs, during battle. The soldiers of the 12th SS were and that the "Canadians had apparently asked informed by their officers that they were "not to the Nazis not to shoot, but as Preining's give themselves up and must commit suicide if informant jocularly remarked 'a machine pistol there is no other choice left. "14 This order was fired by accident. '" 12 one of the so-called secret orders given to the 12th SS weeks before the invasion began. The There have been recent attempts made by authenticity of these orders has been disputed, revisionist historians, most notably Karl H. but there is considerable evidence that orders Theile, to place the actions of the 12th SS in a similar to these were given. What is clear is that different light. Theile describes the actions of the soldiers of the 12th SS internalized this the 12th SS as retaliation for actions of Canadian notion, along with the years of ideological soldiers on 25 June 1944 at Fontenay, although indoctrination that they were subject to, and no specific examples of Canadian atrocities were transferred these beliefs onto the battlefield. ss­ given. Theile also claimed that many of the Brigadejilhrer Kurt Meyer, who eventually alleged occurrences were "twisted, exaggerated became commander of the 12th SS, and who or simply made-up tales." This, of course, goes was later convicted by a Canadian court of war against every shred of evidence that can be crimes, once described a fanatic that he had uncovered. Theile's error is even more glaring observed in Russia: when it becomes evident that most of the atrocities of the 12th SS occurred in the first Bitter fighting is going on, especially on the right two weeks of the invasion, well before the date of the road. Here a young, spirited commissar given for the alleged Canadian atrocities. 13 is spurring his unit on again and again. It is not only his yelling which fires his men, but also his Two soldiers from 12th SS captured by the Canadians during the fighting for Buran, 7 July 1944. Though their war is finished, these wounded soldiers remain defiant as they glare at the camera while marching in step to the prisoner of war cage.