SS Panzer SS Pride - Eyewitness Panzer Crews - Barbarossa to Italy: Part 1 of 'SS Panzer SS Voices'

“We shot at the Russian tanks when they came at us out of the dust cloud . . . the T34 exploded like a rotten fruit . . . engine, turret and deck all going in different directions, with the crew torn apart likewise . . .”

Told by the men who fought in the tanks, with all the searing aggression and violence that they experienced . . . the shocking first hand stories of the SS panzer troops themselves. These are the crews of the Panzer IV, the Stug, the Panther, Jagdtiger, Tiger and King Tiger . . . hear the authentic voices of the gunners, commanders and drivers who fought in some of the deadliest battles in human history.

In 1962, German researchers conducted a series of interviews with former members of the Waffen SS Panzer troops who had fought in World War 2. He intended to probe their motivations and psychology, but found them unwilling to discuss these matters in depth.
The SS veterans were willing, however, to describe their combat experiences, and gave astonishing accounts of tank battles in Operation Barbarossa, Normandy, Italy, the Russian Front, the massive conflict at Kursk, the Ardennes and during the final desperate battles against the Soviets within the Reich and for Berlin itself.

These were men whose memories of the battles were still vivid, and were ready to share the physical details of combat – the explosive sights, sounds, and sensations of tank fighting, the weapons and tactics that they used, their triumphs and humiliations.

Told in ice-cold, clinical detail, with phenomenal drama and sense of crisis, these first-hand accounts stand out today as one of the most remarkable testimonies to the experience of tank warfare in WW2. They will fascinate anyone interested in tank combat, the Waffen SS and the use of armor from 1941 to 1945.

This is Book 1 in the series, with interviews covering tank battles in:
Operation Barbarossa (Panzer IV)
Onslaught in the East (Stug III)
Kursk (Tiger I)
Italy (Elefant and Panther)

The full set of interviews from Books 1 and 2 is available in the book 'SS Panzer SS Voices.'

This new edition of 'SS Panzer SS Pride' also features four eyewitness accounts from the Sprech History collection 'Hitler's Children - Spitting Fire' relating the combat of the 12th SS Panzer Division in Normandy after the D Day landings.