The Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler was the first significant unit of the Waffen-SS. It received armoured vehicles as early as 1940 and deployed them in the Balkans and as part of Operation Barbarossa in 1941. In 1942, it was reorganised as a tank division, equipped with Type III, IV and Tiger I tanks, and fought in Kharkov and Kursk. It was transferred to Italy in 1943 to disarm the Italian army, then returned to the East and received Panther tanks. After heavy fighting, it was transferred to Belgium in 1944 to combat the Allied landings and fought in Normandy and the Falaise pocket. It took part in the Battle of the Bulge with Peiper's Kampfgruppe and in 1945 in the final battles in Hungary before retreating to Austria.
