O'Brien, James Raise the Flag!

The 18th Waffen SS Panzergrenadier Division "Horst Wessel"

The division was formed as part of the expansion of the Waffen-SS in 1944 and was based on Hitler's policy of divide and rule, which he even applied among his closest confidants. It was Hitler himself who made the decision that the division should be staffed with volunteers from the Sturmabteilung (SA) and bear the name of SA martyr Horst Wessel, knowing full well that this would be anathema to Heinrich Himmler, the head of the SS. Virtually no volunteers came forward, so the division was filled with ethnic Germans from the Hungarian-Yugoslav border regions, built around the 1st SS Motorised Infantry Brigade, a notorious anti-partisan unit. The history of the division offers a new perspective on the war in the East, precisely because the unit was not celebrated and was not famous. Its equipment and training were inadequate. The assault guns intended for the tank battalion were assigned to the 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend, and the tank destroyer battalion was trained with Hetzer tank destroyers but received the Stug III assault guns, which were unfamiliar to it, on the eve of battle. For most of the war, the division conducted a fighting retreat until it finally surrendered in Czechoslovakia. Through meticulous research in primary sources, James O'Brien provides important new insights into the war on the Eastern Front.