Soldiers of the Leibstandarte: SS-Brigadefuhrer Wilhelm Mohnke and 62 Soldiers of Hitler's Elite Division Book

Even today, some 60-plus years after World War II has ended, anyone with even a passing knowledge of that massive conflict has heard of the Leibstandarte. The Leibstandarte, which started out as Hitlers personal bodyguard, was considered the elite within the elite of the SS. Even before the war broke out in September 1939, the Leibstandarte had started to expand and take on more and more military duties in addition to its representational function in guarding the Führer at the Reich chancellery, at his mountain retreat in Austria or on his travels and parades. It participated in the occupation of the Sudetenland and then the rest of Czechoslovakia and the annexation of Austria. It started the war as a reinforced motorized rifle regiment and expanded almost exponentially during the conflict, eventually evolving into the 1. SS-Panzer-Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler division and providing much of the cadre for the I. SS-Panzer-Korps and the 12. SS-Panzer-Division Hitlerjugend.Read More