12th Hitlerjugend SS Panzer Division in Normandy cover art

12th Hitlerjugend SS Panzer Division in Normandy

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12th Hitlerjugend SS Panzer Division in Normandy

By: Tim Saunders, Richard Hone
Narrated by: Bruce Mann
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About this listen

Raised in 1943 with 17-year-olds from the Hitler Youth movement, and following the twin disasters of Stalingrad and "Tunisgrad", the Hitlerjugend Panzer Division emerged as the most effective German division fighting in the West. The core of the division was a cadre of offices and NCOs provided by Hitler's bodyguard division, the elite Leibstandarte, with the aim of producing a division of "equal value" to fight alongside them in I SS Panzer Corps.

During the fighting in Normandy, the Hitlerjugend proved to be implacable foes to both the British and the Canadians, repeatedly blunting Montgomery's offensives, fighting with skill and a degree of determination well beyond the norm. This they did from D+1 through to the final battle to escape from the Falaise Pocket, despite huge disadvantages, namely constant Allied air attack, highly destructive naval gunfire, and a chronic lack of combat supplies and replacements of men and equipment.

Written with the advantage of new materials from archives in the former Eastern Bloc, this book is no whitewash of a Waffen SS division and it does not shy away from confronting unpalatable facts or controversies.

©2021 Tim Saunders and Richard Hone (P)2021 Tantor
Europe Military Western Europe War
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What listeners say about 12th Hitlerjugend SS Panzer Division in Normandy

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Good content but gave up due to AWFUL narration…

The content of the book is great and an extremely interesting subject, and a must for anyone with an interest in the division, the Normandy campaign or WW2 in general. However, I’d recommend buying the book and reading it yourself, due to the awful narration. The narrator didn’t even sound human, even less human than a SatNav!!! The same monotonous, dull tone throughout which at times made me lose concentration and my mind would wander elsewhere. I made it, in terms of the Normandy campaign to 11 June before finally giving up. This needs to be recorded by another narrator as the current narration is really really bad.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Fulfilled

Enjoyed the content immensely, very knowledgeable in Normandy. It’s not the first time I had this narrator, but nevertheless I enjoyed the book.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Robotic reader which made it an interesting listen

Very detailed book. Unlike a book you can see any maps of the areas of conflict. Still a great listen. I got use to the narrator voice as the book when on. Don’t let it put you off.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

not enough small unit detail.

too much of a high level overview.
narrator sounds like a robot.
not enough small unit detail or personal accounts.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

great book

the voice sounded a bit like artificial inheritance, slightly robotic, non human. other than that, great book giving the Germans perspective

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Book Good / Voice Horrible

Brilliant Book, have enjoyed this book very much, the only gripe I have got is the person who read it, read it in the style of Stephen Hawking and after a while it got tired listening to his voice.

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3 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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interesting new story for me

very interesting and informative story which was a new insight into this part of WW2 history. i did find the narration hard work though as he sounded like a robot reading a menu at times I'm afraid

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Tried but couldnt stay with it

Was really looking forward to this especially as this time of year when we remember D-Day - the narrator absolutely destroyed this book for me - his voice sounds like AI and after three attempts and Chapter 3 I have given up - what were there thinking

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

better to buy the actual book

the book was of great interest to me however the bland monotone narration makes it unlistenable.
I have now ordered the actual book itself.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Was the narration a joke I didn’t understand? Maybe Someone lost a bet?

What a fantastic book, I wish I had read it. This audiobook is absolutely destroyed by the worst performance of any narrator I have ever heard. Ever. And I’ve been listening to audiobooks for years and have hundreds in my library. I honestly thought somebody had brought out a 1980s Speak and Spell machine to narrate this book. The chap has the strangest speaking style I have ever heard, he managed to speak for what seemed like hundreds of hours without changing the tone of his voice regardless of what action was taking place. I don’t blame him personally for this travesty of a reading. I’ve no idea who put him on this career path, arranged for him to narrate the book and then made the decision to let him continue doing so after the first 5 awful minutes of his unbelievably terrible style. That’s who I blame. The author must be absolutely distraught at the massacre of his well above average and well researched book. Somebody should be fired for this, even better fired at for this. If you do listen to this, and you really shouldn’t, mix it up by varying the speed of Mr Speak-and-Spell’s voice between 1, 1.2 and 2x the recorded speed. Listening at twice the recorded speed was my personal favourite; it was no easier to listen to but it did end faster, which was great. Buy it and read it. The author has done a great job, or at least he had done a great job until he presumably went along with the selection of Professor Stephen Hawking’s rejected voice synthesiser as the choice of reading style for his work.

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