Germany's I SS Panzer Corps: Defensive armored operations in France, June-September 1944

In this doctoral dissertation, the author asserts that I SS Panzer Corps, to a great degree, provided the key to the stalwart German defense of France and the subsequent battles in northwest Europe during the summer of 1944. It is the first work to focus upon this particular corps of the Waffen-SS as a formation and as an integral part of the German defense of the West. In this combat history the author explores chain of command problems, I SS Panzer Corps' role in the defense of France, its tactical armored defensive operations and armored counterattacks, the problems faced by I SS Panzer Corps in securing supplies, reinforcements, and refreshment for battle-weary units under its command, the command and control of the Waffen-SS and Army units comprising I SS Panzer Corps' combat elements with particular emphasis of the armored Kampfgruppen (battlegroups) of the Waffen-SS, and the evaluation of the leadership abilities of I SS Panzer Corps' combat commanders.;The author's unpublished sources include captured German military documents on microfilm housed in the United States National Archives in Washington, DC, including war diaries and battle reports. The United States Army Military History Institute, Carlisle Barracks, PA and the National Archives of Canada, Ottawa, Canada, provided a number of post-war interrogations of the major German commanders in the Normandy battle. The Berlin Document Center in Berlin, Germany provided the file of the Corps' commander Sepp Dietrich.;Among the published sources cited by the author are the war diary of the German Supreme Command's Operations Staff (Oberkommando der Wehrmacht/Wehrmachtfuehrungsstab) and a wealth of published US Army interrogations of the leading German officers. In addition, the author cites from a broad range of scholarly works on the war in northwest Europe.