The regiments of the 2nd SS Panzer Division "Das Reich" were, along with the "Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler," the senior units of the Waffen-SS. While not as closely linked to atrocities as some other branches of the SS, they were a hard lot, and spent much of the war on the Eastern Front, where the fighting was especially merciless. June 6, 1944 found the division refitting at Montauban in southwestern France.
Ordered to proceed to Normandy to...