Hitler's Death's Head Division: SS Totenkopf Division [Paperback]

This book received four stars even though I was initially disappointed with it. The author seemed to over emphasized situations I cared little about and under emphasized the operational aspect of battle that I was looking for but by the end of the book I realized a lot was learned. And for the learning process the book was given four stars. I will warn people like myself that place importance on the tactical / operational aspects of the war to weigh carefully before buying this book or at the very least to lower your expectations.
The author spends as much time discussing Theodor Eicke, the CO of Totenkopf as he does the division until his death in Feb 1943 when he was shot down during reconnoitering the battlefield.

The story begins in the 1920s when Eicke becomes a card carrying member of the brown shirts, the SA and works his way up to a dedicated member of Himmler's SS force. He becomes the commander of the Dachau camp and the Totenkopf battalion becomes the prison guards of the camp network which was being expanded at a fast pace. Not a very noble start to an SS officer's career. The author spends a lot of time on these early years talking about the concentration camps and the evolution of turning Totenkopf into a full fledge SS division by the start of the war. Mr Butler also spends a lot of time discussing the modest involvement Totenkopf had in the French invasion of May / June 1940. He spends more time discussing how Hoepner and the other German generals despised Eicke and the SS for their fanatical views and poor leadership and would shun him concerning reinforcements and supplies as much as possible. While much time was given to this western arena, much less time was given to key campaigns in the east. Totenkopf played an important part in the Kursk offensive and the subsequent defensive in the Merla, Merchik River area near Kharkov as well as Kharkov itself but is given only 10 pages of coverage. The author's coverage of the Demyansk pocket was more involved than Kursk.
After the Kharkov 1943 campaign, battle coverage of Totenkopf moves to Krivoi Rog, Kirovograd and then to the Ostrov-Kovel area where Totenkopf is sent to support Busch's 4th Army during the Russian summer offensive, Operation Bagration. The coverage continues with the defense of Grodno, Siedlce, the attempted relief of Budapest garrison and the defense of Hungary in the closing months of the war. Much time was also spent on discussing the Horthy / Hungary affair of late 1944. The end for Totenkopf, like its beginning, was anything but noble. By mid March, the division, without food, equipment or panzers, surrendered to US forces after being pushed to the west by the Russian 9th Guard Tank Army. A few days later, Totenkopf was handed over to the Russians whose vengeance on the division must have been great.

Eicke and Himmler are discussed a lot. The rivalry between Wehrmacht and the Waffen-SS plays heavy in this story and how Himmler did everything he could to keep his SS and especially Totenkopf up to full strength and fully equipped. The war coverage of Totenkopf is only an overview and only snippets of detail is given which was the big disappointment. There are no maps and only a few photos. There are no Notes but there is a Bibliography which contains only secondary sources.
Though disappointed with the lack of battle details, the author does provide some insight into the controversial Eicke and the SS system and its rivalry with the army, the Demyansk pocket and the Horthy affair and for this the book is worth reading.

I found this book to be written very well. Many key figures were mentioned, while following a timeline that lead from the units creation and training, to the proving grounds on many battlefields. The authors writing style is nice to follow, it was easy losing track of time. There are plenty of books which can offer more detailed information, however, I would recommend this book to anyone seeking general knowledge on the unit, their leaders and operations.

Not much of a thorough review, but wanted to put in a good word.