The 12th SS Panzer Division "Hitler Youth" is, without exaggeration, one of the most legendary divisions of the German army during the Second World War. Staffed below the usual draft age, which is why it is often called the "seventeen-year-old" division, it made a real splash during the Normandy campaign of 1944, fully recouping all the funds invested in it and earning recognition and respect from both its comrades and opponents. At the same time, the SS division "Hitler Youth" turned out to be almost the only SS division created after 1943 and not lost in the shadow of the "classic" SS divisions, such as "Leibstandart," "Das Reich," "Totenkopf" or "Viking."