The corps played a major role in the halting of the British Epsom and Goodwood operations, and the 17th SS Panzergrenadier and Panzer Lehr Divisions bitterly contested the American advance in the bocage country near Saint-Lô.Īfter the launch of the American Operation Cobra, which decimated the Panzer Lehr, the Corps was ordered to take part in Operation Lüttich, the abortive counter-offensive towards Avranches. The Tigers of the corps' 101st SS Heavy Panzer Battalion distinguished themselves during the fighting defeating a British armoured breakthrough near the village of Villers-Bocage. The corps was tasked with holding the area of Caen and saw heavy fighting around the villages of Authie, Buron and the airport at Carpiquet. The Hitlerjugend engaged British and Canadian troops to the north of Caen on 8 June. With the launch of Operation Overlord and the allied invasion of France on 6 June 1944, the corps was ordered to Falaise.
During this time, the corps was granted the honorary title Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler. The corps was to form a part of General Leo Geyr von Schweppenburg's Panzer Group West, the Western theatre's armoured reserve. In April 1944, the corps was moved to Septeuil, to the west of Paris, where it was assigned the 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler, 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend, Panzer-Lehr-Division and the 17th SS Panzergrenadier Division Götz von Berlichingen. Operational history Western Front: Normandy By December 1943, the Corps was fully formed and deemed ready for action, and its HQ was set up in Brussels. After the completion of this, the Corps continued its training, being sporadically engaged in anti- partisan operations in northern Italy. In August 1943, the corps was transferred to Meran in Italy, where it took part in operations to disarm Italian troops. The Leibstandarte division's symbol was a skeleton key, in honour of Dietrich ( Dietrich is German for skeleton key or lock pick), and it was retained and modified to serve as the Corps' symbol. SS-Obergruppenführer Josef "Sepp" Dietrich, previously in charge of the 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler, was the corps' first commander.
The formation resulted in SS- Obergruppenführer Paul Hausser's existing (unnumbered) SS Panzer Corps being renamed to II SS Panzer Corps. The corps was raised on 26 July 1943 in Berlin-Lichterfeld, with initial mustering taking place on the Truppenübungsplatz at Beverloo, in occupied Belgium.