Cruel Hunters - SS-Sonderkommando Dirlewanger: Hitler's Most Notorious Anti-Partisan Unit

The Dirlewanger Battalion, also known as "Sonderkommando (special commando) Dirlewanger" was perhaps the most little understood, but at the same time the most notorious, German SS anti-partisan unit in World war II. Formed as a battalion of convicted poachers in 1940, the unit operated in Poland until 1942, guarding Jews in forced labor camps and making life miserable for Poles in Lublin and Cracow. From there Dirlewanger spent two years combating partisans in central Russia, giving no quarter and expecting none. The end of the war saw the unit, now a division in size and part of the Waffen SS, fighting for its life south of Berlin against the Soviet Army. This unit represents the madness that was the inferno of the Eastern Front. "The Cruel Hunters" must be considered the most definitive book available on Dirlewanger's unit.

French Maclean. 303 pp. with index, appendices, and photos. Hardback.