On 6 June 1944, the division, along with the
21st Panzer Division, were the closest Panzer divisions to the landing beaches but they were unable to move until ordered by the
Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW, armed forces high command). The division was ordered to the front at 14:30 hours on 6 June, over twelve hours after the first reports of the landings. Prior to this Field Marshal
Gerd von Rundstedt had ordered over half of the division to deal with a parachute landing on the coast near
Lisieux which was found to be dummies from
Operation Titanic. The division's advance to the areas near the British–Canadian landing beaches of
Sword and
Juno proceeded slowly due to Allied air attacks. The first units of the 12th SS reached their assembly area near
Evrecy at 22:00 hours on 6 June but the Panther battalion ran out of fuel east of the Orne River. According to Marc Milner, "[t]his was just the first example of sloppy staff work and command and control that characterized 12th SS Division's experience in the beachhead battles". At 10:00 hours on 7 June, the 25th SS Panzergrenadier Regiment, along with 50
Panzer IV tanks of the 12th SS Panzer Regiment, arrived and moved into position north-west of Caen. Supported by a battalion of artillery (3rd Battalion, 12th SS Panzer Regiment), this battle group was ordered to stop the Canadian advance and drive through to the coast, a few kilometres away. They failed to break through the Canadians around
Buron, a kilometre to the north. Meyer countermanded the divisional commander's order on his own initiative, feeling that objective unrealistic and hoped merely to stop the flow of Canadian units inland until the situation could be stabilized. The attack by the division was supposed to have been supported by the 21st Panzer Division but they could not disengage from fighting the British
3rd Infantry Division and were still at
Couvre. Casualties of the 25th SS Panzergrenadier Regiment amounted to about 300 men, while 15 tanks from the 12th SS Panzer Regiment were also destroyed. Late on 7 June, the 26th SS Panzergrenadier Regiment under command of SS-
Obersturmbannfuhrer Wilhelm Mohnke arrived on the battlefield. Meyer had pushed back one part of the Canadian advance but to the west, the
7th Canadian Infantry Brigade had occupied a group of small villages three kilometres into the German line. The 26th Panzergrenadier Regiment crossed behind Meyer's regiment and took post to the west. The 1st Battalion launched an attack towards
Norrey-en-Bessin, defended by the
Regina Rifles, 7th Canadian Infantry Brigade,
3rd Canadian Division. Their orders were to overrun the Canadians and force a deep wedge between them and the British to the west. No reconnaissance of the Canadian positions was done and the infantry met intense defensive fire from firmly established positions. The attack at 03:30 hours on 8 June had little initial success. The various companies in the attacking battalion failed to coordinate effectively and suffered many casualties. Facing Canadian artillery and the supporting heavy machine guns of the
Cameron Highlanders of Ottawa, the 1st Battalion of the 12th SS was forced to fall back. Despite their losses, the
Regina Rifles stood their ground. The Hitlerjugend division was criticized for performing inadequately in the opening days of the Normandy campaign, with the Canadian Brigadier, Harry Foster, later noting that "no use was made of the fact that the Reginas' flanks were exposed; instead, the enemy flung himself straight against the strongest points and utterly failed to exploit the undoubted weakness of his opponent's position". On the Canadian right, the 2nd Battalion attacked the
Royal Winnipeg Rifles defending the village of
Putot-en-Bessin at 06:30 hours. The battalion managed to break into the village and surround several companies, pushing the Winnipeg Rifles out of the village by 13:00 hours and inflicting 256 casualties – of which 175 were taken prisoner. Later that day, a counter-attack by the
Canadian Scottish Regiment, with artillery, tank and tank-destroyer support, re-took Putot with the SS giving up the struggle for the village and withdrawing around midnight. Oliver Haller concluded that "It is evident that the 12th SS was not capable of conducting successful offensive operations against prepared positions in Normandy. Artillery and anti-tank guns were the key to victory, and the Allies possessed large numbers of these effective weapons. All of the German assaults were checked and defeated in detail. The 3rd Canadian Division had won a decisive victory". The 3rd Canadian Division ceased major combat operations until July, with only one day of major operations, on 11 June, at the
Battle of Le Mesnil-Patry. This saw the 12th SS inflict many casualties on the
Queen's Own Rifles of Canada and the
1st Hussars (6th Armoured Regiment) which lost 51
Sherman tanks. Also on 11 June the
46th Royal Marine Commando assaulted
Rots. The official historian of
Le Régiment de la Chaudière, described the "ferocious battle" including hand-to-hand fighting and "smoldering" tanks, "from each blackened turret hangs the charred corpse of a machine gunner". The following two weeks was a period of relative quiet, as both sides were exhausted. What did not stop was the constant Allied artillery, naval bombardment and air attacks. Major operations for both sides began again in July, including
Operation Windsor and
Operation Charnwood. During Charnwood, the division was driven from its positions in Buron and nearby villages of Gruchy and Cussy and the divisional command post in the Ardenne Abbey, which had been occupied since before D-Day, was lost. Witt was killed in action by a
Royal Navy naval artillery barrage which hit the divisional command post at
Venoix on 14 June 1944 and Kurt Meyer was placed in command of the division. In August, the division was involved in the fighting around Falaise against the Polish
1st Armoured Division battlegroups who were trying to close the
Falaise Pocket.
Hitler wanted to use the division for
Operation Lüttich, but
Günther von Kluge declined for fear of an allied advance in this region. The 12th SS, along with several other German units and
panzer ace SS-
Oberscharführer Rudolf Roy who destroyed 26 Allied tanks, was instrumental in re-opening the corridor out of the pocket on 20 August, allowing an estimated 10,000 German soldiers to escape encirclement. During their retreat from France, members of the LSSAH and the Hitlerjugend division murdered 34 French civilians in the towns of
Tavaux and
Plomion. The units in the division that were not fit for combat were ordered to return to Germany on 8 September, leaving behind a small
Kampfgruppe attached to the
SS Division Das Reich. The division losses during the fighting in Normandy, in the three months from June to September, amounted to men, over 80 per cent of its tanks, 70 per cent of its armored vehicles, 60 per cent of its artillery and 50 per cent of its motor vehicles. ==Ardenne Abbey massacre==