Text in French.The first of a three-volume, richly illustrated study of the German armored unit. The author Frédéric Deprun, has devoted more than ten years to studying meticulously this armored unit’s engagements in the Norman bocage. The first part deals with the unit re-forming in the Arras area while waiting for D-Day then guides the reader through the murderous fighting at Caumont-l’Evanté, Cahagnes, Cheux,then May-sur-Orne in June and July 1944. In the second volume, an account is given of the Panzer unit’s inability to contain the Allied offensive to the south of Saint-Lô at the end of July 1944, then the attack at Mortain up until the moment when the men in the unit with the Trident were encircled in the Chambois-Argentancauldron. The three volumes are illustrated with 800 unpublished photographs and more than 60 maps, guide the reader through the host of eyewitness accounts along the 2.Panzer-Division’s tragic route through the Calvados, until it crossed the River Seine.