On 11th June 1944 at Point 103 the Regiment , with the 6th Battalion Green Howards was engaged in action against the 12th Panzer Reconnaissance Battalion, commanded by SS Major Gerhard Bremer and Panthers of the 2nd Company, commanded by SS Lt. Helmet Gaede.

On 26th June 1944 at Tessel, the beginning of Operation Epsom, the Regiment and infantry, the 1st Battalion Tyneside Scottish, met head-on with elements of the German Kampfgruppe (Battlegroup) - namely the 12th Panzer Regiment commanded by Max Wunsche who was counterattacking from Rauray in the same area. The right flank of the attack was protected by the 12th Battalion King's Royal Rifle Corps and the 24th Lancers. The German unit comprised Wunsche's Panthers and a few men of the 12th Panzer Reconnaissance Battalion.

The 12th SS Panzer Reconnaissance Battalion and the 2nd Panzer Company were part of the 12th SS Panzer Regiment, which was the Regiment of the 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend.

The 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend was formed in the main from members of the Hitler Youth born in the first half of the year 1926 and were all volunteers, highly doctrinated in Nazi thinking. It was initially formed on 1st June 1943 as a Panzer Grenadier Division Hitlerjugend but was amended on 30th October to 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend. ( The 1st SS - Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler's bodyguard was formed in 1933 and the last XLV in 1945).

To those who confronted the SS, the letters were synonymous with brutality and dreadful atrocities.

It was inevitable that the 4th/7th who were confronted by the 12th SS would be subject to their extreme behavior. It was most certainly members of SS Major Gerhard Bremer's 12th SS Panzer Reconnaissance Regiment who were perpetrators of criminal events which have recently come to light; shooting dead two prisoners of our Regiment, one who was badly wounded.