Hitlers Foreign Legion

[CanadianCombat]

Just a fact i wanted to share.

The waffen SS, the armed forces of the German Nazi Party, filled the majority of their nearly forty combat divisions with non-Germans. Over half a million foreigners served in twenty-seven of these Waffen SS divisons (as well as in many smaller, independent units and as replacements for the horrendous losses SS divisions took). The radical racial purity message of the Nazi Party got a bit garbled by the SS recruiters, as the largest single ethnic group enlisted was Slavic Ukrainians (100,000) followed by the "Aryan" Dutch (50,000). Three divisions were formed from among Bosnian Muslims and Croation Christians and, like most non-German SS divisions, were used against partisans. So successful was this program that even the regular army regularly filled 20% of its divisions (after late 1943) with foreign "volunteers." These were usually Soviet POWs who were given the choice of starving in a POW camp or serving as combat support troops in the German infantry divisions. Most of these foreigners in German uniforms, especially the Soviets, were killed or imprisoned by their countrymen after the war.

 

[KC72]

i think the dutch were the biggest group of volunteers and i'm sure near the end of the war they also had a eastern european muslim unit. most nations in europe had at least a token SS presence, i know there were scandanavian divisions and during the battle of Berlin the french "charlemagne" division fought almost to the last. The British (much to my shame) also had a small group

http://members.aol.com/sturmpnzr/BFC.html

 

[sunb!]

The Norwegian Legion was established by initiative by Vidkun Quisling and Josef Terboven in 1941. First they planned to raise 30.000 men in the fight against the Soviet Union but by the end of 1941 only 1900 men had voulenteered where 1000 men were in Germany for military training. The interest was frankly large but when the US joined the war after Perl Harbour the interest for the Norwegian Legion dropped and the major plans for a Norwegian division failed.

The major arguments for joining the legion was mostly for helping the Fins in their situation and that the war would come to Norway someday, by joining the legion the frontline could be held at a distance by Norwegian borders and territory.

In 1943 1950 young men (approx) fought in the Legion mostly on the Stalingrad frontlines and approx 175 were killed in combat. 60 years after the war the front fighters are not spoken of in public in the Norwegian society...

 

[mmarsh]

Here a funny fact (True story)

Some of the first german prisoners captured by American forces at Normandy were a dozen or so Koreans. What were Koreans doing in Wehrmacht uniform?

They fought as Guerrillas against the Japanese occupiers (Japan annexed Korea in 1910) in the early 1930's. They were captured and forced into the Japanese Army. They fought against the Russians during the China Campaign of 1939. They were captured by the Russians and forced into the Red Army. They were then deployed against the German invasion where...you guess it captured against and tranferred to the Atlantic Wall in a German uniform. They were then captured by the Americans...

 

[sunb!]

mmarsh, do the story tell what happened to the captured soldiers? POW camp or did they swap side once more to continue their fight?

 

[phoenix80]

Here a funny fact (True story)

Some of the first german prisoners captured by American forces at Normandy were a dozen or so Koreans. What were Koreans doing in Wehrmacht uniform?

They fought as Guerrillas against the Japanese occupiers (Japan annexed Korea in 1910) in the early 1930's. They were captured and forced into the Japanese Army. They fought against the Russians during the China Campaign of 1939. They were captured by the Russians and forced into the Red Army. They were then deployed against the German invasion where...you guess it captured against and tranferred to the Atlantic Wall in a German uniform. They were then captured by the Americans...

awwwwwwwwwww

long journey! poor men!

 

[LeEnfield]

I wonder if they then joined the American army????? only joking folks

 

[Warwick]

I think more Latvians or Eukranians served in the Waffen SS than the Dutch.

 

[Mohmar Deathstrike]

Here a funny fact (True story)

Some of the first german prisoners captured by American forces at Normandy were a dozen or so Koreans. What were Koreans doing in Wehrmacht uniform?

They fought as Guerrillas against the Japanese occupiers (Japan annexed Korea in 1910) in the early 1930's. They were captured and forced into the Japanese Army. They fought against the Russians during the China Campaign of 1939. They were captured by the Russians and forced into the Red Army. They were then deployed against the German invasion where...you guess it captured against and tranferred to the Atlantic Wall in a German uniform. They were then captured by the Americans...

I've heard it before. It really is an incredible story. I bet their grandchildren wanted to hear these stories over and over again.