i heard that some ss units joined foreign legion after ww2, and that they we're send into vietnam (1965 i think). they've also sent into death so that foreign legion could "wash her hands of". can anybody give me more informations about it? thnx sven
I know a few books appeared based around this idea, however I believe they all fell into the category of fiction. On the other hand a recent book called the Last Valley by ?Martin Windrow? about the fighting at Dien Bien Phu makes a reference to the presence of ex- wermacht soldiers in the legion. I have the book at home but haven't read it, I just noticed the above whilst skimming through it. Ali
Germans usually made up the largest non-French part of the Legion, and many enlisted in the FL after WW1 and WW2 (in 1940 Hitler demanded that German legionaires be sent back to Germany and the Vichy French complied). They were heavily involved in the '50s campaign in Indo-China, and no doubt the French Govt. was glad to have such experienced and displaced/fugitive men in the FL to save the lives of conscript Frenchmen in fighting to keep their empire. Richard
Sven, Just to add to the above. My Uncle was stationed in North Africa in the early 1950's and he has told me that 'all' the Legionaires there were German, anecdotal evidence I know.... Take care, Neil
A lot of the Germans in the French Foreign Legion were involved in the mutinies of 1958 in Algeria, as well. Germans have always made popular mercenaries. How about the Hessians, back in 1776? I guess when De Gaulle disbanded the mutinous 1st Foreign Legion Parachute Regiment in 1959, the men said, "Vell, back to der old sausage mill."
There's a famous photo of a German merc. serving with Mike Hoare's "commandos" in the Congo in the early 1960's. He's stood holding a native shield and asagi resplindent in his ex-British equipment and Iron Cross 1st class! B. (PS. Sven, it was pre 1956 that La Legion were in Indo-China (Vietnam) )
during the Indo China war the Viet minh raised propaganda about exSS and Wehrmacht troops carrying out atrocities against civillians so the French sent most of its Germans to Algeria. Many of the class names for legion officers and NCO's are those of germans who fell in the service of the legion
Originally posted by Kiwiwriter@Aug 27 2004, 06:38 PM I guess when De Gaulle disbanded the mutinous 1st Foreign Legion Parachute Regiment in 1959, the men said, "Vell, back to der old sausage mill." [post=27718]Quoted post[/post] one fifth of the ncos of 1 REP who took part in the mutiny were scots! Alister Hornes book on the Algerian war gives a good account of the mutiny! :ph34r: :ph34r:
(in 1940 Hitler demanded that German legionaires be sent back to Germany and the Vichy French complied). In a book about the Free French Squadrons during the war (I will post full details), it tells the following story. An air gunner called Pierre Laval (the same as the vichy prime minister) was shot down and taken to a field hospital. As he could only speak French he felt loney; looking around the newcomers, he saw a legionaires jacket hang next to a bed. He approached and said "hello my name is Pierre laval"! to which the figure lying in bed said "My name is Adolf Hitler"! Pierre laughed, but Adolf said look at my pay book in my pocket and sure enough, he was german and his name was Adolf Hitler! :ph34r: :ph34r:
After having a discussion with a guy at work. He told me that after the war, a lot of Waffen SS joined the French Foreign Legion. Does anybody have any more info, please? Is this true? It does make a lot of sense.
Seems there were a fair few German members postwar that were ex Wehrmacht & SS. Certainly, to my mind, some present at Dien bien Phu. Really could do with a quality book on the Foreign Legion, I'm becoming more and more interested.
Seems there were a fair few German members postwar that were ex Wehrmacht & SS. Certainly, to my mind, some present at Dien bien Phu. Really could do with a quality book on the Foreign Legion, I'm becoming more and more interested. Quite true, the FFL was the way these people removed themselves from Europe by serving in Indo China, no questions asked.Indo China was an immediate running sore for the French who tried to reimpose colonial rule when the Japanese capitulated.It ended as we know finally, with US involvement in 1973, off the roof tops.In 1954, Indo China was split into two by an agreement in Geneva.The old story of a north and south countries, both with different ideologies. Holland had a similar problem with the Dutch East Indies after the Japanese capitulated but in the end had to pack up and leave the place to the now Indonesians. Quite a safe haven to some of the surviving SS bigwigs, not caught in Europe, was Egypt and Syria for obvious reasons.
I'm afraid tracing any of those Legionairies will be imposasible,....they leave their old identity behind and become French Citizens after their service time is over with the Legion....I had a friend from my hometown that went off to join, and we could not contact him, principally because he no longer existed as such!....Researching this aspect of Waffen SS history will be difficult if not impossible to trace many of the participants.....not putting a dampener on anything...
After having a discussion with a guy at work. He told me that after the war, a lot of Waffen SS joined the French Foreign Legion. Does anybody have any more info, please? Is this true? It does make a lot of sense. Goes well with the image. Legion of Lost Souls and all. Vive La Glorie! I heard this story that their was this Jewish legionaire going through the Indochinese jungle. He recognized beside him the guard at the camp he had been in. Then he shot him, deserted, ran away to Israel and got a pardon. In point of fact, a lot of the Waffen SS were mercenaries with almost no ethnic or ideological connection with the Nazi regime, except for the fact that it was a source of pay. Joining the Foreign Legion was often just finding a new employer.
Also many ex-GESTAPO 'workers' found their new job in South America and Africa after the WW2, u may know interesting organization 'ODESSA': ODESSA - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
douglas boyd has written a great book on the FFL. he believes that their records and identities are kept on file not destroyed after joining so if someon could get access to the records in thier archive in paris then might be worth a look. I have to write to them as my grandfather was a legionaire till he deserted in 1940 to join british army ( 50 commando) as a spaniard he and his friends would have been sent to concerntartion camp. the legion alowed these men to desert because the legion didnt want the germans to get thier hands on them. legionaires to teh end in thier opinion
The novel " Devils Guard " was all about this subject. How uch of it was faction and how much pure shite, I really have no idea. Not a bad read ~ as a novel ~ though. Bit Sven Hassel .....
This is from John Parker's "Inside the Foreign Legion": By December, France and the Viet Minh were at war - a bloody, dirty, brutal conflict that was to last almost nine years. Within months, the Legion had 15,000 men in Vietnam and was recruiting at the rate of 10,000 a year. They used up 150,000 volunteers over the period of the war, amid serious protests from Germany where tens of thousands were said to have been recruited. Out in the country, the French strategy of dispersing legionnaires and regular troops into small garrisons was soon found to be immensely dangerous to both manpower and, more importantly, to equipment. Far-flung outposts were sitting ducks and supply lines across hostile, often near inaccessible landscapes were constantly ambushed. The Legion took the brunt of these attacks, especially in the northern territory close to the Chinese border. The only way to provide fast relief to troops under siege was by air, except that there were few airstrips either. Back in Algeria, the Legion commandant asked for volunteers to create the first parachute battalions. The call was heavily over-subscribed. The Legion had many men with airborne experience in other armies, especially among the Germans. Among those who stepped forward was a medical orderly, a corporal who had been a lieutenant in the German army and later in a parachute company. He reluctantly confessed that he was one of the German para commandos who made a glider assault on the mountain hotel to free Italian dictator Mussolini in July 1943, after his capture by the Allies. A large number of German parachutists were now available to the Legion's Captain Segretain, the jump school's first commander, and they swiftly prepared the first batch of 350 legionnaires who passed the course ready for service in Vietnam at the dawn of 1949. or this from Wikipedia After the fall of the Third Reich, Germans, long a major presence in the legion, are believed to have accounted for roughly sixty percent of its manpower,[citation needed]. After the war, the French administered two zones of Western Germany adjacent to France. In these zones, recruitment offices enabled many former German POWs to join the legion almost immediately after their release from prison camps. However, Bernard B. Fall, a leading expert on French Indochina and the author of the famous accounts Street without Joy and Hell in a Very Small Place, disputes this figure and claims that Germans made up thirty-five percent of the Legion at most in the post-WWII period. Nevertheless, the image of a German-dominated postwar Foreign Legion is the setting for the well-known novel Devil's Guard, which narrates a former Waffen-SS member's brutal experience of joining the Legion and fighting alongside other former SS against the Vietminh in Indochina. Well during the First Indochina War, FFL had a large number of German speakers volunteers (Germans, Austrians, Alsatians and Swiss) Probably many of them served in German Army, but how many of them were from Wehrmacht and how many from Waffen SS is really hard to say. Were the FFL fighting in Korea not long after WWII? FFL didn't fight in Korea.
