Freis Indien Battallion

[fons]

Hi Fons,

The demobilization list of the Polizei regiment Bozen shows the date of April 1945 and there is no definite date of their transfer. I would assume it's between late 1944 to March/April 1945.

The Russian language books on the account of Indian SS man fighting in Berlin and one of them captured in Berlin are

1. Semenov K. Waffen-SS, soldiers like others, Moscow, "Yauza" Publ.,
2004, pp. 304-305;
2. Semenov K.K. The crusade against Russia: Drang Nach Osten, Moscow,
"Yauza" Publ. 2005, pp. 470-471.

Panzermahn

Thanks on that one,

as far as i know the 9th company left for Italy around spring 1944...and it seems they returned in January 1945 to the legion.
There is talk about a small propaganda unit as well in Italy...seperate from the 9th company.

Greetings & thanks,
fons

[panzermahn]

Hi Fons,

The demobilization list of the Polizei regiment Bozen shows the date of April 1945 and there is no definite date of their transfer. I would assume it's between late 1944 to March/April 1945.

The Russian language books on the account of Indian SS man fighting in Berlin and one of them captured in Berlin are

1. Semenov K. Waffen-SS, soldiers like others, Moscow, "Yauza" Publ.,
2004, pp. 304-305;
2. Semenov K.K. The crusade against Russia: Drang Nach Osten, Moscow,
"Yauza" Publ. 2005, pp. 470-471.

Panzermahn

Thanks on that one,

as far as i know the 9th company left for Italy around spring 1944...and it seems they returned in January 1945 to the legion.
There is talk about a small propaganda unit as well in Italy...seperate from the 9th company.

Greetings & thanks,
fons

Hi Fons,

It seems that you're very interested in the Indian Legion. Please PM me regarding the scan of the demobilization list of the Polizei Regiment Bozen.

By the way, I had another source (James Lucas, Last Days of the reich) which stated the American intelligence had reports of the Indian Legion (mixed up together with other foreign elements including the Hungarian Crown Guard!) that were in Austria in April 1945.

Panzermahn

[kingtiger88]

Dear Panzermahn.......any chance u can mail me the names of some of the members in the demobilization list...I was interested in getting names...please
thanks for all the info ........also thanks to fons for the Holland angle.....

[Paulus II]

Just a little more about the stay in Holland. About 1500 men were stationed on the island of Texel and the other 1500 were in the vicinity of Zandvoort. A small port about half way up the Dutch coast. In both places they did coastal defence tasks.
Apparently the Dutch civilians liked the Indians. Mostly because they still got their Red Cross parcels (a left-over from their POW days) and they shared these with the civilians.
They were in Holland from may to september 1943 and those in Zandvoort stayed in the bunkers at Kostverloren Park. It seems many of them fell ill due to the bad weather.

All this comes from this website:

http://www.donderduinen.nl/Freies_Indien/freies_indien.html

At the bottom of the page is a request for furhter info on this unit and an e-mail adress. Maybe they can help you along some more.

Cheers,

Paul

[kingtiger88]

Thank you Paulas, the link was very helpful.....

[fons]

They increasingly started to suffer from tuberculosis.
But there is more to it, friction arose when they got too friendly with the locals (or "parts" of the population that is...)
Added to this outside groups (brits, resistance) tried to influence them, and they in their turn tried to influence other troops (which resulted in the germans trying as hard as possible to keep them seperated from the rest).

1500 on both zandvoort and Texel is unlikely...early 1943 strenght is estimated at about 2500/2600 (including the III.rd battaillon, under construction at the time) so it can never be at ''3000''
Estimation is that at its peak it had about 3500/3600 troops in France, after that it only went down.

Donderduinen is nice for local Zandvoort info, not too much on the military side of them tho

greetings,
fons

[panzermahn]

Hi guys,

I just found out the scan of demobilization list of the SS Polizei Regiment Bozen. To my disappointment, it list only two names from the Indische Freiwilligen Legion der SS. The scan wasn't clear but I try to look it and the names of the Indian SS men were:


a) Schutze Chem (no first name given) of the SS-Indische Frw. Leg.
b) Schutze Dalyp Singh of the SS-Indische. Frw. Leg.

This list also contain 25 names of the Spanischen Freiwilligen Legion (note that it does not have any SS prefix/suffix to it therefore it's not the mythical SS Spanischen Freiwilligen Kompanie 101). But interestingly, only one of the names had a SS rank (Unterscharfuhrer Manuel Valle) and the rest had Heer ranks of Obergefreiter and Soldat.

I try to find out more infos on the Indians in SS Polizei Regiment Bozen.

The date of the demobilization list seems to be 9th May to 10th May 1945.

Regards
Panzermahn

[kingtiger88]

anybody know of any warcrime allegation against the Indians of the Legion?

[Mansal D]

anybody know of any warcrime allegation against the Indians of the Legion?

Several French villages were burned with many instances of rape, but I don't think anyone was specifically charged with anything. For the most part the Indians were treated with indifference. The French were often a bit harsh, but otherwise, not much was done.

[alan newark]

Dear All

As some of you will know I have a long-term, special interest in all aspects of Texel island's WWI experiences.

I can tell you, mightythor, the designation of one Texel artillery (sic) unit...312 Marine Flak (Kriegsmarine) Battery. I somewhere have other artillery references. When I find these I will post them.

Have you or anyone else posted those pix of the coastal artillery man?

Any info about Texel artillery and other German forces always welcome.

Cheers..Al:->

[LegionFreiesIndien]

If any feldgrau members have a serious interest in the Legion Freies Indien / Indische Freiwilligen Legion der Waffen-SS, they will find a lot of information in the only comprehensive unit history currently available about the Indian volunteers in the German and Italian armed forces in the book: "For Free India: Indian Soldiers in Germany and Italy during the Second World War" by Martin Bamber (Ed. Aad Neeven) published (in English) by Oskam-Neeven in the Netherlands in late 2010. The book's website is - http://www.freeindianlegion.info .