Freis Indien Battallion

[kingtiger88]

Can anyone give me any information on the following aspects of the Indian 'Tiger Legion' of the Wehrmacht/ Waffen SS----
(a) details of its skirmishes with the French Maquis in France
(b) details of its small action fought with US armour while retreating to Germany from South of France......
(c) Details of its attempted escape to Switzerland and its capture by the Free french/ US forces....
(d) List of Indian officers

I understand that that many of you don't hold a very high opinion about this unit, but was just writing a small article about it.....the details on the above mentioned events available on the net are very sketchy........would appreciate any help in this regard.......

[mightythor99]

they were taken by a kriegmarine coastal artillery man. looks like they are getting on a ship maybe? indian headgear/hat plainly visible, as well as their patch on overcoat sleeves. i was thinking the photos i have were taken in northern germany, but they could be southern france...........where all were these troops deployed?

[kingtiger88]

dear mightythor99,
thanks for your reply on this subject.........I would deeply appreciate if you could send me the links or scans of these photos........the legion was deployed mainly on the Belgian coast, South France and in Germany itself...your photos may give me a greater clue to this great puzzle......
deeply appreciate

[mightythor99]

are of indian legion guys, standing on a dock. the man who took the pictures, was in the kriegsmarine coastal defenses/anti aircraft battery. i dont know yet, where he was located.............but somewhere along the coastline. could be in southern france, but i think it's holland/belgium, or northern german coastline. i'll take a couple of digital pictures and put them up here for you. one will be the back of one of them, it could be a city named here.............i dont know. this type of handwriting is hard for me. would like to know more about them myself too! let me know what you think!
ted

http://www.locl.net/homes/teds/indian1.jpg
http://www.locl.net/homes/teds/indian2.jpg
http://www.locl.net/homes/teds/indian3.jpg
http://www.locl.net/homes/teds/indian4.jpg

just give me a few minutes.......if you check this immediately, pictures wont be there. will take me about 10 minutes! thanks!!

[mightythor99]

and i'll email them to you. my email is [email protected]
talk to you later,
ted

[panzermahn]

Can anyone give me any information on the following aspects of the Indian 'Tiger Legion' of the Wehrmacht/ Waffen SS----
(a) details of its skirmishes with the French Maquis in France
(b) details of its small action fought with US armour while retreating to Germany from South of France......
(c) Details of its attempted escape to Switzerland and its capture by the Free french/ US forces....
(d) List of Indian officers

I understand that that many of you don't hold a very high opinion about this unit, but was just writing a small article about it.....the details on the above mentioned events available on the net are very sketchy........would appreciate any help in this regard.......

Hi,

I can tell you that a company of Indische Freiwilligen Legion (not sure from which regiment though) was transferred to the SS Polizei Regiment "Bozen" (aka Suedtyroler) in North Italy March/April 1945 only to be demobilized by the Germans there. Their fate is unknown. I have a scan (unfortunately copyrighted by the owner) that shows a number of Indian SS men/officers in demobilization list of the Polizei Regiment Bozen.

Also, I can tell you that there are several Indian SS men (most likely were Guard personnel of the Bose INA representation in Berlin) that participated in the Battle of Berlin. I am currently researching and preparing for an article of Axis foreign volunteers during the Battle of Berlin and I had received secondary sources from some contributors regarding the participation of the Indian SS men during the battle of Berlin.

If I am not mistaken, there is a book published by an Indian author (in 2005 or 2006) on the Indian legionnaires and there is even a list of those Indian legionnaires that won the Iron Cross 2nd class. However I forgot who the author was and maybe perhaps our moderator George Lepre can help you with this.

Panzermahn

[mightythor99]

i dont think are SS, but they are wearing overcoats, and are on a boat dock, medium size ships are nearby. my guess is about late '42, early '43, due to the dates on the back of some of the photos. i went to upload them, but my email has changed, so now i dont have a free spot...............yet. going to get looking again. if i can find a place, i'll get them up. i need about 50 megs of space........................ugh.....
the tiger patches are pretty easy to see in these pictures, as are the headgear, identifying them as indians. my guess is they are near holland.

[fons]

Ted,

I couldn't see the pictures but can say that i heard the whole unit went downwards from holland to france by train, not by boat.
Some were deployed on the dutch island of Texel though while being in holland so it could be from that time...a transfer from mainland holland to texel.

greetings,
fons

[mightythor99]

holland.......................?
dont know. i dont know for sure that's where they are, but i think they are taken in holland. my pictures are from a kriegsmarine coastal artilleryman, but i dont know which unit he was in, or where he was stationed,.............but there are some pictures of holland in there, so trying to "deduce" info from that.
ted

[fons]

I meant that if it is actually holland it is not depicting the move to france since they went by train.
A part of the legion while stationed in holland was on the island of Texel, so i guess they must have moved from/to there once in while.
So if it is in holland in the first place, it might depict a harbour on the northcoast...perhaps zandvoort, ijmuiden or even on texel...
Perhaps someone from there can tell you more on that.

On the other hand they might have had a boat tour in france as well...i'm not ruling this out as well :)

greetings,
fons

[mightythor99]

that's the awesome thing about this thing,........... he he
in case that just dont make sense............
computers and forums are pretty fun sometimes!
texel..............was written on the back of one or more of the pictures!
i wasnt sure what/where that was. i think this kriegsmarine was stationed on texel, at least for a while. (lots of pictures taken here, late '42 - 43.

just researched texel a little bit,.............looks like it's a big flat island slightly off the coast of holland,...............and,................there's a sheep named the texel too! even have sheep on the texel.com island's website!

well, i'd say this guy was stationed as coastal artillery in texel, and that's where the indian legion pics were taken too then probably. i'll try to figure out what kriegsmarine AA was stationed there..............does anyone who?
then we'll know where else they were, or where the shots could have been taken though. looks like he went through basic training for marines in '42, even shows him and his buddies being armed with dutch 6.5 long rifles in a few shots, after they are "stationed". he was there for while,.........has shots of 5 or so shot down planes, mostly british, one mustang, one liberator, one spitfire, which was piloted by a polish guy from lublin (must have had his paperwork in a pocket or something,........that's what's written on the back of the photo), a halifax, and at least one or two more.

[fons]

I can tell you that a company of Indische Freiwilligen Legion (not sure from which regiment though) was transferred to the SS Polizei Regiment "Bozen" (aka Suedtyroler) in North Italy March/April 1945 only to be demobilized by the Germans there. Their fate is unknown. I have a scan (unfortunately copyrighted by the owner) that shows a number of Indian SS men/officers in demobilization list of the Polizei Regiment Bozen.

So this is not the company which was sent to Italy halfway 1944? (and sent back as well in the end)

Also, I can tell you that there are several Indian SS men (most likely were Guard personnel of the Bose INA representation in Berlin) that participated in the Battle of Berlin. I am currently researching and preparing for an article of Axis foreign volunteers during the Battle of Berlin and I had received secondary sources from some contributors regarding the participation of the Indian SS men during the battle of Berlin.

You posted on this before i recall.
Did you already got the name of the book you mention in the below mentioned thread? (the russian soldiers memoirs)

http://www.feldgrau.net/phpBB2/viewtopi ... ht=#132880

I would sure like to hear of it, be it in russian or any other language, translating is not an issue here.
Especially fom Russian

thanks in advance,
fons

[mightythor99]

any idea? maybe there was more then one? this one is a flak battery. one shot of a navy officer, three stripes on his sleeves. looks like the indians could be arriving in texel maybe, there is one ship photo, where the name of the ship is visible, i think it is an aircraft observation boat, for looking for incoming planes for the flak batteries to get ready.

[panzermahn]

I can tell you that a company of Indische Freiwilligen Legion (not sure from which regiment though) was transferred to the SS Polizei Regiment "Bozen" (aka Suedtyroler) in North Italy March/April 1945 only to be demobilized by the Germans there. Their fate is unknown. I have a scan (unfortunately copyrighted by the owner) that shows a number of Indian SS men/officers in demobilization list of the Polizei Regiment Bozen.

So this is not the company which was sent to Italy halfway 1944? (and sent back as well in the end)

Also, I can tell you that there are several Indian SS men (most likely were Guard personnel of the Bose INA representation in Berlin) that participated in the Battle of Berlin. I am currently researching and preparing for an article of Axis foreign volunteers during the Battle of Berlin and I had received secondary sources from some contributors regarding the participation of the Indian SS men during the battle of Berlin.

You posted on this before i recall.
Did you already got the name of the book you mention in the below mentioned thread? (the russian soldiers memoirs)

http://www.feldgrau.net/phpBB2/viewtopi ... ht=#132880

I would sure like to hear of it, be it in russian or any other language, translating is not an issue here.
Especially fom Russian

thanks in advance,
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

[kingtiger88]

thanx to all participating in this post.......really appreciate help from u guys...keep it coming please....