Wearing of foreign decorations for foreigners in Wehrmacht

[panzermahn]

Hello

Does anyone what is the official German policy for foreign volunteers in Wehrmacht and Waffen SS who wore decorations awarded by nations who fought Germany in WW1/WW2?

I read from somewhere that Joseph Darnand wore his French decoration in his feldgrau tunic (one of the only three awarded in WW1) that he earned while fighting against the Germans in WW1.

The same goes for Hstuf Henri Fenet who wore a French decoration in his Waffen SS tunic that he had earned while fighting against the Germans in 1940.

I believed Vlasov was awarded by Stalin for his leadership during the battle of Moscow but of all the Vlasov photos while he was with the ROA/RONA I saw, he seems not to wear any decorations

I am not sure what is the policy for foreign officers or enlisted men in the Wehrmacht and Waffen SS, but it seems that the Germans somewhat allowed foreign volunteers to wear decorations awarded to them for fighting against the Germans, because decorations especially the ones earned for heroic military actions, regardless by nations who fought against Germany, were seen in the eyes of the Germans, as a testimony to bravery of the soldier who earned it.

Panzermahn

[lato]

Do you have any photo of Joseph Darnand wearing his feldgrau tunic ?

[panzermahn]

Do you have any photo of Joseph Darnand wearing his feldgrau tunic ?

Hi Lato

I must be mistaken when I first wrote that. Joseph Darnand never served under the Wehrmacht but the Milice although he received the SS rank Sturmbahnfuehrer. Was it Jacques Doriot, Roger Labonne, Mayol de Lupe or Edgar Puaud?

I remember I saw a photo of Mayol de Lupe with his numerous decorations in a Feldgrau tunic (I think it's from the magazine Signal)

Do you know anything about it?

Thanks
Panzermahn

[lato]

I knew that Darnand nerver served in the WSS even if he received the SS rank of Sturmbahnführer. I hope you had this photo but does it really exist ?

Here is the photo of Mayol de Lupé in n°20 of the Signal (October 1943) :

imagik.fr

[panzermahn]

Hi Lato

Yes, that's the photo I saw of Mayol de Lupe (I am not sure if he did accompany the Sturmbataillon Charlemagn into Berlin in April 1945).

No photos exists of Darnand wearing a German uniform. I had seen a photo of him with Karl Oberg, the SS chief in Paris, and Darnand wore the Milice beret.

I also saw another photo of Mayol de Lupe, in a Catholic robe, with lots of decorations (not ribbons) but I can't tell what decorations is that since the photo is quite small

best regards
Panzermahn

[lato]

Yes, that's the photo I saw of Mayol de Lupe (I am not sure if he did accompany the Sturmbataillon Charlemagn into Berlin in April 1945).

of course he didn't !

[lato]

He seriously fell ill in winter 1944. He will not participate in the fights of Pomerania and will settle down in Munich.

[panzermahn]

He seriously fell ill in winter 1944. He will not participate in the fights of Pomerania and will settle down in Munich.

Was he ever "epurated" in absentia by the French authorities after the war?

Best regards
Panzermahn

[Paddy Keating]

Hi Lato

Yes, that's the photo I saw of Mayol de Lupe (I am not sure if he did accompany the Sturmbataillon Charlemagn into Berlin in April 1945).

Monseigneur Jean de Mayol de Lupé was born in Paris in 1873 so he would have been too old for active service, although he was certainly on the nominal roll of the Charlemagne as, I think, their Honorary Chaplain. He stayed in Germany, settling in Munich, when the Charlemagne went off to war. Arrested after the war, he was imprisoned for fifteen years by a French court but was released in 1951 and died in his native Paris in 1955. He was quite highly decorated in the 1914-1918 War, receiving three Bronze Palms to his Croix de Guerre, although deemed too old for active service in 1939. However, he accompanied the LVF to war as their chaplain and received the LVF Croix de Guerre with several citations, as well as the iron Cross 2nd Class in 1943, which prompted the famous Signal cover shot.

PK

[Paddy Keating]

Coming back to the topic, French volunteers were encouraged to wear decorations and medals they had received for the War of 1939-1940. Those old enough to have served in WW1 wore the medals of that conflict too. In the case of Italian veterans of WW1, they were expected, somewhat bizarrely, not to wear the Allied Victory Medal - or their version thereof - out of respect for their German allies but they could wear their other WW1 medals without any problem. Some Italian veterans therefore made a point of wearing the WW1 Victory ribbon on their ribbon wars. Volunteers of the Russian Liberation Army commanded by General Vlasov tended not to wear Soviet awards as a matter of anti-Soviet policy.

As for the volunteers from other places, the question tended not to arise because those who had been in, say, the Dutch or Belgian armed forces in 1939 and 1940 did not have governments, like the Vichy administration, that authorised the wearing of decorations like the Croix de Guerre and Croix du Combattant Volontaire with the dates 1939-1940 on revised "French State" ribbons rather than the "Republican" ribbons.

In the case of France, the situation was slightly different because the French government sitting in Vichy was the legitimate authority in France and the Germans and French maintained that the two nations were partners in the New Europe following the 1940 armistice and, furthermore, that the German occupation of part of France was a temporary measure. Moreover, the LVF was a French organisation and, if anything, it was their German awards that would have been regarded as foreign, much in the same way as the German awards to the División Azul were regarded.

Foreign volunteers from defeated countries in the Waffen-SS were, on the other hand, very much part of the Wehrmacht and a dim view might have been taken of a soldier in, say, the Belgian contingent turning up on parade or for duty with the ribbon of the Croix de Guerre won in 1940 on his tunic. Where France was considered an allied nation, even if this was a charade, the official view would have been that such awards were those of no-longer extant states, recently absorbed into the German Reich. Indeed, coming back to France, I cannot recall seeing any photos of French Waffen-SS men wearing any French awards at all, even in the case of veterans of the LVF. Iron Crosses, War Merit Crosses, Winter War Medals, etc etc, but no French awards apparent, no Croix de Guerre, not even that of the LVF.

PK