Ex-Waffen SS in Indochina

datson · Post by **datson** » Wed Apr 20, 2005 2:50 am

some of the best songs we sang in the legion were of wermacht (afrika korps) and ss origin- most ended up being translated into french -ich hatte eine kamerad, j'avais une kamerad, etc. others stayed as they were- westerwald. when we were new recruits, we were sent to work in a place called puyloubier, where a lot of veterans were allowed to live out their days in peace ( yeah, right, drinking, singing and fighting) real men.

MWellner · Post by **MWellner** » Sun Apr 24, 2005 3:08 am

I remember a post from several years back that they were given a choice of either clearing mines or volunteering.

Reb · Post by **Reb** » Mon Apr 25, 2005 9:40 pm

There used to be a TV show called the Big Picture that was about the US Army and ran in the fifties and maybe the early sixties. One episode stuck in my young mind because it showed French Legionaires training US infantry how to fight Russian tanks....

cheers
Reb

Dackel Staffel · Post by **Dackel Staffel** » Thu Apr 28, 2005 11:09 am

Hi,

There weren't only former waffen SS or Fallschirmjager. One of my friend who was pilot in Indochina ( on Junker 52, even the planes were germans) told me that one day he saw a soldier giving advices for choosing good artillery locations to an officer. This soldier had experience, he was officer in an artillery unit of the Heer during the war in Russia.

So long.

phylo_roadking · Post by **phylo_roadking** » Mon May 02, 2005 3:16 pm

Any "lost" war sends recruits into the Legion. And would be mightily suprised if truly there were NO Wehrmacht personnel. Men join the Legion for MANY resons, not least because they WANT to, and because they enjoy soldiering. You'd be amazed how many Americans joined in the mid-70s after Vietnam.

I waonder how many SS went into the SPANISH Foreign Legion in Morocco....?

Phylo

Spankeem · Post by **Spankeem** » Sat May 14, 2005 5:19 pm

I have read as well that ex-SS were given in some cases the opportunity to serve in the legion as opposed to trial and possible imprisonment.

Laurent Daniel · Post by **Laurent Daniel** » Sat May 14, 2005 8:09 pm

The majority of the former members of the Waffen SS who joined the French Foregn Legion have done that out of their own will, many reaching the recruitment centres before being arrested.

Those who joined after being given a "choice" between trial, mine clearing and Legion had "some skeletons" in their files. Yeap, there were also war criminals in the Legion.

Very recently, the Vietnamese authorities handed over to the French Embassy in Hanoi the remains of 17 soldiers unearthed in Dien Bien Phu further to the start-up of a construction project right in the former battle zone.

The trouble of the French authorities will be to try to identify them. We had at Dien Bien Phu French, Moroccans, Algerians, Africans, Vietnamese and Germans. It will be a tough task for our forensic experts.

panzermahn · Post by **panzermahn** » Sat Jul 09, 2005 5:22 am

The North Vietnamese offered substantial reward for the capture of German legionnaires in the service of the French during the French Indochina War

Laurent Daniel · Post by **Laurent Daniel** » Sat Jul 09, 2005 6:16 am

PLEEEEASE, gimme a source, I am deadly interested.
PM are OK
Private email also: [email protected]
Thanks in advance

panzermahn · Post by **panzermahn** » Sat Jul 09, 2005 9:46 pm

Laurent Daniel wrote:PLEEEEASE, gimme a source, I am deadly interested.
PM are OK
Private email also: [email protected]
Thanks in advance

Salut Daniel,

I am unable to give you any sources other than that i formerly read about this mentioned in the now defunct Elite Forces of Third Reich website. Another educated guess that you should find something about this in Vietnamese archives especially concerning the early phase of the French-Indochina War and Battle of Dien Bien Phu where I am sure that there are POW roster by the NVA.

Panzermahn

Feldgrau.net

Ex-Waffen SS in Indochina

Hi All.....