2nd SS in the French Foreign Legion?

Das Reich · Post by **Das Reich** » Tue Mar 30, 2004 6:26 pm

I read a blurb in a Spearhead book about the 2nd SS 'Das Reich' Division saying that after the war, some veterans escaped to French Algeria to join the French Foreign Legion, which did not require background information for its soldiers to be recruited. It was said in this very short blurb that these men fought in French Indo-China (Vietnam) at some point, but nothing more was said, except that they apparently performed excellently there too. If ANYONE could provide more information on this, I would be extremely grateful, because this intrigues me so greatly that I feel a NEED to read more about it.

Rand · Post by **Rand** » Tue Mar 30, 2004 7:46 pm

Hey Das Reich,

It is true, former Waffen SS did join the French Foreign Legion!
Try doing a forum search, it should turn up a few threads on this very subject. Try these for starters....

http://www.feldgrau.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1314

http://www.feldgrau.net/phpBB2/viewtopi ... ht=vietnam

http://www.feldgrau.net/phpBB2/viewtopi ... ht=vietnam

Also look up Dutch Waffen SS volunteers who served in the Korean War.

Good Luck,

Wade

Das Reich · Post by **Das Reich** » Tue Mar 30, 2004 10:03 pm

Using Google, I found some site with long stories of SS men fighting in Vietnam. Then I realized it came from a white supremacist site so I realized it has no credibility really. I'm not posting the link for its so over dramatized and filled with bias.

Simon · Post by **Simon** » Wed Mar 31, 2004 11:26 am

Hey DR

I know that my spelling will be incorrect, but as far as I am aware a lot of of the FFL that died at Bien Ben Phew {pls forgive this incorrect spelling} where ex SS soldiers.

If I can remember I will try and locate the book reference for you.

cheers

Paul_9686 · Post by **Paul_9686** » Sun Apr 04, 2004 12:01 pm

That's OK, Simon; the proper spelling is "Dien Bien Phu".

But I read in the Osprey Elite series book on the Foreign Legion paras that the German element was exaggerated. Anyone care to comment on that?

Yours,
Paul

Tom Houlihan · Post by **Tom Houlihan** » Sun Apr 04, 2004 12:19 pm

In addition to the threads on this forum, there are some on the Axis History Forum as well (sorry, Jason!

). Between the two, I think the subject has been pretty well covered.

Consensus: Yes, there were some former German soldiers in the Legion after WWII, including some SS. However, the extent of the German contribution has been inflated just a wee bit.

heinz kling · Post by **heinz kling** » Sun Apr 04, 2004 9:46 pm

Read Bernard Fall's book "Hell in a very small place" which does refer to German legionnaires and the fact that Bruno Bigeard, one of the most celebrated French Para colonels ( ex-Resistance and implicated in the Algerian revolt) once claimed that france would not have lost if he had 10,000 SS soldiers!

Ian Earl · Post by **Ian Earl** » Sun Apr 11, 2004 3:53 am

I read a book years ago, written by a Korean War veteran, in which he said that whilst there he had served as a liasion man with the Legion and that they had a system where by SS guys could serve with them.
The claim was that if they served and fought in three wars for France, (i think Africa, Indoneasia and somewhere else), they would be granted citizenship with no questions asked.

Now this may all be a load of rubbish but it did sound feasible.

IOError · Post by **IOError** » Sun Apr 11, 2004 7:48 pm

My father did his (first?) tour up in the foothills and apparently met up with quite a few of these ex-Waffen SS guys. By this point they were all US Special Forces, having been seconded from the FFL, as they told it. The story was that after Big Brawl Deuce they had all gotten rounded up and set down to Marseilles, to "volunteer" for the FFL. Basically, forced permanent exile or prison. *shrug* Not surprising, really. Military experience of that caliber is hard to come by, but you can't really leave them around at loose ends in country you need to rebuild, politically.

I have no information about their service prior to ~1966-67. But enough of the suckers were still alive to work with the US in Vietnam, at any rate. A few talked about serving down in the area of the Belgian Congo during random African mercenary brush wars, but most were FFL. If anybody cared, I could probably get him to go over some of the specifics again for me, such as exactly where it was they met. (I'm not sure if it was just over the border into Cambodia or south of the DMZ in Vietnam.)

They introduced my father to a drink called the "French 75" ("hangover so bad that a drink of water the next day will make you drunk all over again"

). They and my father both learned that, yes, if a box of LAW rockets is shipped badly enough by Uncle Sam the solid propellant will splinter but you won't realize it until you need them. They also learned that, in a pinch, a 105mm howitzer loaded with beehive rounds can be very useful against PT-76 tanks when the aforementioned "&*$@"-ing LAWs are busted and the tanks are crawling from the river across your wire.

Das Reich · Post by **Das Reich** » Mon Apr 12, 2004 11:47 am

If you could, please attain all details you could about these ex-Waffen-SS members. I would greatly appreciate it, thanks.

areilley · Post by **areilley** » Fri Apr 16, 2004 6:29 pm

The basis of the FFL is that no Frenchman may join, but many minor French criminals are 'allowed' to join after an investigation of their backround. They and all FFL recruits are rewarded with a French passport in the name that they join the FFL after they serve. But the backbone of the FFL has allways been non French, and just as many French criminals have been allowed to join also ex-German soldiers were allowed to join after WWII. I feel sure that they were 'investigated' as well as was possible and as long as nothing too bad showed up they were allowed to join as well. There were some ex-WSS in this group. Perhaps non-German WSS who could not return to their home countries after the war.

hans becker · Post by **hans becker** » Wed Oct 06, 2004 4:06 am

A friend of the family, now deceased served with Das Reich during the war, he became a French POW, and given a choise, 14 years in a french coal mine, or volunteer in the Legion, he chose the Legion, and ended up in IndoChina, he said that his unit had lots of Germans in it.

Iltis · Post by **Iltis** » Thu Oct 07, 2004 2:39 am

and if you look on the memorial in France you will see hundreds of Germanic names amongst the casualties

Deiter Hollenstein · Post by **Deiter Hollenstein** » Thu Oct 07, 2004 5:50 am

Bernard Fall in "Street Without Joy" had some stories about this, but he didn't give any name-level details. I think the estimate he had (and I could be mistaken about this...don't have the book in front of me) was that no more than 35% of the Legion in Indochina was of German origin. He didn't break it down by Heer and W-SS veterans, though.

2nd SS Panzer Das Reich · Sat Oct 09, 2004 1:52 pm

Das Reich wrote:Using Google, I found some site with long stories of SS men fighting in Vietnam. Then I realized it came from a white supremacist site so I realized it has no credibility really. I'm not posting the link for its so over dramatized and filled with bias.

What website was this?

Feldgrau.net

2nd SS in the French Foreign Legion?

2nd SS in the French Foreign Legion?

RE:

SS in Dien Bien Phu

ex-SS in French Foreign Legion

FFL

Das Reich Veterans in Indochina