Devil's Guard?

This is coolbert:

I have mentioned in several previous blog entries the German SS battalion serving in the French Foreign Legion during the first Indo-China war.

It is in actuality an exaggeration to say that this was a SS battalion.

There WERE former SS men present in the battalion [Hans, the German commander, was a self-described officer in the Waffen SS].

But there were probably many others that were not ex-SS men. These would have included ordinary infantrymen, tank drivers, U-boat crew members, etc. Described as a SS battalion, but probably mostly in name only. [this battalion WAS comprised of men that WERE of German ethnicity, this is true].

In addition to the German "SS battalion", it should be noted that MANY other German nationals did serve in other French Foreign Legion units serving in Indo-China.

And there are several reasons for this.

During the latter days of World War Two on the western front, just prodigious numbers of German soldiers were captured by allied forces.

Most of these POW's were turned over to the French who held them within French territory. How large are these prodigious numbers??

Figures of up to one million German POW's are mentioned.

This may well be a fact.

And some controversy has arisen within the last decade about the treatment of the German prisoners. Some have suggested that the treatment of the POW's was deplorable at best. Most were left in the open, without shelter, surrounded by barbed wire fences, underfed, lacking medical aid, and just left to their own resorts. As a result, as one can well imagine, it is reputed that many of these Germans just up and died from neglect or what can only be called maltreatment.

However, for those Germans that desired to live through this prisoner ordeal at the end of the war, an alternative was offered.

The French, seeing the end of the war, and also desiring to reestablish colonial regimes in such places as Indo-China, made the German prisoners an offer that many of them did not refuse.

Join the French Foreign Legion.

The object of course was to flesh out French Foreign Legion units world-wide, especially in Indo-China. A ready supply of desperate trained soldiers was available. A ready supply that had survival as an incentive. A ready supply that in many cases was more than eager to comply with the French offer.

This notorious and blatant "recruiting" scheme was evidently successful. Many German POW's being held by the French did join the Legion, and did proceed to Indo-China to fight and in many cases die!!

A second source of German manpower was also available to the French Foreign Legion in the years shortly after the end of the war. This source tended to be voluntary, however!

According to Frederick J. Chiaventone, a retired Army officer:

"the large numbers of young German men who flooded into the French Foreign Legion at the close of World War Two. Having received their education at the hands of the Third Reich and served an apprenticeship in the Hitler Youth and in Hitler's crumbling armies, these young men had no occupation or skills beyond those of war. Indochina was flooded with these former boy soldiers."

These would have been teenage boys who knew nothing else than war, and in many cases, were quite good at it too. And at the time, there was nothing left for them in German except extreme poverty or persecution if they were caught in the Soviet sector. Not only did enlistment offer economic reward, it offered a continuation of the only type of life that most of these young men had known for over a decade in some cases.

The martial way of life not only ensured economic survival, it was appealing to these German young men from the emotional and even intellectual standpoint.

"I am doing what I know, all that I know, and what I am good at", must have been a common refrain!

[the above remarks of Chiaventone was found in an op-ed piece of the Chicago Tribune dated 25 November 2004. This piece was entitled, "Youngsters, war don't mix." Dealt with the analogies between the teen fighters of Fallujah on the insurgent side and the "bushwackers" of the American Civil War as epitomized by Jesse James].

[Chiaventone mentions that the U.S. Marines and Army soldiers confronting the young Islamic men at Fallujah were in most cases not a whole lot older than their Muslim adversaries. The U.S. troops have the advantage of "good leadership". Adult officers trained, experienced and capable of making sound judgements. Men who are respectful and caring toward the charges that they lead. This is one reason among many why the U.S. won at Fallujah].

[When I was on active duty, we used to tell a joke. "What is the differernce between the Army and the Boy Scouts??" Answer. "The Boy Scouts have adult leadership!!" Well, not entirely true!!]

coolbert.