We've talked about Flemish volunteers who served in the
Flemish Legion. These Dutch speaking Axis soldiers fought in the Waffen-SS on the Eastern Front.
What about the French speaking population of Belgium, the Walloons? They served in the Walloon
Legion and later in the Waffen-SS. In this video where gonna talk about the Walloon Axis soldiers
and also discuss Francophone Belgian collaborator Léon Degrelle and his Rexist Movement.
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The story of Belgian collaboration in WW2 is actually two cases: the Flemish case and the
Walloon case. The French-speaking Walloons live in the south of the country. Anti-communism was
strong among the Belgian elite, notably the Church and the military. This was also fueled
by the Spanish Civil War. Most noteworthy was the far-right Catholic, nationalist,
political party Rex, or the Rexist Party. Created as a Catholic propaganda movement,
its leader Léon Degrelle made it his own political party.
“At its peak it had appealed to different Francophone conservatives; integrist Catholics,
right- wing intellectuals, the military and Belgian royalists.”
When the 1936 elections came it gained 11,5% of the votes, but Degrelle
lost later elections. By 1940 Rex had become a marginal group.
In May 1940 Germany invaded Belgium and within 18 days king Leopold III surrendered. By that time
Degrelle was arrested but he was released after the French armistice in June 1940.
The Rexist party began forming a paramilitary branch known as
the Formations de Combat led by Fernand Rouleau. It was similar to the German SA
and had some 4,000 men by the end of the year. In January 1941 Degrelle held a speech which he
ended with a salute to Hitler. This attracted German attention for the Rexist party. When
the German invaded the USSR they contacted Rex for the possible formation of a Walloon Legion.
Early July Degrelle announced this in a speech and more than once thousand volunteers came
forward. Most of them were ideological motived and came from the Formations de Combat.
“The first 'legionaries' are mainly young people who are driven by ideological motives.
Their motivation is threefold: anti-Bolshevism,
the naive belief that Belgium can be given a better negotiating position at the
negotiating table on a redesigned Europe or the establishment of a New Order. This changed from
mid-1942. The Legion will then mainly recruit into its ranks adventurers or people trying
to escape starvation, forced employment or general moral, family and financial misery.”
Degrelle himself also volunteered and was offered the rank of lieutenant. He declined
and wanted to start his military career as a private. He eventually rose through the ranks
and became a commander late 1944. The Walloon Legion was designated as Infantry Battalion
373 and part of the German Wehrmacht. On 8 August 1941 860 left Brussels by train
for training in Meseritz. Later that month they swore an oath of allegiance to Hitler
in the fight against Bolshevism. Former Belgian colonial officer Georges Jacobs was put in charge.
Being part of the Wehrmacht these Walloon volunteers wore Wehrmacht uniforms with an
woven arm shield which showed the Belgian national colours: black, yellow, red.
Early November the Walloon Legion arrived at the Eastern Front: in Dnepropetrovsk in Ukraine. They
crossed the Dnieper river and marched further east. On 1 December 1941 they experienced their
first fatality: a captain who stepped on a mine. The weather soon got worse. The landscape was a
quagmire once they arrived now turned into an ice-cold snowscape. There was a lack of proper
winter gear and about 50 men were demobilized and repatriated. Mid-January some 320 legionaries out
of 500 were left. They had their first military engagement towards the end of February and next
month only 150 were left. Because of the losses additional recruitment was necessary.
In May 1942 another 450 volunteers left of which 337 would be deployed.
When Fall Blau – the German 1942 Summer Offensive – the Walloon Legion became part of Army Group A
that had to march into the Caucasus: Operation Edelweiss. After exhausting marches they reached
Maikop mid-August. The Soviet oilfields were sabotaged before the Red Army retreated.
They later saw combat at different villages and were finally flown out early 1943
because of their positions being threatened after the German loss at Stalingrad.
Near the end of 1942 only 208 legionnaries were combat-ready. A third recruitment
campaign led to the registrering of around
1,500 volunteers. Despite the losses the legion's battlefront experience boosted its legitimacy.
Himmler was now willing to declare the Walloons a Germanic race. This marked the end of the
Walloon Legion as on 1 June 1943 the SS Assault Brigade Wallonia (SS-Sturmbrigade Wallonien) was
formed. It had around 2,000 men and left on 11 November 1943 for the Ukrainian front.
It was here that Léon Degrelle would have his so-called moment of glory: the Cherkassy break-out
mid-February 1944. After this his face was on propaganda posters for European collaborators.
Hitler awarded him the Knight's Cross later that month. By that time the brigade had around 632
men left alive. They were withdraw and went back to Belgium for a triumphal reception. After this
Degrelle was forbidden to return to the frontline but he did anyway to join his comrades in Estonia.
After Narva had fallen in August 1944 the Axis forces moved south and the Walloons
saw action near Tartu. They held their ground but at a cost:
32 out of 260 volunteers were still standing. When later that year Belgium was liberated
by the Western Allies the unit was re-named to 28th Division of the Waffen-SS and Degrelle
became full commander. He was able to bring about 4,000 men in his division.
This was a shadow of a division and saw action in Eastern Germany in the last months of the war.
Fearing execution for treason in Belgium, Degrelle made his way to Denmark
and Norway and then fled to Francoist Spain where, sentenced to death in absentia,
he remained in exile until his death in 1994. Survivors of the unit returned to Belgium
and where they were offered re-education and training classes between 1946 and 1951.
It was reported in 1992 that there were around 1,000 surviving veterans.
Many were unrepentant and claimed not to have had any knowledge of Nazi atrocities. However:
in the chaotic last months of the war some Walloon men took part in the killings of Jews.