Germany would occupy France in June of 1940, doing in six weeks what the Germany of WW1
couldn't do in four years.
Even under occupation though, thousands upon thousands of Frenchmen would voluntarily join
the Germany army.
Firstly under the Legion of French Volunteers Against Bolshevism, then as the SS Charlemagne.
In today's episode, we will be covering the story of these units, and the impact they
In covering this topic, we need to go a bit further back then usual, and discuss the French
far right parties.
The French Far right had existed even prior to the first world war, with the Action Fran
aise being formed in 1899, and has actually seen a small revival in modern French politics.
Action Fran aise was a party that combined monarchism, extreme nationalism and anti-semitism
into one, while also trying to paint itself as the only true party for the Catholic populace.
After the first world war, many veterans and young men would flock to a number of these
far right parties, including Croix-de-Feu and the Parti Social Fran ais.
There would be two right-wing coup attempts of the French government during the time,
in which both failed.
This harmed the collective power of these far right parties, with them all falling into
major disarray following the 1936 Matignon Agreements, which granted a massive expansion
of workers rights and benefits in the country, undercutting one of the major points of contention
within the nation.
When France was occupied in 1940, this left a political vacuum within the nation, and
three main far right parties jumped at the opportunity to seize power.
These being the Rassemblement national populaire headed by former Minister of Air Marcel D
at.
The Parti populaire fran ais headed by Jacques Doriot, and the much smaller Mouvement Social
R volutionnaire headed by Eug ne Deloncle.
However, not all of France was occupied, and the southern end of the country was controlled
by a nominally independent Vichy France, which was still a puppet government of the Germans.
Yet, the puppet government of Philippe P tain viewed itself as neutral in the on-going conflict,
and soon, right wing factions would largely unite and fight against his government for
political power, or attempt to work outside of Petain's reach, to work directly with the
Germans.
This co-operation was aided by German ambassador Otto Abetz.
Who was in contact with Doriot in June of 1941.
Doriot suggested that a 30,000 French contingent should be created to aid the Germans in the
campaign against the Soviet Union and the war against communism, much in the similar
vein to Dutch, Belgian, Spanish, and many other such movements.
Abetz passed along the message to Hitler, who on July the 5th, authorized the creation
of such a unit, dubbed the L gion des volontaires fran ais contre le Bolch visme, or LVF for
short, thank the stars it has an abbreviation, but its enrollment was limited to 10,000.
Recruit offices would be established all across France with propaganda, pushing for young
men to join the crusade against communism, and made ties to the medieval French kingdom.
Now, I have to wonder, why did all of these collaborationist groups always talk about
their medieval kingdoms.
The French did it, The Norwegians, the Dutch, Danish to a degree, it's like folks never
actually opened a history book....
Guess that explains why MAGA was so popular here then, huh.
Regardless, recruitment efforts turned out to be pretty poor, with only 3,000 men signing
up within the first wave of recruitment.
They attempted to recruit from the large number of French POW's within Germany, but were largely
blocked by German authorities, and very few men within the Vichy army, would leave to
sign up.
Even with the racial overtones of the backers of the unit, a number of French colonials
signed up for the army, as well as a small contingent of White Russians who fled to France
after the end of the Russian Civil war.
The first contingent of recruits was assembled at Versailles for a propaganda parade on 27
August 1941 in an effort to boost public support and mark the creation of the LVF army.
At the parade though, P tain's deputy Pierre Laval and D at were shot during an attempted
assassination by a follower of the Mouvement social r volutionnaire.
This assassination attempt further harmed Vichy co-operation with the new unit, and
soured some in Germany of the creation even more.
The next day, of the roughly 3,000 recruits that were in the LVF, half of them would be
rejected, supposedly on medical ground, and this high rate of rejection would be very
common throughout the entire units existence.
One of the main reasons that the unit was so heavily limited in terms of recruitment
ability, was due to the fear of a large, standing foreign army, who, even if they are nominally
loyal to the Germans, could turn into a major problem if they would be allowed to grow in
strength both at the front and back at home.
Such organizations were to serve the diplomatic interests of the Reich, not the interests
of a nationalist revival in France.
If the Legion had ever become truly popular, German support would in all probability have
waned or been withdrawn.
The limitation on the size of the Legion was an early indication of the restrictive German
attitude towards the growth of collaborationist power.
No collaborationist leader would ever receive German support for a nationalist movement
in France.
The LVF, like all their other enterprises, was destined for failure at the moment of
birth
The French recruits had been promised that they would be fighting as an independent French
unit in French uniforms, but as per usual, that was a lie and they were instead folded
into the Wehrmacht, in Wehrmacht uniforms with only a small shield-shaped badge worn
on the right arm in the colors of the French flag to signify their origin.
They would be designated the 638th Infantry Regiment and were sent to Warsaw for basic
training in October 1941, amounting to just a total strength of 2,500.
The internal cohesion of the unit was extremely poor and significant political rivalries existed
within the group, and they'd lose 400 men to desertion and disease before ever seeing
action.
They would take part in the battle of Moscow as part of the 7th Infantry Division and would
lose half of their men within just the first two weeks of fighting, many dying from combat,
of course, but also from frostbite, and some even deserting to the Red Army.
They'd be withdrawn from the frontlines, and engage in a number of anti-partisan operations
in Belarus where they would essentially stay in until early 1944 when they were attached
an SS battalion.
As the allies landed in Normandy in June of 44.
The LVF was disbanded and incorporated, along with other French volunteer units, into a
singular SS unit, dubbed as the Charlemagne Division.
This unit would combine together the LVF, the SS Volunteer Sturmbrigade France, the
paramilitary Milice fran aise, and many more various units, having a rough standing strength
of 18,000 men.
But via casualties, desertions, and diseases, the number quickly dropped.
In February 1945, the unit was officially upgraded to a division and renamed to SS Division
Charlemagne.
At this time it had a strength of only 7,300 men.
The Charlemagne division was sent to the front in Poland but got attacked en route in Pomerania
at Czarne by elements of the 1st Belorussian front on February 25th.
1945.
Here, the division would be split into three groups.
The first, commanded by Frenchmen Edgar Puaud, would be utterly obliterated by Soviet artillery,
a second group tried to escape but was captured on March the 18th.
And a third commanded by Gustav Krukenberg, only managed to escape by the arrival of German
naval units that evacuated the men to Denmark.
By the start of April.
The Charlemagne division was down to only 700 men, a lose of 90% in just four weeks.
The remaining men would be attached to the SS Nordland division in Berlin.
Being reduced to just 30 men by April 30th.
The remainder of the unit attempted to break out, but were all captured within the following
week, mostly by the soviets, but a few managed to get between the lines, and surrender to
the allies in the west.