Americans in the SS

I remember when the first gulf war started.They said it was the largest multi national force ever assembled, not true, the wafen SS had a much larger force, about 200000 foreign volunteers.A lot of countries in Europe had their own divisions.Not many know that the last hold outs in the Reichstag were French volunteers in the "Charlemagne" division.About 15000 Ukrainians served in the "Galicia" division, they managed to surrender to the british at the end of the war instead of being shot by the Russians like so many others, a lot of them later emigrated to Canada.
 
RMXC51 said:
Pretty much every country had citizens who joined the ss
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There were Canadians captured in Dieppe who turned against the Canadian chain of command in the prison camps. I'll post the link when I find it. Not many but enough to be a problem for national commanders.
 
Don't forget about the Spanish Civil War. Boatloads of ppl from all over the world fighting in that one.
ht tps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_involvement_in_the_Spanish_Civil_War

Also, prior to the Americans entering the war in 1941, the USA itself had tons of Nazis. It was definitely a more racist place then than now. So while I was unaware of Americans in the SS, I guess it shouldn't actually be that surprising.

ht tps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_American_Bund

Here they are marching in Manhattan with a big Nazi flag --
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:German_American_Bund_NYWTS.jpg

And here's a propaganda poster promoting an event @ Madison Square Garden --
htt ps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:GAB_Rally_Poster.jpg

Here's a photo of a bunch of American 12 yo's from New Jersey doing a bunch of HJ type stuff -
htt ps://cdn.theatlantic.com/thumbor/uTS9WF7sQQkpOdYRRfH48wQt60Y=/900x660/media/img/photo/2017/06/american-nazis-in-the-1930sthe-germ/n02_514885234/original.jpg
 
purple said:
I just read an account of how surrendered French SS were summarily shot on direction of French General Leclerc. Some contrast to how we handle, or fail to handle, our ISIS "veterans".:sok2
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The French Milice were often taken out and summarily shot when caught by DeGaulle's troops. The Milice fought for the Nazis and committed many atrocities against their own people.

There are pictures on the internet showing Milice soldiers armed with British STEN guns, Lee Enfield rifles etc. that the Germans gave them to use from captured stores.
 
Got this book for $2 recently. Interesting to see all the foreign SS, including Indian!

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It’s important to note that the political situation was very complicated. If you hated communism and lived in Europe, your best bet to fight it was to join the waffen ss. The famous Viking division formed solely to fight communists, and said from the start that if they were ever asked to turn west and fight and fight anyone but Russians they would turn on the Germans.
 
RMXC51 said:
It’s important to note that the political situation was very complicated. If you hated communism and lived in Europe, your best bet to fight it was to join the waffen ss. The famous Viking division formed solely to fight communists, and said from the start that if they were ever asked to turn west and fight and fight anyone but Russians they would turn on the Germans.
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And the Indians joined to eventually push the Brits out of India. It all depended on your motivation. The current Muslim brotherhood has ties going back to before WWII and during when they formed an SS contingent that was known for their enthusiastic eradication of Jews in their area of operation.
 
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TANK1867 said:
The very small British contingent didn't get past the training stage, they were used for minor propaganda purposes only. Because of the "off" personalities they were deemed unfit.
Many hints and rumors in various history books mention two Canadians in the SS but I couldn't track down actual names.
I had great-uncles/cousins fighting for Canada against other great uncles/cousins fighting for Germany. My German grandfather absolutely refused to talk about who fought for who.
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I had relatives fighting for Canada, France, Germany, Prussia and Russia.

Not at all unusual, considering how open the borders were before WWI and that a lot of international leaders had international relatives.
 
TANK1867 said:
The very small British contingent didn't get past the training stage, they were used for minor propaganda purposes only. Because of the "off" personalities they were deemed unfit.
Many hints and rumors in various history books mention two Canadians in the SS but I couldn't track down actual names.
 I had great-uncles/cousins fighting for Canada against other great uncles/cousins fighting for Germany. My German grandfather absolutely refused to talk about who fought for who.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_members_of_the_British_Free_Corps

In the big table #20 and #34. Thomas Freeman, and Edwin Martin.
 
WWII was complicated on a large scale. General Eisenhower admitted summer of 1944 that 25,000 armed deserters from Canadian, American and Brit armies. Daily attacking both axis and allies, across Europe, robing, blowing up trains, raiding depots,hijacking convoys, even setting up their own private looting armies. I worked with an old OSS soldier from Virginia who was ordered in 1947 to track down 18 American art and gold looters. Caught 1 in Italy owning a million dollar estate but he made buck fifty a day U.S. army pay. Following year the OSS had him go after SS looters too. So George Washington unit sounds possible.
 
Look up the French Foreign Legion, they actively recruited in the prison camps after 45.

Quite a few SS veterans ended up fighting in Vietnam for the French, and when captured were used as a useful propaganda tool for the VC (once they figured out why the Prisoners at Dien Bien Phu asked for Sauerkraut).
 
^ There is a book called Devil’s Guard. The argument is whether the book is fiction or non-fiction.

The Germans in the FFL quickly sorted out the Vietnamese with their tactics. The Vietnamese learned not to mess with the Germans.
 
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