Americans in the SS

[Airborn_69]

I remember a documentary of 2 Irishman in the Wehrmacht and I believe there was 2 Canadians who somehow served the SS. They ended up in prison after the war I believe. I’m sure there were a few Americans in a similar situation.

There was also that movie of the Olympian Korean and Japanese Colonel stuck in the Gulags, forced to fight the Germans in Russia, got away and ended up in the German army while being captured or surrendered, good movie.

 

[Wallenstein]

Honroable mention for balls of brass :

Neall Ellis

http://forum.worldofwarplanes.com/index.php?/topic/15355-neall-ellis/

 

[Wallenstein]

I remember a documentary of 2 Irishman in the Wehrmacht and I believe there was 2 Canadians who somehow served the SS. They ended up in prison after the war I believe. I’m sure there were a few Americans in a similar situation.

There was also that movie of the Olympian Korean and Japanese Colonel stuck in the Gulags, forced to fight the Germans in Russia, got away and ended up in the German army while being captured or surrendered, good movie.

Look up : Yang Kyoungjong

I think by the end of it he will have been just very confused.

 

[QM 8687]

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.

Canadian Gen.Whitiker in his book Rhineland, describes the organised looting by our soldiers and allies. In Goch everyone was eating all the food and drinking all booze found. Brit infantry and airbourne used prams to push all their loot to rear echelon. A senior Brit officer found a Mercedes convertable and shipped it to his home London. Brit officers rounded up riding horses had them shipped back home. Canadain Armoured Regiment troops found $20,000 in diamonds, and at end of war blew up CO's jeep, and claimed diamonds, locked there, gone too. Canadians were cutting down 400 yr old tapastries from the churches and shipping them with artworks back home. Deserted Canadian soldiers were taking truck loads of army blankets, making coats and selling them to european civilians blackmarket. Just 1 of the stories out there.

 

[Grizzly Adams]

Canadian Gen.Whitiker in his book Rhineland, describes the organised looting by our soldiers and allies. In Goch everyone was eating all the food and drinking all booze found. Brit infantry and airbourne used prams to push all their loot to rear echelon. A senior Brit officer found a Mercedes convertable and shipped it to his home London. Brit officers rounded up riding horses had them shipped back home. Canadain Armoured Regiment troops found $20,000 in diamonds, and at end of war blew up CO's jeep, and claimed diamonds, locked there, gone too. Canadians were cutting down 400 yr old tapastries from the churches and shipping them with artworks back home. Deserted Canadian soldiers were taking truck loads of army blankets, making coats and selling them to european civilians blackmarket. Just 1 of the stories out there.

Nothing compared to the rape and pillage carried out by Soviet troops. So ignorant, some though, if they took faucets home, they would have running water.

Grizz

 

[enefgee]

My Great Uncle was liberated from Stalag 8B by the Russians, after having been captured fighting with the rear guard to allow time for Dunkirk. He showed a Russian officer where the Russian POW camp was, after seeing the conditions the Russian POWs were kept in, he was promptly handed a pistol and told to go into town and take anything he wanted, if anyone tried to stop him we was told just to shoot them.

 

[maple_leaf_eh]

That story rings true for Canadians in Italy. I met an old Vandoo who'd fought his way up the Italian peninsula. I asked casually which battalion. He laughed, and asked back - which one? The one fighting, the one in hospital with VD, or the one of deserters?

https://www.canada.ca/content/dam/t...tory/dhh/official/book-1956-army-ww2-2-en.pdf

Using *.pdf search tools for "deserter", I found six mentions, four for enemy and two for Canadian deserters. The almost comical part is how news of the Division's move north to Europe after the collapse of Italian resistance, hastened the generally 100-average number of deserters and 100-odd AWOL to turn themselves in lest they become stranded in Italy (page 662).

 

[GreenBob]

"SS" was the first "United Nation" org.

There are a number of books on this but if i remember correctly in total some 450,000 non-germans served in it. From Albania, French, India, UK, Spain, Latvia, Russia, Croatia, etc.