France Fights On (English Translation) - Thread III - The lost files

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Anti-Soviet partners: Balts, Ukrainians and Belarusians
Much less anecdotal, on the other hand, were the collaborations established from the start of operations on the Eastern Front with certain populations of the USSR.

Nationalism, anti-communism but above all anti-Semitism: the Balts
Among the peoples returning from the Workers' Paradise and imagining – quite wrongly – that the German armies had come to liberate them, the Baltic countries were the main suppliers of men – in the absence of Finland, which was barely clinging to its neutrality.
Remember, however, that they had some reason to resent the Soviets... In July 1940, taking advantage of its non-aggression pact with Germany as the global collapse of the pre-war world order, the Stalin's Russia had quite simply annexed Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia without any qualms other than not encroaching too much on Hitler's ambitions. Two years of fierce occupation followed, marked by repression by NKVD troops, armed resistance from part of the population and the settlement of Russian-speaking settlers. Latvians still call this period Baigais Gados – Years of Horrors.
In the summer of 1942, German troops therefore entered the Baltic countries, occupying Lithuania and a large part of Latvia, but without being able to reach Tallinn and take all of Estonia. In this sector deemed not very strategic by the two adversaries – who had understood that Leningrad would remain away from the fighting – the operations dragged on quite quickly, between insufficient means, terrain unfavorable to the offensive and cold climate. In the end, if Estonia - as well as the north of Latvia up to the Dvina - were liberated in June 1943 by the Soviet armies, the Axis had to hang on until the spring of 1944 in the west. of Latvia, and even later in Lithuania.
Obviously, such a context should have been most favorable to the Reich – which for once had both the time and the interlocutors to establish a good level of political collaboration. And yet, the local governments naturally resulting from the Soviet withdrawal – and although originally quite ready to collaborate with Germany! – in fact lasted only a very short time. In Lithuania, the provisional government of Juozas Ambrazevičius, which came out of the woods after the invasion but was deprived of recognition and of any real power by Germany, decided to dissolve at the end of the summer of 1942, after less than three months. of existence. For its part, the former Latvian government of Jüri Uluots (although duly asked to lead the "autonomous administration" put in place) was to prove much more reserved politically - it finally preferred to hand over, but without falling into the active resistance against the German armies. An attitude that turned out, with hindsight, to be full of wisdom: in the minds of the Nazis, the Baltic countries were destined to become lands of German settlement, their former inhabitants having the vocation of serving as slave labor for the settlers, or to settle in former Russian lands. Due to a lack of time and resources, this policy – the Generalplan Ost – was fortunately never put in place.
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The German armies were therefore deprived of any legitimate political interlocutor, which theoretically closed the door to any significant assistance from the Baltics present near the fighting. Alas, alas, alas, there was however in this region, and especially in Latvia, a significant part of the local population ready to fight against the former occupants, even if it was alongside the new ones and despite the instructions of their leaders! Unfortunately, this was only the logical evolution of other collaborations, which had not waited for the arrival of the front to be set up: from the Soviet withdrawal, beyond the constitution of militias intended to drive out the Communists and their collaborators, numerous anti-Jewish and anti-Gypsy pogroms had spontaneously broken out. And subsequently, some Latvians had taken an extremely active part in the extermination of the Jews by the Einsatzgruppen – among them, the Sonderkommando Arājs (named after its leader, Viktors Arājs), which was responsible, together with the SS, for the death of 100,000 people in the Baltic countries and beyond in Belarus*.
Let us specify, however, to qualify this very dark image, that this attitude was not as universal as has been claimed: approximately 50,000 Latvians had fled the German advance – for them, obviously, the Nazis were not not liberators. But the fact remains that the latter represented at best only 5% of the population. And whatever the circumstances, there were still in 1942 and 1943 a large number of Latvians who preferred the German occupation to the Soviet one.
The Reich, well aware of this state of affairs, was quick to enlist the volunteers for initially minor tasks, in particular garrisons and maintenance of order – which was ensured by a police force entirely composed of former civil servants. … from police ! The Latvian Auxiliary Police, a real state organization, was set up in the first weeks of the German occupation by SS Brigadeführer Franz Walter Stahlecker (commander of Einsatzgruppe A), who officially charged Lieutenant-Colonel Voldemārs Veiss (former officer of the army of Riga) to set up a force capable of assisting it in its occupations, including beyond the borders of the former Latvia if necessary.
Officially created on August 3, 1942, with Captain Pētersons as operational manager, this formation put a first “external operations battalion”, the 1. Schutzmannschaft-Abteilung, on line two months later. A second followed in December, then many others. These units soon left Latvia and found themselves, beyond their current KriPo and SiPo activities, heavily involved in the activities of the Sonderkommando Arājs, carrying out roundups or simply preparing mass graves. But the LAP did not stop there. After participating in the construction of the Panther line, in anti-partisan operations (including “WinterZauber”, which caused 12,000 deaths during the winter of 43-44), in the active guard (then in the elimination…) of the Warsaw ghetto, she ended up officially lending a hand to the Axis forces during the fighting in the spring of 1944, while ensuring the surveillance of numerous convoys of deportees!
In March 1944, there were no less than 30 battalions of Latvian police covering the rear of the Heer, over a wide area stretching from the Baltic to the Carpathians, where the Hungarians took over. Although poorly armed (to the point that their members were sometimes caught stealing modern weapons from German soldiers!) and poorly supplied, they rendered the Reich an invaluable service, although stubbornly refusing to fight against the Poles or against the Ukrainian separatists. . However, the few "Resistance" actions carried out in this context (intelligence in favor of the Polish Secret Army, passive obstruction of Nazi requisitions, criticism of Reich policy, etc*.) do not change anything in this painful state of affairs: the police Latvian – and Latvians in general – helped Germany a lot.
So much, in fact, that as early as September 1943, the ReichsFührer-SS himself required the incorporation of members of the Brothers of the Forest into the 13. SS-Waffen Grenadier-Division der SS Kurland (so named for reasons of propaganda, but comprising mainly Volksdeutsches from East Prussia and the Baltic). On the same day, he also ordered the merger of the 19th and 21st Battalions of the Latvian police into an SS infantry brigade: the 2. SS-Brigade. Supervised by convalescents from the Totenkopf, this unit, which also included various foreign volunteers (including a few Walloons!), was then reinforced by the 18th and 24th Battalions, again at the express request of Himmler, who had noted with pleasure the good behavior of its recruits in the defense of Riga, as well as the quality of their collaboration with the Wiking troops present in the same sector.
So much, in fact, that as early as September 1943, the ReichsFührer-SS himself required the incorporation of members of the Brothers of the Forest*** into the 13. SS-Waffen Grenadier-Division der SS Kurland (so named for reasons of propaganda, but comprising mainly Volksdeutsches from East Prussia and the Baltic). On the same day, he also ordered the merger of the 19th and 21st Battalions of the Latvian police into an SS infantry brigade: the 2. SS-Brigade. Supervised by convalescents from the Totenkopf, this unit, which also included various foreign volunteers (including a few Walloons!), was then reinforced by the 18th and 24th Battalions, again at the express request of Himmler, who had noted with pleasure the good behavior of its recruits in the defense of Riga, as well as the quality of their collaboration with the Wiking troops present in the same sector.
The 2. SS-Brigade became in January 1944 the 19. Waffen-Grenadier-brigade der SS (lettische), under the command of Karl Freiherr von Fischer-Treuenfeld. It was, it seems, to form the nucleus of a division of PanzerGrenadiers. Nothing came of it: the brigade was swept away by the Soviet spring offensive of 1944 and the survivors fought until surrender, without being able to change anything during the war. As for the Kurland, it disappeared on the Polish front during the last months of the conflict.
In January 1944, when the situation in Germany continued to deteriorate, Adolf Hitler himself signed the decree creating the "Latvian Legion", supervised by the SS and whose nucleus would be made up of volunteers who had joined the Sonderkommando Arājs as well as volunteer police. It was - once again and initially - to ensure the security of the rear of the Heer, in addition to the Auxiliary Police mentioned above and before, perhaps, going to fight against the Red Army. To complete the ranks, the initial call for volunteerism quickly turned to forced conscription – the choice being left between the Waffen-SS, the Legion or deportation. In total, the Latvian Legion mustered a good 20,000 men, 80% of them genuine volunteers, but it never had the slightest combat value. In reality, it seems that it was mainly used as a reservoir of recruits for the two units mentioned above. And finally, if the Luftwaffe also considered, according to its archives, to create a Luftwaffen-Legion Lettland, this project obviously never materialized.
In total, it is estimated that almost 80,000 Latvians served in the German army, either as policemen or as soldiers. Among them, few forcibly recruited, few real Nazis, but many anti-Semitic nationalists united in hatred of the Reds and the Jews. A grim picture, especially for such a small country!
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A country which was not, unfortunately, the only Baltic nation to actively collaborate - and it seems that this collaboration could have been stronger if the conflict had taken another turn more favorable to the Axis. Due to the fortune of the arms as well as certain local specificities, this cooperation did not, however, reach the levels observed in Riga. However, they are worth mentioning.
Estonia was not occupied long enough to put its former national defense militia, the Omakaitse (dormant since the Soviet occupation), into the service of the Wehrmacht. Nevertheless, nearly 10,000 Estonians carried out a veritable guerrilla war until after the war. Under the command of Major Friedrich Kurg, this greatly hampered the armies of the Baltic Fronts. They were joined in January 1944 by around 20,000 additional Estonian volunteers, rallied by the desperate (and irresponsible) appeal that former Prime Minister Jüri Uluots had made on the airwaves to incite anti-Soviet resistance – even enlistment under the German banner, which was the case for 500 of them, passing through the Baltic.
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For its part, Lithuania still tried for a short time to forge an ambiguous relationship with the Reich, even though its provisional government had dissolved under the rebuffs of the Germans. In return, Berlin devoted a certain energy to trying to recruit Lithuanians under its banner, and especially under its command. But the attempts yielded nothing, or very little: although naturally hostile to the Poles, the Lithuanians organized a complete boycott of recruitment. Faced with this obstinate refusal, the Reich had to abandon its ambitions to raise troops in Lithuania.
However, Lithuania was indeed to collaborate with the Reich – but above all against some of its inhabitants and against its neighbors (especially the Poles…), much more than against the Russians! The Lithuanian Police Auxiliary Battalions – Lietuvos apsaugos dalys (Lithuanian Security Units) – and the Saugumo policija actively participated in the Holocaust and the suppression of the Secret Army, putting 14,000 people at the service of the worst****, under command German. The majority of them fled the Soviet advance and then settled in West Germany after the war – very few were put on trial.

* Viktors Arajs, although captured by the British, was mysteriously released for no apparent reason in 1948, before settling in West Germany. He was not worried until 1975: arrested and tried in 1979 by the Hamburg State Court, he died in solitary confinement in Kassel prison in 1988. His deputy, Herberts Cukurs, was able to fled to Brazil and then to Uruguay, where he was shot by the Mossad in 1965. Thanks to the anti-Jewish diligence of these two men and a few others, the extermination rate of Jews in Lithuania had reached no less than 97% – either among the highest in Europe. The Sonderkommando Arājs was responsible for a good half of this result.
** Let us cite the case of Captain Praudiņš, arrested for “vigorous” anti-German remarks and sentenced to death at the beginning of 1944 – which did not prevent him from becoming a simple soldier against the Soviets on the front in May!
*** Organization of anti-Soviet resistance fighters from the Baltic States, which was to oppose the Soviets by force until the death of Stalin – the slight relaxation that followed allowed their amnesty.
**** This was again a spontaneous action by the Lithuanians. These units came from the Tautinio darbo apsaugos batalionas of the provisional government, active barely a week after the arrival of the Germans and which remained in place despite the disappearance of their supervisory authority.

 

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Scorned but useful: the “policemen” of the Schuma
In addition to the Balts, Ukrainians and Belarusians also fought against the Soviets – but in fact, very little on the side of the Reich. Guilty of being "of Slavic race", Germany long treated their attempts at negotiation with contempt. However, the tasks of "maintaining order" and "pacification" found in them valuable voluntary performers who joined the Schutzmannschaft (or Schuma, Auxiliary Police), placed under the aegis of the SS. This improvised organization, which also incorporated the Baltic police already mentioned, brought together more than 175,000 men in all – including a large number of Ukrainians, Belarusians, and even Russians. The Reich hastened, of course, to make these volunteers sign commitments for six months to a year (which were to become permanent in 1943), then grouping them into no less than 400 battalions! Notoriously little supervised by the Germans who gladly let them go *, they contributed largely to the Holocaust as well as to the repression of the movements of Partisans alongside the SS-Polizei-battalions, in addition of course to more mundane tasks of maintaining the order (including firefighting!) or guarding prisoners.
Volunteers for these tasks and zealous collaborators of the German death machine, it was impossible for us not to present them here. It should be noted, however, that the Schuma was never considered by the Reich to be a true Nazi organization – this is why the name Schutzmannschaft replaced the initial one of Hilfspolizei (a term considered to be far too rewarding). And of course, there was no question of these vile Slavic subhumans wearing stripes or German uniforms**… A simple white armband on the raincoat was the only generalized distinctive insignia!
In total, we can estimate that in addition to the 55,000 Balts mentioned above, no less than 40,000 Belarusians, 60,000 Ukrainians and 20,000 Russians assisted the German army – this while, on their side, the forces of the 'Orpo (Ordnungspolizei, the German police in uniform) on the Eastern Front never exceeded 20,000 men!
Schuma volunteers were often young (under 25 on average for Belarusians), attracted by the promise of a new professional start in the police, and united in hatred of Communists and Jews, nationalism, but also sometimes the simple wish to receive a salary and to protect his family against the Nazi Occupation. Some Soviet prisoners of war also joined the movement, driven by hunger – and with them, many common criminals.
From September 1943, with increasing setbacks on the front, the SS tried to “professionalize” the Schuma while educating him politically. This approach never really bore fruit: the Schuma was and remained a gathering of opportunists, less and less armed and supplied by their protectors as the war progressed. A good number of them deserted during the rout of 1944 – the rumor (largely true!) that the Western Allied armies would not be interested in them precipitated many flees towards the West. Those who remained until the end under German supervision – sometimes as concentration camp guards – were handed over to the USSR, which inflicted the death penalty on the most compromised of them and sent the others to the Gulag.
A sinister story – but the existence of this organization explains why the Axis armies were able to maintain a very relative tranquility in the rear of the Ostfront until the end.

*One out of three officers in the best of cases, and less than one out of ten privates
** The men of the Schuma could, however, receive decorations.

 

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Edited above (2 notes added)

Voluntary and motivated: the lost soldiers of the Galizien
From the winter of 1942 and beyond the tasks of maintaining order and other menial chores, it seemed tempting to the most pragmatic German officials to consider a form of partnership with the Ukrainian nationalist movements, still just as active although already a little recovered from their illusions*. Recruit sub-humans to fight against Bolshevism, on the one hand – temporarily serve a master who would not be worse than the previous one, even if it means taking up arms again later against him, on the other. From this uneasy alliance was born in particular the 12. Waffen-Grenadier-Division der SS Galizien, on the basis of a proposal by the military governor of Galicia, Doktor Otto von Wächter.
Wächter had to fight for a long time to carry out his project, even though he had Himmler's ear. To please the most doctrinaire National Socialists, he had to go so far as to invent a fable emphasizing the "Austro-Hungarian" character of Galicia, even though a majority of the recruits were Ukrainian... It mattered little, the efficiency and hypocrisy triumphed. Sign of the urgency, recruitment operations (posters, radios, speeches) began on December 28, 1942, with the full support of the Central Ukrainian Committee, led by Volodymyr Kubiovych, as well as of the Catholic Church – the latter had to even obtain the presence of chaplains in the formation, an absolutely incredible requirement for the SS, where only the Handschar and the Wallonia brigade could claim religious exception!
The Galizien eventually gathered 15,000 men motivated by the fight against Bolshevism, who took the oath only within this framework and did not undergo any form of political education. Its creation unleashed a kind of enthusiasm in the “liberated” territories of Ukraine, many wanting to see it as the first step towards an independent Ukrainian army. It was naturally the subject of abundant communication, even beyond occupied Europe**, and triggered a form of Ukrainian national unity, between moderates and radicals as well as between Catholics and Orthodox... Each pretending not to know that it was, of course, under purely German command – and first under the authority of General Fritz Freitag.
Held in reserve during the start of Operation Zitadelle, the Galizien saw fire within the 6. Armee and made some good progress in Jitomir, before returning to the second line due to significant losses. But, hardly rested, it was thrown on August 4, 1943 on the road of the Soviet tanks which were going to pierce around Ulashanivka. The Ukrainians held on, thus saving their German comrades from a possible disaster, but at the cost of losses which reached 80% for some companies. What remained of it could not, for obvious political reasons, merge with other more or less diminished units, the Galizien left to reconstitute itself in Slovakia (where many of its members had family ties). This “reconstitution” continued as the Axis gradually lost Ukraine, the flow of volunteers dried up… and then Slovakia rose up (lately) against the German ally! There followed a very painful period of anti-guerrilla warfare between the SS of Galizien and the rebellious forces – the two camps not hesitating to take hostage the families of their adversaries, or to engage in reprisals against them. Note that if 200 SS deserted to join the Resistance, the other 6,000 remained against all odds on the side of the Axis.
Finally withdrawn south of Prague, the division was sent to the Eastern Front, in Hungary. During the final breakup, it made its way south to Austria. Deprived of their German general (who had resigned in the confusion) but reinforced by some Ukrainian nationalist elements who had rallied along the way, the SS surrendered to the forces of the 18th Allied Army Group.
They were then interned in Rimini, without anyone really knowing what to do with them. Considering themselves still Polish citizens, they had the idea of appealing to the Polish government, to General Anders and even to the Catholic Church! Thanks to the intervention of Pope Pius XII (who described them as 'good Catholics and fervent anti-Communists'!), the former SS were finally allowed to join the Polish army or to immigrate to the United Kingdom or the Canada… Curious end for a unit which – apart from its fights against the Red Army – had also committed a good number of war crimes, against the Slovaks, but above all against the Jews and Poles who were members of the Secret Army. In one of his speeches to the unit, did not Himmler say: "I know that if I ordered you to liquidate the Jews and the Poles, I would only be authorizing you to do what you expect looking forward to it anyway. »? Finally, it is not excluded that certain members of the Schuma very involved in the Holocaust could have joined the ranks of the Galizien in 1944, before the latter left for the South...
All this is perhaps not unrelated to the fact that most of the survivors of the division actually ended up settling in Canada - a country whose government, despite serious and documented accusations launched by various personalities Jewish and/or Polish, still refuses today to judge these immigrants, in the absence of evidence of individual responsibility which is very difficult to establish and in defiance of the conclusions of the Nuremberg trial...

*Including the OUN, which fought both with and against the Reich, according to the orientation of its currents...
** Many Ukrainian leaders in exile, but also some members of the Polish government installed in London, publicly displayed their "understanding" of the men of Galizien – who, after all, had been Polish until 1939… It took a firm intervention from the France and England so that the Polish government finally condemns any collaboration with the Reich, even against the Soviets.

 

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Assassins and thieves: the Kaminski Brigade
Another unit of similar origin (although smaller in scale) behaved even more sinisterly: the 18. Waffen-Grenadier-Division der SS, made up of Belarusians and Ukrainians from the Lokot region.
It was initially an auxiliary police force (one more!) of 2,000 men. But under the command of a charismatic leader, Bronislav Kaminski (a chemical engineer imprisoned for political reasons by the Soviets), this unit grew to 12,000 men! Called the “Russian National Liberation Army” (Russkaya Osvoboditelnaya Narodnaya Armiya – RONA, a term that would be taken up later…) by its promoters, it was attached to the Waffen-SS in September 1943 under the name SS-Sturmbrigade Kaminski. Although well equipped with heavy weapons, it was not promoted to the rank of division until the very end of 1943. Previously, it had "provided security" in the rear of HG Mitte, multiplying violence and crimes against the civilian population.
In January 1944, the 18. Waffen-Grenadier-Division was sent to the front line to halt the Soviet advance. Swept away by Bagration and reduced to 4,000 men, the division then fell back towards Silesia. Taking seriously the label Kaminski had given it, the Waffen-SS now considered making it the nucleus of a new Russian army! But she didn't have time.
During the Warsaw Uprising, the Reich sent her, alongside many other assassins, to put down the revolt of the Poles and massacre the inhabitants of their capital. During these fights, the 18. WGD distinguished itself by extreme violence – it is estimated that it massacred during this single operation more than ten thousand civilians – coupled with a strong propensity for looting. The latter greatly upset the Germans, who did not like looting in their place: found guilty of thefts of Reich property and of having lost control of his men, the Waffen-Brigadeführer der SS Kaminski was shot by the Gestapo after a brief court-martial… The German command will then try to camouflage the execution in ambush of the Resistance, by presenting the command car abundantly machine-gunned with heavy weapons – equipment from which the insurgents however hardly benefited! The explanation therefore did not convince those for whom it was intended... Now ravaged by indiscipline and desertions, the unit was disbanded in April 1944 and the survivors transferred to other "Slavic" formations or sent to concentration camps. work as guards… sometimes even as prisoners! The armies of the United Nations will find them there – in 1945, all were sent back to the USSR. The majority were sentenced to death there.

 

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The “Russian” Waffen-SS

As we have seen, the Reich in general and the Waffen-SS in particular only employed Slavs – Balts, Belarusians, Ukrainians… – with reluctance, despite the worst strategic setbacks. How, under these conditions, could the Black Order – concerned about the race of its members to the point of intervening in their married life – have committed the ultimate inconsistency, enlisting under its banner the worst of sub-humans, including he constantly demanded extermination: the Russians? And conversely, how could there have been individuals ready to fight on behalf of an organization openly calling for their elimination?
And yet… In spite of the most severe warnings from Hitler (who, moreover, was not informed until everything was finished, or almost!), he found himself on both sides of the men to override the Nazi doctrine. Some, at the cost of pseudo-scientific semantic contortions adding the absurd to the absurd, under the pressure of the evolution of the conflict and the growing needs of the Reich in human material. The others, in the hope that Nazi domination would always be less severe than the Stalinist yoke – a yoke whose memory was undoubtedly not for nothing in many setbacks suffered by the Red Army during the Great Patriotic War.
Thus the Waffen-SS set up, during the year 1943, three “Russian” units worthy of mention. It should be noted, however, that their formation was late and that they remained quite modest in size, due to German prejudices as well as the fact that the Axis forces did not penetrate far enough into Soviet territory to seek out other peoples tired of the communist tutelage, which they could have tried to raise against Moscow.
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• The SS-Kaukasisher-Freiwilligen Gebirgs-Brigade was created in January 1943 with Soviet prisoners taken out of the camps where they were dying*. We hoped to bring together men of different Caucasian origins, possibly reinforced by members of the diaspora – a risky approach to say the least! And far from the hoped-for Chechens, the Kaukasisher was mostly made up of… Armenians of Polish origin, hence its pompous nickname of the Armenische Legion. The brigade was also theoretically sponsored by Drastamat Kanayan, Armenian Minister of Defense during the (very) brief period of the country's independence in 1920.
It comprised four battalions (including one of engineers), supervised by German officers and in whose ranks there were also a few Georgians. It should be noted that no volunteers were ever found who were able to receive executive training.
After a quick training in Poland, the brigade was engaged for the benefit of the 17th Army to stop the Soviet offensive towards Odessa. It was a complete disaster: poorly commanded, the unit suffered heavy losses and many recruits deserted to the Soviet lines. In fact, the vast majority of the volunteers had probably been attracted by the promise of pay, hot meals and – overall – a certain protection that their uniform would offer them against the German soldiers, much more than by the rhetoric nationalist of liberation of their country… After the war, the historians will not identify besides - and so to speak - any fascist dynamics in this formation.
The remains of the brigade were therefore very quickly sent to Belgium for obscure garrison or road maintenance tasks. Worn down by desertions, then united by the fear of being handed over to the Soviets, the unit was reinforced at the end of 1943 by a certain number of Crimean Tatars who had also come out of the prison camps (but this time really volunteers). The Kaukasisher fought to the end, in the swamps of Zeeland and with the obstinacy of despair.
In total, this formation saw 15,000 Armenians and 7,500 Tatars pass through. It disappeared in the most general indifference – including that of the Germans for that matter! Adolf Hitler expounded on him at the dawn of 1944: "I do not know what to say about these Georgians and Armenians: they do not belong to the Turkish race... In truth, I consider that only Muslim Turks are reliable – all others are completely dubious. Today like yesterday, I have always considered the formation of these battalions of pure Caucasians as very risky, without perceiving a similar danger with purely Muslim units. Rosenberg can say what he wants**, the military too, I will never trust them! »
• The SS-Osttürkisher-Freiwilligen Kavalerie-Brigade, raised in November 1943, was born precisely from the whims of the Führer, who readily imagined an uprising of the Soviet Turkic speakers, and the intrigues of the Grand Mufti Mohammad Amin al-Husayni, always in search of an earthly means to establish one's spiritual power. Nicknamed Osttürkisher Brigade, it was mainly composed of two “legions”: the Turkistanische Legion and the Aserbaidschanische Legion.
The Turkistanische Legion essentially brought together Turkmen and Turkoman prisoners of war, united in hatred of the communist Russian as well as in respect for the harangues of Nuri Killigil known as Nuri Pasha, half-brother of Enver Pasha. Representing approximately 12,000 men (12 battalions), this formation was looted by the Heer when the 162. ID was formed (see below), and the SS was ultimately only able to retain 4,000 members. However, it is hard to believe that prisoners from Central Asia could have been disputed between Heer and Waffen-SS…
The Azerbaijani Legion (or Kaukasische-Mohammedanische Legion) should, no doubt, have split into two “sub-legions”, that of the North Caucasus and that of Azerbaijan. It brought together, alongside many prisoners, many Caucasian volunteers who had fled the Soviets and were thirsty for revenge against Bolshevism. There were 40,000 of them, including Kazakhs, Uzbeks, Kyrgyz and even some Tajiks from Siberia… all under the authority of a main leader, former Soviet major Abdurrahman Fatalibeyli***.
The best Osttürkisher members would have been engaged in Operation Zeppelin – the RSHA's attempt to destabilize the Soviet republics of Central Asia. Although there is a lack of data on this operation, the total failure of German operations in this area is today stamped with the seal of evidence. Assigned to garrison duties in the rear of HG Süd-Ukraine, under the command of Major then SS-Obersturmbannührer Andreas Meyer-Mader **** (a former adviser to Tchang Kai-check!), the bulk of the Osttürkisher-Brigade did not live finally the fight only alongside the security forces of the Heer, who had to constantly monitor it because of the risk of desertions, even defections. This mediocre formation, so poorly equipped that even its uniforms were disparate (although it was authorized to wear Nazi insignia), never inspired the confidence of anyone. It was finally sent to the Polish-Belarusian border for reorganization in the winter of 1943-1944. There, Meyer-Mader was killed in an ambush by the Belarusian Resistance.
His replacement, SS-Hauptsturmführer Billig, took the reins in February 1944 and quickly distinguished himself by a terrible arrogance and a taste for disciplinary executions – which further increased desertions, to the point of costing him his place! In the meantime, the Osttürkisher was to participate in the suppression of the Warsaw Uprising, however, alongside other SS units (including the 18. WGD Kaminski and the terrible Sonderkommando Dirlewanger). She was then involved in the Wola massacre, led by the Kampfgruppe Reinefarth and which resulted in the death of nearly 40,000 civilians. Then, in March 1944, now commanded by SS-Standartenführer Arved Theuermann and placed under the direct authority of the General Government, it contributed to the more general pacification of occupied Poland in the context of a pause in military operations, before a new pause …
Regrouped now in Slovakia, the formation, which only represented 4,500 fighters, then saw some of its members go to reinforce the Kaukasisher, in the process of disintegration! At that time, the Waffen-SS like the Heer had renounced all administrative coherence as well as the least criteria for recruitment. Rumors and dissension finished undermining the unit, which ran from one point to another on the Eastern Front and as far as Austria, to take part in operations of repression.
Eventually, his last commander, SS-Standartenführer Haroun el-Raschid Hintersatz (or Wilhelm Hintersatz, a converted Austrian officer…) made a pact with the British forces arriving from Veneto, under the terms of which his troops would surrender against the promise of no reprisals… which did not deprive the “Caucasians” of a subsequent transfer to the USSR.
• The SS-Kosaken-Freiwilligen Kavalerie-Brigade was without doubt the most coherent of all the “Russian” formations of the SS, since it came from the Heer's 1. Kosaken-Kavallerie-Division (see below), and this when well even it brought together at the same time White Russians, prisoners of war and Cossacks of different origins who came spontaneously to meet the Germans to fight against Stalin. This unit was transferred to the Waffen-SS in October 1943, initially to contribute to the anti-partisan struggle in Ukraine.
In fact, it fought mainly under the command of Helmuth von Pannwitz ***** in the Romanian Carpathians, then in Hungary – where it played a small role in bringing the Honvèd to heel after the April 1944 ******* overthrow attempt. It then represented two regiments, the Platows and von Jungschulz – that is to say 15,000 men… with their families.
The SS-Kosaken was then sent to the Sava valley, where the Axis faced an Allied offensive as well as the Titoist insurrection - it cannot however be excluded that the fear of a defection if it remained in the face in the Red Army also played in this assignment. She quickly gained a reputation for ruthless efficiency, worthy of her elders Handschar and Prinz Eugen. Charged with defending the Sarajevo-Zagreb link against the Partisans, her behavior was so fierce that she drew complaints from the Ustashi regime (!), which indicated that the telegraph poles which it was struggling to have planted were not not intended for mass hangings… The few courts-martial and disciplinary executions – limited but real: 40 documented hangings – did not change anything: in the wild Balkans, the Cossacks were out of control!
The brigade then faced throughout 1944 the Allied advance, fighting with ferocity and efficiency against troops that were much better equipped and more numerous.
Finally captured in Austria against the promise of British protection, the Cossacks were immediately transferred by the Allied military authorities (in application of the secret clauses of the Yalta Accords) to the Red Army present in Hungary. The officers were executed there while the surviving enlisted men were sent to the Gulag. There were hardly any left: in Lienz, the Cossacks and their families preferred to commit mass suicide rather than be handed over to the Soviets, while the Red Army carried out numerous summary executions on the prisoners as soon as they got off the trucks. On the Liechtenstein border, a hundred families were mowed down by machine guns as soon as they left the duchy where they had taken refuge! Dark episode, which honors no one – neither the Soviets nor the Western Allies. One cannot exclude here a form of haggling from which the Ukrainians of Galizien could have benefited, a little less compromised at the expense of an allied state (in this case, the Federal Kingdom of Yugoslavia) and which could be more useful in the future for the British secret service.
Even more astonishing: fifty years after the events, von Pannwitz, condemned in 1945 for war crimes after an express trial, was rehabilitated by the Russian Supreme Military Prosecutor's Office, as a victim of Stalinism! The decision was later challenged, however, and the charges against the Cossack leader have since been reinstated – a sign, if need be, that the subject of pro-German auxiliaries remains politically hot in Moscow.
………
To conclude, let us point out that the 14. SS-Panzergrenadier-Division Götz von Berlichingen also integrated a certain number of volunteers from all walks of life, including in particular Galicians and Romanians - but most often on an individual basis and above all without the officials concerned defined any ethnic strategy.
*Let us recall that in spite of meticulous preparation by Barbarossa, the Reich affected to completely despise the management of its Soviet prisoners. The latter were most often grouped together on simple vacant lots surrounded by barbed wire, without shelter and with very little food. Exposed to the sun, then to the rain, then to the mud, then to the cold, many were those who perished during the winter of 1942-43... and even more many who were ready to do anything to escape it!
** Alfred Rosenberg actually constructed a preposterous theory in 1943, equating Caucasians with Indo-Europeans, therefore with Aryans likely to be enrolled in the Heer! This rickety assertion – including by Nazi standards! – did not even convince the SS, which until the end considered the Caucasians as Levantines much closer to the Jews than to the Master Race.
*** Fatalibeyli was later to participate in the Battle of Berlin, survive the conflict, emigrate to the United States and finally work for the OSS and then the CIA while being an adviser for the Arab armies fighting with Israel! He was probably assassinated by the KGB in Munich in 1953.
**** Meyer-Mader had already raised a battalion of Turkmens in December 1942 on behalf of the Heer. The results had been so bad that he had been relieved of his command. The interested party had to go personally to seek the support of Himmler so that his project and his career could be relaunched.
***** A former officer in the Imperial German Army, the FreiKorps and the Schwarze Reichswehr, he had commanded the SA of Silesia then a Reiterverband bearing his name on behalf of the Heer.
******* His feat of arms was a night charge, saber drawn, against an artillery position, resulting in the capture of three batteries and 450 prisoners...

 

[demolitiondan]

The Hiwis, more or less volunteers and more or less non-combatants

Finally, the most massive use of Russian volunteers – or at least Soviet, because its promoters never saw the difference – was indeed the use of Hilfswilliger (volunteer auxiliaries), quickly abbreviated to Hiwis, who served as a hand servants, even combatants, for the Heer until the end of the conflict.
The use of the latter, although theoretically still prohibited in the Heer, stems from a very simple reality: the 'regular' German army still and always bore the brunt of the war effort. A war that never ended and whose losses were increasing: for the year 1942 alone, the Heer deplored 500,000 dead or missing – we would rise to 900,000 in 1943. The Great Reich having no line (in 1943, and excluding the Luftwaffe and the Kriegsmarine, which were later to provide infantry) than seven million soldiers, it will be easily understood that Berlin could not afford to accept these losses without doing anything except to reduce its order of battle – an obviously unthinkable eventuality. And moreover, although increasingly rival of the Waffen-SS, the Wehrmacht felt that it was losing a little more influence every day against the men in black, even if the latter accumulated questionable performances – the stampede of the 6. SS Nord being the most shameful and spectacular death ride of the I. SS-PzK. Such an admission of weakness could have led to the disgrace of many generals with the Führer, or even to sign the end of the relative tranquility which the Wehrmacht still enjoyed within the Nazi apparatus. So another solution had to be found.
However, among the multiple tasks that it sometimes struggled to assume, as we have seen, the Heer kept the upper hand over the prison camps, particularly Soviet ones. Who were notoriously less well treated than Western prisoners – their avowed destiny being to die of hunger and cold! Even though the victories of the armies of the Reich had not been as decisive as hoped, at the end of 1942, two million unfortunates were now dying in their Stalags. However, these men whom the Heer treated so badly nevertheless cost her in terms of organization and custody, and it was then that she realized that they could undoubtedly prove more useful – especially since they were very many! These victims of the ongoing Vernichtungskrieg (war of annihilation) should be easy to turn around, to perform the most thankless – but also the most necessary – tasks incumbent on an army in the field, all against the mere promise of a lukewarm meal.
In a quasi-natural way, the local hierarchies, then the OKH, therefore implemented a stratagem that can be described as a “demographic sham”, by increasingly delegating the tasks to its rear - for the police at the Schuma presented above, and at the Hiwis for everything related to stewardship and low-level work. Neither the Führer nor the Nazi hierarchy could or wished to stop this “campaign arrangement” which eventually became the norm in the German army – to the point of being integrated into the standard order of battle of 1943*! This most pragmatic bias was not for nothing in the collapse of 1944, when the operational centers of the Axis were encumbered with panicked auxiliaries who tried by all means to flee their posts...
It is estimated that around 400,000 were thus recruited as more or less forced labourers. Still wearing their Soviet uniform now adorned with an armband "Im Dienst der Deutschen Wehrmacht" [In the service of the German Wehrmacht], they assumed all the ancillary tasks: unloading of equipment, cleaning, cooking, infirmary, transmission of messages, driving utility vehicles**, road maintenance, storage of weapons, engineering earthworks, installation of barracks... operating like true colonial auxiliaries worthy of the 19th century. Of course, the Hiwis weren't supposed to be allowed to carry a weapon – but in fact, they quickly provided static guards.
Initially limited to 15% of each unit, the proportion of auxiliaries actually varied widely according to formations and periods. Thus, in the Center Army Group (notably neglected during the preparation of Zitadelle), the 134. Infantry-Division aligned 25% of Hiwis in its workforce. In the GA North-Ukraine, the 6. Armee, permanently bled in the summer of 1943, aligned at least 10% of auxiliaries who ensured all its logistics. But this figure was often exceeded in certain tested formations, and this all the more so since the former Soviet prisoners often linked unexpected camaraderie of soldiers with their masters, even going so far as to make the shot with them. Now in the same boat as the Ostheer, and with the absolute certainty that the worst was promised them in the event of capture, veterans finally integrated the combat units to the point of indistinguishability from the Germans. Whole companies of so-called “Cossacks” (a label obviously intended to please the racialists in Berlin) formed within the German regiments under the eyes of a hierarchy aware enough of the situation to turn a blind eye when necessary. Colonel Helmuth Groscurth (Chief of Staff of the XI. AK) wrote about this: "It is disturbing to note that we are forced to reinforce our combat troops with former Russian prisoners of war, who have already been transformed in the service of arms. It says a lot about the state of our affairs, that the "beasts" we are fighting can now live alongside us in the most perfect harmony. »
And in fact, there is no difficulty in estimating that 250,000 Hiwis, including 6,000 officers and even a few former political commissars, actually fought for the Reich (this figure is in addition to the police services and volunteers integrated into SS. military units already mentioned). They served quite well, earning decorations for some, the esteem of their comrades for others (it was already not so bad)… and suffering a casualty rate approaching 25%. However, with rare exceptions – mentioned below – the Heer was reluctant to form purely Osttrupen divisions on the Eastern Front. A form of caution, no doubt. Nevertheless, the numbers reached near parity in 71. ID and 76. ID – a sign that the situation in the Heer was getting worse. For lack of an alternative, at the beginning of 1944 an army corps of Soviet soldiers was formed under German supervision, to garrison the fortifications of the Belgian sector of the Atlantic Wall. The 3. SicherungKorps (203. SD and 243. SD) left a terrible memory there. And other battalions of Hiwis were also formed to come and reinforce the coastal troops, regularly punctured by the troops on the Front – they finally fought against the allies in Normandy, without glory or panache.
The SS itself ended up finding an interest in the Hiwis, to form near the concentration camp of Trawniki (south-east of Lublin) the terrible unit of the Trawnikimänner, which was then disseminated in all the death camps to carry out in the vapors of vodka the mass executions that their masters wanted. The Trawnikimänner were to acquire such a reputation for dangerousness exacerbated by alcohol that the officers in charge of these killings were ordered to take shelter during the shootings! These same men most often remained on the spot until the end, when those responsible had already fled – they then had to suffer alone the just, but clumsy, wrath of the Allied armies***.
However, the bulk of the Hiwis were simply to be captured in 1945, alongside the entire German army, before being handed over to the USSR. The attitude of the Soviet authorities towards them was ruthless, the NKVD not hesitating to use the term “former Russians” against them – showing that they had lost the few rights they previously enjoyed as Soviet citizens. The majority of them therefore passed from one slavery to another, contributing to the economic activity of the post-war USSR from the gulag archipelago, from Chapayevsk to Magadan, via Vorkuta and Pevek. It was not until an amnesty discreetly pronounced by Nikita Khrushchev in 1955 that the survivors could finally return to their homes.
Let us note in conclusion that, in the environment of German higher scientific studies, student-assistants are still referred to as “Hiwis”! Habits die hard!

* In 1943, the tables of effectives of PanzerGrenadierDivisions and PanzerDivisions mentioned explicitly and 690 and 404 Hiwis respectively. For an infantry division, this figure was 1,455 individuals, compared to 11,317 German soldiers.
** In particular heavyweights, within the Speer Legion, which recruited foreign personnel under German command, who had to swear allegiance to Hitler. Some former train drivers were even retrained in the Reichsbahn!
*** See the reprisals carried out at the Buchenwald camp by the American army, on the lowest echelons of the Nazi death machine. Although made eminently understandable by the circumstances and very quickly interrupted, they still remain today a bad memory for all.

 

[demolitiondan]

Shenanigans and drawer funds: the shameful recruitments of the Heer

In the end, therefore, there were very few exclusively “Slavic” units – or at least labeled as such – in the Heer order of battle. The caution already exercised for the incorporation of the Alsatians remained the norm almost until the end... As a result, the process that led to their formation never sought a true 'confessed' integration but on the contrary always made it the fruit of a strict need.
The main units that hold the attention of the historian are three divisions: the 162. ID, the 277. ID and the 1. Kosaken-Kavallerie-Division (which we have already mentioned above), alongside which we must make room for the Russian Volunteer Corps.
………
• The 162. ID – Classic infantry unit of the Heer (15,000 men), resulting from the mobilization of December 1939, the 162. ID does not interest us until December 1942, when the formation integrated several battalions of Muslim volunteers defecting from the Soviet army, whether they came directly from the prison camps or from the Turkistanische Legion. These recruits, representing a regiment, were directly incorporated into the division under the impetus of General Oskar von Niedermayer, a well-known orientalist who had already received the mission of inciting the Afghans against the British during the First World War and who was then nourishing large plans for his Turkestan Legion.
Despite the ambitions of the person concerned, it was however only an experiment for the OKW. By “tinkering” with the 162. ID, a passable unit assigned in Slovenia to anti-partisan tasks (and which should later contribute to the disarmament of Italian and Chetnik formations at Christmas 1942), the German command thought that it was not taking a big risk. The unit was then further reinforced with "volunteers" from KG Albania, before going down to Croatia then to Albania and finally arriving on the front in September 1943 to try to oppose the Allies' Operation Presage towards Tirana. The situation elsewhere in the Balkans definitely did not allow us to consider a redeployment against the Communists - without even specifying that to do so, the Germans would have had to first trust their defectors...
This reservation will prove to be justified. The division was deployed around the village of Leskovik against an adversary superior in quality but very inferior in number – the 4th Regiment of Tunisian Spahis of Colonel Roux, reinforced with heavy artillery. On the night of September 11, 1943, the regiment of "volunteers" put all butts in the air, went over to the enemy and defended themselves aggressively against their former brothers in arms, thus opening a big hole in the disposition of the army. 'Axis! While the French colonial soldiers friendly disarmed their co-religionists, the Germans withdrew in haste...
After the assassination attempt on Hitler, von Niedermayer (remaining in command of his now crippled unit) was disgraced – at least as much to sanction the deplorable performance of his proteges as because he had had Colonel Stauffenberg under his command for a long time, now the pet peeve of the Nazis. Thus ended the pathetic attempt of the Turkestan Legion, in which no one had probably ever believed – except of course its main craftsman.
…
• The 277. ID – This other division deployed on the Balkan front was mainly set up with Soviet prisoners and local volunteers – with no other purpose, it seems, than to try to make up for some of the abyssal deficit the Axis suffered in terms of manpower on this so-called minor, if not tertiary, front! The fact of having entrusted its command to General Helmuth Huffmann – an officer without great stature, although with a certain experience – says enough about what the OKW expected from this formation.
Deployed from garrisons in Bosnia as a flanking guard in the Save valley, the 277. ID obviously never shone, and was gradually consumed by the Allied offensives of the spring of 1944. However, it should be noted, unexpectedly, that it did not dislocated in no way as was the case for the 162. ID – proof that not everything was perhaps to be thrown away among the Soviet prisoners.
…
• The 1. KKD – We return to it only to present the circumstances of its creation. Before being transferred to the Waffen-SS, the 1. Kosaken-Kavallerie-Division indeed served in the Heer, between April and August 1943. It should be noted that it was essentially a grouping of three types of fighters : real volunteers under the command of von Pannwitz, rallied prisoners of war and finally a good thousand Cossacks from Cherson or the Don. To flee the Stalinist terror at work in Crimea following the accidental fire that occurred on the battleship Commune de Paris, these lost souls had no hesitation in deserting the Red Army and then crossing the lines with their families in taking advantage of the offensive which enabled the resumption of Odessa.
After a brief training, the 1. KKD therefore carried out numerous "pacification" operations on the rear of the 2. PanzerArmee, before changing uniforms and leaving for the Carpathians as we have previously described.
…
• The Russian Volunteer Corps – This group of about 12,000 officers and other former Tsarist officials - having spontaneously presented themselves to the front of the Axis arms during the fall of Yugoslavia - was commanded by General Boris Chteïfon. Knowing that his members were naturally sympathizers of the anti-Soviet struggle of the Reich, and his own 12.Armee was in any case greatly lacking in manpower, General Löhr had kindly instructed this formation to ensure (alongside several others!) the security of its rear – but under purely Russian-speaking command, with imperial uniforms and only against the communists, please! Obviously, these facade quibbles only lasted a very short time when the Allies entered Macedonia during “Market” while a vast insurrection engulfed the country.
The Russians of Chteifon, who were already struggling against the Macedonians of Ohrana, had not signed up for it – or so they thought. And they had to swallow their words well, fighting indiscriminately against all the Yugoslav Resistance movements, like the worst units. During the evacuation of Serbia in December 1943, they therefore managed to be forgotten by the German command, and were disarmed without incident by the ANZAC troops who interned them under the POW regime. Despite multiple requests from the Soviet authorities, its members would be judged after the war by the new Yugoslav authorities and condemned… to be banished from Yugoslavia, but expelled wherever they wanted. In the early 1950s, these exiles were finally welcomed to the United States. This "deliberate gesture of provocation" by the Federal Kingdom (according to Stalin) completed the disintegration of the links between the SFRY and the USSR: the first considering that it was sovereign, in particular on the judicial level, while the second saw in it an ultimate proof of the absolute duplicity of Tito, who refused his former protector the simple right to judge nationals twice traitors to the Revolution.
………
As we can see, these disparate units, organized in a somewhat muddled way, were born of circumstances, most often without much prior thought. Apart from these examples, the Heer units comprising non-Germans all represent almost individual special cases, or in any case anecdotal. They were above all created for propaganda purposes and must therefore be understood in the political context of the moment.
…
• The Nachtigall and Rolland Battalions – These 400 Ukrainian nationalist volunteers from the Ukrainian Nationalist Organization were initially used by the Abwehr for various “special operations” before coming under the authority of the LehrRegiment Brandenburg z.b.V. 800. This battalion was far from being an elite unit! In fact, it essentially owed its creation to a well-known German Slavophile (!), Theodor Oberländer – who also commanded the formation for a time. The person concerned, supported by Admiral Canaris, had succeeded in dangling in the eyes of Berlin officials the possibility of taking advantage of Berlin's independence agitation in kyiv.
Theoretically assigned to tasks of subversion, sabotage and propaganda, these Ukrainians in German uniform, singled out by blue and yellow armbands, mainly carried out static guards, for lack of offensive prospects … and especially given their early proclamation of independence in L 'vov (from May 30, 1942), which had greatly displeased Berlin. Some nevertheless took part in the Brandenburgers' raid against the ammunition depot in Kiev, in preparation for Zitadelle, before continuing their journey in the special unit of the Abwehr commandos.
Subsequently, as the consecutive withdrawals progressed, and now less and less useful to the Heer, the battalion distinguished itself above all by participating in exactions alongside the Einsatzgruppen against the Jews and the Poles. The formation would finally be dissolved in September 1943, when the Reich fell out definitively with the still collaborative Ukrainian independence movements (essentially the UN-M of Andriy Melnyk) by refusing to proclaim independence on the rare territories still under his control*. The members of the battalion were then dispersed. A few rare elements of value joined - officially this time - the 19. PanzerGrenadier "Brandenburg" in the Balkans (alongside legionnaires from the Alexander battalion, of sometimes dubious reliability) or even the ranks of the Galizien, but the majority ends up absorbed by the Schuma. The “Ukranian Legion” had therefore lived – but its memory, like its experience, would survive until the 1950s, animating many local anti-Soviet resistance movements, which would benefit from the precious experience of many veterans!
…
• The Freiwilligen Stamm-Division – This unit of approximately 10,000 men was formed in France at the beginning of 1944 from Hiwis of various origins to fight against the Resistance movements. Under the command of General Wilhelm von Henning, she was guilty of a large number of atrocities in Burgundy, including the massacre of Dortan (execution of 56 civilians, complete destruction of the village). The formation then moved to Belgium, before disbanding during the fighting in the summer of 1944. To speak of it further would be to do it too much honor.
…
• The Georgische Legion – This unit was perhaps (once again) born out of the rivalry between Wehrmarcht and Waffen-SS. Indeed, the Georgians seem to have benefited at the beginning of the German-Soviet confrontation from a form of benevolence on the part of the German military hierarchy, as much for their supposed Aryanity as because there were some of them among the advisers by Alfred Rosenberg (Alexander Nikuradse or Michael Achmeteli for example). Benevolence, however, not shared by Hitler who, in addition to the reservations mentioned above, did not forget that he had in front of him, in the Kremlin, a most irritating Georgian...
The Heer never reached Georgia, of course. But on the other hand, it had access, even before Barbarossa, to a whole pool of emigrants originating from this region, and stranded all over Europe (although mainly in France). From January 1941, it therefore decided to form a “Georgian Legion” under the auspices of Michel Kedia and Akaki Chavgoulidze, notables well known to the community and yogurt manufacturers with comfortable financial means. This "Legion" - which was to be the size of a division - would be commanded by Shalva Maglakelidze, a former high-ranking officer of the defunct republic of Georgia and well in court in Rome. With other former leaders, the latter endeavored to give a form of coherence to the unit, while encouraging the Georgian diaspora in France to a certain benevolence, even to collaboration with Germany. And the Heer also to be able to calmly advance its pawns in the face of the intrigues of the SS, thus hoping to retain at least part of the control over the future occupied Soviet territories...
The recruits came mainly from France, and were gathered in a castle near Orleans, before their departure for training camps in Poland. After Barbarossa, these emigrants were joined by many “volunteers” from the stalags of Soviet prisoners.
The Georgische Legion eventually numbered a dozen battalions. The latter retained the status of Osttruppen auxiliaries until the end of the war. Among the 20,000 Georgians thus enlisted in the Heer, only the Bergmann battalion was really effective – it is true that it was attached to the Brandenburgers. Most of the others were assigned, through the benevolent mediation of Alfred Rosenberg, to garrison duties in the Netherlands. The change of scenery limited the risk of desertions...
Stationed in Texel, a Frisian island, the Georgians nevertheless decided to rebel against their German masters during the last days of the war, and even after the armistice had been signed!
It is however necessary to mention here the existence of the “battalion” Tamara**, which the yogurt industry wanted to send behind the Soviet lines to sabotage the red war effort. The Tamara was actually made up of three sections of 35 men. The first would have been parachuted into Russia during the summer of 1942 by a plane from KG 200 having crossed the Black Sea – no one heard of it again until January 1944, when four survivors presented themselves in Budapest, without having, apparently, he, accomplished something other than having managed to exfiltrate from the USSR! The second section was supposed to cross the lines and reach the Crimea – twenty men returned… and later deserted for the most part, the remainder being demobilized by their sponsors against compensation. The third section…remained in Paris to supervise a “purchasing office” run by the businessman Chalva Odicharia, who grew rich (like many others) during the Occupation***.
After the armistice, the Georgians were handed over to the authorities of their respective countries – the USSR, for the most part. They then experienced the same fate as their compatriots engaged in other units of the same kind. In short, it seems that Hitler was right to be suspicious: the “Georgian Legion” was never anything other than a collection of mercenaries of the most dubious reliability.
…
• The Free Arab Legion – Ultimate avatar of the pro-Muslim policy of the Third Reich, created in particular in the mad hope of a success of the Iraqi uprising, the Free Arab Legion never represented more than a Sonderverband of 50 men recruited among the prisoners of war or the marginalized of the occupied countries – his “staff” was made up essentially of Arabic-speaking Germans in charge of spreading the good word of Berlin. The Reich having very quickly, by force of circumstances, given up any project in Africa or the Middle East, the group never had the opportunity to prosper. It was agglomerated at KG Müller, in Greece, and shared its fate – some sources, however, indicate the presence of some Arab soldiers in the 277. ID mentioned above, without any certainty.
………
As we can see, nothing of what we have just described can be considered as a serious attempt to recruit foreign personnel, as the SS affected to do. It was not until June 1944, when everything was almost over, that the Heer finally began to seriously consider the use of auxiliaries.
It thus undertook to regroup its 50,000 surviving Ukrainian volunteers in a theoretical Ukrainian Liberation Army, without any unit ever being formed under this banner – the affair therefore never had any reality.
As for the Russian Liberation Army, which it called for, it was finally authorized by Hitler only during the last months of the Reich. Its realization went even less far. Between the general collapse of resources, the massive disappearance of prisoners (death of starvation or exhaustion) and the absence of any outstanding managerial figure among the detainees, it is in any case not certain that the Russkaya Oswoboditel'naja Armija (ROA – to be distinguished from the RONA presented above) could have been something other than the regrouping of the Cossacks and “legions” of all orders already mentioned. However, the archives find traces of a 600. ID, in training in the Jura in June 1944 – it seems to have been made up mainly of volunteer Hiwis, supervised by veterans of the Kaminski brigade and commanded by a certain major -General Sergei Bunyachenko****. But this 600. ID disappears as soon as Strasbourg is taken by the Allies. Some of its personnel would then have found themselves among the guards of Dachau, or even in certain isolated sections which fought to the end on the Oder against the troops of the Red Army. Be that as it may, all those who were captured by the Westerners were certainly handed over to the Soviet authorities after the capitulation; the troops were then undoubtedly sent to the Gulag and their officers executed.
Let's take this opportunity to put an end once and for all to a stubborn rumor - there was no Russian air force under German command! Reichsmarschall Göring indeed promised in a documented way a Jadgstaffel of 12 Bf 109 G, a Schlachtstaffel of 12 Junkers 88 as well as a section of 5 Heinkel 111… But at that time, the Luftwaffe already did not have enough fuel for its own training. The models and profiles circulating extensively on Russian nationalist news sites – themselves obviously seeking to rehabilitate the ROA for its anti-communism – are therefore in all likelihood false.
Today, only the Russian Orthodox community of New York, exiled after the war, still celebrates the memory of the anti-Soviet volunteers of the Russian Liberation Army! An army that served (or could have served), let us remember all the same, an enterprise of extermination.

* Trust between the Heer and the Ukrainian separatists was never the rule. The negotiators of the Nationalist Organization had proposed to the Reich to "form a Ukrainian army which would join the German army until victory", while the German command affirmed, as early as November 25, 1942: "It is obvious that the Ukrainians are preparing a revolt against our future Reichskomissariat, with the aim of establishing an independent Ukraine. The necessary steps should be taken now to arrest, interrogate and then liquidate the officials concerned, all at once and when the time comes. In fact, during the last phases of the conflict, the Ukrainians fought against both the Wehrmacht and the Red Army!
** From the name of the Georgian queen Tamar I, of the Bagration dynasty, who reigned in the 12th century. For the Abwehr, it was part of a larger unit called the Bergmann Battalion, whose 500 members of very diverse origins carried out various operations in the Balkans and around the Black Sea.
*** The Odicharia office staff was very cosmopolitan: 33 Georgians, but also 7 Russians, 3 Italians, 2 Germans, 2 Czechs, 1 Portuguese, 31 French (including 2 Corsicans, 1 Alsatian, 1 Tunisian, 1 Martinican and 2 Jews) … and 4 French women!
**** Officer commanding the 389th Rifle Division, he had been captured by the Romanians in November 1942 during the fall of Odessa… after being sentenced by the Soviet military authorities to ten years in camp for “premature destruction of material”, a sentence that he should have purged after his service! We find him in Prague, participating in the anti-communist insurrection which briefly shook the city during the winter of 44-45, then we lose track of him...

 

[demolitiondan]

The Twilight SS

In the spring of 1944, the Allies landed in Normandy and swept the Wehrmacht into France. The Soviets are doing the same on the Eastern Front… It is now clear that the Reich of a Thousand Years has lived – to join it is to dig its grave. And yet, there are still among the peoples of Europe volunteers to link their fate to that of a dying regime. Who are these horsemen of the apocalypse? Undoubtedly the worst, because the most compromised – and we find them essentially in the Waffen-SS, fighting for the Axis as the ultimate representatives of nations already invaded.
………
• SS-Sturmbrigade Vlad Tepes – This brigade of 3,000 men was created in February 1944, around volunteers from the new 4th Romanian ID, in reconstitution in Germany during the capitulation of Bucharest. This unit thus agglomerated the rare surviving veterans of the Romanian 1st CA defeated during “Molot” with young recruits less disillusioned, but also much less experienced. To this assembly were still added later members of the Iron Guard who joined the lines of the Axis by the Carpathians, through Hungary - they were however very few (less than 500).
It seems that the SS had long hoped to form a complete division of Romanian PanzerGrenadiers, in order to contribute to the defense of the Hungarian front – which is not without salt, knowing the complicated relationship that the two had (and still have!) central European countries. Lacking equipment and not having completed its training, the Vald Tepes was nevertheless thrown on the Soviet lines during the attempts to break the siege of Budapest, with the catastrophic results that one could foresee. Reduced to 750 men and drawn into the final rout of the Reich, it nevertheless managed to surrender to the American forces – its members were lucky not to be handed over to the new pro-Soviet authorities now in place in Bucharest. A chance that not all the survivors among the 40,000 other Romanians engaged in the Waffen SS as individuals (and for many in the Prinz Eugen) had.
…
• SS-Sturmbrigade Duce – Formation of 4,500 men sometimes pompously called 29. Waffen-Grenadier-Division der SS or Legione SS Italiana, the Duce was born in March 1944 – until then, Mussolini stubbornly refused the formation of an Italian division under German command, clinging to every shred of its past authority like mussel to rock. For want of anything better, under pressure from Berlin (as well as from some of his own men!) and recognizing the obviously illusory nature of the sovereignty of the Italian Social Republic, the Duce finally decided to 'allow' the Italians who so wished to enroll in a training course for which he would provide sponsorship – purely theoretical sponsorship, that goes without saying! In fact, the sole commander of this unit was the SS Polizei-Führer Karl Wolff – a well-known prince of terror in Milan whose exploits were directed at least as much against the Italians as against the Allies.
Duce was supposed to be the vanguard of a larger “program of redeployment of Italian armed militias into the Waffen-SS” (Programm zur Aufstellung der Italienischen Milizeinheiten durch die Waffen-SS). Developed by Heinrich Himmler and Gottlob Berger in person, this plan was approved by Hitler long before it was approved by Mussolini... In fact, the new SS would be sworn in to Hitler and him alone.
Initially, 15,000 men were gathered in Münsingen (Baden-Württemberg) – on arrival, less than a third remained (the rest having been divided into various police units, or even sent to labor camps). Engaged during the Allied offensives in the summer of 1944 on the Italian theater, the Duce behaved quite well, under the operational command of Lieutenant-Colonel Delgi Oddi (a former leader of the Black Shirts), who did not hesitate to launch vigorous counterattacks against the Americans. She could do nothing, however, to sustain a front that was slowly falling apart, as the RSI itself crumbled and the Duce met a fatal fate.
The majority of the survivors therefore finally tried to surrender to the Franco-American forces rising from the Côte d'Azur, avoiding at all costs to meet the co-belligerent Italian troops of General Ambrosio. The others were to perish in the sterile battles of the last days of the war, integrated into some German Kampfgruppe defending the Austrian passes.
…
• 17. SS-Freiwilligen Kavalerie-Division Maria Theresa* – This unit of 15,000 Hungarian volunteers of Volksdeutsche origin was formed in 1943 despite the prejudices of the Horthy regime - which however could not oppose what the Reich considered to be a simple conscription of its own nationals.
Initially a simple regiment within the 8th SS Kavalerie-Division Florian Geyer, the Maria Theresa was raised to divisional status on April 29, 1944, just after the Hungarian overthrow attempt – an attempt during which the Magyar SS had effectively contributed to the maintenance of the essential part of the Kingdom of Hungary in the Axis, by an action that was both rapid and decisive.
Hastily reinforced in Győr by integrating recruits and equipment from dissolved Hungarian divisions, the 17. SS-FKD should have joined the SS forces in Yugoslavia to contribute to the fight against the armies of General Montgomery… In reality, it did not Nothing came of it: overtaken by the Soviet wave, sent urgently to the front around Arad, the formation was largely surrounded and then destroyed during its retreat towards Budapest. Some of the survivors even had to swim across the Harmas River to join the friendly lines. Reduced to a large regiment, the Maria Theresa was then to disappear in Budapest, but not without having previously compromised itself in the worst abuses committed by the Arrow Cross during the excessively long siege of the city. Only 170 men succeeded in breaking the blockade. They were integrated into various units of the Waffen-SS and disappeared with them. Their German leader, SS-Brigadeführer und Generalmajor August Zehender, was not among them.
…
• 19. Waffen-Grenadier-Division der SS (ungarisch) – Sometimes referred to as Hunyadi in the archives, the 19. WGD had a brief existence. Also commanded by a German officer, SS-Standartenführer Thomas Müller, it was supposed to take part in the complete integration of the remnants of the Honvèd into the German army by completely overhauling the 19th DI of Colonel Ferenc Szász (an individual of the most appreciated by the Nazis).
However, this formation never had time to train or even simply receive equipment. Evacuated from one training camp to another, the 20,000 Hungarians (many of whom deserted) were never able to accomplish anything of note and simply dispersed during the final collapse of Nazi Germany to surrender to British forces. in Austria. It is doubtful that, if engaged, this unit would have had much combat value...
…
• SS-Panzergrenadier Brigade Horst Wessel – This formation of 5,000 Hungarian Volksdeutsche was hastily created in the last days of May 1944 under the command of SS-Oberführer August Trabandt. The Waffen-SS obviously intended to make it a division intended to be integrated into the forces fighting in Yugoslavia – but, due to a lack of resources and volunteers, nothing came of it. Used almost exclusively in rear security tasks, including the suppression of the Slovak national uprising, it was completely destroyed by the Red Army towards the end of the conflict, during the fierce fighting in Silesia.

* In homage to Maria Theresa of Habsburg, Queen and Empress of Bohemia, Austria… and Hungary.

 

[demolitiondan]

Lost Waffen-SS

Coming to the end of this sad inventory, we still have to mention the few lost and other special cases that do not fit into any box – exotic and ultimate recipients of the supposed confidence of the Reich.
………
• Indisches Freiwilligen Legion der Waffen-SS – Sometimes called the Tiger Legion for manly propaganda purposes, this most exotic formation is the direct result of the will (or illusions…) of Subhas Chandra Bose, the famous Hindu independence leader, who hoped a time relying on Germany to liberate India via Russia. A bold project to say the least, especially since Bose had expressly asked that his Legion never have to fight the Soviets! One should not see in this small regiment more than an attempt by the German diplomatic services (and certain members of the Kreisau circle) to maintain a semblance of activity. In fact, the 2,5000 prisoners laboriously recruited among the veterans of the campaigns of Albania and Greece, even reinforced by some opportunists of the diaspora, were very far from being able to return to India.
In the absence of a real commitment on the part of the Germans - who very quickly lost interest in this unit - the Tiger Legion was finally sent to garrison the Frisian Islands, alongside other formations of various Soviet volunteers. At the beginning of 1944, it was sent to France to garrison there in sectors considered secondary on the Atlantic facade of the Wall of the same name. Threatened with encirclement by Operation Cobra, it was then sent back east, but Operation Overlord caught it by surprise during the staggered transfer of its two battalions to Germany. At the time of the Liberation of Paris, the last Indian company was in the capital and was contacted by Cardinal Tisserant in the context of negotiations to release a prison which the Indians had guard. Assignment which this unit gladly got rid of to try to join the rest of the troop, which was heading towards the Rhineland!
The men of the Tiger Legion finally spent their last days of war trying to reach Switzerland despite the constant harassment of the Resistance and the Allied air forces… They did not succeed: captured by… French colonial troops (who executed a number of them), the survivors were sent back to India, where they had to face the Justice of the Dominion – which proved to be surprisingly lenient, a sign if any were needed of the tensions which persisted in Bombay before Independence.
Let us recall that Chandra Bose – disgusted by Hitler's condescension towards him – had met with a little more success with the Japanese Empire in his attempt to create an Indian National Army. Instead of a two-battalion regiment in Europe, it succeeded in raising two divisions in Asia, one of which was at full strength, though its fighting spirit remained uncertain.
…
• SS-Polizei Selbstschutz Regiment Sandschak – This Albanian-Croatian Muslim militia was in theory placed under the command of SS-Standartenführer Karl von Krempler and in practice responded to the orders of Sulejman Hafiz Pačariz. She had all the hallmarks of medieval road gangs—the religious fanaticism to boot. Operating in support of the Montenegrin collaborator forces of Pavle Đurišić, then for the direct benefit of the SS, the Sandschak ravaged northern Montenegro throughout the winter of 1943-1944, with a violence and a propensity to loot that forced fear.
Eventually encountering Krsto Popović's now "returned" green forces – not really allied with the Allies but no longer really pro-Axis – in the midst of an all-out clash against the Titoist AVNOJ, the regiment wore itself out in fruitless fighting in the Kolašin sector until Pačariz fell at the head of his men (although not necessarily in combat). The survivors were later integrated into the Handschar.
…
• Britische Freecorps (SS) – This propaganda “unit”, comprising a maximum of 45 men, was not even officially part of the Waffen-SS. It seems to have come directly from the whims of John Amery, son of a former British Secretary of State. The latter was residing in France during the German invasion, from which he made no attempt to flee. Dreaming of forming a “St. George’s Legion”, made up of Britons ready to fight alongside the Axis (and close in spirit to the LVF), he made contact with the Occupiers. For lack of volunteers (the tours in the prison camps brought back… one*!), the Freecorps did extra work, without anyone within the Waffen-SS even bothering to train this einsatz fraglish formation – and in particular not its leader, SS-Hauptsturmführer Hans-Werner Roepke, much more interested in his post within Wiking.
In fact, apart from Amery, no one ever seems to have believed in his project! Disappointed, he was to spend most of the war on the air, next to William Joyce (Lord Haw Haw), spreading his gall in an attempt to demoralize his compatriots. His last military attempt, in the last days of the war, was no more successful: finally succeeding with difficulty in reuniting the extremely rare Britons present under German arms - including Thomas Cooper, a former member of the British Union of Fascists, engaged in the SS before the war and decorated adjutant of the Wiking! – Amery proceeded to get his men through SturmPioniere training. They finally joined the 3rd Reconnaissance Company of the Nordland regiment… which refused to integrate them! After weeks of digging trenches or managing traffic, the last defectors finally joined the stream of fugitives, where they were apprehended without incident by Allied forces.
Most of them did surprisingly well after the war – British Justice considering, in an interesting display of English sense of humor, that they had in fact never really taken up arms against their countries! Only John Amery was tried for treason, and he cheerfully decided to plead guilty, justifying himself by his anti-communism**. In the absence of debate, the trial lasted 8 minutes – the judge, after very civilly thanking Amery for having accepted the weight of his actions, sentenced him to death. He was hanged on December 19, 1945 at Wandsworth Prison.
In conclusion, let us clarify that despite what some sources mention, there has never been an 'American Free Corps' supposedly equivalent to Amery's pseudo-band - even if the archives do mention 5 American nationals having joined the Waffen-SS during the conflict***, alongside 8 other individuals of dubious origin. It is however difficult to distinguish the latter from the mass of dual nationals who joined Germany between 1939 and 1941, to serve in the ranks of the Wehrmacht – and it is in any case almost certain that this epiphenomenon had absolutely no influence on the course of the conflict.

* Kenneth Edward Jordan Berry, notorious captured Justice and sailor on the tanker Cymbeline, captured by a German privateer in the fall of 1940. He had escaped from his detention camp, but far from seeking to return to England, he was simply became a black market trafficker in Paris (!) before being spotted and then arrested by the Gestapo. Having escaped a heavy sentence for having wanted to betray all those who had helped him to escape (…), he will undoubtedly have found in the Freecorps a way to escape the contempt – even the dangerous hatred – of his compatriots, while leading the good life again. In this, he is very representative of all his comrades...
** Although his brother Julian had tried to prove that he had been naturalized Spanish, which would have dropped the charge.
*** Including James Monti, American pilot of German-Swiss origin, who committed the feat of deserting with an F-5A reconnaissance … in October 1944, in full collapse of the front. The person concerned was to surrender to the forces of the US Army at the end of the war, still dressed in an SS uniform allegedly given by guerrillas who would have disguised him in this way to facilitate his passage to friendly lines! Driven out of the army and sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for desertion, he was released in 1948 … only to be immediately re-arrested by the FBI for treason. He would eventually be released from custody in 1960.

 

[demolitiondan]

The pitiful fate of a “racially pure” army

At the time of closing this painful inventory, not 'à la Prévert' but 'à la Pervers' (NoT : french play of word between Pervert and the famous poet Jacques Prevert - an inventory 'à la Prévert' means a enumeration of very diverses things oddly made together)… what to remember from the incredible and bloody epic of foreign volunteers in German uniform, which unfortunately still makes some people fantasize? There is no doubt that far from being the expression of "European unity in the anti-Communist struggle", the integration of auxiliaries was never more for Germany than a simple last resort, for which there were more and more recourse under the pressure of events and according to opportunities.
Let's take a moment to fix some demographic data: in 1939, Germany had 4,200,000 men in the army, including 3,750,000 for the Heer, 35,000 for the SS and – as we have seen – practically no foreigners. In May 1942, at the dawn of Barbarossa, they were 7,235,000 (including 5 million for the Heer and 125,000 for the SS). Among them, hardly more than 60,000 foreigners, many of them in units that are not even operational. Finally, in 1945, during the final fall, there were more than 9 million men under the colors (6.5 million for the Heer, 600,000 for the SS), including about 500,000 foreigners, mostly Hiwis, but also 150,000 soldiers in the SS.
We have clearly seen that all of them were very far from being really volunteers (even if paradoxically they most often obtained German nationality by enlisting!). We observe here the imposture of the Schutzstaffel: this so-called "purely German" organization never succeeded in conforming to its own ambitions even when it had taken control of Nazi Germany, and always remained in the Heer' shadows despite its so-called elitist character – which was questionable to say the least, given the convoluted host of disparate and not always reliable units we reviewed.
The war in Europe was therefore, for the most part, fought by the German people – that is undeniable. To claim the opposite under the mask of a supposed brotherhood of arms between peoples in the face of the Bolshevik hordes is an apologetic mystification. With Germany having to assume the consequences of its aggressions, the Reich quite simply fired all the woods to hope to rebalance the scales – and, moreover, without even acting intelligently, given the circumstances! When the applications were numerous, it was too early – when they were desired, it was too late.
So it was more globally with the Waffen-SS in general. At the end of 1941, the Volksdeutschen numbered only 16,000, representing an expedient that was both temporary and superfluous – two years later, they were twenty times more numerous and supervised a mass of foreign volunteers, including supposed sub-humans very different from the racially pure Aryans, but nevertheless capable of understanding an order and holding a gun... Far from being "the heroic volunteers of New Europe", they were a band of militiamen, who claimed yet still represent the elite army wanted by Himmler.
No offense to the thurifers of the German army – unfortunately there are still many of them today – it is therefore clear that Berlin never really sought to give a European character to its struggle, not to mention uniting its allies around a project, and completely failed to take advantage of the dissensions of his adversaries. Which was altogether perfectly logical: in line with its deadly policy, Nazism was simply incapable of building. Had he unfortunately triumphed, the Axis could never have lasted a thousand years – even if it would undoubtedly have caused many more thousands of deaths…

 

[demolitiondan]

Radio-Lyon is lying… except once!

I – Lyon, December 31, 1942: a New Year's Eve at the prefect's

It was 6:30 p.m. when the prefect, Alexandre Angeli, entered the small living room of the Prefecture, where his guests were, invited – some would have said summoned – to a “private” Christmas Eve which promised to be as frugal as it was. early, the harsh weather combined with the curfew, which had only been postponed for an hour that day. In addition to his chief of staff, Angeli had recruited, among others, the passive defense commander, whom it was fashionable to call "my colonel", a rank he held in 1939 before being retired. , the chief police commissioner, the director of the Hospices Civils, without forgetting the French state prosecutor, who was no longer from the Republic (if he had been one day!), and of course Mgr Bornet, who represented the Archdiocese. No Germans, who would wait for the official wishes, because they were little appreciated by the master of the place, which did not prevent him from complying diligently with all their requests, because his hatred for "the traitors of Algiers" was even more virulent. Nor were there any members of the town council, whom he appointed and replaced as he pleased, and whom he treated like servants at best. The journalist from Le Nouvelliste, under orders of course, was also present – he was the only one (besides the bishop!) not to be accompanied by a person of the fair sex. As we were among people of good company, or at least we had to believe, no member of the various police of the regime - SONEF, Guard, Crusaders of Reconstruction and other Economic Controllers - was present. The Homeland Security Force was also conspicuous by its absence, but it was more a question of avoiding the ridicule attached to this caricature of an army.
The prefect took a sheet of paper from his pocket, before clearing his throat authoritatively and speaking: “Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for accepting my invitation. I will have the honor of reading you President Laval's speech which will be broadcast at 7 p.m. on all the radio stations of the New French State, on the occasion of the New Year. You will thus have its scoop. »
At this great news, the guests took the attitude which seemed to them to be essential, which at attention, which in a more civil posture, but no less respectful, even devout... The text expressed the ever more significant will of to show a servile obedience to the occupier, going so far as to anticipate his wishes in the name of demonstrating that the NEF still had a shred of independence. Were we not defending, in doing so, the values of Charlemagne's Europe against the Bolshevik tide and the stranglehold on the world of the Judeo-Anglo-Saxon plutocracy?
Having read and crowned with heartfelt applause, Angeli invited the guests with a broad gesture to turn towards a table where two waiters in white jackets were watching over a few bottles of white Mâcon. When the guests had dipped their lips in the beverage, their faces expressed that it was very sour, which one of them summed up with delicately polite hypocrisy by exclaiming: "A vintage very appropriate to the circumstances, my faith. ! »
At 7 p.m., the double doors of the dining room opened, and everyone rushed in, for it was heated… No one expected a feast, not even honest Lyonnaise cuisine such as t was appropriate in such circumstances when Edouard Herriot was the first magistrate of the city. But Herriot had crossed the Mediterranean... All his people installed, the representative of the New State declared as an amuse-bouche: "As you could see for yourselves, the merchants' stalls were copiously stocked at the end of the year, and their reasonable prices. We owe it to President Laval, who obtained that the French ration be substantially improved so that this holiday season brings joy to all good citizens! Monsignor, please pronounce grace. »
When the bishop had finished, his neighbour, the director of the Hospices Civils, whispered to him: “Do you know, Monsignor, to what we owe this abundance of meat? Not at all to a miracle worthy of Cana, but to the fact that the peasants had a large part of their livestock slaughtered, not having enough fodder to feed them this winter! »
The ecclesiastic sighed with compunction: “At least your patients benefit from it! But the director of the Hospices went on: "It is true that the soup for my patients is a little fattier, but that of the unfortunate residents of my colleague at Vinatier is even thinner than last year, it is almost no longer what water! However, it is not because one is declared mad and locked up that one must starve! »
As the bishop was about to answer him, there was a violent knock on the door leading into the hall, which swung open. Jostling the usher, an individual wearing the black uniform of the Order Service of the New French State (which everyone called the Militia, although its creator, Darnand, hated this name, not very flattering for his taste), entered shouting: "Treason ! Sabotage! Treason ! »

 

[demolitiondan]

II – Lyon, May-June 1942: a bold idea

Seated at a table in a café in the Quartier des Facultés, two students overwhelmed President Laval's speech that the radio had just broadcast. The head of the NEF rejoiced in the dazzling successes of the German army against the “armed populace” of the Soviet Union.
– Tired of always the same salads!
– We would like to eat some, salads, by the way!
“Yes, but he gives them to the Boches.
- And we, he sells us! Two healthy workers for one sick prisoner is cheap!
– And soon, he will be selling cannon fodder…
“If only that damn radio could play something else…
– A speech from Algiers, for example! It would be better than on Radio Algiers, with the jamming of the Boches.
– Do you have a text handy? With the voice that goes with it?
– We will certainly find an actor at the Célestins* for that!
– You speak, all the good ones have gone to Switzerland…
"Then I'll do it myself!" I'm good at impersonations, you know. Not really the small voice of Reynaud, but the big voice of the General, you know: “The flame of the French Resistance…!** »
– Monsieur Gérard, imitator singer! Not bad… But how are you going to connect a microphone to the radio?
- I don't know, I'm a law student!
– Ah! I wonder what you study, then, because there is no more law in this country!
– Exactly, I am preparing for the future!… But wait, I have my friend Pascal who is at Centrale, he will know how to do it.
- We can trust him ?
– Yes, he was at the Perrache war memorial on November 11.
"And he didn't get caught?"
– Oh no, he runs fast!
- Well, bring him, we'll see.
………
Eight days later, two streets away, in a similar establishment, a certain Gérard received a lesson in wartime radio broadcasting from his friend Pascal.
– Yes, in principle, it is not complicated. But in practice… Well, already, no need to try to get it on national radio…
"Even on the Lyon transmitter?"
- Okay, I'll start at the beginning. In Lyon, there are three transmitters. That of the Doua has been in the hands of the German navy for 40 years, we can forget it. There remains that of the national radio and that of Radio-Lyon. The programs are not made on site, but in a studio here in town, and it is transmitted by cable to the transmitter. Moreover, since 40, the Lyon studio of the national radio is hardly used anymore, they only take over the programs from Paris which arrive directly at the transmitter, we also forget it.
There remains Radio-Lyon, which runs a few hours a day from the studio in the rue de Marseille, where they play a lot of records. They have a collection of them, man, even jazz! In addition, they have enough to record, because all the programs are made in advance: they put them on disc and then play them. That way they can go over them as often as they want. Except information, of course.
“Okay, then that’s easy! We enter at news time, we neutralize everyone, we take the place of the announcer and we read the speech we want at the microphone!
- You believe that ? Come, let's take our bikes, it's a stone's throw away, we pass by and you'll see!
Indeed, Gérard was able to see for himself… The studio was guarded by a dozen individuals who would have looked good in a pre-war gangster film. Everything was there: the face, the build, the hats and the gabardines, and even the big cars, yet extremely rare due to the lack of gasoline. Copious artillery was probably also part of the panoply. The two students stopped at the edge of the Rhône and sat down on a bench, keeping an eye on their bicycles, objects of all desires in those days.
– Shit, shit and shit! It's an army! How come ?
- You do not know ? The owner of the station is Laval itself!
– P…! He stole it or what?
- No, it's been his for years. And of course, he was careful not to “state again” his private property!
– When I think everyone is listening to this!
– What do you want, the programs are much less boring than those of the official radio… Clever, the President: he knows that his propaganda passes better like that!
“Okay, so what should I do? On the sender side, is it the same?
– Already, it’s in the country, and it’s surrounded by walls and a big gate. It's closed most of the time. There are also guards, even if they are bored all day long.
– Yes, no bistros and grandmas in the neighborhood over there!
- You have understood everything. Only cabbages and potatoes.
“So that’s where we have to do our thing!
- No, that won't work either. There is no studio, no microphone, only the transmitter and the world to run it. We could well tinker with what to do on the spot, but the time to understand how it works there, it will be too late.
– There are many of them to run this?
– As it only works from the afternoon to curfew, no need for several teams. But they are still a good dozen...
– So there is no solution?
– Wait, I have an idea… But hey, we’ll talk about it in a week, I have a lesson in 10 minutes. Electricity, indeed!
………
However, in mid-June, the case seemed to have fizzled out.
– So, Gérard, your friend, what’s become of him? A month ago, you told us that it was in the pocket!
– No, it definitely failed. He explained to me, it’s too complicated and too risky!
- You say, it's still a deflated! Finally, we still have the leaflets.

*Name of the municipal theater of Lyon,
** The famous speech of June 14, 1940, introduced in the form of leaflets dropped by plane, circulated a lot under the coat. The speeches of the 13th, also broadcast in this way, were less successful…

 

[demolitiondan]

III – Lyon, June 1942: an unexpected ally

In fact, if Pascal had not followed up, it was for another reason. After the initial discussion with his friend Gérard, he realized that he seriously lacked in-depth knowledge on the subject. He had therefore begun to document himself, as naturally as possible, in the library of his school... One afternoon in early June, while he was immersed in a thick textbook, he realized that a character at the familiar figure, professorial and somewhat feared, had just stopped near his table and observed him attentively: "So, young man, we finally decided to take an interest in my subject, well at least in something that come close? It's all to your credit, but you've come a long way! “Practical treatise on radio-electricity”, just that!… Are you planning to build a transmitter, or do you have another stupid idea? »
Pascal turned scarlet and began to stammer: "Uh, no, finally, that is to say, I..."
“But he really has a stupid idea!” Well, not here, boy! This evening, 7 p.m., at the Georges brasserie. You will wait for me. Don't forget your tickets!
………
Pascal paced in front of the brasserie from 6:45 p.m. It hardly attracted attention, given the incessant flow of people entering and leaving this famous establishment located a stone's throw from Perrache station and larger, it was said, than the station hall itself. In Lyon, priorities are well respected… The teacher asked the waiter, whom he obviously knew, for a discreet table, behind a pillar, and quickly placed the order. Anyway, the choice was limited!
– Well, while waiting for the delicious dishes that will be brought to us, if we resume the conversation we started a while ago! What do you want to do ?
Pascal blushed again, choked again and told himself that the easiest way was to lay your cards on the table. After all, for two university years, he was beginning to know the political opinions of the various professors. He chose specific days, such as November 11 or the day after Allied victories, to wear a buttonhole decoration that connoisseurs said surely came from the Other War...
– I would like to send a message on Radio Lyon.
– It’s simple, they accept all advertisements, they may even give you a price, these days!
– It’s not really an advertisement, it’s a message, uh… political.
– And not really official politics? Finally, not that of Paris?
– To be honest with you… That’s it.
– And how did you think you would do it?
– Interrupt the cable that connects the studio to the transmitter, place an electric phonograph which would play the message recorded on a disc, and then reconnect!
– And run away… The idea is good, but you will have to dig a little deeper. Ah, here is our supreme of rutabagas! Bon appetit, I'm afraid you'll need a good dose to swallow this. Waiter, bring us a pot of ribs to accompany the flavor of this dish with dignity!
– Sir, if I may say so, it is insulting our sommelier! As well as our cook. These are not rutabagas, but young turnips!
- However, the smell... I'm not going to ask you for dishwater to be okay! Do the best, especially better than what you put on the plates.
Once the boy leaves: "Okay, let's get back to our business." Do you know where you are going to commit your mischief? »
- Yes !
– In other words, you know where the cable goes… Problem solved, you will tell me more about it another time. And how are you going to make sure that what comes out of your phonograph is loud enough to be heard? Do you have any idea what is needed?
- Uh, not really.
– Second problem, to solve this one! When I think about it, it would be an instructive work in the context of your studies... Well, in addition, it must not be distorted, another problem! And how are you going to cut your cable and then plug it back in?
- There, I thought about it. In fact, it would rather have a switch on which one could plug the phonograph and which would make it possible to pass the current directly or from the phono.
– Well, on that side, it’s better, but there is still an effort to be made… Ah, what are you bringing us here?
– Brouilly 1938, Mr.
– In tickets?
– You do not think about it, the house offers it to you! He is one of those gentlemen of the new administration who did not see fit to finish the bottle.
"That's his least fault!" Thank you dear friend !
The boy smiled a little, refilled the glasses and left.
- Let's start again. And the speech, how are you going to get it? You ask for it by post in Algiers? Because you need something adapted, not an old speech!
– Oh…
- Well, I'll take care of that. Now you'll be Blaise – it suits you, with your first name. I will be André. Understood ?
- Yes sir.
– Ah, last question for today. When are you seeing this?
– For July 14, of course!
– And ambitious with that! Well, not a word of that to anyone, of course. No more your mother than your girlfriend or your oldest friend! You swear it!
- I swear !
– Well, clear your plate now, even if it costs you!
Swallowed rutabaga: “I'll wave to you again at the library. Until then, think carefully about all that is missing to make your business work. Now we have plenty of time to get home before curfew. Don't get caught for such a stupid reason! »

 

[demolitiondan]

IV – Lyon, July 12, 1942: no precipitation

Unlike Beaujolais between Rhône and Saône, there was still a long way to go: the operation proved to be much more technically complex than what “Blaise” believed. During the last weeks before the holidays, he had the opportunity to measure the difficulty of it, a certain number of practical works in electricity very opportunely included in his schedule allowing him to realize what remained to be done.
………
"So, Blaise, still up for it?"
– For forestry and mountain sites? Yeah, it's mandatory otherwise I won't be taken back at the start of the school year in October.
- And again, you're in luck. For the others, it's six months… No, I wasn't thinking about that…
– Ah! For the message on Radio Lyon! More than ever, but for July 14, it's missed, it's the day after tomorrow!
“I thought you would find out for yourself. Better to do it when everything is ready than to impose a date, don't you think?
- You are right.
– Can you imagine that your case interests some of our friends. A code name has even been assigned to it: "Operation Brouilly". Brouilly will be the password, but absolute silence, as it should be.

 

[demolitiondan]

V – Lyon, Tête d’Or park and central Parmentier, October 1942: very useful equipment

It was a typical Lyon afternoon at the end of the day… Wet, with a fog making it impossible to appreciate the reds and ochres of the leaves that had not yet fallen from the trees in the park. Few walkers on this Thursday, apart from the usual children who hardly cared about the weather. From time to time, someone would sit down on a bench, and sometimes strike up a conversation with their neighbour, as here, in front of one of the ginkgo trees in the park: "It's still curious, there are plenty of benches free but, have you noticed, it's always the same ones who are busy! »
– I have an explanation, sir: the benches that have just been freed up have the advantage of being dry, albeit for a short time. But we would be much better warm, with this drizzle!
– Without coal? No, believe me, young man, all we have left is exercise to warm us up. Because, in the neighborhood, it is useless to hope to find a good Brouilly! What is your name ?
– Blaise, Sir (the youngest had been given confidence by the mention of Brouilly).
– Ah, we have a common relationship, André told me about you. I am Alexander. I have something to show you. Come and see me tomorrow, is it possible?
- Okay, but where?
- Ah, am I stupid! Here (says the named Alexandre, pointing to a name on a newspaper), you will ask for Inspector, the guard will be notified. Enter through the side door, not the main entrance. After your lessons, at the same time?
– I will be there, Sir… Alexandre!
………
The next day, Blaise went to the Parmentier telephone exchange, near the University. He rang at the side door and a guard in a postman's uniform opened the door for him. As agreed, he asked "Monsieur l'Inspecteur", and he was led to the other end of the building, after having crossed the room where the famous young ladies of the telephone operated, closely eyed by individuals who had nothing to do with administration of PTTs. In the corridor, the guard slipped “Some people think they are Prospers, others Romeos, but they are all idiots! before knocking on the door of the office marked "Monsieur l'Inspecteur Principal". The door opened. After thanking the caretaker, Alexandre ushered in Blaise: “Come, I'll show you around the bowels of the building. »
………
"But we don't get along in there!"
– Precisely, for what we have to say to each other, it is preferable. The noise around comes from the automatic exchange. It's a change from the ladies upstairs! Let's move on, during the tests, there is a little less noise.
………
– Here is what I have for you: two beautiful line test boxes. Four positions: normal, trials I, trials II, trials III. They are used when the lines are put into service, or in the event of a fault. In normal position, nothing to say. Tests I, it's like normal, but with a suitable voltmeter and ammeter connected to the case, here and there, it's marked. Tests II, the line is no longer connected to the exchange, but to an external device sending test signals, which is connected there. Trials III is like Trials II but with the voltmeter and the ammeter.
- But it's beautiful! Exactly what I need!
– I give you two, because you may have to modify it for your needs.
– And there, what do we plug in?
– Headphones, to listen. Notice, it may be helpful to you too. Look, here's one, out of inventory. And it works, otherwise it wouldn't be there. You understood well ?
- Absolutely.
- Wait, it's not over. Do not abuse the test positions, and even less the helmet, because it weakens the transmitted signal. But that, you must know! Ah, and if we bother you, you take out this official paper: it says that it is scrap material intended for the laboratory of your school for expertise. Another thing, for the installation – this material does not like humidity, it's up to you.
- Thanks again.
– When you are ready for the installation, let André know. I will be part of it. Above all, do not contact me directly, you have seen who is hanging around!
Blaise left without being worried, it is true that he had only a few minutes walk.
………
The following day, Saturday, Blaise spent much of his time in the library, waiting for André to come by. An appointment was made for the following day, Sunday, in a café near the Place de la Croix-Rousse.

 

[demolitiondan]

VI – Lyon, October 1942: hot chestnuts!

Blaise arrived at Place de la Croix-Rousse a little out of breath. The queue for the ficelle (the funicular serving the Croix-Rousse hill) had seemed very long to him; Unfamiliar with the traboules, he had resigned himself to going up the hill by the sloping streets interspersed with stairs.
When he emerged, he was greeted by the smell of hot chestnuts and the roar of the carnival which, despite the restrictions of all kinds, had managed to survive. Passing the various stands, he noticed that the air rifle shots were much less numerous than in the past. Curious, he asked one of the showmen for the reason, who replied: “You just have to try, you’ll understand, but it’s 5 cents anyway! In fact, the unfortunate rifle that was handed to him had difficulty in sending its modest projectile to the target 3 meters away... It was not with that that we were going to drive out the occupier! Or even amuse the gones. He continued, passing in front of the eternal barracks of the “Don aux prisoners”, as well as in front of those of the various movements supervising (or claiming to supervise) the youth. But the crowd was big, encouraged by a beautiful blue sky and the prospect of eating hot chestnuts, without tickets or limits.
He made his way to the Cafe Chantecler. Although the interior was not clouded with cigarette smoke as was the pre-war rule, he did not see André – he turned, to find him right behind him. The two took their places at a table to the side, overlooking the boulevard. The waiter placed two glasses of white wine in front of them and, with a glance at the slate hanging above the counter, they could see that it was the only drink served that day: "Blanc de la Bogue des Marrons : 3 francs a glass”. Even the lemonade was gone. André was the first to speak. Parts are scarce, moreover the manufacture of radio sets is prohibited. »
– I have what I need: two lamps, and the rest I salvaged from a broken post.
– Where did you find it?
– At Mr. Teppaz's store.
- Not know * ! And the phonoelectric?
- He's going to lend me one, I told him it was for a small student party.
– Especially not, it’s too risky for him. If you get caught by the cops or henchmen, imagine! No, you'll buy him one, you'll say it's for your parents.
– But they live in Clermont-Ferrand!
- Exactly, it's not there anymore!
– But it’s expensive, I can’t afford it.
– We do! You will have the money within a week. Other than that, when will you be done with your DIY?
– This is not DIY, this is serious work! The reputation of the school is at stake! Two weeks, no more.
"And where are you going to install all this?"
- Exactly, I have a problem.
- Ah good ! And now you say it. The Germans installed an anti-aircraft cannon on the cable?
– No, no, that’s not it, the problem is Martine.
– Martina? Who is that?
- I have to explain to you. The cable runs behind the barn of Martine's father's farm, just behind the wall, along a dirt road, and of course it is buried. It was Martine who told me that, she was 12 when it happened.
"And now, how many does she have?"
– Uh, 19. She told me last spring.
“In the barn, lying in the hay, and with just a little sunlight as a witness, through the cracks in the walls? Oh, youth! She knows ?
- It was necessary. I started digging...
- And his father ? What are his views?
– On the one hand, as a peasant, he takes advantage of the situation, and on the other, he made Quatorze's and Martine's brother is a prisoner. So he's like most French people: he waits...
– Do you often go there?
– Yes, it’s always a good meal guaranteed!
– What a good excuse… How do you see the rest?
– We must finish digging, shoring, especially around the open section of the cable, and install the junction box of Alexandre. I protected it with a wooden box, which can be opened to access the terminals, with holes to pass the cable through. We'll plug it with window putty... We'll have to do that discreetly early one morning, when they're not broadcasting.
– And while there is no one on the farm. Hey, on All Saints' Day morning?
– Yes, I will be done digging by then. They will all go to mass, neighbors included, and afterwards they will go to the cemetery. And it won't surprise anyone if a stranger passes by.
“Okay, enough said for today. You will make me an access plan for Alexandre.
They swallowed their glass of white before leaving. With the change, André bought hot chestnuts, half of which he offered to Blaise. He then returned home via the climb of the Grande Côte, which, it is well known in Lyon, can also be descended!

*It will only become known at the end of the 1950s…

 

[demolitiondan]

VII – A farm near Lyon, November 1942: installation and testing

On November 1, the installation of the junction box was done without too many problems. Alexandre arrived on his bike at the farm, greeted by Blaise who had arrived just before and who opened the large solid wood gate for him. The dog barked once, then fell silent. The two men headed for the barn, where Blaise cleared a pile of hay, then boards covering a hole that extended under the wall. The cable was free for about a meter.
Alexandre took tools from a bag stamped “PTT” and set to work, starting by removing the metal protection of the cable, then gradually undoing the outer insulation. Two smaller cables then appeared. The person skilled in the art had no trouble distinguishing them: the first, made up of ordinary telephone wires, did not interest him. “It’s for service communications between the studio and the transmitter. No need for them to pay a tax each time they call each other. he said to Pascal. The second was the good one: after opening, two insulated and carefully twisted copper wires appeared, surrounded by a metal braid. He glanced at his watch and cut the wires clean without hesitation. He removed more insulation, then ran the wires through the cabinet containing the test box, and re-established the connections. He put away his tools and took out a measuring instrument. “Are you checking with the ohmmeter? Blaise asked – Alexander nodded. After having checked on all the positions of the switch that there was no anomaly, the device was put away, the holes through which the wires passed closed, the box closed, the boards then the hay put back in place. It took less than half an hour.
Alexandre set off again in the direction of the church of Dardilly, pedaling at full speed to pass for a latecomer if by chance someone observed him. Blaise, on the other hand, waited quietly for the peasant and his family to return, making himself useful by going to peck the two horses of the farm. As usual, the lunch was most hearty, and when the farmer turned on the radio at the start of the afternoon program, the sound was quite normal. Martine then stared at Blaise, with a big smile, to which he responded with a small nod. He regretted that the family atmosphere did not lend itself to it, because he would gladly have danced with her to the music played by the mahogany furniture...
………
On November 11, Pascal returned to the hole, this time to take measurements. To avoid any disturbance to public order, schools and faculties had been closed that day, and all places conducive to demonstrations were guarded or barred. He took advantage of the fact that once a week test signals were sent from the studio to the transmitter before going on the air: they were perfect for measuring voltage and current in the cable. Equipped with instruments borrowed from the school laboratory as well as a good extension cord (if there was electricity in the barn, it still had to be brought to the right place), he took several readings. He was thus able to adjust the apparatus he had made.
………
However, one last check was still necessary, that of the entire installation. For this, he put everything in place on a Sunday afternoon, the disc of “Excellent Français” by Maurice Chevalier ready to be played as soon as it came from the studio. Headphones on, he heard the announcement, and immediately substituted his own machinery for that of the studio. At the end of the disc, which still cracked more than that of the studio, he put the switch back on its normal position and unplugged everything. Two minutes later, Martine came to join him in the barn, a happy smile on her face. Everything had worked well! They celebrated this success with dignity.
All that remained was to wait a little to complete Operation Brouilly victoriously.

 

[demolitiondan]

VIII – Lyon, 15 to 27 December 1942: impatience

After having feverishly decoded it, “Alain”, who, once again, outside of his usual duties, was helping out “Pelletier”, passed him the last message in the bundle. Pelletier growled: "Three days to get here, that's not good!" »
– But you know very well that, since the beginning of the month, radio links have become more complicated.
– And the report sent to Algiers to speed up the transmission from home, where is it? However, we explained to them in great detail what to do, it would be ten times less dangerous and we could follow in 24 hours, and even much faster in the event of an emergency!
– The English are not yet convinced, it seems!
– However, the messenger speaks their language, and he is in the business! Always the same with them: wait and see. We see that they don't have the Gestapo or the prefect's dogs on their buttocks, the subjects of His Gracious Majesty!... Ah, the package will be delivered around Christmas. Mmm, that will be short! Usual procedure, I suppose.
– No, read the end…
- Oh no ! Date determined later! But what are they thinking about, in Algiers?
………
Precisely, in Algiers, if the Brouilly operation had been ratified, the question of the content of the message was still not settled... Some leaned for a speech by the President of the Council, others for a speech by the Minister of the Interior, theoretically in charge of the "suffering of our fellow citizens in mainland France", without forgetting the supporters of a speech by General de Gaulle, to awaken the offensive spirit on the northern side of the Mediterranean! Proponents of a “Good Old Third” style compromise would have liked to combine the three, but they were at their expense, because a record only has two sides! Finally, we decided for Reynaud and De Gaulle (after all, we were at war, and the radiophonic qualities of the General, for two and a half years, had only been able to escape the deaf).
Reynaud's text, in a deliberately restrained style, was recorded on December 16, but the General recused himself that day, claiming that he had just torn up the one he had prepared, because "out of proportion to the events that were getting ready*”. His message was finally recorded only on the evening of the 27th, obviously in a single take, once the situation in Italy and Corsica had been more or less clarified. Its content was very close to that which was broadcast by Radio-Alger on the 31st.
But all that did not help the affairs of the Lyonnais…

*In fact, the first version had not been torn. It can be consulted today at the Institut Charles De Gaulle.

 

[demolitiondan]

IX – Blida, December 28, 1942: at GC V/60

Someone who had visited the Blida facilities a year earlier would have had a hard time recognizing them. The runway had been lengthened and concreted, new hangars had been erected, and a serious fence now surrounded the installations, except at the end of the runway, where it had been knocked down several times following rather long landings, causing damage. as additional as they are useless to planes that really didn't need it! But the Legion watched the place and largely compensated for the hole in the enclosure, moreover flanked by two anti-aircraft batteries, connected (like the others) to the radar warning center, something unimaginable until recently...
If he had entered the hangars, our visitor would have been surprised by the low number of aircraft present: twin-engine night fighters belonging to the GCN responsible for watching over the night skies of Algiers, and the heterogeneous collection of small planes in more or less good condition found on all air bases for training and liaison... But behind severely guarded doors bearing the inscription "GB V/60" were also bombers of a very particular type …
If our visitor had had a somewhat practiced eye, he would have quickly recognized that these well-guarded bombers had already been used, and even used a lot. The layer of matte black paint that covered them did not manage to make invisible all the repairs of "bodywork" that had been made (in particular to plug holes of various sizes), not to mention many dents. The visitor would also have been surprised to note the disappearance of a large part of the defensive armament: the side firing posts had been replaced by doors, and the ventral turret, when there was one, by a circular orifice closed by a plywood doors… If he had visited the interior of the aircraft, he would have wondered which bombs from the Allied arsenal could be attached to the bomb launchers, and what was the purpose of all the “furniture” installed in the fuselage.
As you will have understood, the GB V/60 aircraft were intended for very specific missions, in this case the supply of the Resistance in occupied territory, starting with metropolitan France. His endowment consisted of three Consolidated LB-30 mod.32, Blowlamp veterans, an even more venerable mod.30, two Lockheed Hudsons, plus two other decrepit mod.30s intended for training, which had no not been entitled to as much consideration in terms of processing and moreover parked outside. The six operational aircraft only went out at night, for parachute missions of equipment or personnel (oh so precious!) and, for the Hudsons, to drop off and recover civilians or soldiers.
The previous nights, the group had really been busy. All the aircraft had rotated with Corsica, parachuting emergency supplies, requested by the "extraordinary delegate" Jacques Bingen. These missions were far from easy, especially for Liberators not really known for their maneuverability, in an area where the terrain demands the greatest respect. One of the Hudsons had even made a “passenger” flight to Ajaccio, carrying specialists in air infrastructure and communications.
This evening, the other Hudson was leaving for the south of France, resuming (almost) regular connections temporarily interrupted – not, for once, by the vagaries of the weather or the lack of cooperation from the moon, but by the rapid evolution of the situation in Corsica. At 10:00 p.m., four people got into the back, where there were already about twenty suitcases, and settled in as best they could. Fifteen minutes later, the engines were started, a few more parcels were loaded (travellers did not pay for excess baggage…) and the aircraft headed for the runway, in the hands of a crew reduced to two. people, the pilot and the navigator.

 

[demolitiondan]

X – Around Arles, December 29, 1942, 02:00: the mail from Algiers

After a nerve-racking crossing, for the last two hundred kilometers made at about 100 meters altitude to avoid detection by German radars, the Hudson passed over an isolated farmhouse and climbed a little so that the pilot can have a better view of the terrain. After thirty seconds, he saw the three characteristic beacon lights come on, as well as the flashing of the flashlight, which sent “TL” in Morse code, corresponding to the code of the day.
As usual, he landed very short and remained at the controls, while the navigator rushed aft to open the doors, let the passengers out, then organize a chain to evacuate the suitcases and packages. Four men and two women then boarded (they had very little luggage!), then the navigator closed and locked the door before resuming his place next to the pilot.
The Hudson took off immediately and, after gaining sufficient altitude, made a wide left turn and headed south. He hadn't been on the ground for more than five minutes. The plane landed in Algiers four hours later without incident.
As one can imagine, during this time, in Arles, business had been conducted smoothly. Under the direction of the local SOA (Aviation Operations Service) delegate, the passengers were taken to a safe place, and the suitcases and parcels handed over to representatives of the recipients (if they were nearby and had been notified), or, for most of them to couriers who would deliver them in the morning.