Ojc
Member
Registered: 14th Nov 00
Location: Reading: Drives : Clio 197
User status: Offline
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Hi Everyone -
This has certainly become quite a spirited discussion. Please allow me to make a few points on this matter to clear up any misunderstandings that may exist.
I have not conducted any primary research on the Foreign Legion in Indochina, although I will do so when I visit the SHAT this June. My posting on the Feldgrau forum cited primary research conducted by others, although the three men I mentioned (Michels, Porch, and Fall) are without a doubt among the finest Legion historians. Each one of them has researched the SS in Indochina question and reached the same conclusion, i.e. that the story has been blown out of proportion by post-war novelists (unintentionally) and by Communist propagandists (intentionally).
As Rob said, the best book on this subject is Dr. Eckard Michels' Deutsche in der Fremdenlegion, 1870-1965: Mythen and Realitaeten. Those of you who have read this masterwork will surely agree that the author is an outstanding and exhaustive researcher. It would certainly be great if someone here knew Professor Michels and could invite him to this forum and have him comment on this topic.
I think we should be careful not to confuse "SS" with "Wehrmacht" in this context, because former Wehrmacht members did serve in the Legion in Indochina. Legion recruiters began looking for volunteers in French POW camps in 1943 and the French zone of Germany beginning in the summer of 1945. Michels provides two figures regarding the number of Wehrmacht POWs inducted into the Legion in the period 1945-1946: one of these is 3000, given by the Allied High Commission; the other is 5000, which he calls a "maximum" figure.
Officially, former SS men could not enlist in the Legion. The Deuxieme Bureau interrogated prospective volunteers and inspected their arms for bloodtype tattoos (we know of course that not every SS man had this tattoo, but many did). However, a small number of ex-SS men did manage to gain entrance in 1945 and 1946. When the PCF and other Communist parties around the world heard of this, they had a field day. Enraged French government officials demanded a crackdown, and this took place in 1947. This is when, as Rob said, the French officer gave the figure of "60 or 70" former SS serving in the Legion.
Professor Michels attempted on three different occaisons to obtain access to the Legion's own archive at Aubagne to explore this question further but he was refused admittance. However, the American historian Douglas Porch was permitted to see most of their files, and his overall conclusion was that few ex-SS men served in the Legion. I think that Porch's research has great weight, as he had assistance from the cream of French military historians, including of course Andre-Paul Comor. (Must be nice!)
Professor Fall's writings about the Legion are important because he personally visited units in the field and spoke with Legionnaires. However, it should be noted that by the time of Operation Castor (Dien Bien Phu - 1954), many if not most of the German Legionnaires who had enlisted in 1945 and 1946 had either deserted or completed their five-year contracts, so they were already gone. The desertion stories are fascinating in their own right; some Legionnaires enroute to Indochina jumped from their transport ships as they were passing through the Suez Canal, whereupon the French military police would open fire on them in the water.
Luca - This topic raises another area of study that you may find of interest (I certainly found it interesting). There are some documents in the British Public Records Office regarding Legion recruiters canvassing the POW cages and attempting to convince Italian POWs to enlist in the Legion, with some success. Someone should write a good history of the Italian Legionnaires who have served since 1831, as there have been many thousands of them.
Best regards,
George Lepre
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