SS and the Foreign Legion

[Hagen]

Every once in a while I hear that there were former Waffen SS men who fought with the French Foreign Legion, especially in Vietnam at Dien Ben Phu. Is there anything to this?

[Helmut Von Moltke]

Largely a myth made up by communists, and by some novel. There were only around 80 Waffen-SS veterans in the Foreign Legion, when records were checked. However there were Waffen-SS foreign volunteer veterans fighting in Korea in the Allied armies as they would regain their citizenship that way.

K

[Jim O]

Originally Posted by Helmut Von Moltke

There were only around 80 Waffen-SS veterans in the Foreign Legion, when records were checked.

Do you have a source on this?

[Tom Houlihan]

Jim, here's a link to a discussion about it"

http://www.strategypage.com/military.../30-76965.aspx

On Feldgrau and AHF, The Devil's Guard has been beat to death, almost as badly as The Forgotten Soldier! Some people have read Fall's work, which seems to indicate the number of SS was in the low hundreds, rather than thousands. Possibly only a couple of hundred. Of course, it's entirely possible that Fall misrepresented the numbers as well, since SS men fighting for France would have been tres terrible!

For myself, I love reading it. While I don't think it's entirely factual, my opinion is that it's based on fact. There are things in there that even an imaginative author with no military experience would have had trouble making up. I believe the story happened, but not quite the way it is presented in the book.

[Hagen]

When I first heard this story years ago, it seemed very plausible to me. As a member of an criminal orginization it must have been hard to just find work, at least for the common man. And seeing as how the Foreign Legion didn't really delve into a mans past, (as I've been lead to believe anyway) it seemed an almost natural fit. As we said in the Army "at least you get three hots and a cot".

[Helmut Von Moltke]

How much did you get your copy of Devil's Guard for Tom? It unfortunately costs quite a pop nowadays when I checked Amazon and ebay.

K

[Tom Houlihan]

Originally Posted by Helmut Von Moltke

How much did you get your copy of Devil's Guard for Tom?

I couldn't tell you. I've had it for years!

And seeing as how the Foreign Legion didn't really delve into a mans past,...

Well, back then they didn't. Just about anyone was qualified to die for France! These days, though, it's a little different. They'll check with Interpol.