Obersturmführer Sergei Krotov (far left) among the servicemen of the SS Charlemagne division and the French Legion before execution on May 8, 1945 (fragment, full photo by clicking)
While being treated in a German hospital in Bavaria after being wounded in the Battle of Berlin, 12 French volunteers were captured by the Americans on May 6 and were placed by them along with other prisoners in the barracks of the Alpine riflemen in the city of Bad Reichenhall. Having learned that the Americans were going to hand over the city to the French, they tried to escape, but were detained by an American patrol and handed over to the 2nd armor tank division"Free France" of General Leclerc. To the general’s question about why they, being French, wear someone else’s uniform, the well-known answer was that he himself was wearing an American uniform. By order of Leclerc, all 12 prisoners were shot without trial on May 8.
The moment of issue - General Leclerc with his famous cane and the American sergeant
www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9GMXndOo9c&feature=pla...
Standarten-SS Oberjunker Sergei Protopopov (1923-1945)
Photo taken in February 1943 at the French Legion military school
Sergei Protopopov was born into a family of Russian white emigrants in France. In 1943, at the age of twenty, like many other Russians, he joined the French Anti-Bolshevik Legion and was trained at its military school in Montargis near Orleans. In September 1944, the French Anti-Bolshevik Legion was included in the SS, first in the form of a brigade, and from February 1945 - a division called “Charlemagne” (“Charlemagne”). In December 1944, Sergei Protopopov graduated from the SS officer school in Kienschlag.
In February-March 1945, the Charlemagne division lost most of its personnel in heavy battles with the advancing Red Army in Pomerania. At the beginning of April, only 700 people remained in its ranks, of which about 300 volunteered to go to the defense of Berlin. An assault battalion formed from them under the command of Hauptsturmführer Henri-Joseph Fenet arrived in the besieged German capital on April 24, 1945. It also included Sergei Protopopov.
The Charlemagne battalion, attached to the SS Nordland division, was entrusted with the defense of Sector C. French volunteers entered the first battle with the advancing Reds on April 26 in the area of the Tempelhof airfield. On April 27, the fighting became especially fierce. During them, Sergei Protopopov personally knocked out five Soviet tanks and shot down a Soviet reconnaissance aircraft with an MG 42 machine gun. On April 29, the detachment, which included Standarten Oberjunker Protopopov, was covered by fire from Soviet mortars on Gendarmenmarkt Square. The Russian volunteer died from multiple shrapnel wounds and was posthumously awarded the Iron Cross, First Class, for his courage. His comrades in the Charlemagne battalion turned out to be the last defenders of the Reich Chancellery bunker, the defense of which they held until May 2.
Interview with Christian de La Mazière and Henri-Joseph Fenet and photo chronicles of “Charlemagne”
About the volunteers of the 3rd German Reich, who came to Russia to kill the inhabitants of Russia, and about the volunteers of the 4th American Reich - heirs of ideas and symbols.
Consider the path for your feet, and all the ways
let yours be strong. Don't shy away either
to the right, nor to the left; remove your foot from evil.
(Proverbs 4:26-27)
On January 30, 1943, the French government in Vichy created the “French militia” to fight the partisans, who became more active after the Battle of Stalingrad.
The white ribbon became the symbol of the French police. stylized as the letter gamma:
badge and patch
Policeman's ID. On the left side is an excerpt from the oath: “I undertake to serve France with honor without sparing my life. I swear to make every effort for the triumph of the revolutionary ideals of the FRENCH MILICE, and voluntarily submitting to discipline.”
Police commander SS Obersturmführer Joseph Darnand (executed on October 10, 1945 for treason)
Under the shadow of Napoleon
Mostly LVF volunteers joined the police, having in various ways avoided their exploits in the snows of Russia .
It is believed that as many as 35 thousand volunteers signed up for the French Militia, of which, however, only 13-15 thousand actually got to serve, of which 7-9 thousand white-ribbon soldiers took part in the case, including about 3 thousand who were sent to the SS Charlemagne ...
And these are LVF volunteers going to Russia
Among the exploits of lovers of the “ribbon of the color of freedom” are the difficult work of deporting Jews from France, the fight against partisans in the Limousin, on the Glières plateau and the famous suppression of the “partisan republic of Vercors”, where “white ribbons” cleared the rear of the Tatar SS Legion of partisans and civilians. ..
Some of the exploits of the “French Militia” were captured in monuments:
memorial sign in memory of the deputy mayor of the city of Di:
"Frenchman!
remember that it is July 23, 1944 here.
patriot Camille Buffardel
member of the National Liberation Committee
was brutally murdered by German mercenaries from the French militia"
Doctor Medvedovsky, born in Kyiv in 1891, entered the Paris Medical Institute in 1911, and voluntarily went to the front in 1914. Since 1923 he lived in Vercors. Since 1940 he participated in the Resistance. In June 1944, he was betrayed as an agent provocateur and, after torture and abuse, was killed. Posthumously awarded the Military Cross and the Resistance Medal:
"Here he died for France
Doctor Medvedovsky,
killed June 17, 1944
Germans and French
betrayed their country"
Legion of French Volunteers against Bolshevism
French soldiers fight side by side with German soldiers against Bolshevism. The photo shows their oath to the Fuhrer, Commander-in-Chief of the German Army. They are equipped as Reichswehr soldiers and have no other French insignia other than the tricolor emblem on their uniform.
(French Legion des Volontaires Francais contre le Bolchevisme, or abbreviated French Legion des Volontaires Francais, LVF, abbr. LFD) - an infantry regiment formed in France and which took part in the fighting in Eastern Front World War II on the side of Germany.
The organizers were Marcel Bucard (“Francist Movement”), Jacques Doriot (“French People’s Party”), Eugene Deloncle (“Social revolutionary movement"), Pierre Clementi ("French Party of National Unity") and Pierre Costantini ("French League"). With the beginning of the war against the USSR, these political leaders by using German Ambassador In Paris, Otto Abetz obtained permission to create a similar formation to fight against the USSR on the Eastern Front.
After receiving legal consent from Berlin on July 6, 1941, it was announced that a second conference of anti-Bolshevik forces would be convened the next day. On July 7, representatives of all political organizations that decided to participate in the creation of the LVF gathered at the Majestic Hotel, where they elected the Central Committee of the Legion, which included, in addition to the above-mentioned Clementi, Clementi and the top of the collaborationist administration and police of occupied France. Having completed the coordination of all issues among themselves, they confirmed the decision to form LVF on July 18 and immediately began implementing the necessary organizational measures. Following the opening of the legion's first office, located in a former Soviet travel agency building at 12 rue Auber in Paris, the organization's recruitment centers appeared throughout the country. Those who, in the fight against Moscow Bolshevism, tried to realize their special patriotic convictions and found a way out through their participation in the war of bitterness towards the Bolsheviks, Jews and liberals, rushed to them. Despite the comparative limitations of the French community who held similar views, they showed significant activity, and after the announcement of recruitment, up to three thousand volunteers of the first wave joined the legion within three months. To gather legion volunteers, they used the barracks at Borgnis Desbordes located in Versailles. Although during the entire existence of the LVF until the summer of 1944, more than thirteen thousand French tried to enter its ranks, the Germans allowed only about six thousand people to be accepted and did not allow the legion to deploy forces larger than a regiment.
Until the summer of 1942, about 3,000 people joined the legion. The official name in the Wehrmacht is the 638th Infantry Regiment (German: Infanterie Regiment 638).
At the beginning of November 1941, the I and II battalions of the 638th Infantry Regiment arrived in Smolensk. The number of arrivals was about 2,352 soldiers. Almost the entire November 1941, the regiment was forced to make a difficult forced march to the front line, which is why it suffered its first losses in manpower, equipment and horses. The regiment's battalions were greatly stretched, which is why only the 1st battalion reached the immediate front line, while the 2nd battalion remained as a reserve. In early December, the French from the 1st Battalion fought against the Red Army, but suffered heavy losses from Soviet artillery and suffered from frostbite.
From December 6 to 9, the losses were 65 people killed, 120 wounded, and more than 300 sick or frostbite. Reinforcements for the legion from France began to arrive only now, at the beginning of December, at the training ground in Debice, where 1,400 fresh volunteers began to form the third battalion and prepare reinforcements for other units. The situation on the front line by that time was almost completely out of control. Especially when Colonel Labonne, who had become completely helpless, withdrew from the leadership of his unit, and the remaining officers and sergeants in the ranks had to fight leading separate units. They were still able to conduct holding battles until, during the second stage, the defeated French 638th regiment in February was withdrawn from the front line and, having been declared completely lost in combat capability, was sent for reorganization, and Colonel Labonnet was removed from his post in March and returned to France.
As a result, it was decided to withdraw the regiment back to Poland and reorganize it.
The 638th Infantry Regiment was the only foreign unit in the Wehrmacht that advanced on Moscow in 1941.
In addition to the French themselves, several dozen White emigrants, subjects of the former Russian Empire(Russians, Ukrainians, Georgians). In addition to them, the regiment also included Arabs from the French colonies, a number of blacks and Bretons. Most of the Russian emigrants and blacks were demobilized during the reorganization of the legion in March 1942.
In the winter and spring of 1942, the legion was reorganized: the 1st and 2nd battalions, which suffered heavy losses near Moscow, were consolidated into one, which became the “new” 1st battalion; There was also a III Battalion, created in December 1941. After additional training, both battalions were sent to Belarus to fight partisans and were used separately under different Wehrmacht security divisions, the 221st and 286th
Refusing to further use the 638th regiment in battles with regular Soviet troops, the German military leadership sent French legionnaires to fight the partisans in the rear of Army Group Center. They were given as reinforcement in June 1942 to the 286 security division 286 Sicherungs Division under the command of Lieutenant General Richert Generalleutnant Johann Georg Richert, which ensured the security of communications in the operational rear German troops in the south of the Vitebsk region and in the adjacent territories. From the very beginning, LVF soldiers were involved in a series of punitive operations carried out by Lieutenant General Richert from August 1942 to early 1943 in order to suppress the growing partisan movement. Scattered at various points located in the network of operational lines of communication Vitebsk - Smolensk - Orsha - Borisov, small units of the legion carried out patrol duty, constantly actively engaging in battles with partisans and organizing local actions. They were collected as necessary to implement major operations into tactical groups, only occasionally using entire battalions at first. The task of the first operation, where legionnaires were involved, called "Greif" was to destroy the partisans hiding in the forests between Senno and Orsha, whose actions threatened communications passing through Vitebsk and Orsha. In two weeks from August 16 to 30, the punitive forces managed to thoroughly batter Zaslonov’s brigade and destroy the emerging Zyukov brigade, as well as killing about 900 local residents, to “pacify” the area for several months.
“The state of discipline of the legionnaires can be seen from the daily orders for the regiment, which usually ended with the section “Punitions”.
Volunteers with the banner of the legion. USSR, November 1941
Documents of the destroyed regiment fell into the hands of Belarusian partisans
Here is a typical order dated December 6, 1943, from which it is clear that legionnaire Louis Friess Louis Friess received 8 days of arrest for drinking alcohol in company with local residents while being sent to the post. Legionnaire Paul Ecurnier Paul Ecurnier expressed “inappropriate words” to the commander - 8 days of arrest. Legionnaire Andre Merlat was given the same sentence for a story involving a pair of boots, which he allegedly borrowed from a friend and did not return. He probably drank... The order dated December 23, 1943 announced 3 months of arrest for legionnaire Fernand Dugas Fernand Dugas because he got drunk to such a state that he could not go out with his platoon on combat operation. In general, a surprisingly mild punishment. In other armies, people were shot for this in front of the ranks. Legionnaire Andre Granet Andre Granet left the unit and, as stated in the descriptive part of the order, went to the village for entertainment, despite the strict prohibition of the non-commissioned officer and the fact that he should have joined the outfit. For this AWOL with aggravating circumstances he received only 8 days. Legionnaire Pierre Guilbot Pierre Guilbot was found sleeping at his post - 10 days of arrest. And something completely unthinkable by wartime standards happened to legionnaire Jacques Greze. He went to a village 4 kilometers away, was attacked there and was injured, requiring hospitalization. One thing you can notice here is this: if the villagers wanted to kill that Frenchman, they most certainly would have killed him. And it looks like they just gave him a good whack - don’t meddle in our parties! And what was his punishment from his superiors? All the same 8 days of arrest from the company commander, but, however, the battalion commander added two more." Sometimes it came to establishing contact with the enemy and an agreement with the partisans on non-aggression. About such a case of contact between the partisans the commander of the “Chekist” brigade, G. A. Kirpich, tells the French in his memoirs (“Memory: Historical and Documentary Chronicle of the Kruglyansky District”): “In locality The New Polesie fascist command placed a garrison from the French legion under the command of the German Major Schwartzman... The French legionnaires did not conduct their reconnaissance, they did not make ambushes on the partisans' path. One day Nazarov’s detachment passed by during the day. The French saw him, but did not shoot. Then the commander was given the task of establishing contact with the French through local residents and winning them over to our side. Once upon a time, an old man was buried in an Orthodox cemetery. Our scouts approached the villagers, among whom were two Frenchmen in German uniform. They noticed the partisans and, realizing who they were, took up their cause. Ours responded with a nod. The French immediately disappeared. Part of the French garrison was located on the outskirts of the village in a large house, surrounded by a fence and an embankment, in the corners there were 4 firing points with loopholes. Three days later, the detachment's detective officer, Karpushenko, took three machine gunners and went to meet the French. The French gave the partisans 4 boxes of ammunition, 38 grenades, 2 portable radios and 4 transmitter tapes. The leader of their group explained that all this was attributed to the fight against partisans..."
With the return to the LVF of the 2nd battalion led by Major Commandant Tramu, which arrived in Belarus at the end of November 1943, Edgar Poix allowed to expand the zone active actions and to the Tolochino district. Here the French encountered soldiers from Nikolai Petrovich Gudkov’s brigade. The test of strength for the restored 638th regiment was the punitive operation "Morocco" "Morocco", named after its commander. It took place at the end of January - beginning of February 1944 in the surrounding forests of the village of Somry. Soon after the successful completion of the operation, the 3rd battalion returned from a business trip to the Mogilev region, whose commander, Major Pane, was killed literally just before departure. And now that the legion has gathered in in full force It was possible to complete its reorganization into a stronger punitive unit, which received the name 638 reinforced French grenadier regiment 638 verstrktes Franzosisches Grenadier Regiment. As a reinforcement, from some auxiliary units disbanded in October 1943, the 4th battalion was prepared by April 1944. Less than a month had passed since the beginning of May, the newly minted French grenadiers were involved in preparation and participation in the most significant punitive operation that began on May 15, carried out on the territory of occupied Belarus, during which it was planned to eliminate more than twenty partisan formations in the rear of the 3rd tank and 4th field armies. After blocking the partisan forces in the area of the Domzheritsky and Palik marshes, the invaders began to implement the main plan of Operation Cormorant “Kormoran”, squeezing the partisans into a tight ring to deliver cutting blows. But by June 15, despite serious losses and still maintaining combat effectiveness, up to twenty partisan brigades broke through the punitive battle formations in some places. Attempts to destroy the soldiers of several brigades and scattered detachments who remained surrounded and fighting on the islands among the swamps were cut short on June 23 by Soviet units that crushed the defenses of Army Group Center.
The surviving French grenadiers who left Belarus in disarray were sent for reorganization to the Greifenberg camp Greifenberg ( East Prussia). But the restoration of the military unit under the auspices of the LVF did not follow; before their collapse, the Germans no longer needed the services of the legion. Without paying attention to the already established independent combat tradition of the 638th regiment, the legionnaires were sent to the SS. They took part in the organization of a new French unit of the Grenadier brigades SS "Charlemagne" Waffen Grenadier Brigade der SS "Charlemagne", in the ranks of which they were united on September 1 with soldiers of the Volunteer Grenadier Regiment of the SS (formed in 1943 and also defeated in 1944) and the French from the Navy, NSKK and occupation militia
The number of French prisoners prompted the Soviet command to create a separate camp for them near Tambov.
November 20, 1944 The Legion of French Volunteers officially ceased to exist.
Brigade consisted of two regiments, veterans of the legion staffed the personnel of the 58th SS Grenadier Regiment Waffen Grenadier Regiment der SS 58. In the new rank of SS Oberfuhrer Edgar Puaud Oberfuhrer SS Edgard Puaud commanded the newly formed brigade
Colonel Pua on the Eastern Front
The French were sent here to stop the Soviet offensive in February, having already formally reorganized the 33 Waffen Grenadier Division der SS "Charlemagne" into the 33rd Grenadier Division of the SS "Charlemagne", leaving the number of soldiers in the division the same about eight thousand. A complete defeat awaited them, after which the division virtually ceased to exist, having lost more than half of its personnel killed, wounded, captured and missing. Of the surviving several hundred fighters, a battle group was assembled for the defense of Berlin, where almost all of them were buried under the ruins of the capital of the Reich. The remaining undead remnants of the French SS managed to surrender to the Allies. Even earlier, Jacques Doriot died, shot in a car from an attack aircraft on the road between Mainau Mainau and Sigmaringen on February 22, 1945.
About 20 thousand French prisoners of war were held captive in the USSR. 1945 - representative of the French military mission, receives French prisoners prepared for shipment to their homeland Soviet authorities. After the war, the French were the first to be sent back to their homeland without any conditions. Just for fun, I’ll note that he’s wearing a Soviet military uniform. At the end of the 90s in France, 4,500 people received pensions as Tambov prisoners.
The French government imposed a number of death sentences and prison sentences on members of the Legion: for example, the first commander of the regiment, Colonel Labonne, was sentenced to life imprisonment, a member of the central committee of the legion, Charles Lesca, was sentenced to death in May 1947 by the Supreme Court in Paris, but despite extradition requests from France were never issued by the Argentine government.
Wolfgang Akunov
Oleg Cherkassky - as a sign of deep respect
"My beloved wife,
Sergei Krotov."
(From Sergei Krotov’s last letter to his wife).
After the attack of the German Wehrmacht on the USSR in June 1941, there were calls in France to take part in the deadly struggle that flared up in eastern Europe, which, according to French anti-communists, concerned not only Germany. On August 5, 1941, with the consent of the French government, the "Legion des Volontaires Francais contre le Bolchevisme" (abbr.) was formed. .:LVF. Enlisted in the ranks of the German Wehrmacht, this one consisted exclusively of the French (or more precisely, of French citizens, including numerous Russian White emigrants, including veterans Civil War 1917-1922 in Russia) the volunteer corps received the name “638th regiment” within the Wehrmacht ground forces" (German: Infanterieregiment 638 des Heeres).
Among the LVF volunteers, youth predominated (as an exception, even 15-year-olds were accepted into the Legion - see the photo in the header of this military-historical miniature), but there were also older people who had experience of the First World War (and some also experience of the Civil War) 1918-1922 in Russia, the French colonial wars in Syria and Morocco, and even the short “strange war” between France and Germany in 1939-1940).
French LVF volunteers wore the German army uniform in gray-green "feldgrau". Their only difference from other soldiers of the German Wehrmacht was a sleeve shield with three vertical stripes in the colors of the French national (state) flag - the “Tricolor” (blue, white and red). The only soldier of the French Volunteer Legion who did not want to wear this patch of the colors of the French Republic and the Bonapartist Empire was the confessor of the legion - Cardinal Monsignor Count Jean Mayol de Lupe, who adhered to strong royalist convictions and hated the French Republican blue-white-red flag no less than the "serpasto" -hammer" red flag of world communism. The royalist prelate managed to obtain from the Wehrmacht High Command (and later, after transferring to service in the Waffen SS, from the SS Main Directorate) the right to wear on his sleeve a special patch with golden lilies of the French royal dynasties of Capetian, Valois and Bourbon on a blue field. However, this was a special case.
Having joined the ranks of the German Wehrmacht, the “Legion of French Volunteers against Bolshevism” received the name “638th Infantry Regiment (French)”. In November 1941, the regiment, also called the "Tricolor Regiment" (French: Regiment Tricolore), as part of the 7th Wehrmacht Infantry Division, took part in the Battle of Moscow. The author of these lines, while still a student, back in 1972, having been sent to the autumn agricultural work (“labor semester”, and in common parlance - “potato farming”) in the village of Vaulino, first heard from a local old collective farmer about how in '41 they had a French unit German army, in which... Russians also served. One of the Russian officers of the French part of the German army, according to the old man’s recollections, lived in his parents’ hut and often told them about his life in Tsarist Russia, "under the old regime." However, this is true, by the way...
Already on March 3, 1943, the recruitment of French volunteers into the ranks of the Waffen SS began. It should be emphasized that (as previously - service in the German Wehrmacht) service in the Waffen SS was completely officially allowed to the French by a special decree of the French government of July 22, 1943. On September 18, 1943, the formation of the French SS volunteer regiment /1/ began, which later grew to the size "French SS Volunteer Assault Brigade". Following the participation of the 1st battalion of the French SS brigade in battles with Soviet troops in the Sanok sector of the Carpathian Front in August 1944, the French brigade was replenished with new volunteer contingents, including personnel of the German Wehrmacht "French Volunteer Legion" disbanded by that time (included in the brigade August 10, 1944), as well as French ranks of the Waffen SS (who had previously served in the SS individually), French volunteers of the German navy(“Kriegsmarine”), Organization of Todt (OT), French police. After replenishment, the French SS brigade was reorganized into the 33rd Waffen SS Grenadier Division "Charlemagne" /3/ (as it was officially called from February 10, 1945).
French Waffen SS volunteers wore regular SS field uniforms. Their only difference was a shield sewn on the left sleeve in the colors of the French state (national) flag - “Tricolor” (three vertical stripes - blue-white-red). In contrast to the sleeve shield of the LVF volunteers, in the black “head” (that is, on the black vertical stripe at the top of the coat of arms) of the heraldic shield of the French SS men (who usually wore it “in the SS style”), on the left sleeve - unlike the Wehrmacht volunteers, who wore their national shields on the right sleeve) in most cases (though not always) there was the inscription “France” in white block letters. On black SS buttonholes, the “Charlemagne men” wore either the common SS double rune “Sig” (“Sovulo”, “Sovelu”, “Salt”), or an image of the “solar (Celtic) cross” (a cross inscribed in a circle), also white. Officers of the SS Charlemagne division, who had previously served in the French militia, wore a special sign on their buttonholes - “the sword of Saint Joan (Joan of Arc)” framed by two oak leaves.
The king of the Germanic tribe of Franks, who took possession at the end of the 5th century. p. R.H. Roman province of Gaul, Charlemagne, in 800 was crowned by the Pope with the crown of the Roman Emperor and founded the so-called “Holy Roman Empire” (Sacrum Imperium Romanum), covering the territory of later France, Germany, Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg, parts of Italy and some other states medieval Europe. Since Charlemagne - in French Charlemagne (Charlemagne from the Latin Carolus Magnus) was considered a great sovereign (comparable to our Vladimir the Red Sun) in both German and French historical tradition, the emblem of the SS division "Charlemagne" (French No. 1) was a heraldic shield, in the right half of which a German eagle was depicted, and in the left - three French lilies (this coat of arms was depicted on a portrait hanging in the town hall of Frankfurt am Main Charlemagne by the German Renaissance artist Albrecht Durer).
In February 1945, the Charlemagne division entered into battle with units of the Red Army in the German region of Pomerania. Its units fought with Soviet troops until the end of the war. The SS assault battalion "Charlemagne" defended Berlin to the last drop of blood. During the battles for Berlin, the French SS commander was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross assault battalion 33rd Grenadier Division of the SS "Charlemagne" (French No. 1) Hauptsturmführer Henri Fenet (who managed to knock out eight tanks with a Panzerfaust anti-tank grenade launcher), Untersturmführer Eugene Volot (who also destroyed eight tanks) and Oberscharführer François Appollot (who had six tanks to his name) enemy). Total number Soviet tanks destroyed in the battles for Berlin by the fighters of the Charlemagne assault battalion amounted, according to some sources, to 62, and according to others, “more than 60”).
May 8, 1945, after the signing of the act on unconditional surrender Nazi Germany, in the area of the German resort town of Bad Reichenhall, were shot without trial, on the orders of the French General Leclerc, commander of the 2nd Panzer Division of "Fighting (De Gaulle - V.A.) France", thirteen young French volunteers from regiment "Gersche" /4/ (former SS division "Charlemagne"). French volunteers of the Waffen SS (including one of our compatriots - the Russian Waffen-Standartenjunker SS Sergei Krotov, commander of a battery of anti-tank guns; he was not the only Russian in the ranks of the French volunteers - history has preserved for us the names of Waffen-Standartenjunker SS Nikolai Shumilin, LVF veteran and commander 4th platoon of the 1st battalion of the 58th Waffen-Grenadier Regiment of the SS "Charlemagne", LVF veteran and commander of the 4th company of the SS assault battalion "Charlemagne" Waffen-Standartenführer SS Sergei Protopopov, Alexei Pronin, Waffen-Obersturmführer SS Evgeniy Pikarev, Waffen -SS-Untersturmführer Nikolai Samosudov and others) /5/, who fought mainly on the Eastern Front and did not shed a drop of blood of their French fellow citizens, having laid down their arms on the day of surrender, surrendered to the Americans, but were handed over by the soldiers of “Uncle Sam” to Leclerc’s division (uniformed, like all the troops of General de Gaulle, into the American military uniform).
General Leclerc, leaning on a stick, walked in front of the line of French SS men, after which he asked one of them: “Why are you wearing German uniforms?” The prisoner of war’s answer was in no way inferior to the question: “My general, why are you wearing an American uniform?”
Apparently, Leclerc (unlike other Frenchmen) had absolutely no sense of humor. Not appreciating the comedy of the situation, the brave DeGaulle general immediately ordered the shooting of not only the daring prisoner, but also twelve of his comrades in arms. The bodies of those executed lay unburied at the execution site for three days. The French military priest who was present during the conversation and execution did not take care not only of the spiritual consolation of the young men before the execution, but also of their not only Christian, but generally more or less human burial. Finally, after three days, the dead were “buried in the globe” by order of the American military authorities.
The author of the book had a chance to visit Bad Reichenhall. In the vicinity of the town, many years after the war, a modest memorial was erected in honor of those killed. To date, only 5 of these victims of the bloodthirsty French military justice have been identified. These are the names:
Paul Briffault, Robert Doffat, Sergei (Serge) Krotov, Jean Robert, Raymond Payra, and eight unknown soldiers.
According to the recollections of Lieutenant of the Free French Armed Forces Ferrano, who commanded the execution, the convicts behaved courageously.
True, just before the execution, Sergei Krotov lost his nerve and he declared: “You have no right to shoot me! I’m married! After all, I’m not even French!” However, then he pulled himself together and held on courageously until the end, managing to shout before his death: “Long live France!” (Vive la France!)
In his last letter to his wife Simone (the mother of his five children), Krotov wrote:
"My beloved wife,
I fulfilled my duty by fighting the Bolsheviks and atheists. This morning I surrendered to the Americans, French soldiers are leading me to be shot. My dear wife, forgive me, make sure that our children remember that their father was always fair and loved them very much. My dear wife, my dear Simone, I kiss you with all my heart, I kiss my poor mother and children. Always believe in God and forgive the evil that is unfairly done to us. Goodbye,
Sergei Krotov."
Shortly after the execution, the burial place of the "Charlemagneans" was consecrated by Monsignor Jean Count Mayol de Lupe.
The surviving French Waffen SS volunteers were sentenced in France to long prison terms, and many to death, for “treason.” Those who were even less fortunate fell victims to extrajudicial executions. Some veterans of "Charlemagne" managed to atone for their guilt before their homeland, fighting in the ranks of the French Foreign Legion against the national liberation movements of the former French colonies, in vain attempts to suppress the legitimate aspiration of the oppressed peoples of Indochina, which was supported by the countries of victorious socialism, the international communist movement and all progressive humanity, Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria freed from French colonial rule.
Their names are not forgotten - including by Russian poets. The fate of the French volunteers inspired, for example, our contemporary, the skald Evgeniy Bobolovich, to create the Charlemagne rondel, which we present below:
RONDELLE CHARLEMAGNE
Storms sweep away Charlemagne
But their glory flies above the mountains.
The Celtic oak grove sings too
About the fact that it is not a pity to fall in battle,
Beyond the horizon and vertical.
Lava hardens in Aryan sagas...
Storms sweep away Charlemagne
But their glory flies above the mountains.
Christ is your companion - arise!
And death is just the beginning of the journey
But grief is as light as a veil...
And embraced sadness like ice,
Storms sweep away Charlemagne
Evgeny Bobolovich.
In the USSR and Russian Federation it was generally accepted that the French people, France were occupied and participated in the war on the side Anti-Hitler coalition, were our allies. But this is not the whole truth - indeed, some French went underground, the French Resistance (Maquis), some participated in battles on the Eastern Front on the side of the USSR in the French fighter aviation regiment "Normandie-Niemen" or in de Gaulle's Free France.
But even more Frenchmen calmly accepted the Nazis and even supported his plans, including with weapons in their hands - the French crossed arms in North Africa with Anglo-American forces, participated in battles on the Eastern Front in the ranks of the Armed Forces of the Third Reich. In London and Washington they even planned to classify France as one of the territories subject to occupation after World War II, which were in the same camp as Germany. Suffice it to recall the sad fate of the French fleet, attacked by the Grand Fleet in the harbors.
Only Stalin's firm position saved France from occupation regime and at his insistence she was included in the Anti-Hitler camp.
Stalin also insisted that France allocate a special French zone of occupation in Germany. To the credit of Charles de Gaulle, he remembered this even after his death Soviet leader, maintaining respect for him after the “de-Stalinization” arranged by Khrushchev.
After the occupation of Northern France in 1940 and the creation of the Vichy regime in the south of the country, until May 1945, many Frenchmen became volunteers under the banners of dozens of units and formations of the armed forces and auxiliary organizations of the Third Reich. There were tens of thousands of such French volunteers (at least 80 thousand Frenchmen passed through the SS alone), and as a result, French citizens made up the largest Western European nation in number who fought on the side of Nazi Germany in World War II. 
The French destroyer Mogador burns in the harbor of Mers-el-Kebir, French Algeria, July 3, 1940. When France signed the instrument of surrender, the British government ordered the destruction of French warships to prevent them from falling into Hitler's hands. Several ships received significant damage and one sank. 1,297 French sailors were killed during the attack. (Jacques Mulard/CC-BY-SA)
On June 22, 1941, the leader of one of the French Nazi groups PPF - Parti Populaire Francais ("National People's Party") Jacques Doriot put forward the idea of creating a Legion of French Volunteers in order to take part in the war against Soviet Union. The Reich Ambassador to France, Otto Abetz, reported this to Berlin and on July 5 received a telegram in which Ribbentrop approved the idea. Already on July 6, the 1st meeting of French and German commissioners took place at the German Embassy in Paris, and on July 7, the 2nd meeting took place at the Wehrmacht headquarters in France.
From the French police.
Representatives of all French Nazi and collaborationist groups were present - Marcel Boucard Marcel (French Movement), Jacques Doriot (National People's Party), Eugene Delonxlet (Social Revolutionary Movement), Pierre Clementi (French Party of National Unity) and Pierre Constantini (“French League”), at the same time the Central Committee of the Legion of French Volunteers (LVF) and the recruitment center were created. An interesting fact is that it was located in the building where the office of the Soviet “Intourist” was previously located. The slogan “” was widely used. Anti-Bolshevik Crusade".
From July 1941 to June 1944, 13 thousand people applied to join the Legion of French Volunteers, but no more than half were accepted into the Legion: the rest were weeded out by German doctors. The LVF also included those former French prisoners of war who preferred the war on the Eastern Front to camps and forced labor. The first batch of French arrived in Poland in September 1941 - out of 2.5 thousand people they formed the two-battalion French infantry regiment 638 under the command of Colonel Roger Labon. The French wore Wehrmacht uniforms with a blue, white and red patch on the right sleeve. The regiment's banner was also tricolor, orders were given to French.
On November 5, 1941, Marshal Petain sent a message to the French volunteers: “Before you go into battle, I am glad to know that you do not forget that part of our military honor belongs to you.” The battalions left Debu on October 28 and 30, 1941, the first battalion was commanded by Captain Leclerc, then Commandant de Planard, the second battalion by Commander Girardot. The battalions arrived in Smolensk, from where on November 6 they set off on foot to the capital of the USSR.
The French suffered their first losses even before the battles - their uniforms did not match weather conditions, as a result, 400 people were sick and missing before the front line. Another interesting fact: the French entered the battle on the Borodino field, memorable to their ancestors - they were ordered to attack the 32nd Infantry Division of the Red Army. After a week of fighting, the 1st Battalion suffered heavy losses in the battle, the 2nd suffered heavy losses from frostbite. On December 6-9, the French 638th regiment was completely withdrawn. The regiment lost 65 people killed, 120 wounded and more than 300 people sick and frostbite.
The Germans made disappointing conclusions for the Legion: “People showed, in general, good fighting spirit, but the level of their combat training is low. The sergeant corps, in general, is not bad, but does not show activity, since the senior corps does not show effectiveness. The officers are capable of little and were clearly recruited on purely political grounds.” And they drew a disappointing conclusion: “The Legion is not combat-ready. Improvement can only be achieved through renewal of the officer corps and accelerated training."
The Legion was withdrawn from the Eastern Front, most of it, including officers, were sent to France. By 1942, it was possible to create a more monolithic and combat-ready unit; it already had three battalions of 900 people each. The Legion began to be used in the fight against partisans in Ukraine and Belarus. In 1943, it was headed by Colonel Edgar Puo, former officer Foreign Legion, received the rank of brigadier general, and was awarded two Iron Crosses for his successes in the counter-guerrilla struggle.
In 1944, the Legion again entered into battle at the front, in Belarus, after which its remnants were merged into the French 8th Assault Brigade of the SS troops. This brigade was mainly formed from volunteers of the French collaborationist Student Militia; in total, about 3 thousand people were recruited.
The most famous unit of French volunteers was the 33rd SS Grenadier Brigade (then division) “Charlemagne” - named after “Charlemagne” (French: Charle Magne).
Its formation began back in 1944 - two regiments were created (57th and 58th), the core of the 57th regiment was made up of veterans of the French assault brigade, and the 58th - veterans of the Legion. At the beginning of 1945, Himmler promised the French commanders that the unit would not be sent to Western Front, where they might encounter their compatriots, they were promised to leave French military chaplains, the national banner and preserve the independence of France after the war. In February 1945, the unit was reorganized into a division, although the number could not be brought up to the regular level - there were only 7.3 thousand people in it.
At the end of February 1945, the Wehrmacht command abandoned the division to plug the gap near the city of Czarne in Poland; it entered into battle on February 25 with units of the 1st Belorussian Front. On March 4, the remnants of the division were transferred to Berlin, where they ended their combat journey in May 1945. The French took part in the most important operation war - defense of Berlin. At the same time, according to the memoirs of the Germans, they fought to the last, defending the Reich Chancellery together with volunteers from Scandinavian countries from the SS Nordland division (in the same division several dozen Englishmen from the SS defended Berlin). After the battles in Berlin, only a few dozen French survived; almost all were put on trial, receiving the death penalty or a prison sentence as a “reward” for serving France - as they understood it.
The French were also members of other units of the German Armed Forces, making whatever contribution they could to the “common cause.” So, in French Brittany the so-called. Perrault's group, which recruited 80 people, took part in the fight against French partisans from March 1944. After the liberation of France, some went with the Germans to Germany. In the 21st Panzer Division of the Wehrmacht, where there were French trucks and armored vehicles, in the 2nd maintenance and supply company there were 230 French volunteers. In the Brandenburg division in 1943, the French formed the 8th company of the 3rd regiment, it was located at the foot of the Pyrenees in Southwestern France.
Participated in the anti-partisan struggle. Operating in Southern France, the 8th Company imitated the French Resistance using captured radios and was able to intercept numerous transports of weapons and other military materials. With her help, they were able to identify and arrest many underground members. The company also took part in battles against the Resistance forces, in the so-called. Battle of Vercors. In this battle in June-July 1944, significant forces of Germans and French collaborators (more than 10 thousand people) were able to suppress a major uprising of the French Resistance on the isolated Vercors mountain plateau, which began after de Gaulle’s call to support the Allied landings in Normandy. Several hundred partisans were killed.
A significant number of Frenchmen also served in the Reich Navy (Kriegsmarine) - and recruiting centers were opened only in 1943, when there was no longer talk of a quick victory over the USSR. The French were enlisted in German units and wore German military uniforms without any special additional stripes. As of February 1944, in the French ports of Brest, Cherbourg, Lorient, and Toulon, there were about a hundred officers, 3 thousand non-commissioned officers, 160 engineers, almost 700 technicians and 25 thousand civilians in German service. About one and a half thousand of them joined the Charlemagne division in 1944.
In the Todt organization, which in France built fortifications and bases for submarine fleet, consisted of 52 thousand French and 170 thousand North Africans. Of these, 2.5 thousand served in the armed guard of those objects that this organization cost. Some were transferred to the construction of facilities in Norway, several hundred then joined the Charlemagne division. Up to 500 Frenchmen served in Speer's legion, which carried out construction functions in France, then was engaged in supplying the Reich Air Force as part of the NSKK (Nationalsocialistische Kraftfahrkorps) Motorgruppe Luftwaffe (this is the division of the German Luftwaffe engaged in material support). In addition, another 2,500 French served in the NSKK.
Only data on captured French - There were 23,136 French citizens in Soviet captivity.
Therefore, remembering de Gaulle and the French pilots of the Normandie-Niemen regiment, we must also know about the French in the Wehrmacht, about the French Legion, which repeated the fate of Napoleon’s “Grand Army,” about thousands of Frenchmen who fought in various units of the Reich armed forces against the Anti-Hitler coalition.
Sources:
Mukhin Yu. Crusade to the East. M., 2006.
Russia and the USSR in the wars of the 20th century. Ed. G. Krivosheeva. M., 2001.
SS - Instrument of Terror Williamson Gordon
THIRTY-THIRD GREEADER DIVISION SS "CHARLEMAGNE"
The predecessor of this division was the French Volunteer Legion, created in 1941 under the control of the German army. It was originally designated the 638th Army Infantry Regiment and first saw combat on the Eastern Front during the winter 1941/42 offensive on Moscow as part of the 7th Infantry Division. The French unit suffered heavy losses and was withdrawn from the front from the spring of 1942 to the autumn of 1943, after which it was used mainly for conducting anti-partisan operations. At this stage, it was divided to conduct operations in the rear against the partisans and was used in the form of units, in its own way quantitative composition equal to the battalion.
In January 1944, the battalion was reorganized again, but it was still used for fighting with partisans.
In June 1944, the battalion returned to the central sector of the Eastern Front to take part in offensive operations against the Red Army. His actions were so impressive that the Soviet command believed that they were dealing with not one, but two French battalions, although in fact the number of legionnaires corresponded to about half the battalion.
In September 1944, French volunteers joined the ranks of the Waffen-SS. In France, recruitment into the SS began in earnest only in 1943, in Paris. In August 1944, the first 300 volunteers were sent to Alsace to train as part of the French SS Volunteer Assault Brigade. In September 1943, about 30 French officers were sent to military school SS to the Bavarian town of Bad Tölz, and about a hundred non-commissioned officers to various schools for junior officers to improve their training to the standard requirements of the Waffen-SS. At this time, a group of French volunteers was on the Eastern Front as part of the 18th Volunteer SS Panzer-Grenadier Division "Horst Wessel". After fierce battles with units of the Red Army, they were recalled to the rear for rest and reorganization. At this time, a decision was made - given the combat track record French, connect them with the remnants of the legion and French militia units to create a new Waffen-SS division.
This most unusual of all divisions also included a number of soldiers from the French colonies, including from French Indochina and even one Japanese. Eyewitnesses claim that several French Jews managed to escape Nazi persecution by hiding in the ranks of the Charlemagne division.
The division was formed in the winter of 1944/45 and at the very beginning of 1945 it was sent to the front in Pomerania. Constant fierce battles against numerically superior units of the Red Army severely battered the French division and split it into three parts. One of the groups, battalion-sized, retreated to the Baltic states and was evacuated to Denmark, after which it ended up in Neustrelitz, not far from Berlin.
The second group was completely destroyed by furious volleys of Soviet artillery guns. The third managed to retreat to the west, where it was destroyed - its soldiers either died or were captured by the Russians. Those who remained in Neustrelitz were gathered together by the division commander, SS-Brigadeführer Gustav Krukenberg, who released those who no longer wished to serve in the SS from their oath. Nevertheless, about 500 people voluntarily followed their commander to defend Berlin. Approximately 700 people remained in Neustrelitz. The 500 volunteers who participated in the defense of Berlin fought extremely conscientiously, despite the fact that they knew that the battle was lost. Their bravery was rewarded with three Knight's Crosses. One of them was awarded to SS-Obersturmführer Wilhelm Weber, a German officer of the division, and two to French soldiers Unterscharführer Eugene Vallot and Oberscharführer François Apollo. All three awards were awards for personal bravery shown in single-handedly destroying several Soviet tanks. Three days later Vallo and Apollo were killed. Weber was lucky to survive the war.
Those members of the Charlemagne division who chose not to go to the front made their way to the west, where they voluntarily surrendered. They undoubtedly expected the Western Allies to treat them better than the Russians. Those of them who surrendered to their compatriots from the Free French army had to be greatly disappointed in their illusion. It is known that when they encountered the Free French soldiers, when asked by the latter why they wanted to wear German uniforms, the French SS soldiers inquired about the uniforms of the American troops that the De-Gaullevites wore. Enraged by such a question, the commander of De Gaulle's troops on the spot, without any trial or investigation, shot his fellow SS men. As for the Free French, they themselves are guilty of the most terrible war crimes. It makes no sense to say that the murderers of the French SS men went unpunished. Ironically, the French SS men who took part in the brutal destruction of Oradour in 1944 were treated much more leniently. They were considered people subject to forced conscription and thus “victims.” The French court acquitted them. The reason for this surprising verdict seems to be purely political. The French SS men who appeared before the court were from Alsace, which over the years of its history has repeatedly passed either to France or to Germany. There was an opinion that a guilty verdict against the perpetrators of the tragedy that took place in Oradour could cause unrest in Alsace.
Thus, a situation arose where the French SS men who took part in the execution large number French citizens remained unpunished, while members of the Charlemagne division, who fought against communist partisan detachments in the East and against units of the Red Army, lost their lives after being captured.
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