a battalion in french foreign legion of former SS/Para/Landsers already beat them once when they were known as the viet minn...
Posted on 05/18/2010 7:05:53 PM PDT by C19fan
The Waffen SS were less inclined to war crimes, being front line troops. The second echelon, General SS einsatzgruppen committed most of the atrocities in the rear area, after the Wehrmacht and Waffen SS had advanced.
However, in the retreat, the einsatzgruppen created great pyramids of dead Russians, then poured fuel oil on them and ignited them. This was pretty hard for the Wehrmacht and Waffen SS to miss.
Even so, the Waffen SS engaged in some magnificent delaying actions against the Russians, in one case, a single anti-tank company managed to hold off two Russian mechanized armies for two weeks. Aided enormously by Russian tactical rigidity, which gave tremendous advantages to the Germans.
Finally, driven back into Germany, being captured by the Russians or Americans was a death sentence, the Americans hanging any SS they caught on the spot, entire Waffen SS battalions ditched their uniforms, then escaped and evaded to the French sector.
The French, being realistic about things, reorganized entire units with their same command structure, and issued them FFL uniforms. The US did much the same with Wehrmacht maintenance units, some of whom remained in uniform into the late 1980s.
In any event, the Waffen SS units, as FFL, were sent to French Indochina to fight the communists there. They had no illusions or reservations about doing so, and the communists quickly learned that they were not to be trifled with.
It was later said by some of the German command group, that had the Germans been in charge of the conflict, the French would have retained Indochina.
When (that is : when) we are allowed to fight, we can kick any one's ass.
It’s a good read.
Please dont see this as an adversary thing.
Just couple of lads talking history.
Cheers!
The einsatzgruppen were the organized mass killers, but the Waffen S.S. committed atrocities all over Europe. At one point they knocked off 3,000 Jews and Russian “partisans” in five days. They were responsible for Malmedy, as well as Warsaw.
a battalion in french foreign legion of former SS/Para/Landsers already beat them once when they were known as the viet minn...
Because the Legion closely guards private records, most of what we know of their demographics are speculation with maybe a few educated guesses thrown in. I've read some sources that say that up to 60% of the Legionnaires in Indochina were German or Austrian...Other accounts say that the FFL accepted less than 100 German recruits between 1945-1950. Still others speculate that, in an effort to discredit "western imperialism" in the early cold war, Soviet bloc intelligence services greatly exaggerated the numbers and influence of former SS in the FFL.
Both groups fought the US military. One lost, one won.
Everything I need to know about Vietnam I learned from reading Nick Rowe’s “Five years to freedom”. In fact I think it should be required reading before a kid is given a high school diploma.
Cool man.
Some folks get really spun off quickley when you disagree.
I am ashamed to admit sometimes it’s me.
Regardless what you think of John McCain, when I read "The Nitingale's Song", I was amazed that he, and any pow, got out alive.
the book is an interesting story (true) of Navy academy grads and the paths life took them (one of which was McCain and another, Ollie North).
In “5 years” Rowe tells in no oncertain terms about the anti war protests at home being used as a form of psychological torture of POWs and leverage in favor of the communists at the negotiating table.
He also speaks about being shown a picture of a famous American “starlet” in a north vietnamese gun emplacement.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.