Posted this earlier but just now it occurred to me it might be of interest to some of you familiar with my books, too. Takes place in a section of the book about a Matsen mission in WWII Yugoslavia.
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What follows is an excerpt from my third novel, "A Grave Breach":
"Matsen and his team, known as A Force, knew about the Muslim Handschar Division. He had even heard that a second Muslim SS division was being formed. It is not widely known or at least dwelt upon that during World War II, many if not most of the occupied nations and territories raised and fielded military units to fight on the side of the Nazis. Plenty of people have heard the stories of the Baltic divisions made up of Estonians, Latvians, Lithuanians, who’d fought for the Nazis. And there were Poles and Ukrainians in large numbers. And the Croats, of course. But there were also something like 15,000 Serbs, too. In addition, though, there were also Danes and Swedes and Norwegians and Finns - even Russians. And surprising to many, 50,000 Dutch and of course the infamous Tri-Color Legion also known as the Charlemagne Division of the SS. Made up of thousands of Frenchman fighting for Hitler. Some to the death in the Battle of Berlin in April 1945.
Contrast this with the “British Free Corps” also know as the SS Legion of St. George. The German military authorities particularly wanted to raise a unit made up of turned British POW’s and mounted a recruiting campaign consisting of offers of various and sundry enticements including direct payments of cash and the recurring company of prostitutes. The Nazi’s were rewarded for their efforts with the acceptance of their emoluments by no less than 30 enlisted men and a single officer who was shortly thereafter diagnosed as schizophrenic by the Germans themselves and repatriated against his will to the British. While the existence if not the reality of the St. George Legion had some propaganda value, that was the extent of its contribution and none of the members ever saw combat. Indeed, it is reputed that the Germans saw the St. George Legion as so untrustworthy that it was kept out of combat by direct order. 30 British misfits and 1 psychotic lieutenant as opposed to thousands of Frenchmen willing to fight and die for the monster who’d raped their own country. Apparently, some things never change." (C)
Thanks for this reply and post!
"The German military authorities particularly wanted to raise a unit made up of turned British POW’s and mounted a recruiting campaign consisting of offers of various and sundry enticements including direct payments of cash and the recurring company of prostitutes. The Nazi’s were rewarded for their efforts with the acceptance of their emoluments by no less than 30 enlisted men and a single officer who was shortly thereafter diagnosed as schizophrenic by the Germans themselves and repatriated against his will to the British. While the existence if not the reality of the St. George Legion had some propaganda value, that was the extent of its contribution and none of the members ever saw combat. Indeed, it is reputed that the Germans saw the St. George Legion as so untrustworthy that it was kept out of combat by direct order. 30 British misfits and 1 psychotic lieutenant as opposed to thousands of Frenchmen willing to fight and die for the monster who’d raped their own country. Apparently, some things never change." (C)
My Dad was a WWI vet. He was injured in accident and broke his back and never got to France. However, many of his friends did. They came back after WWI hating the French.
My Dad had a couple of younger cousins who served in France in WWII, one came back with a metal plate replacing part of his skull. I remember my Dad and his cousins discussing the French when I was growing up.
I could never understatnd their hatred of the French until the past couple of decades.
As you noted, some things never seem to change.
Kudos, jim macomber! Thank you so much for the excerpt!!!
Thanks for a history lesson...and the ping...I had no idea there were so many fighting with the Germans.
Bump!
Thanks for the ping, Jim. Incredible details.
Thanks, Jim. That was a wonderful excerpt you have treated us to......so many interesting details.
I'm really looking forward to your new book....'A Grave Breach'. As I recall all your books have 'legal terms' as titles.
Can you share the origin of the title?
Thanks for the ping, Jim. Read and bookmarked. Haven't read your books yet, and would appreciate a link freepmail.