Hi Wolf, there sure were many Waffen SS men who served in Indochina. I happen to have met (not in person but by telephone) the man that Devils Guard was written about. His name in the book was: Hans-Josef Wagemuller, his real name is Hans-J, and the last im not giving because his Wife is still living and he also had I think 2-3 sons-who are in respected community positions and businessmen. His last name starts with Sch-but that's as far as im going on that ;-))
I "met" Hans by phone when he actually calle dmy up one day before i was about to leave for work. He called me up because I was friends with a Uboat vet who had also happened to be his best friend. Thanks to this Uboat vet-I got my first four Uboat RKT addresses including Erich Topp, Reindard Hardegan, Helmut Witte and Hans-Gunther Lange. I was also given my first Waffen SS RKTs addy as well, and he and I also became good friend sover the years.
Anyway, Hans ""Wagemuller"' called my before I was about to leave-and which was totally unexpected, but he called to tell me that our mutual friend also named Hans-had passed away. I was deeply sad to hear that and without a hesitation Hans-tried to cheer me up with a joke about monica lewinsky-which went somehting like: Why does monica lewensky wear knee-pads? The answer was: Because she does everything so well on her knees.
Anywya, Hans and I spent several minutes talking and he had also told me it was his friends wish to have him contact me. Our friend who passed away-was Hans Goebeler of U 505 fame. Hans had requested his friend to call me because he knew I was a great fan of that book-Devils Guard-and he also knew that I started to get a very good and trusted reputation with RKTs. That Waffen SS RKT BTW-was Remy Schrijnen. Thanks to Remy-I was able to get in touch with Ernst Barkmann, Otto Kumm, Heinrich Springer, Soren Kam, and a few others. Thanks to these RKTs, the German vets knew I was an OK person to deal with and to trust. Some fo these RKTs I became pretty close with-and not for some unhealthy reason.
Hans "Wagemuller" made me an honorary member of the FFLs Indochina all German Battalion. He sent me two business-sized cards that said so and that were for me to carry around. I was also told that if I were ever in another Country and had somekind of trouble - i/e-no money ot place to stay) that if it was a place that the FFL had men stationed-that I could get all the help I needed and all I had to do was to present that business card.
I still have one card-the other I gave to Remy. Before Hans-J passed away-we had been planning on trying to meet in person andin Florida-where he lived) and he was going to let me interview him-which is a VERY rare thing for him to consider-as he knew that most who wanted to interview him-would only slant it for the worse-whatever he said. Hans knew I wouldn't do that. About a month after we had began to plan on this meeting-Hans passed away. Both Hans's'passed away in 1999 and within about 6 or so months of each other.
Cheers--C.
I almost forgot to mention, that a Battalion sized unit didn't necessarily mean there were approx 2,000 men in that unit--more like about 900 in Hans's unit.
Hope this helps?
Great post Carl and many thanks again for starting me on the RKT , Waffen SS and other German veteran road all those years ago.
Forgot to tell you at the moment i'm interviewing 2 Estonian Legion vets plus one forn the Dutch General Seyffard Regiment
regards mate
Paul
The gates of hell were opened and we accepted the invitation to enter" 26/880 Lance Sgt, Edward Dyke. 26th Bn Northumberland Fusiliers , ( 3rd Tyneside Irish )
1st July 1916
Thought shall be the harder , heart the keener,
Courage the greater as our strength faileth.
Here lies our leader ,in the dust of his greatness.
Who leaves him now , be damned forever.
We who are old now shall not leave this Battle,
But lie at his feet , in the dust with our leader
House Carles at the Battle of Hastings
In a book i have a picture of French SS men fighting in the Warsaw Uprising I`ll scanning it later
[QUOTE=history-buff1944;73480]Hi Wolf, there sure were many Waffen SS men who served in Indochina. I happen to have met (not in person but by telephone) the man that Devils Guard was written about. His name in the book was: Hans-Josef Wagemuller, his real name is Hans-J, and the last im not giving because his Wife is still living and he also had I think 2-3 sons-who are in respected community positions and businessmen. His last name starts with Sch-but that's as far as im going on that ;-))
Carl
Fascinating! many thanks for that insight!
What a privilige talking and meeting those guys!
Nick
"In all my years as a soldier, I have never seen men fight so hard." - SS Obergruppenfuhrer Wilhelm Bittrich - Arnhem
Hello,
Please gentlemen, don't forget all the germans who joined "la Légion Etrangère" just after the outbreak of World War II in 1939. Antifascist italians and antinazi germans/austrians constituted 17 or 18% of the troops at this time. For me, their involvement is far more significant. They belonged to the troops who fought in Narvik or Bir Hakeim for instance.
After the Indochina war, there were still germans in the foreign legion i guess, as the last Légionnaire killed in Algeria was called Heinz Zimmermann. From 1831 to 1961, about 210 000 german men served in the french foreign legion.
Thanks
The sacrifice of life is a huge sacrifice, there is only one that is more terrible, the sacrifice of honor
In Memoriam :
Laurent Huart (1964-2008)
I was drafted in a regiment of the french air force called ''commandos de l'air'' in july 1967, this was in fact my national service duties as a french national. I was posted in metz, frescaty air base and was sent to nimes for training, came back to metz and was posted in senegal and mali to work alongside the foreign legion. On one occasion i was court martialed by the french military who sent me to metz military prison for 2 months. Inside i met two ex waffen ss soldiers who had served in the foreign legion since the end of ww2. They told me that after the war they were given 2 options, the first was to go to the firing squad, the second to join the foreign legion. Of course they chose the legion and later were sent to vietnam where they spent a long time fighting against the local milicia and survived the dien bien fu massacre. On the onset of the algerian debacle they were sent there to purge insurgents who were fighting against the french. They were in prison after being sentenced for war crimes in algeria. Both of them were in their late forties. Hope this answers some of the questions about the legion.
Alain
Thanks for that! Really interesting!
I will PM you as I would like to know more about FFL
Cheers
Nick
"In all my years as a soldier, I have never seen men fight so hard." - SS Obergruppenfuhrer Wilhelm Bittrich - Arnhem
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