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 - the heirs of ideas and symbols.

Consider the path for your foot, and all the ways

let yours be firm. Do not evade
right or left; remove your foot from evil.
(Prov. 4:26-27)

On January 30, 1943, the French government in Vichy created a "French militia" to fight the partisans, who had become very active after the Battle of Stalingrad.

The white ribbon became the symbol of the French militia. gamma stylized:

badge and patch

Police officer's certificate. 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 to triumph the revolutionary ideals of the FRENCH POLICE, and voluntarily submit to discipline"

Police commander SS Obersturmführer Joseph Darnan (shot on October 10, 1945 for treason)

Under the shadow of Napoleon

Mostly LVF volunteers went to the police, who in various ways got away from 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 reached the service, of which 7-9 thousand white-ribbon men participated in the case, including about 3 thousand were sent to the Charlemagne SS ...

And these are LVF volunteers going to Russia

Among the feats of lovers of the "ribbon of the color of freedom" is the hard work of deporting Jews from France, the fight against partisans in Limousin, on the Glière plateau and the famous suppression of the "partisan republic of Vercors", where "white ribbons" cleared the rear of the Tatar Legion SS from partisans and civilians. ..

Some of the exploits of the "French Militia" were recorded in the monuments:

memorial sign in memory of the deputy mayor of the city of Dee:

"Frenchman!
remember that here on July 23, 1944
Patriot Camille Buffardel
member of the National Liberation Committee
was brutally murdered by German mercenaries from the French militia"

Dr. Medvedovsky, born in Kyiv in 1891, entered the Paris Medical Institute in 1911, and in 1914 voluntarily went to the front. From 1923 he lived in Vercors. Since 1940, he participated in the Resistance. In June 1944, he was extradited as a provocateur and, after being tortured and abused, was killed. He was posthumously awarded the "Military Cross" and the "Resistance" medal:

"Here died for France
doctor Medvedovsky,
killed 17 June 1944
Germans and French
changed their country"

Legion of French volunteers against Bolshevism

French soldiers fight side by side with the Germans against Bolshevism. The photo shows their oath to the Fuhrer, commander-in-chief of the German army. They are equipped as members of the Reichswehr and do not have other French insignia other than the tricolor emblem on their uniforms.

(French Legion des Volontaires Francais contre le Bolchevisme, or abbreviated French Legion des Volontaires Francais, LVF, abbr. LFD) is an infantry regiment formed in France and took part in the fighting on the Eastern Front of World War II on the side of Germany.

The organizers were Marcel Bucard ("Movement Francists"), Jacques Doriot ("People's French Party"), Eugene Deloncle ("Social revolutionary movement”), Pierre Clementi (“French Party of National Unity”) and Pierre Costantini (“French League”). With the outbreak of war against the USSR, these political leaders, with the help of the German ambassador in Paris, Otto Abetz obtained sanctions for the creation of such a 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 fixed the decision on the formation of the LVF on July 18 and immediately began to implement the necessary organizational measures. Following the opening of the Legion's first office, housed in a former Soviet travel agency at 12 rue Auber in Paris, recruiting centers sprang up throughout the country. They rushed those who, in the fight against Moscow Bolshevism, tried to realize their special patriotic convictions and found a way out by their participation in the war of bitterness towards the Bolsheviks, Jews and liberals. Despite the relatively limited environment of the French who hold such views, they showed considerable activity, and after the announcement of recruitment, up to three thousand volunteers of the first wave joined the legion in three months. The barracks at Borgnis Desbordes located in Versailles were used to gather legion volunteers. Although during the entire existence of the LVF until the summer of 1944 more than thirteen thousand Frenchmen 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).

In early November 1941, the 1st and 2nd battalions of the 638th Infantry Regiment arrived in Smolensk. The number of arrivals was about 2352 soldiers. Almost the entire November 1941, the regiment was forced to make a heavy forced march to the front line, because of which it suffered the first losses in manpower, equipment and horses. The battalions of the regiment were greatly stretched, due to which only the 1st battalion reached the immediate front line, and 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 amounted to 65 people killed, 120 wounded, and more than 300 sick or frostbitten. Reinforcements for the legion from France began to arrive only now, from the beginning of December, at the training ground in Debica, where they began to form the third battalion and train from 1400 fresh volunteers reinforcements for other units. The situation on the front line by that time was almost completely out of control. Especially when Colonel Labonnet, who had become completely helpless, withdrew from the leadership of his unit, and the officers and sergeants who remained in the ranks had to fight leading separate units. They were still able to conduct containment battles, until during the second stage the defeated French 638th regiment was withdrawn from the front line in February and, recognizing that it had completely lost its combat capability, was sent for reorganization, and Colonel Labonnet was removed from his post in March and returned to France.

As a result, the regiment was decided to withdraw back to Poland and reorganize.

The 638th Infantry Regiment was the only foreign unit in the Wehrmacht that advanced on Moscow in 1941.

In the legion, in addition to the French proper, there were 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 certain number of Negroes and Bretons. Most of the Russian emigrants and blacks were demobilized during the reorganization of the legion in March 1942.

In the winter-spring of 1942, the legion was reorganized: the 1st and 2nd battalions, which had 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 with different security divisions of the Wehrmacht, the 221st and 286th

Refusing to further use the 638 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 a reinforcement in June 1942 to the 286th 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 territories adjacent to it. From the very beginning, the LVF soldiers were involved in a series of punitive operations conducted 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 service, constantly actively engaging in skirmishes with partisans and arranging local actions. They were, of necessity, assembled for large-scale operations into tactical groups, only occasionally at the beginning using the entire battalions. The task of the first operation, where the legionnaires were involved, under the name "Vulture" "Greif" included the destruction of partisans hiding in the forests between Senno and Orsha, whose actions threatened communications passing through Vitebsk and Orsha. For two weeks from August 16 to 30, the punishers managed to thoroughly beat up Zaslonov's brigade and destroy the emerging Zyukov brigade, as well as killing about 900 local residents, "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" - "Penalties".

Volunteers with the banner of the legion. USSR, November 1941

Documents of the defeated regiment fell into the hands of Belarusian partisans

Here is a typical order dated December 6, 1943, which shows that legionnaire Louis Friess Louis Friess received 8 days of arrest for drinking alcohol in the company of local residents while on duty. Legionnaire Paul Ecurnier Paul Ecurnier addressed the commander with "inappropriate words" - 8 days of arrest. The same term was assigned to the legionnaire Andre Merle Andre Merlat for the story with a pair of boots, which he allegedly borrowed from a friend and did not return. I drank it, probably ... The order of 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 a combat operation. All in all, a surprisingly lenient punishment. In other armies, they were shot in front of the ranks for this. Legionnaire Andre Granet Andre Granet left the location of 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 stepped into 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 the completely unthinkable by the standards of wartime happened to legionnaire Jacques Greze Jacques Greze. He went to the village for 4 kilometers, was attacked there and received a wound that required hospitalization. Here's what you can notice here: if the villagers wanted to kill that Frenchman, they would certainly have killed him. And so, it seems, they just hit him well - do not poke your nose at our evenings! And what was his punishment from the authorities. All the same 8 days of arrest from the company commander, but, however, the battalion commander added two more. with the French tells in his memoirs the commander of the brigade "Chekist" G. A. Kirpich ("Memory: Historical and documentary chronicle of the Kruglyansky district"): locality New Polesie, the fascist command placed a garrison from among the French legion under the command of the German major Schwartzman ... French Legionnaires they did not conduct their own reconnaissance, they did not make ambushes on the way of the partisans. Once a detachment of Nazarov passed during the day. The French saw him, but did not shoot. Then the commander was given the task to establish contact with the French through local residents and win them over to our side. Once an old man was buried in an Orthodox cemetery. Our scouts approached the villagers, among whom were two Frenchmen in German uniforms. They noticed the partisans and, realizing who they were, took them under the hood. Ours answered with a nod of the head. The French immediately disappeared. Part of the French garrison was on the outskirts of the village in big house, surrounded by a fence and an embankment, in the corners - 4 firing points with loopholes. Three days later, the security officer of the detachment Karpushenko took three submachine gunners and went to meet the French. The French handed over to the partisans 4 boxes of cartridges, 38 grenades, 2 portable radios and 4 tapes for the transmitter. 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, commanded by Major Tramu, Commandant Tramu, who arrived in Belarus at the end of November 1943, allowed Edgar Pua to expand the zone of active operations to the Tolochino region. Here the French faced the fighters of the brigade of Nikolai Petrovich Gudkov. The breakdown of forces for the restored 638 regiment was the punitive operation "Morocco" "Morocco" named after its commander. Its holding took place in late January - early February 1944 in the surrounding forests of the village of Somry. Shortly after the successful completion of the operation, the 3rd battalion returned from a business trip to the Mogilev region, the commander of which, Major Pane, was killed just before the departure. And now that the legion has gathered in in full force it was possible, 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 later, at the beginning of May, the newly-minted French grenadiers were involved in the preparation and participation in the most significant punitive operation unfolded since May 15, carried out on the territory of occupied Belarus, during which it was planned to liquidate more than twenty partisan formations in the rear of the 3rd tank and 4th field armies. After blocking the forces of the partisans in the area of ​​the Domzheritsky and Palik swamps, the occupiers began to implement the main plan of the operation "Baklan" "Kormoran", squeezing the partisans into a tight ring for cutting blows. But by June 15, despite serious losses and still maintaining combat effectiveness, up to twenty partisan brigades broke through in some places through the battle formations of the punishers. Attempts to destroy the soldiers of several brigades and scattered detachments who remained surrounded and fought back on the islands among the swamps were cut off on June 23 by Soviet units, which crushed the defenses of Army Group Center.

The surviving French grenadiers who left Belarus in disarray were sent to reorganize in the Greifenberg camp Greifenberg ( East Prussia). But the restoration of the military unit under the auspices of the LVF did not follow; the Germans, before their collapse, no longer needed the services of the legion. Ignoring the already held independent martial tradition 638 regiment, the legionnaires were sent to the SS. They took part in organizing a new French formation of the Grenadier brigades SS "Charlemagne" Waffen Grenadier Brigade der SS "Charlemagne", in whose ranks 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, the NSKK and the occupation police

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 has officially ceased to exist..

brigade consisted of two regiments, the veterans of the legion were staffed by the personnel of the 58th SS Grenadier Regiment Waffen Grenadier Regiment der SS 58. In the new rank of SS Oberfuhrer Edgar Pua, Oberfuhrer SS Edgard Puaud commanded a newly minted brigade

Colonel Pua on the Eastern Front

Here the French were thrown to stop Soviet offensive in February, having already formally reorganized into the 33rd SS Grenadier Division "Charlemagne" 33 Waffen Grenadier Division der SS "Charlemagne", leaving the number of soldiers in the former division of about eight thousand. They were waiting for a complete defeat, after which the division actually ceased to exist, having lost more than half of its personnel killed, wounded, captured and missing. From 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 rest of the unfinished remnants of the French SS managed to surrender to the Allies. Even earlier, Jacques Doriot was shot dead in a car from an attack aircraft on the road between Meinau Mainau and Sigmaringen Sigmaringen on February 22, 1945.

About 20 thousand French prisoners of war were held captive in the USSR. 1945 - a representative of the French military mission, receives French prisoners prepared for being sent home by the Soviet authorities. After the war, the French were the first to be sent home unconditionally. For a curiosity, I note in the Soviet military uniform. At the end of the 90s in France, 4,500 people received a pension as Tambov captives.

The French government issued a series of death sentences and prison terms to 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 penalty in May 1947 by the Supreme Court in Paris, but despite requests for extradition from France, was never extradited by the Argentine government.

SS - Instrument of Terror Williamson Gordon

THIRTY-THIRD SS GREAT DIVISION "CHARLEMAGN"

The predecessor of this division was the "Volunteer French Legion", created in 1941 under the control of the German army. Initially, it was called the 638th Army Infantry Regiment and first entered combat on the Eastern Front during the winter 1941/42 offensive against 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 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 terms of their quantitative composition equal to a battalion.

In January 1944, another reorganization of the battalion took place, but it was still used to fight 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 considered that they were dealing with not one, but two French battalions, although in fact the number of legionnaires corresponded to about half a battalion.

In September 1944, French volunteers joined 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 for training 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 city of Bad Tölze, and about a hundred non-commissioned officers to various schools for junior officers in order to raise their training to the level of Waffen-SS standard requirements. At this time, a group of French volunteers was on the Eastern Front as part of the 18th SS Volunteer 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 of the French, to combine 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 sent to the front in Pomerania at the very beginning of 1945. Constant fierce battles against the numerically superior units of the Red Army badly battered the French division and split it into three parts. One of the groups, numbering a battalion, retreated to the Baltic states and evacuated to Denmark, after which it ended up in Neustrelitz, not far from Berlin.

The second group was completely exterminated by the furious volleys of Soviet artillery. The third managed to retreat to the west, where it was destroyed - its soldiers either died or were taken prisoner by the Russians. Those who remained in Neustrelitz were rounded up by the divisional commander, SS Brigadeführer Gustav Krukenberg, who released from the oath those who no longer wished to serve in the SS. Nevertheless, about 500 men voluntarily followed their commander to defend Berlin. Approximately 700 people remained in Neustrelitz. The 500 volunteers who participated in the defense of Berlin fought with exceptional integrity, despite the fact that they knew that the battle was lost. Their courage was awarded with three Knight's Crosses. One of them was presented to SS-Obersturmführer Wilhelm Weber - German officer divisions, and two - to the French soldiers Unterscharführer Eugene Vallot and Oberscharführer Francois Apollo. All three awards were distinctions for personal bravery shown in the destruction of 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 no doubt 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 very disappointed in their illusion. It is known that when they encountered the Free French soldiers, when asked by the latter why they wished to wear German uniforms, the French SS soldiers inquired about the uniforms of the American troops worn by the de Gaulles. Enraged by such a question, the commander of the de Gaulle troops on the spot, without any trial or investigation, shot his fellow SS men. As for the Free French, it is itself guilty of the most terrible war crimes. It makes no sense to say that the murderers of the French SS went unpunished. Ironically, the French SS men who took part in the massacre of Oradour in 1944 were far more leniently treated. They were considered people subjected to forced mobilization 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 broke out in Oradour could cause unrest in Alsace.

Thus, a situation arose when the French SS men who took part in the execution a large number French citizens went unpunished, while members of the Charlemagne division, who fought with detachments of communist partisans in the East and against units of the Red Army, lost their lives after being taken prisoner.

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author Williamson Gordon

The TWENTY-THIRD SS MOUNTAIN DIVISION "KAMA" (2nd CROATIAN) The division was put on alert in January 1944. It was supposed to be composed of Bosnian Muslims, Germans and Volksdeutsche, and would also include Croatian Muslim officers and

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CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE Material for the Curious

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There was no more hope, there was nothing. Ultimately, life no longer made sense and we no longer cared about life. Absolutely. Only fight. Keep fighting. Loyalty to the end. Loyal to the end...
On the night of April 23-24, 1945, the commander of the SS Charlemagne division Brigadeführer Gustav Krukenberg received an urgent telegram from the Berlin Reich Chancellery in Neustrelitz with an order to immediately come to the defense of the Reich capital. In the ranks French division, numbering at the beginning of 1945 about seven and a half thousand fighters, by that time there were no more than 1100. Of those who wished to stop the fight, a labor battalion was created, and from those who decided to fight until the end of three hundred, Krukenberg formed an assault battalion, together with which on April 24 on nine trucks went to Berlin. They managed to break into the capital of the Reich through the northwestern suburbs in Nauen a few hours before the Soviet troops completely closed the blockade around the city.

SS-Brigadeführer Gustav Krukenberg (1888 - 1980)

Upon reaching the Olympic Stadium in Charlottenburg, the French regrouped and replenished their supplies of ammunition from an abandoned Lustwaffe warehouse. The battalion was divided into 4 rifle companies of 60-70 people each and transferred to the command of Hauptsturmführer Henri-Joseph Fene to replace Krukenberg, who was placed at the head of the SS Nordland division, which received the French in its tactical subordination. Following that, the Charlemagne assault battalion, under constant Soviet bombardment, advanced to the east of Berlin in the Neuköln area, where it entered into battle with the advancing Red Army.
After several fierce counterattacks on Hasenheide and the Tempelhof airfield, the French moved west across the Landwehr canal on April 26 and, leading heavy defensive battles with many times superior enemy forces in the Kreuzberg area, they gradually retreated to the city center. The last command post of the division was located next to the Reich Chancellery in the underground pavilion of the Stadtmitte metro station in a broken carriage lit by candles. On May 1, the French continued to fight at Leipzigerstraße, around the Air Ministry and at Potsdamerplatz. On the morning of May 2, following the announcement of the surrender of the German capital, the last 30 Charlemagne fighters out of 300 who arrived in Berlin left the Reich Chancellery bunker, where no one was left alive except for them.
It is authentically known about the fate of two Russian volunteers from the Charlemagne assault battalion. SS-Standartenoberjunker Sergei Protopopov, grandson of the last Minister of the Interior of the Russian Empire, died on April 29 defending the approaches to the Reich Chancellery, and was posthumously awarded the Iron Cross for courage at the last award ceremony for distinguished SS men, held at the division headquarters at the Stadtmitte station on the night of 29 to April 30. SS-Obersturmführer Sergei Krotov, the son of the former Russian consul in Madagascar, after being wounded in a Bavarian hospital, was captured by the Americans, was handed over to the French and shot on May 8 on the orders of General Leclerc, along with 11 other French SS volunteers.

SS-Standartenoberjunker Sergey Protopopov

SS-Obersturmführer Sergei Krotov

Obersturmführer Sergei Krotov (far left) among the soldiers of the SS division "Charlemagne" and French Legion before the execution on May 8, 1945 (fragment, full photo by click)
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. Upon learning 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 issued to the 2nd armor tank division"Free French" General Leclerc. To the question of the general about why they, being French, wear someone else's uniform, there was a well-known answer that he himself was wearing an American uniform. By order of Leclerc, all 12 prisoners were shot on May 8 without trial.

The moment of extradition - General Leclerc with his famous cane and an American sergeant

www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9GMXndOo9c&feature=pla...

SS Standarten Oberjunker Sergei Protopopov (1923-1945)

Photo taken in February 1943 at the military school of the French Legion
Sergei Protopopov was born into a family of Russian white émigrés 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 as a brigade, and from February 1945 as a division, called Charlemagne (Charlemagne). In December 1944, Sergei Protopopov graduated from the SS officer school in Kinschlag.

In February-March 1945, the Charlemagne division lost most of its personnel in heavy fighting with the advancing Red Army in Pomerania. In early April, only 700 people remained in its ranks, of which about 300 volunteered to go to the defense of Berlin. The assault battalion formed from them under the command of Hauptsturmführer Henri-Joseph Fene arrived in the besieged German capital on April 24, 1945. Sergei Protopopov was also part of it.

The Charlemagne battalion, attached to the SS Nordland division, was entrusted with the defense of Sector C. The French volunteers entered the first battle with the advancing Reds on April 26 near the Tempelhof airfield. On April 27, the fighting became especially fierce. During them, Sergei Protopopov personally knocked out five Soviet tanks with faustpatrons and shot down a Soviet reconnaissance aircraft from a MG 42 machine gun. On April 29, the detachment, which included the standard-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-arms 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 Fene and footage from Charlemagne photo chronicle

Wolfgang Akunov

Oleg Cherkassky - as a sign of deep respect

"My beloved wife,

Sergei Krotov.

(From the last letter of Sergei Krotov to his wife).

After the attack of the German Wehrmacht on the USSR in June 1941, calls were made in France to take part in the deadly struggle that flared up in the east of Europe, which, according to French anti-communists, did not concern only Germany. On August 5, 1941, with the consent of the French government, the Legion des Volontaires Francais contre le Bolchevisme, abbr. .: LVF. Enrolled in the ranks of the German Wehrmacht, this one consisted exclusively of the French (or rather, of French citizens, including numerous Russian white émigrés, including veterans civil war 1917-1922 in Russia) the volunteer corps received the name of the "638th Regiment of the Ground Forces" (German: Infanterieregiment 638 des Heeres) as part of the Wehrmacht.

Young people predominated among the LVF volunteers (as an exception, even 15-year-olds were taken into the Legion - see the photo in the title of this military-historical miniature), but there were also older people who had the experience of the First World War (and some also the experience of the Civil War) 1918-1922 in Russia, French colonial wars in Syria and Morocco, and even a short "strange war" between France and Germany in 1939-1940).

The French LVF volunteers wore the German army uniform in grey-green "feldgrau". Their only difference from other servicemen 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 stripe of the colors of the French Republic and the Bonapartist Empire was the legion's confessor, 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 "sickle "hammered" red flag of world communism. The royalist prelate managed to obtain from the High Command of the Wehrmacht (and later, after joining the Waffen SS, from the Main Office of the SS) the right to wear on the sleeve a special patch with golden lilies of the French royal dynasties Capetians, Valois and Bourbons 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 referred to as the "Tricolor Regiment" (French: Regiment Tricolore), as part of the 7th Wehrmacht Infantry Division, took part in the battle near Moscow. The author of these lines, while still a student, back in 1972, being sent for autumn agricultural work ("labor semester", and in common parlance - "for potatoes") in the village of Vaulino, for the first time heard from a local old collective farmer about how in the forty-first, they had the French part of the 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, lodged in his parents' hut and often told them about his life in tsarist Russia, "under the old regime". However, this is so, 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 before - 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 "French SS Volunteer Assault Brigade". The field of participation of the 1st battalion of the French SS brigade in battles with Soviet troops on 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 (included in the brigade August 10, 1944), as well as the French ranks of the Waffen SS (who previously served in the SS individually), French volunteers of the German navy("Kriegsmarine"), Organization Todt (OT), French militia. After replenishment, the French SS brigade was reorganized into the 33rd Grenadier Division of the Waffen SS "Charlemagne" / 3 / (as it was officially called from February 10, 1945).

French Waffen SS volunteers wore the usual SS field uniform. Their only difference was the shield of the colors of the French state (national) flag - "Tricolor" (three vertical stripes - blue-white-red) sewn on the left sleeve. In contrast to the sleeve shield of the LVF volunteers, in the black "chapter" (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 "SS-style", on the left sleeve - in contrast to the Wehrmacht volunteers who wore their national shields on the right sleeve) in most cases (though not always) there was an inscription "France" (France) made in white block letters. On black SS buttonholes, the "Charlemagne" wore either the common SS double rune "Sig" ("Sovulo", "Sovelu", "Salt"), or the image of the "solar (Celtic) cross" (a cross inscribed in a circle), also white. The ranks of the SS division "Charlemagne", who previously served in the French militia, wore a special sign on their buttonholes - "the sword of St. Joan (Joan of Arc)" framed by two oak leaves.

The king of the Germanic tribe of the Franks, who took possession at the end of the 5th century. n. R.H. the 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 traditions, 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 half - three French lilies (this coat of arms was depicted on a portrait of Charlemagne hanging in the town hall of Frankfurt am Main by the German Renaissance artist Albrecht Dürer).

In February 1945, the Charlemagne division entered into battle with units of the Red Army on the territory of the German region of Pomerania. Its units fought with the 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 of the assault battalion of the 33rd SS Grenadier Division Charlemagne (French No. 1), Hauptsturmführer Henri Fene (who managed to knock out eight tanks from the Panzerfaust anti-tank grenade launcher), Untersturmführer Eugene Volo ( also destroyed eight tanks) and Oberscharführer Francois Appollo (who had six enemy tanks on his account). The total number of Soviet tanks destroyed in the battles for Berlin by the men of the assault battalion "Charlemagne" was, according to some sources, 62, and according to others - "more than 60").

On May 8, 1945, after the signing of the act of unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany, in the area of ​​​​the German resort town of Bad Reichengall, they were without trial or investigation, by order of the French General Leclerc, commander of the 2nd Panzer Division "Fighting (de Gaulle - V. A.) France", thirteen young French volunteers from the regiment "Gershe" /4/ (the former SS division "Charlemagne") were shot. French volunteers of the Waffen SS (including one of our compatriots - the Russian Waffen-Standartenunker SS Sergey Krotov, the commander of a battery of anti-tank guns; he was not the only Russian in the ranks of the French volunteers - history has preserved the names of the Waffen-Scharführer SS Nikolai Shumilin, a veteran of the LVF and commander 4th platoon of the 1st Battalion of the 58th SS Waffen-Grenadier Regiment "Charlemagne", LVF veteran and commander of the 4th company of the SS assault battalion "Charlemagne" SS Waffen-Standartenführer Sergei Protopopov, Alexei Pronin, SS Waffen-Obersturmführer Yevgeny Pikarev, Waffen -Untersturmführer SS 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, laid down their arms on the day of surrender, surrendered to the Americans, but were handed over by the warriors of "Uncle Sam" to the Leclerc division that had pulled up (uniformed, like all the troops of General de Gaulle, in American military uniforms).

General Leclerc, leaning on a stick, walked in front of the French SS, after which he asked one of them: "Why are you wearing German uniforms?" The answer of the prisoner of war was in no way inferior to the question: "My general, why are you wearing an American uniform"?

As you can see, Leclerc (unlike other Frenchmen) had absolutely no sense of humor. Not appreciating the comedy of the situation, the brave de Gaulle general immediately ordered the execution of not only the impudent prisoner, but also twelve of his comrades in arms. The bodies of the executed lay unburied at the place of execution for three days. The French military priest who was present at 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 even more or less human burial. Finally, after three days, the dead were "buried in the earth's globe" by order of the American military authorities.

The author of the book happened 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, it has been possible to establish the names and surnames of only 5 of these victims of the bloodthirsty French military justice. These are the names:

Paul Briffaut, Robert Doffa, Sergei (Serge) Krotov, Jean Robert, Raymond Payra, and eight unknown soldiers.

According to the memoirs of Lieutenant Ferrano of the Armed Forces of the "Free French" Ferrano, who commanded the execution, the convicts behaved courageously.

True, just before the execution, Sergei Krotov lost his nerve and said: "You have no right to shoot me! I'm married! After all, I'm not even a Frenchman!" However, then he pulled himself together and held on courageously to the end, having managed to shout before his death: "Long live France!" (Vive la France!)

In a 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 the atheists. This morning I surrendered to the Americans, French soldiers are leading me to be shot. My dear wife, forgive me, take care that our children remember that their father was always just and loved them very much. My dear wife, my dear Simone, I kiss you with all my heart, kiss my poor mother and children. Always believe in God and forgive the evil that is unjustly done to us. Goodbye,

Sergei Krotov.

Soon after the execution, the burial place of the "Charlemagne" was consecrated by Monsignor Jean Count Mayol de Lupe.

The surviving French Waffen SS volunteers were sentenced in France to lengthy prison terms and many to death for "treason." Those who were even less fortunate fell victims of extrajudicial reprisals. 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 aspirations of the oppressed peoples of Indochina, which enjoys the support of the countries of victorious socialism, the international communist movement and all progressive mankind, Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria to free themselves from French colonial rule.

Their names are not forgotten - including by Russian poets. The fate of the French volunteers inspired, for example, our contemporary skald Yevgeny Bobolovich to make the Charlemagne rondelle, which we present below:

RONDEL CHARLEMAGNE

Storms sweep away Charlemagne
But their glory flies above the mountains.
The Celtic oak grove also sings
That it is not a pity to fall in battle,

Beyond the horizon and vertical.
Aryan sagas lava hardens ...
Storms sweep away Charlemagne
But their glory flies above the mountains.

Christ is with you companion - stand up!
And the death of the path is only the beginning
But sorrow is as light as a veil...
And embraced sadness like ice
Storms sweep away Charlemagne

Evgeny Bobolovich.