Wehrmacht foreign volunteers and conscripts

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Andrey Vlasov and General Shilenkov (center) of the Russian Liberation Army meeting with Joseph Goebbels (February 1945)

Among the approximately one million foreign volunteers and conscripts who served in the Wehrmacht during World War II were ethnic Germans, Belgians, Czechs, Dutch, Finns, French, Greeks, Hungarians, Norwegians, Poles,[1] Portuguese, Spanish, Swedes and British,[2] along with people from the Baltic states and the Balkans.

Russian émigrés and defectors from the Soviet Union formed the Russian Liberation Army or fought as Hilfswillige (approximately another 600,000 to 1,000,000 voluntary assistants) within German units of the Wehrmacht primarily on the Eastern Front.[3] Non-Russians from the Soviet Union formed the Ostlegionen (literally "Eastern Legions"). These units were all commanded by General Ernst August Köstring (1876−1953)[4] and represented about five percent of the forces under the OKH.

List of units[edit]

Foreign volunteer battalion in the Wehrmacht. Soldiers of the Free Arabian Legion in Greece, September 1943.
Vault of the Blue Division, La Almudena cemetery, Madrid

Soviet Union[edit]

Unit name Description
162nd (Turkistan) Infanterie Division Logo.svg 162nd Turkoman Division Formed in May 1943 and comprised 5 Azeri and 6 Turkestani artillery/infantry units.[5]
XV SS Cossack Cavalry Corps Until 1 February 1945 under command of the Wehrmacht, then the Corps was transferred to the Waffen-SS[6]
Kalmykian Voluntary Cavalry Corps Mostly Kalmyks
Nachtigall Battalion Ukrainians of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists
Ostlegionen By late 1943 the Eastern legions contained 427,000 volunteers and conscripts
Roland Battalion A.k.a. Special Group Roland. Second Polish Republic citizens of Ukrainian ethnicity
ROA chevron.svg Russian Liberation Army Mostly ethnic Russians
Українське Визвольне Військо.png Ukrainian Liberation Army Ukrainians
Шеврон українських національних частин у складі німецької армії 1944 рік.png Ukrainian National Army Ukrainians
Latin cross.png Luftwaffen-Legion Lettland Air unit composed of Latvians.

Croatia[edit]

Unit name Description
Coat of arms of Croatia (white chequy).svg 369th (Croatian) Infantry Division (Wehrmacht)
Coat of arms of Croatia (white chequy).svg 373rd (Croatian) Infantry Division (Wehrmacht)
Coat of arms of Croatia (white chequy).svg 392nd (Croatian) Infantry Division (Wehrmacht)
Armband of Croatian Legion.svg 369th Croatian Reinforced Infantry Regiment (Wehrmacht)
Croatian naval legion badge.jpg Croatian Naval Legion
Badge of Croatian Air Force Legion.svg Croatian Air Force Legion

Other[edit]

Unit name Description
Poles in the Wehrmacht
Französische Legion Mod2.svg Legion of French Volunteers Against Bolshevism
Arms of the 250th Division of the Wehrmacht.svg Blue Division[7]
Blue division.svg Blue Legion
Russian Corps
Indische Legion.svg Indische Legion
Free Arabian Legion SSI.svg Free Arabian Legion

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Ryszard Kaczmarek: Polacy w Wehrmachcie. Wydawnictwo Literackie, Kraków 2010. ISBN 978-83-08-04488-9
  2. ^ Wangel, Carl-Axel (1982). Sveriges militära beredskap 1939-1945 (in Swedish). Stockholm: Militärhistoriska Förlaget. ISBN 978-91-85266-20-3.
  3. ^ M. V. Nazarov, The Mission of the Russian Emigration, Moscow: Rodnik, 1994. ISBN 5-86231-172-6
  4. ^ Dermot Bradley, Karl-Friedrich Hildebrand, Markus Rövekamp: Die Generale des Heeres 1921–1945. Band 7: Knabe–Luz. Biblio Verlag, Bissendorf 2004, ISBN 3-7648-2902-8.
  5. ^ Nikolai Tolstoy. The Secret Betrayal. Charles Scribner’s Sons (1977), ISBN 0-684-15635-0, page 304ff. templatestyles stripmarker in |publisher= at position 33 (help)
  6. ^ Rolf Michaelis: Die Waffen-SS. Mythos und Wirklichkeit. Michaelis-Verlag, Berlin 2001, p. 36
  7. ^ Carlos Caballero Jurado, Ramiro Bujeiro (2009). Blue Division Soldier 1941-45: Spanish Volunteer on the Eastern Front. Osprey Publishing. p. 34. ISBN 1-84603-412-4.