Asians in the Nazi-era German army!?

[rilnator]

In his book 'Rise and fall of the Third Reich' William Shirer is of the firm opiniojn that Germans have a tendency to blame foriegners for their problems and mistakes. Blaming the British for lack of support for killing Hitler? C'mon!
I agree with your patriotism angle though, and fear of the Russians of course.

 

[Adler17]

I´m not blaming anyone but I show the errors were made everywhere. All factors has to be considered. Nothing is monocausal. The German/ Prussian Codex as well as the deny of allied help.

Adler

 

[privatehudson]

Some more piccies

A Dutch Volunteer, the colours on his sleeve badge match those on the dutch flag, though this being black and white, it's kind of hard to tell

Handschar troops on the march, though it strikes me as likely that it's a posed photo, most I've seen of the soldiers of this formation either in action or near the front do not show them wearing those type of hats, but helmets

Degrelle, leader of the Wallonian division and the most decorated non german in the waffen SS. Personally I think he looks quite like Liam Neeson Not sure exactly what his fate was, some books I have on him list him as fleeing to Norway at the end of the war, then to Spain. Apparently it was pretty obvious he was there too as he once attended his daughters' wedding in his SS uniform. This can't have pleased the Belgian authorities who wanted him back...

A Norwegian Volunteer, as noted by the badge on his sleeve of the Norwegian flag.

 

[rilnator]

Are these Dutch and Norwegian volunteers SS? Was it only the SS who allowed in foriegners?

 

[Adler17]

Normally foreigners could only become member of the SS. In the Wehrmacht, as well as in the Bundeswehr, only Germans could be in, although there is no law prohibiting foreigners.
However I know a pilot in the KG 200 whose parents were Duthc and Inonesian. How this was possible under the racial laws I deon´t know.

Adler

 

[nonconformist]

On the Subject of Indian volunteers into the Japanese army, most were POWs, and most of them were more of a liability to the Japanese that a help. Most of them only joined to be able to escape the Japanese and return to the British lines.

 

[privatehudson]

Rilnator, all of the pics were of Waffen SS troops.

Adler17, not entirely true on the Wermacht. Their studies in 1942 showed that "russians" made up some 12% of the forces on the Eastern Front, that and some foreign formations made their name in the Wermacht before joining the SS shows that it was not a "Germans only" army.

 

[Knight-Dragon]

Originally posted by nonconformist
Yesterday, I also made a discovery. Members of the Chinese Army, I think it was the Communist one, but I may be wrong, wore similar basic uniforms to the Germans. They wore "coal-scuttle" helmets, and were armed with mostly German weapons, such as the WWI Mauser automatic handgun. If anyone has a book by Andrew Mollo showing the uniforms of WWII, it is in the Pacific chapter, towards the end of the section on the Japanese, and the start of the Chinese section.

After looking at the rank collar tabs, that have a red background, these did NOT fight for the German army, and I can be pretty sure that they fought for the Chinese Nationalist Army, fighting against the Japanese, but they are wearing German helmets, and have German weapons, but they fought for the Chinese. I will post specifics, e.g rank etc. later.

The Nationalists, after they'd sort of reunified China in 1928 after their Northern Expedition were in the process of organizing a more effective army. They asked for foreign aid, and strangely, the nation that responded was Germany (I think before the Nazis came to power i.e. before 1933). So you'd a couple of infantry divisions of the KMT army trained, clothed, armed by the Germans. Germany sent a couple of officers and staff over to help the Chinese.

These divisions were meant to be the core of a larger Chinese army. However, they're mostly destroyed, during the Japanese invasion of the Yangzi valley in 1937; gaining time for the Nationalists to shift their capital fr Nanjing to Chongqing.

 

[Sarevok]

so probably some of the equipment still left over got in the hands of the communists or more nationalists mabye?

 

[Mrogreturns]

I had a geography teacher in high school who drove a Panther in the Waffen SS. Apparently he was was obliged to join the SS when it was discovered that he had a distant ancestor who was Jewish. If you are wondering how they found that out, it was through a geneology competition sponsered by the government; the prize being an educational scholarship. Apparently his father told him not to submit his entry, but he didn't understand why and sent it off anyway. In 1945 his 60 something year old father was sent east (although obviously not very far east by that time) to fight the soviets and they never heard of him again.