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SS Volunteer Sturmbrigade France
SS Volunteer Sturmbrigade France
Französische S.S. Freiwilligen Sturmbrigade
	A French recruit departing from Paris in October 1943
Active	July 1943 – September 1944
Allegiance	Nazi Germany
Branch	Waffen-SS
Type	Infantry brigade
Size	1,688 men (June 1944)
Nickname(s)	Brigade Frankreich
Engagements	World War II Eastern Front; ;
Commanders
Notable; commanders	Paul Gamory-Dubourdeau

The French SS Volunteer Assault Brigade (German: Französische S.S. Freiwilligen Sturmbrigade), most commonly known as the Brigade Frankreich (lit. 'France Brigade')^[b] was a unit of the Waffen-SS of Nazi Germany during World War II. It was formed in 1943 after a change in the admission standards of the Waffen-SS allowed Frenchmen to enlist for the first time. After training in Alsace, the brigade served on the Eastern Front before merging with the Legion of French Volunteers Against Bolshevism to form the SS Division Charlemagne.

Formation

The Assault Brigade was formed in July 1943 as the Französische SS-Freiwilligen Sturmbrigade,^[c] it was established following a decree enabling Frenchmen to enlist in the Waffen-SS, and a subsequent recruiting drive took place in the zone libre occupied in November 1942.^[3] Sixteen recruiting stations were set up and attracted around 3,000 applicants from German-occupied France, many of whom were university students or existing members of the collaborationist paramilitary Milice. Recruits had to be "free of Jewish blood" and between 20 and 25 years old.^[4]

Training took place at the Sankt Andreas camp of Sennheim (now Cernay, in Alsace) under former Swiss army instructor SS Major Heinrich Hersche.^[5] In August 1943 a first cohort of 800 recruits arrived for training. Their instructors were Dutch and Flemish Belgian, and orders were given in German.^[4] Officers were sent to the SS-Junkerschule at Bad Tölz in Bavaria, where Lieutenant-Colonel Paul Marie Gamory-Dubourdeau received a commission as major at the end of the special training course and returned to the brigade as its commander. NCOs were sent to the SS school in Posen. Uniforms were entirely German without any French insignia.^[4]

In March 1944 the entire regiment was assembled at the Waffen-SS Neweklau camp near Prague and continued training under Gamory-Dubourdeau. In spring 1944, five infantry companies of 200 men each were formed under French SS officers, including Henri Joseph Fenet.^[3] As of 30 June 1944 the total strength of the brigade was 1,688 officers and men.^[4]

On 29 July 1944, under the command of former militia leader Captain Pierre Cance, a reinforced battalion of 18 officers and 1,000 enlisted men was sent to the Galicia on the Russian Front.^[6] In August it was attached as a reinforcement to the 18th SS Division "Horst Wessel".^[7] In less than two weeks the brigade lost about one hundred men in combat.^[6]

In September 1944 the brigade was merged with the recently disbanded Legion of French Volunteers Against Bolshevism (LVF), formed within the German Army (Wehrmacht) in 1941, which went on to form the core of a Waffen grenadier division known as the SS Division Charlemagne.^[8]

Commanders

SS-Obersturmbannführer Paul Gamory-Dubourdeau^[3]

Notes

^ 30 officers, 44 NCOs and 1,614 men^[1]
^ According to Robert Forbes 'Brigade Frankreich' was used because many French SS volunteers could not pronounce the full unit name in German.^[2]
^ The brigade also appeared with the following designations: 8. Franz. SS-Freiwilligen Sturmbrigade, SS-Sturmbrigade Nr. 7 Frankreich and SS-Sturmbrigade Nr. 7.^[3]

References

^ ^a ^b Forbes 2010, p. 62.
^ Forbes 2010, p. 180.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Forbes 2010, p. 55.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Littlejohn 1987, p. 159.
^ Estes 2015, p. 127.
^ ^a ^b Carrard 2017, p. 80.
^ Forbes 2010, p. 66.
^ Littlejohn 1987, p. 161.

Sources

Carrard, Philippe (2017). "From the LVF to the 'Charlemagne': French Volunteers on the Eastern Front". In Jochen Böhler; Robert Gerwarth (eds.). The Waffen-SS: A European History. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19879-055-6.
Estes, Kenneth (2015). A European Anabasis: Western European Volunteers in the German Army and SS, 1940-45. Helion, Limited. ISBN 978-1-912174-25-6.
Forbes, Robert (2010) [2006]. For Europe: The French Volunteers of the Waffen-SS. Stackpole Books. ISBN 978-0-8117-3581-0.
Littlejohn, David (1987). Foreign Legions of the Third Reich Vol. 1 Norway, Denmark, France. Bender Publishing. ISBN 978-0912138176.