In fact, the creation of this first French SS unit signalled a deep change in the type of engagement. From then on the political aspirations of the collaborationist parties had little impact. It was no longer a question of fighting for the glory of France, but for Europe, primarily for a national-socialist German victory. As someone commented: ‘The French SS are in fact purely and simply German soldiers.’
On 27 August 1943, the second anniversary of the founding of the LVF, a battalion of the regiment paraded at Les Invalides in Paris, where General Bridoux, the Vichy Minister of War, presented the regiment with a new Colour. This Colour, which was of the regular French Army pattern, bore the legend ‘Honneur et Patrie’ and the battle honours ‘1941-1942 Djukowo’ and ‘1942-1943 Bérésina’. There was then a presentation of awards to wounded veterans, and a march past in their honour by the mounted Garde Républicaine. Led by a company in German uniform and carrying their Tricolore standard, the battalion then marched to Notre Dame for a celebration of mass before proceeding up the Avenue des Champs Elysées for a wreath-laying ceremony at the Arc de Triomphe, cheered all the way by representatives of the many political parties supporting collaboration with the Germans.
The LVF was still an active force. As the German forces reeled back from the Soviet onslaught of 1944, Major Eugène Bridoux’s battalion was called upon to form a combat team to block the Moscow–Minsk road in front of Borrisov near the Beresina River. On 22 June, his battalion, along with police units and a handful of tanks, fought a delaying action until the following evening that cost it 41 dead and 24 wounded, but inflicted considerable damage to the Soviets, including the loss of some 40 tanks. It fought so well that the Soviet opponents reported being up against two divisions. Exhausted and starving, the survivors reached the LVF depot at Greifenberg two weeks later. Here all French servicemen within the German armed forces were being assembled.
In the spring of 1944 the German High Command (OKW) had issued a general order foreseeing the transfer of all foreign soldiers serving in the German armed forces to the Waffen-SS in order to simplify the situation and maintain the strength of the Waffen-SS, for which German citizens were exempt from conscription by law and could only volunteer. The French were some of the last to be affected by this order, both the LVF and the French SS-Storm Brigade still being actively engaged on the Eastern Front.
The creation of the Waffen-SS Charlemagne Brigade was decided in August 1944 when Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler gave the necessary orders for the LVF and the French SS-Storm Brigade to assemble during September at the Waffen-SS training area northeast of Konitz in the former Danzig Corridor. To these troops were added some 3,000–3,500 French volunteers from the German Navy, the latter coming via the LVF depot at Greifenberg in Pomerania, which was to become the Charlemagne Brigade depot. Individual transfers from Wehrmacht units were to continue to arrive right until the Charlemagne left for the front.
Once it had been assembled, the Brigade was moved to Wildflecken Camp in Franconia, 90km northeast of Frankfurt-am-Main and about 900m high in the Rhön massif, where the first companies detrained on 28 October, replacing elements of the SS-Wallonien and Hitler-Jugend Divisions.
Then, on 5 November, a reinforcement of 1,500 Miliciens arrived from France to be absorbed into the Brigade. They were not generally welcome. The Milice Français had been created by Premier Pierre Laval on 31 January 1943 as his own private police force, with Joseph Darnand as its Inspector General. Then on 2 June, the Franc Garde wing of the Milice was created for police and security tasks in the Unoccupied Zone under the command of Major Jean de Vaugelas, but remained unarmed until November, during which time several members were assassinated by members of the Resistance. Discussions with the SS led to an agreement whereby, in exchange for the provision of light weapons, the Milice would encourage enlistment in the Waffen-SS. Some 200 Miliciens then joined the Waffen-SS, including Henri Fenet, who was later to play a prominent role in the Charlemagne.
On 27 January 1944, the Milice was given permission to recruit in the Occupied Zone, and Jean Bassompierre and François Gaucher were recalled from the LVF on the Eastern Front to become inspectors in this organisation. The strength of the Milice rose in mid-1944 to 30,000, of which 10–12,000 were members of the Franc Garde active in the rounding up of Jews and assisting the German troops against the Resistance in what was virtually a civil war, gaining the Miliciens a reputation for assassination of political opponents, brutality and torture.
By August 1944, with Paris liberated and much of France under Allied control, the Milice and their families had to flee. Darnand led convoys of them, running the gauntlet to the relative security of Lorraine, where 6,000 Miliciens and 4,000 of their dependants gathered before moving on to Germany. Of these, 1,500 Miliciens opted to join the Charlemagne, while Darnand took most of the remainder to fight against the partisans in northern Italy. Those that did get through paid a heavy price: 76 were executed by firing squad in the Grand Bornand following a peremptory trial by their compatriots on 24 August. Consequently, the absorption of the Miliciens into the Charlemagne was not an easy matter, as we shall see.
The formation of the Charlemagne as a Waffen-SS unit was allocated to SS-Major-General Dr Gustav Krukenberg. Born on 8 March 1888 in Bonn, Krukenberg had ended the First World War as a young second-lieutenant attached to the General Headquarters at Spa with Kaiser Wilhelm II. Between the wars he lived more than five years in Paris, where he had formed several relationships in journalist and diplomatic circles, and came to understand the French mentality particularly well. From Paris he had moved to Berlin, where he worked as a legal adviser to an English firm in the chemical industry.
In 1939 Dr Krukenberg was mobilised in various headquarters in the rank of colonel of the reserve, his last position being with Wirtschaftstab Ost. He then spent time as chief-of-staff to the Vth SS-Mountain Corps in Yugoslavia. He was then transferred from the Army to the Waffen-SS as Inspector of SS Latvian formations and, after the invasion of Latvia by the Red Army in July 1944, he organised the defence of Dunaburg with these local forces with considerable success. On 24 September 1944, he was promoted to SS-Brigadeführer und Generalmajor der Waffen-SS, and assigned as Inspector of SS French formations.
In a memorandum prepared by him in 1958, Krukenberg recalled his tasks:
a) Put into effect and supervise all the measures ordered by the OKW guaranteeing the incorporation of the volunteers from various elements of the Wehrmacht [LVF, OT, Navy, NSKK, etc.].
b) Control of the aptitude of members of the Brigade – old and new – of all ranks to their engagement at the front and in the performance of their methods of combat. [Krukenberg was used to sacking incompetent NCOs and soldiers and in making the necessary demands in the case of officers.]
c) Examining the equipment and armament of the Brigade, as well as the organisation of the supply services, which, as for the LVF, remained a German responsibility. [A quartermaster was appointed as a result of this inspection.]