French volunteers

[Panzermahn]

No, Briffaut was W-SS .
Noone know hy exactly he wear Heer uniform.

But he was for sure transfer to W-SS .

Do you have Paul Briffaut dienstgrad documents that stated he was transferred to Waffen SS?

Or was he included in the Waffen SS Officers List?

Panzermahn

[Ustuf.33]

all major authors (Eric Lefèvre, Robert Soulat and Robert Forbes) are sure from this fact.
No, I don't have the personalakte of Briffaut .
Briffaut was company chief of the 9/58 company, until december 1944, when he was demobilize (cause old wounds).

Why he wore Heer uniform in may 1945. it can be many reasons. "Bad Reichenhall" of Lefèvre/pigoreau explain that in details.
I speak about that too in "Waffen-SS Français volume 1 : officiers"

[Arto O]

From Signal june 1943

[Malbret17]

Hi,
on the photo of Croix de guerre Légionnaire on August the 27th in the Invalides (photo 20 08 2002),
the two men are from the LVF. Between them, in white is a man from Todt and in left of this man is a one from Kriegsmarine werftpolizei La Pallice (close to La Rochelle)

[Blanusa]

Hi,

It's not much, but hopefully someone will find it interesting. From the BBC-documentary "War of the Century". If anyone takes offense to this being posted I will remove it.




Best regards
Blanusa

[Arto O]

Hi,
What I see, is colours of green/white/red. The colours of Italia.
Arto

[Blanusa]

Hi Arto,

Are you certain? I'm far from an expert, so please correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that there were no Italian SS-soldiers with this type of shield.


Best regards
Blanusa

[Malbret17]

Hello,
No, it is a french man of the 33° Charlemagne division. The badge is blue, white, red. This photo has been shooted in a circus in Berlin in 1945. Isaww it in a french magazine " UNIFORMES" special issue about french soldiers in german uniforms.
Regards

[Blanusa]

Hi Malbret17,

Thank you very much for this information!


Best regards
Blanusa

[Panzermahn]

Hi,

It's not much, but hopefully someone will find it interesting. From the BBC-documentary "War of the Century". If anyone takes offense to this being posted I will remove it.




Best regards
Blanusa

Correct me if I am wrong, i believed this man is an ex-Sturmbrigade who joined the Charlemagne Division (French shield at left arm).

Wouldn't the ex-LVF who joined Charlemagne generally wore their French armshield on the right side of their arm (per-LVF style)?

Panzermahn

[Blanusa]

Hi Panzermahn,

I don't know who this man is, just saw it in the mentioned TV-documentary and found it really interesting to see a French SS-soldier in color. I do know from photographs that the LVF wore their shields on the right sleeve, but I do however believe that all SS-soldiers wore their shields on the left sleeve, unless I have missed something.


Best regards
Blanusa

[Malbret17]

Hi,
The shield was worn on the left arm for SS, on the right arm fot LVF, but this last shield was sawn on the left arm (like the one of Jacques Doriot, the PPF leader - color photograph). The french SS shields were not exactly the same between Sturmbrigade and Charlemagne, the black edge around the shield was a little larger on SS Sturmbrigade.

Regards

[Blanusa]

Hi Malbret17,

That is great information, very interesting since it is new information, at least for me. I was not aware that there was a difference in the shield for the SS-Sturmbrigade Frankreich and the 33.SS-Division Charlemagne. Again, thank you very much!


Best regards
Blanusa

[Panzermahn]

Hi,
The shield was worn on the left arm for SS, on the right arm fot LVF, but this last shield was sawn on the left arm (like the one of Jacques Doriot, the PPF leader - color photograph). The french SS shields were not exactly the same between Sturmbrigade and Charlemagne, the black edge around the shield was a little larger on SS Sturmbrigade.

Regards

Hello Malbret17

The LVF French armshield has the word "FRANCE" with the A slightly bigger (BeVO version) than the rest of the alphabets. The Sturmbrigade version does not had the word France in the armshield. The original regulation for wearing the French armshield for the Sturmbrigade is at the lower left arm.

I don't know about the Legion Tricolore armshield type and I am not sure if the French volunteers of the NSKK, OT, Kriegsmarine and Luftwaffe wore which version (whichever should be available). Rene Chavez has a couple of authentic versions of the French armshield in his website.

The French volunteers of the SD and SIPO does not wear any armshield.

Panzermahn

[Arto O]

From my scrapbook. Is this NSKK?