#28
Post
by Marc Rikmenspoel » 19 Mar 2006, 21:27
This isn't difficult. From June 1940, Flemish and Dutch were welcome to volunteer for the Regiment Westland, though some who did do ended up in other parts of the Wiking Division, or even in the (Das Reich) Division. These men had volunteered to serve in the Waffen-SS.
In the spring of 1941, a new SS regiment was set up, for men who wanted to serve closer to home, since the Westland and Nordland Regiments (the latter for Danes and Norwegians) could, in theory, have been sent to North Africa or anywhere else. The new SS-Standarte Nordwest was set up to recruit Flemish, Dutch and Danes for service as a sort of militarized police in their home countries. The unit was split up in the summer of 1941 with the men forming the cadre of the national legions, which were set up to fight on the Eastern Front. These legions were to be national in character, so that Flemings would belong, in theory, to a Flemish unit, as opposed to those who volunteered for Westland, which was a German unit that included Germanic volunteers.
The national legions were administrated by the Waffen-SS, but again, in theory, were natioanl units with the backing of political elements back home (the VNV, in the case of Flanders). In practice, the legions became second class Waffen-SS units, which had to make due with lesser quality German officers and which lost most of their recovered wounded to the Wiking Division, only getting replacements via new recruits.
In 1943 the national legions were dissolved, and converted into full Waffen-SS units, with improved weapons and better quality German officers (to the degree they were needed to make up the shortage of native officers). The Legion Vlaanderen was converted into the Sturmbrigade Langemarck, and almost all available Flemings were sent to it, so that few were left in Wiking from then on.
Belgium was liberated in September 1944, and thousands of collaborators fled to Germany. There, virtually all Flemish men under the age of 45 or so were told that they were now assigned to the Waffen-SS, regardless of whether their previous service had been in the NSKK, in the Kriegsmarine, or in the OT or so on. that's how there was suddenly a massive increase in the available Flemings. But only around 2000 men were trained soldiers, the rest needed training, and gradually received it up through the end of the war.
As to the Knight's Cross, Degrelle was a propaganda figure. After Cherksaay, he was awarded the Knight's Cross to recognize the success of the Walloons (who provided the rearguard for the breakout) and as a bit of a publicity stunt. He got to meet Hitler, and gained some political clout. As such, he was able to recommend subordinates for high awards, such as the Knight's Cross Leon Gillis received.
With the Flemish, by 1944 the VNV had scaled back its collaboration with Germany after becoming disillusioned. Many Flemings were outspoken in their criticism of German policies, and thus higher German authorities declined to approve awards for them. A prime case was Georg D'Haese, who ended up commanding KG-Rehmann on the Tannenberg Line. Felix Steiner wanted to award D'Haese the German Cross in Gold, but he never received the decoration. Remy Schrijnen so distinguished himself as a Pak gunner north of Orphanage Hill during the Tannenberg Fighting that he was proposed for the Honor Roll of the German Army. During discussions about this, it was decided that having a Flemish Knight's Cross winner would be better for propaganda and morale now that Langemarck was being expanded into a division (the award was dated September 21). It helped that Schrijnen was a junior NCO, rather than an officer with more outspoken views such as D'Haese.
Does this clarify matters?
