Wehrmacht soldiers in other wars...

[34bdq]

I believe that German soldiers joined the French Foreign Legion and distinguished themselves well in the Indochina War.

[YankeeZulu]

Lauri Törni/Larry Thorne. "The Soldier of 3 Armies"-----> http://www.wearethemighty.com/larry-tho ... es-2015-07

Also- Otto Skorzeny went on to perform various mercenary functions in a few countries as well in the 50's, largely in the MidEast. He also co-founded Paladin Group.

[Sid Guttridge]

Hi Yankee Zulu,

Skorzeny's reputation is massively over inflated, not least by himself.

There seem to be no identifiable military results of Skorzeny's post-war activities.

By comparison, Adolf Galland is today still highly regarded in Argentina for his post-war work with the Argentine Air Force.

Cheers,

Sid.

[Sid Guttridge]

Hi Edward,

You ask, "This is a long shot but I wonder if anybody knew somebody who was a Wehrmacht veteran of WWII who fought both in the Korean War and the Vietnam War in the U.S. military and was high decorated with U.S. medals like the Silver Star and higher? Maybe even the DFC or the Legion of Merit?"

Why a Wehrmacht veteran and not a Canadian, or Italian, or ex-Red Army man??

If you pursue such a narrow focus and actually find someone, it will only serve to distort the historical record in one direction. If you only look for Germans, you will only find Germans.

Why not look for any and all foreign veterans with a similar experience? Then we could put any ex-Wehrmacht veteran in his proper historical perspective.

Cheers,

Sid.

[Edward L. Hsiao]

Gentlemen,

Do you have any photographs of Wehrmacht veterans in the US Armed Forces that wore their German medals,especially the Iron First Class, along with their US ones while in their US uniforms? Plenty of Germans had served in three different armies. The Wehrmacht,the French Foreign Legion,and the Us Armed Forces.

Sincerely,

Edward L. Hsiao

[Sid Guttridge]

Hi Edward,

Would this have been officially allowed?

How many is "plenty"?

Cheers,

Sid.

[Sheldrake]

Perhaps the biggest impact of ex-Wehrmacht men was by officer POWs in writing detailed briefings on their wartime campaigns for the US Army. 24 volumes were published in English and much more remained in the archives unpublished. This work seems to have significantly influenced the development of US Cold War tactical planning and training.

Finally, of course, ex-Wehrmacht men very quickly brought the new Bundeswehr up to combat readiness after 1955.

Also playing a significant role in NATO. I remember a visit and an inspection to my unit in Colchester England by General Ferdinand Maria von Senger und Etterlin - AFCENT. He was Commander-in-Chief of the NATO Forces that would oppose any Soviet invasion of Western Germany. (EX commander of I (GE) Corps 7 Panzer Division in the Bundeswehr and WW2 service with the 24th Panzer Division, and awarded the Deutsches Kreuz in Gold, September 4, 1944, the Panzervernichtungsabzeichen for knocking out a tank with a hand held weapon and the Nahkampfspange in Silver which implied at least 10 close combat actions.

[Edward L. Hsiao]

Gentlemen,

On page 139 of the book "The Brandenburgers-Global Mission", 'Nothing is know of the Brandenburgers and the men of Abwehr II who remained with the Indian Freedom Army. The majority were rumored to have joined the French Foreign Legion in Saigon.'

Sincerely,

Edward L. Hsiao

[Sid Guttridge]

Hi Edward,

If "nothing is known" then any rumours have little value.

There is a thread elsewhere on AHF that argues that the post-war presence of ex-W-SS men in the FFL in Indo-China is much exagerated.

There will doubtless be a good number of individual Germans who served in post-war conflicts, but I doubt looking for any co-ordinated action by significant groups of them would be productive.

On the other hand, small groups of German engineers were recruited by both Peron's Argentina and Nasser's Egypt.

Cheers,

Sid.

[Edward L. Hsiao]

Gentlemen,

Anybody knows more examples about Wehrmacht veterans serving in other foreign military services?

Edward L. Hsiao

[Edward L. Hsiao]

Gentlemen,

I read an article about German POW's in Canada. A lot of them wanted to make Canada as a new country to live after WWII. They worked into different job areas in Canada after WWII. Do you know any examples of Wehrmacht veterans who were POWs in Canada had made the Canadian military as their career?

Sincerely,

Edward L. Hsiao

[Xavier]

plenty of germans served on indochina..on both sides, enough to fill 3 trains after the war...!
will post links to short documentary movie about it, with veterans interviews in a couple days..

[Xavier]

found it:
In the documentary “In Foreign Service”, broadcast on the French television channel Arte in 2005, the French film maker Marc Eberle has retraced some of these hallucinating journeys. One of the former german legionnaires confided that, when he was taken prisoner by a vietminh group, he was led straight to the captain ... who was German.
According to Eberle, 1,400 German legionnaires would have changed sides.

in foreign service, part 1: https://vimeo.com/68831329
part 2: https://vimeo.com/68837669

[Felix C]

Infantry being hard physical work is it feasible men who were in their 20s in the early-mid 1940s would still be in the ground combat foot, non-motorized role, ten years later in their mid-30s?

Is not very late teens through late 20s prime infantry age?

[Edward L. Hsiao]

Gentlemen,

I wonder if after WWII plenty of German snipers from the Wehrmacht volunteered to served in other foreign armies especially the French Foreign Legion? The civilian world look at these German snipers as no good at all. Killing the enemy as expert military marksmans are what they good at.

Edward L. Hsiao