German soldiers joining resistance?

[Ivan Bajlo]

How common was that?

I got my hands on another book about Yugoslav Partisans 32nd Division which included personnel roster and besides Russians, Italians, Poles... so far I have found 10 Germans from Germany not Volksdeutsche (who when looking at surnames seem to have change their nationality to Croatian after the war).

I find it interesting that at lest 10 Germans defected to Partisans and especially to a division which operated so deep behind enemy lines, if they got captured their fate would be worse then normal Partisan.

[randwick]

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military discipline is usually bad news , German military justice harsh at best
condemned soldiers could end up in Torgau fortress , being made to suffer before being send to the Easter front as punishment battalion ,
a move to relative safety could be understood , or simply circumstances or belief

for the Partisans to have so many Germans prove that they were easy going and smart
quite a few would have shot them on the spot ,
if only to save food , the eternal problem for partisans

.

[RG]

Once upon a time I have watched on TV an interview with German soldier who joined polish partisans in Swietokrzyskie Mountains commanded by "Ponury". In fact this guy was treated rather as a mascot, he avoided to fight against his countryman. If I remember well his nickname was "Malutki" (the small). Unfortunatelly I did not find anything on internet to prove it.

[randwick]

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Not quite on thread but of the same style , soviet armored divisions would poach from amongst the prisoners those with mechanic knowledge , a quality much valued by the repair workshops commanders

For the German , it was a good deal , better than the Gulag and they were going in the right direction !

.

[phylo_roadking]

A suprising number of Germans "crossed the line" in CRETE of all places, and the SOE managed to persuade the Cretans not to simply kill all of them! IIRC quite a few were evacuated off the island to Egypt along with SOE parties etc. when transport was available, and there's a story in The Cretan Runner of one helping the locals to flush out a couple of other German "Stool pigeons" who had attempted to "defect"

[randwick]

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Well since this get into soldiers on the run , there was some mention of the "phantom division "
a reference to thousands ( ? ) of U.S. servicemen gone native in France after Normandy ,

not the worst choice I guess

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[Oasis]

Two germans (Fred and Hans) joined resistance in the area west of Bologna (central Italy) covered by the partisans of 7th GAP detachment (Anzola).

Toni

[Lupo Solitario]

they are not the only such cases in italian resistance, AFAIK

[Oasis]

they are not the only such cases in italian resistance, AFAIK

yep Lupo, it was only a small contribution in this topic with regard of italian resistance theater