Legion Freies Indien

[David Lehmann]

Found on : http://www.wehrmacht-awards.com/

Legion Freies Indien :













David

[August]

Panzermeyer many thanks. These pics are very clear. Free India never bothered to collect archival material on Bose that lay scattered in many countries including Germany. And many more existing films were destroyed. For history's sake this was important.

[D. Löwenhamn]

The three persons at the left of the first photo are the same persons on the third photo. I also seem to recall seing the person at the very left of the first photo somewhere else. Sikhs and non-Sikhs seems to be mixed, why was that decided?

Best regards/ Daniel

[August]

Indian army consisted of a lage number of Sikhs. Today both Sikh and Christians comprise more than 20 per cent of our forces even though their number is under 4 per cent of the population. So spotting Sikhs soldiers was never an unusual thing. The Brits exploited the division among Hindus and the Muslims but Bose ensured this was put to an end. He brought all under one umbrella. Even Gandhi could not persuade Christians to fight the colonial Brits.

Why do we see same faces in the Legion pictures? I think these pictures were propaganda pictures and some people were selected to pose. There may have been other pictures but nobody cared to locate them.

Anyhow, the Legion was a symbolic force, around 5,000 troops only. What Bose wanted was guerilla warfare from the place Osama bin Laden is hiding these days. Pakistan was India then. But Hitler was not ready for that due to engagements elsewhere. In SE Asia to Bose tried guerilla warfare. He contacted Ho Chi Minh little beofre he disappeared from Saigon.

[Panzermahn]

Hi,

I'm interested to know if any german soldiers or officers won any Legion Azad Hind..The order of Azad Hind...plus pictures of them wearing it..

I thought german officers usually used english to communicate with the indians?

[August]

About medals I would not know. Bose and some of his men could speak German. One of them was NG Swami who was trained by the Nazis in secret service. Swami followed Bose to SE Asia in a submarine. i dont recall if he was caught by the Allies. Later on, he joined Indian intellgece service. In fact most of Bose' top men had good life after the war. Nehru did not want them to regroup in India so he gave them good jobs in foreign missions.

Btw, Bose paid back all the money, 10 million marks I think, that the Nazis had spent on him and the Legion. With thanks ofcourse. Indians in SE Asia gave huge donations.

[D. Löwenhamn]

Thanks for the reply August.

Best regards/ Daniel

[WAR LORD]

These photos come from a collection I have and were taken by a German officer who then transfered to the SS. THESE WILL BE IN A NEW BOOK PUBLISHED LATTER THIS YEAR. I am currently gathering more material on the group.

[Misty Dawn Bright]

What was the religious/regional breakdown of the group? Does anyone know?

[August]

WAR LORD, all the best.

Bright, Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs made up Legoin. The INA also had Christians.

BTW, the legion is absolutely unknown here in India. People have some idea about INA but not these people. All our textbooks taught us was about Gandhi, Nehru and their cronies.

[John W]

What was the religious/regional breakdown of the group? Does anyone know?

Marcus' Factbook had the information before but it is not there anymore AFAIK, it mentioned 2/3rd Hindu and 1/3rd Muslim... though I am not too confident about that number (and it's wrong to consider Sikhs as Hindus).

I think if you try a search on the Legion Freies Indien der Waffen SS, you might find this because I remember having made a post about this a few weeks/months back

[August]

John wrote

and it's wrong to consider Sikhs as Hindus

Yeah, but let's not forget that Sikhs were created to defend Hindus. Sikh Gurus were Gurus of Hindus.

BTW, I recall that Netaji's man John Thivy was an Anglo-Indian. Here was the man every Indian followed.

[Necros]

A few more pictures of Legion Freies Indien







From Donderduinen

/Mikael Sundholm

[August]

Many many thanks Necros. These pics are rare. Kindly see if you have one showing Bose shaking hand with Hitler.

Regards

[Necros]

It's hard to find any picture as there, as I understand it, was only one meeting between Bose and Hitler. But I'll keep on looking.
Found this though. Don't know if it is of interest but here goes. Some stamps depicting Bose and Azad Hind
Stamps

And some more pictures




From this page: Foreign Volunteers in the German Armed Forces 1939 - 1945

/Mikael Sundholm