American volunteers

[George Lepre]

Gents:

Both of you are good members of the forum and have contributed valuable information to the forum. Let's not degenerate into bickering.

George

[Panzermahn]

Okay, back to the topic. Here are some short notes about Pierre de la Ney du Vair (aka Peter Delaney);

- born in Holcomb, Missouri, USA on 8th February 1907
- Peter's father died in Dallas 1914
- Has a younger sister name Catherine
- Peter's uncle Eugene (Kitty's brother) was in the Lafayette Air Squadron in WW1 and had a French wife name Louise Gilet
- Louise was the one who taught Peter the French language
- Louise investigated her nephew's ancestry and found that they had the roots of the de la Noüe branch of the Counts of Vair from Nantes, Britanny (Breton), France
- became French citizen in the French Embassy at Rome in 1927
- Spend 6 years in Rome and graduated in 1932 with a doctorate in Sacred Theology
- return to USA to teach Theology in Catholic Fontbonne College in St. Louis
- married to Catherine Bussmann in the summer of 1934
- as a French citizen, he has been called up for military service but was deferred due to his theology studies. Took up the military service for France in 1935. Accepted into officer training and graduated from 24th Infantry Regiment
- daughter Catherine du Vair was born in 1935. She would be the eldest of all 7 children of Peter and Catherine Bussmann
- Remained in the French Army after completing his military service. Joined the 152nd Regiment at Colmar in Alsace. Was introduced to a circle of young French officers were nationalists, reactionaries and monarchists and from this connection, came into the world of Action Francaise
- In 1939, was transferred to the Army Intelligence Service and moved to Lausanne, Switzerland with his family as a cover for intelligence activites.
- In july 1940, du Vair returned to France under Army orders. Consider joining de Gaulle in Britain but was personally persuaded to stay by none other than Charles Maurras, founder of AF, who told Peter that the latter was needed for Petain's National Revolution. Still had doubts but the brutal attack of the British at Mers-El-Kebir confirmed his disliked for the Churchillian cliques.
- In 1941, joined the SOL in the Legion under Joseph Darnand
- Joined the Milice in 1942 in order to combat anarchy as the result of the resistance and chaos in France. Believed that the Petain National Revolution was the key to French Unity. However he wasnt popular with the other Miliciens since du Vair was only naturalised in 1927 and wasnt part of the Cagoule. To some, he was considered as an "American" who speaks French
- Almost killed by Darnand's faction of the Miliciens but thanks to the intervention of a French priest who knew Petain personally and would report to Petain if du Vair was hurt. Du Vair was dismissed from Milice due to political differences with Darnand since it is well known that du Vair was a strict Catholicist and a monarchist
- formed the Corps Franc Francais with the SSS (Service de Sociétés Secrètes, the anti-Masonic police, whose commander, Major Besson-Rapp had connections with Abwehr.) as part of the Vichy militia
- Darnand, possibly jealous of the CFF being a possible rival to the Milice, tried to subtlely sabotaged it by inriguing with HSSPF Frankreich, Karl Oberg. CFF never grew more than a hundred men
- In 1944, Darnand and du Vair was reconciled and this enabled du Vair to rejoined the LVF since LVF has veterans of the Milice and SOL whom were loyal to Darnand
- was asked to do propaganda radio broadcast for the SS 'Kurt Eggers' PK Regiment. It was clear that he could not continue as an officer in LVF so he finally left them and concentrated on SS Kurt Eggers PK Regiment with the rank of Haupsturmführer
- Given an additional mission of recruiting enough members for an American Waffen SS unit (the so-called George Washington Brigade but it never existed). Only managed to recruit Martin James Monti, an American POW to do some propaganda broadcast.
- last broadcast was on 8th March 1945
- On 11th April 1945, du Vair managed to get all in his family to on a steam train leaving Anhalter station on route to Munich and eventualy to Milan. On the way to Munich, the locomotive was attacked by American fighters and bombed. The passengers flee the train only to be strafed by American fighter planes. Among the dead was Waffen-Hauptsturmführer Pierre Jean Louis de la Ney du Vair.

[Edited - off topic remarks removed /Marcus]

[Marcus]

Get back on topic, that is Pierre de la Ney du Vair. I've removed one post and remove the off-topic remarks from the post by Panzermahn above.

/Marcus

[Ljotrulf]

De la Ney du Vair was the subject of a small booklet entitled "American Fleur-De-Lys" by Peter Chicago (possibly a pseudonym od Christopher Othen, a London-based author). This is possibly the source of Panzermahn's information; it certainly seems familiar.
Pierre Henri de La Ney (the son) most certainly has enough information to produce a much larger and more in depth biograph but it remains to be seen if he will publish this.

[Panzermahn]

Hi Ljotrulf

Yes, I forgot to mentioned that the infos (which I had condensed) is from the booklet you had mentioned. I had missed it out initially because the document that I was looking did not have the author's name on it, just the title. I never heard the name Peter Chicago but Chris Othen, I believed has published a book about Spanish Civil War.

There is another book by one Cambridge River (probably a pseudonym) on Unknown Foreign Volunteers of the Waffen SS by Charles Martel Comms (I am not sure if this publisher is still around) that has a section on Pierre de la Ney du Vair. I see what I can get out from there (I had that book long time ago but it was on the bunch of boxes I had in the storeroom, so I need to dig it out again)

rgrds
Panzermahn

[Panzermahn]

Also, since Pierre de la Ney du Vair was born in United States, by birthright, he is an American citizen. Therefore Pierre has dual citizenship (American and French). I am not sure what are the laws of United States governing its citizens (who had dual nationalities in this case) serving in foreign armed forces (and this possibly could be related to American nationals in French Foreign Legion, as well as to a lesser degree, the Spanish Foreign Legion)

Bear in the mind that from 1940 to 1942, United States is not at war with Vichy France so whatever de la Ney du Vair did during Vichy France are not considered "treason" if someone thinks that de la Ney du Vair is a traitor.

[Adrian Weale]

This is an extract from some work I did on US volunteers in the Waffen-SS:

The self-styled ‘Comte Pierre Louis de la Ney du Vair’ had been born Perry Regester De Laney in Holcomb in 1907. De Laney’s father died when he was just seven years old but his uncle paid for his education at a military high school in Bell-Buckle, Tennessee. During this time, he came under the influence of his aunt, a Frenchwoman who emphasised his own French origins (the De Laney family had emigrated to North America in the early eighteenth century), taught him French and called him ‘Pierre’. After high school, while working on the St Louis Post-Dispatch, De Laney converted to Catholicism, having been raised a Lutheran, and was eventually offered a scholarship to study in Rome, which he duly accepted. He returned to St Louis in 1932 and became Professor of Theology at Fontbonne College. However, while in Rome, he had applied for and been granted French citizenship via the French Embassy. Consequently, in 1935, he was called up for military service in the French Army. By now, he was going by the grandiose name of Pierre de la Ney du Vair and claiming lineal descent from the counts of Vair. He undertook his military service with great enthusiasm, gaining a reserve commission and serving with the 152nd Infantry Regiment at Colmar, Alsace. In May 1940, he and his family were living in Lausanne, Switzerland, where du Vair was supposedly operating as a French military intelligence agent. However, after the German invasion, they moved to occupied France.

Du Vair could best be described as a monarchist, French nationalist reactionary, but he was also a supporter of the anti-Semitic Charles Maurras, leader of Action Française, and was strongly Anglophobic. As such, his political views were quite in tune with those of the Vichy regime. He resigned his French Army commission in 1941, joined Pétain’s Légion Française des Combattants (a paramilitary ex-services organisation) and then transferred to the Légion des Volontaires Français – the French legion within the German Army – with whom he saw action in the Soviet Union. After returning from the Eastern Front, he served with the collaborationist Vichy militia, the Milice Française, before transferring to the Kurt Eggers Regiment and working as a radio propagandist.

In Berlin, it seems that the sophisticated, highly educated du Vair took the immature Monti under his wing. He arranged for Monti to visit the scenes of Soviet atrocities in Hungary and compile reports to broadcast to American audiences. Monti formally joined the Waffen-SS at the beginning of April 1945, just as the Kurt Eggers Regiment was starting to disintegrate in the face of the Soviet advance. Du Vair was killed in an American air raid a few days later

My view is that De Laney was something of a fantasist. The French aunt who encouraged his delusions of aristocratic grandeur was not a blood relation and he was just as much Irish and English as he was French. He was, of course by birth and upbringing a US citizen through and through.

[Panzermahn]

Hi Adrian

Do you know what transpired during de la Ney du Vair's service with LVF as well as Kurt Eggers SS PK Regiment? I had seen photos of him in French style but it seems that there are no pictures of him in Waffen SS uniforms. I am not sure if Jean Mabire's books on LVF, Legion Tricolore, French SS Assault Brigade and Charlemagne Division did mentioned about him.

I think that he would also be familiar with Mildrad Gillers (Axis Sally) and Lord Haw Haw since he is doing propaganda broadcast to Western Allies. De la Ney du Vair would have also known Jean Fontenoy, the LVF PK correspondent too


best regards
Panzermahn

[Adrian Weale]

Information on what De Laney did in German service is fragmentary at best: when I'm next at home I will check on what else I have, but I'm sure it isn't very much more than a few scattered references here and there.

[Ljotrulf]

Information on what De Laney did in German service is fragmentary at best: when I'm next at home I will check on what else I have, but I'm sure it isn't very much more than a few scattered references here and there.

The commander of the Kurt Eggers Standarte Gunter d'Alquen could not recall du Vair at all, though he did remember Monti well (with good reason). A Hstf. subordinate of d'Alquen, who spent much of his time at the Berlin-Zehlendorf HQ of the Kurt Eggers Standarte, recalled the name de la Ney du Vair but not much more. In contrast, he could recall most of the girls who worked in Berlin-Z. in great detail, including the girlfriend of John Leister of the BFC.

[Rob - wssob2]

The commander of the Kurt Eggers Standarte Gunter d'Alquen could not recall du Vair at all, though he did remember Monti well (with good reason). A Hstf. subordinate of d'Alquen, who spent much of his time at the Berlin-Zehlendorf HQ of the Kurt Eggers Standarte, recalled the name de la Ney du Vair but not much more. In contrast, he could recall most of the girls who worked in Berlin-Z. in great detail, including the girlfriend of John Leister of the BFC.

Interesting stuff Ljotrulf - I'm curious - what's your source?

Bear in the mind that from 1940 to 1942, United States is not at war with Vichy France so whatever de la Ney du Vair did during Vichy France are not considered "treason" if someone thinks that de la Ney du Vair is a traitor.

duVair could be a DOUBLE traitor - for both sides of his dual citizenship!

the French legion within the German Army – with whom he saw action in the Soviet Union. After returning from the Eastern Front, he served with the collaborationist Vichy militia

This doesn't seem right to me. If duVair joined the LVF in 1944, he'd have to do so prior to June 1944, when France was liberated and when the LVF was getting smashed in the Soviet Operation BAGRATION. The LVF, the collaborationist Vichy militia - and Vichy itself - didn't exist by September 1944.

Given an additional mission of recruiting enough members for an American Waffen SS unit (the so-called George Washington Brigade

And what exactly is the source for this?

My view is that De Laney was something of a fantasist.

I think Adrian Weale's is spot on.

[Ljotrulf]

The commander of the Kurt Eggers Standarte Gunter d'Alquen could not recall du Vair at all, though he did remember Monti well (with good reason). A Hstf. subordinate of d'Alquen, who spent much of his time at the Berlin-Zehlendorf HQ of the Kurt Eggers Standarte, recalled the name de la Ney du Vair but not much more. In contrast, he could recall most of the girls who worked in Berlin-Z. in great detail, including the girlfriend of John Leister of the BFC.

Interesting stuff Ljotrulf - I'm curious - what's your source?

Gunter d'Alquen was well known to me for a few years before his death (we came into contact when it emerged that he was a POW in Scotland near a village in Caithness where my Grand parents were married) and he proved to be an interesting source. The Hstf. who worked at Berlin-Zehlendorf I prefer not to name since both he and his wife still live quietly in the Ruhr (and I would like to keep it that way). Frankly, he was something of a ladies man and recalled more about the girls he came across than his male comrades in field grey. Leister and his girl friend Lena J. owed him a debt of gratitude since it was he who arranged their escape from Berlin to Italy.
Information on all members of the Kurt Eggers Standarte (including, presumably, de la Ney du Vair) was included in a US Intelligence Report from 1945 (CINFO Report No 5) which was held in the US National Archive. They claim that it is no longer available since it was signed out by someone and not returned. I presume that this was a euphamistic way of letting me know that one of their staff had stolen it (this was also a problem when the US ran the Berlin Document Centre in Berlin-Lichterfelde with original SS documents turning up on the militaria market after having been pilfered from the archive.

[Panzermahn]

Bear in the mind that from 1940 to 1942, United States is not at war with Vichy France so whatever de la Ney du Vair did during Vichy France are not considered "treason" if someone thinks that de la Ney du Vair is a traitor.

duVair could be a DOUBLE traitor - for both sides of his dual citizenship!

That you would have to ask the founding fathers of United States on why the United States Constitution allows dual citizenship and there is no better example than Pierre de la Ney du Vair of illustrating this problems even before the 21st century

I found the book "Unknown Foreign Volunteers of the Waffen SS: Soldiers from the Darkest Corners of Himmler's Military Empire" by Cambridge River and published by Charles Martel Comms. But sadly, the author does not give any sources for what he written. The section about Pierre de la Ney du Vair is almost the same as what I have originally posted (which I had condensed from the American Fleur-de-lys authored by Chris Othen)

- it seems that after the end of the Battle of France in 1940, he did not join LVF but Legion des Combattants, a veterans group
- wrote a book in 1943 (!) entitled 'Quand la Maison Brûle'

There is a photo of him in the book taken in 1937 which shows Pierre de la Ney du Vair in the French 152nd Regiment uniform


Interestingly, the author also mentioned the names of other Americans serving in Waffen SS besides Pierre de la Ney du Vair and Martin James Monti

Howard Marggraff, born in MIlwaukee, Wisconsin, 16 Oct 1916
joined RAD (Reichsarbeitsdienst) in 1938, joined the SS-Freischar (?)
joined the SS Heimwehr Danzig battalion
has two brothers named Eugene and Norman who also enlisted in the SS
assigned to the SSTK division after when it absorbed the Heimwehr Danzig
released from Waffen SS in February 1941 (?) and become involved in propaganda broadcasting
escape (defected?) to Switzerland in 1943 with his two brothers


Edwin Peter, born in New York, 12 March 1918
reached the rank of Oberscharfuehrer in Waffen SS (no unit was mentioned)
KIA on 2 July 1941 in Latvia


Georg Macdonald, born in Bufallo, 7 May 1922
reached the rank of Untersturmfuehrer in Waffen SS (no unit was mentioned)
KIA on 14 March 1944, Johvi, Estonia


Nick Claussen, born in Philadelphia on 23 Octobwe 1924
American citizen residing in Denmark
possibly served either in Freikorps Danmark, Wiking or Nordland divisions


Senius Christian Olsen, born in Maison City on 3 January 1918
American citizen residing in Denmark
possibly served either in Freikorps Danmark, Wiking or Nordland divisions


Richard Wesley Pedersen, born in Minneapolis on 4 April 1925
American citizen residing in Denmark
possibly served either in Freikorps Danmark, Wiking or Nordland divisions


Elmer Johannes Nielsen, born in Omaha, Nebraska, 15 June 1911
American citizen residing in Denmark
possibly served either in Freikorps Danmark, Wiking or Nordland divisions


Even Tuxen Bjerg-Nielsen, born in Omaha, Nebraska, 26 June 1920
American citizen residing in Denmark
possibly served either in Freikorps Danmark, Wiking or Nordland divisions


Charles Braschwitz, born in New Jersey, 17 August 1911
Wachtmeister in SS Polizei Division
KIA on 7 May 1945, Laibach Slovenia


Raymond George Rommelspacher, born in Chicago, 30 May 1926
SS Grenadier
KIA during Allied landings in Normandy, 1944


Andreas Hauser, born in Los Angeles, 30 August 1893
KIA on 18 January 1945, Welikij, Ukraine


Lucas Diel, born in New York, 28 December 1912
SS Rottenfuehrer
KIA on 9 December 1944, Hungary


Andy Beneschan, born in New York, 1 Sepetember 1918
SS Unterscharfuehrer
KIA on 16 April 1945, Bosnia


William Thomas Bueter, born in Tarenton, 1920
living in Belgium when the war broke out
volunteered into the Walloon Legion under Wehrmacht
transferred to Waffen SS in 1943


Anyone has more infos on these guys?

[Rob - wssob2]

Thanks Ljotrulf for your reply!

That you would have to ask the founding fathers of United States on why the United States Constitution allows dual citizenship and there is no better example than Pierre de la Ney du Vair of illustrating this problems even before the 21st century

It was a joke. P-Mahn.

duVair (or his biographers, or the "Kurt Eggers" unit) probably made up his front-line service.

I think it's a mistake to take a half-dozen oddballs and use them as "evidence" that a "nation" participated in the "Waffen-SS crusade". We shouldn't rat-hole into Americans of the "SS George Washington Brigade" on this thread.

Ideologically, duVair seems all over the place, as long as it was anti-Allied: Monarchist, Vichy, Darnand, SS. And despite his reputed intelligence service (which I doubt) he just seems too odd to be much value as a intelligence agent or a propagandist.

[Panzermahn]

I think it's a mistake to take a half-dozen oddballs and use them as "evidence" that a "nation" participated in the "Waffen-SS crusade". We shouldn't rat-hole into Americans of the "SS George Washington Brigade" on this thread.

Nobody is using this as "evidence" that a "nation" participated in the "Waffen SS Crusade"

Nobody is rat-holing into Americans of the SS George Washington Brigade as you said