Cossack-Gen. Wrangel

[K.Kocjancic]

Looking info on Russian Cossack's General Wrangel (Wrangl), who was after WWI on the side of the Czar and joined French Foreign Legion after the defeat.

TIA;
Kocjo

[Gwynn Compton]

http://www.rusnet.nl/encyclo/w/wrangel.shtml

And a quite google search will reveal much more.

Gwynn

[K.Kocjancic]

Thanks!

Silly me - not going with Google! :roll:

But anyone know his FFL rank - did he keep his General rank there?

The 97th Foreign Legion Divisional Reconnaissance Group (GERD 97) also attained glory during the 1940 debacle. It was probably the only all-veteran North African outfit of the Legion regiments in France. GERD 97 had been organized from the 1st Foreign Legion Cavalry Regiment, the Legion horse cavalry outfit that had been raised in Africa in the 1920s from the remnants of White Russian General Baron Pyotr Wrangel's cavalry, which had been all but destroyed in the civil war against the Bolsheviks. Mechanized and outfitted with obsolete armored cars, GERD 97 carried out reconnaissance missions, but its scouting days came to an end when it ran into the powerful German Mark III tanks. In typical Legion style, GERD 97 threw itself against those monsters without hesitation, fighting rear-guard actions to cover the retreating French. GERD 97 managed to survive until June 9, when a final, suicidal charge against the panzers left all the Legion vehicles burning. There were no known survivors.

http://www.frenchforeignlegion.org/data ... ta098.html

Regards,
Kocjo

[USAF1986]

Hi! Wrangel himself never served in the FFL. For more information on his life and career, I recommend General Wrangel: Russia’s White Crusader by Alexis Wrangel (his son) (Hippocrene Books, Inc., New York, New York, 1987). Also, The White Generals: An Account of the White Movement and the Russian Civil War by Richard Luckett (The Viking Press, Inc., New York, New York, 1971) is a worth a look if interested in this topic. For an excellent overall treatment of the Russian Civil War, I highly recommend Red Victory: A History of the Russian Civil War by W. Bruce Lincoln (Simon and Schuster, New York, New York, 1989).

On a related note, The Fate of Admiral Kolchak by Peter Fleming (Rupert Hart-Davis, London, United Kingdom, 1963) is an interesting read on this other well known White Russian leader (Vice-Admiral Aleksandr Vasilevich Kolchak).

For detailed OOBs, tables of equipment, battle maps and other organizational and combat details of Allied and White Russian forces in the Russian Civil War, I recommend the very useful book Stamping Out the Virus: Allied Intervention in the Russian Civil War, 1918-1920 by Perry Moore (Schiffer Publishing, Ltd., Atglen, Pennsylvania, 2002).

For a detailed account of the U.S. intervention (primarily the 339th Infantry Regiment) in northern Russia during the Civil War, 1918-1919, The Ignorant Armies by E.M. Halliday is also highly recommended. For gee whiz, here is the distinctive insignia of the 339th Infantry Regiment adopted after the war. To my knowledge, it is the only such regimental insignia of the U.S. Army that has a motto in Cryllic: The Bayonet Decides.

Regards,
Shawn