Local militias in liberated territories

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narikis
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Local militias in liberated territories

#1

Post by narikis » 20 Nov 2020, 14:14

Aside from Italy and France, were there any other territories in west-europe that organised local militias to fight alongside the Allies during the liberation of Europe? I came across one battle involving a Luxembourg militia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Vianden

I discount here "armies in exile" that returned to their homelands during the Allied invasions, I am instead curious about militias that were organised among local civilians and resistance groups during the Allied advances into their homeland.

Carl Schwamberger
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Re: Local militias in liberated territories

#2

Post by Carl Schwamberger » 21 Nov 2020, 17:12

I've run across remarks about "Russians" who formed a collective combat unit in France and fought along side a US Ranger battalion in the summer of 1944. Not clear on if these were laborers or liberated PoW, or if they were former Wehrmacht 'Ossie' soldiers.

Better documented are the Belgian resistance members who sized control of the Antwerp docks, preventing German sabotage. After the arrival of the Britsh 30th Corps they occupied part of the defense north of the city.


narikis
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Re: Local militias in liberated territories

#3

Post by narikis » 21 Nov 2020, 18:09

Carl Schwamberger wrote:
21 Nov 2020, 17:12
I've run across remarks about "Russians" who formed a collective combat unit in France and fought along side a US Ranger battalion in the summer of 1944. Not clear on if these were laborers or liberated PoW, or if they were former Wehrmacht 'Ossie' soldiers.
Ah, I haven't heard of that. I guess it's not impossible they could have been former Wehrmacht soldiers, after all there was the mutiny of the Georgian Legion in Texel...

There was also of course the Polish resistance in France, made of both expats and wartime exiles, so perhaps these Russians could have been something similar.
Carl Schwamberger wrote:
21 Nov 2020, 17:12
Better documented are the Belgian resistance members who sized control of the Antwerp docks, preventing German sabotage. After the arrival of the Britsh 30th Corps they occupied part of the defense north of the city.
Could you recommend any source to learn more about this?

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Loïc
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Re: Local militias in liberated territories

#4

Post by Loïc » 21 Nov 2020, 19:08

I don't consider at all the several Maquis FFI FTPF as "local militias" but only partisans units and guerrilla at best merged within the "regular" French Army after september 1944, militarily-historically speaking the «Militia» ceased to exist in France with the National Guard in 1871 replacing the Provincial Militias in 1789 and add to that the word was given during the period to a mainly unarmed civilian collaborationnist political movement and auxiliary police its name inspired from Italy MVSN Blackshirst so France and Italy are totally counter-examples to use such word to name Partisans units of both countries

it existed whole "Russians" units in France, former Soviet under german uniforms from the numerous Ost-Battalions, joining the FFI as 2 Ukrainian Protection Battalions Division in Franche-Comté intially for the 30th Waffen SS Division, a 1st Soviet Partisans Regiment from Armenians under german uniforms in southern France, a whole "russian" company in Britanny (from Ost-Bataillon 633) and others examples of "Soviet Detachments"...but they were not local militias

narikis
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Re: Local militias in liberated territories

#5

Post by narikis » 21 Nov 2020, 19:14

Loïc wrote:
21 Nov 2020, 19:08
I don't consider at all the several Maquis FFI FTPF as "local militias" but only partisans units and guerrilla at best merged within the "regular" French Army after september 1944, militarily-historically speaking the «Militia» ceased to exist in France with the National Guard in 1871 replacing the Provincial Militias in 1789 and add to that the word was given during the period to a mainly unarmed civilian collaborationnist political movement and auxiliary police its name inspired from Italy MVSN Blackshirst so France and Italy are totally counter-examples to use such word to name Partisans units of both countries
This seems to be a cultural misunderstanding then. In English we can use "militia" as a generic term for an armed group raised of civilians. That is all I meant when asking the question.
Loïc wrote:
21 Nov 2020, 19:08
it existed whole "Russians" units in France, former Soviet under german uniforms from the numerous Ost-Battalions, joining the FFI as 2 Ukrainian Protection Battalions Division in Franche-Comté intially for the 30th Waffen SS Division, a 1st Soviet Partisans Regiment from Armenians under german uniforms in southern France, a whole "russian" company in Britanny (from Ost-Bataillon 633) and others examples of "Soviet Detachments"...but they were not local militias
Thank you for clarifying this.

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Re: Local militias in liberated territories

#6

Post by Carl Schwamberger » 21 Nov 2020, 22:59

Loïc wrote:
21 Nov 2020, 19:08
... a whole "russian" company in Britanny (from Ost-Bataillon 633...
This is the group referred to in a history of the US Rangers in WWII. They are mentioned fighting alongside the Ranger battalion during the siege of Brest.

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Re: Local militias in liberated territories

#7

Post by nuyt » 22 Nov 2020, 00:37

In the liberated southern parts of the Netherlands former resistance groups developed into the Stoottroepen (Shock troops) in 1944-45, eventually numbering some 6000, equipped with a mix of prewar Dutch, UK and US gear and weapons. Some moved along Allied troops deep into Germany in 1945. Read a piece here in Dutch: https://75jaarvrij.nl/cms/view/57982481 ... oottroepen

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Re: Local militias in liberated territories

#8

Post by Aber » 22 Nov 2020, 11:37

narikis wrote:
20 Nov 2020, 14:14
Aside from Italy and France, were there any other territories in west-europe that organised local militias to fight alongside the Allies during the liberation of Europe? I came across one battle involving a Luxembourg militia.
eg Liberation of Antwerp
the Witte Brigade, along with the Armée secrète, the Front de l'Indépendance, the Mouvement National Royaliste and Groupe G, helped allied forces capture the port of Antwerp intact in 1944.

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Re: Local militias in liberated territories

#9

Post by nuyt » 22 Nov 2020, 12:51

A video of the Stoottroepen Limburg: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_WT4I6L26g

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Re: Local militias in liberated territories

#10

Post by daveshoup2MD » 11 Mar 2021, 06:44

narikis wrote:
20 Nov 2020, 14:14
Aside from Italy and France, were there any other territories in west-europe that organised local militias to fight alongside the Allies during the liberation of Europe? I came across one battle involving a Luxembourg militia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Vianden

I discount here "armies in exile" that returned to their homelands during the Allied invasions, I am instead curious about militias that were organised among local civilians and resistance groups during the Allied advances into their homeland.
In 1944, the British, US, and FNCL French all deployed liaison and communications teams to fight alongside/support volunteers that, essentially, were mobilized out of the resistance/underground in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg as the front line approached (and sometimes, too early); the Jedburgh teams assigned to support the FFI are an obvious example. Similar Allied efforts took place in Italy and Greece, and - to a smaller degree - in Czechoslovakia and Poland. Generalizing is challenging, but many of the "locals" involved ended up being sworn into the various national armies under the various liberated manpower plans; French soldiers recruited in France in 1944-45 (quite a few of whom were veterans of the 1939-40 mobilization, of course) were expected to provide the fillers for eight divisions under the 1944 LMP plan (as opposed to the eight divisions raised in North Africa under the 1943 ANFA plan. Of the second group of eight, 4-6 ended up seeing at least limited active service in 1944-45, and a large number of LMP personnel ended up as replacements in the ANFA divisions, for obvious reasons. There were also something like 40 or more separate infantry battalions raised for LOC and (generally) security duties, although some were merged into the main force divisions, as well.

The Italian army divisions raised/re-raised in 1944-45 were "generally" formed along the same lines, although they had some active duty cadre because of the circumstances of the 1943 armistice.

The Belgian LMP filled out the 1st Brigade, and the Poles and Czechs recruited (from "German" POWs and nationals liberated in France) did much the same for the Polish army in the West (which added roughly 30 percent to the strengths of the 3rd and 5th divisions by 1945, and had (almost) built the 2nd Armored Brigade into a full armored division by the time the Germans surrendered. Same for the Czech 1st Brigade, which was very understrength when it went ashore in 1944; similar efforts were made by the Belgians and Dutch, but because much less of the Netherlands was liberated in 1944-45 than Belgium, the Dutch forces were smaller; the Belgians raised another five brigades and a number of independent battalions, and all five of their LMP brigades were training in the UK at the formation level when the Germans surrendered.

Similar practice in the Philippines, where most of a infantry division equivalent was mobilized in 1944-45 from the pre-liberation guerillas, to the point the US Army's "Philippine Scout" order of battle that was destroyed in 1942 was pretty much resurrected by 1945, along with a wide variety of more ad hoc or provisional units.

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Re: Local militias in liberated territories

#11

Post by Sid Guttridge » 11 Mar 2021, 09:16

Hi narikis,

The resistance in the south of France initially relied heavily on ex-Republican Spaniards, who often formed their own units earlier than the French. For instance, in the Department of Ariege, the first three "battalion" (actually company) sized units were entirely Spanish and in early 1944 they had a major role in helping the local French FTP set up three similar units, with which they cooperated closely. Both were more numerous than non-Communist French maquis in the area.

There were so many thousands of Spanish maquisards in the south of France that, after the departure of the Germans, they were able to mount a conventional invasion of Spain via the Val d'Aran in late 1944. It failed in the face of Nationalist forces of several hundred thousand and lack of Allied support.

Cheers,

Sid.

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Re: Local militias in liberated territories

#12

Post by Steen Ammentorp » 11 Mar 2021, 18:24

Hi,

Putting aside potential political disputes and disregarding actual combat value and the fact that it never became a reality due to the German surrender, then the Danish resistance organized a number of military groups (waiting groups), that were to surface and fight with the Allies on Danish soil. They were to come under SHAEFs control in that event. By the time of the German surrender the number men in these groups amounted to 49.000, led by military officers and primarily men with previously military training. The groups didn't - at least not to my knowledge - take part in other resistance activities. They just waited.

In the end they didn't see combat, and only surfaced at the surrender om the Germans, to take control, along with the active resistance and the Danish Brigade (formed and trained in Sweden) securing peace and order and the disarmament of the Germans.
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Steen Ammentorp
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Re: Local militias in liberated territories

#13

Post by Loïc » 11 Mar 2021, 18:30

hello

concernig the Spanish guerrilleros, that is the usual very politically correct exagerations we can read concerning the Republican Spaniards as many french spanish sources around them were written from to not say by them or based from them or their relatives to magnify their participation, as foreign and leftist communist resistance we understand very well of course that it is certainly more "bankable" than any national french far-right, rightist, giraudist, marechalist, military ORA of the southern zone

The Spanish Guerrilleros of AGE didn't form battalions but "brigades" and their weakness can be shown even in the zone of major concentration of the spanish emigration, the Pyrénées precisely, where their so-called "brigades" reach labouriously the size of one company after june 1944 and their "divisions" were more battalions-size only, the 3a Brigada del Ariège as the 10th and 35th reach the size of battalions after the summer 1944

a zone only invaded after november 1942, one year later in one of these Pyrenean Guerrilleros "Brigades" a spanish chief explained that he can counted the members of his brigade on the fingers or one hand or both, and even not all were armed...
the Spaniards were unable to gather plethoric strenght, the communists not very known for their modesty admit the low number in the ranks of such specific spanish brigades

The operation in Val d'Aran in october 1944 didn't gather exlusively former maquisards veterans of the Liberation, it happened two months later and it concerned simply also exiled who didn't fight for France

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Re: Local militias in liberated territories

#14

Post by Sid Guttridge » 11 Mar 2021, 19:09

Hi Loic,

As I said, "the first three "battalion" (actually company) sized units....."

In Ariege, the 1st, 2nd and 3rd "Battalions" of 3a Brigada were all in existence by the end of 1943. By August 1944 the first two had approximately 105 and 80 men each - about company size.

The next most important were the French Communists of the FTP’s 3101, 3102 and 3103 Companies, which were formed in the first part of 1944.

Also present were the Normandie and Camille companies of the Armée Secrete.

ORA had had a unit in Ariege as well, but this was badly disrupted by the Germans in late June 1944.

On 19 August 1944 the Spanish 3a Brigada and FTP forced the surrender of some 360 Germans in and around Foix. On 22 August a combination of them and the AS forced the surrender of 1,542 men of I/370 Turkoman Battalion at Castelnau-Durban as it retreated from the neighbouring department.

In Ariege, at least, the Spanish and French Communist maquisards were the dominant ones. My understanding is that this was similar in all the departments along the border with Spain.

Cheers,

Sid.

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Re: Local militias in liberated territories

#15

Post by daveshoup2MD » 12 Mar 2021, 05:12

Steen Ammentorp wrote:
11 Mar 2021, 18:24
Hi,

Putting aside potential political disputes and disregarding actual combat value and the fact that it never became a reality due to the German surrender, then the Danish resistance organized a number of military groups (waiting groups), that were to surface and fight with the Allies on Danish soil. They were to come under SHAEFs control in that event. By the time of the German surrender the number men in these groups amounted to 49.000, led by military officers and primarily men with previously military training. The groups didn't - at least not to my knowledge - take part in other resistance activities. They just waited.

In the end they didn't see combat, and only surfaced at the surrender om the Germans, to take control, along with the active resistance and the Danish Brigade (formed and trained in Sweden) securing peace and order and the disarmament of the Germans.
Good point. I think the Norwegians had similar organizations, although at different levels of readiness, along with the Norwegian "exile" forces in Sweden.

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