French SS - Berlin 1945

[Music] soon after france surrendered to the germans in june 1940 a resistance organization began to sprout all over the country eventually the french resistance would number between 75 and 220 000 patriotic men and women many of whom gave their lives and the struggle to liberate their country but for every patriot who took up arms there were hundreds or thousands who simply went with the flow and grudgingly accepted occupation and there was also a small minority who for a variety of reasons decided to collaborate with the germans some even joining the german armed forces and taking up arms against the allies the most controversial of these units was the french ss or to give it its full title the 33rd waffen grenadier division charlemagne named for the famous king of the franks an emperor who united most of western and central europe in the early 9th century so why did young frenchmen fight for the germans some had been members of pre-war far-right political parties that admired hitler and mussolini some hated communism more than german occupation and were prepared to take up arms in what they saw as a europe-wide crusade against bolshevism some were anti-semites some were opportunists and these frenchmen were not alone in collaborating the ss would end up with units of norwegians danes dutch belgians estonians latvians and croatians to mention just a few and even a tiny british unit recruited from pow camps the first french collaborationist unit was not ss in october 1941 a french infantry regiment two and a half thousand men strong was recruited and crossed the soviet frontier on the 22nd of june 1942 during operation barbarossa in spring 1942 the french had been reorganized into the legion volunteer forces of 5800 men and was used to fight partisans in the eastern front rear areas in june 1943 the two battalions of the lvf were reunited as a single regiment and served in ukraine until officially disbanded on the 1st of september 1944. the ss however was always eager for recruits to circumvent recruitment restrictions placed upon it by the army and enlisting foreigners was the easiest way to fill out its ranks the ss had started recruiting frenchmen aged between 20 and 25 who fulfilled nazi racial tests by july 1944 1700 men had been trained and the unit the french ss volunteer assault brigade was sent to the eastern front it sustained heavy losses in combat and was withdrawn and sent to danzig soon after men from the army's lvf joined the unit which became the waffen grenadier brigada the ss charlemagne after further training at wildflecken and more recruiting the french ss became a small division by this stage the battle of france was almost over with the western allies having pushed the germans back to the borders of the reich the division just 7 340 men was nonetheless populated by many experienced soldiers and many ideological followers of hitler and the nazis sent to fight the advancing soviets in poland on the 25th of february 1945 it was badly mauled in pomerania by elements of the soviet first belarusian front two-thirds of the division was killed or captured with only a third managing to be evacuated by the german navy to denmark and then was sent to neustrulitz for refitting in early april 1945 under the command of ss brigado fura dr gustav kruckenberg a german lawyer and experienced ss combat officer 700 men were reorganized into a single infantry regiment of two battalions plus a heavy support battalion the situation in berlin was by the time of hitler's last birthday on the 20th of april 1945 critical soviet forces had broken through the last substantial german defenses east of the city of the cello heights in a three-day battle and on the 20th came close enough to fire artillery into the eastern suburbs they would start to encircle the city and fight through towards the central government district that contained the reichstag building and the reich chancellery with hitler's bunker beneath krookenberg released 400 of his men to construction units and taking the hardcore 350 volunteers decided to get to berlin and join the fight after receiving a message on the 23rd of april from the beleaguered reich chancellery the unit was organized as assault battalion charlemagne incredibly as the frenchman assembled and the marketplace at the town of australis a large armored limousine drove past crookenberg and his men snapped to attention for the car contained none other than reishvura ss heinrich himmler himself unbeknown to krukenberg or hitler in berlin himmler was returning from a secret meeting with count folker bernadotte of the swedish red cross in lubeck as he continued to try and surrender germany to the western allies with himself as interim leader of germany himmler's car did not stop crookenburg and about 350 men managed to get to central berlin on the 24th of april it was not a straightforward journey the men traveled in two kubelwagens and nine heavy trucks two of the trucks didn't make it the remaining men entered the northwestern suburbs at nouwen shortly before the encirclement of the city by the red army they drove to the olympic stadium in schultenberg helping themselves to piles of supplies abandoned by the luftwaffe crookenberg drove on to the reich chancery for orders the charlemagne was organized into a small headquarters staff under ss hobstein fura henry fenney and four rifle companies each of sixty to seventy men they moved east to noycon and were attached to the eleventh ss volunteer panzer grenadier division nordland on the 25th of april krukenberg was appointed commandant of defence sector c and also took over command of the shattered nordland division itself composed of norwegian danish and dutch regiments on the 26th of april the french ss and the nordland mounted counter-attacks in the nuikon district of southeast berlin supported by king tigers of sri 503 the french ss suffered 50 casualties on the first day the remainder dug in to defend neukon town hall the situation was hopeless crookenberg pulled the french and the nordland back to prepared positions around hermann platts the nordland and the charlemagne were in almost constant combat as soviet tanks and infantry assaulted their positions the vicious street battles french ss and some hitler youths armed with panzerfaust anti-armor weapons knocked out 14 soviet tanks the stubborn resistance actually held up the soviets for 48 hours in this sector however the immense advantage that the red army enjoyed in men tanks and artillery support meant that krukenberg's forces were pushed back into the central government sector where the last stand would take place among the shattered government buildings and monuments the 28th of april crookenburg established a ford headquarters in a subway carriage at the stadmitta yuban station in four days of frenetic fighting the ss charlemagne alone had destroyed 62 soviet tanks out of 108 knocked out in southeast berlin captain fenney had established the charlemagne command post in the reich aviation ministry on wilhelmstrasse by now wounded fenay received the knights cross from ss brigado fuhrer wilhelm monker commanding the central government district while two other frenchmen were also decorated with destroying soviet tanks by krukenberg at his underground headquarters the stadmitta railway station ss under shafira eugene volo had knocked out two soviet tanks during the defense of noicon and six more using panzerfaust from the fighting around the reich chancery the 29th kruckenberg awarded him the knights cross and awarded the iron cross first class to ss understand fuhrer roger albier bono for knocking out four tanks earlier that day in total on the 29th to 30th of april fenney and his men knocked out 21 soviet tanks the french ss continued to defend positions on friedrich strasse bell alliance platz and wilhelm strasse the final battles for the central government buildings commenced as soviet forces stormed each massive block in turn fighting room to room hitler died on the 30th of april where the fighting in berlin went on german forces well aware of what awaited them on surrendering this was especially true of foreign ss like the charlemagne who were wanted men in france fenney's remaining men defended the reich chancellery area on the night of the 1st to 2nd of may 1945 a general breakout was ordered surviving german units in the city center attempted to break through the soviet cordon and retreat west to surrender to the americans or british by now the ss charlemagne had been reduced to about 30 unwounded men some made it but many were killed or captured early on the morning of the 2nd of may the red army captured the ruined reich chancellery and at 6 am general helmut weidling berlin battle commandant surrendered at his bunker headquarters at the bendla block and was taken to the soviet lines where at 8 23 weidling ordered the city surrendered brigada fuhrer crookenberg though not french was nonetheless tried by the soviets after managing to hide out in berlin for a week after the surrender he served 11 years in prison before being released and died in west germany in 1980 aged 92. captain fenney who commanded the charlemagne from the fighting in berlin managed to escape the city with the remainder of his unit and surrendered to the british at bad kleinmen fenei and several of his men were turned over to the red army twelve who were turned over to the french by the u.s army were shot as traitors fenay was released by the soviets but re-arrested in france in 1949 a court sentenced him to 20 years forced labor but he was released early in 1959 he died in paris in 2002 at the age of 83. thanks for watching please subscribe and share and also visit my new audiobook channel war stories with mark felton you can also help support both of my channels at paypal and patreon details in the description box below [Music]

Channel: Mark Felton Productions

Views: 2,076,563

Rating: 4.9234681 out of 5

Keywords: Battle of Berlin, Charlemagne, Mark Felton Productions

Id: UJpWB5hi3hQ

Length: 12min 2sec (722 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 01 2020