A major work of military history - the first new study of one of the least known of the foreign Waffen-SS contingents to appear in many years in the English language, based on primary sources including eyewitness accounts, analysed and interpreted by a military mind, and narrated in an exciting and fresh style concentrating on the formations fighting record. In the burning ruins of Berlin in April 1945 a ragged band of SS grenadiers defied the might of the Red Army until the very end - these men were not Germans, but Frenchmen. This book tells the story of the thousands of Frenchmen who, for many different reasons, volunteered to wear the SS double lightning flashes and serve alongside their erstwhile conquerors. The author tells the story of the pre-war politics of France that led to the collapse of 1940 and the era of French collaboration with the Germans. Precursor French formations such as the Legion des Volontaires Francais contre les bolchevisme and the SS-Sturmbrigade Frankreich are covered in detail, including their campaigns in Russia and Galicia. The battles of the Charlemagne in snow bound Pomerania and the rubble of Berlin are covered in great detail.
The author draws on eyewitness accounts from veterans about their experiences of combat in the hell of the Russian Front and assesses the military impact they had.