Title Details

An examination of Flemish soldiers' motivation to answer Himmler's call to arms

Illustrated with rare photographs, many previously unpublished, and with close analysis of the key figures such as Flemish Knight's Cross winner Remy Schrijnen, this is a fascinating study of fanatical courage. By the end of World War II there were soldiers of more than 30 nationalities fighting in the 38 combat division of the Waffen SS; Reich Germans were in the minority. How did a regime founded upon notions of its own racial superiority come to welcome hundreds of thousands of foreigners into its military elite—and what motivated these men? Here the author examines in depth the Langemarck division, composed entirely of fighters drawn from the Flemish lands of Northern Belgium. Motivated by a powerful anti-communist zeal and a desire to escape forever the interference of their traditional enemy, France, these men fought at Stalingrad and in the encircling battles of the Volkhov pocket. They fought the bitter campaign in the Ukraine in 1943-44, then in Estonia at the Narva. The Division was destroyed by the Russian juggernaut in 1945.