The SS Division Charlemagne and Charlemagne Regiment are collective names used for units of French volunteers in the Wehrmacht and later Waffen-SS during the World War II. France - Wikipedia /**/ @import /skins/monobook/IE50Fixes. ... The Wehrmacht (literally defence force or means/power of resistance) was the name of the armed forces of Germany from 1935 to 1945. ... Waffen-SS recruitment poster; Volunteer to the Waffen-SS The Waffen-SS was the armed wing of the Schutzstaffel. ... Mushroom cloud from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rising 18 km (60,000 ft) into the air. ...

The Charlemagne division was not a single military unit but succession of groups of collaborating French volunteers (though the exact nature of "volunteering" has been disputed). The first unit was Légion des Volontaires Français (Legion of French Volunteers or LVF) that was mainly composed of right-wing Frenchmen and released French soldiers who preferred fighting to forced labour in Germany. It fought near Moscow in November 1941 but its commander colonel Roger Balonne was later relieved of his duties and in 1942 the men were assigned to antipartisan duties in Byelorussian SSR (Belarus). They were briefly joined by La Légion Tricolore (Tricolor Regiment) but this unit lasted only 6 months in 1942 and was later absorbed into LVF. Collaboration, literally, consists of working together with one or more others. ... Saint Basils Cathedral Moscow  listen? ( Russian/Cyrillic: Москва́, pronunciation: Moskva), capital of Russia, located on the river Moskva, and encompassing 1097. ... Partisan may refer to: A member of a lightly-equipped irregular military force formed to oppose control of an area by a foreign power or by an army of occupation. ... State motto: Пралетарыі ўсіх краін, яднайцеся! Official language None. ... Belarus ( Belarusian: Белару́сь, Russian: Белару́сь (formerly: Белору́ссия), Polish: Białoruś) is a landlocked nation of Eastern Europe with the capital Minsk. ...

The men were loaned to various units without French commanders until June 1943 when colonel Edgard Puaud took command. They fought in Ukraine front against Soviet advance in 1944. Ukraine (Україна, Ukrayina in Ukrainian; Украина in Russian) is a republic in eastern Europe which borders Russia to the east, Belarus to the north, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary to the west, Romania and Moldova to the southwest and the Black Sea to the south. ... Soviet redirects here. ...

In the meantime, in July 1943, a new recruiting drive had begun in Vichy France. It attracted 3000 applicants like members of collaborating militias and university students. New Sturmbrigade unit was sent to Galicia to fight the Soviet advance and suffered heavy casualties. It was later absorbed into LVF. In late 1943 surviving French volunteers were inducted into the Waffen-SS Französische SS-Freiwilligen-Grenadier-Regiment (Waffen-SS French SS-Volunteer Grenadiers). Vichy France (French: now called Régime de Vichy or Vichy; called itself at the time État Français, or French State) was the French state of 1940-1944 which was a puppet government under Nazi influence, as opposed to the Free French Forces, based first in London and later in Algiers. ... The Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, or simply Galicia, was the largest and northernmost province of Austria from 1772 until 1918, with Lemberg (Lwów, Lviv) as its capital city. ...

In September 1 1944 the French volunteers were joined to the first Waffen-SS regiment named after Charlemagne - Waffen-Grenadier-Brigade der SS Charlemagne. It also absorbed French collaborators that had fled Allied advance and included Frenchmen from Horst Wessel brigade and Organisation Todt but also Vichy France Milice and other collaborationist organizations. Some sources claim that the unit included also volunteers from Switzerland and French colonies. SS General Gustav Krugenberg took the actual command with Edgard Puaud as nominal French commander. Statue of Charlemagne in Frankfurt, a Romantic interpretation of his appearance from the 19th century Charlemagne (c. ... Organisation Todt (OT) was a German construction and engineering group. ... A recruitment poster of the Milice. ... The Swiss Confederation or Switzerland is a landlocked federal state in Europe, with neighbours Germany, France, Italy, Austria and Liechtenstein. ...

In February 2 1945 the unit was officially upgraded to a division with the name 33rd Waffen-Grenadier Division der SS Charlemagne but was understaffed with 7340 men. It was sent to fight against the Red Army in Poland. In February 25 it faced Soviet troops of the 1st Belorussian Front and was split into three parts. Only the units with Krugenberg survived when they went to a Baltic coast, were evacuated to Denmark and later sent to Neutrelitz for refit. This article is about the arithmetic operation. ... Red Army flag The short forms Red Army and RKKA refer to the Workers and Peasants Red Army, (Рабоче-Крестьянская Красная Армия - Raboche-Krestyanskaya Krasnaya Armiya in Russian), the armed forces organised by the Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil War in 1918. ... The Republic of Poland, a democratic country with a population of 38,626,349 and area of 312,685 km², is located in Central Europe, between Germany to the west, the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south, Ukraine and Belarus to the east, and the Baltic Sea, Lithuania and... The 1st Belorussian Front (alternative spellings are 1st Belarusian Front) was one of the Soviet Army fronts during the World War II. The term front was used by the Red army in World War II to describe a grouping of two or more armies in the same way that the... Baltic can refer to: The Baltic Sea Council of the Baltic Sea States - an intergovernmental organization Baltic sea countries - countries with access to the Baltic Sea The term Baltic countries is sometimes used more or less synonymously for Northern Europe (Russia not included) The Baltic region (Balticum) Baltic States - the... Denmark (disambiguation). ...

In early April in Carpin General Krugenberg, commander of now 1100 men, released those who were disillusioned and about 700 chose to remain. 400 men later decided to stop being combatants and were made into a construction platoon. See also Platoon (movie) and platoon (automobile) for the concept for reducing traffic congestion. ...

In April 24-25 the rest of the unit was ordered to Berlin and placed under command of SS-Standartenführer Walter Zimmermann. 330 men reached it before the Soviet encirclement. They fought in the Battle of Berlin until the order of general surrender in May 2, when the 30 survivors surrendered to the Russians. Battle of Berlin Conflict World War II Date April 16, 1945 - May 8, 1945 Place Berlin, Germany Result Soviet victory The Battle of Berlin was one of the final battles(1) of the European Theatre of World War II. A massive Soviet army attacked Berlin from the east. ...

See also

• List of German divisions in WWII
• Waffen-SS

This is a list of German divisions in WWII. Artillery Divisions German 18th Artillery Division German 310th Artillery Division German 311th Artillery Division German 312th Artillery Division Fortress Divisons German 41st Fortress Division German 133rd Fortress Division Infantry Divisions German 69th Infantry Division German 71st Infantry Division German 163rd Infantry... Waffen-SS recruitment poster; Volunteer to the Waffen-SS The Waffen-SS was the armed wing of the Schutzstaffel. ...

References

Landwehr, Richard (1989). Charlemagne's Legionnaires: French Volunteers of the Waffen-SS, 1943-1945. Silver Spring, MD: Bibliophile Legion Books. ISBN 091818407X. Richard Landwehr has been the author of numerous books about the Waffen-SS, its foreign (that is, non-German) volunteers in particular. ...