SS Charlemagne: The 33rd Waffen-Grenadier Division of the SS

2/Lt Alfred Brunet, Commander Tank Hunting Unit, awarded Iron Cross First Class.

Officer-Cadet Protopopoff. Killed in Berlin.

Staff-Sergeant Ollivier, Commander 4th Coy, 2nd/58th.

Sergeant Eugène Vaulot, awarded Knight’s Cross. Killed in Berlin.

SS-Captain Wilhelm Weber, Commander Honour Company, awarded Knight’s Cross.

The Waffen-SS leadership academy at Bad Tölz.

Field conditions in Pomerania during the Charlemagne’s first action.

Field conditions in Pomerania during the Charlemagne’s first action.

The evacuation of Kolberg under fire.

Lieutenant Fenet manning a machine gun.

The double gates to Hitler’s Chancellery on Wilhelmplatz.

Devastation on Friedrichstrasse after the battle.

The U-Bahn entrance at the Kaiserhof Hotel used by Captain Fenet and his party as an escape route.

Potsdamerstrasse.

Corporal Robert Soulat, interpreter/translator at Charlemagne headquarters, who later collated and provided much of the information upon which this book is based.

General Philippe Leclerk examining the thirteen Charlemagne prisoners handed over to him by the Americans at Bad Reichenall prior to ordering their summary execution.

Annex A The Formation of a French Regiment of the Waffen-SS

Communiqué issued at a press conference in Paris on 6 August 1943.

With the law of 22 July 1943, President Laval, with the assent of the Head of State, Marshal Pétain, recognises the right of all Frenchmen to enlist in the formations of the Waffen-SS in the east in order to participate in the fighting for the existence and future of Europe.

By virtue of this law, the volunteers for the Waffen-SS enjoy the same legal status as members of the LVF.

The French Government has thus shown that it appreciates the offer made by the Führer and that it is ready to play its part in the obligations demanded at this decisive time in the fate of Europe.

It is clear that the formation of a unit of French volunteers within the body of the Waffen-SS represents a new and very important step in the unification of European youth against bolchevist nihilism.

The fact is that through the influx of volunteers from almost all the European countries, who, side by side with their German comrades, are distinguishing themselves by their valour on the Eastern Front, the SS, essential fundament of the National Socialist Party that since its beginning only had an internal German political value, has become transformed today into an indissoluble community of European youth fighting for the maintenance of its cultural values and civilisation.

That French youth has reacted instinctively to this new step is demonstrated by the fact that within several days, and with hardly any propaganda, more than 1,500 volunteers have come forward. The first battalion exists and soon the first French SS regiment will be in the course of proving the permanence of the high French military tradition and the combatant spirit of its youngsters.

The SS will make itself a point of honour and will consider it an essential task of using the military qualities and will to fight of every Frenchman disposed to engage his life in the fight for the existence and future of Europe against Bolchevism for social justice – for victory!

Conditions of Engagement

Except for Jews and those with a criminal conviction, all Frenchmen, bachelors or married men, normally developed and suitable for military training, may enlist in the Waffen-SS.

Age 17–40; Height 1.65m.

Conditions of Promotion in the Waffen-SS