The Complete History of the SS Charlemagne Division (French SS)

Awesome content man

Very well done. It is refreshing, if refreshing is the right word, to see accounts of allied war crimes being exposed although unpunished. And what do we see today but the monster of communism and Marxism still alive within the monster otherwise known as the EU. Such a generation as existed then surely does not these days with left wing wokery eating its way through youth like cancer.

These guys were bad ass

Despite the smokescreen put up here, it is apparent the record of French service in German uniform was poor. The first battalion of volunteers of the LVF had to be withdrawn from the line in December 1941 within a week of deployment despite the German front then being in crisis. It then spent the next year reduced to rear-area anti-partisan operations.

In January 1943 control of French recruitment was handed over to the Waffen-SS. By September only 1,500 suitable volunteers had come forward. The unit finally saw action in August 1944 – a laggardly year and a half after its formation began. It went into action on 9 August and had been virtually wiped out within a fortnight.

On 10 August 1944 the Charlemagne Division was ordered formed. It consisted basically of exiled Frenchmen who had compromised themselves in various ways either by directly serving the Germans or in the more ruthless security arms of the Vichy regime. Notwithstanding the title “division”, these scrapings were only ever sufficient to form a mixed brigade of at most 8,000 men. Furthermore, this brigade never managed to get more than four infantry battalions into action. In effect, there never was a Charlemagne “division”.

Charlemagne units first entered the line on 24 February 1945. Within two days “Charlemagne was now beginning to be torn apart” . Thereafter it was basically a tale of isolated units of Frenchmen under no central divisional control and having lost or abandoned any heavy equipment, falling back within the body of German forces.

By early April, only 1,100 men could be reassembled out of the line. Of these, over a third had had enough and were transferred to a construction battalion. The remainder were only partly recommitted when the Reich was in absolute extremis. On 24 April the unit was ordered to Berlin. Only some 400 volunteers were taken. These volunteers seem mostly to have been selected by judicious use of peer group pressure. Where company commanders genuinely canvassed for volunteers, few men apparently came forward. However, when two companies were paraded by their commanders and volunteers asked to take one pace forward, the entire companies did so!

The tale of the Charlemagne and its French predecessor units in German service is essentially one of failure – of an inability to attain or maintain significant strength or retain cohesiveness in front line action. Even if one counts the service of straggling sub-units, in nearly four years of trying, the Germans only managed to get the French into the line four times, the combined total of which came to less than two months, none of which was as an effective higher formation.

Thank you for this video. I have the book Pour L'Europe, reading it brings a lot of strong emotions.

Epsteintube censoring perfectly good comments. Of course what do you expect of a bunch of things tunnel diggers😂😂😂

We fought the wrong people.

whats the discord link?

Crazy how you have to put a disclaimer before talking about history these days lmao

When you look at the mess the world is in right now, with the assisted genocide in Palestine, Inflation, Porn everywhere, LBGT garbage and more…you start to wonder how things could have been if Britain did sign a peace deal, so Germany could pursue those horrible Communists.

Perhaps Chairman Mao, Pol Pot and Stalin backed by Eastern European ‘small hats’ couldn’t have had the chance to kill another 50 million innocent people.

What this tells me is that there were brave strong fighters who were French. However, they chose to fight for a strong military establishment rather than their own weak, decadent French government.

Traitors

Where can I find the footage at 2:44 am very interested?

Not the nineteenth century son, the twentieth.

West status: Fallen

Bonjourrrr! Ya cheeee eating surrender monkeys 😂😂😂

dude censor the word fr*nch in your thumbnail i was eating

A magnificent video. Thank you for sharing. Sone great footage also.

Some of them ended in the ruins of Berlin ...and now the Right wing party that stands ready to govern France is full of people willing to accept that France was never more free than when she was occupied by the Germans

The only SS unit that didn't surrender but, was destroyed in Berlin.

It’s kinda funny they didn’t surrender

Algo comment

When you hear the Soviet strategy 70 years ago,you realise that the Russians are still using it today in Ukraine.

Magnificent video "Mr. Zoomer". I would like to point out certain facts almost unknown:

In the 35 days of the Polish campaign, the German Armed Forces (Wehrmacht) had 16.800 dead and 36.470 wounded = 53.270. This means 1.522 men killed/wounded per day. During the 45 days of the French campaign, the Wehrmacht suffered 46.440 dead and 111.934 wounded = 158.374. This means 3.519 men killed/wounded per day.

This clearly shows that the French campaign was a bloody affair and not, as almost all American and British historians claim, "a walk in the park" where the French surrendered almost immediately. Anyone who has studied French military history knows that the French were ALWAYS superb soldiers.


Although the famous figure of nearly 100,000 French soldiers killed in combat in 1940 has been disproved as a myth concocted by De Gaulle; the French soldiers, despite their extremely incompetent leaders, fought heroically suffering 58.830 dead and nearly 123.000 wounded = 181.830 losses.

PS: I am not French but I hate to see brave men insulted and vilified.

Luberal Reddit users are already triggered even before watching this video....

I feel like if enough westerners become disillusioned about the War, western society will collapse, and be replaced with putin/Xi like governments....

I recommend Europa, the last battle....

How come we never hear about these storys is our history textbooks when we were in middleschool?.....somthing doesnt smell right?....

Pourquoi c'est un anglais qui doit parler pour nous, tout français veux enterré ce passé

Great video!

One of the best video about the Charlemagne heroes! Thank you!

you have personal opinion, it seems that the war is Churchill's fault and Vichy was a legitimate government .............and it's idiot opinion

😮OH I never saw my grand dad❤❤love pops

Jean Mabire - Mourrir à Berlin ISBN 2-253-01623-3

I was sold at war monger Churchill!

You do express your own opinions.I have never heard other histories call leaders of countries "war mongers".Will never watch this channel again.Goodbye.

Lore of The Complete History of the SS Charlemagne Division (French SS) momentum 100

My grandfather was in the Charlemagne and then in the Legion étrangère in Indochine. He survived but I never knew him (family secret...)

The narrative misuses “paranoid.” Paranoia is a serious medical condition involving delusions. To be concerned or worried about an actual,threat is not paranoid..

Fun fact members of the chralemagne division where some of the last men of the SS to defend germany

I did my final year history project on this division in 2020, if only i had this video then 🇫🇷

Absolutley amazing video, thank you.

Soviets were monsters

France, one of the oldest nations, best known for being rolled over by the Germans and subsequently becoming part of Africa.

What would have happened if they smashed the French and went home again instead of occupying?

They all went into the Legion after the war and then some went to Australia and America my uncle was in the Australian army in Vietnam his C/O was a former ss officer that had served in Vietnam under the French he just loved war and I know he didn't make it back

I love your content, Keep it up!

@ZoomerHistorian : I'm French And I Really Appreciated This Video ! I Read Books About The Subject : " Les Hérétiques " & " Les Nostalgiques " by SAINT-LOUP , " La Brigade Frankreich " & " La Division Charlemagne " by Jean MABIRE , " Sous L'Uniforme Allemand " by Jean-Marie CROISILE and " Devenir " , The Periodic Of The French Waffen-SS !

Couple things!

1) Yes there will be mispronunciations, I am an Englishman covering both French and German history here and we aren't known for our foreign language ability, my apologies.
2) The author I used as a source was using the English equivalent of SS ranks and I didn't even catch on until later on. So some are in German and are SS ranks, other are British. Annoying, I know, will keep my eyes peeled in future! Every book I've used covering the SS before had used the SS ranks so I didn't even think about it.