[Arkie2]

Hmm. Germans and Frenchmen. I can see this will be a lively thread!

[Skooz]

IIRC, many of the Germans who served with the Foreign Legion during this time were former Waffen SS men who had fled Germany after WW 2.

They took no prisoners, were dreadfully feared by the enemy and generally kicked communist butt during their time in Vietnam.

When it became public that the French had former SS fighting on their side, the German units were withdrawn. Soon after, the French collapsed and Dien Bien Phu followed.

[SMARTY]

Read: 'Legionnaire' By Simon Murray, or -'Last Adventurer' By Rolf Steiner. And it's true, lots of SS types and others were in the Legion to 'hide out' after WWII. Once in, no one and nothing could touch you till you left the service and re entered civilian life.

[Gritty]

We also had a number of ex-German soldiers in our services who served in WWII, mostly from the the Wehrmacht or Luftwaffe and not the SS. Some were in our Special Forces, others in other areas. I can recall one German Sergeant who I had as an instructor in one of my Survival Schools who had fought years on the Russian Front and had been a Russian prisoner, but fortunately escaped before being sent to Siberia or the Caucasus. This was in the mid-60s.

[SMARTY]

I forgot to mention, one of my favorite movies of all time is 'Lost Command'. Anthony Quinn (Claudia Cardinale and others)was a Legion officer back from Indochina and stationed in Algeria during their struggle to get the French out of their country. It probably was never big box office but what a great script, dialog and casting... everything!! And the movie has one of my all time favorites lines from any film. Troops were being trained on an obstacle course and fired on with live ammunition. One trainee was hurt and Quinn asked him why he did not fire back to protect himself. The trainee said 'I did not know it was the rule that I could fire back.' Quinn said 'There's only one rule...Don't die!!!" Ain't it the truth!!