[JasonC]

Um, no, not remotely. Germans were clobbered in DBP along with the rest of the garrison, and there was no withdrawing anybody involved. Also, they were a modest portion of the legion, which was a modest portion of the overall French force in Indochina. The French used more Vietnamese than Germans - a third to half of many units - and more Frenchmen than Vietnamese. Read Bernard Fall, he is the best history of this war (and one of the best military historians of the last century).

[JasonC]

Some examples - the 3rd battalion, 3rd regiment of foreign legion infantry most mostly Germans as the rank and file. The battalion commander was French and the company commanders were Italian. It also included Spaniards and Croats. The 2nd foreign legion parachute battalion was made up of Germans, Spanish anarchists, and Vietnamese.

Many in the Legion were from eastern European countries overrun by the Russians after WW II. Others were, as mentioned, Spanish or Italian or from the Balkans etc. Of about 15,000 soldiers that passed through DBP on the French side, slightly under 4,000 were in the Foreign Legion. Of these, no more than half were German. Also, the average age in the Legion at the time of the battle was 23 years. Many of these men had been boys during WW II.

In addition to Frenchmen and the Legion and Vietnamese filling out units (a quarter to half their number in many cases), the French also employed colonial troops from their other possession. Moroccans and Algerians fought at DBP on the French side. There were about 2500 North Africans in the DBP fight. From among the Vietnamese, about that many were T'ai tribesmen, a mountain tribe local to nearby areas that resisted the Viet Minh.

T'ai, other Vietnamese, Germans, other Foreign Legion, North Africans, and mainland Frenchmen (especially from elite formations like the paras) all contributed sizeable contingents to the DBP force.