It might have something to do with the fact that it's 4 AM. Try readingDes tranchées de Verdun à l'église Saint-Bernard: 80000 combattants maliens au secours de la France, 1914-18 et 1939-45 by Bakari Kamian. Happy hunting!
. He had at least one that he directly raised - A Waffen-SS unit fighting in the middle of Europe and composed of over 20,000 muslims from the Balkans.
I find it hard to believe that this Arab from Jerusalem was sufficiently comfortable in Serbo-Croatian to personally convince 20,000+ Bosnian Muslims to take up arms.
I suppose you could also count troops that were loyal to Husseini,
So he was at the top of the chain of command? Interesting.
there were a bunch of Iraqis under the government of the pro-Nazi PM of Iraq, Rashid Ali al-Kaylani. When the Brits retook Iraq in 1941 they captured or killed about 10,000 of al-Kaylani's troops, which means he had many more than that in his army...so let's say "tens of thousands."
Of course, 1941 was well before Husseini's European tour, so lets say there were 21,065 Bosnians he helped recruit and some 10,000 dead and an unspecified number of remaining troops once commanded by the deposed anti-Semitic Iraqi PM on the fringes of the War.
No. It was a little more direct than that. Or did you forget about Rommel's Romp through North Africa, Mussolini's Abyssinian and Somali campaigns, and even a joint Vichy-Japanese stand on Madagascar in 1942.
Show me where Rommel's North African campaign crossed the desert. Show me where Ethiopia and Somalia were near any French colony save Djibouti (then called the Territory of the Afars and the Issas). Show me where Madagascar's burgeoning Muslim population lived in the Island in 1942. You can't.
I'd also contend that a handful of colonial troops fighting on the war's periphery in Africa is far less significant to the war than a Waffen-SS division fighting smack in the middle of Europe.
Well, who won the war? Those are usually the more "significant" forces.
That's nice and all, but you aren't asserting the text of an entire book - you're asserting a specific number. Find a source with an actual number or move on.
I find it hard to believe that this Arab from Jerusalem was sufficiently comfortable in Serbo-Croatian to personally convince 20,000+ Bosnian Muslims to take up arms.
Nobody ever suggested that he personally knocked on their doors and got them to join. Himmler flew with him to Sarajevo in 1943 though, and he spent the next several weeks soliciting local muslim clerics for Nazi troops. The effort produced the all-Muslim 13th Waffen-SS.
So he was at the top of the chain of command? Interesting.
No. If you were honest and read what I wrote, you would know that the chain of command was headed by one of his followers - the Nazi-supporting Prime Minister of Iraq, al-Kalyani.
Of course, 1941 was well before Husseini's European tour, so lets say there were 21,065 Bosnians he helped recruit and some 10,000 dead and an unspecified number of remaining troops once commanded by the deposed anti-Semitic Iraqi PM on the fringes of the War.
Quite a few muslim nazis!
Show me where Rommel's North African campaign crossed the desert.
He didn't...south of him, anyway. But his thugs were all over French North Africa.
Show me where Ethiopia and Somalia were near any French colony save Djibouti (then called the Territory of the Afars and the Issas).
Which proves my point. French Somalia was definately French.
And of course I almost forgot to mention that nazi loyalists from the Vichy regime controlled much of France's west african holdings until 1942-3. In fact, the Brits, with De Gaulle, tried unsuccessfully to take Senegal from Vichy in late 1940 and succeeded a few months later in Gabon.
Show me where Madagascar's burgeoning Muslim population lived in the Island in 1942. You can't.
I don't recall ever calling Madagascar mahometan. I referenced it though to show that WWII's periphery extended well south of the Sahara - a point you were denying and/or hiding earlier this evening.