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

Tony Le Tissier SS-CHARLEMAGNE THE 33rd WAFFEN-GRENADIER DIVISION OF THE SS

List of Maps

1. Action

2. Withdrawal

3. Retreat

4. Gotenhafen

5. The Southern Suburbs

6. Berlin–Neukölln

7. Berlin–Mitte

8. Mecklenburg

List of Plates

1. The LVF marching down Les Champs-Elysees.

2. The LVF parading at Les Invalides.

3. The highly decorated RSM of the LVF.

4. A recruiting poster for the Charlemagne.

5. SS-Major-General Dr Gustav Krukenberg.

6. Colonel/Brigadier Edgar Puaud.

7. SS-Colonel Walter Zimmermann.

8. Roman Catholic Padre Count Jean de Mayol de Lupé.

9. Major Jean de Vaugelas.

10. Major Paul-Marie Gamory-Dubourdeau.

11. Major Eugène Bridoux.

12. Captain Emile Monneuse.

13. Captain Victor de Bourmont.

14. Major Boudet-Gheusi.

15. Captain Henri Josef Fenet.

16. Captain René-André Obitz.

17. Captain Jean Bassompierre.

18. Captain Berrier.

19. 2/Lt Jean Labourdette.

20. Sergeant-Major Croiseille.

21. Lieutenant Pierre Michel.

22. Sergeant-Major Pierre Rostaing.

23. 2/Lt Roger Albert-Brunet.

24. Officer-Cadet Protopopoff.

25. Staff-Sergeant Ollivier.

26. Sergeant Eugène Vaulot.

27. SS-Captain Wilhelm Weber.

28. The Waffen-SS leadership academy at Bad Tölz.

29. Field conditions in Pomerania.

30. Field conditions in Pomerania.

31. The evacuation of Kolberg.

32. Lieutenant Fenet manning a machine gun.

33. The double gates to Hitler’s Chancellery.

34. Devastation on Friedrichstrasse.

35. The U-Bahn entrance at the Kaiserhof Hotel.

36. Potsdamerstrasse.

37. Corporal Robert Soulat.

38. General Phillipe Leclerk examining the thirteen Charlemagne prisoners handed over to him.

Preface

On VE Day, 8 May 1945, a firing squad from General Leclerk’s 2nd Armoured Division summarily executed twelve prisoners from the Depot Battalion of the 33rd Waffen-Grenadier-Division of the SS-Charlemagne as traitors in a woodland clearing near the village of Karlstein in southeastern Bavaria. These prisoners had been part of a batch taken in the area by American troops and handed over to the Free French forces as they moved on.

If nothing else, this incident brought home the consequences of collaboration with the Germans during their occupation of France and the complications of interpreting and assessing such matters in relation to the prevailing political situation. The subject remains open for debate.

This book is mainly based upon material collated and most generously provided by Monsieur Robert Soulat, a former member of the Charlemagne, whose experience as a corporal clerk in the organisation provided the incentive. I was reluctant at first to undertake the task of writing up this story, as it involves such a complicated and sensitive era in French history, but in the end I could not let this interesting material go to waste.

In the spring of 1944 a new OKW general order foresaw the transfer of all foreign soldiers serving in the German Army to the Waffen-SS in order to simplify and improve their organisation. The assassination attempt against Hitler of 20 July 1944 accelerated this transfer, and particularly that of the French volunteers, who found themselves among the last involved in this reorganisation. Further, the two principal organisations concerned, the Légion des Volontaires Français (LVF) and the French Storm Brigade of the Waffen-SS, were then both currently engaged on the Eastern Front, where the situation was becoming increasingly critical.