Heer Afrika Regiment 361

[Naxos]

I aquired this interesting 60 page regimental history manuscript written by Ernst Schilling, a Batl commander of Afrika-Regiment 361.

This Regiment fought as part of the 90th Light division in North Africa and went into captivity in April 1943.

Apparently it's soldiers were former L?gionnaires - they called their Regiment the "Legion?r" Regiment.

Edited February 25, 2009 by Naxos

[Naxos]

2

[Naxos]

Excerpt: sorry for the untranslated text

[Guest Rick Research]

Unpublished or circulated as mimeographs only withinthe regimental association, do you think? Anything to date when it was typed up?

This is epic Hollywood (in the sense of GOOD old adventure movies days) stuff.

Question which arises-- were these ex-Legionaires back in Germany when the war started or did they leave (legally or otherwise) the Foreign Legion after the 1940 Armistice? If the last, I would think any caught would have been dealt with as deserters and traitors.

It sounds as if the Wehrmacht missed a spectacular opportunity for their own version of the Long Range Desert Group. The 6 man "flight of the Phoneix" adventure related above suggests what large scale organized use in commando operations could have done.

Post a link in the French sub-forum-- this is as much Legion history as Wehrmacht. :beer:

[Naxos]

The manuscript was copied in small numbers and given out at a Tradition meet of the 90 PzGrenDiv in 1978.

Here is more to the L?gionnaires :

[Naxos]

One Bataillon had to surrender to the Free French Army and sufferrd reprisals

Edited February 25, 2009 by Naxos

[Seppi]

My late father was a French Foreign Legionnaire and a Swiss national. When France surrendered he was interned by France and handed to the Germans. On initial refusal to join the wehrmacht he was place in a concentration camp. Eventually he agreed to join what became Afrika Regiment 361. He was captured at the first battle of Alamein and spent the rest of the war in Canada bfore being transferred to England. He became a naturalised British subject and remained in England until his death.