"The SS-Sturmbataillon Charlemagne" Topic

The SS-Sturmbataillon Charlemagne boxed set can be pre-ordered from Warlord Games.

From here
warlordgames.com

Hope you enjoy!.

Amicalement
Armand

Excellent mix of poses and plenty of character for a small set .
What else would go with these guys to beef them up a bit for normal skirmish battles or could they be used as an allied detachment ?.

What's next, Dirlwanger?

A pity they didn't show the same grit in 1940

"Would serve their cause with distinction"?

Wow, just wow.

I really hate it when they go pulp with figure like the guy with the knife. Just ruins the whole set for me.

] Fighting was very heavy and by 28 April, approximately 108 Soviet tanks had been destroyed in the southeast of Berlin within the S-Bahn. Sixty-two of those were destroyed by the efforts of the Charlemagne Sturmbataillon alone, which was now under the command of Henri Joseph Fenet.

I think distinction is a pretty accurate term. The same could be said of Rommel, Galland, and Wittman. Their cause was/is revolting, but their abilities and courage are commendable.

Knocking out 62 tanks with only anti-tank rockets is an amazing feat.

@Feet up now: what does the German Army book say? If it doesn't have a list for them then I would assume that they are veteran SS troops with a goodly assortment of Panzerfausts and Panzersheks. The article on Wikipedia says that they had some PZKW VIIs supporting them at times.

link

What???!!! Where's all the "they're Waffen SS so we should not lionize them for their combat qualities or valor in battle because of all the evil things they perpetrated" self-righteous indignation and outrage?

TMP link

These guys were even worse, they were turncoats and traitors.

However I am not aware that the foreign SS units wore uniforms vastly different to the rest of their SS pals (unit distinctions apart).

Wasn't one of the terms of their service that they wouldn't be deployed in the West? So they never fought against France which makes them turn coats against the Allies, but not France?

Uniform wise it's just the French Tri-Colour patch that makes their uniform unique, as far as I can see anyway.

The French government certainly considered them traitors. The best thing about them is that most were killed in the war, or shot or imprisoned afterwards. They were scum in my humble opinion.

The Charlemagne division was created in August 44 by combining the remains of The Legion des volontaires Français (LVF) fighting on the Russian front in 1941, the Sturmbrigade Frankreich created in July 1942 and Miliciens (militiamen) evacuated from France in 44.
The statue of the LVF and sturmbrigade Frankreich, provided that these people should not fight in France but only against the Bolsheviks in the EST.
The militiamen were zealous deputies of the German Police and participated in the repression, the hunt for Jews, etc …
After war, most waffen ss French were condemned by the French justice has long years in prison, the disenfranchisement. For former militia trops involved in atrocities was the execution post.

I do not understand why Bolt has chosen this unit

Sorry for my bad english

To my knowledge there were Freiwillige units from most countries within Europe and a few from further afield too.

I don't see what is worse in representing these troops than any others. Large numbers of allied soldiers in the second world war were conscripted, and then when captured were offered either a POW camp or service.

In any case. Very nicely sculpted miniatures.

Technically Vichy was the legal government. Individuals could legally enlist in the armed forces of other countries. Its actually more legal than the "Free French".

statues of the French are not so simple, the LVF is an association, Milice is political police, the Waffen ss depent of Germany. The French government gives a commitment authority and decree law some constraints, but it does not go any further. Pétain still wants to play the card of the Allies and not to harm it with the Germans.