While a small trickle of Frenchmen succeeded in being accepted into the ranks of the Waffen-SS after 1940, these enlistments amounted to no more than 300 or so individuals who found themselves serving mainly as private soldiers in the "Wiking" and "Totenkopf" divisions, unaffiliated with any larger national legion. It wasn't until July 1943 that full nationwide recruitment began in France,with a "Comite des Amis de la Waffen S.S." (Committee of the Friends of the Waffen-SS) being established under the sponsorship of Vichy Propaganda Minister, Paul Marion. The Committee's main recruitment office was located at 24 Avenue du Recteur Poincaré in Paris,with regional offices distributed throughout the larger cities of France. Volunteers were required to be "free of Jewish blood", physically fit, and between the ages of 20-25. The initial recruits were predictably members of Vichy youth movments, various collaborationist militas, right-wing politicals, and quite unexpectedly - a large number of University students. The propaganda drive was graphically point-blank; one recruitment poster, showing a finger-pointing camouflage-clad Panzergrenadier of the W-SS admonished: "TOI AUSSI ! TES CAMARADES T 'ATTENDENT DANS LA DIVISION FRANCAISE DE LA WAFFEN-SS" (You Too! Your Comrades Await You in the French Division of the Waffen-SS.) Some 3000 applicants flooded the assorted offices in the first few months. The first 800 volunteers were trained at Sennheim (Sernay) in Alsace, while after basic training, another 30 were chosen as officer-candidates and seconded to the SS-Junkerschule Bad-Tolz; while another hundred or so were sent to specialized NCO training in Posen. In August 1944, the fully outfitted "Sturmbrigade" (sometimes incorrectly known as "FRANKREICH") was attached to the 18. SS-Frw.Pz.Gren.Div. "Horst Wessel", and thrown into the fierce rearguard fighting against the advancing Soviets in Galicia. Here, the newly formed unit took extremely heavy casualties, with 15 of 18 officers dead or wounded, and 130 dead, and 660 wounded among the enlisted men. After this brief and costly "feurtaube" (baptism of fire), the "Sturmbrigade" returned to barracks for refitting and eventual amalgamation with the soldiers of the disbanded LVF.
By the autumn of 1944 the assorted detritus of Vichy France's government, along with the upper-hierarchy of its more prominent collaborationist organizations, such as Darnand's "Milice Française", had been driven back into "exile" status within Reich borders by the advancing Allies. There they took up "official residence" at the imposing Hohenzollern stronghold of the "Schloss Sigmaringen" in Württemberg. Along with the various officials of Vichy, came French citizens who had cast their lot with the Reich in one compromising form or another, such as volunteers in the Organization Todt, the NSKK, (National Socialist Transportation Corps), the Kriegsmarine "Wachmänner", or any of a hundred German sponsored local police or security organizations which flourished throughout the countryside during the occupation of France. It would be from these latterly mentioned, unaligned factotums of Vichy, that the third and mostly disparate element of the "Waffen-Grenadier-Brigade der SS "Charlemagne" would be assembled.
The "Charlemagne" division was never more than 8000 strong. A numerical breakdown sources of its manpower would include:
Former Sturmbrigade: 1000
Former LVF 1200
Milice Française 2500
KM Naval Police 640
NSKK, Todt, etc. 2000
Total: 7340
In late 1944, the assorted composite elements of the newly designated French division were assembled for training at Wildflecken, NE of Frankfurt-am-Main. Here SS-Brigadeführer Dr. Gustav Krukenberg, a former General Staff Officer, assumed actual command of the formation with the title of "Division-Inspektor" (CO of the German command staff); while "Waffen-Oberführer" Edgar Puaud (former LVF CO) would be appointed the nominal French Commander of the Division (called "General de Brigade" ). At Wildflecken the volunteers were sorted out and assigned to their respective units. As things transpired, the 57. SS-Waffen-Grenadier-Regiment was composed of mainly LVF veterans, while the 58. SS-Waffen-Grenadier-Regiment was composed of former "Sturmbrigade" volunteers. The disparate elements of 'Milice Française' and others, were distributed widely among the battalions and various divisional support units. Training was cut short in February 1945, when the Division was embarked for the Eastern Front.
On 25 February 1945, as the train-borne 33. Waffen-Gren.Div. der SS "Charlemagne", assigned to Heeresgruppe Weichsel (Army Group Vistula), pulled into the train station at Hammerstein in Pomerania, armored spearheads of the Soviet 1st Belorussian Front unexpectedly smashed into the division at its most vulnerable moment. In the rout that ensued, the outflanked Frenchmen split, and then reformed into three "wandering" battle-groups that met varying fates. One group, commanded by General Krukenberg, made it north to the Baltic coast, where they were evacuated to Denmark, and sent back to refit at Neustrelitz. Another battle-group commanded by General Puaud went into the vortex of the Soviet winter offensive, and its ultimate fate has never been officially determined. The third group fought west until it too perished in early March, 1945.
At Carpin, in the wooded fastness of Mecklenberg, the remainder of the once (approx.) 7500 strong Division Charlemagne, some 1100 men, gathered to rest and reform. In early April 1945, Divisions-Inspektor SS-Brif. Dr. Krukenberg, queried his French grenadiers, releasing the shaken and disillusioned among them from their vows of allegiance. Nearly a third of the group chose to excuse themselves thusly. The rest of the volunteers, numbering near 700 men, though hardly fanatics, agreed to continue to carry arms for the Reich. At that time an order from SS-FHA (SS-Führungshauptamt) Amt II/Org., detailed the re-organization of the remaining French contingent. The re-establishment order indicated that reduced support units were to be formed; 1 signals platoon, 1 pionier platoon, 1 supply & workshop section each; the bulk of the remaining combat units were to make up a single infanterie-regiment with three bataillonen, designated Waffen-Grenadier-Rgt. der SS "Charlemagne", with two 1945 type bataillonen (numbered 57. & 58.), and one heavy support bataillon which would have comprised 1 anti-tank company, 1 jagdpanzer company, and 1 light flak company, had the necessary equipment been available. The 400 men no longer willing to fight as combatants were regrouped into a Baubataillon (construction battalion), employed digging fortifications.
During the night of April 23/24, 1945, the unit recieved an urgent telegram from the Reichkanzlei in Berlin reading: "Division Charlemagne unter Ausnutzung aller Verkehrsmoeglichkeiten Sofort Einsatz Berlin, A.H." (Charlemagne Div. to utilize all possible transport for immediate operations Berlin, A.H.) SS-Brif.Krukenberg quickly gathered together a "Sturmbataillon" (assault-battalion) composed of the currently battle-ready elements of the 57. Gren.Btl., and the 6.Kompanie of the 58. Gren.Btl. (CO Waffen-Hauptscharführer Rostaing), to which was added the divisional Kampfschule (battle-school) element under SS-Obstf. Weber. These troops set off for Berlin in two light cars and 9 heavy trucks (Lkw.) Because of difficulties along the way, two of the trucks and the men in them never reached their destination; which left only approximately 300-330 Officers, NCO's, and men to enter the NW suburbs of the Reichshauptstadt at Nauen, just hours before the Soviet encirclement of the city. They reached the Olympiastadion (Reichssportsfeld) in Charlottenburg, where they regrouped and replenished with a cache of supplies abandoned by the Luftwaffe. Krukenberg went on by car to the Reichskanzlei for further orders. The unit then reorganized into a reduced headquarters staff under the command of Waffen-Hauptsturmführer Henri Joseph Fenet, with four rifle companies (nos.1-4), each comprised of ca. 60-70 men, as well as SS-Obstf. Weber's Kampfschule veterans. At this point the unit moved east through the city to the district of Neukölln, under constant Soviet bombardment, where Fenet and his men were tactically attached to the remainder of the 11. SS-Frw.Panzer-Gren.Division "Nordland", of which SS-Brif. Krukenberg, (under direct orders of Berlin Kampfkommandant Weidling), had just taken command. They were engaged immediately upon their arrival. They fought brief and bloody counter-attacks at the Hasenheide, and Tempelhof airfield, (defense sub-sector C) supported, as fuel and ammuntion allowed, by the remaining Sturmgeschütze and Tiger II's of s.SS-Pz.Abt. 503 (assimilated into SS-Pz.Rgt.11 "Hermann von Salza"); withdrawing back across the Landwehr canal, and fighting through the district of Kreuzberg, into the city center. Here at the U-Bahn station of Stadtmitte, just yards from Hitler's FHQ Reichskanzlei bunker, Dr. Krukenberg set up a last divisional command post for the Nordland inside a ruined trolley car lit by candles. For the determined Frenchmen, whose skill at destroying Red Army tanks in the ruined boulevards of the city-center reportedly went unmatched, rearguard fighting continued unabated along the Leipzigerstrasse, in and around the Luftfahrtsministerium, and into the Potsdamerplatz platz, until the general order of surrender announced by General Weidling on May 2nd, 1945, when some 30 surviving Frenchmen reportedly went into Soviet captivity near the Potsdamer station.
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