Also, there`s the Cossacks who decided to fight against the communist Russians and were then sent back to Stalin after the war by the Allies. They were then shot, often as soon as they had crossed the border into Soviet territory. There is a book about this episode called `The Last Secret` which is totally pro-Cossack and anti-British/US (ie the people who sent them back to certain death).

Richard:- As far as I know, foreign units in the German forces usually consisted of SS volunteers, rather than foreigners like Hassel serving in normal Wehrmacht units. These volunteers came from all over the globe but, for the most part, they came from Eastern Europe.

Indeed, there was a quantity of British soldiers in the SS as well as Americans. If I recall correctly, in Jack Higgins` book "The Eagle has Landed", there are some details about the unusual British SS contigent. Most of the British members of the SS were former British soldiers who had been taken prisoner early in the war, during the campaign in France and the low countries. After a year or two rotting in a German camp, they probably saw the opportunity of volunteering in the SS as a welcome release from the horrible monotonous lifestyle which they led couped up inside Stalag Luft III or whatever other camp. These soldiers probably accounted for a large majority of the British presence in the SS.

Estonia and Lithuania accounted for the bulk of the foreign units in the SS. Other large contributors were: France, Holland, Rumania, Finland, Hungary and Denmark.

Nolan:- Ok, there are basically two types of foreign volunteer: those who fought in Wehrmacht units and those with the Waffen-SS.

The Waffen-SS was composed half of Germans (plus Volkdeutsche) and half of non-Germans; all in all, about 500-600,000 foreign volunteers. Of these the main contingents were Dutch (40,000), Belgian (20,000), East European, Russian, Scandinavian and Baltic.

The British of the Saint George (later Britishes Freikorps) only numbered about a hundred; they were mostly used for propaganda purposes or "special missons". I know at least some of them were incorporated in the Nordland division and died in Berlin.

The Wehrmacht volunteers were mostly Russian (about 400,000 of them!)

I can recommend a great book called "Foreign Volunteers in the Wehrmacht" but I can`t remember the series it`s in (I`ll send that later).

Jack - By 1943 onwards the bulk of the Waffen SS was made up of foreign volunteers/conscripts, as well as some Wehrmacht units. In particular the Legion of St George which, according to the BundesArchive in Bonn, numbered 66 soldiers. Formed in 1944, stationed in the Munich area it was used for propaganda purposes and did not take part in any fighting. However individual former PoWs did see active service on the Russian front as part of Wehrmacht units.

One particular soldier was tried for treason in 1947 and subsequently hanged. According to his testimony, when he was a PoW it was common for teams of prisoners to be employed on local farms tending crops, operating machinery etc. This particular prisoner went a little further and had a love affair with the farmer's daughter, after a few months he was caught by the Gestapo and given a choice of her being sent to KZ-lager and him being executed or serving in a specialised unit of the Wehrmacht. Apparently he chose the later. He served 18 months on the Eastern Front, at the end of which he was given a leave pass, which he intended taking in Prague, however on reaching the border of Greater Germany an over zealous railway inspector thought he was an escaped PoW. In a very short space of time he was sent to Dachau KZ-lager, and as far as his Wehrmacht Unit commander was concerned he had just disappeared, presumed deserted. This is is where he stayed until liberated by the Americans in 1945.

Incidentally, I also came across records of 3 battalions of 'Sikh' Indians who were recruited, not coerced, into the Wehrmacht (again not the Waffen SS) these units apparently fought with some distinction in Holland 1944/45 against Canadians.