Editing British Free Corps

{{Short description|Foreign Waffen-SS unit}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2021}}
{{Infobox military unit
| unit_name                     = British Free Corps
| native_name = Britisches Freikorps
| image                         = British Free Corps Armshield.svg
| image_size                    = 140px
| caption                       = Armshield
| dates                         = 1943–1945
| country                       = 
| allegiance                    = {{flag|Nazi Germany}}
| branch                        = {{flagicon image|Flag Schutzstaffel.svg}} {{lang|de|[[Waffen-SS]]}}
| type                          = [[Infantry]]
| role                          = Waffen-SS auxiliary
| size                          = {{ubli|54 (total membership)<ref name="WealeMythHistory"/>|27 (maximum strength)}}
| command_structure             = 
| garrison                      = 
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| march                         = 
| mascot                        = 
| equipment                     = 
| equipment_label               = 
| battles                       = [[World War II]]
| disbanded                     = 
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The '''British Free Corps''' ([[abbr.]] '''BFC'''; {{langx|de|Britisches Freikorps}}) was a unit of the {{lang|de|[[Waffen-SS]]}} of [[Nazi Germany]] during [[World War II]], made up of British and [[Dominion]] prisoners of war who had been recruited by Germany. The unit was originally known as the '''Legion of St George'''.<ref>{{cite news |title=Soldier Refused Civil Court Trial |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=1uVkAAAAIBAJ&pg=1570,4805813&dq=british+free+corps&hl=en |work=Edmonton Journal |page=2 |date=30 August 1945}}</ref> Research by British historian [[Adrian Weale]] has identified 54 men<ref name="WealeMythHistory">{{cite web |first=Adrian |last=Weale |author-link=Adrian Weale |url=http://australiarussia.com/renegades_ENFIN.htm |title=British Free Corps in SS-Waffen – Myth and Historic Reality |website=AustraliaRussia.com |access-date=18 May 2016}}</ref><ref>Weale (2014), Kindle Locations 3757–3758. Appendix 5 British Members of the British Free Corps and their Aliases.</ref> who belonged to this unit at one time or another, some for only a few days. At no time did it reach more than 27 men in strength.<ref name="WealeMythHistory"/>

==Formation==
[[File:BFCgroup.jpg|thumb|right|upright|Two early recruits to the BFC: [[Kenneth Berry (British Free Corps)|Kenneth Berry]] (second left) and [[Alfred Minchin]] (second right), with German officers, April 1944]]
The idea for the British Free Corps came from [[John Amery]], a [[British Fascism|British fascist]], son of the serving British [[Secretary of State for India]], [[Leo Amery]]. John Amery travelled to Berlin in October 1942, and proposed to the Germans the formation of a British volunteer force to help fight the [[Bolshevik]]s. The British volunteer force was to be modelled after the {{lang|fr|[[Légion des volontaires français contre le bolchévisme]]}} (Legion of French Volunteers against Bolshevism), a [[Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy#France|French collaborationist]] force fighting with the German {{lang|de|Wehrmacht}}. In addition to touting the idea of a British volunteer force, Amery actively tried to recruit Britons. He made a series of pro-German [[propaganda]] radio broadcasts, appealing to his fellow countrymen to join the war on communism.

The first recruits to the Corps came from a group of [[Prisoner of war|prisoners of war]] (POWs) at a 'holiday camp' set up by the Germans in [[Genshagen]], a suburb of Berlin, in August 1943.<ref>Weale (2014), Kindle Location 1948.</ref> In November 1943, they were moved to a requisitioned café in the [[Pankow]] district of Berlin.<ref>Weale (2014), Kindle Location 2002.</ref> Recruits also came from an interrogation camp at [[Luckenwalde]] in late 1943.<ref>Weale (2014), Kindle Location 2083.</ref> The Corps became a military unit on 1 January 1944, under the name 'The British Free Corps'.<ref>Weale (2014), Kindle Locations 2172–2173.</ref> In the first week of February 1944, the BFC moved to the St Michaeli Kloster in [[Hildesheim]], a small town near [[Hanover]].<ref>Weale (2014), Kindle Location 2264.</ref> Uniforms were issued on 20 April 1944 (Hitler's 55th birthday).<ref>Weale (2014), Kindle Location 2331.</ref> On 11 October 1944, the Corps was moved to the {{lang|de|Waffen-SS}} Pioneer school in [[Dresden]], to start military training for service on the Eastern Front.<ref>Weale (2014), Kindle Locations 2529–2530, 2793.</ref> On 24 February 1945, they travelled from Dresden to Berlin, where they stayed in a requisitioned school on the [[Schönhauser Allee]].<ref>Weale (2014), Kindle Locations 2979–2980.</ref> On 8 March 1945, they were moved to the village of [[Niemegk]], a few miles to the south-west of Berlin.<ref>Weale (2014), Kindle Location 3007.</ref>

Recruiting for the Free Corps was done in German POW camps. In 1944, leaflets were distributed to the POWs, and the unit was mentioned in ''Camp'', the official POW newspaper published in Berlin. The unit was promoted "as a thoroughly volunteer unit, conceived and created by British subjects from all parts of the Empire who have taken up arms and pledged their lives in the common European struggle against Soviet Russia".

The attempted recruitment of POWs was done amid German fear of the Soviets; the Germans were "victims of their own propaganda" and thought that their enemies were as worried about the Soviets as they were. In one Dutch camp, cigarettes, fruit, and other items were lavished on the POWs while they listened to Nazi propaganda officers who described the good that the Germans were doing in Europe, then asked the men to join in fighting the real enemy, the Soviets.<ref name="The Toronto Daily Star">{{cite news |last1=Kinmond |first1=William |title=Nazis' 'British Free Corps' One Of Their Bigger Flops |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=jPE6AAAAIBAJ&pg=2971,11553908&dq=british+free+corps&hl=en |work=The Toronto Daily Star |page=18 |date=8 September 1945}}</ref>

==Commanders==
The BFC did not have a "commander" ''per se'' as it was the intention of the SS to appoint a British commander when a suitable British officer came forward. However, three German Waffen-SS officers acted as the {{lang|de|Verbindungsoffizier}} ("liaison officer") between the {{lang|de|[[SS-Hauptamt]] Amtsgruppe D/3}}, which was responsible for the unit and the British volunteers, and in practice they acted as the unit commander for disciplinary purposes at least. These were:

* {{lang|de|SS-Hauptsturmführer}} Hans Werner Roepke: September 1943 – November 1944{{sfnp|Weale|1994|p=114}}
* {{lang|de|SS-Obersturmführer}} Dr Walter Kühlich: November 1944 – April 1945{{sfnp|Weale|1994|p=149}}
* {{lang|de|SS-Hauptsturmführer}} Dr Alexander Dolezalek: April 1945{{sfnp|Weale|1994|p=160}}

A number of sources mention the involvement of Brigadier [[Leonard Parrington]], a British Army officer captured by the Germans in Greece in 1941.<ref>See, for example, {{Cite book |title=Waffen-SS: Hitler's Elite Guard at War |first=George H. |last=Stein |publisher=Cornell University Press |date=1966 |page=190}}</ref> This was based on a misunderstanding by some of the British volunteers after Parrington in the summer of 1943 had visited the POW "holiday camp" at Genshagen, in the southern suburbs of Berlin, as representative of the Senior British POW, Major General [[Victor Fortune]]. Parrington had told the assembled prisoners that he "knew the purpose of the camp"<ref>Weale (2014), Kindle Location 1961.</ref> and the BFC volunteers who were there took this to mean that he approved of the unit. In reality, Parrington had accepted Genshagen at face value as a rest centre for POWs.

==Members==
Leading members of the Corps included [[Thomas Haller Cooper]] (although he was actually an {{lang|de|[[Unterscharführer]]}} in the {{lang|de|Waffen-SS}} proper<ref>Weale (2014), Kindle Location 2297.</ref>), [[Roy Courlander]], [[Edwin Barnard Martin]], [[Frank McLardy]], [[Alfred Minchin]] and John Wilson – these men "later became known among the renegades as the 'Big Six', although this was a notional elite whose membership shifted periodically as members fell into, and out of, favour."<ref>Weale (2014), Kindle Locations 2209–2211.</ref>

In 2002, it was claimed that Robert Chipchase, an Australian, was by then the last surviving member of the British Free Corps.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/11913925.sniping-on-fashions-frontlines/ |title=Sniping on fashion's frontlines |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |date=17 October 2002 |newspaper=[[The Herald (Glasgow)|The Herald]]}}</ref> He commented that he had changed his mind about joining and refused to sign the enlistment papers, spending the rest of the war in a punishment camp.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.anzacpow.com/Part-5-Other-European-Free-Men/chapter_8__the_british_free_corps |title=The British Free Corps |work=ANZAC POW Free Men in Europe |date=10 June 2022}}</ref>

==Preparation for active service==
In March 1945, a BFC detachment was deployed with the [[11th SS Volunteer Panzergrenadier Division Nordland]] under {{lang|de|[[Brigadeführer]]}} [[Joachim Ziegler]], which was composed largely of Scandinavian volunteers and attached to the [[III (Germanic) SS Panzer Corps]] under {{lang|de|[[Obergruppenführer]]}} [[Felix Steiner]]. They were first sent from [[Stettin]] to the division's headquarters at [[Angermünde]]. "From there they were sent to join the divisional armoured reconnaissance battalion ({{lang|de|11. SS-Panzer-Aufklärunsabteilung}}) located in Grüssow [on the island of [[Usedom]]]. The battalion commander was {{lang|de|Sturmbannführer}} [[Rudolf Saalbach]] ... [The BFC were allocated] to the 3rd Company, under the command of the Swedish {{lang|de|Obersturmführer}} Hans-Gösta Pehrson."<ref>Weale (2014), Kindle Locations 3028–3032.</ref> The BFC contingent was commanded by {{lang|de|[[SS-Scharführer]]}} (squad leader) Douglas Mardon, who used the alias "Hodge". [[Richard Landwehr|Richard W. Landwehr Jr.]] states "The Britons were sent to a company in the detachment that was situated in the small village of [[Schöneberg, Brandenburg|Schoenburg]] near the west bank of the Oder River".<ref>{{cite book |last=Landwehr |first=Richard |date=2012 |title=Britisches Freikorps: British Volunteers of the Waffen-SS 1943–1945 |publisher=CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform |page=83 |isbn=978-1-47505-924-3}}</ref>{{sps|date=November 2024}}

On 16 April 1945, the Corps was moved to [[Templin]], where they were to join the transport company of Steiner's HQ staff ({{lang|de|Kraftfahrstaffel Stab}} Steiner).<ref>Weale (2014), Kindle Locations 3077–3078.</ref> When the Nordland Division left for Berlin, "the transport company followed Steiner's Headquarters to [[Neustrelitz]] and the BFC went with it."<ref>Weale (2014), Kindle Location 3132.</ref> On 29 April, Steiner decided "to break contact with the Russians and order his forces to head west into Anglo-American captivity."<ref>Weale (2014), Kindle Locations 3140–3141.</ref> Thomas Haller Cooper and Fred Croft, the last two members of the Corps, surrendered on 2 May to the [[121st Infantry Regiment (United States)]] in Schwerin, and were placed in the loose custody of the [[GHQ Liaison Regiment]] (known as Phantom).<ref>Weale (2014), Kindle Locations 3162–3170.</ref>

==Courts-martial==
Newspapers of the period give details of the court-martial of several [[Commonwealth of Nations|Commonwealth]] soldiers involved in the Corps. One Canadian captive, Private [[Edwin Barnard Martin]], said he joined the Corps "to wreck it". He designed the flag and banner used by the Corps,<ref>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=ifE6AAAAIBAJ&pg=2881,10672224&dq=british+free+corps&hl=en |title=Says he Gave Nazi Salute but Tried to Break Corps |work=Toronto Daily Star |date=5 September 1945 |access-date=9 January 2013 |location=Toronto |pages=4}}</ref> and admitted to being one of the original six or seven members of the Corps during his trial. He was given a travel warrant and a railway pass which allowed him to move around Germany without a guard.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=Da8tAAAAIBAJ&pg=2126,605983&dq=british+free+corps&hl=en |title=Martin Denies Aid to Germans |work=Montreal Gazette |date=5 September 1945 |access-date=9 January 2013 |location=Montreal}}</ref> He was found guilty of two charges of aiding the enemy while a prisoner of war.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=ifE6AAAAIBAJ&pg=2881,10672224&dq=british+free+corps&hl=en |title=Sees Guilty Verdict in Martin Case |work=The Windsor Daily Star |date=6 September 1945 |access-date=9 January 2013}}</ref>

New Zealand soldier [[Roy Courlander]] claimed at his court-martial that he joined the Corps for similar reasons, to gather intelligence on the Germans, to foster a revolution behind the German lines, or to sabotage the unit if the revolution failed.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=rEBAAAAAIBAJ&pg=4243,1727199&dq=british+free+corps&hl=en |title=Wrote Broadcast Talks for Germans |work=The Glasgow Herald |date=6 October 1945 |access-date=9 January 2013|page=6|location=Glasgow}}</ref>

[[John Amery]] was sentenced to death in November 1945 for [[high treason]], and [[Hanging|hanged]] on 19 December 1945.<ref>{{cite news|title=Renegade Amery To Die: Trial Lasted 8 Minutes|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=IZY6AAAAIBAJ&pg=3058,10264400&dq=british+free+corps&hl=en|work=The Toronto Daily Star|page=1|date=28 November 1945}}</ref>

==In popular culture==
*The film ''[[Joy Division (2006 film)|Joy Division]]'' (2006) portrays a member of the BFC, Sergeant Harry Stone, among the German troops and refugees fleeing the [[Red Army]] advance into Germany. In the film it is the aggressive Stone who appears to be the only convinced Nazi remaining among the [[Hitler Youth]] with whom he is grouped. He is seen attempting to recruit British POWs before the column is attacked by Soviet aircraft.
*[[Jack Higgins]]' novel ''[[The Eagle Has Landed (novel)|The Eagle Has Landed]]'' portrays a BFC officer named Harvey Preston, who is patterned on [[Douglas Berneville-Claye]]. He is attached to the {{lang|de|[[Fallschirmjäger (Nazi Germany)|Fallschirmjäger]]}} unit which attempts to kidnap [[Winston Churchill]]. A convinced Nazi and petty criminal, Preston is viewed with disgust by all members of the German unit.
*On TV, the British Free Corps was a subject for "[[Foyle's War (series six)#.22The Hide.22|The Hide]]", the final episode of series 6 of the British TV series ''[[Foyle's War (series 7)#.22Sunflower.22|Foyle's War]]'', in which a British POW who had joined the BFC was tried for treason in Great Britain once he returned home, after surviving the firebombing of Dresden.<ref>{{cite news |work=The Daily Telegraph |url= https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/7572134/The-return-of-Foyles-War.html |title=The Return of ''Foyle's War''|first=Anthony |last=Horowitz |date=9 April 2010}}</ref>

==Gallery==
<gallery>
File:William Brittain.jpg|{{lang|de|SS-[[Rottenführer]]}} [[William Brittain (British Free Corps)|William Brittain]], February 1945
File:Thomas Haller Cooper.JPG|{{lang|de|SS-[[Oberscharführer]]}} [[Thomas Haller Cooper]] (British mugshot, 1945)
File:Roy Courlander.jpg|{{lang|de|SS-Unterscharführer}} [[Roy Courlander]], 1944
File:Eric Pleasants.jpg|{{lang|de|[[SS-Mann]]}} [[Eric Pleasants|Eric Reginald Pleasants]], 1944
</gallery>

==See also==
*[[Non-Germans in the German armed forces during World War II]]
*[[Friesack Camp]], attempt to raise an "Irish Brigade"
*[[Indian Legion]]
*[[List of members of the British Free Corps]]
*[[Waffen-SS foreign volunteers and conscripts|{{lang|la|cat=no|Waffen-SS}} foreign volunteers and conscripts]]
*[[Fusilier James Brady]]
*[[John Codd]]
*[[Free Corps Denmark]]

==References==
===Citations===
{{Reflist}}

===Bibliography===
{{refbegin}}
* {{cite book |last=Ailsby |first=Christopher J. |title=Hitler's Renegades: Foreign Nationals in the Service of the Third Reich |year=2004 |publisher=Brassey's |location=[[Dulles, Virginia]] |isbn=978-1-57488-838-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=J5yfAAAAMAAJ}}
* {{cite book |last=Cawthorne |first=Nigel |author-link=Nigel Cawthorne |date=2012 |title=The Story of the SS |chapter=The Brits who fought for Hitler |publisher=Arcturus Publishing |isbn=978-1-84858-947-6 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_SAEAwAAQBAJ&dq=%22Walter+Purdy%22+%22Kurt+Eggers%22&pg=PT86}}
* {{cite book |last=Faber |first=David |author-link=David Faber (politician) |date=2007 |title=Speaking for England |location=London, UK |publisher=Pocket Books |isbn=978-1-4165-2596-7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h-fNAQAACAAJ}}
* {{cite book |last=Jelusić |first=Marko |editor-first1=H. |editor-last1=Kemmerer |date=2010 |title=St. Michaelis zu Hildesheim: Geschichte und Geschichten aus 1000 Jahren |trans-title=St. Michaelis zu Hildesheim: history and stories from 1000 years |chapter=Das ‚British Free Corps‘ in der SS-Schule ‚Haus Germanien‘ |language=de |location=Hildesheim |publisher=Hildesheimer Volkshochschule |pages=197–206 |isbn=978-3-8067-8736-8 |chapter-url=https://www.academia.edu/2941758}}
* {{cite book |last=Landwehr |first=Richard |author-link=Richard Landwehr |date=2008 |title=Britisches Freikorps |publisher=Lulu |isbn=978-0-5570-3362-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bldfmQEACAAJ&q=intitle:Britisches+intitle:Freikorps}} 'The story of the British volunteers of the Waffen-SS has long been treated with scorn and derision by the establishment media ... This publication at least will try and change that perception.'
* {{cite book |last=Littlejohn |first=David |date=1987 |title=Foreign Legions of the Third Reich. Vol. 2:. Belgium, Great Britain, Holland, Italy and Spain |publisher=Рипол Классик |isbn=978-0-91213-822-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zc7tAgAAQBAJ&dq=scion&pg=PA131}}
* {{cite book |last=Mackenzie |first=S.P. |author-link=Simon MacKenzie |date=2004 |title=The Colditz Myth |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19926-210-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SVoH-FjeeHAC&q=%22British+Free+Corps%22}}
* {{cite book |last=de Slade |first=Marquis |date=1970 |title=The Yeomen of Valhalla (Volume 1 of Behind the Siegfried Line) |location=Mannheim |publisher=Distributed privately |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ENiSXwAACAAJ&q=intitle:Yeomen+intitle:of+intitle:Valhalla}} Details the formation and activities of the British Free Corps and its membership, though the author chose to apply pseudonyms to those mentioned the book.
* {{cite book |last=Murphy |first=Sean |date=2005 |title=Letting the Side Down: British Traitors of the Second World War |chapter=Chapter 5 |location=London, UK |publisher=The History Press Ltd |isbn=0-7509-4176-6 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Xg03GwAACAAJ}}
* {{cite book |first1=Eric |last1=Pleasants |author1-link=Eric Pleasants |first2=Eddie |last2=Chapman |author2-link=Eddie Chapman |name-list-style=amp |date=1957 |title=I Killed to Live : the Story of Eric Pleasants, as Told to Eddie Chapman |location=London, UK |publisher=Cassell & Company |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-FQRGQAACAAJ}}
* {{cite book |first1=Eric |last1=Pleasants |first2=Ian |last2=Sayer |author2-link=Ian Sayer |first3=Douglas |last3=Botting |author3-link=Douglas Botting |name-list-style=amp |date=2012 |title=Hitler's Bastard: Through Hell and Back in Nazi Germany and Stalin's Russia |location=London, UK |publisher=Random House |isbn=978-1-78057-429-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y7ghB4HSYm4C}}
* {{cite book |last=Seth |first=Ronald |author-link=Robert Chartham |date=1972 |title=Jackals of the Reich. The Story of the British Free Corps |publisher=New English Library |isbn=978-0-45001-221-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qE0DAAAAMAAJ&q=intitle:Jackals+intitle:of+intitle:the+intitle:Reich}} This book was effectively a re-writing by the British spy writer [[Robert Chartham|Ronald Seth]] of ''The Yeomen of Valhalla (Behind the Siegfried Line)''. Seth also chose to use the same pseudonyms. Neither of these books included references or a bibliography and, as a result, some subsequent writers have taken the pseudonyms to be real names.{{citation needed|date=November 2014}}
* {{cite book |last=Weale |first=Adrian |author-link=Adrian Weale |date=1994 |title=Renegades: Hitler's Englishmen |location=London, UK |publisher=Weidenfeld & Nicolson |isbn=0-7126-6764-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dy1nAAAAMAAJ}}
* Weale, Adrian (2014), ''Renegades: Hitler's Englishmen'', Random House (Kindle edition).
* {{cite book |last=Weale |first=Adrian |date=2001 |title=Patriot Traitors: Roger Casement, John Amery and the Real Meaning of Treason |location=London, UK |publisher=Viking |isbn=0-6708-8498-7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XZtnAAAAMAAJ}}
{{refend}}

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
* {{cite web |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1898942.stm |title='My father the war traitor' |first=Margaret |last=Metcalf |date=29 March 2002 |website=[[BBC News]]}}
*{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1393224/SS-veterans-in-Britain-hold-secret-reunions.html |title=SS veterans in Britain hold secret reunions |first=Daniel |last=Foggo |date=5 May 2002 |newspaper=The Daily Telegraph}}

{{SS organizations}}
{{Authority control}}
[[Category:British collaboration during World War II]]
[[Category:Legions of the Waffen-SS]]
[[Category:Military units and formations established in 1943]]
[[Category:Military units and formations disestablished in 1945]]