History: Hitler's Indian Regiment

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[khansaheeb]

First I have ever heard of this.

 

[Khan_patriot]

First I have ever heard of this.

The outfit did exist. It was called the Free Indian Army or something and was to play a crucial role in Hitler's hypothetical involvement in South Asia.

 

[gangsta_rap]

The outfit did exist. It was called the Free Indian Army or something and was to play a crucial role in Hitler's hypothetical involvement in South Asia.

Free Indian Army (Azad Hind) is different from the Indian SS.

 

[shambhu]

hitler was racist . did not consider indians equal.

 

[Tom M]

hitler was racist . did not consider indians equal.

TBH. Who is not a racist ????

 

[third eye]

First I have ever heard of this.

General Field Marshal Erwin Rommel inspecting a unit of the Indian Legion in France, February 1944

Ypu will find details here :

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Legion

Agitation for the end of British rule in India had existed for decades prior to the outbreak of the Second World War. Therefore it was logical for the Axis powers during WWII to attempt to capitalize on anti-British sentiments by attempting to recruit a military force from disaffected Indian prisoners-of-war captured while serving with the British Commonwealth forces in the North African campaign.

Italy was not the first in this field, but their efforts were comparatively short-lived. On 10th May 1942 the Italian Army established a Ragruppamento Centri Militari, a special unit composed of foreign military personnel, ex-prisoners-of-war, foreign nationals living in Italy and Italians who had been resident abroad, with the intention of using them for intelligence gathering and sabotage operations behind enemy lines.

Despite their investment in the Indian's training the Italians considered the Indian troops of Battaglione Azad Hindoustan to be of doubtful loyalty and this view was confirmed when the Indians mutinied on learning of the Axis defeat at El Alamein in November 1942. Following this the battalion was disbanded and the Indians returned to their prisoner-of-war camps.

Germany

The Abwehr had envisaged this new military force as accompanying an Axis campaign via the Caucasus through Iran into India to end British rule there. As early as the end of August 1941 they had formulated a scheme to fly the Indian Legion to India and using parachute landings start an anti-British revolt and this plan was shown to Bose. To this end, some Indians appear to have been recruited by Rittmeister Habicht of the Abwehr and incorporated as a part of 4.Regiment, 800.Bau Lehrdivision zur besonderen Verwendung Brandenburg (Special Purpose Construction Training Division Brandenburg), which despite its innocuous sounding title constituted the special forces of the Wehrmacht. They were quartered at a training camp near Meseritz.

In January 1942 Operation "Bajadere" was launched and one hundred Indians were parachuted into eastern Persia in order to infiltrate into India through Baluchistan and commence sabotage operations against the British in preparation for the anticipated national revolt. Oberleutnant Witzel in Afghanistan reported to the Abwehr station in Kabul that the Indians had been effective and this information was passed on to Abwehr headquarters in Berlin.

Axis reverses at Stalingrad and El Alamein at the end of 1942 made an attack on India by the European Axis powers appear an increasingly unlikely scenario.

The Legion Freies Indien was deployed in France on coastal defense duties in the area of Lacanau near Bordeaux where they were inspected by Generalfeldmarschall Rommel (who was, of course, responsible for their original capture!) in April 1944.

On 8th August 1944 the Free Indian Legion (now comprising about 2,300 men), like all the national legions of the German Army, was transferred to the control of the Waffen-SS now being known as the Indische Freiwilligen Legion der Waffen SS and receiving a new commanding officer: SS Oberführer Heinz Bertling. Despite the change in authority from Army to Waffen SS, the Indian Legion continued to use Army ranks and uniforms. The notorious SS map of February 1945 does show an SS collar patch featuring a tiger's head for the Free Indian Legion but it is unlikely that it was even manufactured and almost certainly it was never actually worn.

 

[Zhukov]

TBH. Who is not a racist ????

Pigeons

 

[KAL-EL]

Pigeons

Or Golden orb weaver spiders

 

[Zibago]

Or Golden orb weaver spiders

Buzzfeed content writers? :-//

 

[Hamza913]

hitler was racist . did not consider indians equal.

He was very pragmatic in the sense that he was willing to overlook it if you could benefit him as an ally.