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    Last Blood on Pomerania: Leon Degrelle and the Walloon Waffen SS Volunteers, February-May 1945
    Last Blood on Pomerania: Leon Degrelle and the Walloon Waffen SS Volunteers, February-May 1945
    Last Blood on Pomerania: Leon Degrelle and the Walloon Waffen SS Volunteers, February-May 1945
    Ebook314 pages2 hours

    Last Blood on Pomerania: Leon Degrelle and the Walloon Waffen SS Volunteers, February-May 1945

    By Tomasz Borowski

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    About this ebook

    The 28th SS Volunteer Grenadier Division ‘Wallonien’, which mostly consisted of French-speaking citizens of the Kingdom of Belgium – first as part of the Wehrmacht, and later in the ranks of the Waffen SS – fought as one of the national legions against the Red Army on the Eastern Front in February 1942. The Walloons gained fame during the legendary resistance in Cherkassy Pocket, where in early 1944 they lost more than fifty percent of their strength. In the summer of the same year they fought a defensive battle in Estonia in the region of Dorpat, and in February 1945 were directed to Western Pomerania, where until the last days of the war they put up a stubborn resistance to the armies of Stalin.

    This book, which was originally published in Polish, is based on the unpublished memoirs of participants of these events, and is the first account to describe the Walloons’ participation in the mysterious Pomeranian campaign in such a detailed manner. It tells the tragic story of the Walloon volunteers, who at all costs tried to stop the onrush of the enemy standing at the gates of the Third Reich. The Pomeranian odyssey led by the controversial and infamous Volksführer Leon Degrelle went on for three months, and the trial meant death and courage. Stargard, Altdamm, Neu Rosow – these are locations, that became synonyms for unconditional sacrifice. They are also a symbol of kameradschaft, of a group of tough guys and daredevils, who were determined to stake everything on one throw of the dice.

    The book is illustrated with unique photographs, known so far only to a small group of people. These are complemented by a special comic created by the French artist Godus and with images made with great attention to detail, which were produced for historical reconstruction, showing silhouettes of the Walloon soldiers. It is worth noting that some of these were made in the same location where the fighting raged in April 1945.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHelion and Company
    Release dateApr 11, 2016
    ISBN9781912174485
    Last Blood on Pomerania: Leon Degrelle and the Walloon Waffen SS Volunteers, February-May 1945
    Author

    Tomasz Borowski

    The author of the book has been interested in history practically since childhood and, for many years, has been studying the acts of the foreign volunteer formations of the Waffen-SS - especially Scandinavian, French and Walloon troops - which got involved in bloody battles during the declining period of the Second World War. His fascination arose at a time when he realized how much influence these small, but extremely valiant and brave troops had on the fate of the fronts on which they had to fight. They fought hard - even though the matter for which they shed blood was practically lost - and through contact with many authors and historians, the author has gained access to information previously unknown to wider group archives, both in terms of memoir- and photographic-based material. In his publications, the author tries not to duplicate the well-known facts, but each time to bring closer - and to reveal to his readers - the mysteries and curiosities that are the symbols of the tragic last weeks of the greatest existing armed conflict, which for many, has become a mythical 'Twilight of Gods'. The author writes from a desire to tell stories and believes that reading should, primarily, be a pleasure; if a story proves to be boring, it is better not to show it to the world at all. In his spare time, the author watches criminal movies and good TV dramas, such as 'Millennium', 'Sherlock' and 'True Detective'. Besides that, he likes riding his bike, walking and spending time with his family, as well as enjoying a good glass of fine wine. He is also a cat enthusiast.

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      Book preview

      Last Blood on Pomerania - Tomasz Borowski

      1

      Beginnings

      To tell the story of the 28th SS -Volunteer Grenadier Division ‘Wallonien’ in Western Pomerania, one must first make a brief introduction and, at the very least, a sketch of the combat trail taken by this formation and their predecessors. We should also remember the political background and motivations which pushed the Walloon volunteers to stand with the Third Reich in this greatest global conflict of all time.

      On 27 June 1941, the Nazi German leader, Adolf Hitler, gave his permission to create national legions in the occupied countries, which were to support the German war effort in their fight against the Soviet Union. Belgium created two such formations: one comprising of the inhabitants of Flanders and one comprising of the French-speaking Walloons.¹ The Flemish, with their Nordic origins, have been recognised by the SS Head Office as Aryan enough and thus were incorporated into the Waffen-SS. The Walloon troops became part of the Wehrmacht.

      Among the Walloon right-wing activists Leon Degrelle was the greatest proponent of cooperation with the Germans. Having left the ranks of the Belgian Catholic Party, he became the head of the People’s Rexist Movement ‘Christus Rex’, a movement he himself had founded in 1935.

      From its very beginnings Rexism appeared to be a nonconformist and anti-systemic movement, denouncing any political affiliations. Its ideology was a complete novelty on the political scene of the time. Its goals were not the recreation of the government in accordance to any programme line, but rather a kind of spiritual revolution. In short, Rexism was about aversion to materialism; it was about youth empowerment and a deep Catholic mysticism in the spiritual sphere.² In the first year since their establishment, by democratic mechanisms, Rexists managed to gain close to 12 percent of the votes and put as many as 29 representatives in the Belgian Parliament. Before 1939, they had almost one-third of all the votes in some of the Belgian regions.³ They managed to achieve all that largely due to activities such as organising holidays for the children of the workers or by directing young female members, from wealthy homes mostly, to help out the worker families. This also allowed them to experience problems which were foreign to them such as poverty, homelessness and hunger, etc.⁴

      1. Leon Degrelle in uniform of the Formations de Combat and in front of his villa – Dreve de Lorraine in Brussels. (J.L. Roba’s

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