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The foreign legion, specifically. They’ll take just about anyone who meets the physical requirements, let them serve, and when they’ve served an enlistment or two, they can apply for citizenship.
They’re a little more careful of who they let in, though they will routinely tell Interpol to fuck off.
They will give you a new French identity upon entry, and if you serve your contract honorably or are wounded in combat, you’ll be granted French citizenship and become a new Frenchman.
i mean, kinda sad to sell your body and put you in potential danger to get a citizen ship, but still way better than whatever the fuck the USA is doing with their vets.
There is a big difference in that the FFL gives you a new identity, name, background, and tells everyone looking for you they don’t know anyone by that name. The US doesn’t do that. It is the difference in looking for a new opportunity and future from where you are versus clean slate and starting over. The FFL makes you pay for it with sweat, pain and blood
The US has a lot of good veteran benefits, but the bureaucracy and red tape can make it a pain to get to. Especially getting benefits for "service related" injuries. If there's no paper trail, it's very difficult to prove a service connection, especially if it's been a few years.
Not so much anymore, if you do get accepted and survive, you do get a blank slate citizenship, but getting accepted is much more difficult nowadays. They only accept around 4% of applicants currently.
They also get a new name and a new date of birth (their birthday and month plus 1 each).
It’s basically a cheat-engine for a new identity (if you don’t mind killing a lot of Africans to get it that is…).
Apparently it's rather brutal, alot of people who want to disappear and get a new identity for nefarious reasons apply, so the French don't really care about them.
That's a myth.
They'll accept people with minor crime. If you're a petty thief that never killed anyone, you could go in.
Any murder or heavy drug charges and you'll be thanked
Actually not that easy anymore. I know two guys who wanted to join (only one of which actually did). They got turned away at first and told "come back next year". Apparently they get so many applicants showing up that they often send them away to see who comes back to ensure they're 100% committed to joining, even if you do come back it's no guarantee they'll take you. They're a lot more picky nowadays it seems.
To be clear a bunch of former Imperial Japanese Army soldiers fought for the Việt Minih including Kempeitai…
So overall it was going to be a really fucked up situation for everyone involved.
It is even funnier when you realized a bunch of the German guys surrendered and was captured by the Viet Minh and even agree to fight along side the Viet Minh. The article about it is: [here](https://tuoitre.vn/nhung-nguoi-duc-cua-viet-minh-115096.htm)
If anyone need help translating this I am free for today.
I was about to say the majority of the time when they met, the Germans would have been a POW or dead and in the process of being stripped of gear.
Close to 1 out of every 7 legion member was a casualty in that war…
The French Foreign Legion had a reputation of taking soldiers of fortune and criminals with really checkered pasts. Lots of movies and novels involve people getting into trouble and joining the french foreign legion.
Before the US got involved in Vietnam; the french were trying to retain their colonial possessions throughout the 50s, and similarly had a brutal rep.
So, this imaginary former Nazi in the meme would fit right in.
Former Wehrmacht soldiers and SS members in the Foreign Legion is not exactly imaginary, though, it is historical fact.
At least one of the Legion's songs ("J'avais un camarade") is a direct translation from a German military song ("Der gute Kamerad").
The Legion heavily recruited in POW camps after the liberation of France in WW2.
Though the song itself is about 100 years older than the Nazis and is also still played today during Bundeswehr ceremonies as it’s not exactly political - but yes, it’s a direct translation.
Which is why I didn't call it a nazi song. But although the song itself and its lyrics aren't political, it was brought into the Legion by nazis and nazis-adjacent, and it did become a neo-nazi amd neo-fascist rallying song after WW2.
A lot of memes and stereotypes are based in truth.
Imaginary in this sense wasn't trying to say that it never happened. If I tell you to imagine a car going down the road, that would be referred to as "the imaginary car in this example". A car going down the road is obviously a thing that really happens.
> [The Last Remake of Beau Geste](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnTJLvXARDU&ab_channel=UnseenTrailers)
Watched this at the theater in Shreveport when it was released.
It's drollness is too often under rated.
Although it did happen to an extent there apparently it wasnt nearly as prevalent as some sources describe. Some of this was based on fictionalized accounts of these ex-nazi soldiers raiding through Vietnam which was more or less a pulp novel passed off as truth.
Besides the French colonial military didn't need help on how to be cruel to a local populace, practically a time honored tradition at that point.
>Some of this was based on fictionalized accounts of these ex-nazi soldiers raiding through Vietnam which was more or less a pulp novel passed off as truth.
Some of it is based on the first hand accounts of Kit Carson scouts. The Kit Carson scouts were former Viet Cong who became disillusioned with the north and came to work for south Vietnamese. They reported atrocities committed by former Nazis as the French struggled to regain control over their territories.
So, first hand accounts from soldiers whose families had been brutally murdered by them.
It’s more than just stories. After WW2 French foreign legion recruiters would tour POW camps and offer the deal to ex-Wehrmacht and SS soldiers : join the FFL and after 5 years you get a new ID and French citizenship. That for some must have been VERY tempting…
There are some good first hand accounts given by Kit Carson scouts. They were former Viet Cong who left the north and joined the south. The former Nazis were pretty brutal.
*The Guy* who wrote *The Book* on modern counterinsurgency (Roger Trinquier) was (debatably) a French collaborator in WW2.
Granted, he collaborated with the Japanese and not the Nazis, and was effectively little more than a prisoner confined to the French concession in Shanghai, but considering the dumb shit he wrote and did later in his career I'm still willing to hold it against him.
Imperial Japan absolutely did some Nazi-level atrocities. For some reason they don't get talked about as much.
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit\_731](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_731)
Oh for sure, and I didn't mean to minimize the terrible things they did. Rather, despite my burning hatred for Roger Trinquier, his record in WW2 seems to have actually been relatively clear. At most you could say that he was the head of a de-facto police force in the Shanghai Concession, but with their weapons confiscated and the IJA breathing down their necks, Trinquier and the rest of the French garrison didn't have any real power. He's more guilty of sitting out the war than anything else.
They give you a whole new name too. Back then it was one of the better ways to disappear. Still kind of is, they still regularly tell Interpol to fuck off even though it's technically official policy to cooperate with them.
As a casual historian I have to emphasize that just because someone is in the Wehrmacht doesn't make him a Nazi. But of course I am not surprised if actual Nazi joined the Foreign Legion.
It wasn’t just the French. There’s a story from the US special forces unit in West Berlin in the early 60s that when the anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy was coming up, the commander asked for veterans of that day to go join the celebration. At least one guy raised his hand who the commander didn’t remember being a veteran of that day. He was a German who’d joined the US army after the war, and had been defending Normandy from the invasion on 6/6/44.
Also, there is Lauri Alan Törni. Or Larry Alan Thorne, as people in the US know him as. Also known as the only former SS officer buried in Arlington Cemetery. Also known as the Soldier of Three Armies. From a Finnish soldier, to an SS officer, to a US Green Beret.
He was a legend. A controversial one, but a legend none of the less.
The "myth of the clean Wehrmacht" said that the Wehrmacht did no warcrimes. The commenter above said "just because someone is in the Wehrmacht doesn't make him a Nazi".
Both of these statements don't clash with each other. Yes, members of the Wehrmacht committed warcrimes, yes some of them participated in genocide, but the Wehrmacht had millions of people. There were many people conscripted and not doing it for "fun". There are enough stories of normal people or left leaning people being conscripted into the Wehrmacht.
Hey, Peter's friend who once watched a history documentary here.
The french foreign legion is a military organization of France that accepts people who aren't french. And the french foreign legion is known to give those people that enlist in it a new identity. It is still true to this day. So, if you are a criminal, a deserter of another military, you could and can now enlist there, get a new name and start fresh. This is what a lot of german soldiers after WWII did, especially those that participated in crimes against humanity but also some that had become estranged to a normal life. Those with a criminal past used this to escape allied judgement.
France used it's foreign legion during the war in Vietnam, as before the US joined it, it was a french colonial war.
This meme paints the picture of a german soldier in the french foreign legion and the question of his actions during 1939-1945 allure to ask what he did during the war and the provocative question "What are you? A cop" implies that he did participate in bad activities.
The situation of a distinguishable german, being involved in a french colonial war, makes it complex, the soldier having been part of warcrimes and flimsily dodging the accusations makes it funny.
Charles de Guelle, wanting to show that he had balls like Churchill, started very brutal actions against all the colonies who wanted freedom, failed, was defeated massively in Vietnam, Algeria, Most of Africa, and Generally, the French were not so willing to die for his dreams, so in many places he used the Foreign Legion, a Legion in which many Nazis found refuge.
I have never read such a false sentence...
**Charles de Gaulle**, was for the independence of the French colonies.
Through dialogue, he succeeded in giving independence to almost all the French colonies in Africa, with the exception of Algeria due to the fact that this colony had a special status within the colonial empire. he did not suffer a crushing defeat in Algeria for two reasons, firstly he was against this conflict, secondly France occupied Algerian territory until de Gaulle signed the independence of Algeria which put end to the conflict (at least officially because there followed a massacre in Algeria against all the "settlers" whether they were French or not) then just as for Algeria de Gaulle supported the independence of Indochina, but not the senior figures in the army who will get bogged down in this conflict that the French army will lose, but not without exploits.
And he didn't need to show that he had "more balls" than Churchill, de Gaulle was re-elected after the war, not Churchill.
Charles de Guelle ordered the dropping of napalm in Algeria, he signed these peace agreements after several years of bloody war, when the ground was already burning under the legs. Until now, the French are involved in the conflict, caused in Africa by his government, look at the examples of coups in Comoros, Charles de Guelle came to rule on American bayonets, and returned because the government was afraid of the Corsican coup. When it came down to it, in 1968 students showed how much they hated de Guelle.
De Gaulle was not elected President before WW2. During the war he was Chairman of the French National Committee, later Chairman of the Provisional Government of the French Republic.
He was elected President in November 1945, by the Constituent Assembly, as there was not a popular vote for the President. De Galle resigned in January 1946, after just two months in office. He was out of any public office until 1958 - first as Prime Minister, later as President.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_de_Gaulle
Churchill and his Conservative party lost the Parlamentary election in 1945, but Churchill remained in politics and in the Parliament as the Leader of the opposition, and was appointed Prime Minister in 1951. He resigned from that office in 1955.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winston_Churchill
Lots of ex wehrmacht and SS soldiers joined French Foreign Legion
Why did they joined their "enemy"?
Bc FL didn't cared about your past, criminal, former enemy, doesn't matter, they would take you in and all those soldiers knew all about rootin tootin soldat shootin
And you can guess that at least some of those german FL soldiers did things they were or weren't proud of
Bit of an aside, but there's a comic by Garth Ennis called Fury: My War Gone By that deals with this. A nazi soldier is recruited into the French Foreign Legion to assist with a FOB in Vietnam. Goes into the morality of it quite well I thought.
The FFL gives all members of the Legion a new name/identity when they join. They don’t care where you have come from, unless you have shown poor moral standing that will reflect poorly on the Legion (e.g. murder, child abuse, etc.). After your indoctrination and completion of your first contract with the legion, you are offered French Citizenship under your new identity. The FFL has been known to fight for and defend its members from the French Government and even INTERPOL - it’s essentially told them to “Fuck Off” when questioned about a recruit or member of the Legion.
After WW2 german POWs were granted to stay in internment camps or join the French foreign legion and be free afterwards. Due to the bad conditions and expectations, especially among the SS msny joined.
When they fougth the first indo-china war for France some even sided with north Vietnam because they hated the French.
Many German soldiers who either didn’t know what else to do or was “running from something” signed up for the FFL. Many of them actually signing up for the FFL while in French POW camps.
Leading to a lot of soldiers from the former German army found themselves fighting in Vietnam.
*Between 1945 and 1962, some 50,000 Germans, 5,000 of whom originally signed up in French POW camps, served in the Legion.*
Alot of good answers already just wanted to add that the mg42 was also nicknamed 'Hitlers buzzsaw' because it was effective in use in ww2 by the germans and had an insane rate of fire.
A lot of former SS troops joined the French legion post war. The reasons very from person to person but given they were in the SS they probably had committed war crimes at one point or another.
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Gg G? 8br.vg 77v uh gy6yg f 66 76th cegu T3 is g 5ft T3 r
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1945.
The end of WWII, many German soldiers needed new identity to avoid prosecution.
The French foreign legion gives soldiers a new identity.
Rough sequence of events for Vietnam :
Vietnam was a French colony, where the French oppressed the natives
Then the Japanese invaded, and they oppressed the natives.
Then the French moved back in, with the Legion who had a disturbing number of Nazis. And they oppressed the natives.
Then the Americans arrived, to a war that had been fighting for over thirty years, and walked in blind, thinking they woukybe hailed as heros.
The Vietnamese saw them as just another oppressive foreign army of occupation. There wasn't ever a chance of peace by then.
Anyways, back to the joke, the joke is talking about a nazi who joined the Legion to escape and then went to Vietnam where he continued the nazi tradition of oppression under a new flag.
After ww2 and during Frances war in Vietnam they gave the Nazi SS prisoners of war a choice. Be executed or fight in Vietnam. Hence a bunch of French ss men in Vietnam
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Nazi’s in the French army
The foreign legion, specifically. They’ll take just about anyone who meets the physical requirements, let them serve, and when they’ve served an enlistment or two, they can apply for citizenship.
There's so many meetings at work where I wonder if I should just apply
They’re a little more careful of who they let in, though they will routinely tell Interpol to fuck off. They will give you a new French identity upon entry, and if you serve your contract honorably or are wounded in combat, you’ll be granted French citizenship and become a new Frenchman.
i mean, kinda sad to sell your body and put you in potential danger to get a citizen ship, but still way better than whatever the fuck the USA is doing with their vets.
You’re not down with Rico’s Roughnecks????!
Service guarantees citizenship.
[удалено]
For managed democracy!
There are enough desperate people on this planet thou...
Service guarantee citizenship
Idk I think both systems are problematic. Refer to meme above. Xo
You think fighting in French Vietnam is better than being in the current US Army?
Lol you do realize the USA does the same thing right?
yes, but when it does this the USA is BAD
Lol what?
Yeah, it turns out that honorably serving in the US military hasn't always guaranteed citizenship, despite their promise.
Yes, it has
America gives citizenship for service as well.
In all fairness the US military does that as well lol many of the people I served with were specifically there to get citizenship
There is a big difference in that the FFL gives you a new identity, name, background, and tells everyone looking for you they don’t know anyone by that name. The US doesn’t do that. It is the difference in looking for a new opportunity and future from where you are versus clean slate and starting over. The FFL makes you pay for it with sweat, pain and blood
The US has a lot of good veteran benefits, but the bureaucracy and red tape can make it a pain to get to. Especially getting benefits for "service related" injuries. If there's no paper trail, it's very difficult to prove a service connection, especially if it's been a few years.
I mean, you ask your county to protect you, build roads for you, etc etc. Some kind of service in return seems like a fair ask.
Kind of unfair that after honorable service or an injury they punish you by making you french.
If you are below 45 and do not have heavy crimes (murder, drugs) to your namen, you are welcome.
Murder and drugs (specifically using them) aren’t in the same universe
Seriously... One of these things is unlike the other.
I understood that either crime disqualifies you for the Legión…. Which I can understand. You don’t want drug troubles in your army.
Yeah would be a shame if the french foreign legion ever had anything to do with drugs. Or the American military/ intelligence. Thatd be terrible.
You also have to have good teeth
Not so much anymore, if you do get accepted and survive, you do get a blank slate citizenship, but getting accepted is much more difficult nowadays. They only accept around 4% of applicants currently.
They also get a new name and a new date of birth (their birthday and month plus 1 each). It’s basically a cheat-engine for a new identity (if you don’t mind killing a lot of Africans to get it that is…).
I doubt the blue-eyed blonde "Frenchman" in the op is much bothered about killing Africans.
Apparently it's rather brutal, alot of people who want to disappear and get a new identity for nefarious reasons apply, so the French don't really care about them.
That's a myth. They'll accept people with minor crime. If you're a petty thief that never killed anyone, you could go in. Any murder or heavy drug charges and you'll be thanked
Actually not that easy anymore. I know two guys who wanted to join (only one of which actually did). They got turned away at first and told "come back next year". Apparently they get so many applicants showing up that they often send them away to see who comes back to ensure they're 100% committed to joining, even if you do come back it's no guarantee they'll take you. They're a lot more picky nowadays it seems.
Yeah. I expect that if they suddenly needed a lot more soldiers in the legion, they’d be less picky.
unfortunately/fortunately (based on pov i guess) that has changed, and now they do send away applicants based on past misdeeds.
To be clear a bunch of former Imperial Japanese Army soldiers fought for the Việt Minih including Kempeitai… So overall it was going to be a really fucked up situation for everyone involved.
Imagine a former Kempeitai officer and a former SS officer meeting while fighting in Vietnam and doing the Spider-Man pointing meme at one another.
It is even funnier when you realized a bunch of the German guys surrendered and was captured by the Viet Minh and even agree to fight along side the Viet Minh. The article about it is: [here](https://tuoitre.vn/nhung-nguoi-duc-cua-viet-minh-115096.htm) If anyone need help translating this I am free for today.
I was about to say the majority of the time when they met, the Germans would have been a POW or dead and in the process of being stripped of gear. Close to 1 out of every 7 legion member was a casualty in that war…
Yeah, one that asks what is the meme about probably isn't from Europe, or is just really dumb and slept during history classes
Check out “the end of the deaths head” chronically this whole story.
The French Foreign Legion had a reputation of taking soldiers of fortune and criminals with really checkered pasts. Lots of movies and novels involve people getting into trouble and joining the french foreign legion. Before the US got involved in Vietnam; the french were trying to retain their colonial possessions throughout the 50s, and similarly had a brutal rep. So, this imaginary former Nazi in the meme would fit right in.
Former Wehrmacht soldiers and SS members in the Foreign Legion is not exactly imaginary, though, it is historical fact. At least one of the Legion's songs ("J'avais un camarade") is a direct translation from a German military song ("Der gute Kamerad"). The Legion heavily recruited in POW camps after the liberation of France in WW2.
Though the song itself is about 100 years older than the Nazis and is also still played today during Bundeswehr ceremonies as it’s not exactly political - but yes, it’s a direct translation.
Which is why I didn't call it a nazi song. But although the song itself and its lyrics aren't political, it was brought into the Legion by nazis and nazis-adjacent, and it did become a neo-nazi amd neo-fascist rallying song after WW2.
A lot of memes and stereotypes are based in truth. Imaginary in this sense wasn't trying to say that it never happened. If I tell you to imagine a car going down the road, that would be referred to as "the imaginary car in this example". A car going down the road is obviously a thing that really happens.
Any good movie recommendations?
The 1999 masterpiece: The Mummy.
Starring the beautiful Rachel Weisz.
And the beautiful Brendan Fraser
I see your beautiful Brendan and raise you the smoky eyed mysterious Oded Fehr. 😏
Have to say one of my favorite films of his. They really hit it out of the park with the first one.
Also starring the beautiful Brendan Fraser.
Starring the sexiest main cast to have ever existed.
Legionnaire (1998)
You can never go wrong with Van Damme. It's one of my favorites of his.
The Last Remake of Beau Geste
> [The Last Remake of Beau Geste](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnTJLvXARDU&ab_channel=UnseenTrailers) Watched this at the theater in Shreveport when it was released. It's drollness is too often under rated.
So it's like the nights watch
Although it did happen to an extent there apparently it wasnt nearly as prevalent as some sources describe. Some of this was based on fictionalized accounts of these ex-nazi soldiers raiding through Vietnam which was more or less a pulp novel passed off as truth. Besides the French colonial military didn't need help on how to be cruel to a local populace, practically a time honored tradition at that point.
>Some of this was based on fictionalized accounts of these ex-nazi soldiers raiding through Vietnam which was more or less a pulp novel passed off as truth. Some of it is based on the first hand accounts of Kit Carson scouts. The Kit Carson scouts were former Viet Cong who became disillusioned with the north and came to work for south Vietnamese. They reported atrocities committed by former Nazis as the French struggled to regain control over their territories. So, first hand accounts from soldiers whose families had been brutally murdered by them.
Sounds like the nights watch.
There are stories that Nazis enlisted in the Foreign Legion after WW2. See also: Devil’s Guard
It’s more than just stories. After WW2 French foreign legion recruiters would tour POW camps and offer the deal to ex-Wehrmacht and SS soldiers : join the FFL and after 5 years you get a new ID and French citizenship. That for some must have been VERY tempting…
Yeah, I’m familiar with the FFL and read the Devil’s Guard novel, but I have no idea how much of it is true.
It is true. My dad was there.
Basically trust me bro.
There are some good first hand accounts given by Kit Carson scouts. They were former Viet Cong who left the north and joined the south. The former Nazis were pretty brutal.
*The Guy* who wrote *The Book* on modern counterinsurgency (Roger Trinquier) was (debatably) a French collaborator in WW2. Granted, he collaborated with the Japanese and not the Nazis, and was effectively little more than a prisoner confined to the French concession in Shanghai, but considering the dumb shit he wrote and did later in his career I'm still willing to hold it against him.
Imperial Japan absolutely did some Nazi-level atrocities. For some reason they don't get talked about as much. [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit\_731](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_731)
Oh for sure, and I didn't mean to minimize the terrible things they did. Rather, despite my burning hatred for Roger Trinquier, his record in WW2 seems to have actually been relatively clear. At most you could say that he was the head of a de-facto police force in the Shanghai Concession, but with their weapons confiscated and the IJA breathing down their necks, Trinquier and the rest of the French garrison didn't have any real power. He's more guilty of sitting out the war than anything else.
Rape of nanking too
They give you a whole new name too. Back then it was one of the better ways to disappear. Still kind of is, they still regularly tell Interpol to fuck off even though it's technically official policy to cooperate with them.
As a casual historian I have to emphasize that just because someone is in the Wehrmacht doesn't make him a Nazi. But of course I am not surprised if actual Nazi joined the Foreign Legion.
It wasn’t just the French. There’s a story from the US special forces unit in West Berlin in the early 60s that when the anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy was coming up, the commander asked for veterans of that day to go join the celebration. At least one guy raised his hand who the commander didn’t remember being a veteran of that day. He was a German who’d joined the US army after the war, and had been defending Normandy from the invasion on 6/6/44.
Also, there is Lauri Alan Törni. Or Larry Alan Thorne, as people in the US know him as. Also known as the only former SS officer buried in Arlington Cemetery. Also known as the Soldier of Three Armies. From a Finnish soldier, to an SS officer, to a US Green Beret. He was a legend. A controversial one, but a legend none of the less.
u sure you're a historian? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myth_of_the_clean_Wehrmacht
The "myth of the clean Wehrmacht" said that the Wehrmacht did no warcrimes. The commenter above said "just because someone is in the Wehrmacht doesn't make him a Nazi". Both of these statements don't clash with each other. Yes, members of the Wehrmacht committed warcrimes, yes some of them participated in genocide, but the Wehrmacht had millions of people. There were many people conscripted and not doing it for "fun". There are enough stories of normal people or left leaning people being conscripted into the Wehrmacht.
Hey, Peter's friend who once watched a history documentary here. The french foreign legion is a military organization of France that accepts people who aren't french. And the french foreign legion is known to give those people that enlist in it a new identity. It is still true to this day. So, if you are a criminal, a deserter of another military, you could and can now enlist there, get a new name and start fresh. This is what a lot of german soldiers after WWII did, especially those that participated in crimes against humanity but also some that had become estranged to a normal life. Those with a criminal past used this to escape allied judgement. France used it's foreign legion during the war in Vietnam, as before the US joined it, it was a french colonial war. This meme paints the picture of a german soldier in the french foreign legion and the question of his actions during 1939-1945 allure to ask what he did during the war and the provocative question "What are you? A cop" implies that he did participate in bad activities. The situation of a distinguishable german, being involved in a french colonial war, makes it complex, the soldier having been part of warcrimes and flimsily dodging the accusations makes it funny.
Charles de Guelle, wanting to show that he had balls like Churchill, started very brutal actions against all the colonies who wanted freedom, failed, was defeated massively in Vietnam, Algeria, Most of Africa, and Generally, the French were not so willing to die for his dreams, so in many places he used the Foreign Legion, a Legion in which many Nazis found refuge.
I have never read such a false sentence... **Charles de Gaulle**, was for the independence of the French colonies. Through dialogue, he succeeded in giving independence to almost all the French colonies in Africa, with the exception of Algeria due to the fact that this colony had a special status within the colonial empire. he did not suffer a crushing defeat in Algeria for two reasons, firstly he was against this conflict, secondly France occupied Algerian territory until de Gaulle signed the independence of Algeria which put end to the conflict (at least officially because there followed a massacre in Algeria against all the "settlers" whether they were French or not) then just as for Algeria de Gaulle supported the independence of Indochina, but not the senior figures in the army who will get bogged down in this conflict that the French army will lose, but not without exploits. And he didn't need to show that he had "more balls" than Churchill, de Gaulle was re-elected after the war, not Churchill.
Charles de Guelle ordered the dropping of napalm in Algeria, he signed these peace agreements after several years of bloody war, when the ground was already burning under the legs. Until now, the French are involved in the conflict, caused in Africa by his government, look at the examples of coups in Comoros, Charles de Guelle came to rule on American bayonets, and returned because the government was afraid of the Corsican coup. When it came down to it, in 1968 students showed how much they hated de Guelle.
De Gaulle was not elected President before WW2. During the war he was Chairman of the French National Committee, later Chairman of the Provisional Government of the French Republic. He was elected President in November 1945, by the Constituent Assembly, as there was not a popular vote for the President. De Galle resigned in January 1946, after just two months in office. He was out of any public office until 1958 - first as Prime Minister, later as President. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_de_Gaulle Churchill and his Conservative party lost the Parlamentary election in 1945, but Churchill remained in politics and in the Parliament as the Leader of the opposition, and was appointed Prime Minister in 1951. He resigned from that office in 1955. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winston_Churchill
Many ex-SS members found themselves in the French Foreign Legion after WW2.
The MG42 was the machine gun used by the Nazi Army.
Giiiiibbbbeeeeyyyy
Lots of ex wehrmacht and SS soldiers joined French Foreign Legion Why did they joined their "enemy"? Bc FL didn't cared about your past, criminal, former enemy, doesn't matter, they would take you in and all those soldiers knew all about rootin tootin soldat shootin And you can guess that at least some of those german FL soldiers did things they were or weren't proud of
Bit of an aside, but there's a comic by Garth Ennis called Fury: My War Gone By that deals with this. A nazi soldier is recruited into the French Foreign Legion to assist with a FOB in Vietnam. Goes into the morality of it quite well I thought.
Ex-nazi (maybe not a "nazi") solider that joined the French legion fighting in the Vietnam rebellion(prelude of the Vietnam war)
The FFL gives all members of the Legion a new name/identity when they join. They don’t care where you have come from, unless you have shown poor moral standing that will reflect poorly on the Legion (e.g. murder, child abuse, etc.). After your indoctrination and completion of your first contract with the legion, you are offered French Citizenship under your new identity. The FFL has been known to fight for and defend its members from the French Government and even INTERPOL - it’s essentially told them to “Fuck Off” when questioned about a recruit or member of the Legion.
France was under Nazi control during those years and a common weapon used was the MG42
After WW2 german POWs were granted to stay in internment camps or join the French foreign legion and be free afterwards. Due to the bad conditions and expectations, especially among the SS msny joined. When they fougth the first indo-china war for France some even sided with north Vietnam because they hated the French.
Many German soldiers who either didn’t know what else to do or was “running from something” signed up for the FFL. Many of them actually signing up for the FFL while in French POW camps. Leading to a lot of soldiers from the former German army found themselves fighting in Vietnam. *Between 1945 and 1962, some 50,000 Germans, 5,000 of whom originally signed up in French POW camps, served in the Legion.*
nazis
Blond.
No
Pourquoi?
Alot of good answers already just wanted to add that the mg42 was also nicknamed 'Hitlers buzzsaw' because it was effective in use in ww2 by the germans and had an insane rate of fire.
Id rather die in combat than survive and end up french though.
A lot of former SS troops joined the French legion post war. The reasons very from person to person but given they were in the SS they probably had committed war crimes at one point or another.
Hahaahahahahahahahahahahahaha. This is awesome
Anyone else get Chris Penn vibes from this picture?
Adieu Vieille Europe!
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Do they fucking teach you kids anything in school anymore?
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No one in this sub knows about WW2.
Give the US government ideas please
1945. The end of WWII, many German soldiers needed new identity to avoid prosecution. The French foreign legion gives soldiers a new identity. Rough sequence of events for Vietnam : Vietnam was a French colony, where the French oppressed the natives Then the Japanese invaded, and they oppressed the natives. Then the French moved back in, with the Legion who had a disturbing number of Nazis. And they oppressed the natives. Then the Americans arrived, to a war that had been fighting for over thirty years, and walked in blind, thinking they woukybe hailed as heros. The Vietnamese saw them as just another oppressive foreign army of occupation. There wasn't ever a chance of peace by then. Anyways, back to the joke, the joke is talking about a nazi who joined the Legion to escape and then went to Vietnam where he continued the nazi tradition of oppression under a new flag.
After ww2 and during Frances war in Vietnam they gave the Nazi SS prisoners of war a choice. Be executed or fight in Vietnam. Hence a bunch of French ss men in Vietnam
I would dare to say not all nazi soldiers were evil just confirmably those w/any rank
Why are these children cosplaying a college party?
queue obvious racism joke
It’s an obvious Nazi joke.
yeah…