Your channel is of my favourite history channel , mark felton also cover the same topic as you like uncommon and not known facts about ww2 but I prefer to watch your channel and the videos . It is the way you present the video and fact is the reason why I prefer watching your video and sometimes you do renanactment on your channel make your video better and more interesting it bring more flavour to the videos
100% agree! History Hustle is really great. I'm always learning something new and interesting on the channel. Stefan brings a great amount of enthusiasm to his presentation. His passion for history shines.
@@averagewikipediaenthusiast3088 because 20% of the english language words are actually english which is a west germanic language just like german old english was basically german with extra steps and english should've sounded alot more german but due to the norman invasion of 1066 they threw like 50% of the english language vocab have french words even now as im learning german i use the fact that english and german still share things despite after the 1066 invasion to my advantage which makes learning german easier
Wow dude, what an interesting video! First time that someone tells me about the British Free Corps. Also big fan of these photo's! So keep up this awesome work!
There was an interesting documentary about this from a few years ago, one of the surviving members was interviewed (not sure if he is still alive though) it's well worth a watch
Nice video Stefan! I have 0 idea why RU-vid didn't send me the video notification though earlier so I would of came here earlier and commented but I guess not. Keep up the good work!
A lot of these guys (foreign Waffen ss units) just really, REALLY hated communism and saw communism as a bigger threat to their nations than other ideologies (even though in practice, there isn’t much difference between nat-c ism and communism and these two ideologies really sort of deserved each other). REMEMBER, the USSR was engaged in wars of aggression too (they totally got away with it) by invading Poland along with Germany, and invading Finland...additionally, their ‘liberation’ of Baltic territories went about as well as can be expected...many ended up in gulags or just shot. Yet somehow THESE wars of aggression are looked over. The British unit just was a token unit...useless. The Indian regiment that fought for Germany I heard fought like hell.
Indeed, the BFC was a token unit. The Indians - as far as I have researched - didn't see much action and mostly did work behind the front lines such as guarding duties and such.
Outstanding presentation! I didn't really know too much about the British Free Corps. This was quite interesting! All the best for a Happy New Year! ~Rick
Love the foreign legions series. This one was deliciously obscure🤩. I am surprised anyone even bothered to make them uniforms😂. Imagine that German tailor saying well what is the bloody point? Best wishes for the New Year Stephan, looking forward to further adventures with you next year. Your vids have kept me sane and interested, and entertained
I’m speechless!! Ohh how the British does not like traitors! But it was just a giant fight for survival!! But just another gem!! Thanks again!! Stay safe thru New Years!! We need more content!!
I messed up by naming Oswald Edward twice. As for Stalin. Think some Dutch grammer slipped in. What I wanted to say was: He was released in 1955 after Stalin was dead (who died in 1953).
Great! Welcome to the channel! In case you're interested in Axis formations there's a playlist. ru-vid.com/group/PL_bcNuRxKtpEj8sMLxUerrHbsmyar9lqt And feel free to share! :)
Stefan, have you done a DVD about the role of the Hungarian Axis forces during WWII ? This seems to be a facet which I have not found on your excellent channel so far.
The British legion helps support former British soldiers and you see British legion members former members of the military marching on Remembrance Sunday . Another great episode from history hustle ty
Stop!! Imagine the order being placed for the badges in British markings. The maker must have double checked the order!! And still thought it was a joke!! He would have been puzzled. All by hand!!
I was SO excited anticipating this video, and , of course , I’m definitely not disappointed now ! Just one slight quibble ( sorry, everyone ),...but, unless I’m completely barking up the wrong tree, here, did I hear you say ‘ Edward ‘ Moseley ? His given name was ‘ Oswald ‘.
Hi! I enjoy watching your videos. Since you mentioned you're mostly interested in Axis armies, units, etc during WW2, may I suggest doing a video in the future of the Hungarian 2nd Army on the Don River, Operation Little Saturn, and disaster, and the siege of Budapest Nov 1944 to February 1945. Thanks.
If the Germans objected to the Union Jack, then they definitely would have objected to serving in a unit seemingly named after their WWI enemy. Most of the senior leadership had experience fighting in WWI and the national trauma from that war was arguably the greatest single cause of WWI (which is not to suggest Hitler was justified in war, but just to explain the importance of not naming the unit after their former enemy).
I’ve done more research on the uniform shown 5:27 of the video, it depicts a Untersturmführer rank, while the highest rank achieved by any member of the unit was Scharführer a much lower rank. As stated before, no uniform from this unit is believed to have survived the war. Keep up the great work.
There was very little correlation between the BUF and BFC...there were only about five BUF members who joined the Nazis which considering the BUF had upto 50,000 members pre-war is a tiny percentage!! One of these was Thomas Haller Cooper who was of dual nationality anyway (British father, German mother) and another William Joyce was not even a British citizen.
@@HistoryHustle many more BUF died fighting against the Nazis, Italians and Japanese than joined them...whilst most British socialists were advocating peace with Germany well into 1941 as a result of the Nazi-Soviet pact, 2 of the first 10 RAF casualties were BUF members when 2 5-crew British Bombers were shot down over Germany, Nicholas Mosley (Oswald’s eldest son fought in Italy in the Rifle Brigade) and his brother in law, Tom Mitford was KIA fighting in Burma.
Thousands of British Blackshirts fought and died for the Allied cause…incl Mosley’s own brother in law, Tom Mitford, who was killed in action in Burma and Mosley’s eldest son, Nicholas fought in Italy.
The three lions symbol is also used by the English test cricket team. There were also a couple of aussies and New Zealanders. They also used British drill and saluting, and not the German version.
Goed bezig man! Een goede geschiedenis leraar is de enige leraar die wordt onthouden. Ken jij Indy en Sparta van WW2 week by week? Jouw kanaal is een aanvulling met nog meer details. Fantastisch!
@@HistoryHustle Hurrah for the Blackshirts by Martin Pugh...he traces back the roots of fascist attitudes in Britain in the 20 years before WW1 too which is quite interesting.
There was already a British Legion which did charitable work for ex service personnel so the Germans had to change theme of their new organisation away from that.
Touchy Topic for an Englishman!! Haha but thanks for doing it What a Shambles they were really I have heard that the German propaganda for recruiting them really was only likely to get the absolute dregs psychologically they couldn't understand the English or the ones that did were either in Camps themselves or probably on their way to one ! Thankyou all the same looking forward to hearing about the Indian Legion soon DG
I know the NZ Army was apparently quite embarrassed that one of their men Roy Courlander who was captured in Greece joined the BFC. They would have preferred to forget about him, but after the war he was court martialed and put in prison in NZ until 1951.
There was a unit during the American Revolution called the British Legion which was made up of Americans loyal to the Crown. That. Ignition have been an issue.
05:04: You are right about the British Legion being a charitable organisation for WW1 veterans..it’s actually an organisation still in existence today, though it’s now called the Royal British Legion…providing help and support for a UK Soldier from any conflict…(e.g. Falkland Islands, Iraq, Afghanistan etc etc) I think the reason why they decided not to use this name were two-fold. 1. By this time, the British Legion (i.e. the charity) would have already been a well-established organisation, so using that name would cause a lot of confusion. It would have made little to no sense giving themselves the same name of an unrelated organisation, so well-established. 2. As others have mentioned, using a name associated with another organisation from WW1 would have caused some resentment from the German officers…
I would love to hear more elaboration on the 6 maori and how they were involved in the ss nz sources such as rnz said the maori did not want to join the SS who tried to recruit them but this could easily be a local bias.
One user posted: "I looked up some information about the 6 Maori who purportedly offered to join the BFC. According to William Ray of the media group, RNZ who sourced his information from a family member of one of the men, the group were taken out of their camp for 2 months, shown around Germany, taken to dances and plied with alcohol. They were then pressed to join the BFC and refused. Their SS minders were incredulous that these men would fight for their colonial oppressors. You have to think they had a great time and had no regrets about the solitary confinement when returned to camp."
"Lord Haw-Haw" was captured and executed, as a traitor, by the British. He had made one fatal, and inexplicable, mistake. He had renounced his British citizenship and become a German citizen. But for some unknown reason, he kept his British passport! Had he dispensed with that, as well, he would have been treated like every other German POW. But because he retained it, he was considered to still be British, and thus, a traitor.
Die patch is geen "Union Jack" maar een "Union Flag" Op land is het een "Flag". Op zee is het een "Jack". Zelfs in de haven is het een "Flag". Ooit eens op mijn vingers getikt door een Engelse collega van jou uit Cambridge, voor deze "fout".
Hi Stefaan! Thanks for your interesting explanations about the British Waffen SS. I noticed that they had their own conditions to enlist: place of the badge, no SS runes on the collar, no fighting against UK troops, no blood group tattoo, no oath to the Führer. To sum it up, they already wanted a special treatment, typically English. See their actions while in the EU and Brexit. Sheers.
Concerning William Joyce being sentenced and executed for high treason, there is some discussion as to whether or not this was actually justified. Technically, Joyce wasn't a British subject and only individuals who betray their own country can be traitors. Joyce was born in the United States in 1906 to an Irish immigrant father who had taken U.S. citizenship in 1894, making William Joyce an American citizen (his mother was from England). However, Joyce had once fraudulently obtained a British Passport. The British authorities later used this to charge him with treason anyway. One historian quipped that Joyce was hanged for lying on his passport application.
This is another good find of a little-known story. It seems that only a couple dozen Brits (and Commonwealth men) joined the British Free Corps. But it shows what would have happened if the British had declined to fight Hitler in 1939. Hitler's conquests and standing would have increased, and perhaps many thousands of Brits would have been deluded into taking up his cause. Winston Churchill understood that instinctively, and picked up the cudgel.
In Canada veterans and active members have a personal little pub that's called a legion, used for cheap drinks for the boys and fundraisers and community events. I'm pretty sure it's the same for the brits
I would like to ask, did any Chinese join the German WH or SS at that time? I know that China sent some students to study in the German military academy in the early days-1933-1936
Haven't come across this. Also because just before WWII or when it just started the German-Sino friendship was cancelled. This was due to the Tripartite Pact with Japan.
In fact there was a chinese officer who served in the Wehrmacht. It was no one lesser than Chiang Wei Kuo - a later high general of the taiwanese Army. In the Wehrmacht he was the commander of a brigade.
@@HistoryHustle well, public opinion is so easyly swayed and the hero of today so easyly disreputed tomorrow... I mean no offense, yet the lustre of todays icons are so quickly trod under the heel of the present day propaganda... It reminds me so much of Orwells " memory holes" or "double think"! Only the "pure" truth that has the anointment of the political correctness may be uttered, sorry to say, but as a studied historian, I dare to challenge "simple truth's":, as history/reality is usually far more facetted and complicated (and slippery/unsavoury) than presented to the public... I'm in no way a right winger, quite the opposite, but the sycophantic righteousness of some historic presentations troubles me! As if we had all the wisdom bestowed upon us from the birth... I'd hate to see posteriorities verdict oc our own's actions, gauging it by the levity that our contemporary "elucidated" pass verdicts! (Not excempting myself... Judge nobody, unless you have walked a day in his shoes!) All I want to say is: do not judge, for by the measure you do judge, you'll be found guilty! Or, as Hamlet said: Be strict and who would be safe from the rod? (Or so I recall...,)
@@HistoryHustle I really do not wish to pardon those "volunteers" of the Freicorps, they should be only understood within the frame of their times, circumstances and mentality... The British Empire was no Elysium compared to its contemporary environment either!
Would suck to be them. Have to be careful how far to take your views. Should always take precautions never to go against ones own country. If you do want to join country not alined with your own and especially it that county be at war against your own country its your duty to change citizenship in my opinion.
@@HistoryHustle I listened to it and learned that Britain's strategy for generations was to destroy the cohesion and power of Continental Europe and especially Germany. TIK excuses that as being "just business" -- an excuse he never allows Germany even before Hitler came along. Seems that WW2 was just Perfiidious Albion's last act. Ironically, Britain and NATO now want that old German militarism back again. You couldn't make this stuff up.
@@HistoryHustleWon't matter if they want it or not. If this war with Russia continues to escalate, they will NEED some old fashioned German militarism to succeed. Didn't we see the opposite effect of that in the recent Leopard controversy?
Britisches Frei Corps was (probably) chosen as a title on the tradition of the german "Freicorps" since Frederick Il "the Great"'s days, meaning a independent unit, yet operating in loose connection to their masters state. Same after 1918 when the "Freicorps" operated in the east, baltic, poland or what is now russia/ukrainia... so the fiction of an independent volunteer force could be upheld, see akso the Jamesons raid into transvaal 1895... History reoeats itselve, watch out for the patterns! (Ukrainia today, Taiwan tomorrow...)
@@HistoryHustle He is basically talking about a list That registred camps guards with british Names, there were other dozen of british subjects that served the german as Hiwi's, with two of them being awarded the Iron cross 2nd class (those hilfswiliger were never incorporated into the BFC). I think that the failure of creating a full fledge combat unit, is majoritarly due to german not doing any kind of seroius research (outside the POW sphere).
It should be noted that the BF uniform shown in the colour photo is a reproduction, as no uniforms or insignia from this unit is believed to have survived.
@@HistoryHustle I’m a collector military items and have done some research on this subject. With such small numbers of volunteers along side the desire to erase any possible connections to this organization, it is highly unlikely anything survived particularly an intact officer’s uniform (the hat is also fake). I’ve questioned world class collectors on the subject and none have seen any original insignia let alone a uniform of any rank. I enjoy your program and have been a subscriber for sometime, keep up the good work.
british union of facists says otherwise had the UK fallen.........I doubt we would be saying that not to mention the nazi loving royal in the midst as well.
Adrian Weil’s book Renegades is the definitive account the of the unit.. which was a real failure in all ways.. the fight against communism was only slightly attractive the rations and freedom were a bigger draw…but great video thank you so much
an interesting oddity. the so-called British Free Corps was small and made up of oddballs and renegades. the only real soldier it seems was a guy called Cooper, who had been in the Waffen-SS for some time and had actually fought with Das Reich Division on the Eastern Front. he was less than impressed to be transferred to the new renegade unit. few of the renegades actually intended to do any actual fighting. they were a propaganda unit. stories of them being sent to the front in 1945 to face the Red Army seem confused. one version has them actually fighting and another has German commander rejecting them and saying he "needed real soldiers".. given that Germany were using foreign troops extensively by 1945 and most were in small units with grandoise titles .. a foreign SS division were seldom larger than a battalion.. the British SS were a couple of dozen!
There exists in Switzerland a ledger containing 1300 names of BFC people, Railton Freeman a BFC man claimed to have seen this and a Jewish source quoted a register of 1500 members. The Germans produced 800 union jack arm badges for the BFC, being short of materials, it logically follows they would not have speculatively produced so many badges for only 55 or so members?
@@johnsm.692 no but having read Renegades by Weale and Traitors by Ireland, the numbers mentioned in both books of 30-50 wouldn’t have warranted machine made insignia. Neither of these books mention levels of 1300 or even 800 or 500. Also SoF Military who make replica SS clothing and insignia and most books on SS regalia incl that by Lumsden advise that the low numbers for the BFC meant that their insignia would most likely have been hand made!!!
@@johnsm.692 well they weren’t issued uniforms until April ‘44 when Germany was already on the back foot and the authorities would’ve had higher priorities for their machinery...and hand embroidered was the best you could get!!
I don't think the British fought Germany because of fascism,I think the main reason we declared war was to keep the balance of power in Europe as it was and not let Germany be the controling power.
This war against Fascism is a complete myth...Greece was fascist and was an ally of the west!! Also Germany was Nazi NOT fascist - there are huge differences in policy which conveniently get omitted by most historians!!
@@MemphisFlash84 Greece was initially neutral. It only joined the Allies after an invasion by the Axis (actually only Italy at first), a case similar to many other European countries.
