'La Grande Armeé in Field Gray': The Legion of French Volunteers Against Bolshevism, 1941. Issue 3 (2nd July 2016) - Beyda, Oleg
ABSTRACT: This article has been compiled on the basis of documents from French, German, and Soviet archives and reconstructs the history of the Legion of French Volunteers Against Bolshevism (LVF) in 1941. Often neglected or scarcely mentioned, the 638th Infantry Regiment was the only formation of the Wehrmacht that took part in the advance on Moscow. Undertrained, poorly equipped, and torn by inside political rivalries, the regiment still marched to the front and fought the Red Army in December 1941. Being almost destroyed, the formation was then withdrawn and thoroughly purged and reshaped by the Germans, who wanted to gain more from the collaboration with the Frenchmen. The experience of 1941 thus constitutes the first — even if unsuccessful — stage of this collaboration, both military and political, that dragged on until 1944.