17 Facts About Indian Legion

Indian Legion, officially the Free India Legion or 950th Infantry Regiment, was a military unit raised during the Second World War initially as part of the German Army and later the Waffen-SS from August 1944.

The majority of the troops of the Indian Legion were given only non-combat duties in the Netherlands and in France until the Allied invasion.

At the time of the surrender of Nazi Germany in 1945, the remaining men of the Indian Legion made efforts to march to neutral Switzerland over the Alps, but these efforts proved futile as they were captured by American and French troops and eventually shipped back to India to face charges of treason.

Indian Legion arrived at the beginning of April 1941, and he met with foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop and later Adolf Hitler.

British Indian Legion Army organised regiments and units on the basis of religion and regional or caste identity.

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Consequently, the Indian Legion was organised as mixed units so that Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs all served side by side.

Uniform issued to the Indian Legion were the standard German Army uniform of feldgrau in winter and khaki in summer.

Standard of the Indian Legion, presented as the unit's colours in late 1942 or early 1943, featured the same design as the arm badge previously issued to the men of the Legion.

Indian Legion was organised as a standard German army infantry regiment of three battalions of four companies each, at least initially with exclusively German commissioned officers.

Adrian Weale has written that about 100 members of the Indian Legion were parachuted into eastern Persia in January 1942 tasked with infiltrating Baluchistan Province as Operation Bajadere.

Indian Legion was transferred to Zeeland in the Netherlands in April 1943 as part of the Atlantic Wall and later to France in September 1943, attached to the 344th Infantry Division and later the 159th Infantry Division of the Wehrmacht.

Indian Legion was stationed in the Lacanau at the time of the Normandy landings, and remained there for up to two months after D-Day.

The Indian Legion personnel noticed a change of command was at hand and started to complain.

Indian Legion said she found them an excellent topic for a mystery because scarcely any Germans had heard of the Indians who volunteered for the German Army.

Indian Legion nonetheless expressed admiration for the authoritarian methods which he saw in Italy and Germany during the 1930s, and thought they could be used in building an independent India.

The Indian Legion's volunteers were not merely motivated by the chance to escape imprisonment and earn money.

Attitude of the Indian Legion's soldiers was similar to that of the Italian Battaglione Azad Hindoustan, which had been of dubious loyalty to the Axis cause—it was disbanded after a mutiny.