A number of British and other colonial forces joined the Nazi SS during World War Two. These were usually captured individuals who decided to join the Nazi-supporting British Free Corps (BFC). The Nazis intended to use it as a propaganda tool to divide the Allies and help in battles – but instead the incompetence of the unit meant that it was a burden on the Nazis. Steve Prout returns to the site and explains.
Kenneth Berry and Alfred Minchin, members of the British Free Corps, with German officers in April 1944.
World War Two paints the picture of the Nazi SS as a brutal, ruthless yet elite fighting force second to none. It closely followed a strict and stringent recruitment policy based on Nazi ideology - they were the Germans Army’s military special forces recruiting only the finest.
In the final stages of the war the Germans had exhausted much of its supply of experienced soldiers. The SS widened their recruiting net to include foreign nationals in the POW camps. The SS approached certain Britons with fascist sympathies (most of which had memberships with Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists prior to the war). It is these British volunteers that made up a very peculiar crew when they were drafted into the SS.
John Amery – The Founder
John Amery was the son of the renowned politician Leopold Amery. He was an ardent fascist and member of the British Union of Fascists. He led a life in complete contrast to his father with a string of business failures and numerous embarrassments. A life that ended at the gallows.
Seeking to escape this self-inflicted stigma he left England to participate in the Spanish Civil War on the Franco side with a fellow French Fascist Jacques Doriot.
Amery would embellish his account on his brief contribution to that war. He then travelled to France with Doriot to soon earn the disdain of the new Vichy government. This strained relationship would cause him numerous inconveniences and restrictions. Doriot helped him escape from France in 1943 to Germany where the Nazis would hear Amery’s ideas.
Amery proposed to the Germans the establishment of what would become the BFC - British Free Corps, which would be a detachment of the SS to fight on the Eastern front. It was not an original plan as Doriot his friend had already formed a French version.
The Germans had other successes as France and Holland provided twenty thousand volunteers each, the Baltic and Russian states offered over one hundred thousand, and an Indian detachment of nearly five thousand amongst others. The Germans now had hopes for a British detachment for propaganda purposes to upset British-Soviet relations.
The Team
Amery was hoping to replicate these successes and so he started to select a core of British and Commonwealth POWs to build his army for action on the Eastern Front in its crusade against communism. The team he would select would be one of a very poor quality and make a very curious crew. His participation terminated in late 1943, forced upon by the exasperated Germans.
The original name, “Legion of St George”, was abandoned and was replaced by the “British Free Corps” suggested by new member Alfred Minchin (being his only noteworthy contribution combat or otherwise).
The name itself, the British Free Corps, was misleading as the group was not exclusively British. New Zealanders, numerous Australians, South Africans and some Canadians were all identified post WWII.
The group would be largely comprised of “poor types”. Listing and commenting on every member would offer no value but the ones presented in this piece largely represent the quality of this anomalous military faction. Out of a rumored one thousand who applied most would be rejected. The group never exceeded more than thirty but that reduced to seven as the war neared its end.
The Sum of the Parts
1.The BFC’s own “Walter Mitty”
Douglas Berville-Claye had many aliases and back-stories and cut a colorful figure. In fact, he could have been one of the first real life Walter Mitty’s. His early military career saw him failing his pilot training and swiftly going AWOL to partake in a bigamist marriage. He would spend most of his life impersonating officers, funding his life by all kinds of fraudulent means. He would deceptively work his way to an officer’s rank in the SAS where on his first mission in Crete he was captured.
After his capture he quickly fell afoul of his fellow POWs and was sent to the BFC by an officer in the German Army, Felix Steiner, who like the British before him believed his boasts and put him in an officer role.
He pretended to be many things, fooling both the British and Germans. He was not a man committed to anything Pro–Nazi or Anti-Soviet but only to himself. If anything, he was a proficient con man and chancer caught up between two sides in the war.
His deceptive ways would continue long after the war, landing him in all kinds of trouble with the law but not for membership of the BFC - where the evidence against him was inadmissible.
2.The Deserters and Time Wasters
There were plenty of time wasters and no shortage of deserters. A few only stayed a few days before requesting to be returned to their detention camps as in the case of Robert Chipchase, an Australian. and numerous others like him. A large number were brutally coerced and would soon leave and those that remained were of little fighting value.
If there was such a term as a “serial deserter” then Herbert Rowlands fitted that description. He had deserted from The International Brigade in the Spanish Civil War fighting for the Republicans. The war would see him desert the British Army to join the German side and swiftly desert again. Indeed, a man of no dedicated, commitment or cause. Most would desert as the tide of the war turned against Germany.
3.The Womanizers
For many the BFC offered a chance to indulge in womanizing and access to alcohol away from the dull life of internment. They were oblivious to the future consequences. William Alexander was one example.
An Australian, Roy Barker, a man deemed by Thomas Cooper (he will have a special mention shortly) of “inferior intelligence” joined for the same women and alcohol and when the crucial call to duty arrived, he would smoke aspirin to get himself medically discharged on the eve of battle.
George Croft was hated by fellow POWs, fled to the BFC, and would swiftly contract gonorrhea.
Both Edward Jacobs and Charlie Munn had their conduct used as blackmail against them by the Germans. They would soon serve a short period of service before being rejected and returned to isolation camps.
4.The Criminal Faction
Eric Pleasants was not a military man at the start of the war and was removed from the Channel Islands after he was caught by the Germans with fellow prisoner and future BFC member John Leicester burgling the homes of the residents. They were both dispatched to a French prison where they would lie and pretend to be Merchant Seamen to obtain better rations, which led them to the BFC.
Both were also classic time wasters as Pleasants’ left the BFC in January 1944 only to re-join a few short months later after finding the labor camps too harsh. He and Lester made their intentions clear that being conscientious objectors before the war they had no plans to fight on the Russian Front. In fact, they admitted to fellow member Minchin that they only sought a good time. The end of the war would see him incarcerated in a Soviet gulag until his release in 1952. He made spurious claims, included killing two Soviet soldiers with his bare hands (interestingly he did not incur the wrath of the Soviets who killed others for less). The British did not prosecute, acknowledging that his punishment in the Soviet gulag was sufficient.
Roy Courlander, a New Zealander, one of the “Big Six” prominent members, was also of a criminal background. He had been convicted on charges of burglary in New Zealand before the war. He bizarrely posed as a White Russian Immigrant to justify his anti-Soviet views despite being London born. His choice for joining the SS was surprising with him having a Lithuanian father of Jewish descent.
When he was assigned to recruitment drives in the internment camps or leading propaganda broadcasts, he would focus his energies undermining Amery for control of the group, sensing that he was falling out of favor with the Germans.
Not only did Courlander turn against his country but towards the end of the war he deserted the Germany side as well. Finding that he was on the losing side he quickly deserted and joined the Belgian resistance to fight against the Germans. We are unsure of his contribution there, but it did not save him from a fifteen-year sentence at the end of the war.
Tom Perkins, a purported pre-war prison officer would find himself expelled through concealing a pistol to sell on. Interestingly, Cooper suspected that Perkins’ knowledge of prisons was not from his claim to being a prison officer but from the experiences of “being inside the cell rather than the outside.”
5.Other Undesirables
Kenneth Berry, Amery’s first and only lasting recruit, was in his post-trial considered a “young fool” who again would offer nothing to the project due to his inexperience (perhaps reflected in his seven-month prison sentence). John Wilson, a sexually obsessed and former poor performing commando, the only officer material to be recruited quickly, showed his ineptitude in leadership and quickly had himself appointed to a liaison position to avoid actual combat.
Hugh Cowie is also worthy of a special mention for his racist behavior and incessant scandals. He insisted on a whites only organization and saw to the removal of six Maoris who they sought to enlist. One could argue Cowie did the allies a service by depriving the project of six willing members. It is interesting that other accounts name a Roland Barker for these racist objections. It is not impossible that both were guilty of sharing similar views
Frank MacLardy, a captured army medical officer (one of the Big Six), also did little to assist the movement. He was an ardent member of the British Fascist Party prior to the war. He was not an unintelligent man being a trained Pharmacist and Treasurer of the BUF. His extreme views would result in fighting between him and his fellow BFC members. It would also be the only fighting he would be involved in.
MacLardy tried on several occasions to use his failing health as a means of repatriation and joined the BUF for a more comfortable existence. At the first sign of hostilities and not before did he make his escape and surrender to the advancing American army. His inactivity, disruptive tendencies and general ineffectiveness served his country well with its detrimental effect on the corps.
6.The Worst of the Worst
Thomas Cooper was the only one to be branded and accused of being a war criminal. Thomas Cooper left Britain a bitter and rejected man for Nazi Germany in 1938. He had failed to secure any positions when he applied for all sections of the armed forces and the police force. He had joined the British Union of Fascists and quickly established contact with the Nazis.
After a brief spell of private tutoring in Germany he was approached to join the SS in 1940. He was quickly drafted and served in several capacities before moving to the BFC. He was also rumored to be complicit in numerous war crimes involving alleged genocidal activities in Krakow. However, this was unproven - despite his retracted boasts and testimonies from former unreliable BFC members.
He remained bitter to his home country and looked forward to German victory and occupation so he could take out his revenge on those who excluded him, in his words “settle scores with people who refused him work.”
He also secretly undermined Amery for control of the group, sensing that Amery fell out of favor with the German High Command.
Courlander’s treachery went full circle. Towards the end of the war, he deserted the German ranks after realizing that he was on the losing side and joined the Belgian resistance. It did not however save him from a fifteen-year sentence at the war’s end.
7. A few good apples
There were genuine saboteurs within the ranks.
Thomas Freeman was first to assign to the BFC the label as “poor types”. Freeman would face no charges proving that he used the BFC as a ruse then means of escape, which he succeeded in. He helped identify several BFC members after the war.
Sergeant John Henry Brown requires special mention as he was awarded the DMC for his conduct in feeding back intelligence and subtly sabotaging the efforts of the recruitment drive. Throughout his captivity he exploited German confidence to undermine the BFC. He was so convincing that his own side believed him to be a real collaborator.
Scharper was one of the German officers who was now responsible for recruiting. He subjected newly captured Allied soldiers to psychological and physical torture who were isolated, still in shock and vulnerable. The idea was while in this state they would be easier to coerce into joining the BFC. He assisted other BFC members, notably Edward Martin. The effect would only be for the short term.
Sergeant John Brown convinced Cooper that coerced recruits would not be conducive to a stable team. As they gathered in numbers in the BFC camps, being no longer isolated, the majority demanded their retraction.
Conclusion
Given the quality of the individuals it was inevitable that the BFC failed to achieve its objectives. Many were put on trial after the war, resulting in one execution and the rest barely serving a fraction of their sentences. The matter was quickly forgotten amid the post-war challenges.
This whole debacle was more of a benefit to the Allied cause (albeit unintentionally) owing to the combined ineffectiveness of these “poor types”. The Germans had taken the worst of the British POWs and unwittingly installed a problem child inside their own military machine. The quality of the men would only result in failure. The time wasted on supervision, the running of the camps, training, discipline, recaptures of escapees and general administration on indoctrination and membership turnover meant that a piece of the German war effort had been distracted.
A South African namely Doug Marden was given charge of the BFC in April 1945. He would report back to his German commanders shortly before fighting that they were not fit for purpose (which was true). Subsequently they were then consigned to unimportant logistical support duties.
The intended propaganda tool to split the Allied coalition became an embarrassment as well as a spectacular failure for the Germans. Perhaps moving these errant individuals from the camps was a blessing for the many loyal ones - and keeping their shortcomings from contaminating the active Allied ranks.
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Now read Steve’s article on Britain’s relations with the Great Dictators in the inter-war years here.
Bibliography
Renegades: Hitler’s Englishmen – Adrian Weale- 1994 – Random House – (Kindle)
Britische Freikorps: British Volunteers in the Waffen SS 1943-1945 – Richard Landwehr – 1992- Merriman Press
Jewish Virtual Library
