Ostlegionen

Yang Kyoungjong was a Korean who was forced to serve in the Imperial Japanese Army, Red Army and an Ost-Bataillon, a foreign unit of the Wehrmacht. He was captured by US forces in Normandy in 1944.

Personnel from the Turkestan Legion in France c.1943.

Members of the Nordfrankreich Legion recruited from the Reichskommissariat of Belgium and Northern France, France 1943.

Ostlegionen ("eastern legions"), Ost-Bataillone ("eastern battalions"), Osttruppen ("eastern troops"), Osteinheiten ("eastern units") were military units in the Heer (army) of Nazi Germany, during World War II that were made up of personnel from countries comprising the Soviet Union. They represented a major subset within a broader use of use of non-German forces by the Wehrmacht (which, apart from the Heer, included the Waffen SS).

Some members of these units were conscripted or coerced into serving, whilst others volunteered. Many were former Soviet personnel, recruited from prisoner of war camps. Osttruppen were frequently stationed away from front lines and used for coastal defence or rear-area activities, such as anti-partisan operations, thus freeing up regular Axis forces for front line service.

They belonged to two distinct types of units:

• Ost-Bataillone were composed of various nationalities, raised mostly amongst POWs captured in Eastern Europe, who had been formed into battalion-sized units, which were integrated individually into German combat formations, and;
• Ostlegionen were larger foreign legion-type units raised amongst members of a specific ethnic minority or minorities, and comprising multiple battalions.

Members of Osteinheiten usually faced execution or harsh terms of imprisonment, if they were captured by Soviet forces or repatriated to the USSR by the western Allies.

Ost-Bataillone

Ost-Bataillone wore German uniforms and equipment and were integrated into larger German formations. They began as the private initiatives of individual military commanders, but eventually became formalized and by late 1943 they contained 427,000 personnel, a force equivalent to 30 German divisions. Most were utilized on the Eastern Front and in the Balkans.

During 1944, a number of Ost-Bataillone were stationed in northern France, in anticipation of a western Allied invasion. Units that fought in the Battle of Normandy were part of the German static infantry divisions 243 and 709, positioned in the vicinity of the Utah, Juno and Sword invasion beaches. Ost-Bataillone were also present in southern France, during the Allied landings codenamed Operation Dragoon (August 1944).

At least one Ost-Bataillon was still active in September 1944, during fighting north of Antwerp.

Ostlegionen

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ostlegionen.

• Hiwi (volunteer)
• Wehrmacht foreign volunteers and conscripts

Further reading

• The East Came West: Muslim, Hindu, And Buddhist Volunteers in the German Armed Forces, 1941-1945, edited by Antonio J. Munoz (Axis Europa Books, 2002, ISBN 1-891227-39-4).