page_title: Legion of French Volunteers Against Bolshevism
section_title: Operational history
hierarchical_section_title: Legion of French Volunteers Against Bolshevism / Operational history
context_page_description: The Legion of French Volunteers Against Bolshevism was a collaborationist military unit formed from volunteers in Vichy France in order to participate in the German invasion of the Soviet Union as part of the German Army alongside similar formations from other parts of German-occupied Europe. It was officially designated the 638th Infantry Regiment.
  Created in July 1941, the LVF was not supported by the Vichy administration but originated as part of a coalition of far-right political factions including Marcel Déat's National Popular Rally, Jacques Doriot's French Popular Party, Eugène Deloncle's Social Revolutionary Movement and Pierre Costantini's French League which explicitly supported Nazi policy. By contrast, Vichy's conservative and authoritarian leadership considered itself neutral and were more ambiguous about an alliance with Germany. However, the LVF was tolerated by Vichy and received limited personal endorsement from its leading figures.
  Smaller than originally anticipated, the LVF was sent to the Eastern Front in October 1941 and suffered heavy losses.
context_section_description: By October 1941, there were two battalions of 2,271 men which had 181 officers and an additional staff of 35 German officers. The internal cohesion of the unit was poor and significant internal rivalries existed, losing 400 men to desertion and disease before ever seeing action. They were sent into combat near Moscow in November and December 1941 as part of the 7th Infantry Division. The LVF lost half their men in action or through frostbite and some individual soldiers deserted to the Red Army in frustration. In 1942 the men were assigned to Bandenbekämpfung (so-called "bandit-fighting" against partisans, their supporters and killing Jews) in German-occupied Byelorussia (modern-day Belarus). At the same time, another unit was formed in France, La Légion Tricolore (Tricolor Legion) but this unit was absorbed into the LVF six months later.
  During the spring of 1942, the LVF was reorganized with only the 1st and 3rd battalions. The LVF's French commander, Colonel Roger Labonne, was relieved in mid-1942, and the unit was attached to various German divisions until June 1943 when Colonel Edgar Puaud took command. The two independent battalions were again united in a single regiment and continued fighting partisans, killing partisan supporters and Jews in Ukraine. Historian Jeff Rutherford claims that "Whilst the Wehrmacht focused on the Red Army, SD and other SS formations would combat any resistance movements in the rear. In effect, the German Army willingly ensnared itself in the Nazi machinery of annihilation and extermination by working with the SS to systematically suppress partisan movements and other forms of perceived resistance." Historian Timothy Snyder asserts that by the second half of 1942, "German anti-partisan operations were all but indistinguishable from the mass murder of the Jews." In early 1944, the unit again took part in rear-security operations. In June 1944, as Army Group Centre's front collapsed under the Red Army's summer offensive, the LVF was attached to the 4th SS Police Regiment and fought in a delaying action.
  A new recruiting drive in Vichy France attracted 3,000 applicants, mostly members of the Milice and university students. The new formation was known as the 8th SS Volunteer Sturmbrigade France (8. Freiwilligen Sturmbrigade "Frankreich"). On 1 September 1944, the Legion of French Volunteers was officially disbanded. A new unit, the Waffen-Grenadier-Brigade der SS "Charlemagne", was formed out of the remnants of the LVF and French Sturmbrigade, which was also disbanded. In February 1945, the Waffen-Grenadier-Brigade was officially upgraded to a division and became the 33rd Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS Charlemagne (1st French). At that time it had a strength of 7,340 men. SS Division Charlemagne members participated in the Battle in Berlin. Reduced to approximately thirty men, most French SS men surrendered near the Potsdamer rail station to the Red Army.
caption: Field Marshal Hans Günther von Kluge visits the regiment in November 1941
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