British Free Corps

In World War II, the British Free Corps (BFC) or Britisches Freikorps was a unit of the Waffen-SS consisting of British and Dominion prisoners of war who had been recruited by the Nazis. Despite the notoriety of this unit, it was tiny: Adrian Weale's research has identified about 59 men who belonged to this unit at one time or another, some for only a few days, and at no time did it reach more than 27 men in strength — smaller than a contemporary German platoon.

After D-Day

With the success of the D-Day landings, some of the BFC men saw the writing on the wall and began to look for ways out. An incident involving the arrest of a BFC man for the theft of a pistol blew up, culminating in eight men, including Pleasants,

Related Topics:
D-Day landings - Pistol

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refusing to work setting up a football pitch; all of them were sent to SS punishment camps.

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Despite this, recruitment was stepped up, with the intent assemble as many volunteers

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as possible, get them trained for combat, and sent off to the front whether as a unit or

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as replacements for other units. It was here that Vivian Stranders, a SS-Sturmbannführer, sought to make a bid for power by making a move against Cooper and Roepke, intending to monopolize British recruiting, and perhaps assume command of the BFC. Stranders, originally a British subject, joined the Nazi party in 1932 and took German nationality. After the war began, he was posted to the Waffen-SS as an expert in British affairs.

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MacLardy abandoned the BFC, volunteering to join a Waffen-SS medical service unit. Two other

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men, one of them Courlander, could read the tealeaves and left the BFC by volunteering for

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service with the war correspondent unit "Kurt Eggers", which was operating on the Western Front. Their ultimate goal was to make for the Allied lines at the first chance. Courlander removed all of the BFC insignia from their uniforms, replacing them with the standard SS patches and rank. The two men boarded a train for Brussels in the company of a Flemish Waffen-SS unit. Once there, they turned themselves over to the British, becoming the first two BFC men to return to their homeland. Still, problems reigned. Two more recruits were gained, again blackmailed into joining over sexual contact with German women. With all these problems, the commander of the barracks went to Roepke to request the BFC be sent elsewhere. As it turned out, the BFC were indeed going to be moved.

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On October 11, 1944, the BFC arrived at Dresden, to begin training as assault pioneers at the Waffen-SS Pioneer School at the Wildermann Kaserne. Here, they would receive instruction in clearing obstacles, removing minefields, use of heavy weapons, demolition, and other tasks required of combat engineers. The BFC was issued with rifles, steel helmets, camouflage uniforms, and gas masks, then set about getting back into physical shape, and given courses in the use of machineguns, flamethrowers, and explosives. Picket and guard duty were assigned to the BFC as well. This attempt to turn the BFC into an actual combat unit came to a stop with the news of Roepke's dismissal. Stranders had been successful in ousting Roepke, replacing him with SS-Obersturmführer Dr. Walther Kuhlich, who was wounded during his stint with SS-"Das Reich", and was unfit for active frontline duty.

Related Topics:
Dresden - Wildermann Kaserne

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Cooper saw no future for himself in the BFC, and asked Wilson, who said he was in a similar frame of mind, to meet in Berlin to request a return to the stalags. The gig was up when Wilson, whose sole reason for going to Berlin was to go womanising, left Cooper high and dry and under arrest, the charge being sabotage of the BFC. Brought before Stranders and Kuhlich, Cooper was shown signed statements by several BFC men accusing him of anti-Nazi acts. A day later, he was formally charged by a SS prosecutor and sent to the LAH, working as a military policeman. Wilson, now in charge of recruiting, had no real intention of working hard to get new blood. Instead, he set about getting ex-BFC men who'd been kicked out back into the fold, notably Pleasants. In this, Wilson was successful. In the winter of 1944 and 1945, several new BFC recruits arrived, and the BFC returned to its training, all the while trying to put up a front to the other soldiers who felt the BFC led a soft life. Pleasants even managed to woo the secretary who worked for Kuhlich, marrying her in February 1945.

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Plans were afoot, however, to use the BFC in one last-ditch propaganda ploy. An attempt was made to cause a rift between Josef Stalin and the allied leaders, namely Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt. The main effort, called "Operation Koniggratz", attempted to sway British POWs being evacuated from the Polish stalags as the Soviets advanced. The plan was an abject failure and it was pondered how the BFC might be used to play a role in the effort, especially as they were training for combat on the Eastern Front.

Related Topics:
Josef Stalin - Winston Churchill - Franklin Roosevelt

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The BFC, meanwhile, found its morale taking a nose-dive once more, thanks in part to Wilson's lack of leadership and with Kuhlich absent in Berlin. Still, recruits for the BFC arrived, near the close of 1944, including two South Africans. Of these five, three turned out to be genuinely anti-Communist, one of them being swayed by BFC literature, the other two having wanted to initially join the SS Totenkopf Division until Kuhlich talked them into joining the BFC instead. By January 1945, the BFC was up to 27 men, three shy of the magic 30, but by this time the whole BFC idea was considered a total and complete failure. It did not help that six Maoris who had applied to the BFC were rejected by the men on the grounds it was a "whites only" unit. There was also the ongoing problem of having to deal with drunken and AWOL BFC men, notably one man who kept sneaking away to be with his girl.

Related Topics:
SS Totenkopf Division - Maoris

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With Wilson away, Hugh Cowie, a Gordon Highlander, hatched a plan to use his temporary position as senior NCO to escape. Captured in France in 1940, Cowie once tried to escape, was punished, and had been arrested for having a radio. Instead of a court-martial, he agreed to join the BFC the previous June. Cowie's plan was to use the pretext of going on a recruiting drive to obtain documentation for him and five others, join a train to the Eastern Front, lay low somewhere and let the Soviets overtake them. Once on the train, all the men (save one who didn't show), removed their BFC insignia, but were reported to the Gestapo by an innskeeper once they left the train at Olomouc. Cowie and one of the escapees were sent off to isolation camps while the other three agreed to remain with the BFC. The major blow to the aleady questionable value of this unit came when the Allies bombed Dresden on February 12, 1945, killing some 40,000 people. Some of the members took advantage of this to attempt an escape, but were betrayed to the Gestapo by the girlfriend of one of the plotters; the entire BFC was arrested, except for two members who managed to mingle with POWs being sent west and make their escape.

Related Topics:
1940 - Olomouc - February 12

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Still, the Gemans attempted to make some use of the unit. After the BFC men were released from jail, they were transferred to Berlin and billeted in a school on the Schonhauser Allee, to wait there while the required steps were taken to put them into the line. It was here that the last "volunteer" came forward, Frank Axon who had been captured in Greece in 1941. Accused of causing a cow to prematurely calf by hitting it, Axon chose service with the BFC over severe punishment. With the prospects of combat looming for a lost cause, the BFC men sought ways out once more. Three men were provided with British army uniforms by a sympathetic officer who sent them off to escape. Another man, who had a girlfriend with connections to the "Kurt Eggers" Regiment, managed to get transferred there. Pleasants, who had travelled to Prague the previous November to box against the SS police boxing team in the final round of the SS championship, went to the "Peace Camp" to participate in exhibition-bouts with Max Schmeling to the delight of German officers.

Related Topics:
Schonhauser Allee - Prague - Max Schmeling

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On March 8, 1945, the remaining BFC men were brought before Kuhlich who gave each a choice: fight at the front or be sent to an isolation camp. All of them chose to fight. Wilson, in no hurry to go into battle, managed to get himself a slot as liaison between the BFC and Kuhlichs' Berlin office. This left Douglas Mardon, a South African POW who had joined in January, in charge of the unit and in shaping up what he had: a grand total of eight men -- he refused to take two men, and Minchin had scabies. Mardon had to move the unit to a training camp in Niemeck, where the BFC men were given training in the use of the Panzerfaust and other tank killing methods. They were also issued with the StG44 (MP44) assault rifle and given training in its use. The unit strength was cut down to seven when one member was transferred after smoking aspirin until he became ill. At last, the Germans would get some use from the BFC.

Related Topics:
March 8 - Niemeck - StG44 (MP44)

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