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.

Later recruits

A bombing raid against Berlin damaged a good portion of the camp prior to a second batch of POWs being brought in. It was decided to move the men to a requisitioned cafe in the Pankow district, overseen by Wilhelm "Bob" Rossler, a German Army interpreter. Prior to the move, the BFC gained two members, Francis George MacLardy of the Royal Army Medical Corps, (he was captured in Belgium) and Edwin Barnard Martin of the Canadian Essex Scottish Regiment, (Martin was captured at Dieppe in 1942), which brought the strength of the BFC to seven. POWs were brought into the camp once it was repaired, until the recruiting effort was halted in December 1944. Brown reported to the Germans that the handling of the camp fostered distrust among the POWs, and was counter-productive for obtaining recruits for the BFC. Meanwhile Brown, as their front man, continued a dangerous game of gathering intelligence while deterring recruits from joining the BFC, which work gained him the Distinguished Conduct Medal after the war.

Related Topics:
Royal Army Medical Corps - Canadian Essex Scottish Regiment - Dieppe - Distinguished Conduct Medal

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Oskar Lange, who was overseeing the camps, hit upon another idea to gain recruits, and, he

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hoped, give him more stature. While the earlier holiday camps only entertained long term POWs, Lange proposed that they take newly captured prisoners, who were still in a state of confusion, and work on them while they were vulnerable at a new camp in Luckenwalde. The camp was commanded by Hauptmann Hellmerich of German intelligence with his chief interrogator, Feldwebel Scharper. Scharper was not above using blackmail to get what he wanted and his tactics included fear, intimidation, and threats to coerce prisoners into joining.

Related Topics:
Luckenwalde - Hauptmann - Feldwebel

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The first group of POWs to be taken to Luckenwalde were mainly from the Italian theatre. One such case was Trooper John Eric Wilson of No.3 Commando which illustrated the techniques used by the camp. Upon arrival, he was stripped, made to watch his uniform get ripped to pieces, and then given a blanket to cover up with. Placed in a cell with just the blanket and fed 250 grams of bread and a pint of cabbage soup, he was only allowed out to empty the waste bucket. After two days like this, he was taken before an "American", who was in fact Scharper. Wilson was asked his rank (about which Wilson lied, saying he was a staff sergeant), name, number, and date of birth, then returned to his cell. Left alone, a "British POW" would come in from time to time, offer cigarettes and conduct idle chit-chat. The end result was that the isolation and the mistreatment led to him holding on to the "POW" who showed kindness to him. When dragged before Scharper some days later and offered the choice of joining the BFC or staying in solitary, it can be understood why Wilson chose the BFC. With this initial success, it was deemed this method would be the gateway to expanding the BFC and in turn, 14 men were made to join. This including men from such esteemed units as the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders and the Long Range Desert Group.

Related Topics:
Italian theatre - Staff sergeant - Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders - Long Range Desert Group

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However, things fell apart when these men, told they would be joining a unit of thousands, arrived at their billets in the cafe, and found the "unit" amounted to a handful of men who were more interested in the opportunity of freedom or were Fascist in their outlook. At this time, Edwin Martin attempted to take advantage of the discord to disrupt the BFC, but it did not have the desired effect. Two of the men broke away from the cafe and got into Holiday Camp 517 to report to Brown who then complained to Cooper. Cooper then addressed the men at the cafe billet and promised that those who did not want to remain could leave. (To prevent the truth about the BFC reaching the general POW population, these men were isolated in a special camp.) By December 1943, the BFC returned to eight men in strength.

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In spite of the tiny size of the unit, the Waffen-SS continued to work on the BFC. The first

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step was to appoint an officer. Because of the nature of the BFC, the candidate had to be

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trustworthy, have a good understanding of English, be a skilled leader and have excellent

Related Topics:
English - Leader

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administrative skills. This job fell to SS-Hauptsturmführer Hans Werner Roepke. A highly

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educated man, Roepke's grasp of English came from his time as an exchange student before the war. His military service included being a private in the Reichswehr, then as a law man with the Allgemeine-SS, before being called up to serve as a flak officer with the SS-"Wiking" division. He was made the commander of the BFC in November 1943.

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