Trigg Hitler's Flemish Lions

The History of the SS-Freiwilligan Grenadier Division Langemarcke (Flamische Nr. I)
1. Auflage 2011
ISBN: 978-0-7524-7853-1
Verlag: Spellmount
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 160 Seiten

Reihe: Hitler's Legions

Motivated by anti-communist zeal and a burning desire for Flemish self-rule, the men of the SS Langemarck answered Himmler's call to arms and earned a reputation for steadfastness in battle from friend and foe alike, right through to their eventual destruction by the Soviets in 1945. The exploits of key figures such as the famous Flemish Knight's Cross winner Remy Schrijnen are covered in detail. Written by a former captain in the British Army, this is the second in Spellmount's new series on Hitler's foreign Legions, following the best-selling Hitler's Gauls.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Trigg, Jonathan

Leseproben

I

A Tale of Two Peoples: The Flemish and the Walloons

Belgium is a small country of around ten million inhabitants, and alongside its next-door neighbour, the Netherlands, it lies sandwiched between the twin giants of Germany to the east and France to the west. The southern half of Belgium is Walloonia, based on the medieval cities of Charleroi and Namur and containing about forty per cent of the population. The Walloons are Gallic in language, culture and outlook. French-speaking, they have always followed their southerly neighbours, the French. The northern half of Belgium, the provinces of West-Vlaanderen, East-Vlaanderen, Antwerpen, Brabant and Limburg, constitute the ancient territory of Flanders (Vlaanderen in Flemish and Flandern in German) and its inhabitants are called the Flemish. The Flemish make up the majority of the Belgian population, about sixty per cent, and speak their own language, which is closely related to Dutch and German. The country, like so much of the Low Countries, is still quite rural, with fertile, flat farmland stretching away in all directions. The countryside is dotted with prosperous and well-kept towns and villages and a few historic cities such as Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp which dominate the landscape, geographically, politically and culturally. The racial divide between these two peoples is the dominating issue in the history of Belgium and the most important factor in understanding the men who fought in the Langemarck and its predecessor units.

Rome and the Belgae

Present-day Belgium is named after its original Celtic inhabitants, the tribe of the Belgae. As with the rest of Celtic Europe (bar far-flung Scotland and Ireland), the Belgae were conquered by the Roman legions. Over nearly four centuries of the Pax Romana the local Celts in the fertile lands of the Belgae became thoroughly Romanised and integrated into the Empire. But finally, right at the beginning of the fifth century AD, the era of imperial Rome was coming to a bloody close (at least in the West) as a vast tide of barbarian Germanic tribes moved relentlessly over what was the imperial frontier – the mighty River Rhine.

The Germans are coming

Although at the time it was thought that the Empire was suffering from a series of invasions, we now know that it was actually the frontal edge of a huge migration that had started thousands of miles east on the borders of China. As nomadic peoples such as the Huns and Scythians moved west in search of fresh grazing and hunting grounds they displaced the tribes they met, who in turn pushed other tribes to move farther to the west, and so on. The net result was an irresistible wave that came crashing into the Western Roman Empire when it was at its weakest point in more than two centuries. For Roman Gaul (modern-day Belgium and parts of France, the Netherlands and Germany east of the Rhine) that meant a host of ferocious Teutons arriving in successive migrations over more than a century. Some of the barbarians moved through Gaul and onwards to other provinces: the Visigoths and Ostrogoths to Spain, the Asding and Gepid Vandals to North Africa and the Lombards to northern Italy. Some settled specific areas and gave them their names, for example the Burgundians and Suevi settled Burgundy and Swabia in southern Germany respectively. Others conquered territories and became the overlords of the people who already lived there.

One such tribe were the Franks, who, like all of the Teutonic peoples, were tall, blond haired and blue-eyed warriors. They moved into Gaul, seized land, built houses and began to farm and trade. In a few places they settled in large numbers, but in most they were fairly thinly spread, and overall they were greatly outnumbered by the existing Romano-Gallic inhabitants. Over time they intermarried and absorbed the language and customs of their new neighbours. In this manner, modern-day France began to establish its own identity, not Teutonic but Gallic. This meant that the true racial frontier between the invading mass of Germanic tribes and the settled Romano-Gauls lies not in France but in modern-day Belgium, or more accurately in its northern half, Flanders.

The Germanic Flemish

Flanders was the high water mark of mass migration westwards by the Teutons in Continental Europe. As it is with tectonic plates in the earth’s crust – the pressures and cataclysms as the opposing masses strain against each other – so it is with human beings, and it is the eternal fate of the Flemish to lie at the northern end of the great curving ‘racial’ plates that separate the Germanic peoples of north and central Europe from their Latin and Celtic neighbours to the south and west. In the far south this line is anchored in Italy’s Alto Adige region (the old Austrian South Tyrol), Italian in name and Germanic in blood, the curve then stretches north and west through the mixed peoples of Switzerland, up through the oft-disputed French provinces of Alsace-Lorraine, into Luxembourg and on into the Netherlands and finally Flanders.

The Dutch won their independence from Imperial Spain in 1581, and have hung onto it ever since, but the history of the Flemish is not of independence but of periodic conflict with their mighty French-speaking neighbours, and occasional disaster as they have suffered from either an expansionist German or French policy.

Medieval Flanders

The heyday of Flanders was in Medieval times. The entire Flemish population that now sits across modern Flanders, northern France and southern Holland came under the control of the ancient County of Flanders and its next-door neighbour the Duchy of Brabant. These two small but influential territories sat at the heart of western civilisation and were courted and fought over by successive monarchs from across Europe for their power, wealth and geographical position. The Flemish and their Dutch cousins were at the forefront of western European trade and burgeoning industries, particularly weaving, cloth making and metal working. For the English kings the Flemish were a gateway to mainland Europe, a maritime power in their own right and the destination for so much of England’s ‘white gold’: sheep wool.

The huge flocks of sheep that covered England and much of Wales were harvested to supply massive amounts of wool to the workshops of Flanders, which turned the high-quality fleeces into clothes for much of Europe and even beyond. Such was the wealth that this trade generated for both sides, England in particular, that in the House of Lords the Lord High Chancellor of the United Kingdom still sits on a battered old scrap of woolsack.

Kortrijk – The Flemish Bannockburn

The trading strength of England was protected by its king, but the Flemish had no equivalent overlord to safeguard their interests. Instead, they formed themselves into powerful trade guilds with complex structures and strict codes to regulate their businesses and promote their growing wealth and influence. In time, the guilds came to dominate the cities of Flanders such as Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp, as well as the surrounding countryside. This type of organisation stood outside the feudal order of European society, as it did not rely on the countryside for its wealth and was controlled by a class of artisans and merchants rather than landed magnates.

This was, of course, anathema to Flanders’ feudal neighbour France, who cast covetous eyes upon Flanders. In 1300 King Philip IV of France, Philip the Fair, attempted to annex the County by imprisoning the native Count of Flanders, Gwidje van Dampierre, and imposing his own governor, Jacques de Chatillon. Civil unrest broke out throughout the County, leading in 1302 to the infamous Good Friday massacre of every French citizen within the city walls of Bruges. The French response was to send a powerful army under Count Robert II of Artois to crush the uprising. After assembling at Arras in northern France the French host moved on to the city and castle of Kortrijk, the gateway to Flanders.

Robert of Artois’ army was extremely impressive. It may have only totalled about 8,000 men, including 1,000 crossbowmen, 1,000 pikemen and 3,500 light infantrymen, but at its core lay over 2,500 heavy armoured cavalry. It was this force that made the French army truly dangerous. European warfare was still dominated by the aristocratic heavy horseman covered in full armour and wielding sword, lance and shield. Standard military methodology at the time equated one such cavalryman to ten foot soldiers in terms of effectiveness on the battlefield. By this calculation the French force stood at just over 30,000 strong in terms of combat power. In contrast to this feudal army of French chivalry, the Flemish force of just 9,000 men was composed wholly of infantrymen. The Flemish troops were composed overwhelmingly of urban guild militias. Willem Van Gullik (the deposed Count Gwidje’s grandson) and Pieter De Coninck commanded 3,000 men from Bruges, Gwidje Van Namen (also called Guy of Namur - the son of Count Gwidje) led 2,500 men from coastal Flanders, and 2,500 men came from east Flanders including John Borluut’s 700 men from Ghent and a further 500 from Ypres. In reserve for the Flemish sat John of Rennesse’s 500 men. All of the militia were well equipped with pikes, infantry armour and shields, but they were considered no match for the might of the Capetian host.

The Flemish force also made for Kortrijk to seize the castle themselves and by a twist of fate the two armies arrived pretty much simultaneously. They spent 9 and 10 July manoeuvring for any advantage they could gain, but finally on the 11th the two hosts confronted each other in a large,...