Walloon Legion

Walloon Legion
Sleeve insignia of the Walloon Legion
Active	1941–1945
Allegiance	Nazi Germany
Branch	Wehrmacht (1941–1943) Waffen-SS (1943–1945)
Type	Infantry
Size	2,000 troops (maximum strength) 7,000–8,000 troops (total, 1941–1945) Battalion, brigade and later division, though never larger than brigade-strength.
Engagements	Eastern Front (World War II) Anti-Partisan operations in Ukraine Korsun-Cherkassy Pocket Operation Solstice[1] Battle of Tannenberg Line
Commanders
Notable commanders	Léon Degrelle (1944–45)

The Walloon Legion (French: Légion Wallonie, lit. "Wallonia Legion") was a unit of the German Army (Wehrmacht) and later of the Waffen-SS recruited among French-speaking collaborationists in German-occupied Belgium during World War II. It was formed in the aftermath of the German invasion of the Soviet Union and fought on the Eastern Front alongside similar formations from other parts of German-occupied Western Europe.

Established in July 1941, the Walloon Legion was envisaged by Léon Degrelle's Rexist Party as a means of demonstrating its loyalty and political indispensability in German-occupied Belgium where it had been largely ignored since the German invasion of May 1940. A similar formation had already been created by Flemish collaborators as the Flemish Legion, preventing Degrelle from being able to establish the "Belgian Legion" he had originally intended. The formation, initially part of the German Army, was officially designated Infantry Battalion 373 (Infanterie Bataillon 373). Degrelle himself enlisted and increasingly saw the unit as a more important political vehicle than the Rexist Party. It participated in fighting on the Eastern Front from February 1942 but struggled to find sufficient recruits in Belgium to replace its persistently heavy losses.

The unit was integrated into the Waffen-SS in June 1943 as the SS Assault Brigade Wallonia (SS-Sturmbrigade Wallonien) and was almost destroyed by Soviet forces in the Korsun–Cherkassy Pocket in February 1944. It expanded slightly after the Allied Liberation of Belgium in September 1944 as Belgian, French, and Spanish collaborators were drafted into the unit. It was upgraded to the notional status of a division and re-designated as the SS Volunteer Grenadier Division Wallonia (SS-Freiwilligen-Grenadier-Division Wallonien) in October 1944. After heavy losses during the 1945 retreats, its remaining personnel surrendered to British forces in April 1945.