List of foreign volunteers

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Emir Abdelkader, wearing the sash of the Legion d'Honneur presented to him by the French government.
The exiled Muslim Algerian, along with his 1,000 volunteers, protected most of the diplomats and thousands of Christians during the 1860 Mount Lebanon civil war. He was awarded the highest decorations by European governments. DamascusabdulKader.jpg
Emir Abdelkader, wearing the sash of the Legion d'Honneur presented to him by the French government.
The exiled Muslim Algerian, along with his 1,000 volunteers, protected most of the diplomats and thousands of Christians during the 1860 Mount Lebanon civil war. He was awarded the highest decorations by European governments.

The armed forces of many nations have, at one time or another, used foreign volunteers who are motivated by political, ideological or other considerations to join a foreign army. [1] These may be formed into units of a given nationality or may be formed into mixed nationality foreign units. Sometimes foreign volunteers were or are incorporated into ordinary units. The practice has a long history, dating back at least as far as the Roman Empire, which recruited non-citizens into Auxiliary units on the promise of them receiving Roman citizenship for themselves and their descendants at the end of their service. [2]

Contents

Mixed nationality units

Historic

Current

Also including nationals

  • Tercio de Extranjeros, or Tercio, or Spanish Legion - prior to 1987 and in the 2000s, after the abandonment of conscription, the Spanish Army is again accepting foreigners from select nationalities. The Legion today accepts male and female native Spanish speakers, mostly from Central American and South American states. Recruits are required to have a valid Spanish residence permit.

Only including foreigners

Units by nationality

American

During both world wars, American volunteers served on the allied side before the US joined the war. During World War I, there were even a few Americans who volunteered to fly for the Imperial German Flying Corps. [4]

Albanian

Bangladeshi

Belgian

British

Bulgarian

Bosnian

Canadian

Chinese

Croatian

Czech

Estonian

Filipino

Finnish

French

German

Greek

Indian

Irish

See also Irish military diaspora .

Israeli

Italian

Japanese

Korean

Moroccan

Nepalese

Polish

Portuguese

Rhodesian

Russian

Serbian

Scottish

South African

Spanish

Swedish

Swiss

Taiwanese

Ukrainian

Yugoslav

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>Waffen-SS</i> Military branch of the Nazi SS

The Waffen-SS was the combat branch of the Nazi Party's paramilitary Schutzstaffel (SS) organisation. Its formations included men from Nazi Germany, along with volunteers and conscripts from both German-occupied Europe and unoccupied lands. It was disbanded in May 1945.

Foreign Legion most often refers to:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">33rd Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS Charlemagne</span> French units of the Waffen-SS

The Waffen Grenadier Brigade of the SS Charlemagne was a Waffen-SS unit formed in September 1944 from French collaborationists, many of whom were already serving in various other German units.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Flemish Legion</span> German infantry division

The Flemish Legion was a collaborationist military formation recruited among Dutch-speaking volunteers from German-occupied Belgium, notably from Flanders, during World War II. It was formed in the aftermath of the German invasion of the Soviet Union and fought on the Eastern Front in the Waffen SS alongside similar formations from other parts of German-occupied Western Europe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walloon Legion</span> German infantry division

The Walloon 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Volunteer Legion Netherlands</span> German infantry division

The Volunteer Legion Netherlands was a collaborationist military formation recruited in the German-occupied Netherlands during World War II. It was formed in the aftermath of the German invasion of the Soviet Union and fought on the Eastern Front in the Waffen SS alongside similar formations from other parts of German-occupied Western Europe. It was the largest Dutch SS unit.

13th Waffen Mountain Division of the SS <i>Handschar</i> (1st Croatian) German mountain division of World War II

The 13th Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Handschar was a mountain infantry division of the Waffen-SS, an armed branch of the German Nazi Party that served alongside but was never formally part of the Wehrmacht during World War II. At the post-war Nuremberg trials, the Waffen-SS was declared to be a criminal organisation due to its major involvement in war crimes and crimes against humanity. From March to December 1944, the division fought a counter-insurgency campaign against communist-led Yugoslav Partisan resistance forces in the Independent State of Croatia, a fascist puppet state of Germany that encompassed almost all of modern-day Croatia, all of modern-day Bosnia and Herzegovina, and parts of Serbia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Serbian Volunteer Corps (World War II)</span> Serbian collaborationist paramilitary group during WWII

The Serbian Volunteer Corps, also known as Ljotićevci, was the paramilitary branch of the fascist political organisation Zbor, and collaborated with the forces of Nazi Germany in the German-occupied territory of Serbia during World War II.

In World War II, many governments, organizations and individuals collaborated with the Axis powers, "out of conviction, desperation, or under coercion." Nationalists sometimes welcomed German or Italian troops they believed would liberate their countries from colonization. The Danish, Belgian and Vichy French governments attempted to appease and bargain with the invaders in hopes of mitigating harm to their citizens and economies.

23rd Waffen Mountain Division of the SS <i>Kama</i> (2nd Croatian) German mountain division of World War II

The 23rd Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Kama was a German mountain infantry division of the Waffen-SS, the armed wing of the German Nazi Party that served alongside but was never formally part of the Wehrmacht during World War II. At the post-war Nuremberg trials, the Waffen-SS was declared to be a criminal organisation due to its major involvement in war crimes and crimes against humanity. The division was composed of German officers and Bosnian Muslim soldiers. Named Kama after a small dagger used by Balkan shepherds, it was one of the thirty-eight divisions fielded by the Waffen-SS during World War II. Formed on 19 June 1944, it was built around a cadre from the 13th Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Handschar but did not reach its full strength and never saw action as a formation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">30th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS</span> German infantry division

The 30th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS(1st Belarusian), originally called the 30th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS , was a short-lived German Waffen-SS infantry division formed largely from Belarusian, Russian, Polish, and Ukrainian personnel of the Schutzmannschaft-Brigade Siegling in August 1944 at Warsaw in the General Government.

<i>Waffen-SS</i> foreign volunteers and conscripts Recruits for the Waffen-SS in World War II

During World War II, the Waffen-SS recruited significant numbers of non-Germans, both as volunteers and conscripts. Of a peak strength of 950,000 in 1944, the Waffen-SS consisted of some 400,000 “Reich Germans” and 310,000 ethnic Germans from outside Germany’s pre-1939 borders, the remaining 240,000 being non-Germans. Thus, at their numerical peak, non-Germans comprised 25% of all Waffen-SS troops. The units were under the control of the SS Führungshauptamt led by Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler. Upon mobilisation, the units' tactical control was given to the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht.

Edgar Joseph Alexandre Puaud was a French army officer, who, in 1945, briefly became commander of the Charlemagne Division, a French unit of the Waffen-SS in the service of Nazi Germany.

The Hadžiefendić Legion or Muslim Legion was a Bosniak self-defence militia and Croatian Home Guard unit based in the predominantly Muslim Tuzla region of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) during World War II. The brigade–sized force was formally a "Volunteer Home Guard Regiment", and was raised in late December 1941 under the command of the former Royal Yugoslav Army reservist Major Muhamed Hadžiefendić, who had been commissioned into the Croatian Home Guard. By the end of the year, the Legion had commenced forming battalions in six towns in northeastern Bosnia.

<i>Wehrmacht</i> foreign volunteers and conscripts

Among the approximately one million foreign volunteers and conscripts who served in the Wehrmacht during World War II were ethnic Belgians, Czechs, Dutch, Finns, Danes, French, Hungarians, Norwegians, Poles, Portuguese, Swedes, Swiss along with people from Great Britain, Ireland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and the Balkans. At least 47,000 Spaniards served in the Blue Division.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Georgian Legion (Ukraine)</span> Georgian military unit in Ukraine

The Georgian National Legion or Georgian Legion is a military unit formed by mostly ethnic Georgian volunteers fighting on the side of Ukraine in the war in Donbas and the Russo-Ukrainian War. The unit was organized in 2014, and in 2016 it was made part of the Ukrainian Army, under the 25th Mechanized Infantry Battalion "Kyiv Rus". On 15 June 2024, the unit was classified as a terrorist organization by the Russian government.

A foreign fighter is someone who travels abroad to participate in a non-international armed conflict or fight for a country of which he or she is not a national.

The Russo-Ukrainian War has seen foreign volunteers participate on both sides of the conflict. Most foreign fighters joined the conflict during one of two waves. The first wave happened from 2014 to 2019 during the War in the Donbas and consisted of approximately 17,241 foreign fighters. The second wave is considered by researchers to have been much larger and began in 2022 after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

References

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