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Free Arabian Legion

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Free Arabian Legion
Free Arabian Legion Insignia
Active1941–1945
AllegianceKingdom of Italy Fascist Italy (initially)
 Nazi Germany
BranchKingdom of Italy Royal Italian Army (initially)
Wehrmacht
EngagementsWorld War II

The Free Arabian Legion (German: Legion Freies Arabien; Arabic: جيش بلاد العرب الحرة, romanized: Jaysh bilād al-ʿarab al-ḥurraẗ) was the collective name of several initially Italian and later German units formed from Arab volunteers from the Middle East, notably Iraq, and North Africa during World War II.

Operational history

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Origins

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At the beginning of April 1941, Iraqi politician Rashid Ali al-Gaylani, along with several more Iraqi officers who were part of the nationalist group Golden Square, overthrew the pro-British regime in the Kingdom of Iraq. The new pro-Nazi government sought German and Italian support for an Iraqi revolt against British forces in the country. Contact was established with the Axis powers with the help of the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Amin al-Husseini, who had been living in Iraq since he had fled imprisonment from Mandatory Palestine shortly before the war.[1]

In May 1941, the Anglo-Iraqi War began with British forces entering Iraq. Adolf Hitler had agreed to send Luftwaffe squadrons to support Iraq as well as Sonderstab F, a special mission headed by Hellmuth Felmy that intended to support the revolt.

By the end of May, the Iraqi forces had been beaten by the British, and al-Husseini and al-Gaylani fled to Iran and then Italy, and later Germany. After the defeat, a number of Arab sympathizers were shipped out of the Middle East through French Syria and ended up in Cape Sounion, Greece.[2]

A soldier from the Free Arabian Legion in German-occupied Greece in September 1943.
Training of Sonderverband 287 [de]
A black soldier of the Free Arabian Legion in Greece
Soldiers of the Free Arabian Legion distributing hand grenades in Greece. Note the original Sonderverband 287 arm-patch on the German NCO.

Units

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Hellmuth Felmy had by June been given command of Army Group Southern Greece and was to continue the raising of the German-Arab units through Sonderstab F, which had now been expanded and "should be the central field office for all issues of the Arab world which affect the Wehrmacht."[3] Consequently, the two units Sonderverband 287 [de] was created. Initially it was decided by Germany and Italy that the actual Free Arabian Legion would only be an Italian unit raised in Italy with the Germans handing over hundreds of Arabs who were in captivity after being captured from Allied military service, but Arab collaborators at the end of May 1942 requested it to be expanded into German service too.[4] The term Free Arabian Legion became not just the name of any specific unit, but an all-encompassing name for all Arabic units in the German Army.[5][6]

Sonderverband 287

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Sonderverband 287 [de] was formed on 4 August 1942, with much help from Amin al-Husseini and Rashid Ali al-Gaylani and consisted mostly of Iraqi and other Muslims, bolstered by former prisoners of war and other volunteers.[7]

The 3rd battalion of Sonderverband 287 was taken from the unit and sent as the Deutsche-Arabische Lehr-Abteilung to the Caucasus in September 1942. It was part of the Axis offensive into the region and the German plan to seat the Iraqi government-in-exile there. It was then to use the region as a springboard for conquering Iraq. The plan never came to be and the unit never saw action following heavy German setbacks in late 1942. The unit was sent to the battle in Tunisia via Italy in January 1943. There, the Deutsche-Arabische Lehr-Abteilung was placed on the southern flank of the Axis army and was used to recruit more local Arabs who formed a second battalion of auxiliaries, which were used for guard duty and as construction troops.

At the end of the Tunisian campaign in May 1943, US intelligence and interrogations showed the Sonderverband 287 as containing three battalions: 1st battalion consisting of a tank battalion, 2nd Battalion consisting of French Legionnaires, and 3rd Battalion (in Tunisia) consisting of Arab volunteers. The 3rd battalion had three rifle companies in which only the NCO’s were German, and a “heavy” company which had German personnel only. The unit was in the process of remodeling and changes were being made by moving the Arabs into construction units and retaining only a few for carrying weapons, ammunition, etc.[8]

The whole unit was captured along with the rest of all Axis forces in Africa in May 1943.[9]

The remaining soldiers of the 3rd battalion, i.e. the Deutsche-Arabische Lehr-Abteilung, who had not been sent to North Africa, were used, together with Muslims from French North Africa, to form the German-Arab Battalion 845 in the summer of 1943.[6] It served in the Peloponnese region of Greece as part of the 41st Fortress Division from November 1943. It participated in the Greek partisan war, particularly against ELAS.[9][2] In October 1944, it was withdrawn from Greece to Yugoslavia, and in early 1945 was strengthened with the addition of Arabs from a unit of Arab volunteers that was disbanded before it was fully formed. It ended the war near Zagreb as part of the 104th Jäger Division.

The 1st and 2nd battalions (which were non-Arab units consisting of Germans and French legionaries respectively) of Sonderverband 287 which had not been part of the Deutsche-Arabische Lehr-Abteilung were used to replace losses and rebuild Grenadier Regiment 92 together with a light battery and light pioneer company on 2 May 1943, which was then renamed Grenadier Regiment 92 (MOT) on 5 June 1944. The regiment moved to Yugoslavia to fight against Josip Broz Tito's National Liberation Army and was part of Army Group F. The regiment suffered heavy losses in the fighting near Belgrade in October 1944, and what remained of it became part of the 2nd Panzer Army, where it was rebuilt into Panzergrenadier Brigade 92 in January 1945. The whole army capitulated in disarray in Austria in May 1945.[5]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Churchill, Winston (1985) [1950]. "14: The Revolt in Iraq". The Grand Alliance. The Second World War. III. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. ISBN 0-395-41057-6.
  2. ^ a b Williamson, Gordon (1991). Afrikakorps 1941-43. Osprey Publishing. ISBN 1-85532-130-0.
  3. ^ Zitiert nach Walther Hubatsch (Hrsg.): Hitlers Weisungen für die Kriegführung 1939–1945. Dokumente des Oberkommandos der Wehrmacht. Bernard & Graefe, Frankfurt a. M. 1962
  4. ^ “Akten zur deutschen auswärtigen Politik : 1918 - 1945 ; aus dem Archiv des Auswärtigen Amtes” E series, Vol. II (in German). Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. pp. 494–496.
  5. ^ a b Rolf Stoves: Die gepanzerten und motorisierten deutschen Großverbände. Podzun-Pallas-Verlag, Friedberg 1986. ISBN 3-7909-0279-9. Seiten 288–289.
  6. ^ a b Jurado, Carlos Caballero (1983). Foreign Volunteers of the Wehrmacht 1941-45. Osprey Publishing. ISBN 0-85045-524-3.
  7. ^ Roland Kaltenegger: Die deutsche Gebirgstruppe 1935–1945. Weltbild Verlag, Augsburg 2000, ISBN 3-8289-0351-7.
  8. ^ "301-2.13: Interrogation and Prisoner of War Reports, 1st Inf Div, May 1943". First Division Museum. Retrieved 17 April 2025.
  9. ^ a b Thomas, Nigel (1998). The German Army 1939-45 (2) North Africa & Balkans. Osprey Publishing. ISBN 1-85532-640-X.

Further reading

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  • Kehoe, Thomas J.; Greenhalgh, Elizabeth M. (November 2017). "Living Propaganda and Self-Serving Recruitment: The Nazi Rationale for the German-Arab Training Unit, May 1941 to May 1943". War in History. 24 (4): 520–543. doi:10.1177/0968344516641457. S2CID 159514420.
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Media related to Legion "Freies Arabien" at Wikimedia Commons

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