By the end of the Second World War there were soldiers of more than 30 nationalities fighting in the 38 combat division of the Waffen SS; Reich Germans were in the minority. How did a regime founded upon notions of its own racial superiority come to welcome hundreds of thousands of foreigners into its military elite – and what motivated these men?Following the sell-out success of his first volume in this series, Hitler’s Gauls, the author examines in depth the Langemarck division, composed entirely of fighters drawn from the Flemish lands of Northern Belgium. Motivated by a powerful anti-communist zeal and a desire to escape forever the interference of their traditional enemy, France, these men fought at Stalingrad and in the encircling battles of the Volkhov pocket. They fought the bitter campaign in the Ukraine in 1943-44, then in Estonia at the Narva. The Division was destroyed by the Russian juggernaut in1945. Illustrated with rare photographs, many previously unpublished, and with close analysis of the key figures such as Flemish Knight’s Cross winner Remy Schrijnen, this is a fascinating study of fanatical courage.

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.

The divisions of the Waffen-SS were among the elite of Hitler’s armies in the Second World War. But alongside the Germans in the Waffen-SS fought an astonishingly high number of volunteers from other countries. By the end of the Second World War these foreign volunteers comprised half of all Hitler’s Waffen-SS, and filled the ranks of over twenty-four of the nominal thirty-eight Waffen-SS divisions. So during the most brutal war that mankind has ever known, hundreds of thousands of men flocked to fight for a country that was not theirs, and for a cause that was one of the most monstrous and barbaric in history. Who were these men, and why did they fight? Hitler’s Gauls is an in-depth examination of one of these legions of foreign volunteers, the Charlemagne division, who were recruited entirely from conquered France. The men in Charlemagne, often motivated by an extreme anti-communist zeal, fought hard on the Eastern Front including battles of near annihilation in the snows of Pomerania and the final stand in the ruins of Berlin. This definitive history, illustrated with rare photographs, explores the background, training, key figures and full combat record of one of Hitler’s lesser known foreign units of the Second World War.

For all too many people the "Eastern Front 1941-45" is synonymous with a struggle between Germans and Russians, ignoring the thousands of non-German Europeans who volunteered to take up arms against the most enduring despotic regime of the twentieth century, risking their lives on the most terrible of its battlefronts. Favored as a "Germanic" people over their Walloon (French-speaking) compatriots in the hybrid Belgian state, the Flemings were permitted to field a volunteer legion, a battalion sized infantry unit, under Waffen-SS auspices for service from early as November 1941 in the Northern section between Leningrad and Novgorod; integrated into the 2nd SS-Infantry Brigade and often fighting alongside the Spaniards of the Blue Division and other Western European volunteers, the Flemings proved themselves in defensive fighting in the first winter, in the final reduction of the Volkhov pocket in June 1942 and in Feb.-March 1943 at the battle of Krasnyi Bor

As the West finds itself embroiled in conflict with radical Islam at home and abroad it is fascinating to hear the echoes of militant Islam from the Second World War, and the Nazis attempt to preach 'Jihad' against the British Empire and Stalin. Hitler's Jihadis tells the story of the tens of thousands of Muslims, from as far away as India who volunteered to wear the SS double lightning flashes and serve alongside their erstwhile conquerors. Jonathan Trigg gives insight into the pre-war politics that inspired these Islamic volunteers, who for the most part did not survive. Those who did survive the war and the bloody retribution that followed saw the reputation of the units in which they served in berated as militarily inept and castigated for atrocities against unarmed civilians. Using first hand accounts and official records Hitler's Jihadis peels away the propaganda to reveal the complexity that lies at the heart of the story of Hitler's most unlikely 'Aryans'.

The Nazis' dream of a world dominated by legions of Aryan 'supermen', forged in battle and absolutely loyal to Hitler, was epitomised by the Waffen-SS. Created as a supreme military élite, it grew to become Nazi Germany's 'second army', an immense force totalling almost one million men by the end of the War. An astonishing fact about the SS is that thousands of its members were not German. Men stepped forward from almost every nation in Europe — for many, sometimes complex reasons — that included hatred of Bolshevism and nationalist sentiment or even straightforward anti-Semitism. Foremost amongst them were Scandinavians from Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland. Thousands were recruited from 1940 onwards and fought with distinction on the Russian Front. They served at first in national legions but were then brought together in the Wiking Panzer Division and the Nordland Panzer-grenadier Division. In Hitler's Vikings, Jonathan Trigg details the battles these men fought and what inspired them to join the Waffen-SS, based wherever possible on interviews with surviving veterans. Many of the photographs reproduced here have never before been published. Hitler's 'Vikings' were amongst the last men still fighting in the ruins of Berlin in 1945 — their story is truly remarkable. Jonathan Trigg served in the 1st Battalion The Royal Anglian Regiment, reaching the rank of Captain and completing tours in Northern Ireland, Bosnia and the Middle East. He is an established writer on military history, with a particular interest in foreign volunteer formations in the Second World War. Hitler's Vikings is his fourth volume in Spellmount's Hitler's Legions series.

A ground-breaking study that looks at why European nations sent troops to take part in Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union.