Légion Wallonie Subordinated to ϟϟ-Division „Wiking“ in North Caucasus

Belgian officers Lucien Lippert and Léon Degrelle of the Légion Wallonie

German infantry armed with PaK anti-tank guns in the Caucasus oil fields 

After Linejuaja was taken, it was imperative to take possession of the oilfields and organize the SS-Division Wiking for the defense of this large area. For the rest of August and into September 1942 Wiking took part in Anti-Partisan operations against Soviet forces hiding in the hills. During this period the Wehrmacht-organized volunteer Légion Wallonie consisting of French-speaking Belgians briefly came under Wiking control. As the Nazis considered Walloons an inferior people to the Flemish, Walloon and Flemish volunteers were segregated into different units. Walloons were only able to enlist in the regular armed forces. Among the Legion's soldiers was Belgian nationalist politician Lieutenant Léon Degrelle. Degrelle had met Waffen-SS General Felix Steiner and had understood that in the long run it would be more advantageous for the Legion to disengage itself from the reactionary Wehrmacht and join the more dynamic, revolutionary-minded Waffen-SS. The Wiking soon left the Walloons behind. It was soon to encounter new terrain consisting of mountains and dense forests when the division moved southwest to the forest area of the western Caucasian Mountains. When the German mountain troops arrived, they joined the Walloons to drive through the mountains and capture the Black Sea port of Tuapse. The Legion's battlefield performance was of great value to Degrelle, who came to be appreciated by German officers. The Légion Wallonie was later incorporated into the Waffen-SS on June 1 1943 as the SS-Sturmbrigade Wallonien. Its Caucasus frontline veterans were granted the privilege to wear the German Gebirgsjäger Abzeichen Edelweiß. Credit: British military historian Adrian Gilbert. Top image: Belgian Commander of Legion Wallonie Hauptmann Lucien Lippert with his second-in-command Leutnant Léon Degrelle before the Legion was incorporated into the Waffen-SS. The later SS-Sturmbannführer d.R. Lippert was killed in action at the village of Novo-Buda in the Korsun-Cherkassy pocket in central Ukraine on February 13 1944 and was succeeded by Degrelle. Credit: Régis Klimenko. PD. Bottom image: a German anti-tank unit advancing through the Maykop oil fields during Operation Edelweiß in August 1942. Credit: Facundo Filipe. Commons Bundesarchiv.