Lions Led By Donkeys Podcast - Episode 92 - The British Free Corps

Episode Date: February 17, 2020

The British Free Corps was an armed formation made of up brits and dominion soldiers who volunteered to fight for the Nazis during WWII. But rather than a legion of King loving nazis, they ended up being incompetent, insane, and in one case the best military grifter of all time. support the show: https://www.patreon.com/lionsledbydonkeys Sources for this episode: https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-british-free-corps https://www.historyextra.com/period/first-world-war/the-british-soldiers-who-fought-for-germany-in-the-world-wars/ https://www.biography.com/news/edward-viii-wallis-simpson-nazi-sympathizers-hitler https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2017/06/american-nazis-in-the-1930sthe-german-american-bund/529185/

Very well. They're coming. Now we'll see how these Russians deal with a crack SS division. Er, Hans? Have courage, my friend. Yeah, er... Hans, I've just noticed something. These communists are all cowards.

Have you looked at our caps recently? Our caps? The badges on our caps. Have you looked at them? What? No. A bit. They've got skulls on them. Have you noticed that our caps have actually got little pictures of skulls on them? I don't, so... Hands. Are we the baddies?

Hello, and welcome to yet another episode of the Lions Led by Donkeys podcast. Yellow. I'm Joe, and with me today is Nick. Oh. Breathing fucking breathlessly into the microphone. It's mainly, don't have a name for Joe this week. I prefer not to have nicknames because they never end up going in my favor.

They don't? You don't like them? Well, through school everybody's called me ass. I think mine's more creative. Yours? Your nickname's for me? Yeah. I don't know.

I have a bunch in the vault. I'll have to take your word for it. I have all day at work to think of these. So, Nick, how do you feel about Nazis? Wow. One, understood individuals. Well, yeah, they're very rarely misunderstood misunderstood Everybody just understands them as Nazis Now

This might be a bold take For this podcast and many podcasts We're related to but we don't like Nazis very much Which is why Today we were talking about the British Free Corps Have you ever heard of the British Free Corps? Yeah the great

British team of SS volunteers who are going to storm through and liberate London not so much turns out but as most things we talk about in this show of ours we don't just start there

we can talk about allied Nazis and the people who love them. Is there a lot? Were you aware of... There's kind of a definite pro-Nazi bent in the West before the start of World War II. Yes. We're going to talk a bit about that.

Only reason why I know, and it goes back to reenacting. Say it. Oh, sorry. sorry cosplaying there you go so cosplaying the uh ss reenactors they used to talk about all the time whenever they went to the uh civilian attire events where you wear your 40s civilian clothes or 30s or whatever i'm assuming there's also still still include a nazi party badge exactly of course they would wear under their lapel because people back then, if they were trying to hide from being Nazis and they would go to these secret events, they'd flip their lapel over and be like, I'm a part of this. Bam. Flip it. They gain entry.

They're playing Americans in this? They're doing this today. Hypothetically, they're playing secret Nazis. Pretty much, yes. With the whole rings, and some even have cufflinks of the Viking. The SS runes? Yeah. We're going to talk a little bit about the people in America. A little bit, because we have to make it kind of fair.

We're going to shit talk a lot of British fascists today. We should talk about all fascists. We're going to shit talk a lot of British fascists today. We should talk about all fascists. But we're going to even it out by talking about the boond. Are you familiar with the boond? You will be. Okay. So for people who are unaware, there's actually been quite a bit of support

for the ideas of fascism in the US and the UK. No. Around today, but also where they were sweeping through the better known areas of fascist power like Germany and Italy. Thankfully, this never happened again

and British and American fascism is not a thing whatsoever in the year of our Lord 2020. Nope. Not a thing. Squeaky clean. Nope. Yeah, we certainly don't have

torch-bearing dick bags that stomp through the area and kill people's cars that doesn't happen never um now in america fdr was very nearly overthrown uh in what became known as the business plot in order to defeat his horrible leftist new deal and install a fascist dictatorship backed by a group of... Yeah, polio. That just shows how bad your plot is. It's like, you couldn't beat a guy in a wheelchair. But it was backed by a group of fascist veterans of World War I.

Mostly the American Legion. Ooh, hold on, what? Yep. Wow. I mean, there's a reason why they... I knew the Legion sucked. Even when my dad said he wouldn't go to a Legion barbecue. There's a reason why they weren't huge fans of the bonus marchers,

because there's a lot of communists in them. Yeah, yeah. Now, it was also possibly backed by the father and grandfather of two American presidents, Prescott Bush. Yeah. Bush's granddaddy. Yeah. And commanded by the only

good general officer in American history, Smedley Butler. Who's that? Smedley Butler, not only is the holder of an amazing name, he's also something of a leftist. Smedley Butler? He immediately blew the whistle on the whole planet

and killed it. Have you ever heard the saying, war is a racket? Smedley Butler. That's his book. We'll do an entire episode of that. immediately blew the whistle on the whole planet and killed it. Like, have you ever heard the saying, war is a racket? Smedley Butler. Ooh. That's his book. Yeah. We'll do an entire episode of that. There needs to be a movie. I think there might be.

Smedley Butler is... He seems like he'd be a part of Inglourious Bastards. Yeah, but in real life. Yeah. Because he got to kill fascists. Yeah. Now, the real weird shit that America saw pre-World War II was the German-American boond, which Dwight Schrute jokes about his father being a member of on The Office. It was a real thing.

The boond was, in fact, a pro-Nazi PR move created to make Americans see Nazi Germany. It's not a good move for Dwight's dad. Hell, he openly makes Nazi jokes about him. It's very true. openly makes Nazi jokes about them. It's very true. Um, now,

um, the whole idea was that, well, if we, this is Nazi Germany. Like if we take Americans and cozy them up to us being normal, right? They won't want to fight us, which they were pretty.

The snuggle method. Yeah. The, the, the snuggle method of fascist expansion. Um, now the ranks of the boon were open to American citizens of German descent, which was really fucking loose because they wanted...

I could have joined the Bund. I have Germans somewhere in my bloodline. What percentage do you need? You don't. Oh, I like this. Oh, cool. You know, I'm also not a fan of the Jews. Welcome to the Bund.

I'm not German at all. Well Jews. Welcome to the boon. Yeah. I'm not German at all. Well, don't worry. Hitler's Austrian. Welcome to the boon. Yeah. And the whole thing was wrapped in just as many swastikas as you can imagine. Baker's dozen.

Like they would fly the swastika right alongside the American flag. That's not good. No. Also, totally not something we see now every day uh though you seen it oh yeah it was a chance like in the neighborhood no no not around here okay just confederate flags because noted confederate state washington military bases yes and the behind every ala soldier from al truck. Okay, cool. I have a truck asshole.

You're a Mexican from California. If you flew a Confederate flag, you have other problems. I would question myself every time I look into the rear view mirror. Like, what are you? Yeah. As you should. I do that still because I don't know Spanish.

I don't know Armenian. So we're both good. Hey, uh, now the, the Boone's first leader again, guy named Fritz Julius Kuhn. Oh, boy. Wow.

Problematic name. What? There's so many names in there. So he was known as an Alter Comfort or like one of the original. Ultra Comfy. Ultra Comfort. He's one of the OG Nazis who joined the party before 1930 and earned a reputation literally fighting in the streets for the Nazis. That's not something you want to be an OG of.

I mean, if you're a Nazi, it is. I mean, yeah, that's cool. Now, if you're thinking that camps for all the little good area, Aryan children in mostly upper New York state and Pennsylvania. Like a little SS kids. Yeah. I mean, effectively Hitler youth.

How many people do you think these camps attract? I need you to be, is it like a, I'm going to go with a, a six flags day, maybe a few thousand. Tens of thousands. Holy shit.

Every summer. So six flags. Yeah, six flags. For the Nazis. Six flags over Berlin. Fun is not authorized. No laughing. No joy.

You remember like the shitty six flag skit where the old guy creepy it's that but he's dancing into a death camp yeah oh fuck goose stepping all the way goose stepping into a gas chamber um now like i said before they were flying the american flag right alongside the nazi flag uh and controversialial. And they tried to Americanize Nazism to the point they said, George Washington was the first fascist. He flew the first swastika ever. You know what?

George Washington cut down a cherry tree just to spite the Jews. Huh. All right. You're really reaching here. This seems like a stretch. They held a massive rally at... So if you were to say that they could fill up Madison Square Garden for a Nazi rally,

would you believe me? Because there's a video of it. I mean, now I do. I wouldn't believe you if you didn't tell me this. 20,000 people showed up. It's not good. This event broke out into violence as anti-fascist counter-protesters

were savagely beaten by the Bund as they were protected by the cops. Oh, fuck. Never mind. Time is a flat circle! What? Yep. NYPD protected the Bund

as they literally beat Jewish counter-protesters half to death. I was kind of, because as you saw, my hand went up thinking, oh, these guys are going to go beat some Nazi assprotesters half to death. I was kind of, because as you saw, my hand went up thinking, oh, these guys are going to go beat some Nazi ass. It immediately went down. Well, they were badly outnumbered. Yeah.

No, it's unfortunate that the Antifa is the true Nazis, you know. Totally unfortunate when they're the ones getting beaten up by actual fucking Nazis. Protected by the cops! I'll be in Oregon for the next few... Full of Nazis, actually.

Also protected. Don't go to Portland. It's not good. There's actually a thing that... There's a donut shop in Portland I want to go to. Oh, Voodoo's? It's delicious. Is it? The Portland Police Bureau recently came out

and showed that they had very, very close relations to multiple definitely neo-Nazi organizations. Like Patriot Prayer. That's not good. It's not good. That's something you don't want to be close to. No. Not unless you're a Nazi. Because, you know, if I had a friend who joined Patriot Prayer, you know what I'd have?

I wouldn't have a friend anymore. I feel like you probably not a friend. You probablyot Frere. You know what I'd have? I wouldn't have a friend anymore. I feel like you probably not a friend. You probably know some people. I mean, I was in the army long enough and knew enough people. I definitely know someone that's like, you know what? Did six million really die? I probably

definitely know somebody that's like that. I can go to work tomorrow and ask a whole formation of random ass guys. You'll get at least one like it it's it's a it's an idea it's a stretch say what you will but he made the trains run on time god damn it this is a guy i can't talk to yeah what what's your first name private heinz oh damn it there was a guy i won't ask you to go into that story because it totally outs your unit.

But it's good. Now, eventually the boon began to fall apart because it became so embarrassing that even Nazi Germany didn't want to give them money anymore. Because they were totally bankrolled by Nazi Germany. They even told them to stop flying the swastika. You guys are really cramping our style. Imagine being so embarrassing the Nazis were like, whoa.

Cramping their style, dude. Also, Kuhn got thrown in prison for embezzlement and had his citizenship stripped. And he was thrown into POW camp and deported to the ruins of post-war Germany in 1945. There's a lot of stuff going on here. He was then imprisoned in Germany in 1947 and died pouring alone like all Nazis should. Jesus Christ. Fuck, he had a lunch. Rest in piss, bitch!

It's weird that he peaked early filling masses for a guard with Nazis. And then died with piss on. I hope, like, it's a tradition to be like, Alright, everybody, let's go shit on Fritz's grave. Come on, it's time to go to a ceremony. Oh, is it a beautiful ceremony? Very,

the most beautiful, very yellow. We piss on a Nazi's grave. You know the problem with pissing on Nazi graves is, is there not a, you eventually run out of piss. Yeah. But America wasn't the only country gripped with the love of fascism before the

outbreak of world war two, an organization that was even more popular than the boond was the British union of fascism before the outbreak of world war ii an organization that was even more popular than the boond was the british union of fascists uh because they're not even trying to hide it british union of fascists the boof the boof buff yeah i want to go with boof i'm calling a boof because that means butt chug you ever butt chugged i have not i feel like you've gotten close. I have not. All right. I can, you know, I've done a lot of really dumb things in my life,

but I can honestly say I've never boofed anything. Something you don't want. Okay, this is where I have to ask. What have you boofed? I have not boofed. I've seen an attempt at a boof did it turn into more of a buff no it turned into like it hurt

the plastic doesn't work well with a rectum one it hurts apparently so there's so many more questions I need to ask the dude ended up going to the mouth so he went asked about that himself yes it was absolutely fucking terrible it

was at a it was by the small air it was by the small airfield right by fort hood where everybody went to go do bonfires at yeah right there yeah you tune in to lions led by donkeys for the history you stay for the auto-ass to mouth. For the boof. To mouth. Now, the boof, it turns out, has a symbol that is hilariously close to that of the Tampa Bay Lightning hockey team. Really? Absolutely. It will be the cover of this

episode. The Tampa Bay Lightning? The Tampa Bay Union of Fascists, yeah. Who's the starting lineup? Seriously, the bo who's the starting line seriously the booths fucking symbol looks like the lightning symbol but just red I didn't know that it is hilarious

I immediately was like holy fuck it's the lightning coincidence I don't know if the owner's situation might be a boofer he's like hold on I need to make this completely... What if you're fucking... You buy a NHL team and like,

oh God, we accidentally made the simple fascist. That's like the new team in Seattle is like, oh fuck, what are you... Oh my God, the fucking name. What if we... Oh shit, that's supposed to be the Buddhist sign of good luck. We fucked up. Oh no.

We're the swastikas. Back to the NHL Seattle team. Terrible name. It's all bad. It's not good luck. We fucked up. Oh no! We're the swastikas! Back to the NHL Seattle team. Terrible name. It's all bad. It's not good. Krakens? There's only one Kraken. It's the rum? No, it's... The rum. Also,

Seattle, known for its ah, Krakens? It's all dumb. This is what happens to a bunch of fucking brain- tech it is there a crack in the sound no we don't know that uh a lot of salmon that have been dosed the antidepressants though which is the which is truly the symbol of washington state it really is just a really fucking depressed salmon what's your symbol Let's go play hockey. Fuck. Do you think it's just one of these?

Just like a little shrug. It's like the old Prozac commercials about the salmon. You know the emoji where it goes like this? But their jerseys are going to be like. It's the only ice hockey arena sponsored by the suicide hotline. And it can't have an overhead. It has to have to have just the rain down pouring on the all the time we only play games in the fall now the booth was established in 1932 and led by one sir oswald mosley who was once a tory minister of parliament now it's weird how all right nick i see you're giving me weird looks

here and maybe some of our listeners will think the same tory is a british conservative thank you i thought you were talking about judo no uh he was not your partner i hope not okay uh i would hope not too it is real is really weird how conservatism uh conservatism and fascism always just kind of bleed around the edges into one another weird how thatatism uh conservatism and fascism always just kind of bleed around the edges into one another weird how that works several members of the rich and powerful members of the british elite quickly came to support the boof i am just saying boof as much as i possibly can so funny this includes press barons like the guy who run who ran bearings press barons as in royalty. Press barons. Literal royalty. Like the guy who ran Noted Shit Rag, the Daily Mail.

Eventually, their membership would swell around 50,000. That's a lot of boof. It's a whole bunch of British people trying to boof a whole plate of fish and chips. I just see boof, fupa. All this just comes in. I see boof, fupa, like all this just comes into bam, boof. I think their flag should just be

British royalty attempting to butt-chug fish and chips. Our problems are not our problems are not with the economy. It is that we cannot butt-chug our way out have any problem uh now it also had a lot of mainstream support for the not for nazi germany in general

this shouldn't come as too much a surprise as the british royal family's original name was the sex cobra gotha the sex cobra goth nice sex cobra Goth. All the way up until World War I when they change it to the House of Windsor. Lame. Fucking lame. It sounds so German. It's literally the freedom cabbage of last names. They went from hot topic to mainstream.

This included King Edward of England who applauded Nazi Germany's post-war recovery. Now, if you're thinking this is because nobody knew their horrible, homicidal anti-Semitism yet, you'd be very, very wrong. The Booth embraced anti-Semitism pretty much immediately,

and Edward himself really didn't give a shit, saying, quote, it's not our business as far as to interfere in Germany's internal affairs, r.e. the Jews. Okay. Yikes. Now, he also added, added quote dictators are very popular these days we might have one in england before long said the king what what an ally of the boof was a group called the right club that's not a good because they're not good at naming things yeah and a

member of that club now there's to be a lot of layers here. This is background. Like an onion? I'm not going into the history of British fascism because that would literally be the history of Britain. But this is just like... I'm going to condense it really, really, really, really far in there. All right.

So the right club had a member named Anna Wolkoff who was friends with someone named... Wolko someone named wallace simpson who's american actually uh who would eventually marry the future king edward simpson would claim to have fucked joachim von ribbentrop who was uh yeah uh the ambassador to england for nazi germany weird flex there there's also a very good chance that they were passing information back and forth while she was hitting up both dudes for dick appointments at the same time. Yeah, but like, you're fucking the king of England and also a Nazi agent. Weird bleed there.

Nice. In 1937, the couple toured Nazi Germany, and upon return, they taught the present queen of england who was then a toddler how doing nazi salute which was captured on film yep yikes i'm not blaming the queen here this is not her fault no she did no fuck yeah fuck her she's a toddler um she uh so he eventually abdicated abdicated the throne only a few months after he took it after the death of his father, which was probably for all the best as both British and American intelligence

agencies were both worried that the king was kind of a Nazi. Like, to the point that, like, MI6 tailed him everywhere he went. Really? Yeah. Back then? Yep. Like, fuck, we can't fire him. He doesn't have a job. He's the king. We can't fire him. He doesn't have a job.

He's the king. We could just stalk him. We could gang stalk him. Yeah, let's gang stalk the king. Yeah, so they're like, oh, God. Really, the best thing that he could have done was abdicate the throne. Also, maybe don't have kings. Yeah.

Kings are bad. All kings are bad. Now, with the introduction out of the way way let's dive into this week's episode the reason why i talked about the various fascist loyalties that spread throughout uh what we consider allied countries is to make this episode make a little bit more sense like if i were to say tens of thousands of members of a british fascist organization that might be a problem when the entire country is mobilized to go to war against the premier fascist organization that might be a problem when the entire country is mobilized to go to war against the premier fascist power

in the world. Like, they probably shouldn't be in uniform. Bad things will happen. Yeah. And there were tens of thousands of volunteers and conscripts from mainland Europe that poured into the ranks of the Waffen-SS

during the course of World War II. Most of these were from Nordic countries and other Germanic speaking countries now this is not this is not the case before 1934 when heinrich himmler set pretty strict requirements uh in his membership of his legion of soft-penised assholes you were supposed to be a german national uh you're supposed to be able to trace your heritage back to 1800 uh Between the ages of 17 and 23, have perfect teeth

and eyesight and be at least 5'9". Because people back then were just a bit shorter. Once the war started, all that was pretty much thrown out the window because I guess we need more bodies. They got around little details like this. Do you think if SS or Nazi Twitter or Facebook vet bro Nazism or some shit was around,

back then the standards were higher. Then they just started letting all the other Nazis in? Oh, totally. Yeah, they'd definitely be around. They're on t-shirts. I would say imagine a Nazi vet bro company, but they already exist. But, I mean, but like they already exist. But I mean, something kind of did exist after the war.

It's called like the HIAG, which was like a literally a Waffen SS advocacy group for veterans. Yep. I think it was Himmler's daughter who ran it. Oh yeah. It was actually one of their things is to normalize the SS. There's no normalizing that. It largely succeeded.

Really? Yeah. Which is a different episode, in my opinion, like the clean Wehrmacht theory. Their whole thing was like the SS were just soldiers like the Wehrmacht. Okay, gotcha. And it largely succeeded to the point now that historians and even podcasters like myself scream at a wall trying to tell you that, no, the Wehrmacht were not just soldiers. They were actually just like one or two steps down from supervillains. But yeah, we'll get there someday.

Gotcha. Now, once the war started, like I said, Himmler's standards fell quite a bit. This includes like a fuckload of Eastern Europeans who were kind of sort of considered subhuman, according to the Nazis, by saying... Now, they got around this by saying they weren't actually in the SS. They were under SS command, even though they wore the same uniforms,

held the same ranks, wore SS runes, but they weren't SS. Because they were like, ew, slobs. Around a half a million people ended up in service this way. Many of them volunteers, many of them conscripts. It's kind of hard to tell sometimes.

Moral of the story is racists are fucking stupid. Now, most of the volunteers and conscripts came from places that had been taken over or at least allied with the Nazis. This is not the case with some. Which brings me to the Armenian Legion. We fell for it too. You guys get a piece of the Nazis. This is not the case with some. Which brings me to the Armenian Legion. Hey.

Yeah, we fell for it too. Now, it was formed out of- You guys get a piece of the pie. Oh, yeah. Now, like a lot of places, it was formed by Soviet POWs from Armenia. Now, the Soviet Union was kind of popular, kind of not popular.

Armenians have always had a very, very strong line of nationalism throughout their history because the long and short of it is we've never really had our own country until about 1991. All the other times that Armenians have tried to start countries, it's been almost immediately taken over. So, like, we have a

complex. And the Nazis appealed to that nationalism by saying, if you fight for us, we'll help liberate your homeland from Soviet Union. Or maybe it was like maybe i don't really care about my armenian homeland but this fucking prison camp sucks dicks i'd really rather like not be in a fucking soviet or a nazi prison camp for soviet pows which like it's like the one of it's like the second worst place to be outside of like auschwitz during world

war ii so like i get i get why they did it makes sense or the dmv line yeah that also um so i mean the dmv line in in in nazi germany was just ran by the same people yeah just went to a death camp um now uh the the armenian legion outside of its commander was largely apolitical he was definitely a fascist, but he's largely been forgiven for dumb reasons because, like I already talked about, Armenian nationalism is dumb. Nationalism is always stupid.

Now, to have a really weird corner here, a lot of Jews end up in the Armenian Legion because phrenology, are you familiar with the concept of phrenology? No. To make a very long dumb No, it is, um, to make a very long, dumb story,

very short and dumb. I can measure your face and tell what race you are. Okay. Gotcha. Shape your skull, your nose. I've heard of it by, by using Nazi phrenology. Uh,

they thought a lot of Jews were Armenians and the Armenians like, yeah, they're Armenians. So a lot of the Armenian Legion was actually Jews. Oh. Literally writing out their time. So you're Jewish. Escaping the Holocaust.

Gotcha. By pretending to be Armenian. And the Armenian Legion didn't do a ton of fighting. At one point, they were stationed in France and went on a mutiny. What? Yeah. Another case is the Russian Liberation Army, which was found by another pow named andre vlasov who was captured and then suddenly became a totally anti-stalinist and pro-hitler kind of guy

because he didn't want to be in a pow camp i imagine uh this is the largest of all these experiments because their ranks grew like a lot from soviet ps of which there's literally millions. They eventually grew to be about 50,000. Now some of these German purposes for these groups are pretty obvious. They make it look like they're an invasion of your homeland. It's actually a liberation because like look I have a Russian front.

Or like look I have a whole legion of Armenians. You got numbers. Yeah. Now the unit we're talking about is much much different the british free corps was not the idea of some british pow trapped at a camp and desperate for the comforts of things like food water and warmth or maybe just like i don't want to die of diphtheria uh it was instead the brain child when you run out of dip that's exactly what that means it sounds nicer than actual diphtheria uh it it was instead the

brainchild of a british citizen and it's not a soldier named john avery sorry john amory john amory is his name okay um amory was born in chelsea um and there's a son of a british statesman named leo amory who was the conservative member of parliament and a later son of a British statesman named Leo Amory, who was the conservative member of parliament and a later government minister, and his mother was a Hungarian Jew. Oui. His dad, for the record, was a very prominent man in British politics.

He had stints as the first lord of the admiralty, colonial secretary, and helped drafted the bell for a declaration. And at the time of World War II two was the secretary of state for India and Burma. He also did everything he could to kill any investigation into the 1943 Bengal famine, something that can largely be described as an engineered famine turned

genocide perpetrated on the people of Bengal by the British government. So he's a real fucking asshole. Like you've heard the whole of Domar, the Bengal family, Bengal famine is the whole of Domar of the British government. So he's a real fucking asshole. Like you've heard the whole of Domar, the Bengal family, Bengal famine is the whole of Domar of the British empire. You know, I haven't heard of that. The Bengal famine.

It is largely. So it is an episode unto itself, if not a series, but what it comes down to, uh, to make this painfully short was Bengal was experiencing a famine. Um, and one of their main exports was food for the British Empire and British troops.

They did not slow down those exports during a famine, effectively dooming millions of people to starve to death. They did it on purpose. Because like, well, our troops need the food. Oh. Like, this state the food. Oh. Like, this state is dying. Eh.

I mean, there was also Winston Churchill was in charge, who was deeply, deeply racist against Indian people. So, like, that definitely had a thing to do with it. Also, this is just what empires do. So, like, yeah. It's not surprising. It was a genocide. Gotcha. All right.

It's not a very popular uh opinion that i hold especially among mainstream european uh history majors like myself uh they kind of just chalk it up to like oh it was a famine india had a lot of famines which it did but like if you have a situation people are starving to death and you withdraw their food, you are dooming them to death. It is a genocide. But, yep. If people have a problem with that, you can go fuck yourself. But yeah, Amory's dad, huge

asshole. Moving on. Sounds like it. You can argue about whether this makes him a bigger asshole than his son, who is a literal Nazi. His son was a his son was also a huge fuck-up. He's got to have good blood. Weak blood! John was determined

to be his own man, independent of his father, who was a totally powerful government minister since he was a kid. Fuck you, Dad! I can be my own man! He was determined not to ride on his dad's coattails. And he failed completely and totally at this. I wish not to ride on his dad's coattails. And he failed completely and totally at this.

I wish I could ride on my dad's coattails. He went broke multiple times by the time he was 21 and had to end up turning back to daddy for money. Owie. Now then his wife left him because, of course. Is he a private in the army? I think she did. Nope.

Never was enlisted. He was just a rich kid. So he eventually picked up and moved to mainland Europe where he decided to tour around a bit and see how fascism was working in places like Austria, Italy, and Germany. Fascist tourists. Never going to end well.

The finest of tourists. Now you just have to go literally anywhere in the western world. He claimed in letters that he had fought in Francisco Franco's nationalist cause during the Spanish civil war, alongside the Condor Legion of Nazi Germany. There's actually no evidence of that. See,

the only issue we have of this is there's no proof. That's the only issue. It is a small, small issue. Yeah. issue yeah but he seemed like but no no i totally did like the best source to have is nazi valor yeah the best source to have is no source i mean that's the alex jones way of doing things look at things uh there was evidence that he did smuggle weapons from france into, so I guess that's something. You did something. But you're still a Nazi, so like

it's like that drill tweet. It turns out I do not have to hand it to you. When he was done playing fascist soldier or not with daddy's money, he decided to settle in France. And what can I... On the countryside? I think it was in Paris. And what I could only assume

was one of the best days of his life, the Nazis invaded France and took it over. He was just like, They came! Unfortunately for him, where he lived, actually fell under Vichy France. He was like,

Damn it! I got the French Nazis! But also, they were like soft Nazis, really super religious and weird. It's hard to really nail down Vichy France other than they're fucking puppets. I'm glad they all got lined up against the wall and shot at the end of the war. I'm still laughing at the fact that he's like, yes, finally. And then just like, order. Yeah.

No! Suddenly the fascist rapidly develops an open border policy. We don't need a wall, guys. Just let me go to Nazi Germany. And yeah, his main problem with Vichy France is like they weren't Nazi enough. Eventually two years. So he attempted to travel, paint travel documents because like weird thing about these fascist empires they don't let people have freedom of movement and he's like hey i'd really like to

like go to berlin and uh vici french is like no huh turns out this fascism thing kind of sucks but like after two years of trying and making a couple connections he did get a travel permit actually gotta he got a fixer uh He got to go to actual Nazi Germany. Nice. Not like soft Nazi France. Puss. During that time, he pitched the idea

of an anti-communist British legion that would totally serve within the Waffen-SS. Who did he pitch it to? Hitler himself. What? Hitler loved him so much, probably just because- how did he get there

he was a he was a british guy in nazi empire germany france whatever uh who's totally fascist so it's like hey look it's a monkey that can dance okay yeah uh he was like a sideshow like hitler loved him so much that he um he signed him to be his personal guest so he could stay in Germany. And he began to make pro-Nazi broadcasts into England, urging the British people to fight against communism. This is kind of like, you might find some parallels here. Most hard anti-communist groups are fascists. And that's their tagline. I think we've talked about this before about

uh nazis and racists in the ranks in the military is it's like it's the test question oh you hate communists coming a little closer yeah it's like it's like telling a racist joke and seeing if somebody laughs like ah you're a racist also and like quite legitimately there's some people who did hate communists and were not fascists. It's like the guys when they say, I have a joke and they start looking around. They look over their shoulders like, this isn't good. Don't tell it. Oh, God.

I mean, quite legitimately, some people did hate communists and they were not fascists. But this is how they get co-opted into a fascist movement. And like, oh, God. It's almost like you're filtering. Yeah. Yeah. And like to be a very hardcore nazi you're like the sediment at the bottom of that filter you gotta work your way all the way down and like but they didn't want

to sell themselves like yeah we're huge fans of hitler like no no no you don't want to start strong no we just don't we really don't like communists like this whole um universal health This whole universal healthcare thing is really suspicious. Now, Hitler may have liked Amory, but that doesn't mean he was actually going to listen to his ideas. So Amory kind of sat around doing nothing for a year because Hitler had more important things to do than just listen to this guy. He had an entire continent to burn down. Oh, I thought he was doing like the Rubik's Cube.

Just Nazi stuff. For a whole year. And then... Hitler, they're invading us. Fuck. Hold on. I got to get the blue side done. That was actually how he turned into a genocidal maniac.

He's like, if I just killed all the blue ones, everything would match. Wow. So the Rubik's Cube? Rubik's Cube is at fault of the holocaust yeah yeah it's it's rough to hear um now but one thing that did get anne-marie a boost is he ran to a member of the french waffen ss volunteers the ss charlemagne which unlike the british free corps were a highly successful ss unit uh using this connection he was finally given a green light to attempt to recruit his fellow British Nazis. Like many others, he was going to appeal

to British and Dominion soldiers who were stuck in POW camps. He went to the Saint-Denis POW camp outside of Paris and gathered up a group of men to listen to his speech. And then they booed him and threw stuff at him. Which is what you should do to Nazis. Not a single fucking guy joined him.

That's what I want to do at some briefs. That's a mandatory brief. Let's go. Boo! I brought bricks from home! They fucking booed him. That's fucking awesome. I mean, at any point a Nazi stands up on a podium and demands your attention.

Immediately brick him. Immediately. If there's a guy that defends him, brick him too. Brick him harder. We need a shirt. That's a brickin'. These bricks are rated E for everybody. But a failure he may have been,

and he was, he was not a quitter because he didn't know when to quit while he was ahead. He should have quit a long time ago. Maybe he should have killed himself. Like the world would be a better place. I'm not pro-suicide.

Until I am. He continued to tour the POW camps until he finally hit fucking pay dirt a single person who would listen to him would you like a fucking USO tour kind of but like somehow worse it's just Bob Hope be like how about them Jews

yeah it's all the people who are like so much for the tolerant left until like so it's Stephenven crowder is what it is definitely um that man's name was kenneth edward jordan berry because sounds like it because he's british he's gonna have like six fucking names yeah barry was from devon or devon i think it's devon and would and ran away from a home after being out of, out of spite, say it wrong. Devon.

He's a cologne now. Now, Barry ran away from home after being convicted of stealing a golf ball and a sandwich. That fucker! At the time, that would get you 15 years in the Tower of London or something. Hang him. Yeah.

Draw and quarter him! Wait, where is he from? Ireland? Draw and quarter him! What is it that you said, Private Barry? Up the raw, sir. Now, he had nowhere to go. He was a runaway.

He was 14. Holy shit. So he lied and said he was 15 so he could join the Merchant Navy as a boy seaman. No jokes. That's his title. Don't make fun of his rank. Mic down, Nick. Now, it's weird that he lied to say he was 15.

But to this day, the British military totally has a problem with child soldiering. Like boy seamans? They have a huge problem with boy seamans. I would too. Much like the Catholic Church. problem with child soldiering. Like Boy Siemens? There's a huge problem with Boy Siemens. I would too. Much like the Catholic Church. Ooh. Is that a shot at me?

I guess, yeah. They enjoyed mine. You can join the British military at around the same age now. I think he just wanted the title. Nobody wants that title. It's like I know people who were in the Navy. My priesthood. I know people

who were in the Navy, and of course, I joke, so you were seaman. No, actually, I was a mechanics mate, second class. So you were seaman. I have a soldier now who just came from the Navy. I gotta crack Navy jokes all the time.

Now, not long into his service, his boat was sunk by a torpedo, and he fell into the hands of the Nazis and thrown into a POW camp. Now, it turns out that he may have been about 14 years old, but that doesn't mean he was easy to hold on to, because he immediately broke out and ran to Paris. The Nazis really like boys. Not going to escape that joke for the rest of this episode. I'll get over it.

Now, it's rumored that while he was escaped, because he was free for quite some time, he became some kind of black market smuggler. I got some baguettes. What do you want? Yeah, just Paris this time. Everybody's like, it's been weeks since i've had escargot yo i smuggled this in my asshole here's my prison pocket no uh he was eventually arrested by the gestapo uh and also i have no idea if he really was a black market smuggler just like a rumor

and i'm going to believe he was not simply because i don't don't want to ruin this, he was not a bright guy. Mostly because he was 14. I'd imagine so. He was 14, probably attended like two days of school. And he just went to this brief that this guy gave, so I'd imagine he's not that bright. Yeah, not a sharp tack. No. Now, once the Gestapo started talking to him, they didn't have to torture him.

He's immediately flipped on everybody who helped him escape. Snitch. Which, like, would I be any better? I don't fucking know. They just started with some awful shit, like, tore up fingernails. I'm like, look, man, I'm just gonna let you save some energy here.

As soon as they fucking... You did it. You helped me escape. What? Look, he starts ripping out his own teeth. They start beating themselves. Now, after that, he was brought back to the same camp he escaped

from, so it should kind of come as no surprise that he was kind of a pariah after that, like, hey, this guy's a fucking narc. Nice. So it shouldn't be too much of a shock when Amory found the teenage, almost entirely uneducated boy

receptive to his ideas. It didn't hurt that much that Barry thought Amory was actually his dad. Like the important one. Because he had an official job in the British government. He thought Amory was an official

from the British government. Which probably makes a whole lot more sense when you're 15. I don't know. I guess. Now, the Nazis had high hopes for their free corps, and Amory was not delivering, so he was fired and shuffled away somewhere else. I got one! I got this kid who's kind of

dumb, but he has buttholes full of escargot. Now, in order to dial up their recruitment efforts, the Nazis created several so-called holiday camps. These camps, as their name suggests, were not fun for the whole...

No, not fun for the whole thing. They were not normal POW camps. The guards all spoke English, and the conditions were much better than normal POW camps. Like, you weren't starving. Was there, like, a Chick-fil-A for Nazis? Yeah, it was still closed on Sunday. Turns out Chick-fil-A for Nazis like a chick-fil-a for nazis yeah it was still closed on sunday uh turns out chick-fil-a for nazis just chick-fil-a yeah weird uh god damn their

chicken's good though but their waffle fries are just kind of nailed out to look like swastikas it's just swastika fries delicious uh here's your star now like uh they were supposed to be comfortable there and everybody kind of knew the purpose of these camps. Like, Oh, they're trying to flip us like a British generals. Like everybody knew what those camps were about.

Like people would show up to the camps, like fuck this shit. Send me back to the regular camp. Um, now the Nazis comb the ranks of the British POWs for people who might be more inclined to working with them. If you were thinking that's where the former members of the boof come in, you'd be correct. Or pretty much anybody who had some pretty strong opinions

against communists and socialists, because those two things are the same. While this did work on some people, most POWs were not about to play this shit. They rejected the fake bullshit Nazi friendship and demanded to be sent back to regular POW camps where they could be cold and starve like everybody else. I like the diet that I was on.

I would like to really look like Jesus on the cross. Jesus had a six-pack where I went to church. Yeah, I mean, it's weird how he was so ripped. He was fucking ripped. He was yoked. I mean, it's like that picture of Jesus ripped. He was fucking ripped. He was yoked. I mean, it's like that picture of Jesus flexing his arms, busting off the cross. That would hurt.

Yeah. Just the nails. It's attached to his hands. Now, that was not always the case for some of these. Your pinky toe is small. That was not always the case for some of these POWs. The perks going along with the Nazis was pretty obvious as they were force-fed propaganda

to help that along. The men did not think they were going to fight. They thought they were being told that they were going to be a little more than a propaganda tool. Like, hey, look, we got a British Nazi. That means we're not invading England. We're liberating it.

It's not a good pitch. No, it sucks. Afterwards, they would tour the camps kind of like Amory did and try to win over more people. Sounds like a shitty recruiter. It's not good. I mean, but he's a Nazi. If you're not receptive to fascism, what else has he got?

How do you feel about women? I think they're not as good as me. Welcome. Now, not all of them were from the camps though. One man is a guy named Talas Haller Cooper. He was just a British fascist who happened to be living in Nazi Germany at the time.

He was also a member of the BOOF and had been rejected by the London Met Police, the Navy, and the Air Force not because he was a fascist. You want to guess why? His mom was German. Not the fact that he was a fascist. You want to guess why? I have not the slightest idea. His mom was German.

Really? Not the fact that he was a fascist was bad, but his mom was, Mom's a kraut! Can't handle that in here! Fascism we're fine with, though. So he eventually moved to Germany in 1938 and joined the SS.

Close enough. There's a very good chance he actively took part in the Holocaust because he bragged about it. That's not something you brag about. If you're a Nazi, it is. Yeah, I guess you're right. But he was eventually sent to the Eastern Front and wounded because that's what happens when they shoot back.

That's what happens when you go to the Eastern Front. Yeah. Nothing good comes from that. And while he was recovering, like, well, we have all these other Brits now. Go over there. So that's where he was sent while he recovered from his wounds. Thank God! Don't send me back!

Now, many of the people that Amory and other recruiters brought back from the POW camps did have a history of BOOF membership prior to joining the British military. Like, George McLarty was one of the members was a district treasurer for the booth before joining the Royal Army Medical Corps and getting captured near Dunkirk there's a fair amount of evidence to suggest that he actually deserted

to be captured on purpose now that's kind of it's kind of it's not for sure I didn't see that in the movie one guy running like I'm really into fascism! Running off in the distance. You guys are cool.

Now with their nucleus intact, they began to come up with ranks. All German. And uniforms for the new unit. Which are just SS uniforms with a cuff link that said, British Free Corps. Yeah.

The Germans were excited because things started to go so well. So they made 800 uniforms. And the Germans really like uniforms for some fucking reason. They really do. I mean, that's what happens if Hugo Boss is a military contractor. Yeah. Now, they made 800 of these British Free Corps uniforms.

How many people filled them? Oh, we'll get to there. I'll say most of those went without even being touched. And then when they were selling the idea of the British Free Corps to more people in POW camps, they were telling them, we have two full divisions of volunteers. We have thousands on our side.

And people in the camps were constantly being told the Nazis are winning the war because, I mean, arguably at the time, they can't work. But like, might as well join the winning side you know uh so more than a few signed on probably just trying to save their own ass right uh and get on to what they were told was like well uk is not gonna be a thing for much longer anyway we're gonna have to be forced to join them might as well get on the ground floor

uh after volunteering they're brought away from the POW camp and brought to an upscale hotel in Berlin. And this probably felt pretty sweet at first. And they quickly found out, however, that they'd been fucking duped. You're at a Motel 6 instead. Welcome to the Econolage! No! Rather than thousands of volunteers,

most groups found that they were the only ones there Yo, where's the divisions? What, your last name isn't divisions? Hey They were soon locked into hours long lectures by McLarty on Nazism and the German language Oh fuck

They were forced to render Nazi salutes to one another and take written tests on what they learned. Most of the people who... Which hand do you use? I'm a lefty. To the camps! Now, most of the people who ended up there almost immediately fucked off.

Like, nah, dude, I'm out. Fuck this. Send me back to the camps. And they were actually allowed to leave whenever they wanted. Like, they're like, hey, I'm not down with this anymore. Send me back to the camps. And they were actually allowed to leave whenever they wanted. They're like, hey, I'm not down with this anymore. Send me back to the POW camps. They could go.

It was literally that easy. Wow. Yeah. The Nazis didn't want the truth of the Freed Corps getting out, that it was a miserable failure. So if someone went back to the camp, there's a good chance Amory or somebody else

would come by to do a PR speech to get more volunteers. Yeah. Yo, that guy's full of shit. I was in the Free Corps yesterday. Yeah. It was horse shit. So, like, they didn't want to be found out that the British Free Corps is

actually just, like, a couple shitty skinheads in a bar? Yeah, in the hotel, no continental breakfast. They charge you 15 marks for a drink. So instead of being sent back to POW camps, you're thrown in an actual prison in solitary confinement, which, like, somehow worse, but yeah. Though others did stay. If not a devotion to national socialism,

but for the copious amounts of free booze and the ability to hit on German women. Yep, they'll do it. I mean, soldiers are soldiers are soldiers. Like you give people free booze they'll probably stick around. They will. Though that number never climbed more than 27 people at a time.

27. Still need a few more to meet that 800. It was like 40 total over time but like 27 at any one time. Despite the small number of people, it did not stop them from constantly fighting one another,

both physically and verbally. About what? It was kind of a power struggle between the men involved. This was between McLarty, a Kiwi named Roy Coilander, and Cooper. Now, none of them had really

any real ranks except Cooper, who had actually been in the SS. He's like, well, I'm the only real soldier here, so I'm in charge. But everybody else had been like, yeah, I'm a sergeant. I was a sergeant in the British Army. I was a boy seaman. You're still a boy seaman.

Yay! They just kept him at that rank. Yeah, they were arguing over ranks that they were just kind of blindly given by the german military uh and like and no chain of command was ever put in place uh and german officers who were put in place never bothered to control them because they didn't care um i wouldn't care no i wouldn't either most of them were put there as a punishment, or it was also told them, like,

this is temporary until we get a British officer to show up and take command of this whole fucking thing. It's almost like when you have to watch other people's extra duty soldiers. Yeah, I mean, you don't care all that much. You're only there until somebody else shows up to take over. And they finally did find a British officer who was receptive, but not for long. His name was Lieutenant William Shearer.

He's a POW who worked at a nearby farm. He would with that name. Now, it was pretty common at the time for POWs to have to go work the fields for the Germans. It was one of the forms of forced labor that they had to do. But while doing so, he did what soldiers should absolutely not do, get a local girl pregnant.

She were fucked. All right. This turns out to be a crime punishable by death under Nazi codes. Like most crimes. Jaywalk, that's a murder. Look at the next door neighbor girl too hard, that's a murder. What isn't? I don't know.

Do a bunch of meth, that was kind of acceptable um something now the gestapo knew that he was the dad because the girl told them so they're like look you're i thought they just brought the baby to his face and they're like close enough looks just measure that nose uh now they're like look we know that you impregnated this girl so you're in the free corps now or we're gonna execute you so he's in the free corps now but there's a problem under circumstances I'm your officer now this late problem with William Shearer

he was an unmedicated schizophrenic and had a mental breakdown under Gestapo interrogation after that he refused to put on clothes leave his room eat or shower he's your lieutenant now he's just sitting there naked yeah the nazis like fuck it he's not in the free corps they they sent him to an asylum and then later just gave him back to england during the war like we don't want this guy anymore this guy's gnarly. Yeah. Barry, for his part, never took part in any of this.

Probably because he just mentally couldn't. Right. He was kind of, I don't know what a good way of putting this, he was a simple lad. You say lad? I said lad. Okay. I thought I said ad. Simple lad. He slept through all of

McCarty's lessons. He never learned German. And because he's around 15, nobody really wanted to hang out with him either. And he didn't really have any interest in girls. This isn't a simple... This is just a 15-year-old. So he spent most of his time hanging out in the zoo.

All right. I'd never been to a zoo until I was 24. We used one of our main missions in 2019 in our podcast, Take You to Zoom. We did. He eventually ran into some former friends in the POW camp when he was doing his speeches because he was still brought around.

And they told him, like, dude, you've been lied to. Germany's losing badly. You need to get the fuck out of the Free Corps. But he wasn't really sure how to get out of the Free Corps, even though you could just say, hey, I'm done. So he was advised to run to the Swiss embassy, which was neutral, and they would take him in,

funnel him back to England. But he didn't know where the Swiss embassy was in Berlin, so he just didn't go. He knew where the zoo was. He went on out in the zoo. Yep. McLarty eventually decided the Free course fucking sucked because he's, cause they're not doing anything and request a transfer to the regular SS,

which was given to him. Um, though they were a failure. Um, and now he thought that the free car was a failure because Hitler decided that once the free core hit 30 people, if they could be deployed into combat, but they never got more than 27 at a time.

So if you're thinking that, like, McLarty was like, you know what, fuck this, I really just want to go see combat again, obviously I'm never going to go see it at the Free Corps. That was not the case. McLarty went to a normal SS unit in 1945 and quickly learned that, oh, shit, we're losing badly because he went to the eastern front in 1945 oh god

he managed to get leave approved which how? I don't know seems harder to do in the US army today and how did he do it on the eastern front? so after he got his leave approved he changed into civilian clothes and ran for it after which he was captured by Americans while pretending to be a Belgian,

though his disguise was quickly seen through because he couldn't speak French. Oh, I just thought they had some, make some chocolate. Make me waffles. He was eventually handed over to the British, thrown in prison for life in 1946. But he was later commuted to 15 years

and he moved back to Germany in 1953 where he died peaceful in the 1980s. Is that our ending? No, no, no. Okay, thank God. We're going to go through a lot of the main players of the Free Corps.

But this is pretty normal for war criminals, traitors, whatever. They get a life sentence and immediately get commuted to something else. It's weird. Like it's either you got death or you're Rudolph Hess

and you died in prison or whatever. Right. But yeah. Remember how I said that the Germans wanted 30 people before they were just sending these guys

into combat? Well, it turns out beggars couldn't really be choosers and they sent them to war anyway. In March of 1945, they were attached to the 11th SS Panzer Grenadier Division

Nordland another unit largely made up of foreign volunteers from Nordic countries if the name wasn't a giveaway yeah turns out they're all from Florida it was weird

are you serious no I would totally believe that there was some stories of Americans turning and joining the Nazis. Could not find any. But yeah. I'm sure one or two did and probably died before their story got brought out. Though it turns out nobody was really eager to send them into actual combat.

Despite being a frontline unit, Corps members were sent out to act as janitors around the barracks. Yep. We're on the frontline unit. Corps members were sent out to act as janitors around the barracks. Yep. We're on the frontline here. Sweeping that motor pool. Dust bunnies. Also, it turns out that the group of men had terrible leadership and organizational skills. McLarty,

for all of his faults, namely the fact that he was a Nazi and bragged about murdering Jews and Poles, actually had leadership experience, but he was gone now. With that role gone, the senior NCO position fell into a guy named Freeman. Freeman lied to the Nazis about his rank and never actually led anyone before,

meaning he had no idea what he was doing. That will not be the last or the first time that somebody lied to the Nazis about rank in order to get them within the Free Corps. Turns out they didn't do a lot of background checks. The Germans, sick and tired of all this bullshit, decided they'd just have to find a capable officer to put in charge. They did. On paper.

On paper. This was a British man named Douglas Burnville Clay. was a British man named Douglas Burnville Clay. And he was put in charge of the Free Corps because the Germans were working under the impression that he was a captain from the Coldstream Guards and a member of a British peerage, so-called Lord Charlesworth. Turns out, none of those things were true.

He wasn't part of the Coldstream? He wasn't part of the Coldstream Guards. He was not a member of peerage. He was not an officer. Well, he was an officer, but we'll get to that. Clay was actually a shithead with no education or Peerage, with a history of actually just lying his way through life, to include being fined for pretending to be a pilot in the Royal Air Force.

That's an Air Force I would want to be a part of. Especially during World War II. Yeah, he lied about that. I would force i would want to be a part of especially during world war two yeah he lied he lied about that uh i think he got i would steal valor for that dude uh back then turns out he had the same opinion uh he eventually listened the army is a private calling all right this is a long game calling himself the honor roll douglas state auburn Webster Burnville Clay. How much of that is his name? Just the Burnville Clay. After he enlisted, he told everybody that would listen to him that he'd actually graduated from Oxford, Cambridge, and various other schools. Nice.

Somehow this worked. Like, no, no, no, no. Imagine you went to your unit tomorrow. Like, guys, guys, I went to West Point. I need to be a lieutenant. West Point. Yeah, all right. Brown. Started naming off Ivy League schools a lieutenant west point yeah all right brown started naming off ivy league schools like fuck all right so major eventually someone's like well

he wouldn't be lying to us right so i'm an officer's candidate school so he went and he became a lieutenant what at that point does like the stolen valor just become real like i don't know no yeah you are yeah you're good now yeah uh at at one point he was court-martialed uh and also claimed he was a lawyer so he could represent himself this guy's awesome so he fucking won at court-martial what yeah uh he's the teflon don of stolen valor and you have to respect that kind of hustle yeah and i think he was court-martialed for fraud which is what he got in trouble for before yeah which is i was like i'm also a lawyer i'm lawyer doctor general

sir charlesworth lord of windsor fuck i think he's the king now this checks out i think the first king of england is literally just someone's like, I'm king now. Everyone's like, yeah, right. Perfect. Yep. Alrighty then. He was eventually captured in Tunisia because he was bad at leading. Surprise. And once a POW was very nearly murdered by other POWs because they thought he was an enemy spy.

Because the shit he was saying was not making sense to anybody in the POW camp. I honestly imagine him just being him. He just went along with what people said. So they'd be like, are you a spy? He's like, yes. Yes. I'm an MI6. Oh, well, are you a Nazi spy?

Yes. Yes. I'm in the Absefair. Hit him with rocks. He finally eventually did turn into an enemy collaborator cause like he was shunned by the rest of camp and then he decided when he started talking to the Nazis

I'm a captain and they're like in the Nazi army what and he gave himself like the pure joy of Lord Charlesworth and all sorts of other shit he eventually lied so hard. He eventually ended up sitting down to dinner with Felix Steiner. Yep.

And once at dinner, he, you know, every once in a while you meet like a bullshitter, a manipulator who's just so fucking good. They're normally like fucking, they work at the stock market and shit, or they become politicians.

But like, he was just fucking bullshitting his way through life and succeeding at any point. He lied so hard and so good to Felix Steiner. He's like, yeah, right, you're a captain. And then they appointed him the commander of the Free Corps. Wow. Immediately. I think this guy was just going lie by lie, and every time he was just like, fuck, that worked.

Let's keep going. Yeah, he's literally like, if I keep digging this hole, I'll come up on top. He told the Free Corps man when he showed up in charge, not to worry, because only a few days time, the British should be joining the war against the communists. Remember, it's April of 1945. He told them that all he was going to do is go find some tanks. They'd launch a raid against the Red Army and turn their flank and change the course of the war.

Just the Free Corps. So he pointed a random guy in the Free Corps. He said, like, you're my driver now. Get in the car. We're going to go find those tanks. The driver's like, yeah, all right. And then they drove off. He immediately ordered them to throw away their uniforms, and they turned to the British a few miles down the road.

He was commander for like an hour. Not only was he not punished for any of his kind of momentary service to Nazi Germany, he lied and told them that he learned secrets from Schneider and finally really got promoted to captain. What? Yep. He finally got punished for real

for stealing a bunch of army equipment and trying to sell it. But I still have respect for the hustle. This guy is awesome, to be honest. He's the real MVP. Like, really? Yeah. Like, yeah, you were in charge

of a bunch of Nazi British guys, but for an hour. Yeah. He ended up getting thrown in prison a couple times for forging checks and shit, too. This guy's awesome. The Free Corpsmen finally did see combat as Soviet mortars targeted their barracks briefly,

and they lost the man to gonorrhea. Really? Yeah. During the mortar attack? Well, he went and saw a medic because he felt kind of bad, and it turned out he had tertiary gonorrhea. On the eastern front. A, you're dead.

After surviving their bouts with Soviet artillery and STDs, they were deployed to... Every once in a while... We've been making this show for almost two years. Every once in a while, I say a sentence. I'm like, didn't think I went to school for that. That'll work.

But after that, they were deployed to a trench line at Angermunde I believe it's pronounced probably not what is that in Mexico no it's eastern Germany they're within Germany now the Soviets have invaded Mexico no that was France

that did that I'm sorry but your fucking pronunciation of that, I thought I was in Mexico. Hey, German day. That was worse. Yeah, it's only getting worse. That got racist.

Now, once there, they began to fight the Soviet advance, but that didn't mean that their adversary brought their, you know, normally the whole concept of uh people bond under adversity uh like shared adversity brings a grip together right not so much with the british free corps the the adversity that they they were forced to deal with together uh just made their infighting become such a problem that the local german commander who was literally desperate for soldiers and badly undermanned, asked that they be withdrawn

because he can't fucking bother to put up with all their bullshit. Wow. So they were pulled somewhere else and stuck with a transportation company. Though after the Soviets broke through the eastern lines and their dash towards Berlin, the Free Corps all just kind of fell apart and vanished.

Gone like a fart in the wind. I honestly could see 30 dudes within all that chaos. Disappearing? Yeah. Who cares? Yeah, I mean, they threw off their Nazi uniforms and disappeared. Many of them were captured by the Red Army, which were like, oh, fuck, it's a British POW.

So they sent them back to the British lines. Now, there was some rumors that several members of the Free Corps ended up fighting in the final stand in Berlin. This is mostly because one of the last units and the one that pretty much fought to the death was actually not German. It was the SS Charlemagne.

Made up of Frenchmen. There was rumored to be one Free Corps man who did. Again, named Bob Rossler, who nobody ever heard of again. He just kind of disappeared. So he probably died in Berlin. I see that. Couldn't find a lot of information on old Rossler,

but it is rumored. The men who thought they were just going to throw down their uniforms and surrender were sadly mistaken. British intelligence had been aware of the Free Corps for years, and using accounts from POWs in the camps that they toured, had pretty much a full roster of its members. Almost immediately! We got you guys

a starting lineup. Yeah. One by one, they are arrested and brought to trial. Though one guy, Henry Pleasance, managed to get picked up by the Soviets and thrown a gulag for seven fucking years. Fuck did he do? He was a Nazi. That makes sense. He was eventually released

after that seven years and sent back to England where they didn't bother arresting him again because he'd just been punished enough. You were in the gulag. Bro, you were in a gulag. So he spent the rest of his life telling anybody that he was the Woffin SS boxing champion.

Sure. What? That's not something to be proud of. I meanoffin SS boxing champion. Because, sure. What? Yeah. That's not something to be proud of. I mean, you're a champion. What are you a champion of? Nazi boxing. Oh, is that where, like, where you punch Nazis?

Like, no, I was a Nazi on a boxing team. Oh. You were one of those. Emery and Cooper faced the most serious charges of high treason. Cooper was sentenced to death, but before he could be hung, commuted to life.

And he was released in 1943. What? Yep. Who was like 43? 53. Okay. Yeah. And I remember Cooper was still. What? He was the one bragging about taking part in the Holocaust. Yeah. Amory's death sentence was carried out in 1945

at Wandsworth Prison uh did they resurrect him and get like let him go we're commuting your death sentence uh sir we've already carried out the death sentence bring him back to life and show him out to london no one will notice the difference you get very little sunshine here. My English accent sounds like... It's not bad. Old school Boston or New York? I'm not really sure. It's not bad.

But most people end up with Cooper-like sentences. Sentence to life and then released after a couple of years. Kenneth Barry was brought up on similar charges, but he had several people come to his defense, including his old commander, and German Army documents that described him as, quote, simple. I wonder

if that was just a piece of paper. Simple. Like, imagine, like, so what's your defense? I was too dumb to be a Nazi. Oh. You're that type of guy. And it worked. And, I mean, like, he, his defense is he was too dumb to understand what was going on, which is like probably the first time in a legal defense is like,

you just shrug your shoulders like, hey, come on. Come on. It worked. He served nine months and then returned to being a merchant seaman. Then he married a German. What was his rank? Man seaman. He served nine months and then returned to being a merchant seaman. What was his rank? Man seaman. He was an adult now.

He married a German woman, ironic, and then died in 92. Yep. That is the story of the British Free Corps. And thankfully, ever since the military doesn't recruit people with fascist political backgrounds, so this could totally never happen again. Thank God. Who would have thought? Yeah, I mean, I'd always kind of known a bit about the

volunteers of the SS because the SS Charlemagne was always so interesting to me. And it's really kind of hard to say yeah, those Nazis are real interesting. But it's really strange to see someone volunteer for something that's, like, should be, they should be adversarial against. And then, like, they're literally more loyal than real Nazi, like, real Germans.

It's so strange to me. It really is. And, like, the Nazis and their Eastern European functionaries are grossly violent. Like their Eastern European functionaries, one of them comes to mind is like the Ustasi, which still exists to this day. So it's like they had a real weird, like they set up franchises. Thanks, Hitler. Chick-fil-A franchises. Yeah.

Keep going back to that. Yeah. I just think I'd want chicken. I'm just really happy that fascism is close on Sundays. Now, Nick, we do a thing on the show called Questions from the Legion. I'm well aware. Now, if you'd like to ask questions from the Legion, you can donate a dollar, get access to our Discord, ask us on the podcast episode channel, or you could send us a DM on Patreon or Twitter.

Our question from the Legion for this episode is to me as more of a sci-fi author than a military history podcaster. And that is, as a sci-fi author, what my concepts of city building in society look like um in the future because i've uh well i have one sci-fi book out now called citizen of earth please buy it um which talks about how earth might look like in a couple thousand years from now and under like a world war one world government plus how some alien civilizations look like and i think i mean

nick you're from a really really big city what most people think of when they think of like west coast elites they think la and seattle and shit you're from la you've been to seattle i think some of the things that we're seeing now even in 2020 is like just a shortage of housing and land and basic government fucking systems and and programs yeah uh which is why i see uh and it's kind of something of a sci-fi trope is like the hive city as i think i called it uh where you just have like a city that has formed to like one giant layered monster where everybody is it's like one giant organism. And I know people say that now about cities with actual functioning public transit. But I think

layered cities that go up miles into the sky and stuff like that. It almost reminds me of Dread. With those giant city blocks. Yeah, and that is kind of what I see. And I don't think it's a good future. I write dystopian sci-fi

military literature um but i believe if we are to escape some kind of horrific climate death or large-scale purging of population numbers which are normally racist um we're going to have to do something that's deeply deeply uncomfortable uh like living on top of one another in a like a beehive type city um but i'm not a city planner i write sci-fi and i do a history podcast so i i'm a natural pessimist uh but yeah and then we'll see city states or uh form or like one city of fucking 50-200 million people exist and it's effectively a sovereign nation

it's gonna be awful it's not good so that's our episode this week thank you for listening Nick thank you for joining me about British boofing yes the boof the boof hit em with bricks

if you like to support our show it'll always be free yes the boof hit them with bricks yes if you like to support our show it'll always be free are we supporting boy semen we are not we have a strong stance British merchant I have no strong stance in the British

merchant navy but I do have a problem with their titles but our show will always be free if you want to throw us a dollar you could do so on patreon where you get access to bonus episodes or discord you get books and stickers you get early episodes and you can ask

those questions from the Legion make me talk about weird sci-fi stuff after talking about fascists it's all good you're playing Sims yeah it's it's Sims but people die. It's great. I think you can kill people in Sims, too. Yeah, you can totally kill a lot of people in Sims.

It's like the only thing you do in the Sims amusement park is you just make a roller coaster. You just fucking slam into people in line for that same roller coaster? Yeah, it's missing a whole part of the loop. But that's this week's episode, and we look forward to talking about probably not fascist next week later