Soldiers of the "Free Indians" Legion take the oath to the Fuehrer in 1942. The Legion was eventually assigned to the Waffen SS but saw little action other than marching about. German commanders found the "Free Indians" not fit for serious combat and thus the Legion lingered until the end of the war, when some of the Indian volunteers escaped into Switzerland and the rest taken POW by US and British troops. They were returned to India where a number of them faced charges of collaboration.



Taking the oath 

Members of the Falangist Frente de Juventudes youth movement bearing party standards.  The date is somewhat uncertain, but it is very likely to be at a rally preceding the 1936 Spanish general election - in which the Party did very, very badly.  The bad performance can be put down in part to a general lack of appeal among the electorate for its radical Fascist agenda, in part to the dislike of this agenda among the Spanish Right in general.  The Falange subsequently became a major vehicle for the Francoist counter-revolution, but with its Fascist teeth drawn, and under conditions of a forced, and distinctly uncomfortable, union with the reactionary Carlists.

This photograph shows one feature of Fascism that largely survived the "defascistisation" of the Falange - its adoption of outward symbols and trappings of Fascism and Naziism.  Like similar German banners in particular, these standards include the colours, versions of the medallions that featured on ancient Roman "vexilla" and, of course, eagles.  In this case, the eagle was the double-headed Habsburg eagle, recalling the glorious Spanish Habsburg past of Charles I (as king) and V (as Holy Roman Emperor), and of his son, Philip II.  Best regards, JR. 

Spanish Falangist standard-bearers.

High ranks of the Independent State of Croatia’s Air Force (Zrakoplovstvo Nezavisne Države Hrvatske or ZNDH) during a visit to a Croatian air base (the Officer in the centre is perhaps the General Kren first ZNDH’s commander). Photo taken surely after June 1942 because the presence in background of one of the Italian built fighter aircraft Fiat G.50bis purchased by Croat Air Force and in effect delivered from this date as replacement of older airplanes former Royal Yugoslav Air Force. The Independent State of Croatia (in Serbo-Croatian Nezavisna Država Hrvatska or NDH) was founded on 10 April 1941, after the invasion of Yugoslavia by the Axis powers, and its air force was originally organized into seven wings and subdivided into squadrons with four airbases (Zagreb, Sarajevo, Banja Luka and Mostar) while an Air Legion, equipped mainly with German flight material fought on Eastern Front beside the Luftwaffe. The Croat Air Force had command also over the Anti-Aircraft Artillery, divided into two Regions, Ist at Zagreb and IInd at Sarajevo, and a Parachute Battalion based at Koprivnica and later at Zagreb used mainly in anti-partisan missions. Also the many Croatian planes, except the aircraft of the Croat Air Legion, flew in a support role to the Luftwaffe in anti-partisan operations in the Balkans while other, included the G.50s and later the Bf 109Gs, was employed for the defense of the Country against the Allied raids. The ZNDH’s commanders was Major-General Vladimir Kren, a former captain in the Royal Yugoslav Air Force (April 1941-14 September, 1943), Colonel Adalbert Rogulja (14 September, 1943-June 4, 1944), and again the General Kren (June 4, 1944-May, 1945). The latter, arrested by the British and extradited to Yugoslavia, was executed as traitor in Zagreb on 2 December 1948. Victor Sierra