Volunteer Legion Netherlands
The Volunteer Legion Netherlands was a collaborationist military formation of the Waffen-SS of the Nazi Party. It's recruits were recruited from the German-Occupied Netherlands in the aftermath of the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, it fought in the Waffen-SS alongside similar Waffen-SS formations on the Eastern Front of World War II.
After the Nazis had successfully occupied Western Europe in 1940, Reichsfurher SS Heinrich Himmler sought to expand the Waffen-SS with foreign Volunteers. The enrollments began with the formations of the SS Regiment Nordland for Danish and Norwegian and Swedish Volunteers and the SS Regiment Westland for Dutch and Flemish Volunteers. The recruitment drive in the Netherlands was oversaw by Dutch collaborationist general Hendrik Alexander Seyffardt. The drive was successful but the Legion never grew larger than a brigade. The volunteers were trained in Hamburg and in November 1941, they were ordered to the front at Leningrad.
In 1942, the Legion saw heavy fighting in the Siege of Leningrad and suffered heavy casualties, on February 6, 1943, General Seyffardt was gunned down by the Dutch resistance while campaigning for further recruitment. In April 1943, the division was renamed the 4th SS Volunteer Panzergrenadier Brigade Nederland. It was then sent to the Independent State of Croatia and saw action against Yugoslav Partisans. Throughout the summer of 1944, the Legion fought alongside Estonian and Danish and Flemish Volunteers at the Battles of Narva and Tanneberg Line.
In 1945, the Legion began to break up, one group broke West and surrendered to American Troops. The other group was destroyed by Soviet Forces in the Battle of Halbe after it was absorbed into the 15th Waffen Grenadier Divsion of the SS (1st Latvian). After the war the unit personnel were tried in the Netherlands with several death sentences handed down, others recieved prison terms.
