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Show French 'Wermacht1 , .. . . - Foreign Legion Post Nov 80 German 1 By Fred Sparks ' .. jj Chicago Daily News Service J WITH THE FRENCH FOR- 2 eign Legion at fc-um el ) HASSAN, Morocco, June 3 Eighty per cent of the rugged men S at this Foreign Legion outpost are " young Germans many of whom served with . the ' now shredded iwehrmacht. , With both their sunken cheeks 1 1 and their .morale filled out again by good French chow, these blond youths strut around Fount El Ha san like a newsreel flashback of a preblitzkreis; pageant. Often I have to blink to make sure that the flag flying over fe'oum Kl Hassan carries the tricolor tri-color of France and not the swastika swas-tika of Hitler. T '.While Foreign Legion clerks say a i man's past is his twi damn business, 2 understand the overwhelming over-whelming majority of new men throughout the legion are Deutsch dandies. ; . 4 Only life They Knew Most of Hitler's children were born in a Germany that was one vast parade ground. The army is the only way of life they know. After seeing them at Foum El Hassan. I assure yon they still know it well. They are being "recruited" "re-cruited" in the French occupation zone where many sign up right after being released from French P. W. camps. The diet in Germany being what it is today, they. leap at a chance for- three-squares and the secure, regimented military mili-tary life. While the Horst-Wessel and other matters political are positively posi-tively "verboten," the new legionnaires legion-naires march across the desert wastes singing songs in German particularly: Main regiment, mein heimat-land heimat-land Main mutter, have ich nie ge- kannt. Main vater sarb sen on fruh fan feld, 1m feld, Ich bin alls In auf dlesef welt Tells Story Well This tittle ditty pretty well tells the stories of this lost generation gen-eration of super-flops, and means: My regiment, my homeland My mother, don't know who she is My father died in the war I am alone in this whole world. The only thing missing at Foum El Hassan is the goose-step. - The officers here are aU French, but most of the sergeants and corporals cor-porals are as German as weinerv schnitzel. The average boy has picked up a few words of French but Just enough to obey orders. German is the language of the base. Officials Are Happy French Legion officials are gleefully glee-fully happy about "our Germans." They are convinced that the huskies hus-kies will, at least during their five-year five-year hitch, have but one loyalty the legion. They gurgle with pride at the military' magnificence of this year's grop of krauts. It la true the Germans keep their barracks and uniforms as sleek as Anthony Eden's dinner Jacket They carry on the minor miseries of military necessity with a minimum of grousing. - Germans have always formed a basic part of the French Foreign Legion, although never this whopping whop-ping percentage. If he can't fight for a Bismarck, a Hindenburg or a Hitler, a German will be glad to fight for a spot in the chow line or Just plain fight - I |