During World War II, the British Free Corps (in German Britisches Freikorps) was a unit of the Waffen-SS consisting of British and Dominion prisoners of war who had been recruited by the Nazis. The unit was originally knows as The Legion of St. George ^[1] Research by an English journalist, Adrian Weale,^[2] has identified about 59 men who belonged to this unit at one time or another, some for only a few days. At no time did it reach more than 27 men in strength – smaller than a contemporary German platoon.^[3]

Recruiting for the Free Corps was done in German POW camps. In 1944, leaflets were distributed to the POW's, and the unit was mentioned in Camp, the official POW newspaper published in Berlin. The unit was promoted "as a thoroughly volunteer unit, conceived and created by British subjects from all parts of the empire who have taken up arms and pledged their lives in the common European struggle against Soviet Russia". The attempted recruitment of POW's was done amid Germans fears of the Soviets; they were "victims of their own propaganda" and the Germans thought that their enemies were as worried about the Soviets as they were. In one camp in Holland, the POW's were lavished with cigarettes, fruits and other such items and made to listen to Nazi propaganda officers who described the good the Germans were doing in Europe and asked the men to join them in fighting the real enemy, the Soviets. Cite error: The <ref> tag has too many names (see the help page).

One such individual who attempted to recruit soldiers was John Amery, son of the former British Secretary of State for India, Leopold Amery. He was sentenced to die after a court-martial found him guilty of high-treason and treachery. ^[4]

• SS-Hauptsturmführer Johannes Roggenfeld: unknown – Summer 1943^[3]
• SS-Hauptsturmführer Roepke: Summer 1943 – 9.05.44^[3]
• SS-Obersturmführer Kühlich: 9.05.44 – May 45^[3]

Newspapers of the period give details of the court-martial of several Commonwealth soldiers involved in the Corps. One Canadian captive, Pte. Edwin Barnard Martin, who said he joined the Corps "to wreck it". He designed the flag and banner used by the Corps ^[5], and admitted to being one of the original six or seven members of the Corps during his trial. He was given a travel warrant and a railway pass which allowed him to move around Germany without a guard. </ref> http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=Da8tAAAAIBAJ&sjid=_5gFAAAAIBAJ&pg=2126,605983&dq=british+free+corps&hl=en </ref> He was charged with aiding the enemy while a prisoner of war. ^[6]

Another New Zealand solder claimed at his court-martial that he joined the Corps for similar reasons, to gather intelligence on the Germans to form a revolution among POW's, or to sabotage the unit if the revolution failed. ^[7]

Many readers' first acquaintance with the British Free Corps (BFC) came in Jack Higgins' World War II novel The Eagle Has Landed. In the novel, a BFC Officer named Harvey Preston, who is patterned on Berneville-Claye, is attached to the Fallschirmjäger unit which attempts to kidnap Winston Churchill. A convinced Nazi and petty criminal, Preston is viewed with disgust by all members of the German unit.

The 2006 film Joy Division portrays a member of the BFC, Sergeant Harry Stone, among the German troops and refugees fleeing the Red Army advance into Germany. In the film it is the aggressive Stone who appears to be the only convinced Nazi remaining among the Hitler Youth with whom he is grouped. He is seen attempting to recruit British POWs before the column is attacked by Soviet aircraft.

In 2009, the BFC also featured in the last ever episode of the ITV series Foyle's War, "The Hide" (Series 7, episode 3).

The 2010 novel SS Englander: The Amazing True Story of Hitler's British Nazis is based on the allegedly true exploits of an Englishman who fights in the Waffen SS, seeing limited action at Stalingrad as a special advisor, before joining the BFC during its formation.

• American Free Corps
• Legion of French Volunteers Against Bolshevism
• Indische Legion
• Russian Liberation Army
• Waffen-SS foreign volunteers and conscripts
• Camp Friesack (Friesack Camp), attempt to raise an "Irish Brigade"
• Fusilier James Brady
• John Codd
• John Amery

• Adrian Weale. Renegades: Hitler's Englishmen. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1994. ISBN 0-7126-6764-4

• Pipes, Jason. "Britisches Frei-Korps / British Free Corps"
• Pipes, Jason. "British Volunteers in the German Wehrmacht in WWII"
• BBC News {for reference only}
• Guy Walters' site's history of the BFC, complete with pictures "[1]
• Daily Mail article on the British Free Corps from 2010
• BFC Facebook group, non political set up for anyone with an interest in the BFC to share information, photos, documents and anything else that would be considered relevant [2]