Postes France French Tricolor Legion Bolshevism (LVF) Propaganda Stamps

POSTES FRANCE in 30 April 1942 printed five propaganda stamps to raise money for members of the French Tricolor Legion Bolshevism - LVF (Légion des Volontaires Français contre le Bolchévisme).  The stamps were printed and sold by the 'Action Committee of the French Legionnaires to combat Bolshevism.' The stamps depicted the military forces of the LFV. A million stamps were printed, but approximately only 450,000 were sold. There were 24 different sectors where the Legion was stationed, all having their own postal sector number.

The Legion of French Volunteers Against Bolshevism was a collaborationist French militia founded on 8 July 1941.  Parti Populaire Francais (French Popular Party, the most active of all the French fascists organizations) launched the idea of a Legion of French volunteers to help fight the Red Army. Eventually all the leaders of the French fascist and collaborationist groups, led by Doriot, Deat, Bucard, Costantini, Deloncle, Boissel, Clementi, met at Wehrmacht headquarters in Paris where the Central Committee of the LVF was created. Recruitment was limited to the occupied zone, number of recruits limited to 15,000 (a figure never achieved).

General Philippe Pétain, head of state of Vichy France, personally disapproved of Frenchmen wearing German uniforms, but never went beyond individual and informal words of support to some specific officers. The Legion of French Volunteers Against Bolshevism volunteered to fight against the USSR on the Eastern Front. It was officially known to the Germans as Infantry Regiment (Infanteriereregiment) 638 LVF (Französischer Infantry-Regiment 638 LVF). The LVF were generally poorly trained, equipped and led, eventually suffering huge losses. By mid-1944 the remaining LVF was incorporated into the French Waffen SS.


Source: www.axishistory.com and www.allstamp.net