Postwar Signature of Henri Fenet, the sole French Waffen-SS Volunteer to be decorated with the Knight’s Cross. Signed on the reverse, front is a print.
Henri-Joseph Fenet served during the German invasion of France in 1940 as an “aspirant” (officer candidate) and a platoon leader (3 x 25mm guns) in the 21 Régiment d’Infanterie Colonial (RIC). He was wounded on 13th june 1940 near Mort-Homme (small hill near Verdun in France). After the French capitulation het served in the Vichy army with the 21th RIC in Frejus (Var, south of France). Later he served with the 3rd battalion of the 1st RTS (régiment de tirailleurs sénégalais) in Akjoujt (Mauritania) in Thessalonique, AOF (French occidental Africa). He was admitted to the officer course at the school for infantry of Saint Maixent, which as moved to Aix en Provence in july 1942 and was promoted to Leutenant in November 1942. On 29th november 1942 he was discharged. In March 1943 he entered the ‘Milice’ as chief of the Ain department and went into the Waffen-SS late in the summer of 1943. He was incorporated as Waffen-Oberscharführer on 18th October 1943. He received his instructions and training at Sennheim and the Junkerschule Bad Töls between 10th January and 14th March 1944. On 20th March 1944 he was promoted to Waffen-Obersturmführer and took 3. Kompanie at Neweklau, Bohemia/Moravia, at the end of May 1944 to form the SS-Freiwilligen-Brigade 8. Training was undertaken at Networschitz near Beneschau. At the end of December 1944 he commanded the I. / SS-Grenadier-Regiment 57 and was promoted to Waffen-Hauptsturmführer on 18th March 1945. In April 1945 he commanded the SS-Sturmbataillon “Charlemagne”.
Knight’s Cross awarded for the outstanding leadership of his French volunteers during the final fighting for Berlin. Decoration presented by SS-Brigadeführer Mohnke in the Reichs Kanzlerei between 20th and 30th April 1945. Awarding has been established through rersearch by the Ordensgemeinschaft der Ritterkreuzträger. Of the awarding is no evidence in the Bundesarchiv. (Source: Traces of War)
