Lost Armies?

[Fusilier]

Does anyone know of any "lost armies" besides the Chinese Nationalist's 93rd Division?

(At the conclusion of the Chinese Civil War in 1949, some remnants of the anti-communist Kuomintang (KMT) forces refused to surrender, including the 93rd Division. The division fought its way out of Yunnan in southwestern China, and its soldiers lived (fought as) nomadic lives in Burma's jungles before seeking asylum in Thailand. In exchange for their asylum, they fought for Thailand until 1982, helping to counter the communist insurgency at the Thai frontier. In reward, the Thai government granted citizenship to most of the KMT soldiers and their families.)

With troops marooned all over the world in Tw2000 (civgov in Yugo and 8th Army in Korea to name a few), I've been quite interested in making any comparisons with real world lost units. I don't mean deserters or small bands of men. I mean whole units. Is there any besides the 93rd Division?

[simonmark6]

I remember something similar happening with the Czech Legion at the end of WW1, here's a wiki link to get you started:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czechoslovak_Legions

In the end they got home though as opposed to finding a new country to live in.

[Adm.Lee]

Beyond the Czechoslovak Legion, there aren't many formed units that come to mind. Lots of exiles, though.

Probably too long ago, but there's a tribe or ethnic group in the far west of China that claim to be descendants of Roman legionaries, possibly prisoners of war to the Parthians.

Then there's the 2 Koreans who were drafted by the Soviets, captured by the Germans and drafted again, and captured by the British (or Canadians) in Normandy, 1944.

Lots of exile forces from Central Europe settled in the West after the Soviets took over their countries at the end of WW2. Some of those guys, or their kids, became mercenaries in Africa or became American soldiers. Ex-Eastern Europeans were a staple of the early Special Forces.

Oh, and the White Russian community that coalesced around Shanghai after the Russian Civil War. Many couldn't get legal passports, so they couldn't emigrate to other countries. Some became mercenaries for the warlords in that era, some tried to marry their daughters to Western naval officers in the area (probably more fictional than real, but it happened to future US Admiral Zumwalt, IIRC).

[boogiedowndonovan]

How about the French GMCA (Groupement de Commandos Mixtes Aéroportés) commandos during the First Indochina War? These were French SOF types air dropped into the northern part of Vietnam to work with various non-Vietnamese hill tribes who had long standing grudges against the Vietnamese.

After Dien Bien Phu, they were effectively cut off, but many kept on leading their guerilla groups against the Vietminh. No one knows what really happened after 1954, but without resupply, we can assume they were all eventually hunted down.

This site mentions to radio transmissions from trapped GCMA commandos: http://www.alliedcoldwarvets.com/GCMA.html

The first transmission is also mentioned in Bernard Fall's book Streets without Joy. I like Bernard Fall's translation of the radio transmission, I will post it when I dig up my copy from storage. The second transmission is interesting because it was received by a US Special Forces camp in 1969. One can only imagine what would have happened if they investigated it further.

Mohender, any comments on the GCMA left behind in Vietnam?

[HorseSoldier]

Anti-communist/nationalist guerillas (originally armed by the Nazis) in the Ukraine held out against the Soviets for about a decade after WW2, and eventually required Army-level sweeps to fully run them to ground.

[RN7]

A fairly famous lost army is the Roman Ninth Legion (Legio IX Hispana), which was supposedly wiped out during a Roman incursion into Scotland in 117AD. However the legion was probably transfered out of Britain with strong evidence of its existance in the Lower Rhine region of the modern Netherlands shortly after its last recorded activity in Britain, with further evidence suggesting it was active in Palestine during the Third Jewish Revolt in 132-136AD, were it may have been ultimatly destroyed or disbanded.

Other lost armies might include the army of Cambyses II of Persia which was lost in the desert in Egypt on its way to the Siwa Oasis. Many famous people have tried to find this lost army including Orde Windgate the founder of the WW2 British army Chindets, and the guy who the film the English Patient was based on.

[RN7]

Anti-communist/nationalist guerillas (originally armed by the Nazis) in the Ukraine held out against the Soviets for about a decade after WW2, and eventually required Army-level sweeps to fully run them to ground.

Another group of anti-soviet guerillas called the Forest Brothers existed across the Baltic States from 1940 until 1965, with some former partisans evading capture up until the 1980's. They were heavily armed and based their operations from a well defended network of bunkers across the large forests of the Baltic States, and were responsible for killing thousand of Soviet troops and pro-Soviet informers in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania particularly during the late 1940's and early to mid-1950's. They were originally armed by the Germans or used captured Soviet weapons, but were actively supplied and supported by the CIA, MI6 and the Swedish intelligence service up until 1955.

[Dog 6]

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,888242,00.html

[Muti]

Here's what happened to the lost army of Cambyses...

http://news.discovery.com/archaeology/cambyses-army-remains-sahara.html

[jester]

Draught! And I was going to post a clip of the Scorpion King just to be a smart errrr something :p