the recruits had been active members of the VNV. The creation of the Flemish Legion also forced the Rexist Party, a largely French-speaking group in Belgium, to recruit a "Walloon Legion" rather than the "Belgian Legion" it had originally advocated. The volunteers were transported to Dębica in modern-day Poland in August 1941. The first signs of dissatisfaction began to emerge as it became apparent that the unit would actually be commanded purely by Germans and that many of the other promises made during the recruitment campaign would not be kept. Discipline was harsh, and Flemish volunteer were often subject to "systematic humiliation". At the time, the Germans attempted to amalgamate the new volunteers into the Wiking formation. The majority of the new recruits refused to join the Waffen-SS and the units were instead joined into a new battalion-sized Flemish Legion, itself associated with the larger Volunteer Legion Netherlands. In practice, the autonomy of the Flemish Legion would be increasingly ignored by the German military authorities and the VNV was unable to protest without compromising its own political position. As with some other formations at the time, the Flemish Legion was technically a "legion" attached to the Waffen-SS rather than a part of the Waffen-SS itself. According to the historian David Littlejohn, "the Germans were anxious to convey the impression of a semi-independent national unit" but the distinction was always illusory and was eventually abandoned in 1943. In practice, the Flemish Legion was effectively indistinguishable from other units of the Waffen-SS from the start and its personnel wore standard Waffen-SS uniforms with only a small shield-shaped badge depicting a Flemish lion to mark them out. In its first months, it was officially designated the SS Volunteer Legion "Flanders" (SS-Freiwilligen Legioen Flandern). Deployment on the Eastern Front Battles around Leningrad The Flemish Legion was declared to be battleworthy and was deployed to the sector around Leningrad in November 1941 to participate in the military blockade of the city which had begun two months earlier. It was attached to the 2 SS Infantry Brigade. A large-scale offensive aimed to relieve Leningrad was launched by the Red Army in January 1942. The Flemish Legion was involved in heavy fighting and took significant losses. Reimond Tollenaere, a leading figure within the VNV who had enlisted in the unit, was killed in a friendly fire incident in the same month. Michael Lippert, the Legion's unpopular German