After training in Alsace, the brigade served on the Eastern Front before merging with the Legion of French Volunteers Against Bolshevism to form the SS Division Charlemagne.

The Assault Brigade was formed in July 1943 as the Französische SS-Freiwilligen Sturmbrigade,[c] it was established following a decree enabling Frenchmen to enlist in the Waffen-SS, and a subsequent recruiting drive took place in the zone libre occupied in November 1942.

[3] Sixteen recruiting stations were set up and attracted around 3,000 applicants from German-occupied France, many of whom were university students or existing members of the collaborationist paramilitary Milice.

[4] Training took place at the Sankt Andreas camp of Sennheim (now Cernay, in Alsace) under former Swiss army instructor SS Major Heinrich Hersche.

[4] Officers were sent to the SS-Junkerschule at Bad Tölz in Bavaria, where Lieutenant-Colonel Paul Marie Gamory-Dubourdeau received a commission as major at the end of the special training course and returned to the brigade as its commander.