'Wallonia Legion') was a unit of the German Army (Wehrmacht) and later of the Waffen-SS recruited among French-speaking collaborationists in German-occupied Belgium during World War II.

It was formed in the aftermath of the German invasion of the Soviet Union and fought on the Eastern Front alongside similar formations from other parts of German-occupied Western Europe.

Established in July 1941, the Walloon Legion was envisaged by Léon Degrelle's Rexist Party as a means of demonstrating its loyalty and political indispensability in German-occupied Belgium where it had been largely ignored since the German invasion of May 1940.

It participated in fighting on the Eastern Front from February 1942 but struggled to find sufficient recruits in Belgium to replace its persistently heavy losses.

The unit was integrated into the Waffen-SS in June 1943 as the SS Assault Brigade Wallonia (SS-Sturmbrigade Wallonien) and was almost destroyed by Soviet forces in the Korsun–Cherkassy Pocket in February 1944.

It expanded slightly after the Allied Liberation of Belgium in September 1944 as Belgian, French, and Spanish collaborators were drafted into the unit.

At the time of the German invasion in May 1940, Belgium had several political parties that were broadly sympathetic to the authoritarian and anti-democratic ideals represented by Nazi Germany.

In spite of this, the party experienced a rapid decline in the years before the German invasion and polled below five percent in the 1939 elections and remained marginal.

This move, combined with the Germans' favourable stance towards the VNV, meant that it would not be possible to realise Rex's preferred option of a national "Belgian Legion" on the Eastern Front.

In propaganda, Rex emphasised the anti-communist dimension of the German war effort and argued that collaboration was compatible with Belgian patriotism.

One of the Russian émigrés who served in the Legion, Rostislav Zavadskii, at the end of November wrote in his diary about the shootings of civilians suspected of being partisans.

Although Feldgendarmerie units did the killing, one Walloon legionary also took part, with Belgian officers and soldiers standing by to watch and taking photographs.

[13] As the war continued and the pool of Rexist members fell, the volunteers became "largely non-political 'adventurers' or desperate men", often drawn from the urban working class and the unemployed.

[17] The Legion's record in combat, however, was widely exploited in propaganda and increased Degrelle's legitimacy in the eyes of the German leadership, especially Heinrich Himmler who commanded the SS.

In the fighting between February and May 1942, Degrelle was able to rise rapidly through the ranks to Leutnant and received numerous decorations including the Iron Cross.

The Walloon Legion was re-organised into a brigade-sized unit of 2,000 men, known as the SS Assault Brigade Wallonia (SS-Sturmbrigade Wallonien).

Degrelle, however, was widely celebrated for his role in the battle at Cherkassy, becoming "the poster boy for all European collaborators" and being featured in Wehrmacht's Signal magazine.

On the Eastern Front, the brigade was hurriedly redeployed in July from its temporary camp in Franconia to participate in the Battle of Tannenberg Line outside Narva alongside other units of the SS from Western Europe including Flanders.