I’ve been reading up on Operation Overlord over the recent anniversary, came upon an interesting aside. When Allied forces encountered “Hiwis” in Normandy, volunteer forces from occupied states, many from central Soviet provinces with Asiatic features, some thought for a moment that they were Japanese soldiers attached to the German army.
Of course, this was not the case, but it got me wondering - are there any documented cases of even a single German soldier fighting with Japanese forces or vice-versa? If the Axis had got their way they would have shaken hands in India. Fortunately that never happened.
German submarines were stationed in the port of Penang which is now part of Malaysia. Penang at the time was occupied by the Japanese. So basically, German navy personnel served alongside Japanese soldiers, though you could not really call that “fighting side by side”.
IIRC there was a German U-boat on it’s way to Japan carrying some Japanese personal and atomic bomb raw materials and/or plans in when Germany surrendered. The Japanese on board promptly commited suicide and the U-boat made it’s way to the nearest Allied port.