 After Germany invaded the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa, recruits from France, Spain, Belgium (including Walloons), the territory of occupied Czechoslovakia, Hungary and the Balkans signed on.The foreigners who served in the Waffen-SS numbered "some 500,000", including those who were pressured into or conscripted.An estimated number of 159 Portuguese volunteers fought for the Axis in the World War II, mainly in the Spanish Blue Division.