Established in July 1941, the Flemish Legion was envisaged by the Flemish National Union ("Vlaams Nationaal Verbond", or VNV) as a means of maintaining its status as the principle collaborationist party within Flanders since the German invasion of May 1940. It was formed several months after the VNV had begun recruiting Flemish volunteers for smaller Waffen SS formations and was depicted as the future army of an independent Flemish state. Amid opposition from its personnel, the roughly 1,000-strong formation was given a notionally independent status as an SS Volunteer Legion Flanders ("SS-Freiwilligen Legion Flandern"). It subsequently sustained heavy casualties on the Eastern Front in fighting around Leningrad.