XV SS Cossack Cavalry Corps
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[edit] History
The summer of 1942 marked the high tide of German success in the East. In October 1942 the Germans established in the Kuban a semi-autonomous Cossack District and were now in the position to recruit Cossacks from these areas, the POW camps, and defectors from the Red Army. Of the latter, the most significant was the desertion of an entire Red Army regiment (Infantry Regt. 436) which, with all officers, went over to the Germans on August 1941. Its commander, Major I.N.Kononov, was a Don Cossack. He had a distinguished career in the German service, ending the war as Major General in the XVth Cossack Cavalry Corps under the command of the German General Helmuth von Pannwitz.[citation needed]Already in May 1943 Pannwitz was given authorization to create a first Cossack Division consisting of two brigades which trained throughout the summer in Mława (Mielau), north of Warsaw. The division was then not, as it had hoped, sent to fight the Red Army, but instead it was ordered, in September 1943, to proceed to Yugoslavia and fight Josip Broz Tito's partisans. The Cossacks took part in several major offensives against the Partisans including Operation Rösselsprung, the attack on Tito's headquarter in Bosnia from which Tito evaded capture only by the narrowest of margins. During the summer of 1944 the two brigades were upgraded to become the 1st Cossack Cavalry Division and 2nd Cossack Cavalry Division. From the beginning of 1945, these divisions were combined to become XVth Cossack Cavalry Corps.[citation needed]
By the end of the war, the SS took control of all foreign units within the German forces. The Himmler file in the Imperial War Museum contains a record of a conversation which occurred on August 26, 1944, between Himmler, General von Pannwitz, and his Chief of Staff, Colonel H.-J. von Schultz. An agreement was reached that the Cossack divisions, soon to be the Cossack Corps, would only be placed under SS administration in terms of replacements and supplies. However, by February 1, 1945 the corps was transferred to the Waffen-SS. Despite the refusal of General von Pannwitz to enter the SS, the corps was placed under SS administration and all Cossacks became formally part of the Waffen-SS.[2]
General von Pannwitz chose to accompany the Cossacks when they were repatriated by the British to the Soviet Union after the surrender, and was executed in Moscow in 1947. With him most of the Cossack officer corps also went to the gallows or would disappear into the labour camps. The mass of the enlisted members of Cossack Corps were also repatriated and sent to the labour camps of the Soviet Union.[citation needed]
[edit] See also
[edit] Further reading
- François de Lannoy: Les Cosaques de Pannwitz: 1942 - 1945. Bayeux: Heimdal, 2000. ISBN 2-84048-131-6
- Samuel J. Newland: Cossacks in the German Army. U.S.Army War College, Frank Cass and Co. Ltd 1991, ISBN 0-7146-3351-8
- David Littlejohn: Foreign Legions of the Third Reich. R.James Bender Publishing, 1987. ISBN 091213836X
- Hellmuth Felmy: The Cossack Corps. US Army Historical Division, Hailer Publishing, 1946 (published in 2007 by Hailer Publishing)[1]
[edit] References
- ^ Rolf Michaelis: Die Waffen-SS. Mythos und Wirklichkeit. Michaelis-Verlag, Berlin 2001, p. 36
- ^ Rolf Michaelis (2006), Die Waffen-SS. Mythos und Wirklichkeit. Berlin: Michaelis-Verlag, p. 36
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SS cosacche
Alla fine del 1944 veniva creato il 15. SS-Kosaken Kavallerie Korps unendo due divisioni di cavalleria cosacca, più un paio di brigate di fanteria cosacca.
Poi il 25 febbraio 1945 passava sotto le insegne delle Waffen-SS, dopo un accordo con il comandante dell'unità cosacca, il generale Helmuth von Pannwitz.
Gli effettivi di tale unità saranno di ben 52.000 uomini.
Da Wikipedia, l'enciclopedia libera.
| XV.SS-Kosaken Kavallerie Korps "Kosakken" | |
|---|---|
Simbolo del Corpo d'Armata della
XV. SS-Kosaken Kavallerie Korps "Kosakken" | |
| Descrizione generale | |
| Attiva | inizi febbraio 1945-8 maggio 1945 |
| Nazione | .svg){kind=small} Germania |
| Alleanza | Potenze dell'Asse |
| Servizio | Waffen SS |
| Tipo | reparto di cavalleria e fanteria |
| Dimensione | Corpo d'Armata militare |
| Battaglie/guerre | Battaglia nei Balcani (1945) |
| Comandanti | |
| Comandanti degni di nota | *Lieutenant-General Helmuth von Pannwitz |
| Voci di unità militari presenti su Wikipedia | |
Poi il 25 febbraio 1945 passava sotto le insegne delle Waffen-SS, dopo un accordo con il comandante dell'unità cosacca, il generale Helmuth von Pannwitz.
Gli effettivi di tale unità saranno di ben 52.000 uomini.
Bibliografia [modifica]
- Gerhard von Plettenberg, I cosacchi della Wehrmacht, Droste Verlag und Druckerei, Düsseldorf, 1982
Altri progetti [modifica]
Commons contiene immagini o altri file su XV SS-Kosaken Kavallerie Korps
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Helmuth von Pannwitz
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article needs additional citations for verification. (November 2012)
Helmuth von Pannwitz 
Helmuth von Pannwitz in 1941Born 14 October 1898
Botzanowitz, Kingdom of Prussia Died 16 January 1947 (aged 48)
Moscow, Soviet Union Allegiance Germany Years of service 1914–1945 Rank Lieutenant General/Feldataman Commands held XVth Cossack Cavalry Corps Battles/wars World War I
World War II Awards Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves
Iron Cross 2nd and 1st Class
Helmuth von Pannwitz (14 October 1898 – 16 January 1947) was a German general who distinguished himself as a cavalry officer during the First and the Second World Wars. Lieutenant General of the Wehrmacht and Supreme Ataman of the XV. Kosaken-Kavallerie-Korps. He was executed in Moscow for war crimes in 1947.
Contents
[hide]
[edit] Early life
Pannwitz was born into a family of Prussian nobility on his father's estate Botzanowitz (today Bodzanowice), Silesia, near Rosenberg (today Olesno), now part of Poland but directly on the German-Russian border of that time. His family was original of the Lusatia. Members of his family came to the village of Pannwitz in the 14th century. From the 14th to 16th century the family held the office of Burggraf of Glatz.
At twelve years of age, he entered a German cadet school in Wahlstadt, near Liegnitz in Silesia, and later the cadet school at Berlin-Lichterfelde. Even before outbreak of World War I he was attracted by exhibitions of Cossack units that were organized in the neighboring towns of the Russian Empire.
As an officer cadet, Pannwitz upon the outbreak of the First World War joined the Imperial German Army as a volunteer (1st Regiment of Lancers, based at Militsch), in the course of which he was at the age of sixteen promoted to the rank of lieutenant and decorated with the Second Class of the Iron Cross in the same year (and, a year later, the First Class) for bravery. Immediately after the war he fought in the ranks of the Volunteer Corps (Freikorps) against Communism in Germany. After spending a year in Hungary, Pannwitz went to Poland in 1926, where he lived and worked as an administrator of farms, at the last in charge of the estates of Princess Radziwill in Mlochow, near Warsaw. In 1934 he was recalled to the German Army as a cavalry squadron commander in the 2nd Cavalry Regiment in East Prussia. In 1938, when Austria became part of Germany, he was transferred to Austria and became detachment commander with the 11th Cavalry Regiment at Stockerau near Vienna. World War II found him as the commander of a reconnaissance detachment in Poland and France.[1]
[edit] World War II
On active service again in World War II, Pannwitz was awarded "bars" to his previous decorations and in August, 1941, was awarded the Knight's Cross. He received the Oakleaves as a Colonel a year later, when he was in command of a battle group designed to cover the southern flank in the battle of Stalingrad, where he wiped out a Soviet cavalry brigade, a Soviet cavalry division, and an enemy infantry division.
Pannwitz was instrumental in establishing a Cossack volunteer force, the 1st Cossack Division, which was formed on 21 April 1943. The division fought battles against partisans in Ukraine and Belorussia, and was then moved to fight against partisans commanded by Tito in Yugoslavia. During punitive operations in Serbia and Croatia, the Cossack regiments under Pannwitz's command committed a number of atrocities against the civilian population, including several mass rapes and routine summary executions. An order of General von Pannwitz dated October 20, 1943, made absolutely clear to all under his command that any crime of that kind would result in the death penalty.[2]
At the award ceremony in Berlin when Pannwitz received the "Oak Leaves" for his Knight's Cross on January 15, 1943, he told Hitler that the official Nazi policies which caused Slavs to be regarded as subhumans (Untermenschen) were totally wrong.[3] The Cossack Division became the XV Kosaken-Kavallerie-Korps within the German Wehrmacht in February 1945.
Because of the respect and understanding he always showed for his troops and his tendency to attend Russian Orthodox services with them, Pannwitz was very popular with his Cossack volunteers. Before the end of the war, he was elected Feldataman, the highest rank in the Cossack hierarchy and one that was traditionally reserved for the Tsar alone.[4]
From February, 1945, the Corps was placed under Waffen-SS administration for replacements and supplies, but without making the Cossack units a part of the Waffen-SS.[5][6]
[edit] Aftermath
Pannwitz surrendered on May 11, 1945, to British forces near Völkermarkt in Carinthia, Austria, and made every effort to ensure that his men would remain in the custody of the Western powers. But by mid-May it was becoming obvious that the Cossacks would be handed over to their deadly enemies, the SMERSH, an action often referred to as The Betrayal of Cossacks. The same fate overtook the members of the Kazachi Stan at Lienz, another 30,000 old folk, women, and children. All were executed, were sent to GULAG prison camps, or committed suicide to avoid being repatriated.[citation needed]
Pannwitz was a German national, and under the provision of the Geneva Convention not subject to repatriation to the SMERSH. But on May 26, he was deprived of his command and placed under arrest while the forceable loading of the Cossacks into trucks began and continued through the following days. Although many escaped from their camps following these actions, General von Pannwitz and many of his German officer cadre did not want to leave their men alone and shared the uncertain fate of the Cossacks who had been comrades in combat for more than two years, so these Germans surrendered with the Cossacks to the NKVD at Judenburg.
[edit] Execution
Pannwitz was executed in Moscow on January 16, 1947, having been convicted by a Soviet court of war crimes in Yugoslavia.
[edit] Legacy
Almost fifty years later, on April 23, 1996, during the Russian presidency of Boris Yeltsin, members of the Pannwitz family petitioned for a posthumous verdict of acquittal of the 1946 conviction. The Military High Prosecutor in Moscow subsequently determined that Von Pannwitz was eligible for rehabilitation as a victim of Stalin-era repression. On June 28, 2001, however, rehabilitation was reversed in a ruling that disputed jurisdiction of the 1996 proceedings, and Von Pannwitz's conviction for military crimes was maintained.
[edit] Awards and decorations
- Iron Cross (1914)
- 2nd Class (16 September 1915)
- 1st Class (27 January 1917)
- Wound Badge (1914)
- in Black
- Cross of Honor (20 December 1934)
- Wehrmacht-Dienstauszeichnung
- Iron Cross (1939)
- 2nd Class (23 September 1939)
- 1st Class (5 October 1939)
- General Assault Badge (18 July 1941)
- Eastern Front Medal
- Order of Michael the Brave
- 3rd Class (7 May 1943)
- Order of the Crown of King Zvonimir with Stars and Swords
- Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves
- Knight's Cross on 4 September 1941 as Oberstleutnant and commander of Aufklärungs-Abteilung 45
- 167th Oak Leaves on 23 December 1942 as Oberst and Führer of the Kampfgruppe "von Pannwitz
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Kosaken und Wehrmacht, Werner Krause, ISBN 3-7020-1015-7
- ^ War diary 1st Cossack Division, National Archives Microcopy No T-315, Roll 2281, Washington 1965
- ^ Cossacks in the German Wehrmacht, Samuel J. Newland, p.108,ISBN 0-7146-3351-8
- ^ Cossacks in the German Wehrmacht, Samuel J. Newland, p.164,ISBN 0-7146-3351-8
- ^ Cossacks in the German Wehrmacht, Samuel J. Newland, p.145,ISBN 0-7146-3351-8
- ^ Rolf Michaelis: Die Waffen-SS. Mythos und Wirklichkeit. Michaelis-Verlag, Berlin 2001, p. 36
This article includes a list of references, but its sources remain unclear because it has insufficient inline citations. (June 2009)
[edit] Further reading
- Cossacks in the German Army, Samuel J. Newland, U.S. Army College, 1991 Frank Cass & Co.Ltd. London, ISBN 0-7146-3351-8.
- Die Verratenen von Yalta, Nikolai Tolstoi, 1977 Langen Müller, ISBN 3-7844-1719-1.
- Erich Kern: General von Pannwitz und seine Kosaken, 1971 Verlag K.W. Schütz;
- The Minister and the Massacres, Nikolai Tolstoy, 1986 Century Hutchinson Ltd. London, ISBN 0-09-164010-5.
- The cost of a reputation, Ian Mitchel, 1997 Topical Books Lagavulin, ISBN 0-9531581-0-1.
- Die Illusion, Jürgen Thorwald, 1974 Droemer Knaur Verlag, ISBN 3-85886-029-8
[show]
Recipients of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves
Authority control
Categories:
- 1898 births
- 1947 deaths
- People from Olesno
- German untitled nobility
- Knights of the Order of Saint John (Bailiwick of Brandenburg)
- German Protestants
- German anti-communists
- 20th-century Freikorps personnel
- Wehrmacht generals
- German military personnel of World War I
- German military personnel of World War II
- Recipients of the Knight's Cross
- Recipients of the Iron Cross
- People from the Province of Silesia
- German people executed abroad
- SS generals
- German people executed by the Soviet Union
- Recipients of the Order of the Crown of King Zvonimir
- Recipients of the Order of Michael the Brave
- Nazis convicted of war crimes
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| This article needs additional citations for verification. (November 2012) |
| Helmuth von Pannwitz | |
|---|---|
 Helmuth von Pannwitz in 1941 | |
| Born | 14 October 1898 Botzanowitz, Kingdom of Prussia |
| Died | 16 January 1947 (aged 48) Moscow, Soviet Union |
| Allegiance | Germany |
| Years of service | 1914–1945 |
| Rank | Lieutenant General/Feldataman |
| Commands held | XVth Cossack Cavalry Corps |
| Battles/wars | World War I World War II |
| Awards | Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves Iron Cross 2nd and 1st Class |
Contents[hide] |
[edit] Early life
Pannwitz was born into a family of Prussian nobility on his father's estate Botzanowitz (today Bodzanowice), Silesia, near Rosenberg (today Olesno), now part of Poland but directly on the German-Russian border of that time. His family was original of the Lusatia. Members of his family came to the village of Pannwitz in the 14th century. From the 14th to 16th century the family held the office of Burggraf of Glatz.At twelve years of age, he entered a German cadet school in Wahlstadt, near Liegnitz in Silesia, and later the cadet school at Berlin-Lichterfelde. Even before outbreak of World War I he was attracted by exhibitions of Cossack units that were organized in the neighboring towns of the Russian Empire.
As an officer cadet, Pannwitz upon the outbreak of the First World War joined the Imperial German Army as a volunteer (1st Regiment of Lancers, based at Militsch), in the course of which he was at the age of sixteen promoted to the rank of lieutenant and decorated with the Second Class of the Iron Cross in the same year (and, a year later, the First Class) for bravery. Immediately after the war he fought in the ranks of the Volunteer Corps (Freikorps) against Communism in Germany. After spending a year in Hungary, Pannwitz went to Poland in 1926, where he lived and worked as an administrator of farms, at the last in charge of the estates of Princess Radziwill in Mlochow, near Warsaw. In 1934 he was recalled to the German Army as a cavalry squadron commander in the 2nd Cavalry Regiment in East Prussia. In 1938, when Austria became part of Germany, he was transferred to Austria and became detachment commander with the 11th Cavalry Regiment at Stockerau near Vienna. World War II found him as the commander of a reconnaissance detachment in Poland and France.[1]
[edit] World War II
On active service again in World War II, Pannwitz was awarded "bars" to his previous decorations and in August, 1941, was awarded the Knight's Cross. He received the Oakleaves as a Colonel a year later, when he was in command of a battle group designed to cover the southern flank in the battle of Stalingrad, where he wiped out a Soviet cavalry brigade, a Soviet cavalry division, and an enemy infantry division.Pannwitz was instrumental in establishing a Cossack volunteer force, the 1st Cossack Division, which was formed on 21 April 1943. The division fought battles against partisans in Ukraine and Belorussia, and was then moved to fight against partisans commanded by Tito in Yugoslavia. During punitive operations in Serbia and Croatia, the Cossack regiments under Pannwitz's command committed a number of atrocities against the civilian population, including several mass rapes and routine summary executions. An order of General von Pannwitz dated October 20, 1943, made absolutely clear to all under his command that any crime of that kind would result in the death penalty.[2]
At the award ceremony in Berlin when Pannwitz received the "Oak Leaves" for his Knight's Cross on January 15, 1943, he told Hitler that the official Nazi policies which caused Slavs to be regarded as subhumans (Untermenschen) were totally wrong.[3] The Cossack Division became the XV Kosaken-Kavallerie-Korps within the German Wehrmacht in February 1945.
Because of the respect and understanding he always showed for his troops and his tendency to attend Russian Orthodox services with them, Pannwitz was very popular with his Cossack volunteers. Before the end of the war, he was elected Feldataman, the highest rank in the Cossack hierarchy and one that was traditionally reserved for the Tsar alone.[4]
From February, 1945, the Corps was placed under Waffen-SS administration for replacements and supplies, but without making the Cossack units a part of the Waffen-SS.[5][6]
[edit] Aftermath
Pannwitz surrendered on May 11, 1945, to British forces near Völkermarkt in Carinthia, Austria, and made every effort to ensure that his men would remain in the custody of the Western powers. But by mid-May it was becoming obvious that the Cossacks would be handed over to their deadly enemies, the SMERSH, an action often referred to as The Betrayal of Cossacks. The same fate overtook the members of the Kazachi Stan at Lienz, another 30,000 old folk, women, and children. All were executed, were sent to GULAG prison camps, or committed suicide to avoid being repatriated.[citation needed]Pannwitz was a German national, and under the provision of the Geneva Convention not subject to repatriation to the SMERSH. But on May 26, he was deprived of his command and placed under arrest while the forceable loading of the Cossacks into trucks began and continued through the following days. Although many escaped from their camps following these actions, General von Pannwitz and many of his German officer cadre did not want to leave their men alone and shared the uncertain fate of the Cossacks who had been comrades in combat for more than two years, so these Germans surrendered with the Cossacks to the NKVD at Judenburg.
[edit] Execution
Pannwitz was executed in Moscow on January 16, 1947, having been convicted by a Soviet court of war crimes in Yugoslavia.[edit] Legacy
Almost fifty years later, on April 23, 1996, during the Russian presidency of Boris Yeltsin, members of the Pannwitz family petitioned for a posthumous verdict of acquittal of the 1946 conviction. The Military High Prosecutor in Moscow subsequently determined that Von Pannwitz was eligible for rehabilitation as a victim of Stalin-era repression. On June 28, 2001, however, rehabilitation was reversed in a ruling that disputed jurisdiction of the 1996 proceedings, and Von Pannwitz's conviction for military crimes was maintained.[edit] Awards and decorations
- Iron Cross (1914)
- 2nd Class (16 September 1915)
- 1st Class (27 January 1917)
- Wound Badge (1914)
- in Black
- Cross of Honor (20 December 1934)
- Wehrmacht-Dienstauszeichnung
- Iron Cross (1939)
- 2nd Class (23 September 1939)
- 1st Class (5 October 1939)
- General Assault Badge (18 July 1941)
- Eastern Front Medal
- Order of Michael the Brave
- 3rd Class (7 May 1943)
- Order of the Crown of King Zvonimir with Stars and Swords
- Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves
- Knight's Cross on 4 September 1941 as Oberstleutnant and commander of Aufklärungs-Abteilung 45
- 167th Oak Leaves on 23 December 1942 as Oberst and Führer of the Kampfgruppe "von Pannwitz
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Kosaken und Wehrmacht, Werner Krause, ISBN 3-7020-1015-7
- ^ War diary 1st Cossack Division, National Archives Microcopy No T-315, Roll 2281, Washington 1965
- ^ Cossacks in the German Wehrmacht, Samuel J. Newland, p.108,ISBN 0-7146-3351-8
- ^ Cossacks in the German Wehrmacht, Samuel J. Newland, p.164,ISBN 0-7146-3351-8
- ^ Cossacks in the German Wehrmacht, Samuel J. Newland, p.145,ISBN 0-7146-3351-8
- ^ Rolf Michaelis: Die Waffen-SS. Mythos und Wirklichkeit. Michaelis-Verlag, Berlin 2001, p. 36
| This article includes a list of references, but its sources remain unclear because it has insufficient inline citations. (June 2009) |
[edit] Further reading
- Cossacks in the German Army, Samuel J. Newland, U.S. Army College, 1991 Frank Cass & Co.Ltd. London, ISBN 0-7146-3351-8.
- Die Verratenen von Yalta, Nikolai Tolstoi, 1977 Langen Müller, ISBN 3-7844-1719-1.
- Erich Kern: General von Pannwitz und seine Kosaken, 1971 Verlag K.W. Schütz;
- The Minister and the Massacres, Nikolai Tolstoy, 1986 Century Hutchinson Ltd. London, ISBN 0-09-164010-5.
- The cost of a reputation, Ian Mitchel, 1997 Topical Books Lagavulin, ISBN 0-9531581-0-1.
- Die Illusion, Jürgen Thorwald, 1974 Droemer Knaur Verlag, ISBN 3-85886-029-8
| |||
|
Categories:
- 1898 births
- 1947 deaths
- People from Olesno
- German untitled nobility
- Knights of the Order of Saint John (Bailiwick of Brandenburg)
- German Protestants
- German anti-communists
- 20th-century Freikorps personnel
- Wehrmacht generals
- German military personnel of World War I
- German military personnel of World War II
- Recipients of the Knight's Cross
- Recipients of the Iron Cross
- People from the Province of Silesia
- German people executed abroad
- SS generals
- German people executed by the Soviet Union
- Recipients of the Order of the Crown of King Zvonimir
- Recipients of the Order of Michael the Brave
- Nazis convicted of war crimes
1η Μεραρχία Κοζάκων
Από τη Βικιπαίδεια, την ελεύθερη εγκυκλοπαίδεια
 Το έμβλημα της 1ης Μεραρχίας Κοζάκων | |
| Χώρα | .svg){kind=small} Ναζιστική Γερμανία |
|---|---|
| Υπαγωγή |  Κροατία  Σερβία |
| Κλάδος |  Waffen-SS |
| Τύπος | Ιππικό |
| Ρόλος | Καταπολέμηση των παρτιζάνων |
| Μέγεθος | Μεραρχία |
| Δυναμικό | 13.000 Κοζάκοι 4.500 Γερμανοί |
| Ηγέτης | Αδόλφος Χίτλερ |
| Αξιοσημείωτοι διοικητές | Χέλμουτ φον Πάννβιτς |
Ιστορία [Επεξεργασία]
Μόλις δημιουργήθηκε η μεραρχία, το 1943, στάλθηκε στην Κροατία, ως οπισθοφυλακή ενός σώματος πάντσερ, που δρούσε εκεί. Τον Οκτώβριο του ίδιου χρόνου έλαβε μέρος σε μάχη κατά των Γιουγκοσλάβων παρτιζάνων στα βουνά Φρούσκα Γκόρα, στη σημερινή Σερβία: στις 12 του μήνα, συνεπικουρούμενη από 15 πάντσερ, εισέβαλε στο χωριό Beočin, όπου βρισκόταν το αρχηγείο των αντιστασιακών. Κατόπιν μέρος της μεραρχίας χρησιμοποιήθηκε για την προστασία του σιδηροδρόμου που ένωνε το Ζάγκρεμπ και το Βελιγράδι. Παράλληλα, ορισμένα συντάγματα πήραν μέρος σε μάχες κατά των παρτιζάνων και φρούρησαν το σιδηρόδρομο του Σαράγεβο. Το 1944, ολόκληρη πλέον η μεραρχία, γύρισε στη Κροατία, όπου πολέμησε ενάντια σε παρτιζάνους και Τσέτνικς. Το Δεκέμβριο του 1944 αντιμετώπισε και νίκησε τον Κόκκινο Στρατό, κοντά στην κροατική πόλη Pitomača. Μετά την ήττα αυτή, οι σοβιετικές δυνάμεις αποχώρησαν από την ευρύτερη περιοχή. Το 1945 η μεραρχία ενσωματώθηκε στο 15ο Σώμα Κοζάκων, που αριθμούσε συνολικά περίπου 25.000 άνδρες και αποτελούσε τακτική μονάδα της Βέρμαχτ, και όχι στα Waffen-SS όπως κατά καιρούς αναφέρεται λανθασμένα.Στα τέλη του πολέμου, οι Κοζάκοι της μεραρχίας βρέθηκαν στην Αυστρία, όπου και παραδόθηκαν στα βρετανικά στρατεύματα. Αν και τους είχαν δοθεί εγγυήσεις ότι δε θα τους παρέδιδαν στην Ε.Σ.Σ.Δ., μεταφέρθηκαν με τη βία στα χέρια των Σοβιετικών. Το γεγονός αυτό έμεινε γνωστό ως Προδοσία των Κοζάκων. Οι περισσότεροι στρατιώτες της μεραρχίας εκτελέστηκαν ως προδότες.
| Στο λήμμα αυτό έχει ενσωματωθεί κείμενο από το λήμμα 1st Cossack Division της Αγγλόγλωσσης ============================================================= 1st Cossack Division
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The 1st Cossack Division (German: 1. Kosaken-Kavallerie-Division) was a Russian Cossack division of the German Army that served during World War II. It was created on the Eastern Front mostly out of Don Cossacks already serving in the Wehrmacht, those who escaped from the advancing Red Army and Soviet POWs. In 1945, the division was transferred to the Waffen SS.[1] At the end of the war, the unit ceased to exist.
[edit] Military history
Upon the formation of the unit in April 1943, the Division was dispatched to Croatia, where they were placed under the command of the Second Panzer Army and were used to provide rear area security to the army.
The Division's first fighting engagement was on October 12, 1943, when the unit was dispatched against Yugoslav partisans in Fruška Gora Mountains. In the operation the Cossacks aided by 15 tanks and 1 armoured car captured the village of Beocin with the partisan HQ. Subsequently the unit was used to protect the Zagreb-Belgrade railroad and the Sava valley. Several regiments of the division took part in several anti-partisan operations and guarded the Sarajevo railroad against the partisans. As part of a wide anti-partisan operation Napfkuchen the Cossack division was transferred to Croatia, where it fought against partisans and chetniks in 1944.
In 1944, the unit saw heavy action in Yugoslavia and suffered losses when Siberian Cossacks 2nd Regiment was surrounded by the partisans and held on for several days until other Cossack regiments were able to provide relief and break the encirclement.
The Cossacks' first engagement against the Red Army happened in December 1944 near Pitomača. The fighting resulted in Soviet withdrawal from the area. In January 1945, the 1st Cossack Division together with the 2nd Cossack Division was transferred to the Waffen-SS. As 1. SS-Kosaken-Kavallerie-Division it became part of the newly formed XV SS Cossack Cavalry Corps.[2]
At the end of the war, Cossacks of the division found themselves in Austria and surrendered to British troops. Even though they were given assurances that they would not be turned over to the Soviets, they nevertheless were forcibly removed from the compound and transferred to the USSR. This event became known as the Betrayal of the Cossacks. Most of the Cossacks were executed for treason.[citation needed]
[edit] Commanders
[edit] Order of battleThe 1st Cossack Division was created on August 4, 1943, by combining the Cossack Platow Cavalry Regiment of von Pannwitz with the Jungschults Cavalry Regiment. The 1st Cossack Division was composed of the following units:[1][3][edit] 1st Brigade(under command of Colonel Wagner)
[edit] 2nd Brigade(under command of Colonel von Schulz)
[edit] Auxiliary troops
[edit] Sources
[edit] Further reading
1. Kosaken-Kavallerie-Division
Da Wikipedia, l'enciclopedia libera.
La I Divisione cosacca fu un'unità militare delle forze armate tedesche formata da cosacchi russi che prese parte alla seconda guerra mondiale. Nel 1945 la divisione fu trasferita nelle Waffen SS,[1] e alla fine della guerra i suoi membri furono nuovamente deportati in Russia.
Storia militare [modifica]
La divisione dopo essere stata formata, nell'aprile del 1943 veniva trasferita in Croazia, dove veniva posta sotto il comando della Seconda Armata Corazzata e fu utilizzata per provvedere alla sicurezza delle retrovie contro i partigiani.
Il 12 ottobre 1943 la divisione di cavalleria cosacca si scontrava con i partigiani jugoslavi tra le montagne di Fruška Gora. Qui conquistarono il villaggio di Beocin dove era il Quartier Generale di quel gruppo di partigiani iugoslavi. Successivamente la divisione veniva impiegata per proteggere la linea ferroviaria Zagabria-Belgrado e la valle della Sava. Alcuni reggimenti della divisione prenderanno parte anche a operazioni anti-partigiani intorno alla linea ferroviaria di Sarajevo. Prenderà poi parte all'operazione anti-partigiana Napfkuchen in Croazia nel 1944.
Nel dicembre 1944 la divisione ingaggiava per la prima volta un furioso combattimento con le avanguardie dell'Armata Rossa. Nel gennaio 1945 la 1ª Divisione Cosacca insieme con la 2ª divisione cosacca veniva trasferita nelle Waffen-SS. Così la 1. SS-Kosaken-Kavallerie-Division entrava a far parte della nuova formazione denominata 15. SS-Kosaken Kavallerie Korps.[2]
Alla fine della guerra, trovandosi in Austria, si arrendeva alle truppe britanniche, ma veniva poi consegnata nelle mani dei sovietici e i suoi soldati trasferiti in URSS.
Comandanti [modifica]
Ordine di battaglia [modifica]
La 1ª divisione di cavalleria cosacca fu creata il 4 agosto 1943 mettendo insieme il Reggimento cavalleria Platow di von Pannwitz con il Reggimento cavalleria Jungschults.
1ª Brigata [modifica]
(sotto il comando del colonnello Wagner)
2ª Brigata [modifica](sotto il comando del colonnello von Schulz)
Truppe ausiliarie [modifica]
Note [modifica]
Bibliografia [modifica]
Voci correlate [modifica]
2. Kosaken-Kavallerie-Division
Da Wikipedia, l'enciclopedia libera.
La 2. Kosaken-Kavallerie-Division fu formata nel gennaio 1945 dal "Kosaken-Reiter-Brigade Kaukasus II" del SS-Kavallerie Division "Kosakken nr. 1".
Si scontrò, spesso in maniera cruenta, contro preponderanti forze sovietiche e bulgare durante la battaglia di Ungheria. Alla fine della guerra le unità cosacche si arresero alle forze britanniche in Austria, dopo aver ricevuto garanzie dal comandante inglese, Generale Archer, che non sarebbero stati riconsegnati all'URSS. Invece, fecero ritorno in URSS e molti finirono fucilati per ordine dell' Autorità stalinista. Mentre altri invece finirono ai lavori forzati nei gulag siberiani.
Questa unità prese parte alla lotta anti partigiana in Croazia.
Comandanti [modifica]
Area di operazioni [modifica]Ungheria & Yugoslavia (Set 1944 - Mag 1945)Ordine di Battaglia [modifica]
Altre fonti [modifica]
Collegamenti esterni [modifica]==================================================================Repatriation of Cossacks after World War II
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Betrayal of the Cossacks)
The repatriations were agreed to in the Yalta Conference; most of the repatriated people were Soviet citizens, although some of them have left Russia before or soon after the end of the Russian Civil War, or to have been born abroad.[1][2] Those Cossacks and Russians were described as fascists who had fought the Allies in service to the Axis powers, yet the repatriations included non-combatant civilians as well. The Cossacks who fought the Allies did not see their war service as treason to the Russian motherland, but as an episode in the Russian Revolution of 1917 — their continuing fight against the Communist Government in Moscow in particular, and against Bolshevism in general. In the history of the Cossack repatriations to the USSR, the British repatriation at Lienz, Austria, is the most recognized and studied.
[edit] TerminologyAndrew Roberts has referred to these events as the Betrayal of the Cossacks.[2] General Poliakov and Colonel Chereshneff referred to it as the Massacre of Cossacks at Lienz.[1][3] Another term used is the Tragedy of the Drau.[citation needed]Operation Keelhaul is a specific repatriation operation whose name was later used to refer to the entirety of these events. [edit] Background
The Cossacks who remained in Russia endured more than a decade of continual repression, e.g. the portioning of the lands of the Terek, Ural, and Semirechye hosts, forced cultural assimilation (i.e. the Ukrainization of the Kuban Host,[citation needed] and repression of the Russian Orthodox Church), deportation, and, ultimately, the Soviet famine of 1932-1933. The repressions ceased and some privileges were restored after publication of And Quiet Flows the Don (1934) by Mikhail Sholokhov.[4] [edit] The Second World WarOn 22 June 1941, Nazi Germany launched Operation Barbarossa and attacked the USSR, thus bringing Russia into World War II. During the attack some ROVS, especially the Cossack émigré generals Pyotr Krasnov and Andrei Shkuro, asked Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels’s permission to fight beside Nazi Germany against Communist Russia. Goebbels welcomed their idea and by 1942 General Krasnov and General Shkuro had mustered a Cossack force — mostly from Red Army POWs captured by the Wehrmacht — who would be under the command of General Helmuth von Pannwitz.[5]The Wehrmacht recognized the Cossacks as military units with their own uniforms and insignia; the 1st Cossack Division was established the next year. Although the Cossack units were formed to fight the Communists in Russia, by the time they formed, the Red Army had already recaptured most of the Nazi-occupied territory, so they were deployed to the Balkans to fight the Communist Yugoslav Partisans commanded by Josip Broz Tito.[6] By the war’s end, the Cossack units had come under the command of the Waffen-SS. These defectors would later be dealt with once returned to the Soviet Union. [edit] Effect of Yalta and Tehran ConferencesIn 1944, General Krasnov and other Cossack leaders had persuaded Hitler to allow Cossack troops, as well as civilians and non-combatant Cossacks to permanently settle in the sparsely settled Carnia, in the Italian Alps. The Cossacks moved there and established garrisons and settlements, requisitioning houses by evicting the inhabitants, with several stanitzas and posts, their administration, churches, schools, and military units.[8] There, they fought the partisans and persecuted the local population, committing numerous atrocities.[9] When the Allies progressed from central Italy to the Italian Alps, Italian partisans under General Contini ordered the Cossacks to leave Carnia and go north to Austria. There, on the river Drava, near Lienz, the British army imprisoned the Cossacks in a hastily established internment camp. For a few days, the British fed them, giving the Cossacks the impression that they understood their problem as political refugees. Meanwhile, the Red Army’s advance units approached to within a few miles east, rapidly advancing to meet the Allies. Most Cossacks believed that, under British protection, they were safe from repatriation to the USSR. On 28 May 1945, the British army transported 2,046 disarmed Cossack officers and generals — including the cavalry Generals Pyotr Krasnov, Andrei Shkuro, and Kelech-Giray — to a nearby Red Army-held town. There they were handed over to the Red Army commanding general, who ordered them tried for treason. Many Cossack leaders had never been citizens of the Soviet Union, having fled revolutionary Russia in 1920, hence they believed that they could not be guilty of treason. Nonetheless, some were executed immediately. The high-ranking officers were tried in Moscow, and then executed — most notably, General Pyotr Krasnov was hanged in a public square. General Helmuth von Pannwitz of the Wehrmacht, who was instrumental to the formation and leadership of the Cossacks taken from Nazi POW camps to fight the USSR, decided to share the Cossacks’ Soviet repatriation, and was executed for war crimes with five Cossack generals and atamans in Moscow in 1947. On 1 June 1945, the British placed 32,000 Cossacks (with their women and children) into trains and trucks, and delivered them to the Red Army for repatriation to the USSR;[citation needed] like repatriations occurred that year in the American occupation zones in Austria and Germany. Most Cossacks were sent to the gulags in far northern Russia and in Siberia and many died; some, however, escaped and others lived until Nikita Khrushchev's amnesty in the course of his de-Stalinization policies (see below). In total, some two million people were repatriated to the USSR at the end of the Second World War,[10] but historians calculate that the number of repatriated Cossacks is 45,000-50,000; others calculate (without consensus) some 15,000–150,000.[citation needed] [edit] LienzOn 28 May 1945, the British Army arrived at Camp Peggetz, in Lienz, where there were 2,479 Cossacks, including 2,201 officers and soldiers.[10] They went to invite the Cossacks to an important conference with British officials, informing them that they would return to Lienz by six o’clock that evening; some Cossacks worried, but the British reassured them that everything was in order. One British officer told the Cossacks: “I assure you, on my word of honour as a British officer, that you are just going to a conference”.[10] By then, British–Cossack relationships were friendly to the extent that many on both sides had developed emotions for the other. Deep down, a number of British soldiers felt sympathy and remorse for executing such treacherous operations, yet bureaucratic military obedience obliged them to follow higher order. The Lienz Cossack repatriation was exceptional, because the Cossacks forcefully resisted their British repatriation to the USSR; a Cossack noted: “The NKVD or the Gestapo would have slain us with truncheons, the British did it with their word of honor.”The first to commit suicide, by hanging, was the Cossack editor Evgenij Tarruski. The second was General Silkin, who shot himself. . . . The Cossacks refused to board the trucks. British soldiers [armed] with pistols and clubs began using their clubs, aiming at the heads of the prisoners. They first dragged the men out of the crowd, and threw them into the trucks. The men jumped out. They beat them again, and threw them onto the floor of the trucks. Again, they jumped out. The British then hit them with rifle butts until they lay unconscious, and threw them, like sacks of potatoes, in the trucks. — Operation Keelhaul (1973), by Julius Epstein.The British transported the Cossacks to a prison where the Soviets assumed their custody. In the town of Tristach, Austria, there is a memorial commemorating General Helmuth von Pannwitz and soldiers of the XV SS Cossack Cavalry Corps who were killed in action or died as POWs. [edit] Other repatriations[edit] Judenburg, AustriaOn 1 and 2 June, 18,000 Cossacks were handed over to the Soviets near the town of Judenburg, Austria; of those in custody, some 10 officers and 50–60 Cossacks escaped the guards’ cordon with hand grenades, and hid in a nearby wood.[3] One eyewitness described many of these Cossacks as 'Ukrainians'.[11][edit] Near Graz, AustriaThe Russian Cossacks of XV SS Cossack Cavalry Corps, stationed in Yugoslavia since 1943, were part of the column headed for Austria that would take part in the Bleiburg repatriations, and they are estimated to have numbered in thousands.[12] Tolstoy quotes a General Alexander telegram, sent to the Combined Chiefs of Staff, noting "50,000 Cossacks including 11.000 women, children and old men".[13] At a location near Graz, British forces repatriated around 40,000 Cossacks to SMERSH.[14][edit] Fort Dix, New Jersey, United StatesAlthough repatriations are thought to have occurred only in Europe, it also occurred in the United States at Fort Dix, New Jersey, where 154 people were repatriated to the USSR after the Second World War; three committed suicide in the US, and seven were injured.[15][16] Julius Epstein described the scene:First, they refused to leave their barracks when ordered to do so. The military police then used tear gas, and, half-dazed, the prisoners were driven under heavy guard to the harbor where they were forced to board a Soviet vessel. Here the two hundred immediately started to fight. They fought with their bare hands. They started — with considerable success — to destroy the ship's engines. . . . A sergeant . . . mixed barbiturates into their coffee. Soon, all of the prisoners fell into a deep, coma-like sleep. It was in this condition that the prisoners were brought to another Soviet boat for a speedy return to Stalin's hangmen.[10] [edit] Western Allied motivations
Contrary to the long-held assumption that the Allies knew nothing of the fate of the repatriated Soviet POWs, governmental archives declassified during the period 1972-1978 reveal that the Allies were indeed knowledgeable that they were thrusting prisoners to their deaths. As British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden remarked in September 1944, "the probability that if we do what the Soviet Government want and return all these prisoners to the Soviet Union, whether they are willing to return or no, we shall be sending some of them to their deaths." In the face of a fatal dilemma, the fact that the Allies chose forcible repatriation suggests their greater hope for global peace and future peace as the Cold War slowly unfolded. Some British people may have taken the view that the Russians were entitled to execute any of their people caught wearing German uniform, since Britain had executed one of its people caught wearing German uniform, John Amery. [edit] AftermathThe Cossack officers, more politically aware than the enlisted men, expected that repatriation to the USSR would be their ultimate fate. They believed that the British would have sympathised with their anti-Communism, but were unaware that their fates had been decided at the Yalta Conference. Upon discovering that they would be repatriated, many escaped, some probably aided by their Allied captors;[7] some passively resisted, and others committed suicide. Of the Cossacks who escaped repatriation, most hid in the forests and mountains, some were hidden by the local German populace, but most hid in different identities as Ukrainians, Latvians, Poles, Yugoslavians, Turks, Armenians, and Ethiopians. Eventually, they were admitted to displaced persons camps under assumed names and nationalities; many emigrated to the USA per the Displaced Persons Act. Others went to any country that would admit them (e.g. Germany, Austria, France, and Italy). Most Cossacks hid their true national identity until the dissolution of the USSR in late 1991.[edit] AmnestyAfter the death of Stalin in 1953, Khrushchev’s de-Stalinization of the USSR conferred a partial amnesty for some labor camp inmates on 27 March 1953, then extended it on 17 September 1955. Yet, some specific political crimes were omitted from amnesty: people convicted under Section 58.1(c) of the Criminal Code, stipulating that in the event of a military man escaping Russia, every adult member of his family who abetted the escape or who knew of it is subject to five to ten years’ imprisonment; every dependent who did not know of the escape is subject to five years’ Siberian exile.[17][edit] LegacyThe event was documented in publications such as Nicholas Bethell's The Last Secret: The Delivery to Stalin of Over Two Million Russians by Britain and the United States (1974).Nikolai Tolstoy describes this and other events resulting from the Yalta Conference as the “Secret Betrayal” (cf. Western betrayal), for going unpublished in the West. [edit] Memorials[edit] Use in GoldenEye filmThe plot of the 1995 James Bond film GoldenEye involves the secret resentments of MI6 agent Alec Trevelyan, the son of "Lienz Cossacks." Trevelyan plots the destruction of the UK because of "the British betrayal and Stalin's execution squads," the latter of which he and his family had survived, but being tormented by survivor's guilt, his father ultimately killed his wife, then himself, leaving Trevelyan orphaned. Bond himself admits of the repatriation, "Not exactly our finest hour."[edit] See also
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