Alan Newark (07/11/11)
Privyet Herr Ghost
I had a dig around for you on the Kovpak / Carpathian front.
Seems that Kampfgruppe Beyersdorf was the main German force deployed to counter Kovpak’s incursion and one of many charged with military and rural security in the Galicia and Lublin districts.
Obergruppenfuhrer Wilhelm Koppe - who Yad Vashem identify as the second SS-Police leader to enforce Nazi racial policies in the Generalgovernment region, the first having been Obergruppenfuhrer Friedrich Kruger and the Governor General being, of course, Hans Frank - ordered the creation of Kampfgruppe Beyersdorf in February 1944. Its training, say sources below, began that month at Heidelager, a pivotal training base of the 14 Volunteer SS Grenadier Division.
Am confused for now because I know you as a well known author and authority on the Galicia division and because in a past Axis History forum you wrote:
‘...on 9th February 1944 HSSPf Koppe, contacted the commander of the Heidelager camp SS-Brigadeführer Voss by telephone who in turn passed on an order to the Galician Division that it was to immediately form a Kampfgruppe for Antipartisaneneinsatz (anti-partisan duties
‘It was intended to be used specifically to combat Soviet partisans of the 1st Sydir Kovpak Ukrainian Partisan Division under the command of Petro Vershigora which had penetrated the territory of the Generalgouvernement where it operated with impunity and spread fear amongst the civilian population.
‘The strength of the battle group was to be one infantry regiment and one detachment of light artillery supported by detachments of pioneers and anti-tank grenadiers.
‘The order which was ostensibly based on Himmler's personal instruction, further stipulated that the Kampfgruppe, which was to be placed under the jurisdiction of the SS and Polizei leader of the Generalgouvernement, was to be ready to march within 24 hours.
‘This unit became known as 'Kampfgruppe Beyersdorff' and was active from 16th February 1944 until 17th March 1944’....i.e. and bercause I naturally assume from this quotation that you would also know the ID of the German unit commander...
I therefore, forgive me, naturally assumed that you would know the name of the German commander...or have I missed a nuance in your question?
Three key German commanders in that Kampfgruppe were named by one website source below as:
‘The commander was the deputy commander of 14 Division, Col. Beyersdorf (deputy divisional commander for combating guerrillas)’
Sturmbannführer Bristot ( Infanterie Commander)
Sturmbannführer Mykola Palijenko (Artillerie Commander).
Two websites differ as to the ranks of Bristot and Palijenko, one giving them both the same rank of sturmbannfuhrer the other describing Bristot as a Captain and Palijenko as a major.
Many Kampfgruppe Beyersdorf soldiers may have been from the 14th Galicia Division, sic, but were, says a source below, themselves mostly ill-trained peasant Ukrainians lacking combat experience and not prepared to fight a partisan war, though some Internet forums / other Website sources repeat the claim that the Kampfgruppe, assisted by other German units in Galicia, soundly thrashed General Kovpak’s 1st Ukrainian Partisan Division and that Field Marshal Model thanked Koppe and Beyersdorf in person for their achievements.
Kampfgruppe Beyersdorf action and Intelligence reports would, if such could be found, reveal much about German methods and policies in countering Kovpak’s early-1944 expeditions into and around Galicia.
A source, below, says that the Kovpak partisan formation first appeared in Galicia in early February of 1944 in the area ‘east of Helm’.
Of the month-long Galicia anti-partisan campaign, the source says:
‘In February and March, the group took part in actions in the region Lubaczów - Bilgoraj - Zamosc - Bingley - Tarnogród - Cieszanów and in a rally against the Soviet partisans grouping Kowpaka Sidora (9 February - 9 March 1944)’. The biggest clash is said to have been around Chmielnik, where
‘several hundred’ Soviet partisans are said, by the above source, to have been routed by the otherwise not-too-successful German anti-partisan columns.
Soviet opinions about that period in Kovpak's military campaigning differ somewhat from the above claims. Aged 57 in 1944, Kovpak was an experienced commander and headed a force of over 1,500 partisans which at times included captured German tanks. He received a Hero of the Soviet Union award in 1942 and a second one, for his role and his troops performance in the Carpathian Mountains and in Galicia in Jully 1944.
According to a Wikipedia biography of Wilhelm Koppe he was born in Hildesheim, served in the First World War and from the earliest days of the Nazi regime was a steadily promoted local and regional Police and SS commander and government figure. He earned notoriety as a vigorous practitioner of Germany’s euthanasia programme and acquired concentration camp experience and experience of the mobile gassing vans programme which stood him in in good stead for his later role as a senior SS-Police official suppressing resistance and terrorising the civilian populace in Poland and Polish – West Ukraine.
Wikipeida continues:
‘On 30 January 1942 he was promoted to SS-Obergruppenführer, and in October 1943 he replaced Friedrich Wilhelm Krüger as Höhere SS und Polizeiführer in the General Government with headquarters in Kraków. He also held the position of state secretary on the issues of security (Staatssekretär für das Sicherheitswesen) in the General Government, and was involved in the operations of Chelmno extermination camp and Warsaw concentration camp as well as operations against the Polish resistance.
'He organized the execution of more than 30,000 Polish patients suffering from tuberculosis, and ordered that all male relatives of identified resistance fighters should be executed, and the rest of their family sent to concentration camps.
‘The Polish Secret State ordered his death, but an assassination attempt failed. He was wounded by Kedyw unit - Batalion Parasol in "Operation Koppe" (Akcja Koppe) part of "Operation Heads" on 11 July 1944 in Kraków.[3]
'With the Eastern Front approaching Poland, Koppe ordered all prisoners to be executed rather than freed by the Soviets.
‘In 1945 Koppe went underground and assumed an alias (Lohmann, his wife's surname) and became a director of a chocolate factory in Bonn, Germany[4]. In 1960 he was arrested but released on bail on 19 April 1962. His trial opened in 1964 in Bonn. He was accused of being accessory to the mass murder of 145,000 people.
‘The trial was adjourned due to Koppe's ill health and in 1966 the Bonn court decided not to prosecute and Koppe was released for medical reasons.[1] [5] The German government refused a Polish request for extradition. Koppe died in 1975 in Bonn’.
A volatile region, Galicia, say appended and other sources, and as you well know, but for benefit of other site users, was a ethnically, culturally and politically much divided region in 1944.
It had fiercely self-reliant and self-contained Polish-, Ukrainian-, Hungarian-, Yiddish- and Russian-speaking communities who were also subject to the parallel demands, recruitment, cruelty and depridations of nationalist fighters from the Armia Krajowa, a Polish and Polish-Ukrainian movement, and from various bands which later united and became one of various Ukrainian nationalist groups.
Chief among these being the UPA – which Kovpak-led partisan and security units also fought and which late in the war signed an alliance with the Germans against the Red Army and fought the latter war, under Soviet occupation, until the 1950’s - - and the OUN...
Kovpak’s partisans are said by various observers and critics to have ‘terrorised the local population’ while civilians were undoubtedly caught between the rock of reprisals and punitive measures by assorted partisan and underground resistance groups and the violence, oppression and torture of the German anti-partisan formations.
I will have a go at trying to dig up some operational of / regarding the Kampfgruppe Beyersdorf and some more biographical information about its commanders.
Meantime, I have below appended most source references and excerpted items regarding the above information. Hope it helps.
Alan Newark
Copyright: 07 November 2011:->
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Khttp://zweiter- weltkrieg-lexikon.de/index.php/Waffen-SS/SS-Divisionen/14.-Waffen-Grenadierdivision-der-SS-Galizien.html
14 Galician SS Volunteer Division
Name during the war
April 1943: SS Volunteer Division Galicia
October 1943: 14 Galician SS Volunteer Division
July 1944: 14 Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (Galician No. 1)
Nov. 1944: 14 Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (Ukrainian No 1)
April 1945: first Division of the Ukrainian National Army
Kampfgruppe "Beyersdorf"
The battle group "Beyersdorf" was formed in early February 1944, under the command of SS-Oberguppenführer Wilhelm Koppe.
The aim of the battle group was to proceed against the marauding guerrillas of the Soviet General Kovpak. The guerrilla group of the General Kovpak was not only against the deutschn units, but also terrorized the Ukrainian civilian population. The task force consisted of a light artillery unit un your Infantry Regiment, supported by engineer units and antitank guns. Furthermore, came to a light battery with howitzers. Thus, the battle group was the Entry is mobile and well armed. The infantry units were led by Sturmbannführer Bristot artillery and land characteristics of Sturmbannführer M. Palijenko.
In the months following the battle went against the group in front of mobile guerrilla group and was supported by German police units. The result of this operation was the complete destruction of General Kovpak partisan group. Field Marshal Model, personally thanked the task force for the successful operation.
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http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cac ... g8qtT_008g
According to Yad Vashem, Koppe was the second SS-Police Obergruppenfuhrer to control the enforcement of Nazi racial policies in the General Government, the first such officer being Friedrich Kruger
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http://wap.sspeiper.borda.ru/?1-3-40-00000007-000-0-0
Forum extract:
Snarka: Places of Interest. Generally, it is difficult to get used to this view, it is very much in conflict with the Soviet stereotypes. For example:
http://ssgalicia.onestop.net/kampfgruppen.html
KAMPFGRUPPE «BEYERSDORF» The Kampfgruppe «Beyersdorf» was formed in early February 1944 under the order of SS-Oberguppenfuehrer Wilhelm Koppe.
It was supposed to be used against marauding partisan group led by the Soviet General Kovpak. Kovpak's partisans were known to terrorise the countryside and immediate action had to be taken to protect the inhabitants of the area.
The Kampfgruppe was composed of light artillery detachment and a strong infantry regiment supported by anti-tank and engineer troops. A light howitzer battery was added making the group well armed and highly mobile. The infantry was commanded by Sturmbannfuehrer Bristot, and the artillery by Sturmbannfuehrer M. Palijenko.
For a period of one month, the battle group carried out operations against the mobile partisan bands, along with the German police and other Army units. As result the partisan band of Gen. Kovpak was fully destroyed and the Kampfgruppe was personally thanked by the Field Marshal Model for their efforts and gallantry. In general, the irony is that the Kovpak guerrillas terrorized the population and kampfgruppa division of Galicia destroyed them heroically. And saved neschastnoe population. And Field Marshal Model personally delivered them to thank for their efforts and for its chivalry.
Very similar to the typical emprise: wound up in the woods tiger who terrorized the population. A knight went into the woods and killed the lion. At the request of the workers ... Conclusion: The usual. Life is strange. It is black as soot and white as snow, but depending on your point of view, they are swapped. SHOCK.
Maurise: freethinker, the text of the oath I had somewhere. I am now if I find, then zaposchu here. redline, if you want to translate from Ukrainian - I will translate, for free do it :-) KAMPFGRUPPE «BEYERSDORF» Ooh .. battle group Beiersdorf :-) And by him I have something :-) The fact that the partisans of SA Kovpak indeed some of the ... um ... robbed rural products. It should be noted that not everywhere red partisans greeted with open arms.
Local communities are often caught between two fires: on the one hand the Germans, who just that - throw repress the other - come at night guerrillas who have to give and food, and clothing.
And again, God forbid, learn German.
In addition, the region in question is generally very difficult, politically and ethnically. In early February 1944 in the area east of Helm broke the 1st Ukrainian Partisan Division S. Kovpak.
Additionally, in the area since 1943, has intensified the Ukrainian-Polish conflict. Here troops acted AK ("Home Army") and "Battalions Hlopskih" (underground organization later became part of the AC), who robbed the local Ukrainian population and not only plundered. When arrived here yet, and Soviet partisans, the local population was quite "fun."
At the end of 1944 from the division soldiers "Galicia" formed a battle group, commanded by Major and Major N. Baersdorfa Palienko. This group, numbering about 1,000, cleared a good portion of Kholmshchyna partisans and Polish, and Soviet. By the way, this is in the memories of teammate of Kovpak, P. Vershigory ( N.B. Mike..from Alan..Vershigora was Kovpak’s Intelligence Officer).
redline: Maurise, no thanks, no need to translate. I see you have a lot of things have to Ukrainian formations. It is commendable that people are engaged in an interesting topic and gather information, including from primary sources.
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http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic. ... 1&t=152479 V. Confirmation of the Existence of a 31st SD Punitive Detachment
Forum exceprt:
One of Littman's more controversial allegations is that members of the 14th SS, while serving in other units prior to their posting to the Galicia division, committed war crimes. He cites as one example the existence of the "31st SD Punitive Detachment." Crossing referencing Littman's work with other published sources, this is what I found:
31st SD Punitive Detachment
aka 31. Schutzmannschafts-Bataillon der SD
aka UKRAINIAN SELF-DEFENSE(see note 10, below) LEGION
aka VOLYN BATTALION
Littman mentions the following about this unit
- * Filled with OUM-M members (see 1, below)
* First CO was Hauptsturmfuhrer Assmus, (see 2, below) KIA by Polish partisans between Volhynia & Krakhov
* Second CO Major Ewald Biegelmeyer
* Absorbed the Chelm Self Defense Unit and Police Battalion 207 (see 3, below)
* Ukrainian Chief of Staff Col. Pyotr Dyachenko (see 4, below)
* Dec 1943 Unit participated in massacre of Pidhaitsi & Lutsk ghetto (see 5, below)
* March 1944: May have operated with 14th SS KG Beyersdorff (see 6, below)
* May have participated in the suppression of the Warsaw Uprising (see 7, below)
* Feb/March 1945 May have been incorporated into the 14th SS (see 8, below) where Dyachenko became a regimental officer (see 9, below)
- Footnotes:
6. Logusz documents the formation and deployment of KG Beyersdorff
N.B.:...entry by A.N., (Michael Logusz's Galicia Division (Schiffer Military History, 2000)
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http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grupa_Bojowa_SS_Beyersdorf
Mark Jasiak - "The position and fate of the Ukrainians in the General Government (excluding Galicia) during the German occupation," in:
"Poland-Ukraine. Difficult Questions", Volume 4, ISBN 83-908944-4-4
SS Battle Group "Beyersdorf" (German SS Kampfgruppe "Beyersdorf") - a group fighting for special tasks, formed in early February 1944 at a training camp Heidelager of Ukrainian volunteers, aimed at training 14 SS Grenadier Division .
Was formed on the SS-Obergruppenführer Wilhelm Koppe . Her task was to combat the guerrillas on the border of Galicia district and the Lublin District of the General Government and Reichskommissariat Ukraine .
Group consisted of about 2,000 soldiers, consisted of a single extended Squadron of the two battalions of infantry, light artillery squadron, plutonium bomb, antitank artillery platoon, group communication and taborowego branch, a total of about 2,000 soldiers. The commander was the deputy commander of 14 Division, Col. Beyersdorf (deputy divisional commander for combating guerrillas), commander of the infantry captain. Bristot, artillery commander, Major Mykola Palijenko .
In February and March, the group took part in the action in the region przeciwpartyzanckiej Lubaczów - Bilgoraj - Zamosc - Bingley - Tarnogród - Cieszanów and rally against the Soviet partisans grouping Kowpaka Sidora (9 February - 9 March 1944).
Beyersdorf Group was not prepared to act Counterinsurgency, consisted mainly of Ukrainian recruits with no experience of combat. The group consisted mostly of marches in the footsteps of the retreating guerrillas. To the only major clash took place near the village of Chmielnik, where the group broke up several hundred Soviet partisans, however, incurring large losses.
The group was disbanded 30 March 1944 , and the soldiers returned to their home 14 Division.
[ edit ] Literature
• Mark Jasiak - "The position and fate of the Ukrainians in the General Government (excluding Galicia) during the German occupation," in: "Poland-Ukraine. Difficult Questions", Volume 4, ISBN 83-908944-4-4
Categories :
• Battle Groups
• 14 SS Grenadier Division
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http://atethepaint.blogspot.com/2010/04 ... n-war.html
Alan Newark (07/11/1)
Hi...
Excellent, very interesting and informative site.
My pet topic is the 1945 mutiny and partisan campaign on the Dutch island of Texel by the Wehrmacht's 822nd Georgia Infanterie Battallion.. the June 1945 evacuation of the Georgian survivors to Wilhelmshaven and their subsequent August 1945 repatriation, via East Germany to Soviet custody (all help offered willingly and warmly accepted; reciprocal help guaranteed.
Today, I am also interested, helping an associate, in information about the 1st Ukrainian Partisan Division force under General Kovpak which in early 1944 entered Galicia and was subjected to a month-long campaign of German counter-partisan activity led by the Kampfgruppe Beyersdorf of the 14th Galicia SS Volunteer Division.
Information about partisan and German operations in that campaign, with special focus on Soviet and German commanders and German units, would be especially welcomed.
I hope that someone can help my searches and again say Well Done on a good site well produced.
Poka
Alan Newark ([email protected])