[b]Ukrainian Defense Battalions[/b]; info / views welcomed

Foreign volunteers, collaboration and Axis Allies 1939-1945.

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alan newark
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[b]Ukrainian Defense Battalions[/b]; info / views welcomed

Post by alan newark »

Unusually detailed short article, machine translation, about: Ukrainian Defense Battalions

(All info and views welcomed...Also, were any of these generally used by SS/Waffen-SS or, specifically, were any of the security regiments used by 14th SS Galicia Division's 'Kampfgruppe Beyersdorf' in its Feb-March 1944 ops against 1st Ukrainian Partisan Division, especially around Peremyshl area of Polish Eastern Galicia?; A.N.)[/b]
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From: http://www.eurasia.com

Ukrainian Defense Battalions

Ukrainian Battalion was the name given to the first local security force in Ukraine during the Second World War as a military unit in support of the Axis.

BACKGROUND

Ukrainian Battalion history dates back well before the occupation of Ukraine by the Axis.

During the Polish campaign in 1939, had already participated in several Ukrainian nationalist Polish Galicia, who gave very good results to the Third Reich military. When in 1941 the independent Ukraine, represented by the Union of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), realized that the war between the Axis led by Germany and the Soviet Union was inevitable, contacted Berlin to offer assistance.

Adolf Hitler, more favorable to the incorporation of Ukraine as a colony of the Reich, broken at first aid. But many German commanders knew it would be very necessary, so that the Secret Service (Abwehr), gave its own authorization. Recruitment into the Ukrainian areas of Poland occupied by the Government General, which conducted the commander Erwin Scholtz Brandenburg Regiment. Ukrainians gathered 15,000 volunteers fall within the Battalion Nachtigall and Roland Battalion.

There was also a group of guerrillas who were fighting at that time in the Soviet rear Volhynia and Polesie. The Abwehr was quick to recruit for their cause. The name of this organization was Polesiano Sich, who headed Taras Borovets with more than 10,000 troops Ukrainians.

Instruction is conducted in different places. Nachtigall Battalion was at Neuhammer, Silesia. The Battalion did in Saubersdorf Roland, near Vienna in Austria. The Sich Polesiano, Germanic still out of reach to be in Soviet territory, was composed virtually the 213th German Security Division.

On June 18, 1942 was declared the overall movilizanción Ukrainian nationalist forces, which left Germany en route to the border with the Soviet Union. Nachtigall Battalion integrated into the 1st German Mountain Division, was transported to Pantalowice in the General Government of Poland and then to Radymno. Roland Battalion was located in Romania's ally in the German Army XI.

Counting forces Nachtigall and Roland battalions plus Polesiano Sich, the Ukrainians that participate in Operation Barbarossa, amounted to 25,000 men, and that without interpreters, consultants, reporters, messengers and porters who were already part of the German Army .

Operation Barbarossa

On June 22, 1941, the two battalions Nachtigall and Roland Ukrainians crossed the border with the Soviet Union from Poland and Romania, just while the Sich Polesiano launched an intensive guerrilla campaign in the rear.

A special mission of infiltration have to make the Roland Battalion. Ukrainian soldiers in German uniforms crossed the enemy's rear and slipped behind the retreating Red Army. Germans dresses mingled with the Russians, which obviously attracted the attention of a Soviet officer asked why they wore those clothes. As they were Russian-speaking Ukrainians and a perfect excuse themselves by saying they were a special detachment of the NKVD to infiltrate the German lines, but with the chaos they had given orders to withdraw. He believed it and left them alone. Walking with the Soviet column, surprisingly ended up in the fortified town of Przemsyl, its original purpose. In when the doors were closed Ukrainian nationalists drew their weapons and began firing at the crowd all desprevinidos Soviet soldiers. Przemsyl nationalists fell, causing the Russians to surrender.

For taking the city of Lvov, the Ukrainian Nachtigall Battalion did something similar. But this time received no orders from the Germans, since these were advanced to take the city, because the Soviet NKVD was emptying prisons and prisoners running in droves to Ukrainian politicians. Nachtigall Battalion Lvov could enter without problems defeating the Soviet garrison weak. But what his eyes saw was regrettable, had arrived late, because the prison had been emptied and 4,000 corpses lay murdered.

The day after Operation Barbarossa, the June 23, the Roland Battalion established a bridgehead on the River San and progressed through Bessarabia towards Tiraspol. One of the last actions of these volunteers was cleaning it made two battalions in the woods near Tarnopol and Vinnitsa.

The performance of Polesiano Sich was also spotless. As the Germans advanced fighting the Red Army, the Ukrainian Sich Polesiano finished with the laggards and partisans in the two regions of Volhynia and Polesie whole.

A problem they had is that Ukrainian units exceeded their functions. From June 30 to July 12, the Battalion Nachtigall Lvov proclaimed Ukraine's independence, something that did not please the Germans, the Ukrainians forced to disband and give up his political instigator, Yaroslav Stetsko. Furthermore, in November 1941, the Sich Polesiano authorized the independence of the Republic of Olveks, who suffered the same fate as its predecessor. These events forced the Germans to dissolve all Ukrainian formations in the Eastern Front and to send to the headquarters in Frankfurt and the Oder River in Germany.

Ukrainian Battalions

Officially, November 6, 1941, Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler approved the project to create the Ukrainian Defense Battalion (Bataillon Ukranische Schumannschaft) and police regiments (Polizei Regiment Schutzen).

Following the breakdown of Roland and Nachtigall Battalions plus Polesiano Sich, the majority of its members were framed in the new Ukrainian Defense Battalions. The recruitment was intensive throughout Ukraine, it was propaganda to recruit Ukrainians in Kiev, Kharkov, Zhitomir, Nikolaev, Simferopol, Stalin, Rostov, Volhynia, Dnipropetrovsk and Chernigov. Because of the German Governor in Ukraine, Erich Koch, the recruitment could have been more numerous, but much reduced antiucraniana political volunteering. Still enrolled a total of 70,759 Ukrainians as police and gendarmes.

Groups:
Kiev group = 13 016 (3552 policemen and gendarmes 9464)
Volhynia Group = 11 870 (2317 policemen and gendarmes 9553)
Stalino Group = 10,200 (3,000 police and 7,200 gendarmes)
Group Dnienpropetrovsk = 7886 (886 officers and 7,000 gendarmes)
Group Simferopol = 7.114 (679 policemen and gendarmes 6468)
Group Chernigov = 6147 (1 733 policemen and gendarmes 4414)
Group Zhitomir = 5682 (538 policemen and gendarmes 5114)
Group Nikolayev = 5646 (700 policemen and gendarmes 4946)
Rostov Group = 1,800 (1,500 officers and 300 gendarmes)
Group Kharkov = 1366 (761 officers and 605 gendarmes)
Total = 70 759 (15 666 policemen and gendarmes 48,764)

Defensive battalions:
Kiev = 112/113/114/115/116/117/118/119/120/121 Battalion Group
Volhynia = 101/102/103/104/105/106/107 Battalion Group
Stalino = 157/158/159/160/161/162/163/164/165 Battalion Group
Battalion Group Dnienpropetrovsk = 129/130/131
Simferopol = 147/148/149/150/151/152/153/154/155/156 Battalion Group
Chernigov = 136/137/138/139/140 Battalion Group
Zhitomir = 108/109/110 Battalion Group
Nikolayev = 122/123/124 Battalion Group
Rostov = 166/167/168/169 Battalion Group
Kharkov = 143/144/145/146 Battalion Group

Police Regiments:
31 th Regiment of Police "Schutzen Polizei Regiment 31 / Milizia Regime 31"
32 th Regiment of Police "Schutzen Polizei Regiment 32 / Milizia Regime 32"
33 th Regiment of Police "Schutzen Polizei Regiment 33 / Milizia Regime 33"
34 th Regiment of Police "Schutzen Polizei Regiment 34 / Milizia Regime 34"
35 th Regiment of Police "Schutzen Polizei Regiment 35 / Milizia Regime 35"
36 th Regiment of Police "Schutzen Polizei Regiment 36 / Milizia Regime 36"
37 th Regiment of Police "Schutzen Polizei Regiment 37 / Milizia Regime 37"


The uniform of the members of the Ukrainian Defense Battalion was made with old clothes black clothing German National Socialist Party (NSDAP), which added a neck cuff and dark green. On aplatanado caps carried the Ukrainian trident emblem patch on his left arm a swastika with the words "Treu Gehorsan Tapies (Leal, Bravo Compliant)." As a combat uniform for the volunteers used the classic green-gray German campaign with Ukrainian nationalist symbolism.

The primary mission of which is blamed Ukrainian Defense Battalions was the custodian and maintenance of the railway line between Kiev and Kharkov, ie, nearly 1,400 miles where they had to fight from 1942 to 1943 against Communist partisans. Also did security work in the cities and towns, and the police control of some villages suspected. Another important action of the Ukrainian Defense Battalion's contribution was a victory over the Bolsheviks in Sidor Kovpak guerrillas in Galicia during the summer of 1943.
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www.dpcamps.org (1st Vice-President)
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