OOB Georgia Legion 1945; Garrison of Texel, Holland '45

[alan newark]

Still keen to note any materials about the personnel, formations within War Diaries and unit locations in the final months of 1945 of the Wehrmacht's Georgia Legion ..also, what happened to these men after German surrender ?

Also still on the lookout for, even if these duplicate existing research, details of Noord Holland / Dutch Frisian Islands Wehrmacht, Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine 'Atlantik Wall' garrisons and coastal defence units / their senior officers..for details and memorabilia ( especially documents and maps ) of any units active in combatting the April- May 1945 Mutiny and Partisan Campaign on Dutch island of Texel of Wehrmacht's 822nd Georgia Battalion.....

How was the evacuation and repatriation of Mutiny survivors, June 1945, treated by the Canadians..as part of the normal movement plan for Wehrmacht personnel or under separate Civil Affairs ' movements plan ? How was Mutiny and survivors' repatriation documented on the German side ?

I still seek a 1945 German Army Muster Roll for the 822nd Georgia Battalion. Almost 500 Georgians lie in beautifully tended graves on Texel but have no individual grave markers. The only Battalion Muster Roll (sic) in my possession comes from a Georgian, Russian language, book published in the 1960's. The list has many names but is deemed unreliable. I wish to secure an accurate, German, list for the primary purpose of presenting the Dutch and Georgian authorities with a Memorial Register and seeking funds for a Memorial Board or Plaque.

This project, being compiled by a Scotsman, is sympathetic to Dutch and Georgian sensitivities but is not an anti- German exercise. If there are personal testimonies, soldbuchs, War Diary entries, Intelligence Reports, photographs, maps or any other memorabilia / archive items out there
which recall the Texel Mutiny from a German perspective these will be put to good use in my long-planned book.

A small publishing house is interested but I (a) lack, still, key information as to where and when, in mid-1945, the Texel Georgians entered Soviet Occupied Eastern Germany en-route to Poland the beginning of their long journey home to the Caucasus Mountains (b) would prefer, having most of the rest of their homeward journey details recorded via indirect or anecdotal evidence, to (i) get to Georgia and interview the few remaining survivors in person and (ii) have the final linking information to hand before again approaching the above publisher.

The Canadian War Museum and UK military history sources are very interested in the above project in that no-one has so far chronicled for public consumption the Canadian Army's role in repatriating large numbers of those Soviet citizens returned to the USSR in 1945 - 46, under the terms of the Yalta Agreement, by the British Army's 21 Army Group / 30 Corps in from Holland and in / via Niedersachsen in Occupied Germany.

The Canadian Army, it is known in Holland and Georgia but not in the UK and Canada, undoubtedly saved the Texel Georgians from Stalin's wrath, which the Mutiny survivors feared, by breaching the Western Allies' general policy of non-interference in Soviet civilians' / Osttruppen repatriation operations by writing on the Georgians' behalf to the Soviet High Command.

I am especially keen to hear from any Member, Supporter or Moderator already using national or other relevant archives in Ottawa, Moscow, Freiburg and Berlin or who has special interest knowledge to offer. Reciprocal help here in the UK is assured.

Alan Newark