History 04/03/20 1st Cossack division Hitler as the Russian fought against the traitors of the USSR
during the great Patriotic war under the banner of Nazi Germany fought hundreds of thousands of Soviet citizens. One of the most famous collaborationist units of the 1st Cossack division, which was formed shortly after the crushing defeats of the Wehrmacht at Stalingrad and Kursk.
the Descendants of Ostrogoths
the Fuhrer Adolf Hitler and his entourage were generally favourably disposed to the idea of creating Cossack military units in the German army. Unlike Slavs, Jews and other members of the “inferior races”, the Cossacks, the Nazis believed descendants of the ancient Germanic tribe of the Ostrogoths, which before the migration towards the borders of the Roman Empire lived in the region of the don.
the Creation of Cossack units in the Wehrmacht was promoted by including the defeat at Stalingrad and the losses in personnel. Hitler believed that the Cossacks will be reliable allies in the struggle against Soviet power.
Education division
the Connection was formed directly from the Cossacks, who wished to cooperate with the Germans during their arrival on the don in 1942, and also of immigrants and captured soldiers of the Soviet army. Nevertheless, the leading positions of Russian is not trusted: most of the staff and logistical authoritative positions were held by regular officers of the Wehrmacht. All the commanders of regiments and battalions, in addition to the General-major Ivan Kononov, were also Germans.
By October 1943 the number of divisions exceeded 18 thousand people. It consisted of two cavalry brigades, an artillery unit, an engineering battalion, a communications battalion, medical services and staff.
command of the Cossacks, the Wehrmacht was tasked to Lieutenant General, gruppenfuhrer SS Helmut von pannwitz – ethnic German, came from the Silesian nobility. His sympathy for the natives from the don, he did not hide, moreover, considered them as a separate nation, which are the ancestors of the Scandinavians, and which has no relation to Russian.
Fighting
His way of fighting the 1st Cossack division of the Wehrmacht beginning 25 September 1943, in Croatia, where he joined the fight against Yugoslav partisans under the leadership of future President Josip Broz Tito.
the Germans praised the fighting qualities of the Cossacks. They were agile, hardy, undemanding, and generally perfectly suited for fighting in the mountains of the Balkans.
At the end of 1944, the Cossacks of the von Pannwitz successfully fought with the red Army at Virovitica. The division successfully managed to dislodge Soviet troops from a number of locations and drop from their positions 233-th infantry division.
Cossacks fought in close coordination with the Croatian ustashe. As a result of offensive of “operation werewolf”, the 1st Cossack division was able to eliminate Viroviticko a foothold and occupy itself Virovitica.
the actions of the Cossacks of the von Pannwitz was able to slow down the offensive of Soviet troops, but to change the overall disastrous for the Germans and their allies the trend was not. By the end of April, the division, by that time transformed into 15th SS Cossack cavalry corps, began a withdrawal to the positions of the British troops in Austria. The number of connections exceeded 30 thousand (20 thousand Cossacks, five thousand Germans, the same Kalmyk and Ukrainian battalion, and tank-Vlasov).
the end of the Cossack freemen
Breaking a dangerous mountain passes, the body is able may 9 to go to the deployment of the 11th British armored division. Two days later, the allies took his “honorable surrender.”
Collaborators distributed in the camps for prisoners of war in the district of Linz. And a few weeks later, the majority of the Cossacks was issued by the Soviet Union. Many of them received further long prison terms in the Gulag, and the commander of the corps von Pannwitz was hung in Moscow in January 1947.
war crimes
the Cossacks of the Wehrmacht “famous” for numerous war crimea Plaine on the territory of Yugoslavia, which used a scorched earth policy. Pannwitz himself during the investigation did not hesitate to tell you in detail about the “exploits” of his subordinates.
So, in the winter of 1943-1944 in the heart of Zagreb, on his personal orders were hanged 15 civilians, then the Cossacks were executed six farmers in the vicinity of the Fruska Gora. There’s also the Cossacks of the 5th and 6th cavalry regiments committed the mass rape of Serbian women. Not rare were cases of the burning of entire villages, whose inhabitants collaborators were suspected of harboring guerrillas.
But the most heinous crime they committed in January 1944 in the area of community Gradiska. The Cossacks of the 2nd brigade of the Caucasian brutally killed the 16 pioneers, mostly girls, whose average age was 15 years.
Ivan Proshkin
Source:
© Russian Seven
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