Detachment from Randow
The Randow Volunteer Detachment was a Freikorps unit in the Baltic States after the First World War . It was set up by Captain Alfred von Randow in Schaulen on January 5, 1919 , after his request for the formation of a free corps to protect the railway line to Schaulen had been approved by the Army High Command (AOK) on January 2, 1919.
Specifically, it was about securing the Lidowiany - Tauroggen railway line . Formations of the former 8th Army , volunteers, scattered members of the Iron Brigade (Lieutenant Winterhalter with around 80 men), the Volunteer Company 5th Replacement Division, volunteers from Torgau under Lieutenant Prickler, a machine gun (MG) company in Tilsit under Sergeant Lieutenant Schulz formed the detachment. On January 11, 1919, the structure was roughly as follows:
Detachment staff:
- Commander: Captain Alfred von Randow, Tilsit
- Adjutant: Lieutenant G. Negendank
- Catering officer, Lieutenant Belly
Infantry companies:
- Fuhrer Lieutenant Durlach, around 100 men, 4 heavy machine guns
- Fuhrer Leutnant Winterhalter, around 100 men, 6 heavy machine guns
- Fuhrer Lieutenant Schönfeld, around 40 men
The railway protection battalion was tactically subordinate to the LII since January 5, 1919. Army Corps, Insterburg, 1st Infantry Brigade since January 19, Colonel Sydow. From this point on, the troops were called Freikorps von Randow .
Since the end of January 1919, Randow's detachment had endeavored to unsettle the enemy by making minor advances and to leave them in the dark about their own strengths. There were shootings and skirmishes almost every day. On February 3, 1919, a hunting squad from the Randow detachment advanced to the Radviliškis railway junction , where they destroyed locomotives and track systems.
On February 10, two Württemberg companies with five officers and 300 men of the XIII stepped as reinforcement . Army corps as 7th and 8th company (Schwaben group) to the detachment. The Freikorps now expanded rapidly and reached a strength of 2,635 men by the end of February 1919 and increased to almost 5,000 men by the end of it.
From March 14th, the Randow detachment attacked on both sides of Dubysa in the direction of Schaulen and stormed a number of villages. The Lithuanian government had assigned several infantry companies and a strong cavalry division from Randow.
After a skirmish between the northern group of the Randow Detachment near Szakiany on February 27th , which was evacuated by the Bolsheviks , the LII General Command assembled the Randow detachment on March 10th in the Cytowiany area , during which the Departments Meyer and von Randow occupied Radviliškis and Schaulen on March 12th. As a general rule , the detachment achieved considerable success on the 22nd at Kapzuny and supported Lithuanian troops. On the 3rd / 4th April succeeded superior Russian-Bolshevik forces to take Poniewicz , which was occupied by Lithuanian troops and smaller parts of the detachment ; However, these follow only with weaker forces, so that the detachment was able to hold the so-called Szoja line against all attacks.
On May 17, Captain Meyer took over the management of the detachment for Major von Randow, who was on leave and was not to return to his troops.
Flag and medal
Randow commanded the detachment for barely five months. During this time he gave the Freikorps a flag and donated a badge and a medal ( Teutonic Knights Cross ). In the middle of the black flag was a white shield with a continuous black cross (Deutschritterschild), in the lower outer corner of the flag the coat of arms of Randows. It was conducted until the unit was dissolved. After that it was first in the Schlageter Memorial Museum, then in the Heeresarchiv Potsdam and since 1938 with the Kyffhäuserbund . It has been missing since the end of the Second World War. The badge of the detachment also showed the German knight's shield and was initially worn on the collar corners of the tunic and coat, and later on the left upper arm.
Reorganization and end
On April 1, another reorganization was made and the weeks that followed passed with ongoing shootings, patrols and minor advances.
On April 3, 1919, Captain Würth von Würthenau took over the management of the detachment in place of Captain Meyer, who was on leave, and he finally resigned it on April 16. After the parts of the department on 21./22. The detachment was renamed the 1st Battalion of the 71st Reichswehr Rifle Regiment on June 1, 1919 by order of the Schaulen Brigade as part of its integration into the provisional Reichswehr . Subordinated to the Reichswehr Brigade 38 in August, it was transported to Celle, where the units arrived by August 30, 1919.
literature
- From railway protection in Lithuania to the Randow Freikorps. In: The rider to the east . Volume 8, 1936, episode 7, p. 12.
- Ernst von Salomon (ed.): The book from the German free corps fighters . Limpert, Berlin 1938 (reprint: Verlag für Holistic Research and Culture, Viöl 2001, ISBN 3-932878-92-2 ( archive edition )).
- Walter Rosenwald : The Detachement / Freikorps von Randow and its decorations. In: Orders and Medals. The magazine for collectors and researchers. Issue 29, 2004, pp. 30-37.
- Kurt-Gerhard Klietmann : Volunteer Detachment von Randow 1919. In: Feldgrau Heft 4, 1964, p. 106ff.