Volunteer Tribe Division

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The Freiwilligen-Stamm-Division was a major unit of the army of the German Wehrmacht during World War II .

Division history

The division was set up on February 1, 1944 in southern France as a replacement for all Eastern and Turkic groups. In his function as commander of the voluntary units at the Army High Command and inspector of the replacement troops, Major General Ralph von Heygendorff was responsible for the formation of the division until mid-March 1944. The division's headquarters were in Lyons .

The unit belonged to the so-called Eastern Legions , that is, its staff consisted of volunteers from the Soviet Union , mostly members of ethnic minorities. The Volunteer Tribe Division consisted of Turkmen , Azerbaijani , Georgian , Tatar , Cossack , Armenian, and other Soviet volunteers, divided into five regiments .

The main purpose of the division was anti-partisan operations against the French resistance movement as part of the occupation of Western Europe with a special focus on France. From September 1944 the division took part in the retreat from France to Alsace . There, the division was then set up again at the Ohrdruf military training area in military district XIII , but also disbanded a short time later.

Commanders

Structure of the division

  • Volunteer Tribe Regiment 1 in Castres for Georgians, North Caucasians and Turkestans
  • Volunteer Tribe Regiment 2 in Mende for Azerbaijanis, Armenians and Tatars from the Volga region, after April 1944 for Ukrainians and Russians
  • Volunteer Tribe Regiment 3 in Mâcon for Russians , Ukrainians and Central Asian Turkic peoples - Major Wilhelm Sebald, later from July 1944 to Major Anton Werner
  • Volunteer Tribe Regiment 4 in Namur for Russians and Ukrainians
  • Volunteer Tribe Regiment 5 in Langres for all Cossacks

literature

  • Peter Lieb : Conventional war or Nazi ideological war. Warfare and the fight against partisans in France 1943/44. R. Oldenbourg Verlag, 2007. ISBN 978-3-48657992-5 .
  • Samuel W. Mitcham (2007). German Order of Battle. Volume Two: 291st - 999th Infantry Divisions, Named Infantry Divisions, and Special Divisions in WWII. PA; United States of America: Stackpole Books. P. 359, ISBN 978-0-8117-3437-0 .
  • Nigel Thomas: The German Army 1939–45 (5): Western Front 1943–45: Western Front, 1944–45 BC 5 (Men-at-Arms). Osprey Publishing, 2000. ISBN 978-1-85532797-9 .
  • Antonio J. Munoz: The East Came West . Axis Europa Books, 2001, p. 169.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Georg Tessin , Brün Meyer, Working Group for Defense Research: Associations and Troops of the German Wehrmacht and Waffen SS in the Second World War 1939–1945 . Biblio-Verlag, 1966, ISBN 978-3-7648-1097-9 , pp. 142 ( google.de [accessed on January 24, 2020]).
  2. ^ A b Peter Lieb: Vercors 1944: Resistance in the French Alps . Bloomsbury Publishing, 2012, ISBN 978-1-84908-699-8 , pp. 20 ( google.de [accessed on January 23, 2020]).
  3. ↑ a b Rudolf Absolon: The Wehrmacht in the Third Reich . H. Boldt, 1995, ISBN 978-3-7646-1920-6 , pp. 361 ( google.de [accessed January 24, 2020]).
  4. ^ Peter Lieb: Vercors 1944: Resistance in the French Alps . Bloomsbury Publishing, 2012, ISBN 978-1-84908-699-8 , pp. 19 ( google.de [accessed on January 24, 2020]).