Airborne Battalion Dallwitz

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The airborne battalion for special disposal "Dallwitz" (Belarusian: Беларускі дэсантны батальён "Дальвіц" ) was an association consisting of Belarusian volunteers in the German Wehrmacht , which was set up in the final phase of the German-Soviet war of the Red Army and for the partisan war was designed.

Development and deployment concept

The battalion was set up in July 1944 in the former camp of the Reich Labor Service in Dallwitz near Insterburg in East Prussia . It was subordinate to the Abwehr (Abwehr Command or Front Reconnaissance Command 203) and comprised former members of the Belarusian Home Guard , which had been disbanded shortly after the Soviet reconquest of Belarus in the course of Operation Bagration . The camp was set up for the command troops of the Belarusian Independent Party . The unit was under the command of the Belarusian nationalists Barys Rahulja , Captain Usewalad Rodska (responsible for political affairs) and Major Iwan Helda (responsible for military affairs). On the German side, it was headed by Major Gerullis until November 1944 . By the end of 1944, the battalion consisted of around 200 soldiers, who were divided into a group responsible for northern Belarus and a group responsible for southern Belarus. The Belarusian soldiers were trained by German instructors to fight behind enemy lines. The training included the operation of radio stations, the handling of various infantry weapons, the handling of explosives and the construction of camouflaged positions and shelters. The soldiers of the battalion were supposed to parachute over the Soviet-occupied territory of Belarus and then start a guerrilla war against the Red Army.

Airborne Battalion officers

The following officers who served in the Dallwitz airborne battalion are known:

Mission history

In the second half of 1944 the Abwehr launched various commandos in the areas formerly occupied by the Wehrmacht ( Zeppelin company , Scherhorn combat group ). Members of the “Dallwitz” battalion were also deposed for the first time in Belarus. Some of the insurgents were tracked down and killed by NKVD units immediately or after a short time, some of the soldiers were able to stay permanently in the Belarusian forests and start a guerrilla war against the Soviet army.

At the beginning of November 1944, the battalion was relocated from Dallwitz to Bromberg in the Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia . In January 1945, after the start of the Soviet winter offensive, it was relocated to Neubrandenburg again . In March 1945 the battalion was moved to the territory of Czechoslovakia . The unit was probably integrated into the SS-Jagdverband Ost .

After the end of the Second World War

At the end of April 1945, the Belarusians were disarmed by Czechoslovak partisans and the battalion ceased to exist. The soldiers then divided into small groups and tried to get through the areas occupied by the Red Army to Belarus in order to reinforce anti-Soviet partisans there. The main group around Rodska and Helda reached Białystok in June 1945 , where they were wiped out by NKVD units. Some former members of the battalion became leaders of the anti-Soviet guerrilla movement in Belarus that existed until 1956. (→ Augen Schychar , Аўген Жыхар ) The vast majority of the members of the battalion were killed in fighting with Soviet soldiers. Only a few members of the unit were able to withdraw to the West.

literature

  • Сергей Геннадьевич Чуев: Спецслужбы Третьего рейха (Sergei Gennadewitsch Tschuew: Special Forces of the Third Reich ). Olma Media Group, Saint Petersburg / Moscow 2003, ISBN 5-7654-2826-6 ( lib.rus.ec )

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Чуев: Спецслужбы Третьего рейха (no print edition available)
  2. ^ Tadeusz Piotrowski : Poland's Holocaust: Ethnic Strife, Collaboration with Occupying Forces and Genocide in the Second Republic, 1918–1947. McFarland, London 1998, ISBN 0-7864-0371-3 . P. 155
  3. ↑ Sûreté de l'Etat Allemands recherchés. (PDF) p. 14 , archived from the original on August 26, 2014 ; Retrieved on August 26, 2014 (French, CEGES-SOMA document; Control Center II East, FAK203 and FAK205).
  4. ↑ Белорусские офицеры специального десантного батальона «Дальвиц» (1944–1945) on jivebelarus.blogspot.de (Russian)
  5. ↑ Perry Biddiscombe: The SS Hunter Battalions. The Hidden History of the Nazi Resistance Movement. Stroud 2006, p. 66.
  6. ↑ Беларускі дэсантны батальён "Дальвіц", slounik.org (Belarusian)