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FREE THE HISTORY OF THE GALICIAN DIVISION OF THE WAFFEN SS: ON THE EASTERN FRONT: APRIL 1943 TO JULY 1944: 1 PDF Michael James Melnyk | 400 pages | 04 Nov 2016 | Fonthill Media | 9781781555286 | English | Toadsmoor Road, United Kingdom Former soldiers of the Galicia Division Between the wars, the political allegiances of Ukrainians in eastern Galicia were divided between moderate national democrats and the more radical Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists. In it was occupied by Germany. Ukrainian leaders of various political persuasions recognised the need for a trained armed force. The idea to organize a division of volunteers from Galicia was proposed by the German Governor of District GaliciaDr. He suggested creation of a Waffen-SS division composed of Galician volunteers and designed for regular combat on the Eastern Front. At least 50 documents including contemporary newspaper clippings, radio broadcasts and speeches etc. By June the first phase of recruitment had taken place. Thus the Ukrainian division along with the Bosnian one became notable exceptions. Germans made two political concessions : It was stipulated that the division shall not be used to fight Western Allies, and would be used exclusively to "fight Bolsheviks". The other concession was in that its oath of allegiance to Hitler was conditional on the fight against Bolshevism and in the fact that Christian mostly Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and Ukrainian Orthodox chaplains were integrated into the units and allowed to function in the Waffen-SS, only the Bosnian division and Sturmbrigade Wallonien had a clerical presence. The latter condition was instituted at the insistence of the division's organizers in order to minimize the risk of Nazi demoralization amongst the soldiers. The creation of foreign SS units had been carried out previously in the name of fighting against communism; with FrenchDutchLatvianEstonianCroatian, and Belarusian units, among others, had been created. The Division enjoyed support from multiple political and religious groups within the western Ukrainian community. The Division's prime organizer and highest ranking Ukrainian officer, Dmytro Paliivhad been the leader of a small legal political party in the Second Polish Republic. Many of his colleagues had been members of the pre-war moderate, left-leaning democratic UNDO movement [14] [nb 1] that before the war had also been opposed to the authoritarian OUN. The Bandera faction of the OUN-B opposed the idea of creating the division, in part because it was an organization outside its control, and had claimed in its propaganda The History of the Galician Division of the Waffen SS: On the Eastern Front: April 1943 to July 1944: 1 the division was to be used by the Germans as cannon fodder. Despite The History of the Galician Division of the Waffen SS: On the Eastern Front: April 1943 to July 1944: 1 infiltration, Bandera's OUN failed to gain control over the division. Schimana never commanded the actual division, as up until the point of his departure it was still a training battalion, staffed mostly by temporary training personnel. All regimental commanders were Germans. In total 81, men enlisted for service in the division. Of these, 42, were called up during the first 'recruitment phase' which took place in May and June from which only 27, were deemed fit for military service and 13, were enlisted. In mid-Februarythe division received an order to form a battle group known as SS Kampfgruppe Beyersdorff for action against Soviet and Polish partisans. In July the division was sent to the area of Brody, where heavy combat was under way, and was attached to the 13th Army Corps. Deployed at Brody were the division's 29th, 30th, 31st regiments, a fusilier and engineering battalion, and its artillery regiment. The 14th SS Field Replacement Battalion was deployed fifteen miles 24 kilometres behind the other units. By the next day, they routed a German division to the north of the 13th Corps and swept back an attempted German counterattack. Within the pocket, the Galician troops were tasked with defending the eastern perimeter near the castle and town of Pidhirtsy and Olesko. Pidhirtsy changed hands several times before the Galicians were finally overwhelmed by the late afternoon, and at Olesko a major Soviet attack using T tanks was repulsed by the division's Fusilier and Engineer battalions. On 20 July, the German divisions within the pocket attempted a breakout which failed despite early successes. He and his staff formed their own battle group and headed The History of the Galician Division of the Waffen SS: On the Eastern Front: April 1943 to July 1944: 1, abandoning the division. The Ukrainian 14th SS Fusilier battalion, which at this point had also largely disintegrated, came to form the rearguard of what was left of the entire 13th Corps. Holding the town of Bilyi Kaminit enabled units or stragglers to escape to the south and was able to withstand several Soviet attempts to overwhelm it. By the evening of 21 July, it remained the only intact unit north of the Bug River. In the early morning of 22 July, the 14th Fusilier battalion abandoned Bilye Kamin. The German and Galician soldiers were instructed to attack with everything they had by moving forward until they broke through or were destroyed. The German and Ukrainian soldiers surging south were able to overwhelm the Soviet 91st Independent Tank Brigade "Proskurov" and its infantry support, and to escape by the hundreds. The remaining pocket collapsed by the evening of 22 July. Despite the severity of the fighting, the division maintained its discipline and some of its members were ultimately able to break out of the encirclement. Of the approximately 11, Galician soldiers deployed at Brody, about 3, were able to almost immediately re-enter the division. Approx 7, were posted as "Missing in combat". About 5, men of Korpsabteilung 'C' which formed the spearhead of the breakout forces escaped the encirclement with sidearms but without vehicles, horses, and other weapons, supplies, and equipment. A total of 73 officers and 4, NCOs and men were listed as killed or missing. By comparison, the st Infantry Division which deployed fewer troops at the beginning of the battle than the Galician Division and together with it formed the rearguard, suffered equal losses. Between 16—22 July, it sustained almost as many casualties with total losses amounting to 6, officers and men dead, missing or wounded. The necessary manpower required to rebuild this and the other German formations was not available and they were subsequently disbanded and the survivors incorporated into other divisions. As for XIII. This figure corresponds with General Lange's own estimate of a total of 25—30, killed in the encirclement. On the other hand, the recently declassified secret Soviet General Staff report states that during the course of the battle their forces destroyed more than 30, soldiers and officers, 85 tanks and self-propelled guns, over guns of various calibres, mortars, machine guns, 12, rifles and submachine guns, 5, vehicles, tractors and trailers and 2, motorcycles and bicycles. It also claims that over 17, soldiers and officers were taken prisoner, 28 tanks and self-propelled guns were captured, as were over guns of various calibres, more than mortars, machine guns, 11, rifles and sub-machine guns, over 1, vehicles, 98 tractors and trailers, motorcycles and bicycles, in excess of 3, horses and 28 warehouses full of military goods. An estimated total number of survivors of all XIII. The Germans rebuilt the division over two months using reserve units. From the end of Septemberthe division was used against the Slovak National Uprising. Eventually all divisional units were transferred to Slovakia. From 15 October they formed two Kampfgruppe, Wittenmayer and Wildner. Fremal, the division's "members were helping in anti-partisan, repressive, and terrorist actions and committed murders and other excesses". In the end of Januaryit was moved to Sloveniawhere from the end of February until the end of Marchit together with The History of the Galician Division of the Waffen SS: On the Eastern Front: April 1943 to July 1944: 1 SS and SD formations fought Yugoslav Partisans in the Styria and Carinthia province areas near the Austrian-Slovenian border. From 1 April until the end of the war, with a strength of 14, combat troops and 8, soldiers in a Training and Replacement Regiment, the division fought against the Red Army in the region of Graz in Austria [27] where in early April it seized the castle and village of Gleichenberg from Soviet forces including elite Soviet The History of the Galician Division of the Waffen SS: On the Eastern Front: April 1943 to July 1944: 1 troops from the 3rd Guards Airborne Division during a counterattack and on 15 April repulsed a Soviet counterattack. The division at this time maintained a km front. General Harteneck refused Freitag's resignation and ordered him to remain at his post. There is credible evidence that despite Soviet pressure, Anders managed to protect the Ukrainian troops, as former citizens of the Second Republic of Poland. This, together with the intervention of the Vatican prevented its members from being deported to the USSR. Due to Vatican intervention, the British authorities changed the status of the division members from POW to surrendered enemy personnel. Despite several requests of various lobby groups, the details of the list have never been publicly released, however the list is available on line and the original List is available for public inspection at the Schevchenko The History of the Galician Division of the Waffen SS: On the Eastern Front: April 1943 to July 1944: 1 in Linden Gardens London. In the anti-terrorist branch of Scotland Yard launched an investigation into people from the list by cross-referencing NHS patient, social security and pensions records; however, the order to release confidential medical records was met with outcry from civil liberties groups.

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