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Cossacks in World War II
The attack launched by German units on the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941 produced a wave of enthusiasm among the Cossaks. This stemmed from their generally-known hatred of the communists. As early as the middle of 1942, a Cossack cavalry formation existed in German-controlled Mogilev, under the command of a former Soviet major, Ivan Kononov, who had crossed over to the Germans on 22 August 1941 with the greater part of his 436th regiment, and began service on the side of the Germans by guarding lines of communications against Soviet partisans. In the summer of 1942 the German armies entered territories inhabited by the Cossacks, who greeted the Germans as liberators. The entire populations of towns, villages and settlements went out to meet the German troops with flowers and gifts of all kinds, singing their national anthems. Cossack formations of the Red Army would come over to the Germans in a body; new formations would spring up, apparently from nowhere, in traditional uniform and armed with swords, pistols, daggers, and rifles that had remained buried for years. One of the most famous Cossack leaders, ataman Kulakov, believed dead since 1919, came out of hiding and, accompanied by hundreds of supporters, made a triumphant drive into Poltava. The Cossack National Movement of Liberation, which had the aim of rebuilding an independent Cossack state, fostered the recruiting of Cossacks for the fight against the Soviets. The summer of 1943 saw the formation of the 1st Cossack Division, under the command of the German Lieutenant General Helmut von Pannwitz. The division soon expanded into the 15th SS Cossack Cavalry Corps (), which numbered some 50,000 men. Afterwards, two Cossack brigades and 12 Cossack reserve regiments formed, and a number of smaller units became attached to German formations. In all, Cossack troops on the German side numbered about 250,000 men. Note that the granting of the "SS" status to the Cossack Corps came about through Himmler's policy, quite often applied, of barring the Wehrmacht's influence in the political concerns of non-German formations. The Germans used the Cossacks to fight Soviet partisans, to cover the rear of their armies, and sometimes for action on the front. Later on, some Cossack formations moved to France and to Yugoslavia. The Cossack command objected, on the ground that the Cossacks should fight only against the Soviets, but in vain. The 2nd KONR Division split into two parts; the greater part, together with the Cossack Corps of General von Pannwitz, surrendered to the British on 12 May 1945, in Austria, and went into internment in the area of Klagenfurt - Sankt Veit. One regiment of the 2nd Division and the Army's Headquarters reached the American zone after a long and weary journey, and went into internment at Landau, in western Bavaria. On 27 May 1945, in accordance with the agreement signed in Vienna by British and Soviet authorities, the British began to hand over to the Soviets the interned soldiers of the Eastern formations as well as the Cossacks. On that day, in Graz, they handed over the generals von Pannwitz, Pyotr Krasnov, and Andrei Shkuro. All three hoped to the last that they would escape this fate, for von Pannwitz held German nationality, and the other two had emigrated from Tsarist Russia and had never held Soviet citizenship. On 28 May 1945 the local British commander invited to a conference in the little town of Spittal in Austria the entire officer corps from the Cossack camp: 35 generals, 167 colonels, 283 lieutenant-colonels, 375 captains, 1,752 subalterns, 136 military functionaries and doctors, two chaplains, two band leaders, two photographers, and two interpreters: in all 2,756 persons. At the time of the departure from the camp, 2,201 Cossacks reported ready for the journey, the remainder having refused to board the trucks, or having disappeared. On the way to Linz, 55 of them committed suicide; the NKVD took 2,146 into custody. The prisoners included 1,856 Cossack officers, 176 Russians, 63 Ukrainians, 31 Caucasians, and a handful of other nationals. As to the fate of those delivered: 12 generals went to Moscow, Soviet soldiers of the convoy shot 120 officers on the way to Vienna, 1,030 officers died during interrogations by the NKVD, 983 officers were "passed along"; many of this group ended up in mines in the Urals, deprived of the right to come out to the surface of the earth. On 1 June 1945 the Cossack camp in Linz held 32,000 persons, mainly old men, women, and children -- genuine refugees -- but also including Cossack soldiers. On that day the camp handed over about 25,000 people to the Soviets. Even after the specified period of the delivery of prisoners, Soviet military missions made unexpected raids on Displaced Persons camps in the American and British zones, and took from them many people by force. In all, the Western allies handed over more than 150,000 Cossacks to the USSR. The statement of a Cossack emigrant quotes the impressions of a British sailor given here without alteration: "I took part in the evacuation of Dunkirk. Our soldiers felt very badly. I helped to fish out Germans from the sunken Bismarck, which received the greatest number of torpedoes in history. I saw the population of Malta sitting in the cellars for many weeks. I saw Malta being bombed incessantly and deafened by explosions of bombs and shells. They were exhausted from constant explosions and alarms. I lived through the sinking of my own ship. I know about jumping into the water at night, dark and without bottom, and the terrifying shouts for help of the drowning, and then the boat, and looking for the rescue ship. It was a nightmare. I drove German prisoners captured during the invasion of Normandy. They were almost dying from fear. But all that is nothing. The real, terrible, unspeakable fear I saw during the convoying and repatriation of people to Soviet Russia. They were becoming white, green and grey with the fear that took hold of them. When we arrived at the port and were handing them over to the Russians, the repatriates were fainting and losing their senses. And only now I know what a man's fear is who lived through hell, and that it is nothing compared to the fear of a man who is returning to the Soviet hell." |
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发表于 2006-8-7 21:36
发表于 2006-8-7 22:54
