On September 1, 1939, Nazi Germany and Slovakia declared war on Poland… Thus began the Second World War…

It involved 61 states out of 73 that existed at that time (80% of the world's population). The fighting took place on the territory of three continents and in the waters of four oceans.

On June 10, 1940, Italy and Albania entered the war on the side of Germany, on April 11, 1941 - Hungary, on May 1, 1941 - Iraq, on June 22, 1941, after the German attack on the USSR - Romania, Croatia and Finland, on December 7, 1941 - Japan , December 13, 1941 - Bulgaria, January 25, 1942 - Thailand, January 9, 1943 Wang Jingwei's government in China, August 1, 1943 - Burma.

Who fought for Hitler and the Wehrmacht, and who is against it?

In total, about 2 million people from 15 European countries fought in the Wehrmacht troops (more than half a million - Romanian army, almost 400 thousand - Hungarian troops, more than 200 thousand - Mussolini's troops!).

Of these, during the war years, 59 divisions, 23 brigades, several separate regiments, legions and battalions were formed.

Many of them were named according to state and nationality and only volunteers served in them:

Blue Division - Spain

"Wallonia" - the division included French, Spanish and Walloon volunteers, moreover, the Walloons were in the majority.

"Galicia" - Ukrainians and Galicians

"Bohemia and Moravia" - Czechs from Moravia and Bohemia

"Viking" - volunteers from the Netherlands, Belgium and the Scandinavian countries

"Denemark" - Danes

"Langemark" - Flemish Volunteers

"Nordland" - Dutch and Scandinavian volunteers

"Nederland" - Dutch collaborators who fled to Germany after the Allied occupation of Holland.

The "French Infantry Regiment 638", since 1943, has been merged with the newly organized "French SS Division" Charlemagne "- the French.

The armies of Germany's allies - Italy, Hungary, Romania, Finland, Slovakia and Croatia - participated in the war against the USSR.

The Bulgarian army was involved in the occupation of Greece and Yugoslavia, but the Bulgarian ground units did not fight on the Eastern Front.

Russian Liberation Army (ROA) under the command of General A.A. Vlasova acted on the side of Nazi Germany, although she was not officially part of the Wehrmacht.

As part of the Wehrmacht, the 15th Cossack Cavalry Corps of the SS, General von Panwitz, fought.

On the side of Germany, the Russian Corps of General Shteifon, the Corps of Lieutenant General of the Tsarist Army P.N. Krasnov and a number of separate units formed from citizens of the USSR, often on a national basis, under the command of the former Kuban Cossack SS Gruppen-Führer, A.G. Shkuro (real name - Shkura) and Circassian Sultan-Girey Klych, leader of the nationalist "People's Party of the Highlanders of the North Caucasus" in France.

I won’t write who and why fought for Hitler and the Wehrmacht… Some for “ideological considerations”, some for revenge, some for glory, some for fear, some against “communism”… About it was written by millions and millions of pages by professional historians... And I'm just stating historical facts, or rather trying to do it... A question about something else... To remember...

So, first things first…

Romania

Romania declared war on the USSR on June 22, 1941 and wanted to return Bessarabia and Bukovina “taken away” from it in June 1940, and also to annex Transnistria (the territory from the Dniester to the Southern Bug).

For military operations against the USSR, the Romanian 3rd and 4th armies were intended, with a total number of about 220 thousand people.

On June 22, Romanian troops tried to capture bridgeheads on the eastern bank of the Prut River. On June 25-26, 1941, the Soviet Danube Flotilla landed troops on Romanian territory, and Soviet aircraft and ships of the Black Sea Fleet bombed and fired on Romanian oil fields and other objects.

Romanian troops began active hostilities by crossing the Prut River on July 2, 1941. By July 26, Romanian troops occupied the territories of Bessarabia and Bukovina.

Then the Romanian 3rd Army advanced in Ukraine, crossed the Dnieper in September and reached the coast of the Sea of ​​Azov.

Since the end of October 1941, units of the Romanian 3rd Army participated in the capture of the Crimea (together with the German 11th Army under the command of von Manstein).

From the beginning of August 1941, the Romanian 4th Army conducted an operation to capture Odessa, by September 10, 12 Romanian divisions and 5 brigades were assembled to capture Odessa, with a total strength of up to 200 thousand people

On October 16, 1941, after heavy fighting, Odessa was captured by Romanian troops together with units of the Wehrmacht. The losses of the 4th Romanian army amounted to 29 thousand dead and missing and 63 thousand wounded.

In August 1942, the 3rd Romanian Army took part in the attack on the Caucasus, the Romanian cavalry divisions took Taman, Anapa, Novorossiysk (together with German troops), and the Romanian mountain division captured Nalchik in October 1942.

In the fall of 1942, Romanian troops occupied positions in the Stalingrad region. The 3rd Romanian army with a total strength of 150 thousand people held a front section 140 km northwest of Stalingrad, and the 4th Romanian army held a front section 300 km south.

By the end of January 1943, the Romanian 3rd and 4th armies were practically destroyed - their total losses amounted to almost 160 thousand dead, missing and wounded.

At the beginning of 1943, 6 Romanian divisions, with a total number of 65 thousand people, fought (as part of the German 17th Army) in the Kuban. In September 1943 they retreated to the Crimea, lost more than a third of their personnel, and were evacuated by sea to Romania.

In August 1944, King Mihai I, allied with the anti-fascist opposition, ordered the arrest of General Antonescu and other pro-German generals and declared war on Germany. Soviet troops were brought into Bucharest, and already the “allied Romanian army”, together with the Soviet one, fought against the Nazi coalition in Hungary, and then in Austria.

In total, up to 200 thousand Romanians died in the war against the USSR (including 55 thousand died in Soviet captivity).

18 Romanians were awarded the German "Knight's Crosses", of which three also received the "Oak Leaves" for the "Knight's Crosses".

Italy

Italy declared war on the USSR on June 22, 1941. Motivation - Mussolini's initiative, which he proposed back in January 1940 - "a pan-European campaign against Bolshevism." At the same time, Italy had no territorial claims to any zone of occupation of the USSR. In 1944, Italy effectively withdrew from the war.

The "Italian Expeditionary Force" for the war against the USSR was created on July 10, 1941 - 62 thousand soldiers and officers. The corps was sent to the southern sector of the German-Soviet front for operations in southern Ukraine.

The first clash between the advanced units of the Italian corps and units of the Red Army took place on the Southern Bug River on August 10, 1941.

In September 1941, the Italian corps fought on the Dnieper, on a 100-km section in the Dneprodzerzhinsk region, and in October-November 1941, it participated in the capture of Donbass. Then, until July 1942, the Italians stood on the defensive, fighting local battles with units of the Red Army.

The losses of the Italian corps from August 1941 to June 1942 amounted to more than 1600 dead, more than 400 missing, almost 6300 wounded and more than 3600 frostbitten.

In July 1942, the Italian troops on the territory of the USSR were significantly strengthened, and the 8th Italian Army was formed, which in the fall of 1942 occupied positions on the river. Don, northwest of Stalingrad.

In December 1942 - January 1943, the Italians tried to repel the offensive of the Red Army, and as a result, the Italian army was actually defeated - 21,000 Italians were killed, and 64,000 were missing. In the harsh winter, the Italians simply froze, and they were not up to the war. The remaining 145,000 Italians were withdrawn to Italy in March 1943.

The losses of Italians in the USSR from August 1941 to February 1943 amounted to about 90 thousand dead and missing. According to Soviet data, 49 thousand Italians were taken prisoner, of which 21 thousand Italians were released from Soviet captivity in 1946-1956. Thus, in total, about 70 thousand Italians died in the war against the USSR and in Soviet captivity.

9 Italians were awarded the German "Knight's Crosses".

Finland

On June 25, 1941, Soviet aviation bombed the settlements of Finland, and on June 26, Finland declared war on the USSR.

Finland intended to return the territories taken from her in March 1940, and also to annex Karelia.

On June 30, 1941, Finnish troops went on the offensive in the direction of Vyborg and Petrozavodsk. By the end of August 1941, the Finns reached the approaches to Leningrad on the Karelian Isthmus, by the beginning of October 1941 they occupied almost the entire territory of Karelia (except for the coast of the White Sea and Zaonezhye), after which they went on the defensive at the achieved lines.

From the end of 1941 until the summer of 1944, there were practically no military operations on the Soviet-Finnish front, except for the raids of Soviet partisans on the territory of Karelia and the bombing of Finnish settlements by Soviet aircraft.

On June 9, 1944, Soviet troops (with a total number of up to 500 thousand people) went on the offensive against the Finns (about 200 thousand people). In the course of heavy fighting, which lasted until August 1944, Soviet troops took Petrozavodsk, Vyborg, and in one sector reached the Soviet-Finnish border in March 1940.

On September 1, 1944, Marshal Mannerheim proposed a truce, on September 4, Stalin agreed to a truce, Finnish troops withdrew to the March 1940 border.

54,000 Finns died in the war against the USSR.

2 Finns were awarded "Knight's Crosses", including Marshal Mannerheim received "Oak Leaves" to the "Knight's Cross".

Hungary

Hungary declared war on the USSR on June 27, 1941. Hungary had no territorial claims to the USSR, but there was also a motivation - "revenge on the Bolsheviks for the communist revolution of 1919 in Hungary."

On July 1, 1941, Hungary sent the "Carpathian Group" (5 brigades, totaling 40 thousand people), which fought as part of the German 17th Army in Ukraine, to the war against the USSR.

In July 1941, the group was divided - 2 infantry brigades began to perform the functions of protecting the rear, and the "Fast Corps" (2 motorized and 1 cavalry brigades, a total of 25 thousand people, with several dozen light tanks and wedges) continued to advance.

By November 1941, the "Fast Corps" suffered heavy losses - up to 12 thousand killed, missing and wounded, all tankettes and almost all light tanks were lost. The corps was returned to Hungary, but at the same time, 4 infantry and 2 cavalry Hungarian brigades with a total number of 60 thousand people remained at the front and in the rear areas.

In April 1942, the Hungarian 2nd Army (about 200 thousand people) was sent against the USSR. In June 1942, she went on the offensive in the Voronezh direction, as part of the German offensive on the southern sector of the German-Soviet front.

In January 1943, the Hungarian 2nd Army was practically destroyed during the Soviet offensive (up to 100 thousand dead and up to 60 thousand taken prisoner, most of them wounded). In May 1943, the remnants of the army (about 40 thousand people) were withdrawn to Hungary.

In the autumn of 1944, all the Hungarian armed forces (three armies) fought against the Red Army, already on the territory of Hungary. The fighting in Hungary ended in April 1945, but some Hungarian units continued to fight in Austria until the surrender of Germany on May 8, 1945.

More than 200 thousand Hungarians died in the war against the USSR (including 55 thousand died in Soviet captivity).

8 Hungarians were awarded the German "Knight's Crosses".

Slovakia

Slovakia took part in the war against the USSR as part of the "pan-European campaign against Bolshevism." It had no territorial claims against the USSR. 2 Slovak divisions were sent to the war against the USSR.

One division, numbering 8 thousand people, fought in Ukraine in 1941, in the Kuban in 1942, and in 1943-1944 performed police and security functions in the Crimea.

Another division (also 8 thousand people) in 1941-1942 performed "security functions" in Ukraine, in 1943-1944 - in Belarus.

About 3,500 Slovaks died in the war against the USSR.

Croatia

Croatia, like Slovakia, took part in the war against the USSR as part of the "pan-European campaign against Bolshevism."

In October 1941, 1 Croatian volunteer regiment with a total strength of 3,900 people was sent against the USSR. The regiment fought in the Donbass, in 1942 - in Stalingrad. By February 1943, the Croatian regiment was almost completely destroyed, about 700 Croats were taken prisoner.

About 2,000 Croats died in the war against the USSR.

Spain

Spain was a neutral country, did not officially declare war against the USSR, but organized the dispatch of one volunteer division to the front. Motivation - revenge for sending the Comintern International Brigades to Spain during the Civil War.

The Spanish division, or "Blue Division" (18 thousand people) was sent to the northern sector of the German-Soviet front. From October 1941 she fought in the Volkhov region, from August 1942 - near Leningrad. In October 1943, the division was returned to Spain, but about 2 thousand volunteers remained to fight in the Spanish Legion.

The Legion was disbanded in March 1944, but about 300 Spaniards wished to fight further, and 2 companies of the SS troops were formed from them, who fought against the Red Army until the end of the war.

About 5 thousand Spaniards died in the war against the USSR (452 ​​Spaniards were taken into Soviet captivity).

2 Spaniards were awarded the German "Knight's Crosses", including one received the "Oak Leaves" to the "Knight's Cross".

Belgium

Belgium declared its neutrality in 1939, but was occupied by German troops.

In 1941, two volunteer legions (battalions) were formed in Belgium for the war against the USSR. They differed by ethnicity - Flemish and Walloon.

In the autumn of 1941, the legions were sent to the front - the Walloon legion to the southern sector (to Rostov-on-Don, then to the Kuban), and the Flemish legion to the northern sector (to Volkhov).

In June 1943, both legions were reorganized into brigades of the SS troops - the SS Volunteer Brigade "Langemark" and the SS Volunteer Assault Brigade "Wallonia".

In October 1943, the brigades were renamed into divisions (remaining in the same composition - 2 infantry regiments each). At the end of the war, both the Flemings and the Walloons fought against the Red Army in Pomerania.

About 5 thousand Belgians died in the war against the USSR (2 thousand Belgians were taken into Soviet captivity).

4 Belgians were awarded the "Knight's Cross", including one received the "Oak Leaves" to the "Knight's Cross".

Netherlands

The Netherlands Volunteer Legion (motorized battalion of 5 companies) was formed in July 1941.

In January 1942, the Dutch legion arrived at the northern sector of the German-Soviet front, in the Volkhov region. Then the legion was transferred to Leningrad.

In May 1943, the Dutch Legion was reorganized into the SS Volunteer Brigade "Netherlands" (with a total of 9 thousand people).

In 1944, one of the regiments of the Dutch brigade was practically destroyed in the battles near Narva. In the autumn of 1944 the brigade retreated to Courland, and in January 1945 it was evacuated to Germany by sea.

In February 1945, the brigade was renamed a division, although its strength was greatly reduced due to losses. By May 1945, the Dutch division was practically destroyed in the battles against the Red Army.

About 8,000 Dutch people died in the war against the USSR (more than 4,000 Dutch were taken into Soviet captivity).

4 Dutchmen were awarded the "Knight's Crosses".

France

The "French Volunteer Legion" for the war "against the Bolsheviks" was created in July 1941.

In October 1941, the French legion (an infantry regiment, numbering 2.5 thousand people) was sent to the German-Soviet front, to the Moscow direction. The French suffered heavy losses there, were defeated “to the smithereens” almost on the Borodino field, and from the spring of 1942 to the summer of 1944 the legion performed only police functions, it was used to fight against Soviet partisans.

In the summer of 1944, as a result of the offensive of the Red Army in Belarus, the "French Legion" was again on the front line, again suffered heavy losses and was withdrawn to Germany.

In September 1944, the legion was disbanded, and instead the “French Brigade of the SS Troops” (more than 7 thousand people) was created, and in February 1945 it was renamed the 33rd Grenadier Division of the SS Troops “Charlemagne” (“Charlemagne ”) and sent to the front in Pomerania against the Soviet troops. In March 1945, the French division was almost completely destroyed.

The remnants of the French division (about 700 people) at the end of April 1945 defended Berlin, in particular Hitler's bunker.

And in 1942, 130 thousand young people from Alsace and Lorraine born in 1920-24 were forcibly mobilized into the Wehrmacht, dressed in German uniforms and most of them were sent to the eastern front (they called themselves “malgre-nous”, that is, “mobilized against my will). About 90% of them immediately surrendered to Soviet troops and ended up in the Gulag!

Pierre Rigulot writes in his books “The French in the Gulag” and “The Tragedy of the Reluctant Soldiers”: “... In general, after 1946, 85 thousand French were repatriated, 25 thousand died in the camps, 20 thousand disappeared on the territory of the USSR ...”. In 1943-1945 alone, more than 10,000 Frenchmen who died in custody were buried in mass graves in the forest near the Rada station, near Tambov, in camp No. 188.

In the war against the USSR, about 8 thousand Frenchmen died (not counting the Alsatians and Logaringians).

3 Frenchmen were awarded the German "Knight's Crosses".

"African Phalanx"

After the landing of the Allies in Northern France, of all the North African territories of France, only Tunisia remained under the sovereignty of Vichy and the occupation of the Axis troops. After the Allied landings, the Vichy regime attempted to create volunteer formations that could serve alongside the Italo-German army.

On January 8, 1943, a "legion" was created with a single unit - the "African Phalanx" (Phalange Africaine), consisting of 300 French and 150 Muslim Africans (later the number of French was reduced to 200).

After three months of training, the phalanx was assigned to the 754th Infantry Regiment of the 334th German Infantry Division operating in Tunisia. Having been "in business", the phalanx was renamed "LVF en Tunisie" and existed under this name until the surrender in early May 1945.

Denmark

The social democratic government of Denmark did not declare war on the USSR, but did not interfere with the formation of the "Danish Volunteer Corps", and officially allowed the Danish army to join it (indefinite leave with the preservation of the rank).

In July-December 1941, more than 1 thousand people joined the Danish Volunteer Corps (the name "corps" was symbolic, in fact it was a battalion). In May 1942, the "Danish Corps" was sent to the front, to the Demyansk region. From December 1942, the Danes fought in the Velikiye Luki region.

At the beginning of June 1943, the corps was disbanded, many of its members, as well as new volunteers, joined the regiment " Danemark» 11th SS Volunteer Division « Nordland"(Danish-Norwegian division). In January 1944, the division was sent to Leningrad, participated in the battle of Narva.

In January 1945 the division fought against the Red Army in Pomerania, and in April 1945 fought in Berlin.

About 2 thousand Danes died in the war against the USSR (456 Danes were taken into Soviet captivity).

3 Danes were awarded the German "Knight's Crosses".

Norway

The Norwegian government in July 1941 announced the formation of the "Norwegian Volunteer Legion" to send "to help Finland in the war against the USSR."

In February 1942, after training in Germany, the Norwegian legion (1 battalion, numbering 1.2 thousand people) was sent to the German-Soviet front, near Leningrad.

In May 1943, the Norwegian Legion was disbanded, most of the soldiers joined the Norwegian regiment of the 11th SS Volunteer Division " Nordland"(Danish-Norwegian division).

About 1,000 Norwegians died in the war against the USSR (100 Norwegians were taken into Soviet captivity).

Divisions under the SS

These are the so-called "SS divisions", formed from the "citizens" of the USSR, as well as from the inhabitants of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.

Note that only Germans and representatives of the peoples of the Germanic language group (Dutch, Danes, Flemings, Norwegians, Swedes) were taken in the SS division. Only they had the right to wear SS runes in their buttonholes. For some reason, an exception was made only for the French-speaking Walloon Belgians.

But "divisions under the SS", "Waffen divisions der SS" formed precisely from the "non-German peoples" - Bosniaks, Ukrainians, Latvians, Lithuanians, Estonians, Albanians, Russians, Belarusians, Hungarians, Italians, French.

At the same time, the command staff in these divisions was mainly from Germans (they had the right to wear SS runes). But the “Russian Division under the SS” was commanded by Bronislav Kaminsky, a half-Polish, half-German, originally from St. Petersburg. Because of his "pedigree" he could not be a member of the SS party organization, and was not a member of the NSDAP.

The first "Waffen Division under the SS" was the 13th ( Bosnian-Muslim) or Handshar, formed in March 1943. She fought from January 1944 in Croatia, and from December 1944 - in Hungary.

"Scanderbeg". In April 1944, the 21st mountain division of the Waffen-SS "Skanderbeg" was formed from Muslim Albanians. Almost 11 thousand soldiers were recruited from the province of Kosovo, as well as from Albania itself. They were mostly Sunni Muslims.

"14th Waffen Division der SS" (Ukrainian)

From the autumn of 1943 to the spring of 1944 she was in the reserve (in Poland). In July 1944 she fought on the Soviet-German front in the Brody region (Western Ukraine). In September 1944 it was sent to suppress the uprising in Slovakia. In January 1945, she was transferred to the reserve in the Bratislava region, in April 1945 she retreated to Austria, and in May 1945 she surrendered to American troops.

Ukrainian volunteers

The only units of the Eastern Volunteers that entered the Wehrmacht from the very beginning were two small Ukrainian battalions created in the spring of 1941.

The Nachtigal battalion was recruited from Ukrainians living in Poland, the Roland battalion was recruited from Ukrainian emigrants living in Germany.

"15th Waffen Division der SS" (Latvian No. 1)

From December 1943 - at the front in the Volkhov region, in January - March 1944 - at the front in the Pskov region, in April - May 1944 at the front in the Nevel region. From July to December 1944 it was reorganized in Latvia, and then in West Prussia. In February 1945 she was sent to the front in West Prussia, in March 1945 to the front in Pomerania.

"19th Waffen Division der SS" (Latvian No. 2)

At the front since April 1944, in the Pskov region, since July 1944 - in Latvia.

"20th Waffen Division der SS" (Estonian)

From March to October 1944 in Estonia, November 1944 - January 1945 in Germany (in reserve), in February - May 1945 at the front in Silesia.

"29th Waffen Division der SS" (Russian)

In August 1944 she took part in the suppression of the uprising in Warsaw. At the end of August, for the rape and murder of German residents of Warsaw, the division commander, Waffen-Brigadefuhrer Kaminsky, and the division chief of staff, Waffen-Obersturmbannführer Shavyakin (a former captain of the Red Army) were shot, and the division was sent to Slovakia and disbanded there.

"Russian security corps in Serbia"("Russisches Schutzkorps Serbien", RSS), the last division of the Russian Imperial Army. He was recruited from among the White Guards who found refuge in Serbia in 1921 and retained their national identity and adherence to traditional beliefs. They wanted to fight "for Russia and against the Reds", but they were sent to fight the partisans of Joseph Broz Tito.

"Russian Security Corps", originally led by the White Guard General Shteifon, and later by Colonel Rogozin. The number of the corps is more than 11 thousand people.

"30th Waffen Division der SS" (Belarusian)

From September to November 1944 in the reserve in Germany, from December 1944 on the Upper Rhine.

"33rd Hungarian" lasted only two months , was formed in December 1944, disbanded in January 1945.

The “36th division” was formed from German criminals and even political prisoners in February 1945. But then the Nazis “raked out” all the “reserves”, calling everyone into the Wehrmacht - from the boys from the “Hitler Youth” to the elderly ...

"Latvian SS Volunteer Legion". In February 1943, after the defeat of the German troops near Stalingrad, the Nazi command decided to form the Latvian National SS Legion. It included part of the Latvian volunteer units, created earlier and already taking part in hostilities.

In the first days of March 1943, the entire male population of Latvia born in 1918 and 1919 was ordered to appear at the district and volost police departments at their place of residence. There, after an examination by a medical commission, the mobilized were given the right to choose a place of service: either in the Latvian SS legion, or in the service staff of the German troops, or in defense work.

Of the 150 thousand soldiers and officers of the legion, over 40 thousand died and almost 50 thousand were captured by the Soviets. In April 1945 she took part in the battles for Neubrandenburg. At the end of April 1945, the remnants of the division were transferred to Berlin, where the battalion took part in the last battles for the "capital of the Third Reich".

In addition to these divisions, in December 1944 the 1st Cossack Cavalry Division was transferred to the SS, in January 1945 it was renamed the 15th Cossack Cavalry SS Corps. The corps operated in Croatia against Tito's partisans.

On December 30, 1941, the Wehrmacht command ordered the formation of "legions" from volunteers of various nationalities of the USSR. During the first half of 1942, first four and then six legions were fully integrated into the Wehrmacht, receiving the same status as the European legions. At first they were located in Poland.

"Turkestan Legion" , located in Legionovo, included Cossacks, Kyrgyz, Uzbeks, Turkmens, Karakalpaks and representatives of other nationalities.

"Muslim-Caucasian Legion" (later renamed " Azerbaijan Legion") located in Zheldny, the total number of 40,000 people.

"North Caucasian Legion" , which included representatives of 30 different peoples of the North Caucasus, was located in Vesola.

The formation of the legion began in September 1942 near Warsaw from Caucasian prisoners of war. The number of volunteers (more than 5,000 people) included Ossetians, Chechens, Ingush, Kabardians, Balkars, Tabasarans, etc.

The so-called. "North Caucasian Committee". His leadership included the Dagestani Akhmed-Nabi Agaev (Abwehr agent), Ossetian Kantemirov (former Minister of War of the Mountain Republic) and Sultan-Girey Klych.

"Georgian Legion" was formed in Kruzhyn. It should be noted that this legion existed from 1915 to 1917, and during its first formation it was staffed by volunteers from among the Georgians who were captured during the 1st World War.

During the Second World War "Georgian Legion""replenished" with volunteers from among the Soviet prisoners of war of Georgian nationality

"Armenian Legion" (18 thousand people ) was formed in Pulav, Drastamat Kanayan (“General Dro”) led the legion. Drastamat Kanayan defected to the Americans in May 1945. He spent the last years of his life in Beirut, died on March 8, 1956, and was buried in Boston. At the end of May 2000, the body of Drastamat Kanayan was reburied in the city of Aparan, in Armenia, near the memorial to the soldiers-heroes of the Great Patriotic War.

"Volga-Tatar Legion" (Legion "Idel-Ural") consisted of representatives of the Volga peoples (Tatars, Bashkirs, Mari, Mordovians, Chuvashs, Udmurts), Most of all there were Tatars. Formed in Zheldny.

In accordance with the policy of the Wehrmacht, these legions never united in combat conditions. As soon as they completed their training in Poland, they were sent to the front separately.

"Kalmyk Legion"

Interestingly, the Kalmyks were not part of the Eastern Legions and the first Kalmyk units were created by the headquarters of the 16th German motorized infantry division after Elista, the capital of Kalmykia, was occupied during the summer offensive of 1942. These units were called differently: "Kalmyk Legion" (Kalmuck Legion), "Dr. Doll's Kalmyk Connection" (Kal-mucken Verband Dr. Doll), or "Kalmyk Cavalry Corps".

In practice, it was a "volunteer corps" with the status of an allied army and broad autonomy. Basically, it was made up of former Red Army soldiers, commanded by Kalmyk sergeants and Kalmyk officers.

Initially, the Kalmyks fought against the partisan detachments, then retreated to the west along with the German troops.

The constant retreat brought the "Kalmyk Legion" to Poland, where by the end of 1944 they numbered about 5,000 people. Soviet winter offensive 1944-45 found them near Radom, and at the very end of the war they were reorganized in Neuhammer.

The Kalmyks were the only "Eastern Volunteers" who joined Vlasov's army.

Crimean Tatars. In October 1941, the creation of volunteer formations from representatives of the Crimean Tatars, "self-defense mouths", whose main task was to fight partisans, began. Until January 1942, this process went on spontaneously, but after the recruitment of volunteers from among the Crimean Tatars was officially sanctioned by Hitler, "the solution to this problem" passed to the leadership of the Einsatzgruppe "D". During January 1942, more than 8,600 volunteers, Crimean Tatars, were recruited.

These formations were used in the protection of military and civilian facilities, took an active part in the fight against partisans, and in 1944 they actively resisted the formations of the Red Army that liberated the Crimea.

The remnants of the Crimean Tatar units, together with the German and Romanian troops, were evacuated from the Crimea by sea.

In the summer of 1944, from the remnants of the Crimean Tatar units in Hungary, the "Tatar Mountain Jaeger Regiment of the SS" was formed, which was soon reorganized into the "1st Tatar Mountain Jaeger Brigade of the SS", which was disbanded on December 31, 1944 and transformed into the battle group "Crimea ", which merged into the "Eastern Turkic Union of the SS".

Crimean Tatar volunteers who were not part of the "Tatar Mountain Chasseurs Regiment of the SS" were transferred to France and included in the reserve battalion of the "Volga-Tatar Legion".

As Yurado Carlos Caballero wrote: “... Not as an excuse for “divisions under the SS”, but for the sake of objectivity, we note that a much larger scale of war crimes was committed by the Allgemeine-SS special forces (“Sonderkommando” and “Einsatzgruppen”), but also “ost-truppen” - units formed from Russians, Turkestans, Ukrainians, Belarusians, peoples of the Caucasus and the Volga region - they were mainly engaged in anti-partisan activities ... The divisions of the Hungarian army were also engaged in this ...

However, it should be noted that the Bosnian-Muslim, Albanian and “Russian divisions der SS”, as well as the “36th division der SS” from the Germans, became famous for war crimes ... ".

Volunteer Indian Legion

A few months before the start of Operation Barbarossa, while the Soviet-German non-aggression pact was still in effect, the extremist leader of the Indian nationalists, Subhas Chandra Bose, arrived from Moscow in Berlin, intending to enlist the support of the Germans "in the liberation of his country." Thanks to his perseverance, he managed to persuade the Germans to recruit a group of volunteers from Indians who served in the British troops and were captured in North Africa.

By the end of 1942, this Free India Legion (also known as the Tiger Legion, the Fries Indyen Legion, the Azad Hind Legion, Indische Freiwilligen-Legion Regiment 950 or I.R 950) reached a strength of about 2000 people and officially Entered the German Army as the 950th (Indian) Infantry Regiment.

In 1943, Bos Chandra traveled by submarine to Japanese-occupied Singapore. He sought to create from the Indians who were captured by the Japanese, the Indian National Army.

However, the German command poorly represented the problems of caste, tribal and religious strife among the inhabitants of India, and in addition, German officers treated their subordinates with disdain ... And, most importantly, more than 70 percent of the soldiers of the division were Muslims, people from tribes from the territories of modern Pakistan, Bangladesh , as well as from the Muslim communities of western and northwestern India. Yes, and the nutritional problems of such “motley fighters” were very serious - someone did not eat pork, someone ate only rice and vegetables.

In the spring of 1944, 2,500 people of the Indian Legion were sent to the Bordeaux region in the fortress of the Atlantic Wall. The first combat loss was Lieutenant Ali Khan, who was killed by French partisans in August 1944 during the retreat of the legion to Alsace. On August 8, the 1944 legion was transferred to the SS troops.

In March 1945, the remnants of the legion tried to break into Switzerland, but were taken prisoner by the French and Americans. The prisoners were handed over to the British as traitors to their own power, former legionnaires were sent to prisons in Delhi, and some were immediately shot.

Nevertheless, we note, in fairness, that this peculiar unit practically did not take part in the hostilities.

Volunteer Arab Legion

On May 2, 1941, an anti-British rebellion broke out in Iraq led by Rashid el-Ghaliani. The Germans formed a special headquarters "F" (Sonderstab F) to assist the Arab insurgents.

To support the rebellion, two small units were created - the 287th and 288th special formations (Sonderverbonde), recruited from the personnel of the Brandenburg division. But before they could get involved, the rebellion was crushed.

The 288th all-German formation was sent to North Africa as part of the Afrika Korps, while the 287th formation was left in Greece, near Athens, to organize volunteers from the Middle East. They were mostly Palestinian supporters of the pro-German Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and Iraqis who supported el-Galiani.

When three battalions were recruited, one battalion was sent to Tunisia, and the other two were used to fight the partisans, first in the Caucasus and then in Yugoslavia.

The 287th unit was never officially recognized as an Arab legion - " Legion FreeArab. This common name was given to all Arabs who fought under German command to distinguish them from other ethnic groups.

The anti-Hitler coalition included the USSR, the USA, Great Britain and its dominions (Canada, India, the Union of South Africa, Australia, New Zealand), Poland, France, Ethiopia, Denmark, Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Greece, Yugoslavia, Tuva, Mongolia, USA.

China (the government of Chiang Kai-shek) has been fighting against Japan since July 7, 1937, and Mexico, Brazil. Bolivia, Colombia, Chile and Argentina declared war on Germany and its allies.

The participation of the Latin American countries in the war consisted mainly in carrying out defensive measures, in protecting the coast and caravans of ships.

The fighting of a number of countries occupied by Germany - Yugoslavia, Greece, France, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Poland consisted mainly in the partisan movement and the resistance movement. Italian partisans were also active, fighting both against the Mussolini regime and against Germany.

Poland. After the defeat and partition of Poland between Germany and the USSR, Polish troops acted together with the troops of Great Britain, France and the USSR (“Anders Army”). In 1944, Polish troops participated in the landing in Normandy, and in May 1945 they took Berlin.

Luxembourg was attacked by Germany on May 10, 1940. In August 1942, Luxembourg was incorporated into Germany, so many Luxembourgers were called up to serve in the Wehrmacht.

In total, 10,211 Luxembourgers were drafted into the Wehrmacht during the occupation. Of these, 2,848 died, 96 were missing.

1653 Luxembourgers who served in the Wehrmacht and fought on the German-Soviet front fell into Soviet captivity (93 of them died in captivity).

NEUTRAL COUNTRIES OF EUROPE

Sweden. At the beginning of the war, Sweden declared its neutrality, but nevertheless carried out a partial mobilization. During Soviet-Finnish military conflict She declared her status " non-belligerent power”, however, provided assistance to Finland with money and military equipment.

Nevertheless, Sweden cooperated with both belligerents, the most famous examples being the passage of German troops from Norway to Finland and informing the British about Bismarck's entry into Operation Rheinübung.

In addition, Sweden actively supplied Germany with iron ore, but from mid-August 1943, it stopped transporting German military materials through its country.

During the Great Patriotic War, Sweden was a diplomatic mediator between the USSR and Germany.

Switzerland. Declared its neutrality the day before the outbreak of World War II. But in September 1939, 430 thousand people were mobilized into the army, rationing was introduced for food and industrial products.

In the international arena, Switzerland maneuvered between the two warring factions, the ruling circles for a long time leaned towards the pro-German course.

Swiss firms supplied Germany weapons, ammunition, machinery and other manufactured goods. Germany received electricity from Switzerland, loans (over 1 billion francs), used the Swiss railways for military transportation to Italy and back.

Some Swiss firms acted as intermediaries for Germany on world markets. Intelligence agencies of Germany, Italy, the USA and England operated on the territory of Switzerland.

Spain. Spain remained neutral during World War II, although Hitler considered the Spaniards to be his allies. German submarines entered the ports of Spain, and German agents operated freely in Madrid. Spain supplied Germany and tungsten, though at the end of the war, Spain sold tungsten to the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition. Jews fled to Spain, then making their way to Portugal.

Portugal. In 1939, she declared neutrality. But the Salazar government supplied strategic raw materials, and, above all, tungsten to Germany and Italy. In October 1943, realizing the inevitability of the defeat of Nazi Germany, Salazar grants the British and Americans the right to use the Azores as a military base, and in June 1944 stops the export of tungsten to Germany.

During the war, hundreds of thousands of Jews from various European countries were able to escape the Nazi genocide, using Portuguese visas, emigrating from war-torn Europe.

Ireland maintained complete neutrality.

About 1,500,000 Jews took part in the fighting in the armies of different countries, in the partisan movement and in the Resistance.

In the US Army - 550,000, in the USSR - 500,000, Poland - 140,000, Great Britain - 62,000, France - 46,000.

Alexey Kazdym

List of used literature

• Abrahamyan E. A. Caucasians in the Abwehr. M.: Publisher Bystrov, 2006.
• Asadov Yu.A. 1000 officer names in Armenian history. Pyatigorsk, 2004.
• Berdinsky V.A. . Special Settlers: Political Exile of the Peoples of Soviet Russia. M.: 2005.
• Briman Shimon Muslims in the SS // http://www.webcitation.org/66K7aB5b7
• World War II 1939-1945, TSB. Yandex. Dictionaries
• Vozgrin V. Historical fate of the Crimean Tatars. Moscow: Thought, 1992
• Gilyazov I.A. Legion "Idel-Ural". Kazan: Tatknigoizdat, 2005.
• Drobyazko S. Eastern legions and Cossack units in the Wehrmacht http://www.erlib.com
• Elishev S. Salazarovskaya Portugal // Russian folk line, http://ruskline.ru/analitika/2010/05/21/salazarovskaya_portugaliya
• Karashchuk A., Drobyazko S. Eastern volunteers in the Wehrmacht, police and SS. 2000
• Krysin M. Yu. History on the lips. Latvian SS legion: yesterday and today. Veche, 2006.
• Concise Jewish Encyclopedia, Jerusalem. 1976 - 2006
• Mamulia G.G. Georgian legion of the Wehrmacht M.: Veche, 2011.
• Romanko O.V. Muslim Legions in World War II. M.: AST; Transitbook, 2004.
• Yurado Carlos Caballero "Foreign Volunteers in the Wehrmacht. 1941-1945. AST, Astrel. 2005
• Etinger Ya. Ya. Jewish resistance during the Holocaust.
• Rigoulot Pierre. Des Francais au goulag.1917-1984. 1984
• Rigoulot Pierre. La tragedy des malgre-nous. 1990.

Well no, of course not. In the initial periods of the war, Hitler still concentrated superior forces on the direction of his main attack (moreover, on a specific theater, and not in general); as for the total number, simply comparing the number of those mobilized refutes this opinion: during the six years of the war, the Germans mobilized almost 18 million people into the armed forces (I won’t say for sure whether this number includes Wehrmacht auxiliary personnel recruited from the occupied peoples who fought on their side of the collaborators, or not), while the USSR for 4 years of the war - 34 and a half million. In the final phase of the war, the Allies had the opportunity to oppose the German army groups in each individual theater with troops an order of magnitude larger.

As for qualitative assessments, at that time the German soldier was more productive than any of his opponents (on average, there were more enemy soldiers killed per killed German soldier than per American, British or Soviet soldier killed). The German infantryman, tanker, fighter pilot, submariner were much more productive than their opponents. The organization of units, units and formations, the interaction between them was effective. German engineering thought gave rise to many promising types of weapons, some of which became the founders of new classes of weapons (automatic carbine for an intermediate cartridge, a single machine gun, a jet fighter, a specialized transport aircraft, a submarine capable of staying under water longer than on the surface of the water, winged and ballistic missiles, etc.). However, this is a one-sided assessment. In a number of qualitative parameters, the German armed forces were significantly inferior to the Allied forces. It is impossible not to note the uneven development of the types of armed forces of the German Wehrmacht - for example, in the presence of the strongest submarine forces, the German surface fleet was very weak, and its use was one-sided and within the framework of tasks that were unusual for existing ships (one battleship and almost all cruisers - in as raiders on communications, another battleship stood for the entire service life in a distant fjord as a scarecrow). The successes of the submarine fleet were nullified thanks to the convoy system established by the British and Americans and superiority in radar technology. The German Air Force paid increased attention to front-line bomber aviation - especially dive bombers, the futility of which gradually became clear - but at the same time, long-range bomber aviation against the front line was simply in its infancy, and the models adopted for service, for example. Heinkel He.177 were frankly unsuccessful. Fighter aviation developed just as unevenly - it was adapted to gain air supremacy in the frontline zone, but it was beyond its power to escort its own bomber forces on long-range raids and air defense of the Reich territory (night fighter units used obsolete aircraft and alterations from twin-engine bombers) . At the same time, the anti-Hitler coalition had at its disposal quantitatively and qualitatively (due to the ability to perform a much wider range of tasks and the technical superiority of aircraft) the best fighter and bomber aircraft.

The positions of the ground forces here look better - I described their strengths above. But not all is well here either. In the first period of the war, of course, the German divisions were better than their opponents. But towards the end of the war, the situation was reversed - the number of formations decreased, their recruitment with reinforcements, weapons and equipment was less and less complete (due to limited resources and industry capabilities), and the quality of weapons and equipment was constantly declining. There were also structural flaws that the Germans did not overcome until the end of the war - in particular, infantry motorization was relatively low. While the Allied infantry divisions were motorized by default by the end of the war (i.e. people did not walk to positions, but moved on vehicles), the German infantry stomped on foot throughout the war, and the artillery and convoy were horse-drawn. This most seriously affected the mobility of troops. There were few means of collective defense - in the panzergrenadier regiments, only at best one out of three battalions had armored personnel carriers, the soldiers of the remaining units arrived on the battlefield in ordinary trucks. There were few automatic and self-loading weapons in the troops - submachine guns relied on auxiliary personnel, Sturmgewehr automatic carbines appeared towards the end of the war and did not become massive, so the German infantry fought with a repeating rifle designed at the end of the century before last with five rounds in the store. A noteworthy particularity was the lag of the Germans in sniper business - setting it up in the Red Army turned out to be much better, so the Germans had to learn sniper shooting from their most implacable enemy. So, as you can see, the German army had both unconditional advantages and quite obvious shortcomings, and the former prevailed in the earlier stages of the war. So to call the unconditionally German army the most powerful and numerous army of all times and peoples, perhaps, would be imprudent.

For many years, a "secret army" functioned illegally in Germany, led by retired Hitler's officers, SS veterans and influential politicians in West Germany. The purpose of this organization was to mobilize the population in the event of a new war with the Warsaw Pact countries, as well as to spy on "unreliable" Germans.

The German Federal Intelligence Service (BND) has declassified a 321-page file called "Insurance", the information from which was stored in archives for more than sixty years and "surfaced" thanks to untargeted historical research. As it turned out, for a long time in Germany there was an illegal paramilitary organization, consisting of veterans of the Wehrmacht and the Waffen-SS, whose goal was to protect the country from the communist threat. However, these were not offensive, but defensive plans, and therefore "insurance".

According to the influential German publication Der Spiegel, it follows from the published archive that the secret society, called the "German Sword", began to form in Swabia no later than 1949 and put down powerful roots in the south of Germany (there were units in Stuttgart, Ulm, Heilbronn, Karlsruhe , Freiburg). In total, it consisted of about two thousand Nazi veterans, who were supported by both industrial capital and officials. Among the members of the "Sword" are found trade representatives, coal miners, lawyers, teachers and even mayors of cities. Among the sponsors are influential businessmen (though mostly at the regional level).

In those years, the Cold War was gaining momentum, the Soviet Union had one of the most powerful armies in the world and the most powerful in Europe, and former Reich officers believed that in the foreseeable future the Cold War would move into a new "hot" stage. The task of the veterans was proclaimed "protection of Germany" from "Eastern aggression" in the event of a new war with the USSR and "opposition to communism on the home front" in the event of a civil war. That is, in Germany, the presence of a communist “fifth column” was implied, and a direct attack was expected, first of all, from the GDR. According to the researchers, the “German Sword” could, if necessary, mobilize up to forty thousand “bayonets”, and in the event of the “X-hour” it was supposed to be obtained from the storage facilities of the special forces of the federal police, access to which was available to one of the supporters of the organization.

But this is in case of war. In the meantime, a fragile, as it seemed to veterans, peace has been established in Europe, and the “unreliable”, that is, those who, to one degree or another, sympathized with communist ideas that were extremely popular in post-war times, were in the center of their attention. Moreover (and this is worth noting), the Europeans were attracted not so much by the theories of Marx and the practices of Lenin as by gratitude: they perfectly remembered that it was the “Reds” who kept the wall from fascism to the end, seriously suffered from repressions and, in the end, defeated Nazism. It is clear that the veterans of the Wehrmacht and the SS were far from such sentimental feelings. From the published materials it follows that not all of them were "hard-wired Nazis" and honored the memory of Hitler (on the contrary, they were well aware of his role in the German catastrophe). However, they were indeed principled anti-communists, which consistently motivated them. In addition, the influx of personnel to the "Sword" was provided by the "syndrome of the dogs of war", as well as banal adventurism and a craving for adventure. For example, documents show that retired Lieutenant General Herman Helter "did not feel happy just working in an office."

As a result, the objects of close observation (or, more simply, espionage) by the "Sword" were, among other things, notorious people in Germany. At that time - students, later - officials and diplomats (one of them - Joachim Pekert - worked in the embassy of Germany in Moscow in the 70s in senior positions). The organization got away with all this, since former counterintelligence officers were also engaged in counterintelligence.

Thus, the "secret army of the Reich" was quite an influential organization and carried out vigorous activity. It is important to emphasize - absolutely illegal activity. It clearly follows from the documents that the "Sword" was created bypassing both the state structures of the Federal Republic of Germany and the "allies" - the USA, Great Britain and France, that is, it was an "initiative from below."

However, it is also reliably known that German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer knew about the existence of the "Sword" - the secret services informed him of this no later than 1951. The chancellor did not stop the activities of the "secret army", although he gave the order to "keep a good eye" on the veterans of the Wehrmacht. The motive of the leader of West Germany, of course, could not be sympathy for Nazism - he was a principled anti-Nazi and anti-Hitlerite even when it was mortally dangerous (the Gestapo arrested him twice as an opponent of the regime). But either Adenauer really believed that the "Red Threat" could pose a real danger to the FRG - in which case the "German Sword" could be useful. Or - more likely - he did not want to quarrel with the veterans of the Wehrmacht, since one of the main goals of the politician was to unite the post-war society of Germany in the name of a common future. And part of this society were both a significant number of former Nazis and their opponents. Finally, an open conflict with influential military men could somewhat shake his political position. As a result, the conspirators escaped arrest, and the Sword escaped defeat, although it acted under the very noses of the government and parliament. Moreover, Adenauer subsequently informed both the Western allies and the left opposition in the Bundestag about the existence of the "secret army", apparently in order to share the responsibility.

How influential the "Sword" was is clearly illustrated by the names of its leaders. So, one of the prominent members of the organization and its actual founder was Albert Schnets, who went through World War II as a colonel, and later transferred to the Bundeswehr and entered the inner circle of Defense Minister Franz Josef Strauss (it is also known that Schnets maintained direct contacts with the world famous saboteur, SS Obersturmbannführer and Mussolini's savior Otto Skorzeny). And Schnets is far from the only functionary of the "Sword" who made a brilliant career after the war: his "colleague in the conspiracy" Adolf Heusinger became the inspector general of the Bundeswehr, Anton Grasser became the chief inspector of the Ministry of the Interior, and Hans Speidel became the supreme commander of NATO forces in Central Europe in 1957.

At the same time, when and under what circumstances the “German Sword” was dissolved remains a mystery: Schnets died in 2007, without revealing either his secret or any of his “comrades-in-arms”. “Documents under the harmless name “Insurance” disappeared, but something still ended up in the hands of the special services that kept them. Until yesterday,” concludes Der Spiegel.

Note that the anti-fascist (as well as the anti-communist, by the way) Adenauer, in principle, did not set out to rid the country's leadership of the former Nazis. Simply due to the fact that this was not possible: for example, in the mid-1950s, it turned out that more than half of the employees of the German Foreign Ministry had once been members of the NSDAP, and there was simply nowhere to recruit new specialists in a short time. At some point, the chancellor even began to prevent "denazification", which, in his opinion, turned into a "witch hunt" and prevented the country from moving forward, deepening the already serious contradictions in the ranks of the Germans who had survived the defeat and surrender. This led to the fact that over time, very odious figures from among the former Nazis appeared in the Adenauer government. For example, Hans Globke, who once carried out the legal registration of racial laws, was listed as his adviser (he invented the famous “yellow stars”, by the way). And for some time the chair of the Minister for Refugees was occupied by Theodor Oberländer, a participant in the Beer Putsch, a member of the NSDAP since 1933, a former SA obersturmbannführer, a former commander of the Bergmann battalion, and after being demoted due to criticism of the Nazi policy in the East, a communications officer at the headquarters of the ROA Andrey Vlasov. The Soviet government accused Oberlander of crimes against civilians and even personal participation in torture. In addition, he was called the murderer of Stepan Bandera in order to cover for the KGB agent Bogdan Stashinsky, who eliminated the leader of the OUN (ironically, Oberländer at one time exercised the political leadership of the Nachtigall battalion, whose leader from the Ukrainian side was Roman Shukhevych). In the end, several investigations were initiated against the official (for example, on the murder of a civilian in Kislovodsk in 1942), which forced him to resign. The last time they tried to convict him shortly before his death - in 1996.

In turn, the nationalists from the republics of the USSR and Yugoslavia, who once actively collaborated with the Nazis, did not disdain to use Germany's new NATO allies in the fight against the communist regimes. Many of those who managed to escape trial in their homeland were united in the Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Peoples organization, which for many years was headed by Bandera's closest associate, Yaroslav Stetsko. His successor in this post and his wife later returned to Ukraine and even managed to be a deputy of the Verkhovna Rada.

Hitler's Jewish Soldiers: The Untold Story of Nazi Race Laws and People of Jewish Origin in the German Army.

A book by Brian Mark Rigg (Israeli citizen) who claims, on the basis of documentary evidence, that 150,000 Jewish soldiers and officers fought in the Nazi army.

Rigg's research was based on 400 interviews with Wehrmacht veterans, 500 hours of video evidence, 3,000 photographs and 30,000 pages of memoirs of Nazi soldiers and officers - those people whose Jewish roots allow them to repatriate to Israel even tomorrow.

Werner Goldberg

The term "Mishlinge" in the Reich called people born from mixed marriages of Aryans with non-Aryans. The racial laws of 1935 distinguished between "mishlinge" of the first degree (one of the parents is Jewish) and the second degree (grandparents are Jews). Despite the legal "corruption" of people with Jewish genes and despite the crackling propaganda, tens of thousands of "Mischlings" lived quietly under the Nazis. They were called up in the usual way to the Wehrmacht, Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine, becoming not only soldiers, but also part of the generals at the level of commanders of regiments, divisions and armies.

Hundreds of Mischlings were awarded Iron Crosses for bravery. Twenty soldiers and officers of Jewish origin were awarded the highest military award of the Third Reich - the Knight's Cross. However, many veterans of the Wehrmacht complained that the authorities were reluctant to submit to orders and pulled with promotion in rank, mindful of their Jewish ancestors.

For a long time, the Nazi press published a photograph of a blue-eyed blonde in a helmet. Under the picture was: "The perfect German soldier." This Aryan ideal was the Wehrmacht fighter Werner Goldberg (with a Jewish dad).

Wehrmacht Major Robert Borchardt received the Knight's Cross for a tank breakthrough of the Soviet front in August 1941. Then he was sent to Rommel's African Corps. Under El Alamein he was captured by the British. In 1944 he was allowed to come to England to be reunited with his Jewish father. In 1946, Borchardt returned to Germany, telling his Jewish dad: "Someone must rebuild our country." In 1983, shortly before his death, he told German schoolchildren: "Many Jews and half-Jews who fought for Germany in World War II believed that they should honestly defend their fatherland by serving in the army."

Colonel Walter Hollander, whose mother was Jewish, received Hitler's personal letter, in which the Fuhrer certified the Aryanism of this Halachic Jew (Halacha - traditional Jewish law, according to which a Jew is considered born of a Jewish mother. - K.K.). The same certificates of "German blood" were signed by Hitler for dozens of high-ranking officers of Jewish origin.

During the war years, Hollander was awarded the Iron Crosses of both classes and a rare distinction - the Golden German Cross. In 1943, he received the Knight's Cross when his anti-tank brigade destroyed 21 Soviet tanks in one battle on the Kursk salient.

When he was given leave, he went to the Reich via Warsaw. It was there that he was shocked by the sight of the destroyed Jewish ghetto. Hollander returned to the front broken. The personnel officers entered in his personal file: "too independent and little controllable", cutting down his promotion to the rank of general.

Who were the "Mischlings" of the Wehrmacht: victims of anti-Semitic persecution or accomplices of the executioners?

Life often put them in absurd situations. One soldier with the Iron Cross on his chest came from the front to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp to? visit his Jewish father there. The SS officer was shocked by this guest: "If it were not for the award on your uniform, you would have quickly ended up with me where your father is."

And here is the story of a 76-year-old resident of Germany, a 100% Jew. In 1940, he managed to escape from occupied France on forged documents. Under a new German name, he was drafted into the "Waffen-SS" - selected combat units. “If I served in the German army, and my mother died in Auschwitz, then who am I - a victim or one of the persecutors?” he often asks himself. people like me. Because our stories contradict everything that is used to be considered the Holocaust. "

In 1940, all officers who had two Jewish grandparents were ordered to leave military service. Those who were tainted with Jewishness only by one of their grandfathers could remain in the army in ordinary positions.

But the reality was different: these orders were not carried out. Therefore, they were repeated once a year to no avail. There were frequent cases when German soldiers, driven by the laws of "front-line fraternity", hid "their Jews" without betraying them to party and punitive bodies.

There are 1200 known examples of mischlinge service in the Wehrmacht - soldiers and officers with the closest Jewish ancestors. A thousand of these front-line soldiers had 2,300 Jewish relatives killed - nephews, aunts, uncles, grandfathers, grandmothers, mothers and fathers.

In January 1944, the personnel department of the Wehrmacht prepared a secret list of 77 high-ranking officers and generals "mixed with the Jewish race or married to Jewish women." All 77 had Hitler's personal certificates of "German blood". Among those listed are 23 colonels, 5 major generals, 8 lieutenant generals and two full generals.

This list could be supplemented by one of the sinister figures of the Nazi regime - Reinhard Heydrich, the Fuhrer's favorite and head of the RSHA, who controlled the Gestapo, criminal police, intelligence and counterintelligence. All his life (fortunately short) he struggled with rumors about Jewish origins.

Heydrich was born in 1904 in Leipzig into the family of a conservatory director. Family history says that his grandmother married a Jew shortly after the birth of the father of the future chief of the RSHA. As a child, older boys beat Reinhard, calling him a Jew.

It was Heydrich who held the Wannsee Conference in January 1942 to discuss the "final solution of the Jewish question." His report stated that the grandchildren of a Jew were regarded as Germans and were not subject to reprisals. They say that one day, returning home drunk to smithereens at night, he turned on the light, saw his image in the mirror and shot him twice from a pistol with the words: "A vile Jew!"

Air Field Marshal Erhard Milch can be considered a classic example of a "hidden Jew" in the elite of the Third Reich. His father was a Jewish pharmacist.

Due to his Jewish origin, he was not accepted into the Kaiser military schools, but the outbreak of the First World War gave him access to aviation. Milch fell into the division of the famous Richthoffen, met the young Goering and distinguished himself at headquarters, although he himself did not fly airplanes. In 1929 he became the general director of Lufthansa, the national air carrier. The wind was already blowing in the direction of the Nazis, and Milch provided free planes for the leaders of the NSDAP.

This service is unforgettable. Having come to power, the Nazis declare that Milch's mother did not have sex with her Jewish husband, and Erhard's true father is Baron von Beer. Goering laughed for a long time about this: "Yes, we made Milch a bastard, but an aristocratic bastard." Another aphorism of Goering about Milch: "In my headquarters, I myself will decide who is a Jew and who is not!"

After the war, Milch served nine years in prison. Then, until the age of 80, he worked as a consultant for the Fiat and Thyssen concerns.

The vast majority of Wehrmacht veterans say that when they joined the army, they did not consider themselves Jews. These soldiers tried with their courage to refute the Nazi racial chatter. With triple zeal at the front, Hitler's soldiers proved that their Jewish ancestors did not prevent them from being good German patriots and staunch warriors.

In the absence of a land front in Europe, the German leadership decided to defeat the Soviet Union during a short-term campaign in the summer and autumn of 1941. To achieve this goal, the most combat-ready unit of the German armed forces 1 was deployed on the border with the USSR.

Wehrmacht

For Operation Barbarossa, out of the 4 headquarters of army groups available in the Wehrmacht, 3 were deployed ("North", "Center" and "South") (75%), out of 13 headquarters of field armies - 8 (61.5%), out of 46 headquarters of army corps - 34 (73.9%), out of 12 motorized corps - 11 (91.7%). In total, 73.5% of the total number of divisions available in the Wehrmacht was allocated for the Eastern Campaign. Most of the troops had combat experience gained in previous military campaigns. So, out of 155 divisions in military operations in Europe in 1939-1941. 127 (81.9%) participated, and the remaining 28 were partially manned by personnel who also had combat experience. In any case, these were the most combat-ready units of the Wehrmacht (see table 1). The German Air Force deployed 60.8% of the flying units, 16.9% of the air defense troops and over 48% of the signal troops and other units to support Operation Barbarossa.

German satellites

Together with Germany, its allies were preparing for a war with the USSR: Finland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Italy, who allocated the following forces for waging war (see table 2). In addition, Croatia provided 56 aircraft and up to 1.6 thousand people. By June 22, 1941, there were no Slovak and Italian troops on the border, who arrived later. Consequently, there were 767,100 men, 37 calculated divisions, 5,502 guns and mortars, 306 tanks, and 886 aircraft in the German allied troops deployed there.

In total, the forces of Germany and its allies on the Eastern Front numbered 4,329.5 thousand people, 166 settlement divisions, 42,601 guns and mortars, 4,364 tanks, assault and self-propelled guns and 4,795 aircraft (of which 51 were at the disposal of the Air Force High Command and together with 8.5 thousand people of the Air Force personnel are not taken into account in further calculations).

Red Army

Under the conditions of the outbreak of war in Europe, the armed forces of the Soviet Union continued to increase, and by the summer of 1941 they were the largest army in the world (see Table 3). In the five western border districts, 56.1% of the ground forces and 59.6% of the air force were stationed. In addition, since May 1941, the concentration of 70 divisions of the second strategic echelon from the internal military districts and from the Far East began in the Western Theater of Operations (TVD). By June 22, 16 divisions (10 rifle, 4 tank and 2 motorized) arrived in the western districts, in which there were 201,691 people, 2,746 guns and 1,763 tanks.

The grouping of Soviet troops in the Western theater of operations was quite powerful. The general balance of forces by the morning of June 22, 1941 is presented in Table 4, judging by the data of which the enemy outnumbered the Red Army only in terms of the number of personnel, because his troops were mobilized.

Mandatory clarifications

Although the above data gives a general idea of ​​the strength of the opposing factions, it should be borne in mind that the Wehrmacht completed the strategic concentration and deployment in the theater, while in the Red Army this process was in full swing. How figuratively described this situation A.V. Shubin, "a dense body was moving from the West to the East at high speed. From the East, a more massive, but looser block was slowly moving forward, the mass of which was growing, but not at a fast enough pace" 2 . Therefore, the correlation of forces at two more levels should be considered. Firstly, this is the balance of forces of the parties in various strategic directions on the scale of the district (front) - army group, and secondly, on individual operational directions in the border zone on the scale of the army - army. At the same time, in the first case, only the ground forces and the Air Force are taken into account, and for the Soviet side, the border troops, artillery and aviation of the Navy are also taken into account, but without information on the personnel of the fleet and internal troops of the NKVD. In the second case, only ground forces are taken into account for both sides.

Northwest

In the North-West direction, the troops of the German Army Group "North" and the Baltic Special Military District (PribOVO) opposed each other. The Wehrmacht had a rather significant superiority in manpower and some in artillery, but was inferior in tanks and aircraft. However, it should be borne in mind that only 8 Soviet divisions were located directly in the 50 km border strip, and another 10 were located 50-100 km from the border. As a result, in the direction of the main attack, the troops of the Army Group "North" managed to achieve a more favorable balance of forces (see Table 5).

Western direction

In the Western direction, the troops of the German Army Group Center and the Western Special Military District (ZapOVO) with part of the forces of the 11th Army of PribOVO confronted each other. For the German command, this direction was the main one in Operation Barbarossa, and therefore Army Group Center was the strongest on the entire front. 40% of all German divisions deployed from the Barents to the Black Sea (including 50% motorized and 52.9% tank) and the largest air fleet of the Luftwaffe (43.8% aircraft) were concentrated here. Only 15 Soviet divisions were located in the offensive zone of Army Group Center in the immediate vicinity of the border, and 14 were located 50-100 km from it. In addition, troops of the 22nd Army from the Ural Military District were concentrated on the territory of the district in the Polotsk region, from which, by June 22, 1941, 3 rifle divisions arrived at the place, and the 21st mechanized corps from the Moscow Military District - with a total number of 72,016 people, 1241 guns and mortars and 692 tanks. As a result, the troops of the ZapOVO contained in the states of peacetime were inferior to the enemy only in personnel, but surpassed him in tanks, aircraft and slightly in artillery. However, unlike the troops of Army Group Center, they did not complete their concentration, which made it possible to smash them piece by piece.

Army Group Center was supposed to carry out a double envelopment of the ZapOVO troops located in the Bialystok ledge, with a blow from Suwalki and Brest to Minsk, so the main forces of the army group were deployed on the flanks. From the south (from Brest) the main blow was delivered. On the northern flank (Suwalki) the 3rd Panzer Group of the Wehrmacht was deployed, which was opposed by units of the 11th Army of PribOVO. Troops of the 43rd Army Corps of the 4th German Army and the 2nd Panzer Group were deployed in the zone of the Soviet 4th Army. In these areas, the enemy was able to achieve significant superiority (see table 6).

Southwest

In the South-Western direction, Army Group South, which united German, Romanian, Hungarian and Croatian troops, was opposed by parts of the Kyiv Special and Odessa Military Districts (KOVO and OdVO). The Soviet grouping in the South-Western direction was the strongest on the entire front, since it was she who was supposed to deliver the main blow to the enemy. However, even here the Soviet troops did not complete their concentration and deployment. So, in KOVO in the immediate vicinity of the border there were only 16 divisions, and 14 were located 50-100 km from it. In the OdVO, there were 9 divisions in the 50-km border zone, and 6 were located in the 50-100-km zone. In addition, troops of the 16th and 19th armies arrived in the districts, from which by June 22 concentrated 10 divisions (7 rifle, 2 tank and 1 motorized) with a total number of 129,675 people, 1,505 guns and mortars and 1,071 tanks. Even without being staffed according to the wartime staff, the Soviet troops outnumbered the enemy grouping, which had only some superiority in manpower, but was significantly inferior in tanks, aircraft, and somewhat less in artillery. But on the direction of the main attack of the Army Group "South", where the Soviet 5th Army was opposed by units of the 6th German Army and the 1st Panzer Group, the enemy managed to achieve a better balance of forces for himself (see Table 7).

The situation in the North

The most favorable for the Red Army was the ratio on the front of the Leningrad Military District (LVO), where it was opposed by Finnish troops and units of the German army "Norway". In the Far North, the troops of the Soviet 14th Army were opposed by the German units of the mountain infantry corps "Norway" and the 36th Army Corps, and here the enemy had superiority in manpower and insignificant in artillery (see Table 8). True, it should be borne in mind that, since hostilities on the Soviet-Finnish border began in late June - early July 1941, both sides were building up their forces, and the data given do not reflect the number of troops of the parties by the start of hostilities.

Results

Thus, the German command, having deployed the main part of the Wehrmacht on the Eastern Front, was unable to achieve overwhelming superiority not only in the zone of the entire future front, but also in the zones of individual army groups. However, the Red Army was not mobilized and did not complete the process of strategic concentration and deployment. As a result, units of the first echelon of covering troops were significantly inferior to the enemy, whose troops were deployed directly at the border. Such an arrangement of Soviet troops made it possible to smash them piece by piece. On the directions of the main attacks of the army groups, the German command managed to create superiority over the troops of the Red Army, which was close to overwhelming. The most favorable balance of forces developed for the Wehrmacht in the zone of Army Group Center, since it was in this direction that the main blow of the entire Eastern campaign was dealt. In other directions, even in the bands of the covering armies, the Soviet superiority in tanks affected. The overall balance of forces allowed the Soviet command to prevent the enemy's superiority even in the directions of his main attacks. But in reality the opposite happened.

Since the Soviet military-political leadership did not correctly assess the degree of threat of a German attack, the Red Army, having begun in May 1941 the strategic concentration and deployment in the Western theater of operations, which was to be completed by July 15, 1941, was taken by surprise on June 22 and did not had neither offensive nor defensive groupings. Soviet troops were not mobilized, did not have deployed rear structures, and were only completing the creation of command and control bodies in the theater of operations. On the front from the Baltic Sea to the Carpathians, out of 77 divisions of the Red Army covering forces in the first hours of the war, only 38 incompletely mobilized divisions could repulse the enemy, of which only a few managed to take up equipped positions on the border. The rest of the troops were either in places of permanent deployment, or in camps, or on the march. If, however, we take into account that the enemy immediately threw 103 divisions into the offensive, then it is clear that an organized entry into the battle and the creation of a solid front of Soviet troops was extremely difficult. By preempting the Soviet troops in strategic deployment, by creating powerful operational groupings of their fully combat-ready forces in the chosen directions of the main attack, the German command created favorable conditions for seizing the strategic initiative and successfully conducting the first offensive operations.

Notes
1. For more details, see: Meltyukhov M.I. Stalin's missed chance. Scramble for Europe 1939-1941 (Documents, facts, judgments). 3rd ed., corrected. and additional M., 2008. S. 354-363.
2. Shubin A.V. The world is on the edge of the abyss. From global crisis to world war. 1929-1941. M., 2004. S. 496.