1st Cossack Division
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The 1st Cossack Division (German: 1. Kosaken-Kavallerie-Division) is a Russian Cossack division within the German World War II Army. It was created on the Eastern Front mostly out of Don Cossacks already serving in the Wehrmacht, those who escaped from the advancing Soviet Army and Soviet POWs.[1]
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[edit] Composition
The 1st Cossack Division was created on August 4, 1943 by combining the Cossack Platow Cavalry Regiment of von Pannwitz with the Jungschults Cavalry Regiment. The 1st Cossack Division was composed of the following units:[2][3]
1st Brigade (under command of Colonel Wagner)
- Regiment I: Don Cossacks (Don-Kosaken Reiter-Regiment 1)
- Regiment II: Siberian Cossacks (Sibirisches Kosaken-Reiter-Reigment 2)
- Regiment IV: Kuban Cossacks (Kuban-Kosaken-Reiter-Regiment 4)
- Caucasus Artillery Battalion
2nd Brigade (under command of Colonel von Schulz)
- Regiment III: Kuban Cossacks (Kuban-Kosaken-Reiter-Regiment 3)
- Regiment V: Don Cossacks (Don-Kosaken-Regiment 5)
- Regiment VI: Terek Cossacks (Terek-Kosaken-Regiment 6)
- Caucasus Artillery Battalion
Auxhilliary troops
- 55th Recon Battalion
- 55th Artillery Regiment
- 55th Engineer Battalion
- 55th Signal Battalion
- 55th Supply Section
- 55th Medical Battalion
The total numerical strength of the Division was 13000 Cossacks and 4500 Germans.[4]
[edit] Military history
Upon the formation of the unit in April of 1943 the Division was dispatched to Croatia, where they were placed under the command of the Second Panzer Army and were used to provide rear area security to the army.
Its first fighting engagement was on October 12, 1943, when the unit was dispatched against Yugoslav partisans in Fruška Gora Mountains. In the operation the Cossacks aided by 15 tanks and 1 armoured car captured the village of Beocin with the partisan HQ. Subsequently the unit was used to protect the Zagreb-Belgrade railroad and the Sava valley.
Several regiments of the division took part in several anti-partisan operations and guarded the Sarajevo railroad against the partisans. As part of a wide anti-partisan operation Napfkuchen the Cossack division was transferred to Croatia, where it fought against partisans and chetniks in 1944.[2]
In 1944 the unit saw heavy action in Yugoslavia and suffered losses when Siberian Cossacks 2nd regiment was surrounded by the partisans and held on for several days until other Cossack regiments were able to provide relief and break the encirclement.
Cossacks' first engagement against the Soviet Army happened in December of 1944 when they engaged the Red Army near Pitomaca. The fighting resulted in Soviet withdrawal from the area.
In January of 1945 the 1st Cossack Division together with the 2nd Cossack Divisions were transformed into XVth SS Cossack Cavalry Corps that was made part of the German Waffen SS command.
At the end of the war Cossacks of the division found themselves in Austria and surrendered to British troops. Even though they were given assurances that they would not be turned over to the Soviets, they nevertheless were forcibly removed from the compound and transferred to the USSR. This even became known as the Betrayal of the Cossacks. Most of the Cossacks of the division were executed for treason.
[edit] Commanders
- Lieutenant-General Helmuth von Pannwitz
- Colonel von Schulz
- Colonel von Baath
- Colonel Alexander von Boesse
- Colonel Konstantin Wagner
[edit] See also
[edit] Sources
- ^ Axis History Factbook. XV SS Kosaken-Kavallerie-Korps [1]
- ^ a b Axis History Factbook. 1. Kosaken-Kavallerie-Division [2]
- ^ The 1st Cossack Division. Cavalry of the Wehrmacht. [3]
- ^ 1st Cossack Division. World War II in Yugoslavia. [4]
[edit] Further reading
- Cossacks in German and Italian Service [5]
- François de Lannoy. Pannwitz Cossacks: Les Cosaques de Pannwitz 1942 - 1945
- Richard Landwehr. Steadfast Hussars: The Last cavalry Divisions of the Waffen-SS
