Ostlegionen

Ostlegionen ("eastern legions"), Ost-Bataillone ("eastern battalions"), Osttruppen ("eastern troops"), and Osteinheiten ("eastern units") were units in the Army of Nazi Germany during World War II made up of personnel from the Soviet Union.^[1] They were a large part of the Wehrmacht foreign volunteers and conscripts.

Soldiers of the Turkestan Legion in France, c. 1943.

Members of the North Caucasian Legion in France in 1943.

Background

Some members of the Ostlegionen units were conscripted or coerced into serving; others volunteered. Many were former Soviet personnel, recruited from prisoner of war camps. Osttruppen were frequently stationed away from front lines and used for coastal defence or rear-area activities, such as security operations, thus freeing up regular German forces for front-line service. They belonged to two distinct types of units:

• Ost-Bataillone were composed of various nationalities, raised mostly amongst prisoners of war (POW) captured in Eastern Europe, who had been formed into battalion-sized units, which were integrated individually into German combat formations, and;
• Ostlegionen were larger foreign legion-type units raised amongst members of a specific ethnic minority or minorities, and comprising multiple battalions.

Members of Osteinheiten usually faced execution or harsh terms of imprisonment, if they were captured by Soviet forces or repatriated to the USSR by the western Allies.

Ost-Bataillone

 

Russian soldiers performing a traditional dance, 1944.

Ost-Bataillone wore German uniforms and equipment and were integrated into larger German formations. They began as the private initiatives of individual military commanders. Most were utilized on the Eastern Front and in the Balkans.

In 1944, a number of Ost-Bataillone were stationed in northern France, in anticipation of an Allied invasion of Western Europe. Units that fought in Normandy against Allied Operation Overlord were part of the German 243rd and 709th Static Infantry Divisions, positioned in the vicinity of the Utah, Juno and Sword invasion beaches.^[2] Ost-Bataillone were also present in southern France, during the Allied landings codenamed Operation Dragoon (August 1944).

Name of unit	Size and composition
Ost-Bataillon 664	Composed of volunteers from Ingria. Also known as Finnische Sicherheitsgruppe 187 (Finnish Security Group 187).^[3]
Wolgatatarische-Bataillone	Composed of Volga-Tatar and Volga-Finn volunteers.

List of Eastern Battalions

№	Name	Formation	Location of formation	Disbandment	Notes	Source
658	181st Estonian Security Battalion	August 1941	Northern Russia	June 1944	It became the (Estonian) 658th Eastern Battalion on 23 October 1942.	^[4]
659	182nd Estonian Security Battalion	August 1941	Northern Russia	June 1944	It became the (Estonian) 659th Eastern Battalion [et] on 23 October 1942.	^[4]
661	183rd Estonian Security Battalion	20 August 1941	Northern Russia	November 1944	It became the (Russian) 661st Eastern Battalion on 23 October 1942. It was moved to southern France in November 1943. On April 19, 1944, it became the IV Battalion of the 239th Reserve Grenadier Regiment.	^[4]
660	184th Estonian Security Battalion	August 1941	Northern Russia	June 1944	It became the (Estonian) 660th Eastern Battalion [et] on 23 October 1942.	^[4]
662	185th Estonian Security Battalion	September 1941	Northern Russia		It became the (Russian) 662nd Eastern Battalion on 23 October 1942. It was moved to Denmark in December 1943. On April 30, 1944, it became the III (Russian) Battalion of the 712th Grenadier Regiment. It re-became the 662nd (Russian) Eastern Battalion in September 1944. In April 1945, it became the 1605th (Russian) Grenadier Regiment and was stationed in Denmark.	^[4]
134	134th Hetman Battalion	1942	Central Russia	27 November 1943	The unit became the 134th Volunteer Security Battalion in 1942. On 18 November 1942, it was renamed the 134th Eastern Battalion and was still located in central Russia.	^[4]
602	Dnieper Eastern Combat Battalion	29 April 1942	Central Russia		It became the 602nd Dnieper Eastern Battalion on 23 October 1942. It was moved to northern France on 5 November 1943. It was destroyed in western France on 17 August 1944.	^[4]
601	Berezina Eastern Combat Battalion	1 June 1942	Central Russia		It became the 601st Berezina Eastern Battalion on 23 October 1942. It became the 601st Eastern Engineer Bridging Battalion in May 1943 while in southern France. Renamed the 601st Russian Engineer Bridging Battalion on 13 July 1944. It was transferred to the 600th Russian Infantry Division in Western Germany in October 1944.	^[4]
551	6th Ukrainian Battalion	17 June 1942	Southern Russia		It became the 551st Eastern Battalion on 30 November 1942. Renamed the 651st Eastern Supply Battalion on 1 February 1944. In 1945, it became the 651st Ukrainian Supply Battalion while in western Germany.	^[4]
406	6th Volunteer Battalion	June 1942	Central Russia		It became the 406th Eastern Battalion on 1 November 1942. It was moved to southern France on 28 September 1943. It was renamed the 406th Russian Battalion on 6 July 1944. It was in Northern Italy in September 1944.	^[4]
308	23rd Volunteer Battalion	June 1942	Central Russia		It became the 308th Eastern Battalion on 8 November 1942. It was renamed the 308th Russian Battalion while in German-occupied Poland in late 1944. It was transferred to the 600th Russian Infantry Division in western Germany in February 1945.	^[4]
429	39th Volunteer Battalion	June 1942	Central Russia	October 1944	It became the 439th Eastern Battalion on 8 November 1942. It was sent to Northern France in October 1943. On 19 April 1944, it was made the IV (Eastern) Battalion of the 726th Grenadier Regiment. It was in eastern France in August 1944.	^[4]
446	46th Volunteer Battalion	June 1942	Central Russia	May 1944	It became the 446th Eastern Battalion on 8 November 1942. It was reformed on 15 January 1943.	^[4]
618	People's Militia Battalion Trutschevsk	21 June 1942	Central Russia		It was also known as the People's Defence Battalion Trutschevsk. On 18 November 1942, it was renamed the 618th Eastern Battalion. It was in Belarus in October 1943, but was moved to northern France in November that same year. The unit was reformed as a motorized battalion on 19 April 1944. It was transferred to the 600th Russian Infantry Division in western Germany in November 1944.	^[4]

Osttruppen

Name of unit	Size and composition
Russian Liberation Army	Known as the "Vlasov Army"; a corps-sized formation composed mostly of Soviet citizens under the command of the former Soviet general Andrey Vlasov.
1st SS Cossack Cavalry Division	Cavalry division made up of Cossack volunteers; transferred in 1945 from the Wehrmacht to the Waffen-SS.
Georgian Legion	12 battalions, consisting of ethnic Georgians.
Armenian Legion	Eleven battalions consisting of ethnic Armenians.
Azerbaijani Legion	Initially, Azerbaijanis were included into Kaukasisch-Mohammedanische Legion until 1942 when a separate legion composed of only Azerbaijanis was formed.
Caucasian-Mohammedan Legion	Composed of Circassians, Daghestanis, Chechens, Ingushes, and Lezghins.
North Caucasian and Mountain-Caucasian legions	Consisted of Abkhazians, Circassians, Kabardians, Balkars, Karachais, Chechens, Ingushes, Daghestanis, Kurds, Talyshis, and North Ossetians, separated from the Caucasian-Mohammedan Legion in accordance with the order of 19 February 1942.
Turkestan Legion	Eight battalions, composed of Turkmens, Uzbeks, Kyrgyz, Tajiks and other Central Asian nationalities; saw action as the 162nd Turkestan Division, in Yugoslavia and Italy.
Idel Ural Legion	Composed of volunteers from Idel-Ural peoples including Tatars, Bashkirs, Chuvashes, Udmurts, and Mordvins.
Freiwilligen-Stamm-Division (Regular Volunteer Division)	Established in 1944, it consisted of Turkic, Azerbaijani, Georgian, Tatar, Cossack, Armenian and other Soviet volunteers, spread over five regiments. Involved in anti-partisan operations against the French Resistance. Known for the Dortan massacre in July 1944. ^[5]^[6]^[7]

See also

• Hiwi (volunteer)
• German atrocities committed against Soviet prisoners of war
• Nazi racial theories
• East German Army, a military of the East Germany

References

1. Grasmeder, Elizabeth M.F. "Leaning on Legionnaires: Why Modern States Recruit Foreign Soldiers". International Security. Retrieved 30 July 2021.
2. Ambrose, Stephen (1997). D-Day, June 6, 1944: the Battle for the Normandy Beaches. London: Simon & Schuster. p. 34. ISBN 0-7434-4974-6.
3. Sotapäiväkirjat paljastavat hirvittävät julmuudet: Suomen riveissä taistellut inkeriläispataljoona ampui säälimättä siviilejä. Boris Salomon. Iltalehti.
4. Thomas 2015, p. 9.
5. Thomas (2000), p. 11.
6. Lieb (2007), pp. 61–62, 119, 310, 338.
7. Kedward (1993), p. 280.

Bibliography

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ostlegionen.

• Elizabeth M.F. Grasmeder, "Leaning on Legionnaires: Why Modern States Recruit Foreign Soldiers," International Security (July 2021), Vol 46 (No. 1), pp. 147–195.
• Kedward, Harry Roderick (1993). In Search of the Maquis : Rural Resistance in Southern France 1942–1944. Clarendon Press. ISBN 978-0191591785.
• Lieb, Peter (2007). Konventioneller Krieg oder NS-Weltanschauungskrieg. Kriegführung und Partisanenbekämpfung in Frankreich 1943/44 [Conventional or NS-ideological war. Warfare and anti-partisan fighting in France 1943/44] (in German). R. Oldenbourg Verlag. ISBN 978-3486579925.
• Thomas, Nigel (2000). The German Army 1939–45 (5): Western Front 1943–45: Western Front, 1944–45 v. 5 (Men-at-Arms). Osprey Publishing. ISBN 978-1855327979.
• Thomas, Nigel (2015). Hitler's Russian & Cossack Allies 1941–45. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 9781472806888.