30th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Belarussian)
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30th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Belarusian) (German: 30.Waffen-Grenadier-Division der SS (weißruthenische Nr.1)) was a German Waffen SS Grenadier division recruited from Belarusian volunteers. It saw action on the Eastern Front during World War II.
- January 1945: Forming of the Waffen-Grenadier-Brigade der SS (weißruth. Nr. 1) with some 2000 men in Grafenwöhr.
- 1 Rgt (3 Btls) [Waffen-Grenadier-Regiment 75 (weißruth. Nr. 1)]
- Arty Btl
- Armored Btl (1 Armored Recce Coy & 1 Anti-Tank Coy)
- Recce Btl (1 Füsilier Coy & 1 Mounted Recce Esc)
- Field-Replacement Btl
- Engineer Coy
- Radio/Signal Coy
- 9 March 1945: Renaming of the Waffen-Grenadier-Brigade der SS (weißruth. Nr. 1) into 30. Waffen-Grenadier-Division der SS (weißruth. Nr. 1) without any changings of the strength or OOB.
- April 1945: Dissolution of the 30. Waffen-Grenadier-Division der SS (weißruth. Nr. 1)
[edit] Short history
The SS assigned a special train to carry 800 collaborators and their families to the Germany on June 28, 1944. Radasłaŭ Astroŭski left two days later since he was organizing the evacuation. Most of the recruits conscripted to Biełaruskaja Krajovaja Abarona stayed in Belarus and were later scrutinized by Stalin's NKVD. But the 20,000 members of Francishak Kushal's polizei earned special notoriety and knew that there would be no amnesty for them. They marched a thousand miles to their new home. These units were absorbed into the 30th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (2nd Russian). This infantry division was formed from the remnants of the 29th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Russian), which included few Belarusians and Ukrainians. It was not unusual since there were French, Dutch, Romanian, Hungarian, Croat and Muslim Waffen SS units. The 30th Division was considered experienced in fighting partisans, so it was immediately transferred to Alsace-Lorraine to fight members of the French Resistance. Astroŭski persuaded Himmler to place the Belarusian forces of 30 Division under Belarusian command. Astroǔski had set up an officers' school and issued uniforms with the "Waffen Sturm-brigade Belarus" designation. The symbol chosen was an ancient double cross of St. Euphrosyne of Polatsk with two bars equal in length and parallel to each other. Soon the fresh Belarusian cadets were thrown into battle against the advancing U.S. Third Army of George S. Patton. Orders were issued for Belarusian forces to be absorbed by Andrey Vlasov's Russian Liberation Army. But Astroŭski sabotaged it. He also prevented being joined with the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia, since he did not want to align himself with Russians.
Ukrainians in the 30th Waffen SS Division
The 102 and 118 Battalions were composed of Ukrainians under the command of Major Lev Hloba and Captain A. Negrebetzk respectively. The battalions were assigned anti-partisan duties in the Belfort Gap. This 15-mile-wide gap between the Vosges Mountains to the north and the Jura Mountains to the southeast was the strategic corridor connecting the Paris basin to the Rhine Valley. It also contained the headwaters of the Saone-Doubs River, which was the principal tributary of the Rhone. It formed the main escape route for the German Army from northeastern France in August 1944.
The Ukrainians, who numbered over 1,200 men, were extremely reluctant to fight against the western allies. Hloba and Negrebetzk decided to change sides and contacted the French resistance forces that been renamed the Forces Frangaises de lnterieur (FFI). On August 27, 1944, the Ukrainians joined the Allied side and were renamed the 1st and 2nd Ukrainian Battalions of the French Army (Les Bataillons Ukrainennes).
The 1st Ukrainian Battalion (102) operated in the Confracourt Woods region where the local population hailed the Ukrainians as liberators. The Battalion working in close cooperation with local units of the FFI and a OOS Team Marcel-Proust, who had been parachuted into the region kept the region in Allied hands until the arrival of the lead elements of Lt. Gen. Alexander M. Patch's Seventh U.S. Army on September 11, 1944.
Negrebetzk and the men of the 2nd Ukrainian Battalion (118) conducted operations further south near Camp Valdahon. At Chaux-les-Passavant, the Battalion engaged a retreating German motorized division in a fire-fight. For bravery during this action Private Danlyo Klym, received the Legion d'Honneur. The Ukrainians participated in two more battles: Les Grand Bois on September 11 and Pont-de-Roide on the 13 th (the fourth Croix de Guerre was earned there). During the second action, they were instrumental in capturing a critical railway junction.
Two prevent them from being forced to return to the then USSR, the men of both battalions were inducted on mass into the 13th Demi-Brigade of the French Foreign Legion. As well as Klym’s Legion d'Honneur , a total of four Croix de Guerre were awarded the Ukrainians.
To distinguish themselves from German soldiers, most of the Ukrainians adopted a black Basque beret. In some accounts, the Ukrainians began wearing civilian clothing mixed with army webbing and equipment. Some may have even dyed their German uniforms blue.
