Is it true that some elements of this division kept fighting in the Carpathos until 1947?
Regards,
Guillermo
Waffen-Grenadier Division der SS "Galicien"
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Wurger
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14th Waffen-SS Galicia
The division surrendered to the British at the end of the war and was interned in Italy. However, members of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), which fought both the Germans and the Soviets, continued to fight a guerilla war against the Russians for years afterward.
Regards,
Wurger
Regards,
Wurger
In July of 1944 some elements of the 14th were unable to escape encirclement in consequence of the Soviet manoeuver at Brody. A number of such cut-off soldiers joined their fellow Ukrainians in nationalist anti-Soviet guerilla units. Those guerilla units had been active in the Brody area & had even provided advance warning of the impending Red Army strike. Some of those Ukrainian guerilla units are known to have resisted the Soviets into the 1950s, although I cannot say for a fact whether any former members of the 14th WSS were amongst the last hold-outs.
For SS Galicia men in UPA
Viclip wrote
"I cannot say for a fact whether any former members of the 14th WSS were amongst the last hold-outs".
I can say for a fact that there were former 14 WSS men amongst the last UPA units which were active in western Ukraine until 1953.
The following edited extract is from my next book on the 14 Galician Division currently in preparation.
Former members of the 14 Waffen-SS Divsion are known to have been enlisted by the British secret service for the purpose of clandestine operations behind Soviet lines in the post war years. They undertook operations in conjunction with the UPA, a partisan army numbering around 100,000 men and women (at its height) which fought against the Nazis occupying Ukraine during the Second World War and later turned its guns against the communist forces. It mostly operated in the forested regions of western Ukraine, an area dominated by the Carpathian Mountains. During the Cold War British intelligence secretly helped the guerrillas to maintain contact with the OUN and Ukrainian nationalist emigres in the West as well as with western governments. MI6 also helped to train some of the guerrillas in parachuting, them into Ukraine from unmarked RAF planes. Kim Philby betrayed them.
The UPA continuted its fight against Soviet forces which were augmented by communist troops from Poland and then Czechoslovakia, successfully inflicted huge losses on them until starved of weapons and political support and facing overwhelming odds, the UPA was finally broekn as a fighting force by 1953. Its commander Roman Shukhevych was killed in an attack by Soviet forces on his command bunker in 1950 and following its demise many thousands of UPA members were captured and were either executed or spent years in Siberian prison camps.
Mike Melnyk
"I cannot say for a fact whether any former members of the 14th WSS were amongst the last hold-outs".
I can say for a fact that there were former 14 WSS men amongst the last UPA units which were active in western Ukraine until 1953.
The following edited extract is from my next book on the 14 Galician Division currently in preparation.
Former members of the 14 Waffen-SS Divsion are known to have been enlisted by the British secret service for the purpose of clandestine operations behind Soviet lines in the post war years. They undertook operations in conjunction with the UPA, a partisan army numbering around 100,000 men and women (at its height) which fought against the Nazis occupying Ukraine during the Second World War and later turned its guns against the communist forces. It mostly operated in the forested regions of western Ukraine, an area dominated by the Carpathian Mountains. During the Cold War British intelligence secretly helped the guerrillas to maintain contact with the OUN and Ukrainian nationalist emigres in the West as well as with western governments. MI6 also helped to train some of the guerrillas in parachuting, them into Ukraine from unmarked RAF planes. Kim Philby betrayed them.
The UPA continuted its fight against Soviet forces which were augmented by communist troops from Poland and then Czechoslovakia, successfully inflicted huge losses on them until starved of weapons and political support and facing overwhelming odds, the UPA was finally broekn as a fighting force by 1953. Its commander Roman Shukhevych was killed in an attack by Soviet forces on his command bunker in 1950 and following its demise many thousands of UPA members were captured and were either executed or spent years in Siberian prison camps.
Mike Melnyk
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Wurger
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- Posts: 364
- Joined: Mon Sep 30, 2002 8:19 am
- Location: Establishing a 5th column in your country . . .
14th Waffen SS
Hi Mike,
Any idea as when your next book will be coming out? Or is it too early to speculate just yet?
Will the new book build on the previous one, or will it be an entirely separate study?
Regards,
Wurger
PS: I've just received a copy of your current book and have really enjoyed reading it thus far.
Any idea as when your next book will be coming out? Or is it too early to speculate just yet?
Will the new book build on the previous one, or will it be an entirely separate study?
Regards,
Wurger
PS: I've just received a copy of your current book and have really enjoyed reading it thus far.
Next Book on Galician Div
Hi Wurger,
Financial constraints meant that I was unable to include a large amount of my material relating to the Galician Division in To Battle.
I was obliged to omit a substantial amount of detailed information on particular issues in the text and only able to use a little over half of my photos. In addition original personal documents, maps and other info could not be included. This material will form the basis of the next book.
It will include:
1. Detailed essays on topics such as recruitment and repatriation (incoporating material hitherto unused)
2. At least 50 further unpublished pictures - covering a whole range of topices and including affilated units such as Schutzmannschaft 201,
3. Additonal personal documents and probably maps
This material is will be suplemented with a significant amount of other useful information -
Preparation is well underway and I am looking to have a draft of the work completed before the end of the year - I am aiming at January for publication. It will not be the same publisher as To Battle.
best wishes
Mike
Financial constraints meant that I was unable to include a large amount of my material relating to the Galician Division in To Battle.
I was obliged to omit a substantial amount of detailed information on particular issues in the text and only able to use a little over half of my photos. In addition original personal documents, maps and other info could not be included. This material will form the basis of the next book.
It will include:
1. Detailed essays on topics such as recruitment and repatriation (incoporating material hitherto unused)
2. At least 50 further unpublished pictures - covering a whole range of topices and including affilated units such as Schutzmannschaft 201,
3. Additonal personal documents and probably maps
This material is will be suplemented with a significant amount of other useful information -
Preparation is well underway and I am looking to have a draft of the work completed before the end of the year - I am aiming at January for publication. It will not be the same publisher as To Battle.
best wishes
Mike