Georgian Uprising of Texel

Infobox Military Conflict
conflict=Uprising on Texel
partof=World War II, Western Front
date=April 5, 1945 – May 20, 1945
place=Texel, Netherlands
result=German Pyrrhic victory
combatant1=
combatant2=
commander1=
commander2=
casualties1=565+ Georgians KIA
117 Texel Dutch killed
casualties2=800+ Germans KIA

The Georgian Uprising of Texel ( _nl. Opstand der Georgiërs) (April 5, 1945 – May 20, 1945) was an insurrection by the 882nd Infantry Battalion "Königin Tamara" (Queen Tamar or "Tamara") of the Georgian Legion of the German Army ("Wehrmacht Heer") stationed on the German occupied Dutch island of Texel (pronounced "tessel"). The battalion consisted of 800 Georgians and 400 Germans, with mainly German officers. The event has been described as "Europe's last battlefield".

The heavily fortified island was part of the German Atlantic Wall system of defense. The men of the rebellious battalion were soldiers from the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic captured on the Eastern front. They had been given a choice rarely offered by the Germans: the captured soldiers could choose either to remain in the POW camps, which would mean almost certain death, or to serve the Germans and be allowed a degree of freedom. The battalion was formed of men who chose the latter option.

The battalion had been formed at Kruszyna near Radom in Poland in June 1943 and was used initially to fight partisans. On 24 August 1943 it was ordered to the West to relieve troops of the Indische Freiwilligen-Legion Regiment 950. The battalion arrived at Zandvoort in the Netherlands on 30 August. From September 1943 to early February 1945 it was stationed at Zandvoort as part of the "Unterabschnitt [Subsection] Zandvoort". The German military authorities initially intended to rename the unit "IV. Battaillon Jäger-Regiment 32" as part of the 16th Air Force Field Division ("Luftwaffen-Feld-Divisionen"), but this change had not effected. On 6 February 1945 it was posted to Subsection Texel and received the fake designation Grenadier Regiment 177 of the 219th Infantry Division in early March. Preparations then started in late March 1945 for a move of several companies of the 882nd battalion to the Dutch mainland to oppose Allied advances – triggering the rebellion. ["Der Spiegel", 20/1995. “Der Geburtstag des Todes [The Birthday of Death] ,” p. 188]

Shortly after midnight on the night of April 5–6, 1945, the Georgians rose up and gained control of nearly the entire island. Approximately four hundred German soldiers were killed in the initial uprising, nearly all while sleeping in the quarters they shared with Georgians, who used knives and bayonets; a few others were killed while standing guard or walking the roads of the island that night or on the following day. Members of the Dutch resistance also helped the Georgians ["Der Spiegel", p. 189] , however, the rebellion hinged on an expected Allied landing which did not occur.

Because the assumed allied help did not materialize, and because they failed to secure the naval batteries on the southern and northern coasts of the island, the rebels soon faced a German counterattack. The 163rd "Marine-Schützenregiment" [Composed of surplus naval personnel and organized as an infantry formation; all such "ad hoc" organizations of the same genre towards the end of the war were poorly equipped, had little or no infantry training, and suffered from low morale] arrived from the Dutch mainland and, after two weeks of fighting, retook the island. The German commander of the 882nd battalion, Major Klaus Breitner, stated long after the war that the uprising was “treachery, nothing else”; the mutineers were ordered to dig their own graves, remove their German uniforms, and be executed. ["Der Spiegel", p. 190]

During the "Russian" or "Georgian war" (as it is known on Texel) about 800 Germans, 565 Georgians, and 117 natives of Texel were killed. The destruction was enormous; dozens of farms went up in flames, with damage later estimated at ten million guilders (US$3.77 million [1945 exchange rate per Bretton Woods system peg] ). The bloodshed lasted beyond the German capitulation in the Netherlands and Denmark on May 5, 1945, and even beyond Germany's general surrender on May 8, 1945. Not until May 20, 1945 were newly-arrived Canadian troops able to pacify "Europe’s last battlefield."

The Georgians lie buried in a ceremonial cemetery at the Hogeberg near Oudeschild. The survivors may have feared to face the same fate as most Soviet POWs: forced repatriation, under the terms of the Yalta Conference, often followed by incarceration and banishment and for officers, execution. Stalin considered anyone captured by the enemy to be a traitor, subject to appropriate punishment. The 228 Georgians who survived by hiding in coastal minefields or were concealed by Texel farmers were not prosecuted, however, most disappeared into Stalin’s gulags; those still alive in the mid-1950s were rehabilitated and allowed to return home. ["Der Spiegel", p. 190] Until 1991, the Ambassador of the Soviet Union to the Netherlands visited the graves of the Georgians every May 4th, and at least during the last visits, called the Georgians "Heroes of the Soviet Union." On May 4th, 2005, Mikheil Saakashvili visited the graves for the first time as the President of independent Georgia.

The German victims were initially buried in a part of the general cemetery in Den Burg. In 1949 they found their final resting place at Ysselsteyn military cemetery, Limburg province, the Netherlands. The cemetery is administered by the German War Graves Commission.

The final resting places of Allied flight crews can also be found in the community cemetery in Den Burg.

A permanent exhibition dedicated to this event exists in the Aeronautical Museum at the island's airport.

One of the last Georgian survivors of the uprising died in July 2007 and was buried with military honors in Zugdidi, Georgia. [ [http://www.geotimes.ge/index.php?m=home&newsid=5738 President Respects Georgian Hero] . "Daily Georgian Times", July 18, 2007.]

There is only one Georgian survivor still alive. Eugeny Artemidze was one of the main organizers; he is now 87 years old and lives in Manglisi. He has a museum about the Texel uprising in his own house.

References

ources

*Dick van Reeuwijk. "Opstand der Georgiërs, Sondermeldung Texel". Den Burg: Het Open Boek. Herzien Editie 2001 (The Georgian Rebellion on Texel). ISBN 9070202093
*Hans Houterman, J. N. Houterman, "Eastern Troops in Zeeland, the Netherlands, 1943-1945", p. 62. Axis Europa Books, 1997. ISBN 1891227009
*Henri Antony Van der Zee (1998), "The Hunger Winter: Occupied Holland, 1944-45", pp. 213-220. University of Nebraska Press, ISBN 0803296185 (Reprint. Originally published: London : J. Norman & Hobhouse, 1982.)

External links

* [http://www.texel.net/mooi_texel/historie/opstandgeorgiers&lng=en Georgian uprising article]