Is the Ukrainian division of the SS German or Ukrainian? Why is it called this name?

The division is composed of Ukrainian volunteers.

The combat effectiveness of this unit is very poor.

Under this circumstance, the "Great Ukraine Thought" with profound chauvinism quickly spread. When the German army invaded the Soviet Union, some Ukrainians welcomed the German army as a "liberator", but the terrorist policies of the occupying forces and the SS quickly disappointed Ukrainian nationalists, so they divided into two factions, standing on the differences between the Soviet government and Nazi Germany. Hitler hoped to take advantage of this contradiction to meet the difficulty of insufficient German troops. He ordered the establishment of an SS volunteer division "Galicia" composed of Ukrainians. As can be seen from the name, the earliest soldiers came from Galicia, where Catholics dominated.

The worst SS troops

The puppet government "Ukrainian National Defense Committee" established in Rumberg, the old capital of Ukraine, first convened the puppet troops of its subordinate "Defence Team" and "Oriental Camp", and began training in Labik driving range on July 18th, 1943. On September 22nd, Brigadier General Fritz Fretak, commander of the 4th SS "Police Division", was appointed as commander of the Ukrainian division.

In February, 1944, some officers and men who were training were absorbed into the "beiersdorfer Battle Group" to carry out the operation of sweeping guerrillas, and the main division was transferred to Neumach area to continue their practice. On May 16, 1944, Himmler, the leader of the SS, personally inspected the troops and ordered the end of training and put them into actual combat. On June 27, this unit was officially named as the 14th armed grenadier of the SS "Galicia First Division". As of June 3th, the strength of this division is: 346 officers, 1,131 non-commissioned officers, 13,822 soldiers and * * * 15,299 soldiers. Although the troops are still substantial, vehicles and communication equipment are extremely scarce. The whole division is mainly composed of three grenadier regiments (29th, 3th and 31st) and an artillery regiment.

On June 25th, 1944, the 14th Grenadier Division of SS left the 3rd Battalion of each regiment in the driving range, with a total of 1,4 main troops heading for the eastern front. Three days later, they arrived at the 13th Army of the 4th Armored Army Group of Northern Ukraine and entered the defense in Brody, 1km east of Rumberg. The 13th Army was originally weak, consisting of the 454th Infantry Division, the 361st Infantry Division and the remnants of the collapsed "C" cluster. As a reserve, the Ukrainian Division was assigned 15 kilometers behind the front line, and the first task they received was to build a 36-kilometer-long second defensive position.

On July 13th, 1944, 8 infantry divisions, 1 tanks or mechanized brigades of the Ukrainian First Army led by konev surrounded the 13th Army from the north and south of Brody. When the right wing of the encirclement was breached by the Soviets, Lieutenant Colonel Foer Strothe of the 14th SS Division led the 3th SS volunteer grenadier regiment to stop the leakage. Within two days, the other two regiments also gradually put themselves into the defensive war. The 14th SS anti-aircraft artillery battalion of the division shot down 25 Soviet planes, and the corporal Nelson of the self-propelled anti-tank artillery battalion destroyed six Soviet tanks in one day. The record seemed good, but the weakness of the main force made the collapse unexpected. On July 2, the Soviet army began a full-scale attack, and the volunteers of the Ukrainian SS were greatly frightened. The officers could not control the actions of the soldiers, and the whole division was in a mess. With a genial smile, Brigadier General Frytak, the commander of the SS, asked the commander of the 13th Army, General Hauffel, to hand over his command to Major General Lin Deman, the commander of the 361st Infantry Division. This is the first time that an SS general refused to command the troops in World War II.

when the Ukrainians were in chaos, the rest of the troops were still making a breakthrough to the west, and the 1st and 8th armored divisions outside the encirclement also struggled to open the breakthrough. On July 22, 1944, the clearance troops in Ganits, southwest of the encirclement, managed to maintain a small corridor with a width of about 2 meters, and 8 remnants of the headquarters of the 14th SS Division and the 361st Infantry Division escaped from their pockets under the cover of the assault guns of the 8th Armored Division. The Battle of Brody was the first actual combat in which the 14th Grenadier participated. Of the 1,4 people who participated in the battle, about 7, were killed or injured, 1, were missing, and only 2,5 escaped, which meant that the whole army was wiped out. Coupled with all kinds of ugliness in the battle, the combat effectiveness and self-control of this unit are undoubtedly very low.

The final downfall of the shameless troops

On August 7, 1944, the 14th SS Division began to be reorganized. 8, soldiers from the 14th SS Grenadier Reserve Regiment and the 6th, 7th and 8th Ukrainian Pseudo-Police Regiments were collected. Together with the 3rd Battalion of the regiments previously stranded in Neumacher Driving Range, the strength of the 14th SS Division was restored to 12,91 on September 2th. However, there were only 261 officers (quota of 48) and only 673 sergeants (quota of 2,587), and the commanders were extremely scarce. For this reason, the commander, Brigadier General Frytek, once again refused to command the troops. Himmler applied to Hitler for a knight's medal and sent it to him. Frytek was satisfied to take office again.

At this time, a large-scale armed riot broke out in the Czech Republic, centering on the bicester Rick area in Wansijia. The Soviet Union and its response also launched an offensive in the Dokule Canyon in the northern part of the Czech border. On October 5, 1944, Himmler decided to stifle the Czech uprising completely. He mobilized the most notorious "Tiwank" SS Rangers, the 18th SS Volunteer Grenadier Division "holst wiesel" composed of stormtroopers, and the 14th SS Armed Grenadier Division "Galicia No.1" formed for the second time to suppress it. On October 15th, the 14th SS Division set off from the driving range and rushed directly to the Tulina region, where it was divided into three battle groups and fought fiercely with Czech guerrillas.

on November 8th, the Czech uprising was sunk in a pool of blood. Himmler simply prepared to train the 14th SS Division into a second-line unit dedicated to fighting guerrillas, so the division received anti-guerrilla education and practice in St. Martin's area until December. On January 15th, 1945, the division was renamed as the 14th Armed Grenadier Division of SS "Ukraine First". On January 26th, the superior ordered the 14th SS Division to March on foot in the direction of Slovakia through Bresburg and Wayne. The division went south at a speed of 3-4 kilometers every day and arrived in Marburg on February 28th, where it became the direct unit of the "SS and Police Command in Alben", with the task of sweeping out guerrillas. Soon after the 14th SS Division put itself into fighting against guerrillas in laibach and Savi, the news of the failure of the "Spring Awakening" came.

On March 18th, the defeated Germans will March westward from Prandze, and the 14th SS Division was ordered to receive them and eliminate the possible guerrilla attacks on the defeated troops. But two days later, the Southern Army Group ordered the 14th SS Division to disarm on the spot and hand over the weapons to the German troops. Brigadier General Frytak left the troops and went to the SS headquarters to discuss the authenticity of this order. At this time, the Soviets had already arrived in Marburg.

caught off guard, the Germans immediately ordered the 14th SS Division, the only rear force, to defend, and started fighting in Feltbach on March 31st. At 6: 3 in the morning, the 29th and 3th armed grenadiers of SS were each covered by a light artillery battalion, which captured the intended target and repelled the Soviet counter-impact. As the Soviet counterattack became more and more fierce, the 3 rd cavalry division of the friendly army asked the 14 th SS division for support, and at this time, Brigadier General Freitak refused to command the troops for the third time! Finally, General Hadnek, commander of the 1st German Cavalry Army, strictly ordered him not to leave his post without leave, and the 14th SS Division held its position desperately.

In April p>1945, the 14th SS Division fled to Gulesinburg to join the 2nd Panzer Corps, with the 5th SS Panzer Division Viking on the left and the 3rd and 4th cavalry divisions on the right. On April 15th, in a Soviet counterattack, the officers and men of the 14th SS Division showed rare courage and regained the newly lost highland after fierce hand-to-hand combat. In May, the allied forces began to approach from the west, and the 14th SS Division contacted the British army to demand surrender. The British army agreed to the Ukrainian demand, but made one condition: surrender in the Makut area of Falker. This means that the 14th SS Division has to fight Tito guerrillas, who have been a headache for the British army, on the March. What clever and dirty political skills the British have used! But the miracle happened again: the 14th SS Division actually repelled the encirclement of Tito guerrillas, and all the 14th SS Armed Grenadiers Reserve Regiment were killed in the battle.

After that, the 14th SS Division marched along the Muir River to tamms Wake on May 1th, 1945, and surrendered to the British. However, unlike the SS volunteers, Cossack volunteers, Oriental Camp and vlasov troops in the Baltic Sea, the Ukrainian SS volunteers were not handed over to the Soviet government. In the complaint, the members of the division claimed that they were "Polish immigrants who lived in Galicia before the Soviet Union invaded Poland, not Ukrainians, but supporters of the Polish liberation movement, and joined the German army to recover the Polish motherland", but this statement was accepted and they were sent to Rimini prison camp in Italy for custody.

did they write this report themselves? Or is there someone else's inspiration? What is the exchange of interests in this? We don't know, maybe this is not what we can know. War is inseparable from politics, and so is history.

The 14th Armed Grenadier Division of SS was the first in Ukraine. It was a third-rate unit that was destroyed when it first entered the battlefield, and its commander was derelict for three times. However, they were able to find some opportunities to escape the trial of history, which was indeed the luckiest and most cunning SS unit. Perhaps some of them have always adhered to their beliefs and dreams of independence struggle, but it is a real crime to sell their souls for this purpose.