Freiwilligen-Stamm-Division

Freiwilligen-Stamm-Division
Active	1 February 1944 - 8 May 1945
Country	Nazi Germany
Branch	Army
Type	Infantry
Size	Division
Engagements	World War II

The Freiwilligen-Stamm-Division (transl. Volunteer Depot Division) was a Wehrmacht infantry division during World War II. It was created on 1 February 1944 in Southern France. The Division was a so-called Ostlegion, which means its personnel was made up from volunteers from the Soviet Union. Specifically Freiwilligen-Stamm-Division consisted of Turkic, Azerbaijani, Georgian, Tartar, Cossack, Armenian and other Soviet volunteers, spread over five regiments. The primary purpose of the division were anti-partisan operations against the French Resistance.^[1][2]

In 1944, the French Maquis started numerous uprisings in France. To defeat the French forces, units of the Freiwilligen-Stamm-Division were used in various operations. This included German operations against the maquis of Mont Mouchet, l'Ain and Haut-Jura and Vercors.^[3][2]

Part of these anti-Maquis operations also included Operation Treffenfeld [fr], in which units of the Freiwilligen-Stamm-Division participated. During the operation, the 5th Cossack Regiment of the division conducted the Dortan Massacre at the French town of Dortan on 13/14 July 1944. Twenty-four civilians were killed in what the German command described as "reprisal measures".^[4] Days later on 21 July more civilians were executed, bringing the death toll to about 35 people. The village was then burned down and left to ruins.^[5]

Commanding officers

• Generalleutnant Ralph von Heygendorff, 1 February 1944 – 11 March 1944
• Generalmajor Wilhelm von Henning, 11 March 1944 – 12 September 1944
• Generalmajor Bodo von Wartenberg, 12 September 1944 – May 1945

References

Bibliography

• Kedward, Harry Roderick (1993). In Search of the Maquis : Rural Resistance in Southern France 1942-1944. Clarendon Press. ISBN 9780191591785.
• 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.
• Lieb, Peter (2012). Vercors 1944: Resistance in the French Alps. Osprey Publishing. ISBN 978-1849086981.
• 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.