Georgian Uprising of Texel

Uprising on Texel

Georgian military cemetery on Texel

Date	5 April 1945 – 20 May 1945
Location	Texel, Netherlands
Result	Georgian uprising quelled by German forces, then a Canadian-mediated surrender of German forces

Belligerents

Georgian Legion

Dutch resistance

Canada

Germany

Commanders and leaders

Shalva Loladze †

W.H. Kelder

Klaus Breitner

Casualties and losses

565+ Georgians killed
120 Texel Dutch killed

812 Germans killed

The Georgian Uprising on Texel (Dutch: Opstand der Georgiërs) (5 April 1945 – 20 May 1945) was an insurrection by the 882nd Infantry Battalion Königin Tamara (Queen Tamar or Tamara) of the Georgian Legion of the German Army stationed on the German occupied Dutch island of Texel (pronounced Tessel). The battalion was made up of 800 Georgians and 400 Germans, with mainly German officers. It was one of the last battles on the European theatre.

The heavily fortified island was part of the German Atlantic Wall system of defense. However, after the Allied landings in Normandy it was relegated to relative insignificance. The men of the rebellious battalion were Red Army soldiers from the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic captured on the Eastern front. They had been given a choice: the captured soldiers could choose either to remain in the prisoner of war camps, which would have meant abuse, starvation, and very possibly 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 occupied 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 Zandvoort". On 6 February 1945 the battalion was posted to Subsection Texel. Preparations then started in late March 1945 for the transfer of several companies of the Georgian battalion to the Dutch mainland to oppose Allied advances, triggering the rebellion.

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Wikipedia