1st Cossack Cavalry Division

1st Cossack Cavalry Division
Insignia of the 1st Cossack Cavalry Division
Active	1943–45
Country	Nazi Germany
Branch	Army
Type	Cavalry
Role	Anti-partisan operations
Size	Division
Part of	XV SS Cossack Cavalry Corps
Engagements	World War II
Commanders
Notable commanders	Helmuth von Pannwitz
Insignia
Identification symbol	Don Cossack insignia

The 1st Cossack Cavalry Division (German: 1. Kosaken-Kavallerie-Division) was a Russian Cossack division of the German Army that served during World War II. It was created on the Eastern Front mostly out of Don Cossacks already serving in the Wehrmacht, those who escaped from the advancing Red Army and Soviet POWs. In 1945, the division was transferred to the Waffen SS, becoming the 1st SS Cossack Cavalry Division (1. SS-Kosaken-Kavallerie-Division). At the end of the war, the unit ceased to exist.

History

Upon the formation of the unit in April 1943, the division was dispatched to the puppet Independent State of Croatia, where they were placed under the command of the Second Panzer Army and were used to provide rear area security for the army.

The division's first fighting engagement was on October 12, 1943, when it was dispatched against Yugoslav partisans in the Fruška Gora Mountains. In the operation the Cossacks, aided by 15 tanks and one armored car, captured the village of Beocin, where the partisan HQ was. During that operation many villages were burned, including a monastery on Fruška Gora, and around 300 innocent Serbian villagers were killed. Subsequently, the unit was used to protect the Zagreb-Belgrade railroad and the Sava Valley. Several regiments of the division took part in anti-partisan operations and guarded the Sarajevo railroad against the partisans. As part of a wide anti-partisan operation, Napfkuchen, the Cossack division was transferred to Croatia, where it fought against partisans and Chetniks in 1944.

While in Croatia the division quickly established a reputation for undisciplined and ruthless behavior, not only towards the partisans but also the civilian population, prompting Croatian authorities to complain to the Germans and finally to Adolf Hitler personally. Besides raping women, killing people and plundering and burning towns suspected of harboring partisans and their supporters, the division used telegraph poles along the railroad tracks as a warning to the partisans and others. During its first two months of deployment in Croatia, special divisional courts-martial imposed at least 20 death sentences in each of the four regiments for related crimes.^[1]

The Cossacks' first engagement against the Red Army occurred in December 1944 near Pitomača. The fighting resulted in Soviet withdrawal from the area. In January 1945 the 1st Cossack Division, together with the 2nd Cossack Division, was transferred to the Waffen-SS. As the 1. SS-Kosaken-Kavallerie-Division it became part of the newly formed XV SS Cossack Cavalry Corps.^[2]

At the end of the war Cossacks of the division retreated into Austria and surrendered to British troops. They were promised safety by the British but were subsequently forcibly transferred to the USSR^[3]. Once in Russian captivity, the majority (including their German cadre officers) were executed.^[4][5]

Commanders

• Lt. Gen. Helmuth von Pannwitz
• Col. Hans-Joachim von Schultz
• Col. von Baath
• Col. Alexander von Boesse
• Col. Konstantin Wagner

Order of battle

In 1944 the division was composed of the following units:^[6]

Footnotes

References

• Mitcham, Samuel W. (2007). German Order of Battle Vol. 2 291st - 999th Infantry Divisions, Named Infantry Divisions, and Special Divisions in World War II. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books. ISBN 978-0-8117-3437-0.
• Newland, Samuel J. (1991). Cossacks in the German Army, 1941–1945. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-7146-8199-3.
• Tomasevich, Jozo (2001). War and Revolution in Yugoslavia, 1941–1945: Occupation and Collaboration. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. ISBN 978-0-8047-3615-2.
• Bethell, Baron Nicholas (1974). The Last Secret. Aylesbury, Bucks: Andre Deutsch Limited. ISBN 978-0-4650-3813-8.

Further reading

• François de Lannoy. Pannwitz Cossacks: Les Cosaques de Pannwitz 1942 - 1945