Georgian Uprising of Texel

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Uprising on Texel
Part of World War II, Western Front
Date April 5, 1945 – May 20, 1945 Location Texel, Netherlands Result German Pyrrhic victory
Belligerents
Georgian Legion Texel Dutch Canada	Germany
Casualties and losses
565+ Georgians KIA 117 Texel Dutch killed	800+ Germans KIA

The Georgian Uprising of Texel (Dutch: 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 a pivotal point in 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. Battalion Jäger-Regiment 32 as part of the 16th Air Force Field Division (Luftwaffen-Feld-Divisionen), but this change was 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.^[1]

On the night of April 5 – 6, 1945, at 0100 the Georgians rose up and nearly gained control of the entire island. Approximately 400 Germans lost their lives in the initial uprising, nearly all were killed in their sleep by the Georgians with knives and bayonets in the quarters they shared together, others while unsuspectingly standing guard or walking on the roads of the island that night or the following day, assisted by Dutch supporters of the Georgians.^[2] The rebellion hinged on an expected Allied landing, which did not occur.

Because the assumed allied help did not materialize, and because they had failed to secure the naval batteries on the southern and northern coasts of the island, the rebels soon faced a German counter-attack. The 163rd Marine-Schützenregiment^[3] 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 graves, remove their Wehrmacht uniforms and were executed.^[4]

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 10 million guilders (US$3.77 million^[5]). 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.^[6] 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 last 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 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.^[7]

There is only one Georgian surviver still alive. Eugeny Artemidze was one of the main organizers of the Georgian Uprising of Texel. He is now 87 years old, and lives in Manglisi. He has his own museum about Texel in his house.

[edit] References

[edit] Sources

• 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.)

[edit] External links

• Georgian uprising article