Sonderverband Bergmann (German: Sonderverband Bergmann - "special Highlander detachment") is a special group "Bergmann" or the Battalion of special purpose "Bergmann". It was a military unit of the German Abwehr during World War II, created from five separate companies, manned by volunteers from the North Caucasus.
The battalion used the traditional Caucasian dagger as its insignia, with a patch worn on the left sleeve of the uniform.
The formation was carried out in November 1941 - March 1942 in Neuhammer by the second department of the Abwehr, responsible for sabotage and sabotage.
The battalion commander was appointed a career officer of the Abwehr, Professor of the University of Konigsberg, Oberst Lieutenant (Lieutenant Colonel) T. Oberlander (pictured), who was considered a specialist in "Eastern issues". His deputy was Sonderfuehrer V. von Kuchenbach, who grew up in Russia and spoke Russian and Azerbaijani well. As follows from the surviving German documents, the fighters of the formation were rallied by "a single race and a single way of thinking", on which the Nazis' propaganda stake was made.
The battalion had a headquarters with a propaganda group and five rifle companies (1st, 4th and 5th - Georgian, 2nd - North Caucasian, 3rd - Azerbaijani). The total number reached 1200 people, including 900 Caucasians and 300 Germans. In addition to the volunteers selected in the prisoner of war camps, the battalion included about 130 Georgian emigrants, who made up a special unit of the Abwehr "Tamara II".
In service there were mainly light weapons: light machine guns, company mortars, anti-tank rifles and carbines of German production.
After undergoing mountain rifle training in Mittenwald (Bavaria), the battalion was sent to the Eastern Front at the end of August 1942, and its personnel were ordered to pretend to be Spanish Basques or Bosnian Muslims in order to maintain secrecy.
In August - September 1942, specially trained groups of legionnaires from the "Bergmann" battalion were thrown out in the Soviet rear with parachutes to carry out reconnaissance and sabotage actions. One of the groups of 10 Germans and 15 Caucasians landed in the area of oil production facilities in Grozny with the aim of capturing and holding them until the advance units of the 1st Tank Army approached. An attempt by German troops to break through to Grozny on September 25-27 ended in failure, but the group managed to return safely and even bring with them several hundred Georgians, Azerbaijanis and Chechens who had deserted from the Red Army, who joined the ranks of the battalion.
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From September 1942, the Bergmann battalion operated against the Soviet partisans in the Mozdok - Nalchik - Mineralnye Vody area, and on October 29 was sent to the front line: the 1st and 4th companies to Nalchik, and the 2nd and 3rd - to search direction. To prove the reliability of the connection, his companies were thrown into the most difficult sectors of the front, where, despite the absence of heavy weapons, they fought stubbornly and very effectively (and therefore such heroes were then thrown only against the partisans and guard the coast). During all this time, from defectors, prisoners of war and local residents, in addition to the existing ones, it was possible to form four more rifle companies (Georgian, North Caucasian, Azerbaijani and mixed reserve) and the same number of horse squadrons (1 Georgian and 3 North Caucasian). This made it possible by the end of 1942 to deploy the Bergmann battalion into a three-battalion regiment with a total strength of 2300 people (battalions: 1st Georgian, 2nd Azerbaijani and 3rd North Caucasian).
During the retreat of the German army from the Caucasus, units of the Bergmann battalion carried out rearguard cover for the retreating troops and carried out special tasks, including the destruction of industrial enterprises and other objects. In February 1943, the unit was withdrawn to the Crimea, where it was used to guard the southern coast of the peninsula and in the fight against local partisans. Here, according to some information, an attempt was made to form a Caucasian division on its basis, however, the matter did not progress beyond projects and propaganda statements.
In late autumn and winter 1943/44, all battalions of the Bergmann formation, together with German troops, took part in fierce battles on the Perekop Isthmus, repelling the attempts of the Red Army to break into the Crimea. Subsequently, they were evacuated from the peninsula and sent to Greece (1st and 3rd battalions) and Poland (2nd), where their main task was to fight the partisans.
So, for example, the 2nd (Azerbaijani) battalion in August 1944 acted as part of a grouping thrown to suppress the Warsaw Uprising.
During the war, the Germans had a special kind of troops called the Abwehr - military intelligence and counterintelligence. Very professional employees worked there, comparable in qualifications with employees of similar formations in the USSR. In particular, the sabotage detachments of the Abwehr spoiled a lot of blood for the Soviet military leaders. But the post is not exactly about that. I follow what is happening in Ukraine, and I am very curious about the "unobtrusive propaganda" that the Ukrainians, it turns out, are vile fascists, fought against us in World War II, and in general, they are not good. This is partly true, just remember the battalion of Abwehr Nachtigall (nightingale), consisting of Ukrainian nationalists, who fought against the forces of the USSR on the side of the Germans, as well as a lot of Stepan Bandera known to the masses, again the UPA, and others …
But on the other hand, there is a clear skew in the amount of information, especially if we take into account the existence of such a connection of the Abwehr as the Sonderkommando Bergman, which means “Highlander”, and staffed mainly by Chechens. Probably, this was one of the reasons for the expulsion of the Chechens (Operation "Lentil"), carried out from February 23 to March 9, 1944, to remote regions of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. Here is a quote from the Russian Wikipedia: "According to the official version, on January 31, 1944, the USSR State Defense Committee adopted a resolution N 5073 on the abolition of the Chechen-Ingush ASSR and the deportation of its population to Central Asia and Kazakhstan" for aiding the fascist invaders."
It was reported that in Chechen-Ingushetia, besides Grozny, Gudermes and Malgobek, 5 insurgent districts were organized - 24,970 people. (GARF. F. R-9478. Op.1. D.55. L.13).
It was dangerous to have a “Chechen front” inside the country during the war with Nazi Germany, so huge funds, trains and soldiers had to be diverted for resettlement.”
In fairness, however, it should be noted that the North Caucasian legions of the Wehrmacht did not consist of Chechens alone. There were separate Georgian, Armenian and Azerbaijani legions. The tasks of Bergman specifically included sabotage and terrorist operations against our troops, covering the Wehrmacht troops, and fighting the Soviet partisans. Generally speaking, the North Caucasian legions of the Wehrmacht constituted a fairly serious force: the number of Bergman alone was 1,200 special forces. Those. serious, skillful and seasoned fighters. The Georgian legion consisted of about 30,000 people, the Armenian - up to 18,000 people, the Azerbaijani - about 40,000 people. In total - almost 90,000 people from the North Caucasian republics who fought in the regular army on the side of the German troops. This is not at all a small figure, as it might seem at first glance. And this figure has brought very tangible problems to our country.
In addition to these, there was also the Chechen National Socialist Party of the North Caucasian Brothers, which appeared on January 28, 1942 at the initiative of a certain Khasan Terloev. In the program documents of the NSPSB, the goal was "to combat Bolshevik barbarism and Russian despotism." NSPSB put forward the slogan "Caucasus to Caucasians!" (which provided for the destruction or eviction of Jews, Gypsies, Russians and other "alien" peoples). The maximum number reached 5000 people. Also in Chechnya there was a "Chechen-Mountain National Socialist Underground Organization", created in November 1941 by Mayrbek Sheripov. According to the NKVD, it was one of the most massive and serious underground organizations operating on the territory of Chechnya. In total, according to the NKVD, up to 25,000 insurgents operated on the territory of the Chechen-Ingush ASSR.
The fact is that the Germans made a very competent bet on radical Islamism and Arab nationalism. They even greased muftis, such as Hajj Amin al-Husseini (the Jerusalem mufti who did business in the east and received a dividend from Germany). With the direct participation of the Germans and Hitler's personal lobby, the 13th Islamic Mountain Division "Handshar" was created, numbering about 26,000 people. However, there were many of them, Muslim divisions: this is for you both "Skanderbeg" and "Neue-Turkestan", created with the involvement of Soviet prisoners of war, which was then included in the sonder detachment of Oscar Dirlenvagen (36th SS division).
Now, let's count? 1200 + 30,000 + 18,000 + 40,000 + 5,000 + 25,000. In total, it turns out that in total, about 119,000 people acted on the territory of the North Caucasus (and not only) during the war years - on the side of Nazi Germany, let me remind you. More than 30,000 of them were ethnic Chechens (1,200 in Bergmann, 5,000 in the NSPSB and 25,000 in the ChGNSPO). By the way, the promoted UPA (Ukrainian Insurgent Army), which fought on the side of the Reich, never numbered more than 30,000 thousand people.
Thus, you do not need to be a great mathematician to understand from the above data: the number of the North Caucasian formations of the Wehrmacht was four times the number of the same UPA. So why very, very often on television, in the press and on the Internet media they write about the UPA, Bandera, the atrocities of all kinds of SS-Galitschin, and not a word about the North Caucasian armed formations, consisting of people who have defected to the side of the enemy even before his arrival How did Mayrbek Sheripov's people do it? Obviously, here, as in everything else, the so-called "current political situation" plays a big role. Our relations with Ukraine are, frankly, unimportant.
Therefore, the masses are incited against Ukraine by reminding them of the betrayal of 30,000 people during the Second World War. And Ukraine itself is also good - in order to add fuel to the fire, they heroize S. Bandera, put UPA members on a pedestal. On the other hand, it is openly hushed up that also (oh, coincidence!) 30,000 Chechens betrayed the then USSR, and also fought on the side of the Wehrmacht. And knowing the methods of waging war by Muslims (with cutting off heads, genitals, making beads for a living person by cutting off his ears, nose, genitals, tongue - and stringing all this on a thread), I can imagine how the methods of murder differed " Muscovites "by Bandera (for me personally, for example, they burned my great-grandfather alive), and" infidels "by Islamist Nazi fanatics. “To prove the reliability of the connection,his companies were thrown into the most difficult sectors of the front, where, despite the absence of heavy weapons, they fought stubbornly and very effectively."
So why is it so little talked about? More precisely, they don't speak at all. I remember that V. V. Putin also said that one should treat historical science objectively and impartially, one should not dissect it, trying to fit it into the current political situation. And what? But nothing, since we are swearing, it means we will every day talk on TV about the atrocities of the UPA on the Ukrainian front, about how Ukrainians drink gas from us, and how the UPA members are chanting there. And since we are friends with Kadyrov, it means that we will gallantly keep silent about the atrocities of the Chechen armed formations as part of the Wehrmacht troops. Well, what if the person is offended?
By the way, compare - the slogan of the nationalist groups "Russia is for the Russians" is not at all new, something similar (or rather, almost identical) was used by the Chechens during the Great Patriotic War.
Over the past century, Georgia has more than once found itself a puppet in the hands of forces trying to create in the Caucasus "a counterbalance to Moscow's imperial ambitions," but itself has never played an independent political role. This was once again shown by the recent armed conflict in South Ossetia. At the same time, America managed to climb into the Caucasus relatively recently - in the mid-90s of the last century. Before that, the Georgians found themselves hostages of the geopolitical games of the British Empire, other countries of the Entente, Poland, and also Germany.
EVEN IN THE YEARS of the First World War, under the slogan of liberating Georgia from the Russian yoke, a Georgian legion was created as part of the German army. It is significant that the officers of this formation were recruited exclusively from Germans. After the declaration of independence in 1918, German troops were stationed in Georgia, and German instructors helped to form the national army.
At the stage of Georgia's joining the USSR, numerous local nationalists preferred to emigrate. Most of them offered their services to the intelligence agencies of European states. In 1922, the deputy minister of foreign affairs of the émigré "government" of Georgia sent to the leadership of the Polish General Staff a plan for a joint action against the Soviets, after which, by order of the Polish leader Pilsudski, about a hundred Georgians were admitted to the Polish army. The War Minister of Poland noted that "cooperation with Georgia during the war is valuable and desirable."
After the fall of Poland at the beginning of World War II, the Georgian fifth column ended up in the service of the Third Reich, whose leadership was already preparing for a war with the Soviet Union.
It should be emphasized that one of the goals of the eastern campaign, the Nazis chose the dismemberment of the multinational state. For a more successful implementation of the policy of colonizing the occupied territories of the USSR, the Germans planned to create a number of puppet governments completely controlled by Germany. Therefore, even before the start of the war with the Soviet Union, on the territory of the Third Reich and the occupied states of Europe, the formation of numerous organizations began, allegedly representing the interests of "peoples enslaved by Bolshevism."
Back in 1938, the "Georgian Bureau" was created in Berlin, which after a while was reorganized into the "Caucasian Bureau". In 1939, a congress of representatives of the Georgian nationalist organizations of Berlin, Prague and Warsaw was held in Rome, at which a decision was made to organize the "Georgian National Committee". In the summer of 1940, the Georgian right-wingers negotiated with the leader of the highland emigration, Heydar Bamat, on the creation of an all-Caucasian fascist party. The heir to the throne, Prince Bagration-Mukhransky, was selected for the role of the leader of the future "liberated" Georgia.
With the outbreak of the war, the German leadership decided to form a number of legions from among Soviet prisoners of war and emigrants who would fight against the Red Army on a par with the Wehrmacht units. The first legion created on the Eastern Front from non-Russian citizens of the USSR was the Turkestan Legion (November 1941). This formation included not only residents of the Central Asian republics and Kazakhstan, but also Tatars, Bashkirs and Azerbaijanis. Subsequently, the legions "Idel-Ural" (Tatars, Bashkirs and Chuvash), "Azerbaijan" and "North Caucasus" were created. On December 30, 1941, the legions "Armenia" and "Georgia" were also formed.
Despite all the claims of the German command about the equal status of the legionnaires, in fact the legions were used as cannon fodder. Legionnaires were thrown into the most difficult sectors of the front, and during the retreat they were left to cover the withdrawal of line units and the Waffen-SS. If the "eastern battalions" were surrounded, the German command did not particularly work to rescue them. As a result, defeatist sentiments and desertion began to appear among the personnel of the "eastern legions".
As a result, by the end of 1943, Hitler decided to disarm all units and subunits formed from representatives of the peoples of the USSR, and use the personnel as a labor force. Representatives of the High Command of the Wehrmacht managed to convince the Fuehrer that such a step could have disastrous consequences, because the "eastern troops" by that time numbered 427 thousand volunteers, equal in number to 30 German divisions. Therefore, it was decided not to disband the "eastern legions", but to transfer them to secondary theaters of military operations - to France, Italy, the Balkans, etc.
The "Georgian National Committee" and the center in Mariampolis were ordered to urgently relocate to the city of Conflans (France). The Georgian battalions located on the territory of the USSR were transferred to Normandy and Brittany (northern France). This caused a sharp protest from the Georgian legionnaires - up to attempts at open disobedience. In the units in Lithuania, there was a massive desertion, as a result of which many Georgians went into the forests to join the Lithuanian "forest brothers" - partisans who fought against the Germans, and after their departure and the return of the Red Army, they continued to fight against the Soviets.
Colonel Sh. Maglakelidze was removed from the command of the legion and transferred to service in German units in the Baltic States. Later, in 1944, in recognition of his services in the creation of the Georgian Legion, he was awarded the rank of Major General of the Wehrmacht.
Most of the Georgian battalions ended up in France. Some of them served to guard the Atlantic Wall: 795th - in Cherbourg as part of the 7th Army, 797th - in Grenneville as part of the 709th Infantry Division, 798th - in Saint-Nazaire as part of the 384th Infantry Division, 822nd - in the Lyon area, and then in Zandfoort (Holland) as part of the 344th Infantry Division, 823rd - as part of the 7th Army on the island of Guernsey. The 799th Georgian battalion deployed in Perigee and involved in operations against partisans in central France was part of the 25th Army Corps. The Georgian battalion of the 198th division at the beginning of December 1943 was transferred to Italy, where it became part of the 2nd SS Panzer Corps and participated in battles with partisans in the area of Giuneo-Domodosolle and Brescia.
Since, according to Hitler's 1943 order, none of the eastern volunteer units could henceforth be larger than a battalion, the Bergmann regiment was also divided. By August 1943, the Georgian battalion "Bergmann" was transferred to the northwestern part of Crimea, where it guarded the coastal zone from Ak-mosque to Yevpatoria. In September, the Georgians were transferred to the area southeast of Sevastopol. The battalion guarded the coastal road from Foros to Alushta and conducted reconnaissance in the mountains against Soviet partisans.
In the summer of 1944, the Western allies carried out a massive landing in northern France, in Normandy, and Soviet troops reached the borders of Poland and Hungary. The agony of the Third Reich began. During the Yalta Conference, among other agreements between the USSR and the allies, an agreement was reached on the extradition to the Soviet Union of all former USSR citizens who are on the territory of Europe controlled by the allies. The Georgian legionaries were also subject to extradition, who from the first days of the opening of the second front in Normandy were thrown into battle against the many times superior forces of the USA and Great Britain.
Most of the legionnaires were almost completely unaware of their destiny. Therefore, they rather easily surrendered to the Western allies, hoping that this would at least save their lives. Although there have been other situations. Thus, as an example of the unsuccessful conduct of the "psychological struggle", one can cite the scattering of leaflets by the allies in March 1945 over the positions of three Armenian and one Georgian battalions. In the leaflets, the legionnaires were called upon to immediately end the war and surrender, promising at the first opportunity to ensure their return to their homeland, to the USSR. It is not difficult to assume that these battalions fought to the last man. In the end, only a few badly wounded soldiers and officers fell into the hands of the British.
Most of the soldiers and officers of the "Georgia" legion did not receive such "warnings" and by the end of the war laid down their arms on the Western Front. One of the Georgian battalions, stationed on the Dutch island of Texel, revolted in April 1945 and, having gone over to the side of the Allies, began military operations against the German troops occupying part of the island. About 800 Georgian legionnaires under the command of Captain Loladze fought for two weeks, losing two-thirds of the composition only killed, after which they surrendered to the Canadians who arrived on the island. Almost all of the legionnaires (including the Texels who went over to the side of the allies) were subsequently extradited to the USSR.
Members of the Bergmann Battalion were not taken prisoner. They were immediately eliminated on the spot. Such "honor" was deserved by the thugs of the Hungarian units on the Voronezh front. 332nd Wehrmacht regiment, for perverted abuse of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya.
At the moment, the rarest items of the fascist army are the uniform and insignia of the Bergmann Battalion. In particular, because the allies were not taken prisoner and immediately dealt with when they learned that they had taken one of the Battalion of Bergmann. The allies did not like how these criminals suppressed the Warsaw Uprising.
