| 1st Cossack Cavalry Division | |
|---|---|
| German:1. Kosaken-Kavallerie-Division | |
 Divisional insignia | |
| Active | 1943–45 |
| Country |  Nazi Germany |
| Branch |  Wehrmacht Waffen-SS |
| Type | Cavalry |
| Role | Bandenbekämpfung Maneuver warfare Raiding |
| Size | 25,000 troops |
| Part of | XV SS Cossack Cavalry Corps |
| Engagements | World War II |
| Commanders | |
| Notable commanders | Helmuth von Pannwitz |
| Insignia | |
| Identification symbol |  |
The1st Cossack Cavalry Division (German:1. Kosaken-Kavallerie-Division) was aCossack division of theGerman Army that served duringWorld War II. It was created on theEastern Front mostly withDon Cossacks already serving in theWehrmacht, those who escaped from the advancingRed Army and SovietPOWs. In 1944, the division was transferred to theWaffen SS, becoming part of theXV SS Cossack Cavalry Corps, established in February 1945. At the end of the war, the unit ceased to exist.
It was one of two cossack cavalry divisions, the other being the2nd Cossack Cavalry Division.[1]: 189
Adolf Hitler authorised the formation of the division on 6 April 1943, ordering that all Cossacks serving in the Wehrmacht to be concentrated into the division.[2]
The division was formed and trained at Mielau (Mława) in the spring-summer of 1943.[3] The Cossacks brought their wives and children with them, forcing the Germans to establish another camp to house the dependents.[4]
The division was formed starting 4 August 1943 by merging the Platow and von Jungschulz Cossack regiments under the command of the ReiterverbandPannwitz, which had all existed since 1942. To these, additional new regiments were added.[5] Some other units brought in were the Cossack Reconnaissance Battalion, led by Don CossackNikolai Nazarenko, the Cossack detachment of 600 led by Ivan Kononov, also a Don Cossack, and a force ofTerek Cossacks led byataman Nikolai Kulakkov of the Terek host.[3]
Many of the German officers wereBaltic German émigrés who possessed the necessary knowledge of Russian.[6]
However, owing to a shortage of officers with the necessary Russian language skills, the Wehrmacht was forced to relax its policy against accepting émigré officers, and a number of Cossack émigré officers living inYugoslavia,France,Germany and theProtectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (modernCzechia) were recruited into the division.[4] Other officers were the sons of Cossack émigrés who had served in the armies ofFrance,Yugoslavia andBulgaria before the war.[4] A disproportionate number of the German officers were cavalrymen, and Austrians were over-represented as it was felt that Austrians were more "tactful" in dealing with Slavs than thePrussians.[6]
Initially organized to fight theRed Army insouthern Russia, the division was soon deployed to the puppetIndependent State of Croatia, where they were placed under the command of theSecond Panzer Army and were used to protect the railroad line fromAustria throughZagreb toBelgrade. Some units were also used to fight Partisans.[7]
The division's first fighting engagement was on 12 October 1943, when it was dispatched againstYugoslav Partisans in theFruška Gora Mountains. In the operation the Cossacks, aided by 15 tanks and one armored car, captured the village ofBeocin, a Partisan HQ. In that operation many villages were burned, including a monastery on Fruška Gora, and around 300 innocentSerbian villagers were killed. Subsequently, the unit was used to protect the Zagreb-Belgrade railroad and theSava Valley. Several regiments of the division took part in security warfare (Bandenbekämpfung) and guarded the Sarajevo railroad. As part of a wide security sweep,Napfkuchen, the Cossack division was transferred toCroatia, where it fought against Yugoslav Partisans and the Soviet Army in 1944-1945.[8]
The Cossacks felt closer to this Serbian minority inNDH than they did to theCroatian people. Due to the Cossack identification with the Serbian cause, the Cossacks concluded an unofficial truce with Tito’s rival, the royalist Serbian resistance leader, GeneralDragoljub Mihailović, who regarded Tito and the Ustaše as a more serious enemy than the Germans.[9]
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 toAdolf Hitler himself. 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 for mass hangings as a warning to the partisans and others. Although the behavior of the Cossacks was not as ruthless as portrayed by Partisan propaganda, nevertheless 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.[10]
The Cossacks' first engagement against the Red Army occurred in December 1944 nearPitomača. The fighting resulted in Soviet withdrawal from the area.[11]
In December 1944 the 1st Cossack Division was transferred to theWaffen-SS and reorganized by theSS Führungshauptamt. Until 30 April 1945, together with the 2nd Cossack Division it became part of the newly formedXV SS Cossack Cavalry Corps.[5]
At the end of the war Cossacks of the division retreated intoAustria and surrendered toBritish troops. They were promised safety by the British but were subsequentlyforcibly transferred to the USSR.[12] The majority of those who did not manage to escape went to labour camps in theGulag. The German and Cossack leadership were tried, sentenced to death and executed inMoscow in early 1947. The remaining officers and other ranks who survived the labour camps were released afterStalin's death in 1953.[13]
In 1944 the division was composed of the following units:[14]
Waffen-SS divisions | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Panzer | |||
| Panzer- grenadier | |||
| Mountain | |||
| Cavalry |
| ||
| Infantry | |||
| Police | |||
| Deception "Panzer" | |||
| Lists | |||
Units marked inbold were officially named "volunteer".See also:SS heavy Panzer battalions | |||
