Russian Troops with the German Army
Strength and Organisation of the Volunteers from Russia, the Baltic States and the Russian Liberation Army ROA

Russian Troops with the German Armed Forces

The continuous drain of German military personnel brought about by the bitter fighting on the Eastern Front, together with increasing partisan activity in the German rear, brought about a gradual process which began with the employment of the vast numbers of Red Army prisoners of war held by the Germans.
These selected Red Army men were given German uniforms stripped of insignia, and were often entered on the strength returns of the German unit. These 'frans' or Hiwis (short for Hilfswillige or volunteer helper) meant that German units could use all German personnel in the fighting units and rely on Hiwis to carry out all the supply, construction and other non-combattant tasks.
It is estimated that about 1,500,000 Soviet citizens served in the German forces.

The next phase was to employ Hiwis in a more active role, either as interpreters, scouts or sentries, and finally as fighting soldiers. At the same time the commanders of the vast rear areas began to recruit units, usually of battalion strength, from Red Army prisoners, who were then employed on security duties protecting the German rear and particularly the vital railway network which was the prime target of Soviet partisans. At first these men wore Red Army uniforms stripped of Soviet emblems and with an armlet identifying them as being 'Im Dienst der deutschen Wehrmacht' (In the Service of the German Armed Forces'). By August 1942 these uniforms had been replaced by German ones on which was worn newly-introduced insignia.

Picture: Russian Cossacks in German service.

In July 1942 the staff of the disbanded German 162nd Infantry Division in occupied Poland was used to train battalions of the six newly established Armenian, Azerbaijan, Georgian, North Caucasian, Volga-Tartar and Turkestan Eastern Legions. In all 98 Eastern Legion battalions were formed (82 by the 162nd Division) and 79 served on the Eastern and Balkan Fronts 1942-45; 12 of these transferred to France and Italy in 1943-44.

On 4 August 1943 the 1st Cossack Divison was formed with six cavalry regiments ( 1 & 5 Don, 2 Siberian, 3 & 4 Kuban, 6 Terek), divisional support units and services. It served in Croatia from October 1943, and in November 1944 transferred to Waffen-SS control, divided into 1st and 2nd Division and forming XV Cossack Cavalry Corps.
Nine independent Cossack infantry and 19 cavalry battalions fought on the Eastern Front with German divisions.

Picture: Charge of a Cossack patrol in German service.

Russian Liberation Army (ROA)

In January 1943 the Eastern Battalions were transferred to the Russian Liberation Army (Russkaya Osvoboditel'naya Armiya) or ROA, under the command of the ex-Soviet general Andrey Wasslow. He hoped to unit all Russian volunteer units into an army to free the Soviet Union from communist control, but the battalions were used individual within German divisions. At this time there was still a strong resistance by the Nazi party and Himmler's SS against the Russian liberation movement. A total of 71 battalions of the ROA served on the Eastern Front, but from October 1943, 42 battalions from destroyed German divisions were transferred to Belgium, Denmark, France and Italy.

Together with the Eastern Legions there existed in the of summer of 1944 total 160 Bataillons with approx. 300,000 Russian volunteers.

Picture: General Wasslow inspects troops of the ROA.

Only after the collapse of the Eastern Fronts on 14 November 1944, the ROA was officially redesignated the 'Armed Forces of the Committe for Liberation of the Russian Peoples' (VS-KONR) with about 50,000 Russian troops, but the term ROA was commonly used until the end of the war. The 1st Russian Infantry (600th German) Division was formed on 1 December 1944 and fought on the Oder Front from April 1945. The 2nd Russian Infantry (650th German) Division and 3rd Russian Infantry (599th German) Division were never fully established and operational.

Picture: Troops of the ROA 1st Division parade at Munsingen training camp, south-west Germany, on 10 February 1945. The three officers are carrying obsolete 9mm MP34/1 Bergmann sub-machine guns and the troops carry Kar98k rifles and Panzerfaust 60s.

Baltic States

On 22 June 1941 the Red Army's 29th Corps (Baltic Special Military District) disintegrated. The two divisions (the 179th and 184th ?) were ex-Lithuanian Army Divisions. The mutinied, killed most of their officers and commissars, then declared themselves a new Lithuanian Army.The hole they leave in the Russian line let a German Panzer corps drive on Kaunas, which 6,000 troops from the former 29th Corps had already captured. The Germans disarmed them and gradually used them as Einsatzgruppen forces, prison guards, etc.
It is also believed that two ex-Latvian divisions disappeared as well, and possibly one ex-Estonian Division.
[Thanks for this information to a website visitor from Lithuania - confirmations would be helpful]

The inhabitants of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were used by the Germans in various ways. A large number of Estonians, for example, were recruited by the German 18th Army to carry out security duties in the rear areas.

On 1 January 1943 Estonian troops were reorganized into Estonian Company 657 and Estonian Battalions 658-660, transferring to the Waffen-SS on 24 April 1944. From February 1944 six Estonian Frontier Regiments (1-6) were formed to defend Estonia, disbanding in September 1944.

The first contribution of the Lithuanian nation to the German war effort was the formation in April 1943 of Lithuanian companies attached to German Army construction battalions.
Twenty battalions with a total of 12,000 Lithuanians also served with the German police in the so-called Schutzmannschaften.

Picture: Decoration of Baltic soldiers and auxiliaries in German service.

In September 1943 the Luftwaffe began to form Latvian units which in August 1944 were brought together to form the Latvian Aviation Legion.
The Legion was composed of three night bomber squadrons (equipped with captured Russian Polikarpov Po-2), an aviation school and an anti-aircraft battalion, and various supporting units. Total personnel strength was about 628 men.

In August 1944, 5,500 conscripts who had been found unsuitable for front duty were transferred to the Luftwaffe as war auxiliaries (Luftwaffen-Kampfhelfer) and were taken to Germany and distributed amongst various Luftwaffe units. In the same month the Latvian Youth Organisation was ordered to call up youths born in 1928 and eventually about 4,000 youths, and later 1,000 girls became another category of Luftwaffe auxiliaries.