Remember Brody, Banderaite!
Today, July 22, is, without exaggeration, a holiday. 72 years ago, in the battle of Brody, units of the 1st Ukrainian Front successfully mobilized Ukrainian fascists from the Waffen-SS Galicia division, or, as it was listed in German documents, the 14th Volunteer (1st Ukrainian) Grenadier Division Waffen-SS "Galicia".
At the beginning of 1943, having passed the peak of combat effectiveness, the armed forces of Nazi Germany began to urgently need replenishment. Seizing the moment, in February 1943, one of the leaders of the Ukrainian fascists, Andriy Melnik, with the blessing of the Uniate Metropolitan Sheptytsky, sent an appeal to the chief of staff of the OKW (Wehrmacht High Command) Field Marshal Keitel, expressing hope for the soon inclusion of the Ukrainian Nazis in the anti-Bolshevik front . In his letter, Melnik shares his plans to create a Ukrainian army and regrets that during the two years of war many opportunities have been missed, and it would be nice to accept into the ranks of the German armed forces the lads eager to fight the Muscovites without unnecessary red tape.
By contacting such a Hitler important man as Keitel, Melnik enlisted the support of the governor of the Galicia district, SS Gruppenführer Otto Wächter.
Thus, meeting the wishes of the leaders of the Ukrainian fascists, and, moreover, having irreparable losses in personnel, the top of the Reich gave the go-ahead for the creation of a native Waffen-SS division and announced the mobilization of “non-Aryans” to serve Hitler’s Germany. Not many, not a few, 70 thousand Galician Raguli responded to the call, hurrying to integrate into Europe and receive a set of uniforms from Hugo Boss along with lace panties.
True, at the same time, Hitler’s demand was fulfilled not to indicate the newly formed SS division as Ukrainian and its police (read: punitive functions).
About 14 thousand volunteers were recruited into the division, but the Raguli who were not accepted into “Galicia” were also useful: they replenished five new police regiments and the reserve regiment of the division.
It is interesting that not everyone in the division were Galicians. Some of the “legionnaires” (as foreign Waffen-SS volunteers were called in the Reichsführer-SS department) were Volksdeutsche (ethnic Germans born outside the borders of the Reich), for whom military service in Hitler’s army was an obligation. Most of the division's officers and its commanders were Germans. The oath of the “Galitsa legionnaires” was no different from other foreign formations of the Waffen-SS and was given directly to the Reich and the Fuhrer of the German nation, Adolf Hitler.
However, as the “legionnaires” of the first set report, things were not so smooth with voluntariness in “Galicia”. When the organizers decided that recruitment into the division was not going forward enough, the “volunteers” began to be driven into the dill by the Waffen-SS with a stick, relatives were taken hostage, and refuseniks were subjected to long and painful executions by garrote.
In addition, as the same “legionnaires” reported, such nationalist activists as Kulchitsky and Co. misled the recruits, claiming that the abbreviation SS stood for “Sich Riflemen”, continuers of the “glorious traditions” of Konovalets’ warriors. By the way, the Galicia fan club is talking about this same thing today, trying to whitewash their bloody idols.
At the beginning of July 1944, the “Galicia” division, whose personnel never completed their “school”, was thrown near the city of Brody against the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front involved in the offensive Lvov-Sandomierz operation. Very quickly a ring formed around the Raguli and the 1st German Tank Army, which was fighting next to them. 19 days were enough to almost completely crush the Galicians along with their German masters.
It is estimated that 7-8 thousand Ukrainian “legionnaires” out of 14 thousand perished in the encirclement. No more than 3 thousand Natsiks managed to escape from the ring. The rest were either partially captured or joined the UPA operating in those parts.
According to the testimony of the few Raguli who survived the battle near Brody, as soon as things smelled like kerosene for “Galicia”, German officers quickly abandoned it, and German non-commissioned officers tried by hook or by crook to go to the rear. From here the question arises with all ruthlessness about the chances of Bandera and his associates to build an independent Ukrainian state under a German protectorate.
There is an anecdote about the first and last battle of “Galicia” near Brody:
Soviet tanks rolled over the Galitsa positions. The dust and fumes have cleared, and in the dilapidated trench two surviving Raguli are found - Vasyl and Mykola.
Vasyl sniffs the air and asks: “Mykola, are you okay?” To which Mykola honestly replies: “Okay, okay! Ale is not a form of fear, but a form of velykoi hate!”
Having begun ingloriously, the history of the Waffen-SS Galicia division logically came to an even more inglorious end. The remnants of the division that escaped the encirclement were sent to Germany for reorganization and replenishment. In October 1943, “Galicia” was transferred to Slovakia, already as the “14th SS Combat Grenadier Division”. Characteristically, the two regiments of the division were subordinated not to the military command, but to the police command - the top leadership of the SS and police of the General Government.
In other words, realizing the complete uselessness of the Raguli as soldiers at the front, the Nazi command came up with the idea of using the rotten human material they inherited as punitive forces, forming “Einsatzgruppen” from them, thereby shifting part of the dirty work onto their shoulders. Thus, the “Galitsians” took up what they knew best – fighting with civilians. Immediately after reorganization and replenishment, “Galicia” was aimed at suppressing the Slovak national uprising and fighting detachments of Soviet Kovpak partisans in the area of the city of Zilina.
Shortly before the end of the war, what was left of “Galicia” was quickly repainted into the 1st division of the UNA (Ukrainian National Army) under the command of the now racially correct dill-Gruppenführer Shandruk and took the “oath to the Ukrainian people”, without abandoning its Hitler's oath and without firing a single shot towards their former masters. The rest of the Ukropen-Fashnya was merged into the 2nd UNA Division. After the surrender of Germany, almost 10 thousand snouts from the “Galitsa” managed to break into Austria and surrender to the British there. About 5 thousand “legionnaires” were captured by Soviet troops.
Unfortunately, the former allies refused to hand over the Ukrofashists who had surrendered to them to the Soviet authorities, since even then plans were being made to use them against the USSR. Former punishers from the “Galitsa” were even allowed to emigrate to the UK, Canada and the USA. As a formal argument, their new owners insisted that among the “Galitsians” it was very difficult to distinguish between real criminals and those who were ideological opponents of the USSR and were forcibly recruited. They politely declined to accept as evidence documents about the atrocities of the “Galitsians” in the occupied territories of our country. Well, it’s convenient.
Thanks to the policy of rehabilitating fascist executioners under the guise of “national heroes,” the SS men from “Galicia” in today’s Ukraine shuffle along the asphalt with giddyness in their parades on the day the division is formed. Their ideological followers have been terrorizing Donbass for the third year now and committing crimes throughout the former Soviet republic.
The time will come, and they will have their own Brody. And so that every scum will be rewarded for what they have done.
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