"Europe's Last Battlefield - Texel, Netherlands" Topic

Not sure if this has been covered before, but it's an obscure way to use WW2 German figures.

For five years, the Second World War caused little disruption to daily life on Texel. Despite a strong presence of German occupying forces, bunkers having been built all over the island and hundreds of Texel men having been deported to Assen, life on Texel was relatively quiet. Until April 1945, the uprising by the Georgian soldiers who were fighting on the German side.

GEORGIAN INFANTRY BATTALION
As the German defeat became apparent, the army command was forced to put troops into action formed of prisoners of war from the Eastern Front. The 822nd Georgian infantry battalion, which arrived on Texel on 6 February 1945, was among these troops. It consisted of 800 Georgians and 400 Germans.

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The battle claimed the lives of 565 Georgians, 120 Texel people and about 800 Germans. Texel properties were left heavily damaged. Although Germany had already surrendered unconditionally on 5 May, the war on Texel would continue until 20 May. Consequently, the Georgian Uprising is also referred to as ‘Europe's last battlefield'.

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eventually an alarm was raised and the entire garrison was put on alert. They didn't have any aircraft to speak of, so three ships were sent from the mainland to quell the uprising, but they were sunk by Soviet planes. Soon, however, several regiments were re-deployed from the mainland to Texel to quell the uprising. Before the regiments' arrival, we managed to break into several weapons warehouses and secure some munitions. The combat that followed was fierce, but the soldiers still managed to retake the island. That woman, Cornelia Boon, helped us by warning us about upcoming German raids in advance. She also managed to hide and save many Georgian soldiers.
The worker hundred, part of which I was, took position on a hill and held it for several days, but we were outnumbered twenty to one. Every night there were raids aimed at flushing us out, with sniffer dogs used to find out positions. We tried to hide in foxholes, but to no avail. Out of 115 Georgians that were on that hill, only eight survived.

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The remaining Georgians, now operating as a Partisan unit away from their fixed positions, were still fighting German troops when the Canadians landed on Texel on May 20th, two weeks after the cessation of hostilities on the Dutch mainland. The members of the former 822nd Battalion refused to voluntarily disarm and leave Texel until the Canadians spoke on their behalf to the Soviet authorities.

The local Canadian commander was so impressed by their resistance that he refused to class the Georgians as enemy personnel. Instead the Canadians treated them at all times as Displaced Persons. They did not have to disarm until their evacuation to Wilhelmshaven on 16 June 1945. Even then, officers were permitted to retain side arms.

In a letter signed by Major General Foulkes, the commander of the 1st Canadian Corps, the Civil Affairs staff officer, Lt. Colonel Lord Tweedsmuir, wrote directly to the Soviet High Command. He praised the Georgians as valiant Soviet allies whose rebellion had resulted in over 2300 German casualties. He also requested that the Red Army receive the Georgians as heroes and that they be immediately rehabilitated.

Lord Tweedsmuir accompanied the Georgians, guarded by personnel from the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, to Wilhelmshaven and spoke on their behalf to Soviet Liasion Officers in that city. In 1946, the Soviet daily newspaper 'Pravda' praised the Texel Georgians as 'Soviet patriots' and as rebelling 'POWs' who had liberated Texel. The group's rehabilitation by Moscow did not occur until the middle of the 1950s. Their acceptance back in the Soviet Union perhaps was on the strength of the Canadian involvement and the highly controversial letter in defiance of the Western Allies' overall policy of non-interference in Soviet handling of their returning citizens. In fact, few of the ‘Texel Georgians' apparently had been punished for volunteering in the German army. The Texel Georgians were only a small part of the Wehrmacht's 30,000-strong Georgia Legion.
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Bunker model

Map of German positions

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For those inclined to tackle this scenario, this book is probably worth finding.
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I knew about Texel. But calling it "Europe's Last Battlefield" was optimistic even at the time, to put it no further. Talk to the Greeks--or the Poles or the Ukrainians. Some of the German units trapped in the Soviet zone lasted quite a while, too.

Much easier to start a war than to stop one.

Still, nice to have a scenario which only needs late war Germans.

Its always great when somebody brings a more obscure scenario to the attention of the masses. Thx.

Interesting info.

Love that bunker.

I went to Texel a few years ago. That big bunker is on pretty much the only significant hill on the island (it is also studded with Tobruk pits etc).