![]() After three days, the outnumbered 1st Division had to retreat. The only active combat the Russian Liberation Army undertook against the Red Army was by the Oder River on 11 April 1945, largely at the insistence of Himmler, as a test of the army's reliability. Their fighting spirit earned them the praise of Heinrich Himmler. Ī small group of ROA volunteers fought against the Red Army on 9 February 1945. However, their membership remained de jure as the turn of events did not permit Vlasov to use the troops in any operation. Several other Russian units, such as the Russian Corps, XVth SS Cossack Cavalry Corps of General Helmuth von Pannwitz, the Cossack Camp of Ataman Domanov, and other primarily White émigré formations, had agreed to become a part of Vlasov's army. A third, the 3rd Infantry (700th German Infantry), had only began formation. This division was joined in large numbers by eastern workers, which caused it to nearly double in size as it marched south. Formed at Münsingen, it fought briefly on the Oder Front before switching sides and helping the Czechs liberate Prague.Ī second division, the 2nd Infantry (650th Infantry), was incomplete when it left Lager Heuberg but was sent into action under the command of General Mikhail Meandrov. German insistence that the document carry anti-Semitic rhetoric was successfully parried by Vlasov's committee, but they were obliged to include a statement criticising the Western Allies, labelling them "plutocracies" that were "allies of Stalin in his conquest of Europe".īy February 1945, only one division, the 1st Infantry (600th Infantry), was fully organised, under the command of General Sergei Bunyachenko. This document stated the purposes of the battle against Stalin, and spelled out 14 points which the army was fighting for. On 14 November in Prague, Vlasov read aloud the Prague Manifesto before the newly created Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia. FormationThe ROA did not officially exist until autumn of 1944, after Heinrich Himmler persuaded a very reluctant Hitler to permit the formation of 10 Russian Liberation Army divisions.
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