12 Retirement
The battalion war diaries for the period are WO 170/5068 (1945) and WO 170/8032 (1946), those for 139 Brigade are WO 170/4480 and WO 170/4481 (1945), and WO 170/7775 (1946); and for the 46th Division WO 170/4352, WO 170/4353 and WO 170/4354 (1945), and WO 170/7714 (1946). Personal accounts as usual are from the Nottinghamshire Archives and IWM sound archive. Secondary sources are limited, but Mair (1956) and Bader (1966) cover the Allied occupation of Austria overall. Works on the Cossacks and the politics of Yugoslavia post war are fraught with problems of bias. Tolstoy (1977) is the standard work on the Cossack repatriations but many of his views have been discounted by Cowgill et al. (1990), a well-researched critique which tries to be impartial. For Yugoslav treatment of Croatian PWs and refugees, see Tomasevich (2001) and Rulitz (2016).
Notes
p. 230-31 Charlesworth, IWM tape #13454, Reel 13.
pp. 232-33 Descriptions of the Russian army from Beardsall, IWM tape #13853, Reel 5. Lord, IWM Tape #18257, Reel 10; Schofield ‘Recollections of an Infantryman’, p. 143-44 and p. 164; Charlesworth, IWM tape #13454, Reel 14.
p. 233 PoW numbers from WO 170/5068, 5th SF WD, May 1945; WO 170/4353, 46 Div WD May 1945, f. 219, message form dated 14 May; WO 170_5036, 2/5th Leicesters WD, May 1945; Brig. Anthony Cowgill, Lord Brimelow and Christopher Booker, Repatriations from Austria in 1945. The Report of an Inquiry (London: Sinclair Stevenson, 1990) p. 19.
p. 233 DP numbers from John Mair, ‘Austria’ in Four Power Control in Germany and Austria 1945–46, (London NY Toronto, OUP, 1956) pp. 269–376 (p. 356). WO 170/4353, 46 Div WD, May 1945, ‘46 Div Political Int Notes No. 6’, 30 Aug 1945.
pp. 234-35 Peter Pearson’s account is in More Sherwood Forester Memories, pp. 202–203. The actual numbers are from WO 170/4353, 46 Div WD, May 1945. General Ivan Kononov was a Red Army officer, but his parents had been killed by the Bolsheviks. He and his regiment of Cossacks deserted en masse in August 1941. He was the only Cossack officer to retain senior command in the Cossack Corps, the other senior generals being German.
pp. 235-237 Details of Exercise ‘Cossack’ taken from WO 170/5068, 5th SF WD, May-June 1945; WO 170/4480, 139 Bde WD May 1945; WO 170/4352, 46 Div WD May, Information Log, 28 May 1945 and ‘Incidents in Austria and Italy’, 16 Jun 1945’, f. 597; WO 170/7389, 78 Div WD June 1945, Sitrep 1 June. Personal accounts from Bennett, IWM Tape #13230, Reel 7; Seibert IWM Tape #18485, Reel 12; Binch, IWM Tape #12941, Reel 10; Hughes, in MSFM, p. 126; Lord, ibid, p. 164.
p. 236 A message form dated 25 May in WO 170/4352, 46 Div WD May 1945, reported 1,143 Germans and 18,829 Cossacks in the XV Corps and Kononov Division. Tolstoy, Victims of Yalta (London, Hodder& Stoughton 1977), p. 236 gives 17,702 handed over to the Russians from 46th Division, which comes from WO 170/4353, 46 Div WD June 1945, and includes 817 Germans, 16,825 Cossack soldiers, 7 priests, 47 women, and 5 children (Tolstoy’s arithmetic is out by one!). These numbers are just for 46th Division, in addition about 23,000 were collected and handed over by 78th Division and 6th Armoured Division (Cowgill Inquiry Report, p. 139). The existence of Cossacks in Italy from CAB-79–39–15, Minutes of COS Committee, 26 September, 1945, COS (45) 590 ‘Repatriation of Cossacks from Italy’.
pp. 237-38 Stories about the Cossack horses from Pearson, in MSFM, p. 204, Wright, in On Active Service p. 123; Lord, IWM Tape #18257, Reel 10; Seibert IWM Tape #18485, Reel 12; Bennet, IWM tape #13230, Reel 7; and Moore, No Need to Worry, pp 235–7. Lt-Col Price died of his injuries in April 1946.
p. 239 According to Mair, Four Power Control, p. 317, the fraternisation rules in Austria were relaxed due to a minute by Winston Churchill on 29 June 1945.
p. 240 Discovery of the mass grave in WO 170/5068, 5th SF WD July, August 1945; background information from Geoffrey P. Megargee (Ed.), Encyclopedia Of Camps And Ghettos, 1933–1945, Volume I: Early Camps, Youth Camps, And Concentration Camps and Subcamps under the SS-Business Administration Main Office (WVHA), Part B(Bloomington/Indianapolis: Indiana University Press and The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2009), pp. 924–925; Dr. Bernhard Schrettle, ‘Memorial Aflenz / Wagna’, <https://archaeoregion.at/en/memorial-aflenz-wagna/> [accessed 8/7/2022].
p. 241 WO 170/4481 139 Bde war diary, September 1945. Personal recollections in Sheppard, IWM Tape #13455, Reel 10; Smith, IWM Tape #13562, Reel 5; Hughes, in MSFM pp. 124–25; Reynolds, IWM Tape 13563, Reel 5; Bennet, IWM tape #13230, Reel 7; Harrington, IWM Tape #18484, Reel 5; Binch, IWM Tape #12941, Reel 11 and OAS, pp. 86–87. The execution in which Binch participated was when he was serving with the 2nd Loyals in 1946, but the firing squad consisted mostly of ex-5th Battalion men. For anti-Nazi patrols see WO 170/5068, 5th SF WD, August 1945, WO 170/4354, 46 Div WD September, ‘Intelligence’, 20 Sep 1945; Schofield ‘Recollections of an Infantryman’, p. 158 and p. 162, Hallett, in MSFM, p. 188. The ‘bazookas’ were presumably panzerschreck, the German equivalent to the American bazooka.
p. 242 For Austrian elections see WO 170/4354, 46 Div WD November 1945 ‘Austrian Elections – 25 Nov 1945’, Issued 13 November 1945; William B Bader, Austria Between East and West (Stanford: Stanford UP, 1966), pp. 41–46: Mair, Four Power Control, p. 321.
p. 242-43 WO 170/5068, 5th SF WD, May 1945 identifies the Croatian unit. For the controversial post-war Yugoslav political situation see Florian Thomas Rulitz (trans. Andreas Niedermayer) The Tragedy of Bleiburg and Viktring, 1945 (De Kalb, Nthn Illinois Press, 2016) pp83–113; Jozo Tomasevich, War and Revolution in Yugoslavia 1941–45: Occupation and Collaboration (Stanford: Stanford UP, 2001) pp. 765–771. Tomosevich states that none of the 369th Division personnel were ethnic Croatians, which contradicts British contemporary records.
pp. 243 For Anglo-Yugoslav relations, see Cowgill Inquiry Report, p. 141; WO 170/5068, 5th SF WD, September-November 1945; WO 170/5068, 5th SF WD, January 1946; WO 170/7714, 46 Div WD May 1946, Int Summary No. 21 App. A, ‘Deportation of Volksdeutsche by the Jugoslavs’.
pp. 243-44 Local relations with Yugoslavs from Lord, in MSFM, p. 164; Bennett, IWM tape #13230, Reel 7; Seibert IWM Tape #18485, Reel 13; WO 170/5068, 5th SF WD, September 1945; WO 170/5068, 5th SF WD, January 1946; Ball in MSFM, p. 197.
p. 244 Ski patrols from Charlesworth, IWM tape #13454, Reel 14; Lord, IWM Tape #18257, Reel 11; Reynolds, IWM Tape 13563, Reel 5, Seibert IWM Tape #18485, Reel 13.
p. 244-45 Farming and forestry activities from WO 170/5068, 5th SF WD, October-December 1945; Ball, in MSFM, p. 198, though he locates the lumber camp near Graz; Coombs, IWM Tape #22080, Reel 5; Lord, IWM Tape #18257, Reel 11; Lord, MSFM, p. 164; WO 170/4481, 139 Bde WD, September – December 1945; WO 170/4354 46 Div WD November 1945. For background to the fuel crisis, see Mair, Four Power Control, p. 343–45.
p. 246 The bull story is from Seibert IWM Tape #18485, Reel 13. Schofield incident from ‘Recollections’, pp. 150–52, also in OAS, p. 27; the official record is WO 213/67 Field General Courts Martial (Abroad) Vol. 67, f. 173. Other cases from ibid f. 35; WO 213/68, and WO 213/68 Field General Courts Martial (Abroad) Vol. 68, f. 55 and f. 71.
p. 247-48 WO 170/8032, 5th SF WD, March 1946. Individual accounts from Schofield ‘Recollections’, pp. 170; also in OASp. 27; Ball, in MSFM, p. 200; Les Lowe, IWM Tape #15589, Reel 8; Charlesworth, IWM tape #13454, Reel 14; Seibert, IWM Tape #18485, Reel 13. Bennett, IWM tape #13230, Reel 7 says some of the Foresters went to the Queen’s Regiment, this is not indicated in the War Diary.