hello I'm doing some local history for a community project. A local historian who is usually very accurate has a report of mongolian pows being employed on farm work in barry south wales. He says they were returned to Russia after the war. Is there any chance that this is accurate? If anyone has any info I would be very grateful thank you
Memories of a Welsh childhood in Barry during Second World War D-DAY As the war progressed, prisoners of war appeared in Barry. They were mainly in camps on the Port Road. There were Germans, Italians and Mongol troops. The Italians and later some Germans were allowed to work on the local farms. They were picked up by lorry and dropped off at the farms; some later acquired bicycles and were allowed to make their own way back and forth. The Mongolian PoWs worked on the docks in Cardiff and were taken to work by lorry. (After the war they were sent back to Russia, where it was said they were all executed). Try contacting local history groups TD My problem with this at the moment is that Mongolia was not seemingly an Axis supporter so why would they be Axis POW's unless conscripted or forced by the Germans ans the Russian were to fight for Germany
I've no evidence for this, but as Mongolia was allied to Russia in WW2 it could be that Mongolian's (or those from that part of Asia/Soviet Asian republics & decscribed as "Mongolian") would have served in the Russian Army, been captured by the Germans & then fought for the Germans & captured by the allies. Certainly the allies in Normandy were surprised by the number of men from all parts of the Soviet Union & Eastern Europe they found among the German troops.
thanks thats the article we have I knew the author and he was very accurate as a rule could they have been russian far east troops who changed sides?
My thought is that if they were not actually Mongolian, they could have come from any of the Soviet Asian republics & had changed sides, which often led to their death when returned after the war.
The guess would have to be that they [the Mongolians] were picked up by the Germans during Op Barbarossa and given the choice to fight with them or go to work camps etc. This was common as many of the initial Axis POW's captured on D Day were not actually German TD
I'm pretty sure Travers40 has it right. Most soldiers ID'd as "Mongolians" were from the Soviet Central Asian republics. Here are members of the Turkmenistani Wehrmacht: (C) Mourning the Ancient And, slightly off topic as far as Soviet Central Asia goes: The mystery of Yang Kyoungjong, the only soldier to have fought on three sides of a war | National Post Regards, Dave
I also would imagine they were part of this bunch: The 162nd (Turk) Infantry Division was deployed in Slovenia at the end of 1943 and then in northern Italy to fight the partisans near Spezia and Val di Taro. In March 1944, it was transferred to Liguria, where it was placed under the LXXV Army Corps, which was providing security there. On 9 June 1944, the division was transferred to the XIV Panzer Corps, which was under pressure in central Italy. General Niedermayer, who was more of a scholar than a military man, had already been replaced by Lieutenant General von Heygendorff on 20 May 1944 at the request of the Commander-in-Chief Southwest Albert Kesselring. Between August and November 1944, the division was in the 10th Army's section securing the coast in the Rimini area and moved back to Liguria in December 1944. In March and April 1945, the division was in the LXXVI Panzer Corps. After the retreat via Bologna, the division fell into British captivity near Padua. The prisoners were gathered in the Taranto area and then transferred to the Soviet Union. See also: Muslims in the Wehrmacht Turkestan Legion - Wikipedia
Plenty of Mongolian / asiatic Russian Pows recruited into the German army and then sent to the western front . The Germans called them hiwis. Not a nice ending for those repatriated post war
If memory serves, at least two Ost battalions were deployed in Normandy at the time of D-Day. As the name implies, these were made up of turncoat Soviet PWs who had signed up with the Germans to avoid dying of starvation and abuse. The Soviets drafted large numbers of subject peoples from all over their empire, including many from Central Asia. These men were Moslems, many had little love for the Soviet system, and visually they often resembled the typical Western idea of a Mongol. One of these Ost battalions. was in the Gold Beach sector and many of the personnel made haste to give up to 50th Division. Depending on when these Mongolians [sic] appeared in Barry they may well have been ex-Ost battalion men rounded up in the early days of NEPTUNE.
Close, TTH but the personnel problems of the Wehrmacht were already so dramatic that al lot of Soviet citizens (roundabout 15.000) were eagerly promoted from Bolshevik sub-human beings to German cannon-fodder at the Normandy: Ost-Bataillon 439 (Ukr), since April 1944 IV. / Grenadier-Regiment 726 Ost-Bataillon 561/709. Inf.-Div. Ost-Bataillon 600 Ost-Bataillon 601 "Beresina" , since April 1944 Ost-Pionier-Brücken-Bataillon 601 Ost-Bataillon 602 "Dnjepr" Ost-Bataillon 615 Ost-Bataillon 618 Ost-Bataillon 629, since April 1944 IV. / Grenadier-Regiment 899 Ost-Bataillon 635/709. Inf.-Div. Ost-Bataillon 630, since April 1944 I. / Festungs-Grenadier-Regiment 857 Ost-Bataillon 633, since April 1944 IV. / Festungs-Grenadier-Regiment 852 Ost-Bataillon 634, since April 1944 III. / Festungs-Grenadier-Regiment 852 Ost-Bataillon 636 Ost-Bataillon 642 since April 1944 IV. / Grenadier-Regiment 736 Ost-Bataillon 643 since April 1944 IV. / Grenadier-Regiment 582 Ost-Bataillon 649 (Rus.) Wolga-Tartaren-Bataillon 627
The Ost battalion encountered by 50th Div on D-Day was number 441, which was under 716th Division: Ost-Bataillon 441 - Feldgrau.net
Just for added interest - I hope How Foreign Conscripts Helped Hitler Defend ‘Fortress Europe’ on D-Day "one out of every six soldiers fighting for the Axis in France on 6th June was a non German" TD
