I have seen numerous internet board discussions about who were the last Nazis to surrender. The general consensus is that these were Nazi weather teams operating in the Artic regions, who were abandoned and not sent back home until about a year after hostilities ended. I argue that these were not really "holdouts", but rather German Soldiers who were left behind and unable to surrender due to their isolation. However, the following link provides an example of a remnant German unit, apparently consisting of Germans and pro fascist Ukrainians, who were apparently lost behind Soviet lines during the German retreat along the Eastern Front. They apparently held out until 1947, after which they decided to fight their way back to Germany. This must have been a remarkable feat of arms (in no way is this an endorsement of Nazi ideology), which is the last real combat action of the German Army on the Eastern Front.
My question is whether a military history exists, in either German, Eastern European, English, or any other language, of this unit, and specifically of this German version of "The Long March"?.
Thanks.
Brian Ghilliotti
To be honest with you, this whole story seems very dubious to me since none of the pertinent sources either on the 14th Waffen SS Grenadier Division nor on the post-war politics of occupation mention it.
A lot has been written about the 14th Waffen-SS Grenadier Division since they were investigated for war crimes by the Canadian government in the 1980s given how many of the former soldiers, who had surrendered on May 10, 1945 and afterwards interned in Italy had emigrated to Canada and this little tidbit is nowhere to be found.
While it is true that both the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) both continued to fight against the Soviets and the Communist Polish Government until 1949, the idea that one of their units marched and fought all the way to the US occupied zone of Germany or Austria is also something that simply is not mentioned in the relevant literature.
That, in connection to the fact of how the Cold War escalated in 1947 and the Soviet troop placement in Austria and Germany, this story seems completely dubious and can be, as far as can be discerned, not be backed up with sources.