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Turkestan Legion
Turkistanische Legion
Arm badge of the Turkistan Legion
Founded
May 1942
Disbanded
1945
Allegiance
Nazi Germany
Branch
Wehrmacht
Size
16,000 soldiers in 16 battalions (1943)
Part of
German Army
Engagements
World War II
Italian campaign
Operation Achse
Operation Overlord
Insignia
Flag
Military unit
The Turkestan Legion (German: Turkistanische Legion) was the name of the military units composed of the Turkic peoples who served in the Wehrmacht during World War II. Most of these troops were Red Army prisoners of war who formed a common cause with the Germans (cf. Turkic, Caucasian, Cossack, and Crimean collaborationism with the Axis powers). Its establishment was spearheaded by Nuri Killigil, a Turkish theorist of Pan-Turkism, which sought to separate territories inhabited by Turkic peoples from their countries and eventually unite them under Turkish rule.
Turkmen volunteers in France.
Although Asian peoples had been perceived as "racially inferior" by the Nazis they were ready to use them for war effort.
The first Turkestan Legion was mobilized in May 1942, originally consisting of only one battalion but expanded to 16 battalions and 16,000 soldiers by 1943. Under the Wehrmacht's command, these units were deployed exclusively on the Western Front in France and Italy, isolating them from contact with the Red Army.
The battalions of the Turkestan Legion formed part of the 162nd Infantry Division and saw much action in Axis-occupied Yugoslavia (especially modern-day Croatia) and Italy.
A large portion of the Turkestan Legion was captured by Allied forces and repatriated into the Soviet Union after the war's end, where they faced execution or incarceration by the Soviet government for having collaborated with the Nazis. Notable members of the legion include Baymirza Hayit, a Turkologist who after the war settled in West Germany and became an advocate for Pan-Turkist political causes.
The TurkestanLegion (German: Turkistanische Legion) was the name of the military units composed of the Turkic peoples who served in the Wehrmacht during...
memorandum ordered that the OKW was to create two Muslim units: the TurkestanLegion, consisting of Central Asian Muslim volunteers; such as Turkomans,...
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14 of the TurkestanLegion, 9 of the Armenian Legion, 8 of the Azerbaijani Legion, 8 of the Georgian Legion, 7 of the North Caucasian Legion, and 7 Volga-Tatar...
personnel from the Soviet Union, including the Caucasian Muslim Legion, TurkestanLegion, Crimean Tatars, ethnic Ukrainians and Russians, Cossacks, and...
recruits, but these plans were abandoned after the creation of the TurkestanLegion. All three battalions of the LVF were deployed as a single unit for...
services as an intelligence asset. He was involved in establishing the TurkestanLegion comprised by Turkic captives from the Soviet Union. Ruzi was wounded...
1941) was a Kazakh social and political activist and ideologue of the Turkestan Autonomy. From 1921, he lived in exile in France. Mustafa Shokay was born...
1941. Then he served as an officer in the TurkestanLegion of the German Wehrmacht. While serving in the legion he met the legendary Turkistani nationalist...
German support for the Pan-Turkic cause. With his assistance, the TurkestanLegion was formed by the Schutzstaffel. During World War II, Killigil was...
The Czechoslovak Legion (Czech: Československé legie; Slovak: Československé légie) were volunteer armed forces comprised predominantly of Czechs and Slovaks...
November–December 1941, Hitler ordered the formation of four Eastern Legions: Turkestan, Georgian, Armenian and Caucasian Mohammedan. In August 1942, the...
internment camps within German occupied territories served within TurkestanLegion or joined the French Resistance. After the defeat of Nazi Germany in...
parts of the USSR (such as the Kaminski Brigade, the Armenian Legion, and the TurkestanLegion). The first formation ever raised was the 201st Latvian Rifle...
in 1864. On August 8, 1866, he was promoted to lieutenant in the 1st Turkestan Infantry Battalion, and took part in the conquest of Bukhara, the storming...
as well as the SS Division Galicia, Belarusian Home Defence, the TurkestanLegion, and pro-Nazi sabotage units as well as police. In his book published...
Cossack Kalmyk named Lavga Deldinov and adopted in Ust-Kamenogorsk, Russian Turkestan (now Kazakhstan) by the family of his mother's brother, the Russian Cossack...
included the Crimean-Azov Army, the Forces of Northern Caucasus and the Turkestan Army. By October 1919, the army had 150,000 soldiers, which included 48...
Global Information
Nazi Germany
