Looking at the available photographs of 14th SS “Galicia” Division, their uniform seems to be a curious mix. Their officers’ caps bore the eagle gripping the swastika, and the “Death’s Head” emblem. The arm sleeves also bore the eagle/swasitka empblem. However, the collars did not display the SS runes common to the other Waffen SS units. Many of the divisional emblems were Ukrainian nationalist in appearance.
I’d say this division was primarily composed of western Ukrainian nationalists who despised the Soviet Union, and no doubt also had a strong anti-semitic character. A number of the same sort of people served the Germans in the death camps.
The division had a good combat record despite the Soviets belief they were a weak spot in the German line. Most of the division was destroyed along with the rest of German 13th Army Corps in the Brody pocket in July 1944.
“The division had a good combat record despite the Soviets belief they were a weak spot in the German line.”
Their superiors found them lackluster”
“These Ukrainians are soft inside and fickle, and lack much in comparison to fighting German soldiers.”
~ Heinrich Himmler
“Either the unit is reliable or it isn’t reliable. At the moment I can’t even create new formations in Germany because I have no weapons. Therefore it is idiocy to give weapons to a Ukrainian division which is not completely reliable.”
~ Adolf Hitler
http://www.axishistory.com/axis-nations/1295-14-waffen-grenadier-division-der-ss-ukrainische-nr-1
From the MREs sold off into the black market and the turning over of bases, vehicles, weapons and material in the East, Hitler’s successors in title might have been advised to study up on their catspaws.
I’m sure you know the SS had stringent recruitment standards leading up to the war: Height, `racial purity, no fillings in teeth, etc. By late `44 those standards were a lot lower. Hitler was confounded to learn that there was an Indian SS battalion, using resources but not doing much but R&R.
Which isn’t to say the Galicians didn’t fight well, they did but they weren’t even close to the 1st SS, the Liebstandardte or Peiper’s `Blowtorch Battalion’.
A lot of foreign SS were fighting as late as the battle for Berlin, not wanting to surrender.
Did the Galicians get the blood-type tattoos under their left arms, do you know? Often that’s how the Allies ID’d SS, and some were immediately shot by the Soviets.