 | This article relies largely or entirely on a single source. (April 2023) |
| Roland Battalion | |
|---|---|
| Active | 25 February to late October 1941 |
| Country |  Nazi Germany Reichskommissariat Ukraine |
| Branch | Abwehr |
| Size | 240 to 350 |
| Engagements | |
| Commanders | |
| Notable commanders | Yevhen Pobihushchyi-Ren |
The Roland Battalion (German: Battalion Ukrainische Gruppe Roland), officially known as Special Group Roland,[1] was a subunit under the command of the German military intelligence agency's (the Abwehr's) special operations unit Lehrregiment "Brandenburg" z.b.V. 800 in 1941. It and the Nachtigall Battalion were the two military units set up following the 25 February 1941 decision by the head of the Abwehr, Admiral Wilhelm Franz Canaris, who sanctioned the recruitment of a "Ukrainian Legion" (Ukrainian: Дружини українських націоналістів, lit. 'Legions of Ukrainian Nationalists') under German command. The Roland Battalion, formed in mid-April 1941, 350-strong and initially based in the Ostmark (present-day Austria), was composed primarily of volunteers of Ukrainian ethnicity living in German-occupied Poland and directed to the unit by orders the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) under Stepan Bandera.[2]
In Germany, in November 1941 the Ukrainian personnel of the Legion (Nachtigall and Roland battalions) was reorganized into Schutzmannschaft Battalion 201. It numbered 650 persons, who served for a year in the occupied Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (present-day Belarus) before disbanding.[3]
- ^ Abbot, Peter. Ukrainian Armies 1914-55, p.47. Osprey Publishing, 2004. ISBN 1-84176-668-2
- ^ І.К. Патриляк. Військова діяльність ОУН(Б) у 1940—1942 роках. — Університет імені Шевченко \Ін-т історії України НАН України Київ, 2004 [I.K Patrylyak. (2004). Military activities of the OUN (B) in the years 1940-1942. Kyiv, Ukraine: Shevchenko University \ Institute of History of Ukraine National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine] pp.283-288.
- ^ І.К. Патриляк. Військова діяльність ОУН(Б) у 1940—1942 роках. — Університет імені Шевченко \Ін-т історії України НАН України Київ, 2004 (No ISBN) pp 371-382.