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While VE Day officially ended World War II in Europe, the official cessation of hostilities did not mean that hostilities ended immediately. Rather, sporadic fighting continued for weeks after the wars end, and there were still some battles to be fought before the war could come to a complete end.
During the war captured soldiers from the Soviet Republic of Georgia were often given a special deal given to other Soviet troops such as the Russian. Many Georgians were given the option to be conscripted into the German Army rather than spending the war in a POW camp. For many Georgians this was a good deal, as Soviet soldiers suffered terribly in German POW camps. 800 Georgians were stationed on the Dutch island of Texel (pronounced tessel) with 400 German soldiers of the regular army. Their task was to man their portion of the Atlantic Wall, a series of fortifications and defenses to fend off an Allied amphibious invasion of Europe.
While life as a Wehrmacht soldier was better than spending years in a German camp, that didn’t mean the Georgians were happy about working for the Germans, or particularly loyal. Little did the Germans know, the Georgians had been plotting a revolt against them, waiting for the right moment to make their move. When the Georgian battalion learned that they were going to be transferred to the Dutch mainland to oppose the Allied advances into Germany, they decided to strike. On the night of April 5-6th, 1945 the Georgians and Dutch resistance ambushed German guards all over the island and stormed German barracks as they soundly slept. By morning the Georgians and Dutch had captured most of the island, with the exception of the coastal defenses consisting of concrete bunkers, pillboxes, and heavy artillery guns. A small group of German soldiers had managed to escape the massacre and take fortified positions along the coast. With the power of heavy artillery they were able to beat back the rebels and hold onto their position.
A short time after the uprising, 2,000 German reinforcements stormed Texel, quickly regaining control of the island. The surviving Georgians hid all over the island, continuing the fight with a savage guerrilla war. The fighting continued throughout April and well past the German surrender on May 8th. Despite the fact the German forces in the Netherlands had surrendered to the Allies, German operations in Texel continued regardless as the German Army considered the conflict an internal matter that was separate from the greater war. The Texel uprising finally ended on May 20th, 1945, 12 days after VE day, when Canadian troops landed on the island and disarmed the German troops to enforce the peace. During the uprising, 565 Georgians and 120 Dutch had been killed, the Germans lost 800 men.
After the uprising the Georgians were turned over to the Soviet government by the Allies. All would be sent to gulags, considered traitors by Stalin.
Those few who survived in the camps up to the mid 1950’s were finally permitted to return home.