These Russians who walked to the Germans guarded the Biesbosch

The Land van Heusden and Altena is still occupied. It was of strategic importance for the Germans for a while. The enemy planned a crossing with return, towards the port of Antwerp. The region between Werkendam and Dussen was crammed with soldiers and guns. The Allies also strengthened themselves on the south of the Bergsche Maas. At Kapelsche Veer this ended in January 1945 on a bloody winter war. Without winners or profit. Then the peace returned.

Infiltrations
In the spring of 1945, the German clout declines the day in our country. Big counterattacks are not forthcoming. The Allies remain alert to infiltrations with small patrols and shelling. The German occupation in Altena is also unchanged. Surrender is not negotiable.

All the while there was always a special unit present in occupied Brabant, writes Jack Didden in ‘One piece Brabant was not freed in 1944’ from Brabant Heritage.

Red Army
‘The surveillance of the Biesbosch was taken over on November 16 (1944) by a very special unit, the OST bataillon (also known as Volga Tatars Bataillon) under Major Screenuly. As the name already indicated, it was about overlooked soldiers from the Red Army. This battalion, about five hundred people strong, was one of the few units that would retain the same positions between Amer and Merwede until just before the capitulation in May 1945. ‘

And so Volga-Tatars guarded the Brabant front. A front line that is as leaky as a basket. The inhospitable Biesbosch serves as a corridor, as a passage area. Resistance people, spies, German deserters, escaped Allied soldiers and refugees. They all secretly go through the area with boats. To and fro. Just like secret German patrols who sometimes penetrate unnoticed. They come to Gilze and Geffen, as now in these days in April 1945.

The travelers by the Biesbosch are called ‘Liniecrossers’. They often take horrible stories from occupied territory. About the oppression, violence, war crimes and the famine.

Famine
After the cold and wet winter from the beginning of 1945, the food is finished. Hunger Nood makes many victims. It is estimated that 20,000 people fall. Contagious diseases such as typhus break out. The German occupier sees that it is no longer possible.

In mid-April there will be contacts between the National Resistance and the German rulers, including government commissioner Arthur Seyss-Inquart. He is the highest Nazi in the occupied Netherlands and wants to help the hungry population with food from the Allies. Dutch secret agents are allowed to ‘cross’ with German help and patrol boats through the Biesbosch for consultation with Prince Bernhard in Breda, among others. The prince is commander of the domestic forces (BS). These are the resistance groups that work together. The prince has his headquarters on the Anneville estate near Ulvenhout.

In the meantime, the Germans in the Land van Heusden and Altena, including the Volga-Tatars, are preparing for withdrawal. The occupiers gave tailors in Werkendam, Nieuwendijk and Kille a strange assignment in April. They had to make uniforms, for 300 dolls … it was a list. “For example, a possible retreat could be masked,” writes military historian Jack Didden in the ‘Historical series of the Land van Heusden and Altena’.

The Allies keep a close eye on the events on the front line, especially after the reports about overhanging Germans. Waiting posts along the Maas report explosions from occupied area. The suspicion grows that the Germans are withdrawing, towards South Holland. That is why the Allies decide to take a closer look. They harness a patrol for a trip through the Biesbosch.

The majority of Noord-Brabant was liberated in the fall of 1944. Except for the Land van Heusden and Altena. That only got the freedom back in May 1945. You can read every day about the events at the end of the Second World War in Europe.