The first volume of a two part set on the history of the Galician Division is based on over 25 years research by accomplished historian Michael James Melnyk who has sourced additional new and hitherto unseen original material on all aspects of the Division's history from archives and private collections in Europe, Australia, North American and Canada. Complemented by the individual accounts and contributions of many veterans which add an engaging personal dimension, this new definitive two volume account supersedes his earlier divisional history published in 2002. As a recognised authority on the subject he has produced the most reliable and exhaustive account to date lavishly illustrated with many rare and unique photos and crammed full of details, notes and references in this last ever book to include direct and new material from the participants.

This new book is a historical account of the 14th Waffen-SS Galicia Division (also known as the 1st Ukrainian Division of the Ukrainian National Army). In 1943/1944 a determined group of young men and women in Galicia volunteered to serve in a combat division destined for eastern front combat. Their goal: to engage and destroy the Soviet hordes menacing their homeland and to counter Nazi Germany's subjugation of their country. Although initially Galicia's Volunteers would serve in a German sponsored military formation, in actuality the volunteers of the Galicia division wanted to engage all hostile ideologies-both from the east and west-in order to secure a free independent Ukraine. The division's history is presented along with a human aspect of what the soldiers endured during the brutal battles on the eastern front.

Of all the 'foreign' Waffen-SS divisions, the 14th has arguably maintained a higher public profile and continued to attract more attention in the UK, USA, Canada, Russia, Ukraine and Poland than any other. Drawing extensively upon a wide variety of sources, the author details the abortive history of German/Ukrainian relations during the first half of the twentieth century which preceded the formation of the Galician Division in the spring of 1943. Set firmly within the political context of the time, this work demonstrates that from the outset both German and Ukrainian architects of the Division sought to exploit the formation for their own conflicting agendas. The author gives a careful assessment of the Division's military engagements and explains the reasons for its tragic demise at the Battle of Brody, emphasizing how the military initiative and vast material superiority of the Red Army led to its virtual destruction during the Soviet summer offensive of 1944. The book concludes with the cessation of hostilities, when the Division, despite being the focus of Stalin's attention, escaped the forced repatriation operations undertaken by the Western Allies in the immediate postwar period. Key Features A widely-researched, accurate, detailed and impartial account of a particular Waffen-SS division which continues to fascinate Contains detailed appendices Presents over 250 previously unpublished photographs, combined with maps, documents and other illustrations Set to become one of the most important English-language books to appear on the Waffen-SS in recent years

The second volume of the definitive history of the 14th Waffen-Grenadier Division der SS (Ukrainische Nr 1). The lavishly illustrated concluding volume of the division's history features chapters on its reformation, deployment against Communist-backed partisans in Slovakia, the forced march to Slovenia, anti-partisan action against Tito's partisans in Slovenia and its committal for the final time on the Eastern Front against the Red Army in Austria. It concludes with an investigation into the Division's escape from repatriation a subject which has long been the subject of contention amongst historians. This volume also deals with internment and ends with its unique post war fate including new information about the secret role of MI6 in training former members of the Division for secret espionage activities behind the Iron Curtain. Drawing on an unsurpassed collection of material accumulated over decades of research, the author offers unique photographic sections on all aspects of the Divisions history including uniform details together with much hitherto unseen material featuring recent document discoveries, new veteran testimonies and detailed information on every aspect of the Division.

BAREAKING THE CHAINS is a full account of the 14th Waffem-SS Division, formed by Ukranians, initially from the province of Galacia but later encompassing the whole of the Ukraine. The history of this unit is set uupon a particularly full discussion of the political background of the Ukraine, especially the Ukranian nationalist movements of the post-World War 1 period. These movements, especially the OUN (Organisation of Ukarinian Nationalists), were fundamental in providing the basis for the new division being for the creation of two early Ukranian formations (Roland and Nachtigall battalions) which fougtht at the outset of the Russian campaign. After the German take-over in the Ukraine, many other units were set up, Notably the German Police 'Schuma' battalions and many German Army volunteer units, generically termed Osttruppen (East Troops). These units are also fully covered in the book - as far as information is avaliable. However, in the later German political system in the major part of the Ukraine, the oppressivce policies of Reichskommisar Irich Koch eventyally led to much anto-German feeling and the setting up of local partisan forces, most priminetly in the form of the UPA. It is this destructive policy by some, but certainly not all German officials which the author argues was a major factor in thje eventual German defeat. The book concludes with the immediate post-war agonies of the ukranian nationalist movement in the face of the horrific Stalinist dictatorship. A full set of appendices are included, covering all known Ukrainian units in the German ground forces, rank and appointment terms in the SS, Police, German Government etc., and the usual Shelf Books treatment of foreign placenames. All in all, this book constutures a complete history of the Ukranian involvement in World War II - a Story of tragedy, Disappointment and, on the German side, What would appear to be gross stupidity.

Between 1950 and 1955, thousands of veterans from the notorious German-led, Ukrainian 14th Waffen-SS Galicia Division emigrated to North America with the full consent of the governments despite immigration regulations in force at the time that forbade entry to all who served in any branch of the SS. The Jewish community fought a brief, but futile, battle to persuade those governments to deny them entry, denouncing them as a "sinister legion" of "bloodthirsty murderers"-war criminals who had engaged in the mass murder of thousands of innocent civilians. On the other hand, a well-organized body of Division supporters insisted there was nothing "sinister" or "murderous" about the young men who had volunteered to serve in its ranks. They declared them exceptional soldiers who obeyed the international rules of war, praised them for being dedicated soldiers who harbored no hatred for Jews, guarded no concentration camps, and committed no crimes against humanity. At issue then was the nature of the Division and its war record. Were they "pure soldiers" as many of their supporters contended, or were they, to use Daniel Goldhagen’s phrase, among Hitler’s willing executioners? Pure Soldiers or Bloodthirsty Murdererstraces the 14th Waffen-SS Galicia Division’s fortunes from its formation in April 1943, to its surrender to the British in May 1946, from immigrant farm workers in Britain, Canada and the USA, to Cold War CIA assassins. Along the way, it attempts to shed some light on this acrimonious dispute that has continued to the present day. Sol Littmanis former Canadian Director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, author ofWar Criminal on Trial, founding editor ofThe Canadian Jewish News, the First Director of B’nai Brith Canada’s "League for Human Rights," and also served with the Anti-Defamation League in the United States.

Soldiers to the Last Day: Rhineland- Westphalian 6th Infantry Division, 1935-1945 recounts the history of the German 6th Infantry Division from its formation in 1935 to its destruction at Babruysk in July 1944; then its resurrection and continued fighting until the end of the war. Among the first divisions established by the Wehrmacht, the 6th Infantry Division had one of the longest and bloodiest records of continuous combat of any division-Allied or Axis. Engaging in combat within weeks of the outbreak of WWII, the division fought to the last hour of the war. Based primarily on German sources, in particular the rare divisional and regimental histories and war diaries, and on personal accounts and letters of its soldiers, Soldiers to the Last Day presents the German view of the war from inside divisional headquarters and down to the individual Landser as the division marches across France in 1940, advances to the Volga during Operation Barbarossa, fights the brutal battles of Rzhev, Kursk, Babruysk; and makes last desperate attempts to defend the homeland in 1945. It is a tale of courage, determination, suffering, and in the end-betrayal.