Many former members of auxiliary police units and the Belarusian Home Guard that were created by the Germans in occupied Belarus fled westward as the Soviets advanced in mid-1944.

These, along with some Ukrainian, Russian, and Cossack units, were combined into a brigade commanded by Hans Siegling in Poland, which was reorganized as the 30th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS before going to France.

Even though the division's members took an oath to fight against Bolshevism, the unit was transferred from Poland to the Western Front in late August, which undermined morale further.

Despite this, the 30th division fought in combat against partisans and later against French and American forces during the Allied advance to the German border, being noted for destroying several tanks.

As the Red Army advanced during Operation Bagration in mid-1944 through German-occupied Belarus, those who collaborated with Germany in the auxiliary police battalions or the Belarusian Home Guard fled westward.

Some of them stayed in Belarus and later even joined the Red Army,[1] due to the fact that the Soviet partisans encouraged defections and because the Germans saw the auxiliary police as expendable.

[3][1][4] In February 1944 the Siegling Brigade also received two Ukrainian auxiliary police battalions while it was in Eylau, East Prussia, along with other Russian, Cossack, and Belarusian units.

[5] As the tide of the war turned against Germany, in the summer of 1944 the SS leadership showed an interest in creating Russian and other Slavic divisions despite their racial beliefs about Slavs.

[16] The same day, other elements of the division (the 118th battalion) occupied the area around Camp du Valdahon [fr], about thirty kilometers southeast of Besançon.

[17] The defectors were subsequently inducted into the FFI as the 1st and 2nd Ukrainian Battalions and many were later amalgamated into the 13th Demi-Brigade of Foreign Legion, itself subordinated to the 1st Free French Division.

[20] On 2 September, two squadrons (companies) of the division's cavalry battalion (formerly Kosaken-Schuma-Abteilung 68 and redesignated the Waffen-Reiter-Abteilung der SS 30)[21] were surrounded and destroyed in a surprise attack at Melin by the Ukrainians who had defected in the Confracourt woods.

[22] As punishment, these personnel were transferred to two field entrenchment construction regiments (German: Schanzregiment) and were used to help build the Western Wall,[19] leaving some 5,500[20] to 6,200[19] men still in the division.

The extraordinary events in the division also led to it being placed in Army Group G reserve[22] and being viewed by senior German leadership in Alsace as an unreliable unit.

[23] The 30th Waffen-SS Division's time in the Alsace from late September to November 1944 was dedicated to raising the morale of the troops and making it more combat capable.

Other efforts to raise morale included awarding to the Ostvolk Medal to soldiers who were successful in anti-partisan operations,[24] training in shooting and marching,[25] and lectures given to members of the division on the connection between the Western Allies and Bolshevism, to motivate them to fight.

[24] Despite all of these efforts, the 30th division continued to have severe problems, made worse by a lack of basic supplies and food, causing the unit to plunder nearby French villages.

The advance of the SS unit on 19 November reached a point roughly a mile north of Seppois, but was held there and pushed back by French counterattacks.

The war diary of German Supreme Command West noted their success and included praise for the bravery of the 30th Waffen Grenadier Division.

[27] In late December 1944, with its manpower down to 4,400 men, the division was withdrawn from the front and ordered to the Grafenwöhr training area deep inside of Germany.

[29] The majority of its former Ukrainian members that defected to the French resistance enlisted in the Foreign Legion at the end of the war to avoid being repatriated to the Soviet Union.