Georgian uprising on Texel The Georgian Uprising on Texel ( ) ( 5 April 1945 – 20 May 1945 ) was an insurrection by the 882nd Infantry Battalion " Königin Tamara " ( Queen Tamar or " Tamara " ) of the Georgian Legion of the German Army ( " Wehrmacht Heer " ) stationed on the German occupied Dutch island of Texel ( pronounced " Tessel " ) . The battalion was made up of 800 Georgians and 400 Germans , with mainly German officers . The event has been described as " Europe ' s last battlefield " . Overview . The heavily fortified island was part of the German Atlantic Wall system of defense . However , after the Allied landings in Normandy it was relegated to relative insignificance . The men of the rebellious battalion were Red Army soldiers from the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic captured on the Eastern front . They had been given a choice : the captured soldiers could choose either to remain in the POW camps , which would have meant abuse , starvation , and very possibly death , or to serve the Germans and be allowed a degree of freedom . The battalion was formed of men who chose the latter option . The battalion had been formed at Kruszyna near Radom in occupied Poland in June 1943 and was used initially to fight partisans . On 24 August 1943 it was ordered to the West to relieve troops of the Indische Freiwilligen - Legion Regiment 950 . The battalion arrived at Zandvoort in the Netherlands on 30 August . From September 1943 to early February 1945 it was stationed at Zandvoort as part of the " Unterabschnitt Zandvoort " . On 6 February 1945 the battalion was posted to Subsection Texel . Preparations then started in late March 1945 for a move of several companies of the Georgian battalion to the Dutch mainland to oppose Allied advances – triggering the rebellion . Shortly after midnight on the night of 5 – 6 April 1945 , the Georgians rose up and gained control of nearly the entire island . Approximately four hundred German soldiers were killed in the initial uprising , almost all while sleeping in the quarters they shared with Georgians , who used knives and bayonets . Others were shot and killed while standing guard or walking the roads of the island in groups or individually that night and the following day . Members of the Dutch resistance participated and assisted the Georgians , however , the rebellion hinged on an expected Allied landing — which did not occur . The Georgians further failed to secure the naval batteries on the southern and northern coasts of the island ; the crews of these artillery installations were the only Germans still alive on the island . A counterattack was ordered and the intact artillery batteries on the island began firing at sites where rebels were suspected to be . Approximately 2 , 000 riflemen of the 163rd " Marine - Schützenregiment " were deployed from the Dutch mainland . Over the next five weeks they re - took the island ; fighting was particularly heavy at Eierland and around the lighthouse . The German troops then combed the length of the island for any remaining Georgian soldiers , while the Dutch inhabitants sought to hide them . The German commander of the 882nd battalion , Major Klaus Breitner , stated long after the war that the uprising was " treachery , nothing else " ; the captured mutineers were ordered to dig their own graves , remove their German uniforms , and be executed . During the rebellion , 565 Georgians , at least 812 Germans and 120 residents of Texel became casualties . The destruction was enormous ; dozens of farms went up in flames , with damage later estimated at ten million guilders ( US $ 3 . 77 million ) . The bloodshed lasted beyond the German capitulation in the Netherlands and Denmark on 5 May 1945 and even beyond Germany ' s general surrender on 8 May 1945 . The fighting continued until Canadian troops arrived 20 May 1945 to enforce the German surrender , and disarmed the remaining German troops . Aftermath . The Georgians lie buried in a ceremonial cemetery at the Hogeberg near Oudeschild . The survivors may have feared facing the same fate as most Soviet collaborators : forced repatriation , under the terms of the Yalta Conference , often followed by incarceration and banishment and , for officers , execution . The 228 Georgians who survived by hiding from the German troops in coastal minefields , or who were concealed by Texel farmers , were turned over to Soviet authorities . After arrival at a collection camp in the Soviet Union , 26 Georgians were singled out and banished together with their families and nearly all others disappeared into Stalin ' s Gulags . Those still alive in the mid - 1950s were rehabilitated and allowed to return home . Until 1991 , the ambassador of the Soviet Union to the Netherlands visited the graves of the Georgians on 4 May every year , and , at least during the latter visits , called the Georgians " Heroes of the Soviet Union " . On 4 May 2005 , Mikheil Saakashvili visited the graves for the first time as the president of independent Georgia . The German dead were initially buried in a part of the general cemetery in Den Burg . In 1949 they found their final resting place at Ysselsteyn military cemetery , Limburg province , the Netherlands . The cemetery is administered by the German War Graves Commission . Den Burg General Cemetery also contains a plot of 167 World War II Commonwealth burials , most of them airmen ; 44 of the burials are unidentified . A permanent exhibition dedicated to these events can be found " in a corner " of the Aeronautical Museum at Texel International Airport . One of the last Georgian survivors of the uprising died in July 2007 and was buried with military honors in Zugdidi , Georgia . There were two Georgian survivors still alive in 2010 : Grisha Baindurashvili , who is now 88 years old and lives in Kaspi , a village 40 km west of Tbilisi , and Eugeny Artemidze , who was one of the main organizers of the rebellion ; he died at age 90 on June 22 , 2010 , on the same day that he went to war 69 years before . Casualties controversy . Canadian troops landed unopposed on Texel on 20 May 1945 , effectively liberating the island . Over a two - day period the Canadians disarmed 1 , 535 Germans . Soviet SMERSH forces arrived on Texel and took charge of 228 Georgians still alive . A Canadian report prepared for the commander of the SMERSH contingent numbered 470 Georgian and 2 , 347 German casualties on Texel . In 1949 the German War Graves Commission disinterred on Texel 812 bodies ( including the 400 + killed in their sleep by the Georgians in their shared quarters ) for reburial at Ysselsteyn military cemetery . The numbers given by the Texel district list " 565 Georgians , 120 Texel islanders and approximately 800 Germans killed " ; followed by " other sources . . . speak of more than 2 , 000 Germans killed . " The " other sources " comment in all probability refers to the Canadian report to SMERSH that lumped together under " casualties " the 1 , 535 disarmed Germans with their 812 dead . The last casualty was a Dutch supporter of the uprising , the local baker Theo Smit , who was accidentally killed by a Georgian .