TEXEL'S TORMENT

Looking back, it must have been one of the most perplexing moments of the Second World War. And no-one was more perplexed at the time than coastguards Reg Earl and Howard Dawes, duty night-time lookouts at Mundesley beach who, during the dark early hours of April 10, 1945, saw a signal light out to sea and glimpsed the outline of an open boat. On board were what looked like armed men in uniform, so while one coastguard rushed to alert the Home Guard, the other prepared to  meet the visitors, who-ever they were.
Things were no clearer when the boat beached and 14 men clambered ashore, for it turned out there were ten Dutchmen and four Russians, some of them wearing German army uniforms. It took a long time to sort things out.
This, it should be remembered, was a week before the Red Army entered Austria and one day before the Americans liberated Buchenwald. Indeed, the events behind the beaching went on until May 20, by which time Hitler and Mussolini were dead, the German forces had surrendered, and VE-Day had been celebrated. The boat on Mundesley beach thus represented one of the very last actions of the European War.
The entire episode began when captured soldiers from the Soviet Republic of Georgia were given an ultimatum by the Germans: remain in PoW camps, which meant probable death, or serve the invaders. The 822nd Georgia Infantry Battalion was formed from those who chose the latter, and in the late stages of the War the battalion was sent to Texel (pronounced Tessel), a heavily fortified Dutch island which was a pivotal point in the German Atlantic Wall defence.
On April 5, 1945, and almost a year after D-Day, the 822nd mutined. The Georgians killed some of the German garrison in their barracks and attacked the island's two gun batteries. With no response from the Allies - still preoccupied with the invasion - the reinforced Germans counter-attacked, and did so with brutal intent. Battles raged, and there was awful slaughter and reprisal on both sides, and it did not stop until May 20.
A few days after fighting broke out the group of 14 men stole the island's lifeboat, spent 27 dangerous hours at sea, and eventually landed on Mundesley beach after admitting they had 'got a bit lost.' When it was all sorted out they were given food and drink and taken to London.
Why had they made this brave escape attempt? Well, it seems the escapees carried with them two letters. One evidently pledged the Georgian troops' continued allegiance to Stalin and the USSR (a difficult point for them to argue, because they were actually wearing the uniforms of a German army unit). The other letter apparently urged the Allies to send troops or ships to Texel to bombard the German positions and bring supplies and ammunition.
Who ever had the task of considering the matter - if the matter was considered at all - is not known. And so, again, the Allies did not respond. No doubt the invasion forces already had enough on their plate, and did not have enough supplies to divert some away from the main thrust.
Indeed, the surviving groups of rebels on Texel, and those Texel residents who tried to go to their aid and paid an awful price, received no assistance at all until May 20, when elements of the Canadian army arrived. It is thought, however, that at least one Allied reconaissance aircraft did overfly the island in an atempt to check the situation, but the German commander ordered it should be left alone, in case it brought forth Allied retaliation. Thus Texel, for some time, had to suffer in isolation.