Night of the Bayonets and the Battle for Texel Island
The war in northwest Europe was supposed to have been over on the 8th of May 1945. However, Eric Lee’s new book, Night of the Bayonets tells a very different story. Instead, his book transports us to the Wadden Islands, where the Battle of Texel raged from 6th April until 20th May 1945. The central act in this real-life drama, the brutal massacre of some 400 German troops at the hands of their comrades, gives the book its menacing title. While the rest of the Continent celebrated VE Day, the Dutch inhabitants of Texel Island found themselves in the middle of a bloody conflict between German troops and their erstwhile allies of the Georgian Legion, itself part of the Wehrmacht.
Now an almost forgotten footnote to the Second World War, the Battle of Texel quickly became a propaganda vehicle for Dutch communists, the Soviet Union, and Georgian nationalists. In 1968, the story was even transformed into a Soviet film called Crucified Island. In Night of the Bayonets, historian and journalist Eric Lee tries to untangle the facts from the fiction. His book also asks some difficult questions about national and political loyalties versus morality and the human imperative for survival. Caught between starvation, disease, or a bullet in the neck, would you voluntarily take up arms for your enemy? Would you knowingly endanger civilians, many of them children, to save your own skin?
Basically, Night of the Bayonets is a book of three parts. First, Lee explains the turbulent history of Georgia from the First World War until its brief period of independence was eclipsed by the new Soviet state. Next, he focuses on how 800 Georgians ended up on the peaceful Dutch island of Texel, as part of the German army of occupation. He goes onto explain the planning of the Georgian uprising, the murder of 400 German troops, and subsequent battle. Finally, he discusses the aftermath of the battle and myth-making that quickly followed.
Eventually, Canadian military forces put an end to the battle for Texel. The estimated casualties were around 2,347 (killed, wounded, and missing) including 89 Dutch civilians. Of the 800 Georgians who fought in the battle, just 228 survived. Although the Germans were increasingly short of manpower as the war progressed, it does seem naive of them to have placed any trust in the loyalty of the Osttruppen (Eastern troops). Night of the Bayonets is well-researched and makes for an interesting read. However, the main protagonists, the Georgians, remained remote, opaque, unsympathetic figures. They changed sides, and then changed sides again. They killed 400 former comrades in cold blood, many of them while they slept. In a desire to save themselves, the Georgians threatened the lives of the island’s entire population. Perhaps it is no surprise that today’s islanders are ambivalent about this period in their history, and would rather leave the matter buried in the Russian Cemetery.
Night of the Bayonets: The Texel Uprising and Hitler’s Revenge, April-May 1945 by Eric Lee is published by Greenhill Books, 2020. You can also visit NightoftheBayonets.com for more information.
