Shalva Loladze ( ka, შალვა ლოლაძე) (April 16, 1916 – April 25, 1945) was a former
Soviet Georgian POW
A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610.
Belligerents hold prisoners of war ...
and an officer in the
German Wehrmacht who headed a
revolt of the Georgian soldiers against the German commandership on the
Dutch island of
Texel.
Loladze served in the
Soviet military at the outbreak of
World War II. In 1942, he was a
Soviet Air Force captain and an air squadron commander. His airplane was shot down over
Ukraine and Loladze was captured by the Germans. He then joined the
Georgische Legion of the Wehrmacht and served in the 882nd Infantry Battalion ''Königin Tamara'' with the rank of ''Leutnant'' (
second lieutenant
Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces, comparable to NATO OF-1 rank.
Australia
The rank of second lieutenant existed in the military forces of the Australian colonies and Australian Army until ...
). The battalion was deployed on the German-occupied Dutch island of Texel in the closing months of World War II. The night of April 5/6, 1945, Loladze led an insurrection of the battalion's Georgian personnel. Loladze was killed in fighting on April 25, 1945. He is buried together with his comrades-in-arms at the Georgian War Cemetery of Texel which has been given Loladze's name.
[ Mamulia, Giorgi (2003), Грузинский легион в борьбе за свободу и независимость Грузии в годы второй мировой войны (''Georgian Legion in the Struggle for Georgia's Freedom and Independence in the Years of World War II''), p. . Tsodna]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Loladze, Shalva
1916 births
1945 deaths
People of World War II from Georgia (country)
Aviators from Georgia (country)
Collaborators with Nazi Germany from Georgia (country)
German Army personnel killed in World War II
Shot-down aviators
Soviet Air Force officers
Soviet prisoners of war
Soviet military personnel killed in World War II
Mutineers