29th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS Sturmbrigade RONA 1st Russian Patch 29-я ваффен-гренадерская дивизия СС «РОНА» (1-я русская)

29th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS Sturmbrigade RONA (1st Russian) Patch. Iron on can be sewn on if you choose. Approx 2.5″ tall.  29-я ваффен-гренадерская дивизия СС «РОНА» (1-я русская)

S.S. Sturmbrigade R.O.N.A. (also known as the Kaminski Brigade) was a collaborationist formation composed of Soviet nationals from the territory of the Lokot Autonomy in Axis-occupied areas of the RSFSR in the Soviet Union during the German–Soviet War of 1941−45.

First appearing in late 1941 as auxiliary police, the unit initially numbered 200 personnel. By mid-1943 its size had increased to 10,000-12,000 men, equipped with captured Soviet tanks and artillery.  Bronislav Kaminski, the unit’s leader, named it the Russian National Liberation Army (Russian: Русская освободительная народная армия (РОНА), romanized: Russkaya Osvoboditelnaya Narodnaya Armiya, (RONA)).

After the Wehrmacht lost (August 1943) the Battle of Kursk, RONA personnel retreated to the territory of Byelorussia, especially to the Lepel area of Vitebsk, where they became involved in German security operations, committing numerous atrocities against the civilian population. In March 1944 the unit was briefly renamed to Volksheer-Brigade Kaminski (Militia Brigade Kaminski), before being absorbed into the Waffen-SS in June 1944.

With its transfer to the Waffen-SS, the brigade was renamed to Waffen-Sturm-Brigade RONA, and Kaminski gained the rank of Waffen-Brigadeführer der SS (the only man with such a rank). After Operation Bagration (June to August 1944), the RONA retreated further west, and by the end of July 1944, the remains of the Kaminski unit (3 to 4 thousand—some sources estimate 6 to 7 thousand) assembled at the SS training camp Neuhammer. On the base of the Kaminski unit, SS leaders planned to form an SS Division – 29. Waffen-Grenadier-Division der SS (russische Nr. 1).

However, the Warsaw Uprising began on the same day as Himmler’s signing of an order for the establishment of the division (1 August 1944). The division formation was never implemented and part of the RONA Brigade was sent to Warsaw, where the unit again became involved in committing numerous atrocities. On 18 August 1944 Bronislav Kaminski was killed. According to different sources, either an SS court found him guilty[citation needed] or the German Gestapo simply executed him outright.

By August 27, 1944, having found the brigade too undisciplined and unreliable, the German commanders removed it from Warsaw. The unit was sent to Slovakia, and deployed against Slovak partisans. After the end of October 1944 the brigade was disbanded[by whom?] and the remaining personnel absorbed into General Andrey Vlasov’s Russian Liberation Army.