Cossacks in German service in July 1944 where moved from Russia to the Italian region where I live. They were meant to control the area against the return of partisan units (Op. Ataman). To bolster their motivation, having lost every possibility to return to their homeland, they were told that the area known as "Carnia", which is the most northern and mountainous part of this region, would have become their new homeland, precisely named "Kosakenland in Nord Italien". At that itme the whole NE of Italy was under full German control being an area of operation extending from the Tagliamento river to the current Croatia under the rule of the infamous SS Gruppenfuhrer Odilo Globocnick.
Please note that Carnia was already an inhabited area, so the local Italian population had to suffer a lot from the cossacks.
My father in law, a kid at that time, told me that looting and violence where the trademark of those terrible days as the Cossacks where more apt to disrupt, (if that is the word I need...
) the civilian population than fighting the partisans.
At the end of April 1945 they moved to Austria and tried to surrender to the western Allied in the town of Lienz. Having realized that they were going to be handed over to the Soviet authorities many of them preferred to drown themselves in the Drau river. Those who didn't commit suicide disappeared into the Gulags.
I hope I didn't bore you too much. For those who are interested, there are several books in Italy on this topic, but I don't know how many translated into English.
Have a nice painting day, Peter, and many more even happier to come.
Andrea