Osttruppen

Machine-translated from the German article

Osttruppen were units of the German Wehrmacht in the German-Soviet War, formed from autumn 1941 from Soviet prisoners of war and volunteers from the German-occupied areas of the Soviet Union. Because of the high personnel losses of the Wehrmacht in the Battle of Moscow, from autumn 1941 the German side began deploying Soviet defectors as so-called Hilfswillige (auxiliary volunteers) in non-combat roles, in order to free German soldiers for combat duty. In the rear army areas, so-called Schutzmannschaften (protection units) were also formed at platoon and company strength, tasked with clearing the area of scattered Red Army soldiers and partisans.