In February 1942, the unit was assigned to "anti-gang" operations ("Bandenbekämpfung") in Belarus. In "", Timothy Snyder wrote that "Dirlewanger's preferred method was to herd the local population inside a barn, set the barn on fire, and then shoot with machine guns anyone who tried to escape." Rounded-up civilians would be also routinely used as human shields and marched over minefields. In "Masters of Death", Richard Rhodes wrote that Dirlewanger and his force "raped and tortured young women and slaughtered Jews Einsatzgruppen-style in Byelorussia beginning in 1942." Snyder cautiously estimated that the Sonderkommando, by then regiment-sized, killed at least 30,000 Belarusian civilians. Himmler was well aware of Dirlewanger's reputation and record, but nonetheless gave him the German Cross in Gold on 5 December 1943, for his unit's actions such as during Operation Cottbus (May—June 1943), during which Dirlewanger reported killing more than 14,000 alleged partisans.