Campaign of the Red Army in the West. Red Army Liberation Campaign

1. Liberation of Romania . On March 26, 1944, Soviet troops reached the river. Prut - State border of the USSR with Romania. The dictator of Romania, Marshal I. Antonescu, organized the sounding of the terms of the truce with the allies. On April 12, 1944, the Soviet representative N. Novikov handed over the text of the conditions of the Soviet government, previously agreed with the United States and England, to the Romanian representative, Prince B. Stirbey. The terms of the armistice provided for the restoration of the Soviet-Romanian border under the 1940 treaty; compensation for losses caused to the Soviet Union by military operations and the occupation of Soviet territory by the Romanian troops; ensuring free movement of the allied troops on the Romanian territory in accordance with military needs.

On April 27, an ultimatum telegram was sent to I. Antonescu on behalf of the three allies, in which it was proposed to give an answer within 72 hours. However, the Romanian side did everything to turn the negotiations into a discussion.

In the spring of 1944, the Romanian Communist Party achieved the creation of the United Workers' Front (URF). On May 1, 1944, the ERF published a manifesto in which it called on the working class, all parties and organizations, regardless of political views, religious beliefs and social affiliations, the entire Romanian people to resolutely fight for immediate peace, the overthrow of the government of I. Antonescu and the creation of a national government from representatives of the anti-fascist forces. Patriotic armed detachments were organized, anti-fascist agitation was carried out. Soviet and British aviation flooded Romania with leaflets calling for withdrawal from the war on the side of Germany.

On August 23, King Mihai issued an appeal to the people of the country. A declaration was promulgated, which announced the breaking of the alliance with Germany by Romania, the immediate cessation of the war, the acceptance of the terms of the armistice proposed by the Soviet Union, Great Britain and the United States. Since the king was the commander-in-chief of the armed forces of the country, the army at the front was ordered to stop hostilities against the Red Army. Subsequently, the king was awarded the highest Soviet Order of Victory.

However, for about seven months, the Red Army fought on Romanian territory against German troops, while suffering considerable losses. From March to October 1944, more than 286 thousand Soviet soldiers shed their blood here, of which 69 thousand people died. The price paid by the Soviet Union for the liberation of Romania was great.

2.Liberation of Bulgaria. After the defeat of the German-Romanian troops under the years. Iasi and Chisinau, Romania's way out of the war, and with the approach of Soviet troops, the ruling circles of Bulgaria began to look for a way out of the situation.

The main force opposing the government was the anti-fascist workers and peasants, the progressive intelligentsia. Their political representatives were primarily the Bulgarian Workers' Party and the Bulgarian Agricultural People's Union, which formed the Fatherland Front (OF).

On September 5, the Soviet government announced that henceforth the USSR "would be at war with Bulgaria," which, as the statement said, had "actually been at war against the Soviet Union since 1941." All over the country, strikes and demonstrations began under the slogan "All power to the Fatherland Front!". The actions of partisan detachments and combat groups intensified. During September 6-8, the authority of the OF was established in more than 160 settlements.

On September 6, the Bulgarian government announced the severance of relations with Germany and requested the terms of a truce with the USSR. On September 7, the commander of the 3rd Ukrainian Front, General F. Tolbukhin, addressed an appeal to the Bulgarian people and the Bulgarian army. It said: “The Red Army has no intention of fighting the Bulgarian people and their army, as it considers the Bulgarian people to be a brotherly people. The Red Army has one task - to defeat the Germans and hasten the time for the onset of universal peace.

On September 8, the troops of the 3rd Ukrainian Front crossed the Romanian-Bulgarian border. Without a single shot, in marching order, they rapidly advanced along the intended route. The front headquarters began to receive reports of an enthusiastic welcome of the Soviet soldiers by the Bulgarian people.

Thus, the campaign of Soviet troops in Bulgaria was completed. What are the results? It took place in favorable political conditions and was not associated with the conduct of hostilities. However, the losses of the Red Army here amounted to 12,750 people, including irretrievable losses - 977 people.

3.Liberation of Yugoslavia. Back in the autumn of 1942, on the initiative of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, a political body arose - the Anti-Fascist Council for the People's Liberation of Yugoslavia. At the same time, the National Committee for the Liberation of Yugoslavia was established as the highest executive and administrative authority, i.e. provisional government of the country headed by I. Tito.

Since the troops of the Yugoslav patriots were not able to defeat the enemy and liberate the country on their own, the High Command of the People's Liberation Army of Yugoslavia (NOAJ) sought help from other states. Not having received it from England, on July 5, 1944, I. Tito wrote to I. Stalin with the wish that the Red Army advance through the Carpathians and Romania in a southerly direction and help the NOAU drive out the Nazis.

In September, the GKO decided to form in the Soviet Union a Yugoslav tank brigade, two aviation regiments - a fighter and an assault, as well as a Yugoslav volunteer infantry brigade, numbering about 2 thousand people. Well-armed and equipped formations in August 1944 were included in the 2nd Ukrainian Front, and then transferred to one of the divisions of the NOAU.

On October 1, the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command approved the plan for the Belgrade strategic offensive operation, and the Soviet troops went on the offensive. The inhabitants of the villages and cities of Yugoslavia warmly welcomed the Soviet soldiers. They took to the streets with flowers, hugged and kissed their liberators, shook hands with them. The air was filled with solemn bells and Russian melodies performed by local musicians. In addition, the population helped the Soviet fighters to repair roads and restore destroyed bridges, helping to increase the pace of the offensive of the Red Army troops.

In September - October 1944, the troops of the Red Army, in close cooperation with the People's Liberation Army of Yugoslavia, defeated the German army group "Serbia", liberated the eastern and northeastern regions of Yugoslavia with its capital Belgrade. Twenty units and formations of the Red Army were given the honorary title "Belgrade". The medal "For the Liberation of Belgrade" was established. Orders and medals of the USSR were received by 800 fighters and commanders of the NOAU, more than 2 thousand Soviet soldiers and officers were awarded Yugoslav orders and medals. The losses of the Soviet troops exceeded 35 thousand people, of which about 8 thousand people were killed.

Simultaneously with the Belgrade offensive operation, the Red Army troops began to liberate such states of Central Europe as Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Austria. The military operations here were extremely tense. The intensity of the struggle was determined not only by difficult geographical and weather conditions, but also by the fanatical resistance of the enemy. This was explained by the fact that these countries were a powerful arsenal and the last resource base from where the Third Reich received weapons, military equipment, fuel, food and much more.

Against the background of the victories of the Soviet armed forces, the liberation struggle of the peoples of Europe against the German occupiers intensified. Various political parties and movements sought to use the approach or entry into their territory of the Red Army troops to realize their plans.

4.Liberation of Czechoslovakia. Until August 1944, the partisan movement in Slovakia did not gain significant momentum. On July 17, 1944, the Politburo of the Communist Party (b) of Ukraine, at the direction of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, adopted a resolution "On rendering assistance to the Czechoslovak Communist Party in organizing the partisan movement on the territory of Czechoslovakia." In July, the Ukrainian headquarters of the partisan movement began to send specially trained organizing groups to Slovakia. Each consisted of 10-20 people, among whom were both Soviet and Czechoslovak citizens.

The Slovak partisans were supported not only by the population, but also by some gendarmerie units, as well as local military garrisons. As a result of the activities of partisan detachments, several regions were liberated in Central Slovakia by the end of August.

On August 30, an order was given to start an armed struggle against the German occupiers. The uprising has begun. Banska Bystrica became its center. The Czechoslovak government, which was in London, appealed to all Slovaks, Czechs and the people of Subcarpathia with an appeal to support the uprising.

The Soviet leadership, at the request of the Czechoslovak side, ordered to immediately begin preparations for a special offensive operation. The offensive of the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front began on September 8, and the 4th Ukrainian - a day later.

At the same time, the resistance of the enemy by this moment had noticeably increased. In an effort to stop the offensive, the Germans transferred four divisions and separate units to help the defending troops. Overcoming the strongest opposition from the enemy, units of the Red Army entered the territory of Slovakia on October 6. However, the severity of the fighting did not subside. The enemy resisted fiercely. The subsequent actions of the troops of General A. Grechko on the territory of Czechoslovakia were unsuccessful. In this regard, the commander of the 4th Ukrainian Front ordered the 1st Guards Army to stop the offensive.

Since October, the troops of the 1st and 4th Ukrainian fronts began the East Carpathian operation and provided direct assistance to the Slovak national uprising. By the end of the month, the operation was completed. More than 20 thousand Soviet and about 900 Czechoslovak soldiers who stormed the Carpathians died in fierce battles. Six months later, Soviet and Czechoslovak soldiers, together with rebel fighters, will complete the liberation campaign in Prague.

5.Liberation of Hungary . Until December 1944, Hungary was a kingdom without a king. The state was ruled by a temporary ruler, former Rear Admiral M. Horthy, who was proclaimed regent in 1920. In 1939, Hungary joined the Anti-Comintern Pact and participated in the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia, the attack on Yugoslavia and the USSR. For loyalty to the Third Reich, Hungary received part of Slovakia, Transcarpathian Ukraine, Northern Transylvania and part of Yugoslavia.

On October 16, 1944, with the approach of Soviet troops to the Hungarian border, M. Horthy signed a renunciation of power and documents on the transfer of the post of head of state to a Hitler protege - a retired colonel of the General Staff, the leader of the Hungarian fascists F. Salashy. Then Horthy and his family were taken to Germany, where they were kept under the protection of the Gestapo.

The fighting of the Red Army, which unfolded in the east and south of Hungary, was perceived by the population as inevitable measures to cleanse the country of the invaders. It lived by faith in the speedy end of the war and therefore met the Soviet troops as liberators, but at the same time experienced a feeling of fear and anxiety. The command of the Red Army in a special appeal assured the population that it was entering the Hungarian land "not as a conqueror, but as a liberator of the Hungarian people from the German fascist yoke", that the Red Army did not intend to break local orders and establish its own, guaranteed the inviolability of private property and the preservation local authorities, etc. This calmed and encouraged the population.

Due to the fact that the enemy intended not only to keep Budapest behind him, but also to prevent the Red Army from entering Czechoslovakia and Austria, the Supreme Command Headquarters decided first of all to defeat the Budapest grouping and capture the city.

In the fierce battles that unfolded, the troops of Marshal Tolbukhin, despite the superiority of the German troops in tanks, not only stopped their advance, but also threw them back to their original positions. Although the offensive of the Soviet troops developed slowly, the position of the encircled enemy was getting worse and worse. On February 13, 1945, the enemy grouping in Budapest, having lost up to 50 thousand killed and 138 thousand prisoners, ceased to exist.

The Soviet soldiers paid a heavy price for this victory. After 195 days of heavy battles and battles, the losses of Soviet troops in Hungary amounted to 320,082 people, of which 80,082 were irretrievable.

6.Liberation of Poland and Austria . The most difficult situation is in Poland. In August 1944, the front commanders K. Rokossovsky and G. Zakharov, under the leadership of G. Zhukov, developed a plan for the encirclement of German troops near Warsaw. However, this plan was not destined to materialize. The German command understood that the capture of bridgeheads on the western bank of the Vistula would open the way for Soviet troops to Berlin. In this regard, additional forces were transferred to Warsaw from Romania, Italy and Holland, consisting of three tank and two infantry divisions. A powerful tank battle took place on Polish soil. The 2nd Guards Tank Army lost over 280 tanks and about 1,900 men killed and wounded. By this time, the Red Army, during a 6-week offensive (from the beginning of the liberation of Belarus), fought 500-600 km. The momentum began to fade. Respite was required. In addition, heavy artillery lagged behind the advanced units by 400 km.

The command of the Home Army and the Polish government in exile in London without the consent of the Soviet authorities on August 1, 1944 raise an uprising in Warsaw. The Poles counted on the fact that they would have to fight with the police and the rear. And I had to fight with experienced front-line soldiers and SS troops. The uprising was brutally suppressed. On October 2, the Home Army capitulated. The Nazis were celebrating their last victory in the ruins of Warsaw. During the operation, about 25 thousand soldiers and more than 200 thousand civilians were killed.

Responsibility for the failure of the uprising lies entirely with the emigrant circles in London, who in turn tried to accuse the Soviet leadership and the Soviet military command of not helping the rebels for political reasons. In reality, there was no prior agreement on joint actions, and the Red Army needed time to prepare for the assault on the capital of Poland.

Only on January 17, 1945, Warsaw was liberated by the Soviet troops and the 1st Army of the Polish Army, which had been advancing along with the Red Army since the beginning of the liberation of Belarus. More than 600,000 Soviet soldiers gave their lives for the liberation of Poland during World War II, and 1,416,000 people were wounded. In early April, Soviet troops moved the fighting to the eastern regions of Austria. On April 9-10, 1945, the 3rd Ukrainian Front was advancing towards the center of Vienna. On April 13, Soviet troops completely occupied the capital of Austria.

The Vienna strategic offensive operation entailed great losses: human losses in it amounted to 167,940 people, including irretrievable losses - 38,661 people. The price for taking the sixth European capital turned out to be so high.

September 1, 1939 German and Slovakian attack on Poland the second world war began.

German troops cross the border with Poland

September 3 at 11:00 England, and at 17:00 France declared war on Germany. However, 110 French and British divisions, which were at that time on the Western Front against 23 German divisions, remained completely inactive.

Taking advantage of the inaction of England and France, the German command increased its strikes in Poland. With the rapid advance of German troops deep into Polish territory, disorganization grew in Poland. In a number of places, there were performances by the "fifth column" of the Germans living in Poland and members of the OUN, trained by the "Abwehr". On the very first day of the war, the President of the country, Ignacy Mościcki, left Warsaw, and on September 4, the evacuation of government institutions began.

Ignacy Moscicki

On September 5, the government left Warsaw, and on the night of September 7, Commander-in-Chief Edward Rydz-Smigly fled from the Polish capital.

Edward Rydz-Smigly

German troops advanced rapidly: taking advantage of the loss of centralized control of their units by the Poles, on September 8 they reached the approaches to Warsaw.

Polish light tank 7TP produced in 1937. Combat weight - 9.9 tons. Crew - 3 people. Armament - one 37 mm cannon, one 7.92 mm machine gun. Armor thickness: forehead of the hull - 17 mm, side - 13 mm, turret - 15 mm. Engine - diesel "Saurer VBLD" 110 l. with. Highway speed 32 km/h. Cruising on the highway - 160 km.

Polish propaganda poster

On September 12, German troops reached the middle reaches of the Vistula already in a number of sectors, they crossed the Western Bug-Narew line, engulfing Warsaw from the east, and advanced to the San, forcing its upper reaches. Formations of the 21st Army Corps of the Germans occupied Belsk on September 11, and Bialystok on September 15. On the afternoon of September 14, the 19th motorized corps occupied Brest.

parade in Warsaw

Hitler's plans initially did not include the conquest of Poland and the liquidation of the Polish state. All he needed was the restoration of land communication with East Prussia. Before signing the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, Hitler defined the goal of the Polish campaign as the return of Poznan, Silesia, Pomerania, parts of the Lodz, Warsaw and Kielce provinces - that is, those territories that were part of Germany as of 1914. However, stunned by such an unexpected success, the Germans began to think what to do with that part of Poland that had previously been part of the Russian Empire, but was taken from us under the Riga Treaty of 1921.

And then, on September 12, at a meeting held on Hitler's train, the head of the Abwehr, Admiral Wilhelm Karlovich Canaris, proposed to the Fuhrer to create a Ukrainian state from Eastern Poland, the head of which was to be the former ataman of the Petliurist army of the UNR Andrey Atanasovich Melnik, and the military leader was the commander of the Ukrainian Legion created by the Wehrmacht Roman Sushko.

A.A. Melnik R.K. Sushko

The Germans dreamed of creating an independent Hochlandia for a long time. Back in 1918, they created the regime of Hetman Skoropadsky in Ukraine, and now, in 1939, the former Clearly Noble Pan Hetman of All Ukraine lived in Berlin at 17 Alzenstrasse. Later, in 1945, he would die under American bombs.

In the spring of 1939, shortly before the Germans occupied the Czech part of Czechoslovakia, they created the Viysk Viddili Nationalists (VVN), which, together with the Slovaks, entered Poland.

Hitler liked the idea, and he instructed the admiral to form a Ukrainian gasket between Asia and Europe.

However, the Germans did not take into account the fact that the entire leadership of the OUN was stuffed with our agents, and already on September 13, when Canaris met with Melnik in Vienna for his consent to lead Great Ukraine, the plans of the Nazis became known to Beria, which he immediately reported to Stalin.

Allow the creation of a pro-German Hohland was impossible, and Stalin ordered the entry of the Red Army into Eastern Poland. September 14 to the Military Councils of the BOVO (commander of the 2nd rank M.P. Kovalev, divisional commissar P.E. Smokachev and chief of staff commander M.A. Purkaev) and KOVO (commander of the troops of the district S.K. Timoshenko, members of the Armed Forces V.N Borisov, N. S. Khrushchev, chief of staff commander N. F. Vatutin) sent directives from the People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR Marshal of the Soviet Union Voroshilov and the Chief of the General Staff of the Red Army - Commander I rank Boris Mikhailovich Shaposhnikov for No. 16633 and 16634, respectively, "On the beginning of the offensive against Poland.

B.M. Shaposhnikov

At 2 a.m. on September 17, Stalin summoned the German ambassador Schulenburg to the Kremlin and, in the presence of Molotov and Voroshilov, informed him that the Red Army would cross the Soviet border all the way from Polotsk to Kamenetz-Podolsky today at 6 a.m.

Friedrich Werner von der Schulenburg

"In order to avoid incidents," Stalin requested that Berlin be urgently informed so that German planes would not fly east of the Bialystok-Brest-Lvov line. He also informed Schulenburg that Soviet planes would bomb the area east of Lvov.

On the morning of September 17, the advance of the Red Army troops to Polish territory began.

T-28 crossing the river

It was met with little resistance from individual units of the Polish border guard corps.

With further advancement, the units of the regular Polish army encountered by the units of the Red Army mostly did not show resistance and were disarmed or surrendered, partly tried to retreat to Lithuania, Hungary or Romania. Organized resistance to units of the Red Army, which lasted more than a day, was provided only in a few cases: in the cities of Vilna, Grodno, Tarnopol, the villages of Navuz and Borovichi (near Kovel), in the Sarnensky fortified area. The resistance turned out to be mainly the gendarmerie, detachments of Polish border guards and the militia from the Poles.

The local Ukrainian, Belarusian and Jewish ethnic population mainly assisted the units of the Red Army, in a number of places creating armed detachments that acted against the Polish authorities.

meeting of the Red Army in the Polish town

In a number of settlements in Western Ukraine, there were demonstrations initiated by OUN supporters directed against ethnic Poles, which in some cases were brutally suppressed by the retreating Polish units.

The news of the action of the Red Army came as a surprise to the OKW. Walter Warlimont, deputy head of the operations department of the High Command of the German Armed Forces (OKW), was notified of the start of the Red Army's speech by Ernst Kestring a few hours before it entered Polish territory, and the latter himself found out about it at the last moment.

The representative of the OKW at Hitler's headquarters, Nikolaus von Wormann, cites information about an emergency meeting at Hitler's headquarters with the participation of top German political and military figures, where possible options for the actions of the German troops were considered, at which the start of hostilities against the Red Army was considered inappropriate. Thus, the anti-Soviet fabrications about a preliminary Soviet-German agreement regarding the partition of Poland are completely refuted.

Trophies from Poland

On September 19, after a skirmish between German and Soviet troops in the Lvov region, at the Soviet-German negotiations held on September 20-21, a demarcation line was established between the German and Soviet armies, which ran along the Pisa River to its confluence with the Narew River, then along the Narew River to its confluence with the Western Bug, then along the Bug River until it flows into the Vistula River, then along the river. The Vistula to the confluence of the San River and further along the San River to its source.

During the clearing of the rear of the Red Army from the remnants of Polish troops and armed detachments, in a number of cases, clashes took place, the most significant of which is the battle on September 28 - October 1 of the units of the 52nd Infantry Division in the Shatsk area with units of the Polish task force "Polesie", formed from border units, gendarmerie, small garrisons and sailors of the Pinsk flotilla under the command of General Kleeberg.

As a result of the Liberation Campaign, a territory of 196 thousand km² with a population of about 13 million people, almost completely located east of the Curzon Line recommended by the Entente as the eastern border of Poland in 1918, passed under the control of the USSR.

The fighting ended by 6 October. The Red Army lost 737 people killed and 1862 wounded.

Lithuanian troops enter Vilna: On October 10, 1939, the Vilna region with an area of ​​​​6909 km² with a population of 490 thousand inhabitants, mostly Belarusians, was transferred by us to Lithuania, and Vilna became the Lithuanian capital.

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On September 1, 1939, Hitler attacked Poland. After 17 days at 6 am, the Red Army with large forces (21 rifle and 13 cavalry divisions, 16 tank and 2 motorized brigades, a total of 618 thousand people and 4733 tanks) crossed the Soviet-Polish border from Polotsk to Kamenetz-Podolsk.

In the USSR, the operation was called the "liberation campaign", in modern Russia they are neutrally called the "Polish campaign". Some historians consider September 17 the date of the actual entry of the Soviet Union into World War II.

The birth of the pact

The fate of Poland was decided on August 23 in Moscow, when the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was signed.

For "calm confidence in the East" (an expression of Vyacheslav Molotov) and the supply of raw materials and grain, Berlin recognized half of Poland, Estonia, Latvia (Stalin subsequently exchanged Lithuania from Hitler for part of the Polish territory due to the USSR), Finland and Bessarabia as a "zone of Soviet interests".

The opinion of these countries, as well as other world players, was not asked.

Great and not-so-great powers were constantly dividing foreign lands, openly and secretly, on a bilateral basis and at international conferences. For Poland, the German-Russian partition of 1939 was the fourth.

The world has changed quite a lot since then. The geopolitical game continues, but it is impossible to imagine that two powerful states or blocs would so cynically decide the fate of third countries behind their backs.

Has Poland gone bankrupt?

Justifying the violation of the Soviet-Polish non-aggression pact of July 25, 1932 (in 1937 its validity was extended until 1945), the Soviet side argued that the Polish state had in fact ceased to exist.

“The German-Polish war clearly showed the internal bankruptcy of the Polish state. Thus, the agreements concluded between the USSR and Poland ceased to be valid,” said the note handed to the Polish Ambassador Vaclav Grzybowski, summoned to the People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs on September 17, by Deputy People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs Vladimir Potemkin.

"The sovereignty of the state exists as long as the soldiers of the regular army are fighting. Napoleon entered Moscow, but as long as the Kutuzov army existed, they believed that Russia exists. Where did the Slavic solidarity go?" Grzybowski answered.

The Soviet authorities wanted to arrest Grzybowski and his staff. Polish diplomats were saved by the German ambassador Werner von Schulenburg, who reminded the new allies about the Geneva Convention.

The blow of the Wehrmacht was really terrible. However, the Polish army, dissected by tank wedges, imposed on the enemy the battle on the Bzura that lasted from September 9 to 22, which even the Völkischer Beobachter recognized as "fierce".

We are expanding the front of socialist construction, this is favorable for mankind, because Lithuanians, Western Belarusians, Bessarabians consider themselves happy, whom we delivered from the oppression of landowners, capitalists, policemen and all other bastards from the speech of Joseph Stalin at a meeting in the Central Committee of the CPSU (B) on September 9 1940

An attempt to encircle and cut off from Germany the aggressor troops that had broken through was unsuccessful, but the Polish forces retreated behind the Vistula and began to regroup for a counterattack. In particular, 980 tanks remained at their disposal.

The defense of Westerplatte, Hela and Gdynia was admired by the whole world.

Ridiculing the "military backwardness" and "gentry arrogance" of the Poles, Soviet propaganda picked up Goebbels's fiction that the Polish uhlans allegedly rushed at the German tanks on horseback, helplessly stabbing the armor with their sabers.

In fact, the Poles did not engage in such nonsense, and the corresponding film, shot by the German propaganda ministry, was subsequently proven to be a fake. But the Polish cavalry worried the German infantry seriously.

The Polish garrison of the Brest Fortress, led by General Konstantin Plisovsky, repulsed all attacks, and German artillery was stuck near Warsaw. Soviet heavy guns helped, shelling the citadel for two days. Then a joint parade took place, which was received from the German side by Heinz Guderian, who soon became too well known to the Soviet people, and from the Soviet side by brigade commander Semyon Krivoshein.

Surrounded Warsaw capitulated only on September 26, and finally the resistance ended on October 6.

According to military analysts, Poland was doomed, but could fight for a long time.

Diplomatic games

Image copyright getty

Already on September 3, Hitler began to urge Moscow to act as soon as possible - because the war did not unfold quite the way he wanted, but, most importantly, to induce Britain and France to recognize the USSR as an aggressor and declare war on it along with Germany.

The Kremlin, understanding these calculations, was in no hurry.

On September 10, Schulenburg reported to Berlin: "At yesterday's meeting, I got the impression that Molotov promised a little more than one might expect from the Red Army."

According to historian Igor Bunich, diplomatic correspondence every day more and more resembled conversations in thieves' "raspberries": if you don't go for it, you will be left without a share!

The Red Army began to move two days after Ribbentrop in his next message transparently hinted at the possibility of creating an OUN state in western Ukraine.

If Russian intervention is not launched, the question will inevitably arise as to whether a political vacuum will not be created in the area lying to the east of the German zone of influence. In eastern Poland, conditions may arise for the formation of new states from Ribbentrop's telegram to Molotov of September 15, 1939.

"The question whether the preservation of an independent Polish State is desirable in mutual interests, and what the boundaries of this state will be, can be finally clarified only in the course of further political development," paragraph 2 of the secret protocol read.

At first, Hitler was inclined to the idea of ​​keeping Poland in a truncated form, cutting it off from the west and east. The Nazi Fuhrer hoped that Britain and France would accept such a compromise and end the war.

Moscow did not want to give him a chance to slip out of the trap.

On September 25, Schulenburg reported to Berlin: "Stalin considers it wrong to leave an independent Polish state."

By that time, it was officially announced in London: the only possible condition for peace is the withdrawal of German troops to the positions that they occupied before September 1, no microscopic quasi-states will save the situation.

Divided without a trace

As a result, during Ribbentrop's second visit to Moscow on September 27-28, Poland was divided without a trace.

In the signed document, it was already about "friendship" between the USSR and Germany.

In a telegram to Hitler in response to congratulations on his own 60th birthday in December 1939, Stalin repeated and strengthened this thesis: "The friendship of the peoples of Germany and the Soviet Union, sealed by blood, has every reason to be long and strong."

New secret protocols were attached to the September 28 agreement, the main one of which stated that the contracting parties would not allow "no Polish agitation" in the territories they controlled. The corresponding map was signed not by Molotov, but by Stalin himself, and his 58-centimeter stroke, starting in Western Belarus, crossed Ukraine and drove into Romania.

At a banquet in the Kremlin, according to Gustav Hilger, an adviser to the German embassy, ​​22 toasts were raised. Further, Hilger, according to him, lost count, because he drank equally.

Stalin honored all the guests, including the SS man Schulze, who was standing behind Ribbentrop's chair. The adjutant was not supposed to drink in such a society, but the owner personally handed him a glass, proclaimed a toast "to the youngest of those present", said that he probably suits a black uniform with silver stripes, and demanded that Schulze promise to come to Sovetsky again. Union, and certainly in uniform. Schulze gave his word, and kept it on June 22, 1941.

Unconvincing arguments

Official Soviet history offered four main explanations, or rather, justifications for the actions of the USSR in August-September 1939:

a) the pact made it possible to delay the war (obviously, it is understood that otherwise, the Germans, having captured Poland, would immediately go to Moscow without stopping);

b) the border moved 150-200 km to the west, which played an important role in repelling future aggression;

c) the USSR took Ukrainians and Belarusians under the protection of half-brothers, saving them from Nazi occupation;

d) the pact prevented "anti-Soviet collusion" between Germany and the West.

The first two points arose retroactively. Until June 22, 1941, Stalin and his entourage did not say anything of the sort. They did not consider the USSR as a weak defending side and were not going to fight on their territory, even if it was "old" or newly acquired.

The hypothesis of a German attack on the USSR in the autumn of 1939 does not look serious.

For aggression against Poland, the Germans were able to assemble 62 divisions, of which about 20 were undertrained and understaffed, 2,000 aircraft and 2,800 tanks, over 80% of which were light tankettes. At the same time, Kliment Voroshilov, in negotiations with the British and French military delegations in May 1939, said that Moscow was capable of deploying 136 divisions, 9-10 thousand tanks, 5 thousand aircraft.

On the former border, we had powerful fortified areas, and then only Poland was a direct enemy, which would not have dared to attack us alone, and in the event of its collusion with Germany, it would not be difficult to establish the exit of German troops to our border. Then we would have had time to mobilize and deploy. Now we are face to face with Germany, which can secretly concentrate its troops for an attack from the speech of the Chief of Staff of the Belarusian Military District Maxim Purkaev at a meeting of the district command staff in October 1939.

The extension of the border to the west in the summer of 1941 did not help the Soviet Union, because the Germans occupied this territory in the first days of the war. Moreover, thanks to the pact, Germany moved east by an average of 300 km, and most importantly, acquired a common border with the USSR, without which an attack, especially a sudden one, would have been impossible at all.

A "crusade against the USSR" might have seemed plausible to Stalin, whose worldview was shaped by the Marxist doctrine of class struggle as the main driving force of history, and also suspicious by nature.

However, not a single attempt by London and Paris to conclude an alliance with Hitler is known. Chamberlain's "appeasement" was intended not to "direct German aggression to the East," but to encourage the Nazi leader to abandon aggression altogether.

The thesis about the protection of Ukrainians and Belarusians was officially presented by the Soviet side in September 1939 as the main reason.

Through Schulenburg, Hitler expressed his strong disagreement with such an "anti-German formulation."

“The Soviet government, unfortunately, does not see any other pretext to justify its current intervention abroad. We ask, taking into account the difficult situation for the Soviet government, not to allow such trifles to stand in our way,” Molotov said in response to the German ambassador

In fact, the argument could be considered irreproachable if the Soviet authorities, in pursuance of the secret order of the NKVD No. 001223 of October 11, 1939, in a territory with a population of 13.4 million, did not arrest 107 thousand and did not deport 391 thousand people administratively. About ten thousand died during the deportation and in the settlement.

High-ranking Chekist Pavel Sudoplatov, who arrived in Lvov immediately after its occupation by the Red Army, wrote in his memoirs: “The atmosphere was strikingly different from the state of affairs in the Soviet part of Ukraine. liquidate".

special accounts

In the first two weeks of the war, the Soviet press devoted short informational messages to her under neutral headings, as if they were talking about distant and insignificant events.

On September 14, as part of the information preparation for the invasion, Pravda published a long article devoted mainly to the oppression of national minorities in Poland (as if the arrival of the Nazis promised them better times), and contained the statement: "That's why no one wants to fight for such a state" .

Subsequently, the misfortune that befell Poland was commented on with undisguised gloating.

Speaking at a session of the Supreme Soviet on October 31, Molotov rejoiced that "nothing was left of this ugly offspring of the Treaty of Versailles."

Both in the open press and in confidential documents, the neighboring country was called either "former Poland" or, in the Nazi style, "governor-general."

Newspapers printed cartoons depicting a border post knocked down by a Red Army boot and a sad teacher announcing to the class: "This, children, is the end of our study of the history of the Polish state."

Through the corpse of white Poland lies the path to the world conflagration. On bayonets we will carry happiness and peace to working mankind Mikhail Tukhachevsky, 1920

When the Polish government-in-exile headed by Vladislav Sikorsky was established in Paris on October 14, Pravda responded not with informational or analytical material, but with a feuilleton: “The territory of the new government consists of six rooms, a bathroom and a toilet. In comparison with this territory, Monaco looks boundless empire."

Stalin had special scores with Poland.

During the disastrous Polish war of 1920 for Soviet Russia, he was a member of the Revolutionary Military Council (political commissar) of the Southwestern Front.

The neighboring country in the USSR was called nothing more than "pan Poland" and blamed for everything and always.

As follows from the decree signed by Stalin and Molotov on January 22, 1933 on the fight against the migration of peasants to the cities, it turns out that people did this not trying to escape from the Holodomor, but being incited by "Polish agents".

Until the mid-1930s, the Soviet military plans saw Poland as the main adversary. Mikhail Tukhachevsky, who also turned out to be among the beaten commanders at one time, according to the recollections of witnesses, simply lost his temper when the conversation turned to Poland.

Repressions against the leadership of the Polish Communist Party living in Moscow in 1937-1938 were a common practice, but the fact that it was declared "wrecking" as such and dissolved by the decision of the Comintern is a unique fact.

The NKVD discovered in the USSR also the "Polish organization of troops", allegedly created back in 1914 by Pilsudski personally. She was accused of what the Bolsheviks themselves took credit for: the decomposition of the Russian army during the First World War.

In the course of the "Polish operation", carried out on Yezhov's secret order No. 00485, 143,810 people were arrested, 139,835 of them were convicted and 111,091 were shot - one in six ethnic Poles living in the USSR.

In terms of the number of victims, even the Katyn massacre fades before these tragedies, although it was she who became known to the whole world.

easy walk

Before the start of the operation, Soviet troops were brought together in two fronts: Ukrainian under the command of the future People's Commissar of Defense Semyon Timoshenko and Belarusian General Mikhail Kovalev.

The 180-degree turn happened so quickly that many Red Army soldiers and commanders thought they were going to fight the Nazis. The Poles also did not immediately understand that this was no help.

Another incident occurred: the political officers explained to the fighters that they had to "beat the lords", but the installation had to be urgently changed: it turned out that in the neighboring country everyone was lords and panis.

The head of the Polish state, Edward Rydz-Smigly, realizing the impossibility of a war on two fronts, ordered the troops not to resist the Red Army, but to be interned in Romania.

Some commanders did not receive the order or ignored it. The fighting took place near Grodno, Shatsk and Oran.

On September 24, near Przemysl, the lancers of General Vladislav Anders defeated two Soviet infantry regiments with a surprise attack. Timoshenko had to advance tanks to prevent the Poles from breaking through into Soviet territory.

But for the most part, the “liberation campaign,” which officially ended on September 30, was a cakewalk for the Red Army.

The territorial acquisitions of 1939–1940 turned out to be a major political loss for the USSR and international isolation. The "bridgeheads" occupied with the consent of Hitler did not strengthen the country's defense capability at all, since Vladimir Beshanov was not intended for this,
historian

The victors captured about 240 thousand prisoners, 300 combat aircraft, a lot of equipment and military equipment. Created at the beginning of the Finnish war, the "armed forces of democratic Finland", without thinking twice, dressed in trophy uniforms from warehouses in Bialystok, disputes with Polish symbols from it.

The declared losses amounted to 737 killed and 1862 wounded (according to updated data from the site "Russia and the USSR in the wars of the XX century" - 1475 dead and 3858 wounded and sick).

In a holiday order on November 7, 1939, People's Commissar of Defense Kliment Voroshilov stated that "the Polish state at the first military clash shattered like an old rotten cart."

"Just think about how many years tsarism fought to annex Lvov, and our troops took this territory in seven days!" - Lazar Kaganovich triumphed at a meeting of the party economic activists of the People's Commissariat of Railways on October 4.

In fairness, it should be noted that in the Soviet leadership there was a person who tried to at least partially cool the euphoria.

“We were terribly damaged by the Polish campaign, it spoiled us. Our army did not immediately understand that the war in Poland was a military walk, not a war,” Joseph Stalin said at a meeting of the highest command staff on April 17, 1940.

However, on the whole, the "liberation campaign" was perceived as a model for any future war that the USSR would start whenever it wanted and end victoriously and easily.

Many participants in the Great Patriotic War noted the enormous harm inflicted by the army and society by the hatred moods.

Historian Mark Solonin called August-September 1939 the finest hour of Stalinist diplomacy. From the point of view of momentary goals, it was so: without officially entering the world war, with little bloodshed, the Kremlin achieved everything it wanted.

However, just two years later, the decisions taken then almost turned into death for the country.

The London Times called this event "a stab in the back of Poland", the Soviet leadership considered the Polish campaign of the Red Army to be liberating.

Stubborn Poles

In April 1939, Poland demonstratively conducted large-scale military maneuvers on the border of the USSR. At the same time, the Soviet side proposed to the Polish government to consider a defensive alliance against third countries, to which it received a very harsh refusal, the meaning of which was that, if necessary, the Polish army was ready to defeat both Stalin and Hitler at the same time. The Soviet Union did not react to this essentially offensive demarche. Ironically, a few months later in September 1939, the Polish army had to deal with both German and Soviet troops with a short period of time. Of course, one cannot speak of a war on two fronts. The Soviet troops faced only focal resistance, and even more so not by the army, but by the siegemen, the police and the local militia.

Disaster in Balbasovo

On the eve of the Liberation Campaign, on September 16, an absurd and tragic plane crash occurred, in which the most productive Soviet pilot of the 30s, twice Hero of the Soviet Union, Major Sergei Ivanovich Gritsevets, died. A participant in the Spanish Civil War, Gritsevets destroyed 7 enemy aircraft, for which he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Gritsevets was remembered for his new victories at Khalkhin Gol, having shot down 12 Japanese aircraft. In addition, he took out his commander, Major V. Zabaluev, from the territory occupied by the enemy, landing his I-16 near the Japanese positions. Remaining invincible in the air, Gritsevets died through no fault of his own during a landing at the Balbasovo airfield near Orsha. According to all the rules, at dusk and in fog conditions, he made an exemplary landing and, fearing a collision with the pilots following him to land, taxied from the runway to neutral. At that moment, Major P. Hara, against all odds, came in for landing from the opposite side, mistaking the neutral zone for the landing zone. There was a head-on collision of fighters, and if Khara escaped with bruises, then Gritsevets died from the impact of the propeller. In the conditions of the beginning of the campaign, it was decided not to report the death of the famous pilot. Gritsevets was never destined to see his native village of Borovtsy, liberated by Soviet troops during the 1939 campaign in Belarus.

The tragedy of Skidel

30 km from Grodno is the small town of Skidel, in which, after receiving news of the border crossing by the Red Army, an uprising against the Polish authorities began, brutally suppressed by the punishers: “The punishers immediately shot 30 people. They also shot just those who turned up under the arm. Before the execution, they mocked: one had their eyes gouged out, the tongues of others were cut, the fingers of the third were broken with butts on their hands ... ". There could have been more victims if not for a group of Soviet tanks that arrived in time to the scene, which in a short but fierce battle defeated the Polish detachment.

At one gas station

It is noteworthy that during the Liberation Campaign, a number of Soviet tank units often had only one refueling. The lack of fuel made it necessary to form shock mobile groups from tanks and quickly move on, transferring fuel to them from the rest of the combat vehicles. Since there was no serious opposition from the Polish troops, this experience was successful. However, the same shortage of fuel would have a fatal effect in June 1941, when hundreds of Soviet tanks would be abandoned or destroyed by their crews due to lack of fuel.

Liberation campaign in art

The liberation campaign found a certain reflection in literature, cinema and music. In memory of the Soviet tank in Antopol, which was burned by the gang surrounding it (by no means Polish soldiers), together with the crew, Alexander Tvardovsky wrote the poem "Tank", then set to music by V. Kochetov. The appearance of the famous "Song of the Red Regiments" is also connected with the history of the Liberation Campaign.

Vilna

On the evening of September 18, 1939, mobile tank groups of the 3rd and 11th armies of the Belorussian Front broke into Vilna and completely captured the city by the middle of the next day. Losses amounted to 9 tanks and armored cars: 13 soldiers were killed and 24 were wounded. The city, according to the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact (point 1), was transferred to Lithuania (later this was fixed by the corresponding Soviet-Lithuanian treaty). Thus, Lithuania regained its capital, which was lost during the conflict with Poland in 1922. Until that time, Vilna was still considered the official capital of Lithuania (its loss was not recognized), but all government structures were located in Kaunas.

Polish monitors

On September 18, 1939, 5 river monitors were flooded by Polish crews on Pripyat and Pina when Soviet troops approached. They were examined and raised at the same time, in September 1939, and then put into operation with a change of names - "Vinnitsa" ("Torun"), "Bobruisk" ("Fortress"). Vitebsk (Warsaw), Zhitomir (Pinsk), Smolensk (Krakow). The ships became part of the Dnieper, and then the Pinsk flotilla. The military biography of the monitors in the Great Patriotic War turned out to be short, but bright - they all distinguished themselves, acting on Pripyat, Berezina and the Dnieper, having managed to complete a number of combat missions, more than once breaking through from fatal traps in June-September 1941. When leaving Kyiv on September 18, 1941 "Vitebsk" died - the last of the five captured monitors remaining by that time.

The Soviet government closely followed the events in Poland. Already on September 11, 1939, a secret order was issued to form the Ukrainian and Belorussian fronts. In addition, on September 15, an important event took place: Japan and the USSR signed a peace treaty that ended the conflict at Khalkhin Gol (which the Japanese call the Nomonkhan Incident). On September 16, the Polish government was interned in Romania. By this time, German troops had reached the line Lvov - Vladimir-Volynsky - Brest - Bialystok, which, in general, corresponded to the line of demarcation of spheres of influence, determined by the secret protocol of the Molotov-Ribentrop treaty and at the same time coincided with the "Curzon Line", the border between Soviet Russia and Poland, proposed by England back in 1919.

On September 16, starting at 4 p.m., in parts of the Belarusian and Ukrainian military districts, they began to read out the order to go on a “liberation campaign” (however, then this phrase was written without quotes).

On September 17, at 05:49, the Red Army troops received an order to cross the state border with Poland. On the same day, the commander-in-chief of the Polish army, E. Rydz-Smigly, issued an order: not to consider the USSR a belligerent party and not to resist its troops. The order said: "... The units approached by the Soviets should begin negotiations with them with a view to withdrawing our garrisons to Romania and Hungary".

The command of the Polish Air Force ordered the evacuation of all aircraft to Romania. About 100 aircraft flew to this country: 19 PZL-37 Los bombers and four dozen PZL-23 Karasch light bombers, R-7 and R-11 fighters.

The news of the entry of the Red Army into the territory of Poland was greeted with enthusiasm by the Varsovians. Many of them believed that Stalin sent troops to help them.

By September 22, units of the Wehrmacht and the Red Army met almost along the entire front line. After appropriate government instructions, the German troops began to withdraw in succession, handing over the captured Polish cities and other settlements to the Red Army. By September 29, the troops reached the line Suwalki - Sokoluv - Lublin - Yaroslav - Przemysl and further along the river. San. On September 23 and 28, the treaties between Germany and the USSR “On Friendship and Borders” finally secured the next territorial division of Poland.

The translator of I. V. Stalin, Valentin Berezhkov, a participant in the Liberation Campaign, wrote in his memoirs: “As a witness to the events that took place in the autumn of 1939, I cannot forget the atmosphere that prevailed in those days in Western Belarus and Western Ukraine. We were greeted with flowers, bread and salt, treated with fruit and milk. In small private cafes, Soviet officers were fed for free. Those were real feelings.". The Red Army was seen as a defense against the Nazi terror. Something similar happened in the Baltics. Many fled from the advancing Wehrmacht to the East, seeking salvation in the territory controlled by the Red Army...

In September 1939, Soviet soldiers were greeted as liberators - with flowers and bread and salt. And in June 1941, in Western Ukraine and Western Belarus, the Germans were already met at first. With our inept and cruel actions at the end of 1939 and in 1940. a long post-war struggle with Bandera in Transcarpathia was also connected.

	T-28	BT	T-26	T-38	BA
Belorussian Front
6th Light Tank Brigade	-	248	-	-	-
21st Heavy Tank Brigade	105	29	-	-	19
22nd Light Tank Brigade	-	-	219	-	3
25th Light Tank Brigade	-	-	251	-	27
29th Light Tank Brigade	-	-	188	-	3
32nd Light Tank Brigade	-	-	220	-	5
15th Panzer Corps	-	465	-	-	122
Total for the Belorussian Front	105	742	878	-	179
Ukrainian front
10th Heavy Tank Brigade	98	30	10	-	19
23rd Light Tank Brigade	-	209	9	-	5
24th Light Tank Brigade	-	205	8	-	28
26th tank brigade	-	-	228	-	22
36th Light Tank Brigade	-	-	301	-	24
38th Light Tank Brigade	-	-	141	4	28
25th Panzer Corps	-	435	27	-	74
Total for the Ukrainian Front	98	879	724	4	200
Total	203	1621	1602	4	379

September 17

The Red Army crossed the Polish-Soviet border. The troops of the Belorussian and Ukrainian fronts moved to Poland. They consisted of six armies, which included two tank corps and 12 tank brigades, armed with 203 T-28 tanks, 1614 BT-5 and BT-7, 1601 T-26, 355 armored vehicles. And this is without taking into account the armored vehicles of the infantry and cavalry divisions.

The cavalry divisions had tank regiments of 34-41 BTs (mostly BT-2s), and the infantry divisions had tank battalions of 20-30 T-37s, T-38s and T-26s. The combat support companies in tank brigades also included flamethrower tanks. Fortunately, it did not come to their combat use. In small quantities in different units, BT-7A tanks with a 76-mm cannon and self-propelled guns SU-5 were in service. Armored vehicles were used not only in tank, but also in infantry and cavalry units. The main types of Soviet armored cars: FAI and BA-20 of various modifications, BA-3, BA-6 and BA-10. The offensive was supported by armored trains of the 4th and 8th divisions of the Belarusian military district.

The total number of armored vehicles of the Red Army participating in the "Liberation Campaign" exceeded the total number of armored vehicles in the German army. So the 5,000 tanks that the USSR promised to put up to help Poland at the talks in August 1939 turned out to be a reality.

Scattered units and subunits of the Polish troops, retreating in disorder to the East, in most cases did not offer resistance to the Red Army and laid down their arms. However, sometimes there were quite violent clashes.

The 25th Tank Corps (commander - Colonel I. O. Yarkin), which was part of the Cavalry-Mechanized Group of the Ukrainian Front, advanced with battles from the very first day. On September 17, Chortkow and Zhidkow were taken, the next day - Buchach, Cheremkhov. In the battle near Dobrovy on September 18, the reconnaissance battalion of the 5th light tank brigade, which had only 15 BT tanks and 13 armored vehicles, captured several hundred soldiers and one TK-3 tankette. The 1st motorized rifle brigade in the Monastyrsk area defeated the 54th infantry regiment, the headquarters of the 12th infantry division and the 8th separate Poznan motorized detachment.

On September 19, units of the 25th Panzer Corps reached Galich. The next day, the 1st motorized rifle division fought the Poles near Niegovets, and the main forces approached the city of Stryi and met with the German troops. On the night of September 23, the corps marched to the Komarno area, where it met with the German 2nd Mountain Division. During the fighting in the corps, there were 8 killed and 24 wounded. The loss of materiel amounted to 8 vehicles, as well as the tractor "Komsomolets" from the 1st motorized rifle brigade, defeated in the battle near Nigovets. Crossed the border and armored trains. Armored train No. 16 participated in the capture of Drissa, No. 19 and No. 21 - Farnovo and Zahatse. The further advancement of the "fortresses on wheels" stopped due to the lack of a wide gauge on the territory of Poland, and they carried out patrol service in the front line.

September 18

In the evening, the 6th Tank Brigade (commanded by Colonel Bolotnikov) reached the southern outskirts of Vilna and began its assault on the move. At dawn on September 19, the brigade was fighting in the street. By 11 o'clock the city was captured and held until the approach of the 22nd and 25th tank brigades and the 24th cavalry division. Among the defenders of Vilna, in addition to units of the regular army, there were also detachments of officers and student volunteers. During street fighting, BT-7A artillery tanks were successfully used to destroy machine guns mounted on the roofs and attics of houses.

Meanwhile, fighting continued between the German and Polish troops. Tanks Pz. Kpfw. II Ausf. From the 2nd motorized division of Guderian's corps they crossed the Narew near Zambrow. The 67th tank battalion of the 3rd light division of the Wehrmacht fought near Kielce.

At 19:30 on September 18, the 24th Brigade set out; at 02:00 the next day, her tanks broke into Lvov. But by 6 in the morning, by order of the commander, who correctly assessed the situation, the tankers left the city. A reconnaissance battalion under the command of Captain A.V. Egorov remained in it. At 08:30, the 137th Regiment of the 2nd Mountain Rifle Division of the Wehrmacht launched an attack, and the reconnaissance battalion was under fire from both the Germans and the Poles. The white flags put up by the tankers did not stop the shelling. I had to return fire. As a result of the battle, the scouts lost 3 killed and 4 wounded. 4 were hit and 2 BA-10s and 1 BT-7 burned down. According to the Germans, they lost 2 officers (majors) and one non-commissioned officer from the fire of the Soviet troops, and 9 soldiers were wounded. Loss of weapons - three anti-tank guns were knocked out.

During September 19 and 20, negotiations were held with the Germans on the withdrawal of their troops from Lvov. By September 21, units of the 38th light tank brigade, as well as the 10th tank brigade (commander - Colonel G.I. Ivanov), who were armed with T-28 medium tanks, approached Lvov. With such "weighty arguments" the Germans were forced to leave the city. The next day, September 22, the commander of the defense of Lvov, General Langer, ordered the surrender of the garrison.

At 15:00, 185 tanks of the 24th light tank brigade entered the city in a marching column, but were met by anti-tank gun fire from behind the barricades. The barricades were destroyed by return fire. During the evening and night, our units were engaged in disarming the soldiers and officers of the garrison.

During the fighting, the 24th light tank brigade captured about 40,000 military personnel, and captured, among other things, two armored vehicles. The losses of the brigade amounted to eight people killed and 17 wounded, five were missing. Of the equipment, except for the one that died in Lviv, only one BT-7 was lost.

September 20

On the Stanislav-Galich sector, the 23rd light tank brigade (commander - Colonel T. A. Mishanin) near the village of Krasnoye near the town of Buysk met with a squadron of lancers, supported by a "half-company" of R-35 tanks. The fire of anti-tank guns destroyed one "thirty-fifth", the second was damaged. It was burned by the Poles themselves during the retreat. The squadron was scattered.

On its way, the 23rd brigade destroyed up to an infantry battalion of the 12th infantry division of the Karpaty army, disarmed units of the 24th and 25th Polish infantry divisions. Having made a difficult three-day march along the spurs of the Carpathian Mountains, the tank battalions reached Skhodnitsa and Borislavl, already occupied by the Germans. After negotiations, Soviet tanks entered the city. Concentrating in the area of ​​Stryi, the brigade completed the fighting.

In the meantime, the Polish “half-company”, which retreated to the west, in the Kamenka-Strumilova area, collided with a reconnaissance detachment of the 44th German infantry division. The Germans lost one tank in the battle, and two were knocked out. The "half-company" again set off until September 25 again met with Soviet troops. The last tank had an engine failure and had to be blown up. In just a week of fighting, the “half-company” covered about 500 km.

September 21

On the night of September 21, units of the 22nd Tank Brigade (commanded by Colonel I. G. Lazarev) were attacked by a Polish squadron that was trying to break into Lithuania. After a short battle, Captain Simachenko's group captured two 105-mm guns, a truck with ammunition and 14 horses.

The 21st tank brigade completed its combat campaign, reaching the area of ​​the city of Volpa. She was in the front reserve and was not introduced into battle.

Tankettes TKS of the 61st armored division near Komorow fought with a German tank detachment.

September 22nd

The remnants of the Novogrudok cavalry brigade, together with the 91st armored division, began to break through the German positions near Tomashov-Lyubelsky to the Hungarian border.

The 61st Division supported the counterattack of the Polish 1st Infantry Division against the German troops on Tarnavka. After a long battle, the division capitulated, and the 61st division withdrew to the Veni River.

At the Povorosk station, German bombers smashed the armored train No. 51 Marshalek.

On the same day, the “Smeli” and “Bartosz Glovatsky” who were at the Podzamche station received an order to surrender. They went to the Red Army as trophies.

Parts of the 29th tank brigade (commander - brigade commander S. M. Krivoshein, who became a Hero of the Soviet Union on May 29, 1945) reached Brest without a fight, captured more than 35 thousand soldiers and officers of the Polish army. The approach of the Red Army to Brest relieved General Guderian of the need to carry out the order of the command to conduct an offensive. “... one division to the south, the other - to the east to Kobrin, the third - to the north-west to Bialystok. The implementation of this decision would lead to the division of the body into separate parts and any control over it would become impossible ".

On September 22, a joint parade of Soviet and German troops took place in Brest, which was hosted by S. M. Krivoshein and Heinz Guderian. After that, the Germans left the city and "... the stocks captured from the Poles, since it was impossible to evacuate them in such a short time," Guderian lamented in his memoirs. We note, by the way, that in 1939 the Soviet tank brigade of 180 tanks was approximately equal in number to the German tank regiment, which had two tank battalions of 99 vehicles each.

23 September

During this and the next day, the 32nd Tank Brigade fought in the Kobrin area with retreating groups of Poles numbering from 100 to 300 people. On September 25, the brigade, together with units of the 8th and 143rd infantry divisions, took up defense in the area of ​​​​the Kobrin-Madruta and Brest-Kovel roads. During the fighting, the brigade lost only one T-26 tank, which fell off the bridge, but for technical reasons, 47 T-26 tanks failed! By the way, this brigade was armed with self-propelled artillery guns SU-5.

September 24

The 38th tank brigade (commander - brigade commander P.V. Volokh) received an order to move from near Lvov to Sokal and set out the next day. By the end of September 29, she approached Zamost. During the march, active hostilities were not conducted. In total, the brigade traveled 748 km, losing 8 people killed and 6 wounded. About 30 thousand people were taken prisoner, 11 tanks were captured.

September 25

When crossing the Vepsh River, the 61st Armored Division left its last tankettes.

The 36th tank brigade was ordered to go to the city of Kholm. By 14:30, 194 T-26 tanks and 23 armored vehicles approached the city, the garrison of which met them with fire from behind the barricades. With a swift attack, the barricades were crushed and by 17 o'clock the city was captured by the Red Army. About 8 thousand soldiers and officers were taken prisoner, 20 machine guns and 10 guns were captured. The brigade lost only 2 officers.

In the Kholm area, tank units of the 45th and 60th rifle divisions lost a floating T-37. Moreover, the T-37s were hit by heavy machine gun fire.

September 26

The 10th tank brigade moved from near Lvov to the Yavorov area. In total, since the beginning of hostilities, the tankers traveled about 400 km, but had no losses in tanks.

September 27

In battles with Soviet troops near Sambir, the remnants of the Novogrudok cavalry brigade and the 91st armored division, which had lost their last vehicles, ended their combat path. The personnel of the division was captured by the Soviets.

September 28

The 36th tank brigade (commander - brigade commander N. Bogomolov), having made a march, went to the city of Lublin, but just before the city met with German troops. Having received the order to capture Lublin on September 20, she passed through the area of ​​​​Dubno and Lutsk, where in the summer of 1941 the largest tank battle would unfold. Having traveled 710 km, the brigade lost only two armored vehicles blown up by mines, and captured, as indicated in the report, one Vickers-type tank, most likely 7TP from the 2nd light tank battalion, abandoned by personnel during the withdrawal to the Hungarian border.

Until September 30, the 26th tank brigade, commander Colonel Semenchenko, fought 228 T-26 tanks. After passing about 600 km, she crossed several rivers: Zbruch, Sereet, Strypa and others, moving towards Sambor. Along the way, it destroyed groups of retreating Poles from the 14th, 2nd, 27th Infantry Divisions, 2nd Cavalry Division (Novogrudok Cavalry Brigade). In total, the brigade captured 147 officers and 2,009 soldiers, including General Anders, as well as one tank.

In fact, by September 25, the entire territory of Poland was captured by German and Soviet troops. But the Polish army continued to resist. Until the 26th, fighting continued near Tomashov-Lubelsky and Zamosc, until September 27 - near Przemysl. Although Warsaw fell on the 28th, Modlin Fortress refused to capitulate until September 30th. On the night of the 26th to the 27th, by order of the commandant of the fortress, the Smerch armored train and armored tires were blown up. The Austin-Putilovets armored car, which stood as a monument, was thrown into the Vistula.

Until October 2, the garrison of the Hel Peninsula held out. Until October 5, the remnants of the Polish troops under the command of Brigadier General F. Kleeberg, commander of the Polesie task force, fought near Kotsk with the XIV motorized corps of the enemy. This was the last battle of the Polish troops against the German invaders in 1939.

After the end of hostilities, a detachment of 152 people with the required number of vehicles was organized from units of the 24th light tank brigade by order of the Military Council of the Ukrainian Front. His task was the evacuation of trophy property from the Krasnobrod - Yuzefuw - Tomashov region, already occupied by German units. Working selflessly, until October 6, the detachment took out 9 Polish tanks, 10 tankettes and up to 30 guns, and also “grabbed” German equipment: 2 tanks and 2 anti-tank guns.