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3. OVERVIEW OF THE INVASION OF POLAND BY SOVIET TROOPS IN SEPTEMBER 1939 (from the book Wojna
Polsko-Sowiecka 1939).
It is commonly assumed by scholars in the West that there was no or only token resistance to the Soviet
invasion by Polish troops on and after September 17, 1939. This book will show that the assumption is incorrect.
Active Polish armed resistance, in some sectors, persisted up until the 1st of October, 1939.
First, it must be noted that Poland and the Soviet Union had previously signed a non-aggression pact. This
pact was obviously broken by the Soviets. Moreover, the Soviets then proceeded to sign a secret deal with the German Reich
(the Ribbentrop-Molotov treaty of August 23, 1939) to divide Poland between them. The treachery here is obvious.
When the Soviets attacked, taking the Poles by surprise, almost all Polish troops were engaged in a mortal
fight, entering into its seventeenth day, with the German aggressor. Most of the combat divisions were already badly
weakened, partially encircled by the highly motorized enemy, or even destroyed. Polish troops in the hinterland, where Soviet
troops attacked, comprised one brigade and seven weakly-armed regiments of the Border Protection Corps (KOP) and some regular
troops, but mostly reserves in the process of accelerated training, to be sent, as quickly as possible, to the German front;
skeleton garrisons in cities and towns; units routed by the Germans trying to reorganize; supply units, field hospitals, etc.
There was, therefore, no possibility of creating a regular front against the Soviet aggressors, who pushed forward with dozens
of divisions, including a few thousand tanks.
On September 17, 1939 the Polish High Command was located at Kolomyja, south-east of Lwow, close to
the friendly Romanian border. When the first news of the Soviet aggression was broken, it received urgent requests from different
commanders by radio, telegraph and telephone as to how to behave. These requests, and the confusion which reigned initially
in some places, resulted to a great extent from the fact that Soviet troops, perfidiously masking their real intentions, often
waved white flags, shouted "At the Germans!", saluted Polish soldiers, etc. Many Poles were, therefore, initially under the
illusion that the Soviets may have decided to intervene against Germany.
The first orders from the High Command were "fight!" But some hours later, assessing the general tragic
situation that had emerged, the Polish Commander-in-Chief, Marshal Smigly-Ridz, arrived at the conclusion that instead of
waging a hopeless war against the invading Soviets, the best solution would be to save as many troops as possible for continued
action in France. In this connection he issued the following "general directive": "The Soviets have entered. I order general
withdrawl to Romania and Hungary by the shortest routes. No fighting with the Bolsheviks, only in case of attack by them or
attempts to disarm units. The tasks of Warsaw and of cities that have had to defend themselves against the Germans - without
change."
While access routes to Romania were cut off, by the Soviets, already by September 19/20, those to Hungary,
situated further to the West, remained open a few days longer, and so 70 - 80,000 Polish troops managed to enter
these countries (thousands of additional individual soldiers and volunteers crossed into Hungary during the following months,
until the defeat of France). Prominent among the units that crossed in September was one of the two existing Polish motorized
brigades, fighting on the day of Soviet aggression against Germans in the vicinity of Lwow (commanded by then Col., later
Gen. Stanislaw Maczek, 1892 - 1994) and the rest of the Polish Air Force, some hundred planes, and a considerable number of
motorized ground personnel. These men were to become the backbone of the Polish armoured division that took part in the invasion
of France in 1944, and the Polish Air Force that played a considerable role in the Battle of Britain.
Obviously, because of the distances, the continued fighting with the Germans, and the Soviets doing their
best to prevent the exodus, it could only embrace a relatively small portion of the Polish troops, mostly from the southern
sector of Poland. Troops in the northern sector, fairly small in number, partially fighting with the Soviets, finally crossed
the border into Lithuania, but some into Latvia; some did not cross until September 25/26. Many of the interned servicemen
were quickly able to reach, via Sweden, the Polish Army formed in France. Finally, all the troops in the central sector fought
the Soviets the longest, up to October 1, 1939. They were finally dispersed or had to capitulate, partially to the Germans.
In sum, between September 17 and October 1, 1939, there were a number of battles, and dozens of skirmishes,
between Polish and Soviet troops. And almost everywhere along the extended Polish-Soviet border of almost 1,500 kilometres,
KOP offered at least preliminary resistance during September 17/18. Later, partisan activities in some of the Soviet-occupied
territories followed.
More specifically, there existed a fierce defence of the city of Grodno (September 20-21), in which some
800 Soviets were killed or wounded, and at least 10 of their tanks destroyed. Prior to that there had been rear-guard fighting
by military units and volunteers in Wilno on the evening and during the night of September 18/19. Then came the battle of
Kodziowce (September 22) , where a Polish regiment, belonging to the group commanded by Gen. Waclaw Przezdziecki, repelled
all attacks by forty Soviet tanks and strong infantry units; Soviet losses in this region amounted to hundreds of killed and
some 20 tanks destroyed.
Further south, in the region of Polesie, there was heavy fighting of the KOP Regiment "Sarny" which, based
on its modern fortification and supported by a heavily-armed armoured train, was able to defend the state border for 3 to
4 days (September 17/18 - 19/20), inflicting heavy casualties on the attacking Soviets. To avoid being encircled, the
"Sarny" Regiment later withdrew in order, joining the KOP Brigade "Polesie". The Group, led by Gen. Wilhelm Orlik-Ruckemann,
and counting at one point over 7,000 men, withdrew westwards, covering 450 kilometres, and fighting against Soviet troops
and the Communist "fifth column". During that march, the town of Ratno was taken from Communist hands (September 27), and
a victorious battle was fought against Soviet troops at Szack (September 28). Finally, the River Bug was crossed into central
Poland and there, after the battle of Wytyczno (October 1), when ammunition was running short, Gen. Ruckemann, instead
of capitulating, ordered the dispersal of his troops. In sum, the Group destroyed some 20 Soviet tanks.
In the same region of Polesie, and later on the left bank of the River Bug, there operated the Group "Polesie",
commanded by General Franciszek Kleeberg, counting at one point some 17,000 men. Between September 18/19 and 30, 1939, its
combat was exclusively with Soviet troops (and Communist guerillas). One of its divisions fought two victorious battles
against them at Puchowa Gora and Jablon (September 29) and Milanow (September 30). In the latter the enemy lost over
100 killed. During the days that followed, the Kleeberg group fought against the Germans; after a successful battle at Kock,
but with ammunition almost gone, it capitulated on October 5, 1939. As this was the big unit that fought for the longest period
of time against the Germans, it was revered in the censored (i.e. post-war Communist) Polish literature, with careful
omission, of course, of its fighting with the Soviets.
In the northern part of Volhynia, the 3rd KOP Regiment, withdrawing to the west, took by assault the town
of Kolki, but was later, while trying to cross the river Stochod, confronted by overwhelming Soviet troops. In the battle
that followed at the Borowicze-Hruziatyn-Nawoz triangle, the Soviets suffered heavy losses in killed and wounded, and a number
of their tanks were destroyed. Finally, though, the Poles had to surrender on September 22nd. Considerable fighting also took
place, on September 24-25th, at Husynne, in the Zamosc region.
Finally, even in the southern sector there was fighting with Soviet troops. Thus the KOP Regiment "Podole",
apart from numerous smaller encounters along the border, defended the line of the Dniestr River until the evening of September
17, when the crucial bridge over it at Uscieczko was blown up by Polish troops. There were two clashes of Polish and Soviet
armoured forces - one at Nizniow, on the river Dniestr, on September 17th; the second at Krasne, to the east of Lwow, on September
19th or 20th.
On September 26/27, a group of Polish cavalry regiments, commanded by Gen. Wladyslaw Anders and already
mauled by the Germans during the previous weeks of fighting, was attacked by Soviet cavalry and tanks in the vicinity of Sambor,
while trying to reach the Hungarian border to the South. There was fighting, and a number of Soviet tanks were destroyed.
But finally most of the Polish group was encircled, and the order was given to the troops to disperse. Only a few managed
to reach Hungary in small groups. General Anders was among those captured by the Soviets. Two regiments capitulated on
September 28 to the Germans.
According to Molotov in his speech to the Supreme Soviet on October 31, 1939, Soviet losses during the "liberation
of Western Byelorussia and Western Ukraine" were originally set at 737 killed and 1862 wounded. More recent Russian publications
quote numbers as high as 5,327 men killed and wounded in action. It is quite possible that the real number
may be as high as 7,000 to 10,000.
The Red Army
The Soviet invasion forces were deployed on two fronts. The Byelorussian front, commanded by M. P. Kowalow,
consisted of the 3rd ("komkor" W. J. Kuzniecow), 11th ("komdiw" N.W. Miedwiejew), 10th ("komkor" J. G. Zacharkin) and
4th ("komdiw" W. J. Czujkow) armies as well as Dzierzynski's mechanized horse group "Podwiznaja" ("komkor"
I. W. Boldin) and the 23rd independant rifle corps. The Ukrainian front commanded by S. K. Timoszenko, consisted of 5th ("komdiw"
I. G. Sowietnikow), 6th ("komkor" F. J. Golikow) and 12th ("komandarm" I. W. Tiuleniew) armies. Each army and independant
corps was accompanied by an air force group.
Polish general Wolikowski, a veteran of the Tsar's army and Polish divisions during the Polish-Soviet
War of 1919-20, then Poland's first Military Attache to Moscow in 1921 and finally second in command at Poznan by 1939, believes
the number of Soviet invasion troops to have been in the area of 500,000. Soviet material published in 1990 placed
the figure at 600,000 but later, in 1993, the figure 466,516 appeared. Of course, there were also reserves to draw from.
The Polish Army
Much of the Polish defensive forces available on the 17th of September, 1939, consisted of units
of the KOP (Korpus Ochrony Pogranicza), the border guards, some 300,000.
It is important to remember that the bulk of the Polish military units were engaged at the German front
(or already killed, wounded or taken prisoner), leaving in the eastern borderlands primarily rear units mostly in the process
of training and therefore not many troops ready to do battle.
It is likely that fewer than 100,000 troops were truly ready to fight. It must also be remembered that these
troops, with a few notable exceptions, were poorly armed. Again, the bulk of the well armed units had already been committed
to the western front.
4. THE SOVIET OCCUPATION AND DEPORTATIONS OF POLISH CITIZENS, 1939-41 (A compilation
of information from various sources)
The prelude to this period was the notorious Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact of August 23, 1939. The Pact contributed
to the outbreak of World War Two by assuring Hitler that Stalin would not oppose his conquest of Poland. The second result
of the Pact was the Soviet aggression against Poland on September 17, 1939, which sealed the fate of the Polish Army still
fighting the Germans. A subsequent Soviet-German Agreement of September 29, 1939, fixed the Soviet-German frontier in Poland
and proclaimed Soviet-German friendship. The Soviet Union became Hitler's ally in the war against the Western democracies.
Until 1968 the exact terms of the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact were treated as a blank page by the Soviet Union although the information
had already been widely publicized in the West.
Poland's rightful government continued the war against the Germans from Angers in France, and after the
fall of France, from London. In July 1945 it became the Polish Government-In-Exile, after the Western Allies had recognised
the puppet government in Warsaw.
On September 17, 1939 one million Red Army troops entered and occupied seven administrative provinces of
Eastern Poland in accordance with the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact. The commander-in-chief of the Polish Army ordered his troops
not to resist. As a result, neither then nor later was there a state of war between Poland and the Soviet Union. Yet a number
of Polish generals and officers were executed after a score of skirmishes.
The 196,000 square kilometres of occupied territory were inhabited by 13,000,000 people, of whom about 36%
were Polish. The remainder were mainly Ukrainian, Belorussian and Jewish. In November 1939 the whole area was incorporated
into the Soviet Union and by a decree of November 29, 1939, its peoples became Soviet Citizens.
At about the same time, the Red Army in conjunction with the Soviet NKVD (People's Commissariat for Internal
Affairs), formed a local administration composed of People's Committees. The term NKVD is used here in the narrower meaning
of State Security Organisation (secret police) with its State Security Troops. The forerunners and heirs of the NKVD were:
Cheka (Extraordinary Commission) 1917 - 1922, GPU (State Political Administration) Soviet Secret Police 1922 - 1934, NKVD
1934 - 1943, NKGB 1943 - 1946, MGB (Ministry of State Security) 1946 - 1953, and since 1953 the KGB (Committee for State
Security).
The Soviet annexation meant that methods of repression, known to the peoples of the Soviet Union since the
revolution (of 1917), were extended to the new areas. First and foremost were "transfers of population," peremeshchenya, deep
into the interior of the Soviet Union by means of deportations, internment of military personnel, conscription to the Red
Army, and evacuations of prisoners. Most obnoxious of all were deportations from prisons in the home area to prisons elsewhere
in the Soviet Union or to gulags, the corrective labour camps run by the NKVD. Deportations which did not deprive individuals
of their liberty, allowing them limited freedom of movement when they had reached their destination, and a slender chance
of survival in a hellish environment, were also effected. In addition, there were instances of voluntary migrations eastward
in search of employment in industry or to escape zones threatened by war.
Deportations were organized and effected by the NKVD, which had been charged with clearing the border area,
that is, the territory annexed by the Soviets, of people classified as "anti-Soviet elements." An NKVD order dated April 25,
1941, long after the deportations started, lists the categories for deportation: leaders and activists of political parties,
activists of youth organisations, including the Polish Scouting Association, officials of the state administration apparatus,
policemen, officers in the intelligence and counter-intelligence service, prison service personnel, prosecutors and judges,
regular officers and NCOs (non-commissioned officers) in the army and border guards, families and relatives of people
who had tried to escape German occupied Poland. It is clear that the deportations were directed against the pillars of former
Polish rule in the annexed areas. Denunciations by personal enemies often resulted in inclusion in one of the deportation
categories.
The bulk of the deportations to the north and east of the Soviet Union took place between February and June
1940. More prominent members of the previous administration were arrested and deported in December 1939, or earlier.
Most sources agree that the "population transfers" comprised a total of approximately 2,000,000 people,
as follows:
- 1,114,000 - Permanent residents of the annexed areas, deported in four stages,
- 336,000 - Refugees from German occupied Poland, deported in June 1940 to the interior of the Soviet Union.
- 250,000 - Civilians arrested individually and transferred to prisons and camps in the Soviet Union,
- 210,000 - Young men born in 1917, 1918 and 1919, forcibly given Soviet citizenship, conscripted into the
Red Army and moved to the interior of the Soviet Union in 1940-41. They served mainly in the Red Army construction battalions
(stroitelnye batalyony),
- 181,000 - Polish POWs captured in 1939 and interned in the Soviet Union, including the officers murdered
at Katyn,
- 12,000 - Polish POWs interned in Lithuania and transferred to the Soviet Union in 1940.
Groups 1 and 2 above break down chronologically, as follows:
- 250,000 - February 8-10, 1940, deported to north and south Kazakhstan, mainly local administration officials
and agricultural settlers with families.
- 300,000 - April 13-15, 1940, wealthy peasants, families of earlier deportees.
- 400,000 - June 20-25, 1940, deported to the Volga area and the south, mainly refugees from German occupied
central and western Poland.
- 280,000 - May-June 1941, destinations unknown, mainly artisans, railwaymen, intelligentsia.
Each of the above operations involving well over 250,000 people from almost 200,000 square kilometres was
allegedly completed within a few days. The degree of co-ordination needed is hard to believe. Only the NKVD's resources and
years of experience in actions of this nature can explain them.
Another figure quoted gives a total 1,400,000 civilian deportees - 650,000 men, 450,000 women, and 300,000
children under the age of 16. Of the children, 60,000 are said to have died as a result of living conditions and disease.
Deportations of entire families was standard practice.
Among the deportees were many priests. Figures are not available. However, it is known that among Poles repatriated
in the years 1944-48 there were 1,669 priests and members of religious orders.
The victims were given no more than 30 minutes to collect and pack their belongings. Men earmarked for arrest
were separated from their families just as they were boarding the train. There are scores of accounts of the journey.
"A whole month's journey, at -30 degrees C, in sealed cattle trucks, guarded by brutalised NKVD soldiers who
throw the dead, often children, into the snow... Finally at the destination, in the middle of the steppes or taiga, you are
told - 'Do what you like'!"
"Travelling by train in macabre conditions, salted fish and the heat made the thirst insufferable. During
the frosty night - day and night temperature differences are enormous - people licked nails in the sides of the truck to quench
their thirst."
The other objective of the deportations of Poles, apart from alleged security needs of the border areas, was
the procurement of slave labour. A pro-Soviet Polish source writes that the deported Poles made a substantial contribution
to the war effort. They mined coal, minerals and rare metals. About 35,000 worked in metallurgy and heavy industry in the
Urals. They helped to build the first Soviet mineral wax factory, 80% of whose production was for the Soviet Army. Most deportees
worked in forestry, agriculture, construction and the timber industry.
A former deportee said in an interview: "The wives and children of two officers deported to the Komi Autonomous
Republic, near the Arctic Circle, were building the railway line leading to the River Ob. With food and clothing going to
the Army, little was left for the slaves. They were dying of hunger and exhaustion. To obtain food and save the lives of their
children, women were offering gold teeth and sexual favours to the guards. Hunger and cold were taking their toll. Under every
sleeper on the railway line to Vorkuta lies a Pole... Within the Arctic Circle, huts were sunk 1.5-2 metres into the ground.
Up to 100 people were accomodated in one hut. In Siberia and in Central Asia deportees built wooden houses from sawmill offcuts.
In the Kirghiz and Kazakh steppes prisoners lived in mud huts and earth dugouts while working on collective and state farms.
The bad hygiene caused outbreaks of enteric fever and dysentery, thereby increasing mortality." The deportations deprived
hundreds of thousands of Poles of their homes and subjected them to ill-treatment, disease and premature death. A large percentage
of the 2,000,000 deportees vanished without trace. A leading Polish expert has stated that to this day it has not been possible
to establish any firm figures.___________________________________________________________See Deportations
and Transfers of Poles to the Interior of the Soviet Union in 1939-44, a Bibliographic Survey, Prof. T. Walichnowski
et al, Polish State Scientific Publishing House (PWN), 1989.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
5. STORIES FROM THE FRONT
Even Our Loyal Polish Dogs Fought Back Against the Soviets!
It is rare to come across an account of battle at the KOP border outposts since most of the Polish soldiers
were either killed in action or captured and later murdered by the Soviets.
One account that exists, of the battle at Szapowaly, near Rakowa (county Molodeczno in Wilno province), is
told by Ignacy Nawrocki. At the time of the initial Soviet attack he was fulfilling his duty as a member of the citizen
guard. At day break on the morning of the 17th, he had just been relieved of guard duty, his responsibility being the telephone
line which stretched from Szapowal to the KOP reserve unit at Dubrowach. His colleague, B. Mojsinowicz, headed
for home while he stuck around the outpost for a smoke and some conversation. Then all hell broke loose.
The outpost was attacked by a large unit of Soviet infantry, supported by tanks. The lookout who sounded
the alarm, being outside, was the first to fall. The Polish soldiers, rising from their beds, were already under
fire, two of them being killed. Intense fire was exchanged for a while until the outpost commander, corporal Niedzielski,
was heavily wounded in the stomach by a machine gun burst.
There were also losses on the Soviet side. For instance, one bolshevik officer, with an armed grenade in
his hand, approached the window of the outpost with the intention of throwing the grenade in. At that moment an outpost dog
jumped on his back and began biting him. During the melee, the grenade exploded and killed the bolshevik.
Further defence of the outpost was pointless. It was also impossible to escape the encirclement as the outpost
was situated out in the open. A number of our soldiers had to surrender. The only ones with a hope of escaping were those
who happened to be on duty away from the outpost.
Fallen Polish soldiers were buried by the outpost, their graves tamped down under foot and leveled with
the surrounding ground so as to not leave a trace. Wounded corporal Niedzielski was quickly finished off. So
in the early morning hours of September 17, 1939, Soviet war crimes had already begun.
Mr. B. Mojsinowicz was captured by the Soviets while still on the outpost grounds and sent off to the
Soviet Union. He was able to convince the authorities that he was not a border guard, but had been in the area quite by accident.
They released him in November, 1939 and he returned home to Rakowa.
Old Soldier Goes Down Fighting!
Retired Lt. Colonel Adam Sielicki, a former commander of the 14th Horse Artillery, was a military colonist
living by Lake Narocz (Wilno Province). On the 18th of September, 1939, the Soviets arrived to arrest him. Deciding
not to give up, he instead put up an armed resistance using his revolver and sporting rifle to kill two
NKWD agents and wound three others before being shot and killed himself.
The enraged Soviets repeatedly bayoneted the corpse then threw it onto a manure pile. Finally, they murdered
his wife (from a family of Russian nobles) and his daughter, Luba.
Heroic Stand
This is the recollection of Wladyslaw Jacinski, a 14 year-old student, living in the town of Budki Snowidowicze,
township of Rokitno, county of Sarny.
"I would like to describe a battle fought by a handful of our border guards and their heroic commander.
The town of Budki Snowidowicze lies on the border near the railway line which runs from Sarn in the
direction of Kijow. The station is called Snowidowicze and actually lies on the Soviet side. On the Polish side, the
last station is Ostki where a company of the KOP was stationed. This company was responsible for our outpost and was
in turn commanded by the 18th Battalion KOP in Rokitno.
After noon on the 16th of September, 1939 at the Snowidowicze station on the Soviet side, which lay
about 1 km away from our town, one could see trains unloading horses and materials all through the night. It is important
to note that, until now, this station had been inactive since the Polish-Soviet war of 1918-1920.
The barracks of the outpost were up on a hill some 600 metres from the nearest building of our town
and were surrounded by a fence constructed of felled trees which formed a tall wall of 7 to 8 metres height the purpose
of which was to screen the complex from the eyes of vacationers visiting the frontier and from picture takers. The
actual outpost was set back about 1 kilometre from the border, hidden by a forest.
Another important note is that since the time of the mobilization for war a few weeks earlier, the
personnel of the outpost had turned over by about 70-80 %. The regulars had been sent to the German front
while their places here were taken by reservists, predominantly hailing from the province of Wilno. These soldiers, in the
short time that they had been here, were not even able to familiarize themselves with the terrain which they now were
responsible for patrolling.
On the 17th of September, 1939 at about 7:00 a.m. the Soviet Army approached the border in a large concentration.
The commander at our outpost must have sensed that this attack was coming because he had set up two light machine guns some
200 metres from the border in a covered haystack (a stack of hay covered by a roof sitting on top of 4 poles) manned
by 4 regular soldiers. This group of men included a German who, on account of his nationality, had not been sent to the
German front. From these guns and from the rest of the outpost's soldiers, a lively fire was directed at the point
of Soviet attack which advanced from woodlot to woodlot down into the valley of a flowing river. The attack
began to fizzle and after a short while it broke off.
However, it did not take long before the attack resumed with a shout "hura!" from the Soviet troops. Once
again, due to the strong and sustained fire from the Polish side the attack broke off. Yet again, a third attack
was unleashed after short break. The fire from both sides was heavy but the Soviets, due to their superior numbers and despite
great casualties, managed to push forward. The Polish outpost commander was compelled to withdraw with his unit, taking along
the machine guns and the telephone exchange. Not one of the Poles was captured or killed, not even wounded. The battle up
to the moment that our town was occupied by the Bolsheviks, lasted upwards of an hour. The oupost commander, knowing
the area well, was able to successfully withdraw his unit and join up with the 18th Battalion KOP in Rokitno."
Soviet Prisoners Prefer to Fight With the Poles!
The largest battles against the Soviets were fought by the 60th Reserve Infantry Division "Kobryn", under
the command of lt. col. (art.) Adam Epler (1891-1965). Epler told the story in his book which he managed to write in
the West before the conclusion of the war.
Epler's division, the strongest unit in the entire Army Group of general Kleeberg, fought two large
battles against the Soviets just west of the River Bug, on the territory of the Province of Lublin. It is worth noting that
the division contained a motorized section of anti-tank guns; there was also armour-piercing ammunition for
anti-tank rifles and the soldiers were outfitted with bottles filled with gasoline.
The first battle with the Soviets occurred on the 29th of September near Puchow Gora, from which the enemy
was easily removed, followed immediately by a second skirmish a couple of kilometers further down the road at the village
of Jablon. The attacking Polish units were the 1st Battalion, 82nd Infantry Regiment, commanded by lt. col. Franciszek
Targowski as well as the Naval Battalion commanded by lieutenant-commander Stefan Kaminski. At the conclusion of the
battle, the Poles had gained one tank (from which the Polish soldiers removed its heavy machine-gun), 4 or 5 heavy machine-guns
and 20 or 30 rifles.
Taken prisoner were one officer and some 50 soldiers. At there own request, these men were accepted into
the ranks of the Polish units! "They fought with us to the end, were faithful and loyal comrades," writes lt. col. Epler.
At the beginning of October 1939, near Kock, they joined the Poles in German captivity "And maybe just then - adds
lt. col. Epler - began their tragic story."
Lt. Col. Epler notes that the losses of the 82nd Infantry Regiment were not great: one officer and
a few soldiers. We know now that at least 2 of our officers perished in the battles of the 29th of September, 1939. They were
lieutenants Rafal Gorecki (born December 5, 1910) and Bohdan Moscicki (born September 9, 1912), whose graves can be found
at Jablon.
The second battle took place at Milanow, a bit west of Jablon, on the 30th of September, 1939. Here
the battle was fought primarily by the independent 79th battalion (179 Reserve) Infantry Regiment, commanded by major
Michal Bartul (who was killed in action on the 5th of October, 1939 in a battle against German units), aided by a
heavy machine-gun company (which was utilized at the discretion of the Division commander) and a company from the
83rd Infantry Regiment.
The bolsheviks began the attack with their infantry, which advanced "en masse", firing heavily. Two bolshevik battalions
were involved in the attack, paying no heed to their losses. With the closing gap between the attackers and the defenders, the
battle soon turned to the use of hand grenades. At that moment, a man wearing a leather jacket stood up among the Soviet soldiers,
most likely a politruk (Soviet political commisar), "and waving his arms, he signaled in an attempt to
establish a cease-fire and a discussion between commanders."
Meanwhile, a sargeant of the 79th (179) Infantry Regiment, together with a few riflemen, sneaked
up to the group in which stood the hopeful speaker and tossed in a few hand grenades. The commisar and those bolsheviks near
him were killed. Our units, taking advantage of the moment of confusion and aided by the fire from our battery of howitzers,
moved to the attack with bayonets fixed. As lt. col. Epler writes: "The fate of the bolsheviks was sealed: a slaughter
began."
More than 100 Soviets were killed and more than 60 taken prisoner. These prisoners also asked
to be integrated with the Polish units! Captured too were 11 heavy machine-guns, 7 light machine-guns, one cannon, and a large
quantity of guns and rifles as well as 10 harnessed ammunition wagons.
This was the final battle of Division "Kobryn" against the Soviet forces.
How did lt. col. Epler wind up writing a book in the West before the conclusion of the war? After the surrender
to the Germans of the Army Group SGO "Polesie," of which Epler's Division was a member, Epler managed to escape German
captivity after only a few days. He wound up in Krakow and there organized an extensive underground network. Hunted
by the Gestapo, he turned over his command to then col. Tadeusz Komorowski, later general "Bor", managed to make his
way to Hungary and from there, after a short stay, to the West.
The Fate of Captain Leliwa-Roycewicz
An excerpt from the article detailing the battles of the 25th Ulan Regiment. Captain (later colonel)
Henryk Leliwa-Roycewicz (1898-1990) was a silver medalist at the Olympic games in Berlin in 1936 and at the outbreak
of the war was the commander of the 2nd squadron of the 25th.
At about 6 a.m. on the 27th of September, 1939, the squadron arrived at the village of Koniuchy (aka
Wzgorze Konia). It happened to be a Ukrainian village, its inhabitants hostile to the Polish army. The decision was made
to head in the direction of the Hungarian border which was estimated to be some 50 kilometers away.
While preparing for the march, a patrol reported the approach of some units. It turned out to be Soviet
cavalry which was widely surrounding the village, with the intention of surprising the Poles. The alarm was immediately sent
out and two machine guns were set up at the edge of the forest. The Soviets were approaching in large numbers, not taking
any care, shooting and shouting: "Zdawajsia Polaczok"! (Give-up, Poles!). Sudden and heavy fire from our machine
guns took a number of men and horses out of action and sent the Soviets running for cover into a nearby wood.
It would have been a good time to take advantage and withdraw into the forest. However, the village
was already surrounded and the Soviet lines began to advance from a number of directions. The Soviet artillery opened up at
that time as well and the fire from the Soviet machine-guns became more dense. In other words, the Soviet attack became quite
heavy. To make matters worse, the Ukrainians, hiding in the doorways of the houses, also opened fire on our soldiers. Once
the Soviet troops entered the village, hand-to-hand fighting ensued.
Second Lieutenant Stanislaw Andrzejewski, heavily wounded during the battle, died shortly thereafter. Lt. Wojcikowski
became surrounded by armed Ukrainians, who wanted to kill him on the spot. An arriving Soviet major vetoed the execution.
Lt. Wojcikowski was captured and escorted to prison in Sambor. In his cell, whose walls were stained with
fresh blood, an inquiry began. This Polish officer was charged with the crime of ordering his men to fire upon the "freedom
loving" Soviet soldiers, charged with committing war crimes and so on. On the following morning, his fellow ulan soldiers
who were being held captive but not jailed, "stole" him from his cell and dressed him in a common soldiers uniform, hiding
him among themselves. This action probably saved his life. He eventually found his way, via Lwow and Hungary, to the
Polish army reforming in France. From the same squadron, 2nd lt. Boguslaw Walecki, after many adventures, was able to
join him in France.
Meanwhile, the squadron commander, captain Leliwa-Roycewicz, was heavily wounded in the leg during the battle
and had also been crushed by his mount after it had been killed. Despite obvious heavy bleeding, the Soviets did not wish
to occupy themselves with him for the first couple of hours. Instead, they robbed him of his boots, binoculars and so on.
His riding crop, received as an award for his victory at an equestrian event in Nice, became the property of the komandir
of the Soviet unit.
In the end, because he spoke good Russian (he had attended Russian schools), he was sent to a primitive
field hospital where he was operated on none too expertly. Over the course of the following months, he continued to receive
primitive "medical care" while undergoing continual interrogations at various prisons and prison hospitals.
Finally, in April of 1940, he was transferred as an invalid, in a group of Poles from central and western
Poland, to the so-called Government General.
Here captain Leliwa-Roycewicz reported for duty in the underground organization eventually known as the
Home Army. During the Warsaw uprising he commanded the "Kilinski" battalion which on the 1st of August, 1944 at 5 p.m started
the uprising in the Srodmiescie section of the city, occupying, among other buildings, the main Post Office. Following the
conclusion of the war, as a "reward," he spent a couple of years in prison in the new Communist run Polish People's Republic.
The commander of the 25th Greater Poland Ulan Regiment, lt. col. Bohdan Kazimierz Stachlewski, his adiutant
captain Wladyslaw Pilinkiewicz as well as 2nd lt. Zbigniew Gedzierski and lt. Waclaw Witkowski were murdered by Ukrainian
assassins at the village of Pnikut, 10 kilometers south of Moscisk on the 28th of September, 1939. Also, the second
in command of the Regiment lt. col. Marian Korczak and the 3rd in command, kwatermistrz mjr. Wincenty Cendro as well as a
couple of other officers were murdered at Katyn. Three captains fell into German captivity. These were the commander of the
3rd squadron cpt. Zygmunt Orlowski, the commander of the 4th squadron cpt. Antoni Piesciuka and the commander of the heavy
machine-gun squadron Wincenty Zawadzki. Captains Orlowski and Zawadzki, both wounded, escaped from hospital in Cracow. Captain
Zawadzki was later shot by the Germans for his underground activities.
6. THE DECLARATIONS AND EXHORTATION
The Soviets dropped pamphlets into South-Eastern Poland in advance of the invasion. Originally printed in Ukrainian, this English version is loosely translated from a Polish source:
"September, 1939
To the Workers and Farmers of Western Ukraine
Dear Sisters and Brothers
On the fields of Europe an ominous war has erupted between Poland and
Germany. It has only been a few days but already the Polish military has been destroyed; at the front chaos. Polish generals,
who used to arrogantly swagger with sabres swaying, have been reduced to helpless dullards and fools. The Polish State, propped
up by the use of force, fraud and the oppression of 11 million non-Polish citizens - Ukrainians and White Russians, has toppled
like a house of cards.
The time has come for each nation to decide its own fate. Enough suffering
hunger, poverty, national injustice and ill-treatment; enough suffering the whip and cruel treatment; enough of carrying the
Polish lords upon your stooped, destitute shoulders. Straighten up your huge girth, lift up your strong, calloused hands,
citizens of Western Ukraine!
With firearms, scythes, pitchforks and axes, fight your age-old enemy,
the Polish lords, who have turned your homeland into an illegal colony, who Polonized you, who trampled your culture into
the mud and turned you and your children into beasts of burden, into slaves.
There should be no room in Western Ukraine for lords and nobles, landowners
and capitalists. Take back the lords' farmland, grazing land, meadows and pastures. Take away the authority of the landlords,
place the authority in your own hands and decide your own fate.
Dear Ukrainian brothers, I, the commander of the Ukrainian Front, in
the name of the entire Soviet Ukrainian Nation, assure you, we can no longer be deaf and blind to your misery.
With full voice we declare that we can no longer look on at your suffering
and ill-treatment.
We come to you, our brothers, to aid you and to free you from the oppression
of the Polish lords, to free you from the threat of destruction and murder at the hands of the enemy.
In a new, free land, Ukrainian, White Russian and Polish workers will
be friends, not enemies. Our hearts and souls are with you, dear brothers and sisters. Follow our lead in settling all accounts
with our enemies in the nation given us with Stalin and Lenin at its head.
To arms comrades! We are on our way to help you, to lend a brotherly
hand in aid, rise up against your age-old enemies. We, together with the entire multi-cultural free peoples of the Great Soviet
Union, will help you.
To arms, brothers, we are with you!
Long live the great and free Ukrainian Nation!
Commander-in-chief, Ukrainian Front,
Seymon Timoszenko"
______________
The irony of the declaration above is profound. While minority rights in inter-war Poland were certainly
ignored in the Poles' rush to re-establish Polishness in their reclaimed homeland after 125 years of foreign rule, Polish-Ukrainians had
it relatively good, certainly when compared to their brothers on the Soviet side of the border.
To have a Soviet general make such fanciful claims, knowing full well what had happened to the citizens
of Eastern Ukraine during twenty years of Bolshevism, is both hypocritical and a fraud. Although there were definitely animosities
between Poles and Ukrainians following the war of 1919-20, Polish-Ukrainians were not subjected to anything remotely
resembling the Soviet terror of the 1930s which saw millions of Ukrainians die of famine and execution and many
more deported into the depths of Siberia.
The declaration certainly served to inflame some Ukrainians against the Poles and following the slaughter
of Poles and Jews (and not just the rich, capitalist ones) by some Ukrainian bands, a few weeks after the original
declaration, the Soviets then turned to reigning in the Ukrainian Nationalists and commander Timoszenko found it necessary
to issue the following update:
"October 5, 1939
To the Citizens of Western Ukraine
Elements of the enemies of the Soviet authorities are carrying on subversive
activities in the towns and villages with the intention of bringing harm, in any way possible, to the red Army and members
of the Soviet Union.
Ukrainian nationalists, mad with rage, dreaming of the return
of capitalism to the Soviet Union, are currently attempting to sow nationalistic discontent among the nations of Western Ukraine,
are planning pogroms against Jews and Poles, and are attempting to gain loyalty for their cause in the face of the Soviet
authorities.
In the Soviet Union, all nations possess equal rights. The persecution
of Jews, Poles and other nationalities is a crime against the State. A working Jew is an equal brother of working Ukrainians
and Poles. All of them equally experienced the oppression by the aristocrats.
The nationalistic bands are attempting to organize pogroms in order
to inflame nationalistic antagonism and to interfere with the return to law and order and a normal life in this land.
In the village of Koniuchy, county of Brzezany, a monstrous nationalist
band under the command of a kulak, Wasyl Procek, organized a pogrom against the Jews in which they threw an old Jew and a
six year old child into a fire. They even wanted to engage in actions against the Red Army.
This fact makes it plain to see that all of these bandits are the most festering enemies
of this nation, against whom the Red Army is waging war and indeed against whom the entire nation must fight.
Citizens! Uncover and turn in to the authorities all provacateurs and those
organizing pogroms. Keep in mind, that all workers of all nationalities are equal and only the enemies of the nation are fanning
the flames of hatred against the Jews to confuse the workers, to derail the battle against our real enemy, the landowners
and the capitalists.
Neither the Jews nor the Poles are enemies of the working Ukrainians. The true enemies
of Polish, Jewish and Ukrainian workers are the landowners and capitalists of all countries and of all nationalities. Never
forget this, do not waste energy, go after the provocateurs and those attempting to sow ill-feelings amongst Polish, Ukrainian
and Jewish workers.
Long live the great brotherhood of workers of all of the nationalities of Western
Ukraine!
Long live the invincible Red Army!
Long live the great Stalin, leader of all the world's workers!
Commander of the Ukrainian Front,
S. Timoszenko"
_____________
EXHORTATION TO POLISH SOLDIERS
Shortly after the invasion of Poland had begun, General Timoszenko also issued the following "advice," in
Polish, to Polish soldiers:
"SOLDIERS!
In the last few days the Polish Army has been finally defeated.
The soldiers of the towns of Tarnopol, Halicz, Rowne, Dubno, over 60,000 of them, all voluntarily came over to our side.
Soldiers, what is left to you? What are you fighting for? Against whom
are you fighting? Why do you risk your lives? Your resistance is useless. Your officers are light-heartedly driving you to
slaughter. They hate you and your families. They shot your negotiators whom you sent to us with a proposal of surrender.
Do not trust your officers! Your officers and generals are your enemies.
They wish your death. Soldiers, turn on your officers and generals! Do not submit to the orders of your officers. Drive them
out from your soil. Come to us boldly, to your brothers, to the Red Army. Here you will be cared for, here you will be respected.
Remember that only the Red Army will liberate the Polish people from
the fatal war and after that you will be able to begin a new life.
Believe us, the Red Army of the Soviet Union is your only friend.
Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Front,
S. Timoszenko"
_______________________________________________________________________________
7. SOVIET WAR CRIMES DURING THE INVASION AND IN THE PERIOD FOLLOWING
The series of huge mass murders of some 25,000 Polish officers in 1940, collectively known
as Katyn, were the most striking examples of Soviet atrocities against prisoners of war. The topic has been extensively
covered elsewhere but the genesis of the massacre is a story worth repeating. The source is the book "The Black Book
of Communism, A State Against Its People, chapter 11, The Empire of the Camps."
A top secret letter was sent to Stalin by Lavrenti Beria on March 5, 1940, proposing that some 25,700 Polish officers and civilians be shot:
A large number of ex-officers from the Polish army, ex-officials from
the Polish police and information departments, members of nationalist counterrevolutionary parties, members of opposition
counterrevolutionary organizations that have been rightly unmasked, renegades, and many others, all sworn enemies of the Soviet
system, are at present being detained in prisoner-of-war camps run by the NKVD in the U.S.S.R. and in the prisons situated
in the western regions of Ukraine and Belorussia.
The army officers and policemen who are being held prisoner are
still attempting to pursue their counterrevolutionary activities and are fomenting anti-Soviet actions. They are all eagerly
awaiting their liberation so that once more they may enter actively into the struggle against the Soviet regime.
NKVD organizations in the western regions of Ukraine and in Belorussia
have uncovered a number of rebel counterrevolutionary organizations. The Polish ex-army officers and policemen have all been
playing an active role at the head of these organizations.
Among the renegades and those who have violated state borders
are numerous people who have been identified as belonging to counter-revolutionary espionage and resistance movements.
14,736 ex-officers, officials, landowners, policeman, prison guards,
border settlers (osadniki), and information agents (more than 97% of whom are Polish) are at present being detained
in prisoner of war camps. Neither private soldiers nor non-commissioned officers are included in this number. Among them
are:
295 generals, colonels, and lieutenant colonels
2,080 commanders and captains
6,049 lieutenants, second lieutenants and officers in training
1,030 officers and police NCOs, border guards and gendarmes
5,138 policemen, gendarmes, prison guards, and information agents
144 officials, landowners, priests, and border settlers
In addition to the above, 18,632 men are detained in prisons in the western regions
of Ukraine and Belorussia (10,685 of whom are Polish). They include:
1,207 ex-officers
5,141 ex-information officers, police and gendarmes
347 spies and saboteurs
465 ex-landowners, factory managers, and officials
5,345 members of various counterrevolutionary resistance movements
and diverse
other elements
6,127 renegades
Insofar as all the above individuals are sworn and incorrigible enemies of the Soviet
regime, the U.S.S.R. NKVD belies it necessary to:
1) Order the U.S.S.R. NKVD to pass judgement before special courts on:
a) the 14,700 ex-officers, officials, landowners, police
officers, information officers, gendarmes, special border guards, and prison guards detained in prisoner-of-war camps.
b) the 11,000 members of the diverse counterrevolutionary
espionage and sabotage organizations, ex-landowners, factory managers, ex-officers of the Polish army, officials, and renegades
who have been arrested and are being held in the prisons in the western regions of the Ukraine and Belorussia, so that THE
SUPREME PENALTY BE APPLIED, DEATH BY FIRING SQUAD.
2) Order that individual files be studied in the absence of the accused, and without
particular charges being lodged. The conclusions of the inquiries and the final sentence should be presented as follows:
a) a certificate produced by the Directorate for Prisoner
of War Affairs of the NKVD of the U.S.S.R. for all individuals detained in prisoner-of-war camps
b) a certificate produced by the Ukrainian branch of the
NKVD and the Belorussian NKVD for all other people arrested.
3) Files should be examined and sentences passed by a tribunal made up of three people
- Comrades Merkulov, Kobulov and Bashtakov.
Some of the mass graves containing
the bodies of those executed were discovered by the Germans in Katyn forest. Several huge graves were found to contain
the remains of 4,000 Polish officers. The Soviet authorities tried to blame this massacre on the Germans; only in 1992, on
the occasion of a visit by Boris Yeltsin to Warsaw, did the Russian government acknowledge the Soviet Politburo's sole
responsibility for the massacre of the Polish officers in 1940.
A copy of the order approving the massacre can be found on various Katyn web sites.
The balance of this page will concentrate on the many "mini-Katyns" described and documented
in the book "Wojna Polsko-Sowiecka, 1939."
The book deals with Soviet war crimes and crimes against humanity, committed during the second half
of September and in the autumn of 1939 in the occupied Polish territories: large-scale murdering, torturing, denigrating and
robbing of Polish POWs; numerous murders of civilian Poles in the countryside (landowners, farmers, priests, policemen, schoolteachers,
etc.); mass-scale arrests that later ended, in most cases, in murder; torture and deportations in towns and cities.
All this was a prelude to the 1940 extermination of over 20,000 Polish army officers, policemen, civil servants
and judges, at Katyn and other places, and the genocidal deportation, during 1940 and 1941, of over one million civilian Poles,
including great numbers of women and children, to Siberia and Kazakhstan. This was done under such inhuman conditions that
very many of them did not survive. There was also large-scale robbery of public and private property: whole factories
(and even grain mills) were dismantled, merchandise, raw materials and even better furniture were confiscated, and sent to
Russia.
Also, murders and unheard-of atrocities were perpetrated on Poles, including babies and children, by Ukrainians
living in Volhynia, as well as in the voivoidships of Lwow, Tarnopol and Stanislawow
in the southeastern part of Poland, fanatics pervaded, as they were, by criminal Nazi or Communist indoctrination.
Near the village of Jeziorko, in the forest to the east of
Kamien Koszyrski, in the county of of Kobryn, province of Polesie, an entire company of military National Police was shot,
including the commander, captain Francziszek Otlowski. These murders were discovered on the 24th of September, 1939.
On the 26th of September, 1939, by the side of the road leading
from Kowel to Brzesc-nad-Bugiem, near the village of Mokrany, Wielkoryta township in the county of Bresc-nad-Bugiem,
Polesie province, were found the bodies of 30 executed (shot) officers and non-coms of a Pinsk naval unit (Flotylla Pinska)
as well as 2 officers of the 135th Infantry Regiment.
The naval unit's patrol boats had been sunk by the enemy on the
18th and they had been marching westward with the intention of joining General Kleeberg's Army Group when they once again
met the enemy somewhere in the vicinity of the village of Zabno. They offered no resistance, were disarmed and forced in the
direction of Mokrany where some 30 of the officers and non-coms were separated and shot in a nearby wood.
The murdered include, among others, captain (navy) Edmund Jodkowski
(commander of the patrol boat ORP Wilno); captain (navy) Jan Kierkus (commander of the patrol boat ORP Pinsk); captain Narcyz
Maluszynski (commander of the gas mine unit of the Pinsk Flotilla); lieutenant commander Mieczyslaw Sierkuczewski
(commander of the second unit, Pinsk Flotilla); captain (artillery) Boguslaw Rutynski (batallion commander, Pinsk Flotilla);
captain (navy reserve) Arkadiusz Kisiel-Zahoranski commander of sub-sector "Sytnica," of Defensive sector "Prypec"; two officers
of the 135th Infantry Regiment: Captain (engineer) Tadeusz Jacyna and Lieutenant (engineer) Zygmunt Kazimierz Dabrowski. Finally,
Lieutenant (navy) Janusz Marciniewski (commander ORP Admiral Sierpinek) and captain (navy) Jan May (commander of the patrol
boat ORP Warszawa).
Non-com officer Jan Kurek was lucky to avoid their fate and later
on was able to escape from Soviet captivity at Zytomierz.
A number of atrocities occurred in the counties of the
Grodno region. They were committed either by the Soviets themselves or, with the "blessing" of the Soviets, by Belarussian
and Jewish Communists. It has been said that the Soviets gave the local communists two weeks to freely murder so-called class
enemies, although this was not the case in all regions.
Atrocities Committed Against Civilians in Grodno
In Brzostowice Mala, the landowner Antoni Wolkowicki, his wife Ludwika
(nee Sianozecka) and brother-in-law Zygmunt were beaten, wrapped in barbed wire and buried in a potato dugout while still
alive.
In the township of Podorosk, county of Wolkowyski, the
landowner, Otton Bochwic, approximate age 50 - 55, was chained to a cart and dragged down the road. A similar fate
befell Emanuel Wladyczanski. One should assume that following the torture, they paid with their life. The village of Holowczyce,
populated entirely by Polish military colonists, was essentially "liquidated" by the deportation of its residents to
Russia.
Communist bands murdered father Boleslaw Korna, proboszcz of the
parish of Mikielewszczyzna (township of Mosty, county of Grodno) as well as the priest, Jan Krynski, proboszcz of the parish
of Zelwa (township of Zelwa, county of Wolkowysk).
In the area of Skidel, more or less on the 20th of September,
1939, Duke Andrzej Swiatopelka-Czetwertynski, owner of the property known as Zoludek, near Lida, and a second lieutenant of
the reserves, together with his wife Rola were arrested while riding a motorcycle. The Duke was taken away to the town cinema
where 5 Polish officers were already under arrest.
Rola insisted on joining her husband, though she was free to go;
eventually the jailers relented and let her into the cinema. All seven were subsequently murdered.
Another Polish officer, at that time posing as a civilian and a
local female teacher avoided their fate and survived as witnesses to the event.
Also murdered in that locality in a separate incident was Andrzej's
cousin, Duke Konstanty Czetwertynski.
Finally, all of the area foresters were executed for the simple
reason that, in guarding the forest's trees against theft, they were considered to be acting "against the people."
On the morning of the 22nd of September, 1939, non-combatant Polish
general Olszyn-Wilczynski, together with his wife and a small entourage, left the town of Sopockin, heading for the Polish
border with Lithuania through enemy held territory. Shortly after they had left their car was surrounded by Soviet troops.
All persons were thoroughly robbed then herded into a nearby barn save for the general and his adiutant, captain Mieczyslaw
Strzemeski, who were then simply machine-gunned down.
More Examples of "Mini-Katyns"
- A fourteen year old witness tells
the story of the fate of a Polish unit: "On the 22nd of September, 1939, Russian tanks arrived in Kalet (northwest of Grodno).
There was a short battle lasting perhaps two hours. However, shots continued to be heard even into the second day, because
the Russians were executing all of the Polish soldiers even into the second day. Despite the fact that the battle was short,
the number of (Polish) corpses was huge and almost to the man, with a bullet in the head." Some 40 Polish soldiers were murdered
in this instance.
- A Polish corporal known to captain Romuald Galicki was an eyewitness to the machine-gunning
of some 200 Polish officers on the 29th of September, 1939 in Saczek. They had been marching with the Kleck Battalion when
they fell into Soviet captivity.
- The KOP (border guards) Brigade Polesie, part of the group commanded by general Ruckemann, was
another victim of a mass murder which occurred on September 30, 1939 near Mielniki, township of Pulmo, county of Luboml.
Following a battle near Szack, the unit was on its way to a crossing near the Bug River. There they once again engaged the
Soviets and, after a short fight, were captured. The Bolsheviks then shot 25 to 30 of the POWs. Among those executed was lieutenant colonel Jozef Ferencowicz and major Szymon Mayblum of the KOP headquarters, captains
Bronislaw Orlowski, Jozef Nowicki, Alfons Wantowski, Jan Borowczyk and Bohdan Antoni Danecki.
- Following a battle in Rogalina on the 24th of September, 1939, 3 Polish officers and 23 other
ranks found themselves captured by the Soviets. The senior officer, a major, was stripped down to his underwear and taken
away to the nearby sugar refinery of Strzyzow. He was never heard of again and it is presumed that he was murdered. The remaining 25 Polish POWs were taken to the Husynne estate where they were all bayoneted. The local Ukrainians were participants in this murder and they also robbed the dead soldiers of their
possessions. Their leader was Franciszek Taraszkiewicz, "komisar" of the Ukrainian Communist militia.
- Wladyslaw Kobylanski, a resident of the province of Wolyn in September of 1939, has documented
a number of atrocities. Prior to the arrival of Soviet troops, the Ukrainians had already
engaged in attacks against Polish police stations and the murder of unarmed Polish soldiers returning home from
the front. Dozens of these soldiers were then thrown into the current of the rivers Horyn and Styr. The Polish soldiers were bayoneted and their corpses stripped to the underwear. An army "medal of death" was hung around
their necks by a length of thin rope. Their bodies were then lashed together in small groups (a raft) and thrown
into the current of the larger rivers. Many of these rafts would float downstream and eventually wash up on the banks. 1) In Stolin, into the river Horyn, a raft of 3 soldiers was thrown. 2)
In Wolosza (township of Stepan, county of Kostopol) the raft numbered 5 Polish soldiers. 3) In the area of Janowa Dolina (township of Kostopol) from Zlazna (township of Derazne) to Postojna (township of Derazne,
all locations within the county of Kostopol) three rafts, consisting of 2, 2 and 3 soldiers (total 7) were tossed into
the Horyn. Similar circumstances occurred at the River Styr. 4) At Osnica Duza (township of Kolki, county of Luck) a raft of 5 Polish soldiers was thrown into the current
of the Styr. 5) Between Osnica and Czartorys (township of Rafalowka) 3 rafts of 2, 3
and 5 soldiers (total 10) were thrown into the current of the river. 6) At Tynne
(township of Niemowicze, county of Sarny), Ludwipol (township of Ludwipol, county of Kostopol), Berezne (township of Berezne,
county of Kostopol), Horodziec (township of Antonowka, county of Sarny), Bystrzyce (township of Ludwipol, county of Kostopol)
on the Sl
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