by Alexey Statsenko
[REGNUM.RU] June 1941—in our minds, it's shattered columns of Soviet equipment, ruined cities, fires, and panic. Against this backdrop, the battle for the border town of Przemysl (the southern half of which belonged to the USSR) looked entirely different. On June 23, the Germans were not only recaptured, but also pushed back across the San River, the border river, and the German-held part of the city was breached.
In the history of the first tragic month of the war, these events appear as a truly bright spot.
Perhaps because Przemyśl itself had been the site of fierce battles since World War I. In October 1914, it housed one of the most powerful fortresses of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, blocking the route to southern Poland and Hungary.
Then, in two days of fighting, the six Russian divisions that assaulted it lost a third of their personnel. The future "father of military engineering," General (then Staff Captain) Dmitry Karbyshev, also took part in those battles.
After the Civil War, the city became part of Poland, and in September 1939, it became a border city. Przemyśl was then an important railway junction, the capture of which would have allowed the Germans to advance on Lviv, Vinnytsia, and Kyiv.
The Soviet leadership also understood the importance of this location, so one hundred pillboxes and other fortifications of the 8th Przemysl Fortified Region were quickly constructed on the southern (Soviet) bank of the river. Two separate machine-gun battalions and three separate machine-gun companies were prepared to defend them.
The construction was personally inspected by Lieutenant General of the Engineering Troops Karbyshev, who undoubtedly did so with special feeling.
Nearly three dozen soldiers from the 92nd NKVD Border Detachment, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Yakov Tarutin, were also stationed in the Przemysl area. Three outposts were located within the city limits, with Colonel Nikolai Dementyev's 99th Rifle Division positioned slightly further inland. The bridge and other railway facilities in and around the city were guarded by soldiers from the 10th Division of the NKVD Railway Troops.
Our command believed that even in the event of an enemy attack, the 99th Rifle Division, one of the best in the Red Army, would, along with other units, fight back and hold out until the main forces arrived. However, by June 22, only one regiment of the division remained.
MARX AND THE UKRAINIANS AGAINST THE BORDER GUARDS
The Germans, desperately needing the railway bridge, initially planned for it to be captured by the Nachtigall Battalion, formed by Ukrainian nationalists. But then German generals doubted the Ukrainians' capabilities and decided that the bridge and the city itself would be captured by troops of Lieutenant General Erich Marcks's 101st Light Infantry Division.
In addition to artillery, the infantry was supported by several armored vehicles and captured French S-35 SOMUA tanks.
On the eve of the invasion, the Germans began preparing machine gun positions in the upper floors of apartment buildings located near the river. Assault teams were formed at the Benedictine Sisters' Convent.
The border guards reported to command about the Germans' preparations, but in response they invariably received orders not to succumb to provocations and to maintain surveillance.
On June 22, 1941, at around 4:00 a.m., a hail of shells fell on the city and the positions of Soviet troops.
Warehouses, a hospital, headquarters, a train station, and houses were burning. Communication with border guard headquarters and commandant's offices was lost. After an artillery barrage, German assault groups rushed the bridge, but the border guards were already on alert.
A group of soldiers from the 14th outpost, commanded by Lieutenant Pyotr Nechayev, took up defensive positions near the bridge, armed with a heavy machine gun.
"THE LOSSES WERE TERRIBLE"
As soon as the Germans crossed the white line marking the border on the bridge, border guards opened fire. The enemy suffered losses and retreated. Half an hour later, the enemy, under cover of their machine guns and artillery fire, attacked and suffered more losses. They were also fired upon by a 76mm gun from a pillbox located on the bank of the San River on Zamkova Hill.
Unable to cross the bridge, the enemy attempted to cross the San in rubber boats, but each time they came under fire from cannons and machine guns in pillboxes and border guards firing from trenches. They attempted to cross the river near the meat-packing plant five times, all without success.
As a result, the enemy found a weak spot in the Soviet defense, created a bridgehead on the southern bank of the San and broke into Przemysl from the north.
A sergeant major of the 101st Light Infantry Division, captured at the 9th Outpost, recalled the battle this way: " The losses were terrible... The Soviet border guards had firing positions along the coast. They dug in and fired literally until their last bullet. Never before have we seen such resilience, such military tenacity... They preferred death to the possibility of capture or retreat..."
At the bridge, Nechayev's detachment repelled eight attacks, but after the Germans crossed the river, they were able to attack the border guards from behind. Only the lieutenant, who had run out of ammunition, survived. The Germans attempted to take the courageous commander prisoner, but Nechayev blew himself up with a grenade.
By the end of the day, the Germans controlled most of Przemyśl but were unable to break through to its eastern quarters. Border guards, soldiers of the 66th NKVD Regiment, and 190 militiamen held a defensive position there. They had obtained several boxes of rifles from the city military commissariat warehouse and later brought in ammunition, 70–80 rounds per soldier.
The Red Army continued to resist in the southwestern part of the city: in the cemetery area, on today's Juliusz Słowacki Street, near the Church of the Ascension, and on the hills.
"THROWED THE MACHINE GUNNER OUT OF THE WINDOW"
The heroic defense of the border guards, especially Nechayev's detachment, allowed them to gain time and bring up units of the 99th Rifle Division and artillery to the city. Throughout the night, Soviet soldiers conducted reconnaissance, prepared firing positions, and hauled ammunition to them.
Four groups of scouts penetrated the occupied part of Przemysl, “copied” the location of firing points and captured “tongues”.
They reported that the Germans would launch a decisive attack on June 23rd to clear the entire city. Bogdanov, an interpreter with the 92nd Border Detachment, particularly distinguished himself. He killed two enemy staff officers and captured their uniforms, documents, and maps. The brave border guard made four raids behind enemy lines and never returned from his final one.
The Soviet command then decided to preempt the enemy, launch a counterattack, and drive them out of Przemyśl. At that point, the Germans had concentrated two infantry battalions, two artillery batteries, and two mortar batteries in the eastern part of the city.
The Soviet counterattack followed on the morning of June 23. The Germans were not expecting such a turn of events, but they resisted fiercely, attempting to gain a foothold in apartment buildings.
Street fighting broke out, vividly described by Pravda special correspondent David Novoplyansky : " Machine guns fired from the windows of a four-story building, like embrasures. Border guards finally made it into the building. Komsomol member Shcherbitsky threw an enemy machine gunner out of a second-story window. Sergeant Major Malkov hurled grenades at the Nazis holed up in the basement… "
Soviet soldiers operated in small assault groups, pelting enemy firing positions with grenades, and overthrowing them with bayonets at the railway station. The Germans attempted to stop them with two tanks, but 45mm gun crews and a howitzer quickly knocked them out.
By 5:00 PM, Senior Lieutenant Polivoda's shock battalion had not only liberated the entire eastern part of the city and taken control of the bridge, but also broken into the German-held section of Przemyśl, which the Germans called Premsel. There, Soviet soldiers freed captured Red Army soldiers and arrested civilians from the Gestapo building.
Thus, Przemysl became the first city liberated from German troops. Moreover, it was Polivoda's fighters who were the first of all the Allied forces to break into the territory of the Third Reich.
The Germans lost up to 200 men killed, 12 machine guns, two tanks, several armored vehicles and guns.
DESPERATE RESISTANCE
Having driven the enemy from the southern part of the city, Soviet soldiers and civilians not only restored defensive positions and erected barricades, but also restored the bakery and water supply. A farewell ceremony was held for the fallen Red Army soldiers. Western newspapers reported on the Soviet troops' success: the Evening Standard read "Russian Counterattack. Przemysl Recaptured," the Star read "Przemysl Back in Soviet Hands," and the Evening News read "Russians Struggle to Counterattack."
On June 24, the defenders received reinforcements—120 border guards. The Germans, after the initial setbacks, took up defensive positions along the Sana line and waited. From June 24 to 26, the two sides exchanged artillery strikes, resulting in the destruction of up to 40% of the city's buildings. The neighborhoods adjacent to the bridge were reduced to rubble.
Meanwhile, the Germans achieved significant results on the flanks: on June 22–23, five border outposts north of the city were encircled and destroyed, and the Soviet defenses were breached. The villages of Medyka and Stubno were captured, cutting off the escape routes to the east and northeast for Przemyśl's defenders.
Their rear communications were attacked by German reconnaissance groups and saboteurs from Nachtigall.
Fearing the city would be completely encircled, the Soviet command ordered its abandonment late in the evening of June 26 and a retreat to the southeast. Polivoda's combined battalion left the city on June 27, while the covering forces continued fighting until the morning of the following day.
While retreating, Soviet troops blew up a railway bridge (other sources say they severely damaged it). Major Mechislav Kulchitsky, the chief of the 99th Division's engineering service, attached explosives to a handcar and launched it onto the bridge, where it exploded, severely damaging the metal structure.
After the Soviet troops withdrew, the pillbox garrisons continued to fight. The Germans destroyed them with 88mm anti-aircraft guns, flamethrowers, and explosives. The commander of the 2nd Battalion, 520th Regiment, 296th Infantry Division of the Wehrmacht wrote in his report: "The pillbox defenders put up desperate resistance. Two flamethrower tanks were knocked out. The flamethrower tanks failed to hit the pillboxes. The defenders of the fortifications continued to fire."
Despite the heroic defense, the 99th Rifle Division was forced to retreat and suffered huge losses.
By 1945, only about 100 men remained of those who had fought in the summer of 1941. But it became the first Red Army unit to be awarded the Order of the Red Banner during the Great Patriotic War, a decree signed exactly one month after its outbreak.
But the Red Army still liberated Przemysl during the Lvov-Sandomierz operation – this happened on July 27, 1944, and happened for the second time.