The beginning of the defense of the Brest Fortress. The path to immortality. Tank battle in the Lutsk-Brody-Rivne area
Unexpectedly attacking Soviet Union, the fascist command expected to reach Moscow in a few months. However, the German generals met resistance as soon as they crossed the border of the USSR. The Germans took several hours to capture the first outpost, but the defenders of the Brest Fortress held back the power of the huge fascist army for six days.
The siege of 1941 became
For the historical Brest Fortress, however, it had been attacked before. The fortress was built by the architect Opperman in 1833 as military building. The war reached it only in 1915 - then it was blown up during the retreat of Nikolaev’s troops. In 1918, after the signing, which took place in the Citadel of the fortress, it remained under German control for some time, and by the end of 1918 it was in the hands of the Poles, who owned it until 1939.
Real hostilities overtook the Brest Fortress in 1939. The second day of World War II began for the fortress garrison with a bombing. German aircraft dropped ten bombs on the citadel, damaging the main building of the fortress - the Citadel, or White Palace. At that time, there were several random military and reserve units stationed in the fortress. The first defense of the Brest Fortress was organized by General Plisovsky, who, from the scattered troops he had, managed to assemble a combat-ready detachment of 2,500 people and evacuate the officers' families in time. Against the armored corps of General Heinz, Plisovsky was able to oppose only an old armored train, several of the same tanks and a couple of batteries. Then the defense of the Brest Fortress lasted three full days.
From September 14 to 17, while the enemy was almost six times stronger than the defenders. On the night of September 17, the wounded Plisovsky took the remnants of his detachment south, towards Terespol. After this, on September 22, the Germans handed over Brest and the Brest Fortress to the Soviet Union.
The defense of the Brest Fortress in 1941 fell on the shoulders of nine Soviet battalions, two artillery divisions and several separate units. In total this amounted to about eleven thousand people, excluding three hundred officer families. The infantry division of Major General Schlieper stormed the fortress, which was reinforced with additional units. In total, about twenty thousand soldiers were subordinate to General Schlieper.
The attack began early in the morning. Due to the surprise of the attack, the commanders did not have time to coordinate the actions of the fortress garrison, so the defenders were immediately divided into several detachments. The Germans immediately managed to capture the Citadel, but they were never able to gain a foothold in it - the invaders were attacked by the Soviet units remaining behind, and the Citadel was partially liberated. On the second day of defense, the Germans proposed
surrender, to which 1900 people agreed. The remaining defenders united under the leadership of Captain Zubachev. The enemy forces, however, were immeasurably higher, and the defense of the Brest Fortress was short-lived. On June 24, the Nazis managed to capture 1,250 fighters, another 450 people were captured on June 26. The last stronghold of the defenders, the East Fort, was crushed on June 29 when the Germans dropped an 1,800 kg bomb on it. This day is considered the end of the defense, but the Germans cleared the Brest Fortress until June 30, and the last defenders were destroyed only by the end of August. Only a few managed to escape Belovezhskaya Pushcha to the partisans.
The fortress was liberated in 1944, and in 1971 it was preserved and turned into a museum. At the same time, a memorial was erected, thanks to which the defense of the Brest Fortress and the courage of its defenders will be remembered forever.
Defense of the Brest Fortress (defense of Brest) is one of the very first battles between the Soviet and German armies during the Great Patriotic War.
Brest was one of the border garrisons on the territory of the USSR; it covered the path to the central highway leading to Minsk. That is why Brest was one of the first cities to be attacked after the German attack. The Soviet army held back the enemy's onslaught for a week, despite the numerical superiority of the Germans, as well as support from artillery and aviation. As a result of a long siege, the Germans were still able to take possession of the main fortifications of the Brest Fortress and destroy them. However, in other areas the struggle continued for quite a long time: small groups remaining after the raid resisted the enemy with all their might.
The defense of the Brest Fortress became an important battle in which Soviet troops were able to show their readiness to defend themselves to the last drop of blood, despite the enemy's advantages. The defense of Brest went down in history as one of the bloodiest sieges and at the same time as one of the greatest battles that showed all the courage of the Soviet army.
Brest Fortress on the eve of the war
The city of Brest became part of the Soviet Union shortly before the start of the war - in 1939. By that time, the fortress had already lost its military significance due to the destruction that had begun and only reminded of past battles. The Brest Fortress was built in the 19th century. and was part of the defensive fortifications Russian Empire on its western borders, but in the 20th century. it ceased to have military significance.
By the time the war began, the Brest Fortress was mainly used to house garrisons of military personnel, as well as a number of families of the military command; there was also a hospital and utility rooms. By the time of Germany’s treacherous attack on the USSR, about 8,000 military personnel and about 300 command families lived in the fortress. There were weapons and supplies in the fortress, but their quantity was not designed for military operations.
Storming of the Brest Fortress
The assault on the Brest Fortress began on the morning of June 22, 1941, simultaneously with the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. The barracks and residential buildings of the command were the first to be subjected to powerful artillery fire and air strikes, since the Germans wanted, first of all, to completely destroy the entire command staff located in the fortress, and thereby introduce confusion into the army and disorient it.
Although almost all the officers were killed, the surviving soldiers were able to quickly find their bearings and create a powerful defense. The surprise factor did not work as expected, and the assault, which was supposed to end by 12 noon, lasted for several days.
Even before the start of the war, the Soviet command issued a decree according to which, in the event of an attack, military personnel must immediately leave the fortress itself and take positions along its perimeter, but only a few managed to do this - most of the soldiers remained in the fortress. The defenders of the fortress were in a deliberately losing position, but they did not give up their positions and did not allow the Germans to quickly and unconditionally take possession of Brest.
The progress of the defense of the Brest Fortress
Soviet soldiers, who, contrary to plans, were unable to quickly leave the fortress, quickly organized a defense and within a few hours drove the Germans out of the territory of the fortress, who managed to get into its central part. The soldiers occupied the barracks and various buildings located along the perimeter in order to most effectively organize the defense of the fortress and be able to repel enemy attacks from all flanks. Despite the absence of a commanding officer, volunteers were quickly found from among ordinary soldiers who took charge of the operation.
On June 22, the Germans made 8 attempts to break into the fortress, but they did not yield results. Moreover, the German army, contrary to all forecasts, suffered significant losses. The German command decided to change tactics: instead of an assault, a siege of the Brest Fortress was now planned. The troops that had broken through were recalled and deployed around the perimeter of the fortress to begin a long siege and cut off the Soviet troops' path to exit, as well as disrupt the supply of food and weapons.
On the morning of June 23, the bombardment of the fortress began, after which an assault was attempted again. Groups of German army forced their way in, but encountered fierce resistance and were destroyed - the assault again failed, and the Germans were forced to revert to siege tactics. Extensive battles began, which did not subside for several days and greatly exhausted both armies.
Despite the onslaught of the German army, as well as shelling and bombing, Soviet soldiers held the line, although they lacked weapons and food. A few days later supplies were stopped drinking water, and then the defenders decided to release women and children from the fortress so that they would surrender to the Germans and remain alive, but some women refused to leave the fortress and continued to fight.
On June 26, the Germans made several more attempts to break into the Brest Fortress; they succeeded partially - several groups broke through. Only by the end of the month was the German army able to capture most of fortress, killing Soviet soldiers. However, the groups, scattered and having lost a single line of defense, still continued to put up desperate resistance even when the fortress was taken by the Germans.
The significance and results of the defense of the Brest Fortress
The resistance of individual groups of soldiers continued until the fall, until these groups were destroyed by the Germans and the last defender of the Brest Fortress died. During the defense of the Brest Fortress, Soviet troops suffered colossal losses, but at the same time the army showed genuine courage, thereby showing that the war for the Germans would not be as easy as Hitler had hoped. The defenders were recognized as war heroes.
In February 1942, on one of the front sectors in the Orel region, our troops defeated the enemy’s 45th Infantry Division. At the same time, the archives of the division headquarters were captured. While sorting through documents captured in the German archives, our officers noticed one very interesting paper. This document was called “Combat Report on the Occupation of Brest-Litovsk,” and in it, day after day, the Nazis talked about the progress of the battles for the Brest Fortress.
Contrary to the will of the German staff officers, who, naturally, tried in every possible way to extol the actions of their troops, all the facts presented in this document spoke of exceptional courage, amazing heroism, and extraordinary stamina and tenacity of the defenders of the Brest Fortress. The last concluding words of this report sounded like a forced involuntary recognition of the enemy.
“A stunning attack on a fortress in which a brave defender sits costs a lot of blood,” wrote enemy staff officers. “This simple truth was proven once again during the capture of the Brest Fortress. The Russians in Brest-Litovsk fought exceptionally persistently and tenaciously, they showed excellent infantry training and proved a remarkable will to resist.”
This was the enemy's confession.
This “Combat Report on the Occupation of Brest-Litovsk” was translated into Russian, and excerpts from it were published in 1942 in the newspaper “Red Star”. Thus, actually from the lips of our enemy, the Soviet people for the first time learned some details of the remarkable feat of the heroes of the Brest Fortress. The legend has become reality.
Two more years passed. In the summer of 1944, during a powerful offensive by our troops in Belarus, Brest was liberated. On July 28, 1944, Soviet soldiers entered the Brest Fortress for the first time after three years of fascist occupation.
Almost the entire fortress lay in ruins. Just by the appearance of these terrible ruins one could judge the strength and cruelty of the battles that took place here. These piles of ruins were full of stern grandeur, as if the unbroken spirit of the fallen fighters of 1941 still lived in them. The gloomy stones, in some places already overgrown with grass and bushes, beaten and gouged by bullets and shrapnel, seemed to have absorbed the fire and blood of the past battle, and the people wandering among the ruins of the fortress involuntarily came to mind how much these stones and how much they could tell if a miracle happened and they were able to speak.
And a miracle happened! The stones suddenly started talking! Inscriptions left by the defenders of the fortress began to be found on the surviving walls of the fortress buildings, in the openings of windows and doors, on the vaults of the basements, and on the abutments of the bridge. In these inscriptions, sometimes unnamed, sometimes signed, sometimes scribbled hastily in pencil, sometimes simply scratched on the plaster with a bayonet or a bullet, the soldiers declared their determination to fight to the death, sent farewell greetings to the Motherland and comrades, and spoke of devotion to the people and the party. In the ruins of the fortress, the living voices of the unknown heroes of 1941 seemed to sound, and the soldiers of 1944 listened with excitement and heartache to these voices, in which there was a proud consciousness of duty performed, and the bitterness of parting with life, and calm courage in the face of death, and a covenant about revenge.
“There were five of us: Sedov, I. Grutov, Bogolyubov, Mikhailov, V. Selivanov. We took the first battle on June 22, 1941. We will die, but we will not leave!” - it was written on the bricks outer wall near the Terespol Gate.
In the western part of the barracks, in one of the rooms, the following inscription was found: “There were three of us, it was difficult for us, but we did not lose heart and will die as heroes. July. 1941".
In the center of the fortress courtyard there is a dilapidated church-type building. There really was once a church here, and later, before the war, it was converted into a club for one of the regiments stationed in the fortress. In this club, on the site where the projectionist’s booth was located, an inscription was scratched on the plaster: “We were three Muscovites - Ivanov, Stepanchikov, Zhuntyaev, who defended this church, and we took an oath: we will die, but we will not leave here. July. 1941".
This inscription, along with the plaster, was removed from the wall and moved to the Central Museum Soviet Army in Moscow, where it is now stored. Below, on the same wall, there was another inscription, which, unfortunately, has not been preserved, and we know it only from the stories of soldiers who served in the fortress in the first years after the war and who read it many times. This inscription was, as it were, a continuation of the first: “I was left alone, Stepanchikov and Zhuntyaev died. The Germans are in the church itself. There's only one grenade left, but I won't go down alive. Comrades, avenge us!” These words were apparently scratched out by the last of the three Muscovites - Ivanov.
It wasn't just the stones that spoke. As it turned out, the wives and children of the commanders who died in the battles for the fortress in 1941 lived in Brest and its environs. During the days of fighting, these women and children, caught in the fortress by the war, were in the basements of the barracks, sharing all the hardships of defense with their husbands and fathers. Now they shared their memories and told many interesting details of the memorable defense.
And then an amazing and strange contradiction emerged. The German document I was talking about stated that the fortress resisted for nine days and fell by July 1, 1941. Meanwhile, many women recalled that they were captured only on July 10, or even 15, and when the Nazis took them outside the fortress, fighting was still going on in certain areas of the defense, and there was intense firefight. Residents of Brest said that until the end of July or even until the first days of August, shooting was heard from the fortress, and the Nazis brought their wounded officers and soldiers from there to the city where their army hospital was located.
Thus, it became clear that the German report on the occupation of Brest-Litovsk contained a deliberate lie and that the headquarters of the enemy 45th division hastened to inform its high command about the fall of the fortress. In fact, the fighting continued for a long time... In 1950, a researcher at the Moscow museum, while exploring the premises of the Western barracks, found another inscription scratched on the wall. The inscription was: “I’m dying, but I’m not giving up. Farewell, Motherland! There was no signature under these words, but at the bottom there was a very clearly visible date - “July 20, 1941.” Thus, it was possible to find direct evidence that the fortress continued to resist on the 29th day of the war, although eyewitnesses stood their ground and assured that the fighting lasted for more than a month. After the war, the ruins in the fortress were partially dismantled, and at the same time, the remains of heroes were often found under the stones, their personal documents and weapons were discovered.
Smirnov S.S. Brest Fortress. M., 1964
BREST FORTRESS
Built almost a century before the start of the Great Patriotic War (the construction of the main fortifications was completed by 1842), the fortress had long lost its strategic importance in the eyes of the military, since it was not considered capable of withstanding the onslaught of modern artillery. As a result, the facilities of the complex served, first of all, to accommodate personnel who, in the event of war, were supposed to hold the defense outside the fortress. At the same time, the plan to create a fortified area, which took into account the latest achievements in the field of fortification, was not fully implemented as of June 22, 1941.
At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the garrison of the fortress consisted mainly of units of the 6th and 42nd rifle divisions of the 28th rifle corps of the Red Army. But it has decreased significantly due to the participation of many military personnel in planned training events.
The German operation to capture the fortress was launched by a powerful artillery barrage, which destroyed a significant part of the buildings, destroying large number soldiers of the garrison and at first noticeably demoralized the survivors. The enemy quickly gained a foothold on the South and West Islands, and assault troops appeared on the Central Island, but failed to occupy the barracks in the Citadel. In the area of the Terespol Gate, the Germans met a desperate counterattack by Soviet soldiers under the overall command of regimental commissar E.M. Fomina. The vanguard units of the 45th Wehrmacht Division suffered serious losses.
The time gained allowed the Soviet side to organize an orderly defense of the barracks. The Nazis were forced to remain in their occupied positions in the army club building, from where they could not get out for some time. Attempts to break through enemy reinforcements across the bridge over Mukhavets in the area of the Kholm Gate on the Central Island were also stopped by fire.
In addition to the central part of the fortress, resistance gradually grew in other parts of the building complex (in particular, under the command of Major P.M. Gavrilov at the northern Kobrin fortification), and the dense buildings favored the garrison fighters. Because of it, the enemy could not conduct targeted artillery fire at close range without running the risk of being destroyed himself. Having only small arms and a small number of artillery pieces and armored vehicles, the defenders of the fortress stopped the enemy’s advance, and later, when the Germans carried out a tactical retreat, they occupied the positions abandoned by the enemy.
At the same time, despite the failure of the quick assault, on June 22 the Wehrmacht forces managed to take the entire fortress into the blockade ring. Before its establishment, up to half of the payroll of the units stationed in the complex managed to leave the fortress and occupy the lines prescribed by the defensive plans, according to some estimates. Taking into account the losses during the first day of defense, in the end the fortress was defended by about 3.5 thousand people blocked in its different parts. As a consequence, each of the large centers of resistance could only rely on material resources in its immediate vicinity. The command of the combined forces of the defenders was entrusted to Captain I.N. Zubachev, whose deputy was Regimental Commissar Fomin.
In the subsequent days of defending the fortress, the enemy persistently sought to occupy the Central Island, but met organized resistance from the Citadel garrison. Only on June 24 did the Germans manage to finally occupy the Terespol and Volyn fortifications on the Western and Southern islands. Artillery shelling of the Citadel alternated with air raids, during one of which a German fighter was shot down by rifle fire. The defenders of the fortress also destroyed at least four enemy tanks. Several more are known to have died German tanks on improvised minefields installed by the Red Army.
The enemy used incendiary ammunition and tear gas against the garrison (the besiegers had a regiment of heavy chemical mortars at their disposal).
No less dangerous for Soviet soldiers and the civilians with them (primarily the wives and children of officers) was the catastrophic shortage of food and drink. If the consumption of ammunition could be compensated by the surviving arsenals of the fortress and captured weapons, then the needs for water, food, medicine and dressings were satisfied at a minimum level. The fortress's water supply was destroyed, and manual water intake from Mukhavets and Bug was practically paralyzed by enemy fire. The situation was further complicated by the persistent intense heat.
On initial stage defense, the idea of breaking through the fortress and connecting with the main forces was abandoned, since the command of the defenders was counting on a quick counterattack Soviet troops. When these calculations did not come true, attempts began to break the blockade, but they all ended in failure due to the overwhelming superiority of the Wehrmacht units in manpower and weapons.
By the beginning of July, after a particularly large-scale bombing and artillery shelling, the enemy managed to capture the fortifications on the Central Island, thereby destroying main hearth resistance. From that moment on, the defense of the fortress lost its holistic and coordinated character, and the fight against the Nazis continued to be carried out by already disparate groups in different areas complex. The actions of these groups and individual fighters acquired more and more features of sabotage activity and continued in some cases until the end of July and even the beginning of August 1941. After the war, in the casemates of the Brest Fortress, the inscription “I am dying, but I don't give up. Goodbye Motherland. July 20, 1941"
Most of the surviving defenders of the garrison were captured. German captivity, where women and children were sent even before the end of organized defense. Commissioner Fomin was shot by the Germans, Captain Zubachev died in captivity, Major Gavrilov survived captivity and was transferred to the reserve during the post-war reduction of the army. The defense of the Brest Fortress (after the war it received the title of “hero fortress”) became a symbol of the courage and self-sacrifice of Soviet soldiers in the first, most tragic period of the war.
Astashin N.A. Brest Fortress // Great Patriotic War. Encyclopedia. /Ans. ed. Ak. A.O. Chubaryan. M., 2010.
Dishonorably, cruelly, brutally June 22, 1941 fascist Germany attacked the sleeping Soviet Union. It was especially difficult for the border towns, which were the first to be hit by the Germans. A separate line in the immortal feat of our compatriots is the defense of the Brest Fortress. An object that was a “tidbit” for the Nazis. What do we know about defending the hero fortress?However, first let's look at its history. The beginning of construction of the Brest Fortress dates back to 1833. Note that the city is an important border garrison; it “blocks” the central highway leading to Belarusian Minsk. For this reason, it simply needed to be strengthened. In different years of its “life” the fortress was a barracks, a military warehouse, and a political prison. The city itself either fell into the possession of the Poles, then returned to the territory of Russia, or was again captured by its neighbors.
Shortly before the start of the bloody war (1939), Brest was included in the USSR. The fortress itself no longer carried the significance of a strategic military facility, but rather was a monument to past battles. On the eve of the Great Patriotic War, it housed military garrisons, a hospital, and premises for economic needs, the families of the commanding officers resided permanently. In total there are about 8 thousand military personnel and 300 “civilians” - members of their families. Of course, there were weapons and food supplies here, but more “for show.” Rumor has it that the water in the fortress ran out two days before the start of the great confrontation...
The attack on the Brest Fortress coincided with. It is not difficult to guess that residential buildings and barracks were the first to come under fire. The Germans systematically destroyed the command staff with heavy artillery fire and air strikes. Their goals were ambitious: to throw the army, left without leadership, into panic and take the fortress into their own hands before noon.
In reality, the assault on the fortification lasted several days. The surprise factor did not work as Hitler planned. Yes, most of the officers died, but the living soldiers immediately got their bearings, taking up a selfless defense. Did the Soviet high command know in advance about the impending attack on the country? There is no clear answer. But before the start of the war, a decree was issued: to immediately leave the fortress in the event of an enemy attack and take a defensive position along the perimeter. In fact, only a few were able to get out, and most of the military remained inside the bastion.
The Germans planned to take the fortress by storm, but were only able to reach its central part. Eyewitnesses of the events counted up to 8 attempts by the Nazis to break through the defenses of our soldiers, but all of them turned out to be fruitless.
Moreover: the German command suffered enormous losses. This is not at all the start of the war that Hitler was counting on! The enemy urgently changes tactics: the storming of the fortress is replaced by its siege. Troops that have made at least a little progress in the offensive are urgently recalled, they are placed along the perimeter of the rebellious stronghold.
From now on, the enemy’s task is to completely block the entrances and exits of the fortress for Soviet troops. The besieged were literally left without supplies, weapons or water. The lack of life-giving moisture was especially acutely felt in stone walls. The atrocity of the Germans reached the point that they took special control of all nearby sources, dooming those imprisoned to certain death.
Despite the constant bombing, artillery shelling, and foot advances of the Germans, our soldiers held the defense with dignity. Along with them, women and children showed fortitude. Many refused to leave the walls of the fortress and voluntarily surrender to the enemy for the chance to save their lives.
The Nazis tried to alternate tactics of assault and siege, but made little progress in capturing the Brest Fortress. Only by the end of June did the German army manage to take control of most of the bastion. However, individual scattered groups of our soldiers resisted the invaders even until the fall.
Even though it ended up in the hands of the enemy, the feat of the Soviet soldiers unpleasantly struck the German “elite”. To say the least, he scared me. And how can one not shudder at such will to fight, courage and dedication! Of the 8 thousand fighters, almost none survived.
Our people first learned about the feat of the hero-fortress... from captured German reports in the winter of 1942. On the border of the 40-50s. Notes about the Brest Bastion in Soviet newspapers were based solely on rumors. A key role in restoring the historical picture was played by the historian S. Smirnov and the writer K. Simonov, with whose input the book “Brest Fortress” was published. Today, the site of great battles has become. Here everyone can plunge into the picture of the events of the terrible years.
The attack on our country in June 1941 began along the entire western border, from north to south, each border outpost took its own battle. But the defense of the Brest Fortress became legendary. The fighting was already taking place on the outskirts of Minsk, and rumors were passed from fighter to fighter that somewhere there, in the west, a border fortress was still defending itself and not surrendering. According to the German plan, eight hours were allotted for the complete capture of the Brest fortification. But neither a day later, nor two days later, the fortress was taken. It is believed that the last day of its defense is July 20. The inscription on the wall is dated this day: “We are dying, but we are not giving up...”. Witnesses claimed that even in August the sounds of gunfire and explosions were heard in the central citadel.
On the night of June 22, 1941, cadet Myasnikov and private Shcherbina were in a border secret in one of the shelters of the Terespol fortification at the junction of the branches of the Western Bug. At dawn they noticed a German armored train approaching the railway bridge. They wanted to inform the outpost, but realized it was too late. The ground shook underfoot, the sky darkened with enemy aircraft.
Head of the chemical service of the 455th rifle regiment A.A. Vinogradov recalled: |
“On the night of June 21-22, I was appointed operational duty officer at the regiment headquarters. The headquarters was located in the ring barracks. At dawn there was a deafening roar, everything was drowned in fiery flashes. I tried to contact the division headquarters, but the phone did not work. I ran to the units of the unit. I found out that there are only four commanders here - Art. Lieutenant Ivanov, Lieutenant Popov and Lieutenant Makhnach and political instructor Koshkarev who arrived from military schools. They have already begun to organize defense. Together with soldiers from other units, we knocked out the Nazis from the club building and the command staff canteen, did not give the opportunity to break into the central island through the Three-Armed Gate" |
Cadets of the school of drivers and border guards, soldiers of the transport company and sapper platoon, participants in the training camps for cavalrymen and athletes - everyone who was in the fortification that night took up defensive positions. The fortress was defended by several groups in different parts citadels. One of them was headed by Lieutenant Zhdanov, and next door groups of Lieutenants Melnikov and Cherny were preparing for battle.
Under the cover of artillery fire, the Germans moved towards the fortress.. At this time there were about 300 people at the Tepespol fortification. They responded to the attack with rifle and machine gun fire and grenades. However, one of the enemy assault troops managed to break through to the fortifications of the Central Island. The attacks occurred several times a day, and it was necessary to engage in hand-to-hand combat. Each time the Germans retreated with losses.
On June 24, 1941, in one of the basements of the building of the 333rd engineering regiment, a meeting of commanders and political workers of the central citadel of the Brest Fortress was held. A unified defense headquarters for the Central Island was created. Captain I.N. Zubachev became the commander of the combined combat group, his deputy was regimental commissar E.M. Fomin, and chief of staff was senior lieutenant Semenenko.
The situation was difficult: there was not enough ammunition, food, and water. The remaining 18 people were forced to leave the fortification and hold the defense in the Citadel.
Private A.M. Fil, clerk of the 84th Infantry Regiment: |
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On June 30, 1941, a bomb hit the basement where the Citadel defense headquarters was located. Fomin was seriously wounded and shell-shocked, lost consciousness and was captured. The Germans shot him at the Kholm Gate. And the defenders of the fortress continued to hold the defense.
When the Germans captured women and children at the Volyn fortification and drove them ahead of them to the Citadel, no one wanted to go. They were beaten with rifle butts and shot. And the women shouted to the Soviet soldiers: “Shoot, don’t spare us!”.
Lieutenants Potapov and Sanin led the defense in the two-story barracks of their regiment. Nearby there was a building that housed the 9th border outpost. Soldiers fought here under the command of the head of the outpost, Lieutenant Kizhevatov. Only when only ruins remained of their building did Kizhevatov and his soldiers move to the basements of the barracks and continued to lead the defense together with Potapov.
