Brest Fortress: the history of the building, a feat during the Second World War and a modern memorial. How long did the defense of the Brest fortress last
The defense of the Brest Fortress (lasted from June 22 - June 30, 1941) is one of the very first major battles Soviet troops with the Germans during the Great Patriotic War.
Brest was the first Soviet border garrison that covered the central highway leading to Minsk, so immediately after the start of the wars Brest Fortress turned out to be the first point that the Germans attacked. For a week, Soviet soldiers held back the onslaught of German troops, who had numerical superiority, as well as artillery and aviation support. As a result of the assault at the very end of the siege, the Germans were able to take over the main fortifications, but in other areas the fighting still continued for several weeks, despite the catastrophic shortage of food, medicine and ammunition. The defense of the Brest Fortress was the first battle in which the Soviet troops showed their full readiness to defend the Motherland to the last. The battle has become a kind of symbol, showing that the plan for a swift assault and capture by the Germans of the territory of the USSR may be unsuccessful.
History of the Brest Fortress
The city of Brest was included in the USSR in 1939, at the same time, the fortress, located near the city, had already lost its military significance and remained only a reminder of past battles. The fortress itself was built in the 19th century as part of a system of fortifications on the western borders. Russian Empire. By the time the Great Patriotic War began, the fortress could no longer perform its military functions, as it was partially destroyed - it was used mainly to accommodate border detachments, NKVD troops, engineering units, as well as a hospital and various border units. By the time of the German attack, there were about 8,000 military personnel, about 300 families of commanders, as well as medical and service personnel in the Brest Fortress.
Assault on the Brest Fortress
The assault on the fortress began on June 22, 1941 at dawn. The Germans subjected to powerful artillery fire, first of all, the barracks and residential buildings commanders in order to disorient the army and achieve chaos in the ranks of the Soviet troops. After the shelling, the assault began. The main idea of the assault was the surprise factor, the German command hoped that an unexpected attack would cause panic and break the will of the military in the fortress to resist. According to calculations German generals, the fortress was supposed to be taken by 12 noon on June 22, but the plans did not materialize.
Only a small part of the soldiers managed to leave the fortress and take up positions outside it, as stipulated in the plans in the event of an attack, the rest remained inside - the fortress was surrounded. Despite the unexpectedness of the attack, as well as the death of a significant part of the Soviet military command, the soldiers showed courage and unbending will in the fight against the German invaders. Despite the fact that the position of the defenders of the Brest Fortress was initially almost hopeless, soviet soldiers resisted to the last.
Defense of the Brest Fortress
The Soviet soldiers, who could not leave the fortress, managed to quickly destroy the Germans, who broke into the center of the defensive structures, and then take advantageous positions for defense - the soldiers occupied the barracks and various buildings that were located along the perimeter of the citadel (the central part of the fortress). This made it possible to effectively organize the defense system. The defense was led by the remaining representatives of the officers and, in some cases, ordinary ordinary soldiers, who were then recognized as heroes for the defense of the Brest Fortress.
On June 22, 8 attacks were made by the enemy, the German troops, contrary to forecasts, suffered significant losses, so it was decided in the evening of the same day to withdraw the groups that had broken into the fortress back to the headquarters of the German troops. A blockade line was created along the perimeter of the fortress, military operations turned from an assault into a siege.
On the morning of June 23, the Germans began a bombardment, after which an attempt was again made to storm the fortress. The groups that broke through inside faced fierce resistance and the assault failed again, turning into protracted battles. By the evening of the same day, the Germans again suffered huge losses.
The next few days, resistance continued, despite the onslaught of German troops, artillery shelling and offers to surrender. The Soviet troops did not have the opportunity to replenish their ranks, so the resistance gradually faded away, and the forces of the soldiers were fading, but, despite this, it was still not possible to take the fortress. Food and water supplies were suspended, and the defenders decided that the women and children must surrender to stay alive, but some of the women refused to leave the fortress.
On June 26, several more attempts were made to break into the fortress, but only small groups succeeded. The Germans managed to capture most of the fortress only by the end of June. On June 29 and 30, a new assault was made, which was combined with shelling and bombing. The main groups of the defenders were captured or destroyed, as a result of which the defense lost its centralization and broke up into several separate centers, which ultimately played a role in the surrender of the fortress.
The results of the defense of the Brest Fortress
The remaining Soviet soldiers continued to resist until the autumn, despite the fact that the fortress was actually taken by the Germans, and the defense was destroyed - small battles continued until the last defender of the fortress was destroyed. As a result of the defense of the Brest Fortress, several thousand people were taken prisoner, the rest died. The battles in Brest became an example of the courage of the Soviet troops and went down in world history.
Krivonogov, Pyotr Alexandrovich, oil painting "Defenders of the Brest Fortress", 1951.
The defense of the Brest Fortress in June 1941 is one of the first battles of the Great Patriotic War.
On the eve of the war
By June 22, 1941, the fortress housed 8 rifle and 1 reconnaissance battalions, 2 artillery battalions (PTO and air defense), some special forces of rifle regiments and units of corps units, training camps of the 6th Oryol and 42nd rifle divisions of the 28th rifle Corps of the 4th Army, units of the 17th Red Banner Brest Border Detachment, 33rd Separate Engineer Regiment, several units of the 132nd Separate Battalion of the NKVD escort troops, unit headquarters (the headquarters of the divisions and the 28th Rifle Corps were located in Brest), in total at least 7 thousand people, not counting family members (300 military families).
According to General L. M. Sandalov, “the deployment of Soviet troops in Western Belarus was not initially subject to operational considerations, but was determined by the presence of barracks and premises suitable for accommodating troops. This, in particular, explained the crowded location of half of the troops of the 4th Army with all their depots of emergency supplies (NZ) on the very border - in Brest and the Brest Fortress. " According to the cover plan of 1941, the 28th Rifle Corps, consisting of the 42nd and 6th Rifle Divisions, was supposed to organize defense on a wide front in prepared positions in the Brest fortified area... Of the troops stationed in the fortress, only one rifle battalion, reinforced by an artillery division, was provided for its defense.
The assault on the fortress, the city of Brest and the capture of bridges across the Western Bug and Mukhavets was entrusted to the 45th Infantry Division (45th Infantry Division) of Major General Fritz Schlieper (about 18 thousand people) with reinforcement units and in cooperation with units of neighboring formations (including including mortar divisions attached to the 31st and 34th Infantry Divisions of the 12th Army Corps of the 4th german army and used by the 45th Infantry Division during the first five minutes of an artillery raid), a total of up to 22 thousand people.
Assault on the fortress
In addition to the divisional artillery of the 45th Infantry Division of the Wehrmacht, nine light and three heavy batteries, a high-power artillery battery (two super-heavy 600-mm Karl self-propelled mortars) and a mortar division were involved in artillery preparation. In addition, the commander of the 12th Army Corps concentrated the fire of two mortar divisions of the 34th and 31st Infantry Divisions on the fortress. The order to withdraw units of the 42nd Rifle Division from the fortress, given personally by the commander of the 4th Army, Major General A.A. managed to complete.
On June 22, at 03:15 (4:15 Soviet “decree” time), heavy artillery fire was opened on the fortress, taking the garrison by surprise. As a result, warehouses were destroyed, the water supply was damaged (according to the surviving defenders, there was no water in the water supply two days before the assault), communications were interrupted, and serious damage was done to the garrison. At 3:23 the assault began. Up to one and a half thousand infantry from three battalions of the 45th Infantry Division advanced directly on the fortress. The surprise of the attack led to the fact that the garrison could not provide a single coordinated resistance and was divided into several separate centers. The assault detachment of the Germans, advancing through the Terespol fortification, initially did not meet with serious resistance and, having passed the Citadel, advanced groups reached the Kobrin fortification. However, the units of the garrison that found themselves in the rear of the Germans launched a counterattack, dismembering and almost completely destroying the attackers.
The Germans in the Citadel were able to gain a foothold only in certain areas, including the club building dominating the fortress (the former Church of St. Nicholas), the dining room for command staff and the barracks at the Brest Gates. They met strong resistance in Volyn and, especially, in Kobrin fortification, where it came to bayonet attacks.
By 7:00 June 22, the 42nd and 6th rifle divisions left the fortress and the city of Brest, but many soldiers of these divisions did not manage to get out of the fortress. It was they who continued to fight in it. According to the historian R. Aliyev, about 8 thousand people left the fortress, and about 5 thousand remained in it. According to other sources, on June 22, there were only 3 to 4 thousand people in the fortress, since part of the personnel of both divisions was outside the fortress - in summer camps, at exercises, at the construction of the Brest fortified area (sapper battalions, engineer regiment, one battalion from each rifle regiment and by division from artillery regiments).
From the combat report on the actions of the 6th Infantry Division:
At 4 am on June 22, heavy fire was opened on the barracks, on the exits from the barracks in the central part of the fortress, on bridges and entrance gates and on the houses of the commanding staff. This raid brought confusion and caused panic among the Red Army personnel. The command staff, which was attacked in their apartments, was partially destroyed. The surviving commanders could not penetrate the barracks because of the strong barrage fire placed on the bridge in the central part of the fortress and at the entrance gate. As a result, the Red Army soldiers and junior commanders, without control from the middle commanders, dressed and undressed, in groups and singly, left the fortress, overcoming the bypass channel, the Mukhavets River and the rampart of the fortress under artillery, mortar and machine-gun fire. It was not possible to take into account the losses, since the scattered units of the 6th division mixed with the scattered units of the 42nd division, and many could not get to the assembly place because at about 6 o’clock artillery fire was already concentrated on it.
Sandalov L. M. fighting troops of the 4th army in initial period Great Patriotic War.
By 9 o'clock in the morning the fortress was surrounded. During the day, the Germans were forced to bring into battle the reserve of the 45th Infantry Division (135pp / 2), as well as the 130th Infantry Regiment, which was originally the reserve of the corps, thus bringing the group of attackers to two regiments.
Monument to the defenders of the Brest Fortress and the Eternal Flame
Defense
On the night of June 23, having withdrawn troops to the outer ramparts of the fortress, the Germans began shelling, in between offering the garrison to surrender. Surrendered about 1900 people. Nevertheless, on June 23, the remaining defenders of the fortress managed, having driven the Germans out of the section of the ring barracks adjacent to the Brest Gate, to unite the two most powerful pockets of resistance remaining on the Citadel - the battle group of the 455th rifle regiment, led by Lieutenant A. A. Vinogradov (chief chemical services of the 455th rifle regiment) and captain I.N. Zubachev (deputy commander of the 44th rifle regiment for the economic part), and the battle group of the so-called "House of Officers" - the units concentrated here for the planned breakthrough attempt, were led by regimental commissar E M. Fomin (military commissar of the 84th rifle regiment), senior lieutenant N. F. Shcherbakov (assistant chief of staff of the 33rd separate engineering regiment) and lieutenant A. K. Shugurov (executive secretary of the Komsomol bureau of the 75th separate reconnaissance battalion ).
Having met in the basement of the “House of Officers”, the defenders of the Citadel tried to coordinate their actions: a draft order No. 1 dated June 24 was prepared, which proposed the creation of a consolidated battle group and headquarters headed by Captain I. N. Zubachev and his deputy regimental commissar E. M. Fomin, count the remaining personnel. However, the next day, the Germans broke into the Citadel with a surprise attack. A large group of defenders of the Citadel, led by Lieutenant A. A. Vinogradov, tried to break out of the Fortress through the Kobrin fortification. But this ended in failure: although the breakthrough group, divided into several detachments, managed to break out of the main rampart, almost all of its fighters were captured or destroyed by units of the 45th Infantry Division, which were defending the highway that skirted Brest.
By the evening of June 24, the Germans had captured most of the fortress, with the exception of the section of the ring barracks (“House of Officers”) near the Brest (Three-arch) gates of the Citadel, casemates in an earthen rampart on the opposite bank of the Mukhavets (“point 145”) and located on the Kobrin fortification of the so-called "Eastern Fort" - its defense, which consisted of 600 fighters and commanders Red Army, commanded by Major P. M. Gavrilov (commander of the 44th Infantry Regiment). Groups of fighters under the command of Senior Lieutenant A.E. Potapov (in the cellars of the barracks of the 333rd Rifle Regiment) and border guards of the 9th Frontier Outpost Lieutenant A.M. Kizhevatov (in the building of the frontier outpost) continued to fight in the Terespol Gate area. On this day, the Germans managed to capture 570 defenders of the fortress. The last 450 defenders of the Citadel were captured on June 26 after blowing up several compartments of the ring barracks "Officers' House" and point 145, and on June 29, after the Germans dropped an aerial bomb weighing 1800 kilograms, the Eastern Fort fell. However, the Germans managed to finally clean it up only on June 30 (because of the fires that began on June 29).
Only isolated centers of resistance and single fighters remained, gathering in groups and organizing active resistance, or trying to break out of the fortress and go to the partisans in Belovezhskaya Pushcha (many succeeded). In the cellars of the barracks of the 333rd regiment near the Terespol Gates, the group of A.E. Potapov and the border guards of A.M. Kizhevatov who joined it continued to fight until June 29. On June 29, they made a desperate attempt to break through to the south, towards the Western Island, in order to then turn to the east, during which most of its participants died or were captured. Major P. M. Gavrilov was captured wounded among the last - on July 23. One of the inscriptions in the fortress reads: “I am dying, but I do not give up! Farewell, Motherland. 20/VII-41". The resistance of single Soviet soldiers in the casemates of the fortress continued until August 1941, before A. Hitler and B. Mussolini visited the fortress. It is also known that the stone that A. Hitler took from the ruins of the bridge was discovered in his office after the end of the war. To eliminate the last pockets of resistance, the German high command gave the order to flood the cellars of the fortress with water from the Western Bug River.
About 3,000 Soviet servicemen were taken prisoner by German troops in the fortress (according to the report of the commander of the 45th division, Lieutenant-General Shliper, 25 officers, 2877 junior commanders and soldiers were taken prisoner on June 30), 1877 Soviet servicemen died in the fortress .
The total losses of the Germans in the Brest Fortress amounted to 1197 people, of which 87 Wehrmacht officers on Eastern Front during the first week of the war.
Experience learned:
Short strong artillery fire on the old serfs brick walls, cemented concrete, deep basements and unobservable shelters does not give an effective result. Prolonged aimed fire is needed to destroy and fire of great strength is needed to thoroughly destroy fortified centers.
The commissioning of assault guns, tanks, etc. is very difficult due to the unobservability of many shelters, fortresses and a large number possible targets and does not give the expected results due to the thickness of the walls of structures. In particular, a heavy mortar is not suitable for such purposes.
An excellent means of moral shock to those in hiding is the dropping of large-caliber bombs.
An attack on a fortress in which a brave defender sits costs a lot of blood. This simple truth was once again proved during the capture of Brest-Litovsk. Heavy artillery also belongs to the strong stunning means of moral influence.
The Russians in Brest-Litovsk fought extremely stubbornly and persistently. They showed excellent infantry training and showed a remarkable will to fight.
Combat report of the commander of the 45th division, Lieutenant-General Shliper, about the occupation of the Brest-Litovsk fortress, July 8, 1941
The memory of the defenders of the fortress
For the first time, the defense of the Brest Fortress became known from a German headquarters report captured in the papers of the defeated unit in February 1942 near Orel. In the late 1940s, the first articles about the defense of the Brest Fortress appeared in newspapers, based solely on rumors. In 1951, during the analysis of the rubble of the barracks at the Brest Gate, order No. 1 was found. In the same year, the artist P. Krivonogov painted the painting “Defenders of the Brest Fortress”.
The merit of restoring the memory of the heroes of the fortress largely belongs to the writer and historian S. S. Smirnov, as well as to K. M. Simonov, who supported his initiative. The feat of the heroes of the Brest Fortress was popularized by S. S. Smirnov in the book The Brest Fortress (1957, expanded edition 1964, Lenin Prize 1965). After that, the theme of the defense of the Brest Fortress became an important symbol of the Victory.
On May 8, 1965, the Brest Fortress was awarded the title of Hero Fortress with the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal. Since 1971 the fortress has been a memorial complex. On its territory, a number of monuments were built in memory of the heroes, and there is a museum of the defense of the Brest Fortress.
Research challenges
The restoration of the course of events in the Brest Fortress in June 1941 is greatly hampered by the almost complete absence of documents from the Soviet side. The main sources of information are the testimonies of the surviving defenders of the fortress, received in their mass after a considerable time after the end of the war. There is reason to believe that these testimonies contain a lot of unreliable, including deliberately distorted, for one reason or another, information. So, for example, for many key witnesses, the dates and circumstances of captivity do not correspond to the data recorded in German prisoner of war cards. For the most part, the date of capture in German documents is given earlier than the date reported by the witness himself in post-war testimony. In this regard, there are doubts about the reliability of the information contained in such statements.
In art
Art films
"The Immortal Garrison" (1956);
"Battle for Moscow", the first film "Aggression" (one of storylines) (USSR, 1985);
"State Border", the fifth film "Year forty-first" (USSR, 1986);
“I am a Russian soldier” - based on the book “I was not on the lists” by Boris Vasiliev (Russia, 1995);
"Brest Fortress" (Belarus-Russia, 2010).
Documentaries
"Heroes of Brest" - documentary about the heroic defense of the Brest Fortress at the very beginning of the Great Patriotic War (TsSDF Studio, 1957);
"Dear Hero Fathers" - an amateur documentary film about the 1st All-Union rally of the winners of the youth campaign to the places of military glory in the Brest Fortress (1965);
"Brest Fortress" - a documentary trilogy about the defense of the fortress in 1941 (VoenTV, 2006);
"Brest Fortress" (Russia, 2007).
"Brest. Fortress heroes. (NTV, 2010).
"Berasceyskaya krepasts: dzve abarons" (Belsat, 2009)
Fiction
Vasiliev B. L. Was not on the lists. - M.: Children's literature, 1986. - 224 p.
Oshaev H.D. Brest is a fiery nut. - M.: Book, 1990. - 141 p.
Smirnov S.S. Brest Fortress. - M.: Young Guard, 1965. - 496 p.
Songs
“There is no death for the heroes of Brest” - song by Eduard Khil.
"Brest Trumpeter" - music by Vladimir Rubin, lyrics by Boris Dubrovin.
"Dedicated to the Heroes of Brest" - words and music by Alexander Krivonosov.
Interesting Facts
According to Boris Vasiliev's book "Not on the lists", the last known defender of the fortress surrendered on April 12, 1942. S. Smirnov in the book "Brest Fortress" also, referring to the stories of eyewitnesses, calls April 1942.
On August 22, 2016, Vesti Israel reported that Boris Faershtein, the last survivor of the defense of the Brest Fortress, died in Ashdod.
The remaining Soviet soldiers continued to resist until the autumn, despite the fact that the fortress was actually taken by the Germans, and the defense was destroyed - small battles continued until the last defender of the fortress was destroyed.
As a result of the defense of the Brest Fortress, several thousand people were taken prisoner, the rest died. The battles in Brest became an example of the courage of the Soviet troops and went down in world history.
“There were five of us: Sedov, Grutov I., Bogolyubov, Mikhailov, Selivanov V. We took the first battle on June 22, 1941. We'll die, but we won't leave!" - was written on the bricks outer wall near the Terespol Gates.
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 we will die like heroes. July. 1941".
In the center of the fortress courtyard stands a dilapidated church-type building. There really was once a church here, and later, before the war, it was converted into a club of 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 swore an oath: we will die, but we will not leave here. July. 1941".
This inscription, along with plaster, was removed from the wall and transferred 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 read it many times. This inscription was, as it were, a continuation of the first one: “I was left alone, Stepanchikov and Zhuntyaev died. Germans in the church itself. The last grenade remained, but I will not give myself up alive. Comrades, avenge us!" These words were apparently scratched out by the last of the three Muscovites - Ivanov. Not only stones 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 the fighting, these women and children, caught in the war in the fortress, were in the cellars of the barracks, sharing all the hardships of defense with their husbands and fathers. Now they shared their memories, told many interesting details of the memorable defense. And then a surprising and strange contradiction emerged. A German document 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 on July 15, and when the Nazis took them outside the fortress, fighting was still going on in certain areas of the defense, there was an intense firefight. The inhabitants 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.
In 1950, a researcher at the Moscow Museum, exploring the premises of the western barracks, found another inscription scratched on the wall. This inscription was: “I am dying, but I do not give up. Farewell, Motherland! There was no signature under these words, but at the bottom there was a completely clearly distinguishable date - "July 20, 1941."
So we managed to find direct evidence the fact that the fortress continued to resist even on the 29th day of the war, although eyewitnesses stood their ground and assured that the battles had been going on for more than a month. After the war, a partial dismantling of the ruins was carried out in the fortress, and at the same time, the remains of heroes were often found under the stones, their personal documents and weapons were found.
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 has become legendary. The fighting was already on the outskirts of Minsk, and rumors were passed from fighter to fighter that somewhere out there, in the west, a border fortress was still defending, not surrendering. By German plan eight hours were allotted for the complete capture of the Brest fortification. But not a day or two later, the fortress was not taken. It is believed that the last day of its defense is July 20. The inscription on the wall is dated this day: “We die, but we don’t give up ...”. Witnesses claimed that even in August the sounds of shots 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 approaching railway bridge German armored train. They wanted to inform the outpost, but they realized it was too late. The ground trembled underfoot, the sky darkened from enemy planes.
Head of the chemical service of the 455th Infantry Regiment A.A. Vinogradov recalled: |
“On the night of June 21-22, I was appointed operational duty officer at the headquarters of the regiment. The headquarters was 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. He ran to the divisions 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 the soldiers of other units, we knocked out the Nazis from the club building, the dining room for command staff, did not give the opportunity to break into the central island through the Three-arch Gate " |
Cadets of the school of drivers and border guards, fighters of a transport company and a sapper platoon, participants in the training of cavalrymen and athletes - all those who were in the fortification that night took up defense. The fortress was defended by several groups in different parts citadels. One of them was headed by Lieutenant Zhdanov, and in the neighborhood, groups of Lieutenants Melnikov and Chernoy were preparing for battle.
Under the cover of artillery fire, the Germans moved to the fortress. At that time, there were about 300 people at the Tepespol fortification. They responded to the attack with machine-gun fire and grenades. However, one of the enemy's assault detachments managed to break through to the fortifications of the Central Island. Attacks followed several times a day, we had 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 Engineer Regiment, a meeting of commanders and political workers of the central citadel of the Brest Fortress was held. A unified headquarters for the defense of the Central Island was created. Captain I.N. Zubachev became the commander of the consolidated combat group, his deputy was regimental commissar E.M. Fomin, and the chief of staff was senior lieutenant Semenenko.
The situation was dire: there was not enough ammunition, food, water. The remaining 18 people were forced to leave the fortification and keep 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 headquarters of the defense of the Citadel was located. Fomin was seriously wounded and shell-shocked, lost consciousness and was taken prisoner. The Germans shot him at the Kholmsky Gate. And the defenders of the fortress continued to hold the line.
When the Germans captured women and children in 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 feel sorry for us!”.
Lieutenants Potapov and Sanin led the defense in the two-story barracks of their regiment. Nearby stood the building where the 9th border outpost was located. Fighters under the command of the head of the outpost, Lieutenant Kizhevatov, fought here. Only when only ruins remained of their building, Kizhevatov and his fighters moved into the cellars of the barracks and continued to lead the defense together with Potapov.
Unexpectedly attacked 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 was subjected to attacks even before that. The fortress was built by the architect Opperman in 1833 as a military structure. The war reached it only by 1915 - then it was blown up during the retreat of the Nikolaev 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.
The real hostilities overtook the Brest Fortress in 1939. The second day of the Second World War began for the garrison of the fortress with the bombing. German aircraft dropped ten bombs on the citadel, damaging the main building of the fortress - the Citadel, or the White Palace. Then in the fortress there were several random military and reserve units. 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 officer families in time. Against the armored corps of General Heinz, Plisovsky could only oppose 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 led the remnants of his detachment south, towards Terespol. After that, 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 battalions and several separate units. In total, this amounted to about eleven thousand people, excluding three hundred officer families. The fortress was stormed by the infantry division of Major General Shliper, which was reinforced with additional units. In general, about twenty thousand soldiers were subordinate to General Schliper.
The attack began early in the morning. Due to the suddenness 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 succeeded in capturing the Citadel, but they were not able to gain a foothold in it - the invaders were attacked by the Soviet units left behind, and the Citadel was partially liberated. On the second day of defense, the Germans offered
surrender, to which 1900 people agreed. The remaining defenders united under the command 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 1250 fighters, another 450 people were captured on June 26. The last stronghold of the defenders, the Eastern Fort, was crushed on June 29 when the Germans dropped a 1800-kilogram bomb on it. This day is considered the end of the defense, however, the Germans cleared the Brest Fortress until June 30, and last defenders were destroyed only by the end of August. Only a few managed to escape to Belovezhskaya Pushcha to the partisans.
The fortress was liberated in 1944, and in 1971 it was mothballed 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.
