Battle of Zabłocie

Battle of Zabłocie
Part of during the Polish–Ukrainian ethnic conflict in the World War II
The 348th Platoon “Kirgiz” of the Peasant Battalions
Date 14 February 1944 Location Zabłocie, Hrubieszów County, Lublin Voivodeship Result Ambiguous •The Germans and Ukrainians were able to retreat with almost no losses •The Poles accidentally attacked themselves •The Poles managed to stop the pacification of the Polish population in this area
Belligerents
Peasant Battalions Home Army	Third Reich Ukrainian Auxiliary Police 14th Grenadier Division of the Waffen–SS “Galicia”
Commanders and leaders
Stanisław Basaj	Unknown
Units involved
Battalion “Ryś” of the Peasant Battalions 348th Platoon “Kirgiz” of the Peasant Battalions Platoon “Hardy” of the Home Army	Unknown
Strength
140 men	about 350 men
Casualties and losses
Unknown	27 killed

The Battle of Zabłocie (Polish: Bitwa pod Zabłocami, Ukrainian: Бій під Заблоцями; 14 February 1944) was fought between the 348th Platoon “Kirgiz” and Battalion “Ryś” of the Peasant Battalions and Platoon “Hardy” of the Home Army under the command of Stanisław Basaj and Mieczysław Olszak against the Third Reich, Ukrainian Auxiliary Police and 14th Grenadier Division of the Waffen–SS “Galicia” in the Hrubieszów County of the Lublin Voivodeship.

Background

Despite the advent of temporary calm after the previous battles, before the battle of Zabłocie, describe this temporary calm as the calm before the storm. The partisan unit of "Rysia" (Stanislaw Basaj) was already in practice a battalio, because apart from our 5 platoons the unit of "Rysia" was joined by the unit of the Civil Self-Defence from Iwanicz, from beyond the Bug River. Such a well-armed detachment became the subject of efforts of both the Home Army and us BCh to incorporate it into their ranks.The temporary situation supported by the efforts of "Rysio" and "Stępień" (Stanisław Hulak, the head of the Headquarters of "Rysio"), made the Volhynian detachment go over to Rysio. Reinforced in this way, the "Rysia" Battalion decided to strike at the USN(Ukrainian Self-Defence)UPA base in Sahryń. This village was manned by a strong 22-strong detachment of Ukrainian police and served as a recruitment base for the 14th SS-Galizien Rifle Division. It was also a food base. Nestled in Sahryń were hidden USN-UPA units nested in Sahryń. From here, there were constant raids on villages iinhabited by the Polish population. This had to be stopped, so

In the evening of 13 February 1944, a flurry of activity broke out in the platoons. A rumour spread that they were to strike Sahryn. Many of them also, received orders to organise a sledge - the reason for this action. Horses with sledges were hired from Lachowski Jozef of Zablocie to carry out the action. A total of 10 sledges + 3 of the Battalion's own wagons were organised. The first sledges including went to the assembly point in Modryń. In the end, the operation on Sahryń did not take place, as the Germans' actions thwarted the plans. In the morning of 14 February 1944, a detachment of SS police arrived in Mircz from the direction of Hrubieszów. SS police. At the same time, from the southern side, from Łasków, gendarmes broke in mi from Dołhobyczów and auxiliary forces of Ukrainian police. The German detachment from Mircz began a march towards the village of Górka (left wing) and towards the Laskowski forest (right wing). Somewhere from Kryłów lurked the detachments of the guns closing the ring of encirclement. The 4th platoon of "Szczygieł", which remained on guard, was inside it The IV platoon of "Szczygieł" (Feliks Zwolak) and the Volhynian team of "Kozak". After the three columns reached the Zabłocie colliery, an unequal battle began - the defence of Zablocie by the "Szczygieł" platoon (40 partisans) against about 270 SS men armed to the teeth with machine guns. Attacking from three sides,The Germans were pushing towards Zablocie the BCh and Home Army posts they encountered on the way, as well as small groups and individual partisans. In this way, the incomplete platoon of "Hardy" (Mieczysław Olszak) was thrown out of Olszynka into the Wólczański forest. Pew number of partisans from the Łasków colony made their way to the Małkowski forest. Still others, like the Home Army post from Górki with one machine gun, withdrew directly to the.

The partisans therefore occupied the lyser of the Małków forest preparing for an assault. The Germans at this time moved towards . Górka penetrating the last street from the Zabłocie side. The assault began with shouts of "Hurrah". The partisans threw themselves into the attack. Boldly striking, they conquered an area of several hundred metres stretching to the west of the forest. The Germans, with the guerrillas in their sights, hidden behind the ruins and partly behind the buildings, pressed them down into the snow with massive machine-gun fire. The positional battle became for the partisans disastrous.

Battle

The team from Prehoryłe withdrew from the fight. To make matters worse, the AK platoon of "Hardy" with an erkaem did not enter the fight, because Hardy" himself decided to make a wide detour to avoid the Germans who were giving the on Górka. However, he was too late with this manoeuvre. A small group of "Szczygieł" managed to, however, managed to enter the Birkenau area on Górki with its left wing, without erkaem and other machine guns and could do little. In this catastrophic situation came to the aid of the assault group commanded by "Rysio" and "Kozak".  found myself in the morning of 14 February 1944 in the colliery Modryń. Here the sounds of battle and news messengers arrived too late. The command hesitated. We had to leave Modryń col. Detachment towards the battle to the east of the road, meant discovering the concentration of the Detachment. Thus the trump card for jumping the base in Sahryń was dropped. Increasing gunfire and news from there tipped the scales. Sahryń was postponed and it was decided to clarify the situation in the eastern theatre of the battle. Ryś" was afraid for his poorly armed men in Zabłocie. They rushed to help.

Stanisław Basaj „Ryś” before batte

Increasing gunfire and news from there tipped the scales. Sahryń was postponed and it was decided to clarify the situation in the eastern theatre of the battle. Ryś" was afraid for his men in Zabłocie, who were poorly armed. They rushed to help. With about 25 partisans on three sledges, armed with 3 erkaemes, we crossed the road, heading for the southern tip of the Szychowicki forest. To the south of the forest, separated by meadows and a ditch and then fields, rising slightly uphill, was the Górki col. There one could hear the dense firing of machine guns and individual rifles. Somewhere there was a fierce battle going on.

The Germans began to retreat to the west, and at the level of the buildings of Szczur's farmhouse to turn south-west, towards Laskowski forest.  The right wing commanded by "Kozak" clashed directly with the Germans. Wounded was "Kozak", partisans were killed, others wounded, seriously and lightly. The "Kozak's" strike smashed the Germans' defence but failed to close the way for them westwards towards Mircz. It only penetrated their section of the defence. And so a group of Germans, located more to the east was surrounded by the left wing of "Rys" from the east and part of the right wing of "Kozak". From there the mentioned group of 50-odd Germans found themselves in the eastern cauldron - between "Szczygiel" from Zabloo from the south-east, between "Rys" from the east and "Koźak" from the east. - from the east and "Kozak" - from the west. The encircled group of Germans was threatened with destruction. Therefore, the only way out of the cauldron was in the direction of Szczur - south-west. Another conclusion is that the manoeuvre group of "Hardy" from the Home Army, did not had not yet managed to close the road for the Germans on the retreating direction (to Szczur), to the Łasków forest

For the time being, the Germans retreating with the Ukrainians from Gorki along the Krylov road to Mircze split into two groups. The first one went along the road to Mircze, and the second one was still fighting with "Kozak", acting as a covering group for the retreating Germans. The first group of retreating Germans to the village of Mircze fought a short and fierce battle with a barrage group of partisans near Brzozowski's mill. This group managed to slipped out of the western cauldron to the north, at an altitude of about 500 metres behind west of the Szychowice forest headland. After retreating to the Mircze meadows, the Germans took up defensive positions over a deep ditch running from west to east. A positional battle began. The partisans attacked and the Germans defended themselves. There were about 20 of them with one machine gun

This was the main danger for the Germans - not a single partisan. So he could finally reach for the German rifle. This game with the Germans was interrupted by an unusual event. It saved the Germans from inevitable death or captivity. For the Germans had apparently run out of ammunition. They fired infrequently, even very infrequently. Then salvation came to them from the south - a lucky lottery ticket, a rare visitor to the battlefields. From the south - a determined attack of an unrecognised enemy, wielding machine guns, came at the partisans from behind from the Malkowski forest. It looked as if the partisans had turned from a hunter into a hare. By encircling the Germans defending themselves in the meadow, they themselves were in turn encircled. Perhaps it was a group of Germans who had organised the survivors from under the Brzozowski mill and now came to the relief of the Germans in the meadow. The partisans of the barrage group gave up fighting the Germans. As one, they picked themselves up from the ground and began to withdraw from the fields and meadow of kol. Mircze to the north - in the direction of Anusin.

Aftermath

After the battle, it turned out that it was not the Germans who attacked the barrage group, but the platoon of "Hardego" (Mieczysław Olszak) platoon. It joined (as we remember) the barrage group in the Wólczański forest. From there it was to carry out an entry manoeuvre to the rear of the Germans, who, after burning down Zabłocie, had moved to the Górki colliery. This manoeuvre, unfortunately, he did not made it in time. This way, he could not block the path of the first German group retreating to Lodz. retreating to Łasków from the eastern cauldron, nor could he block the way for the second group from the western cauldron, from the mill.the western one, from under the Brzozowski mill. To make matters worse, he mistakenly attacked the barrage group, helping a third group of Germans to leave the western cauldron, escaping from the Mircze meadows

Despite the escape of the Germans, the strength of the Home Army and the peasant battalions managed to stop the pacification of the villages , and still inflict heavy losses on the Germans, and the only thing that saved the Germans was the mistaken recognition of the Home Army who mistook their own forces for the Germans.