Defense of the Polish southern border during the Second World War

After such a warm and pleasant acceptance of you by Steemit, I have really great motivation to share the values of my town with you that defended my town during World War 2, which you could see in my first post.

In red, the forts were marked, which were built just before the war, while the gray ones are those whose construction was not completed, only one of the forts did not take part in fighting called wyrwidąb because when the war broke out, its concrete did not harden.

So, let's start and let the history tell its story... The story of 1500 soldiers of the Polish army defending themselves against the 7th division of the Bavarian infantry, which according to sources had 17000 soldiers

And everything began on September 1, 1939 at dawn when the 7th Bavarian Infantry Division under the command of General Brigadier Eugen Otta entered the Soła valley through the Zwardońska Pass.
A powerful blow, together with his sub-unit of the KOP, was vigorously repudiated by Lt. Roman Talarek. Following the order of the superior, under the pressure of the opponent's prevailing forces, he was forced to retreat to the area of Barania Góra.

On September 2, 1939, in the morning hours, another hit of the 7 Infantry Division took place in the Ujsoł, Milówka and Kamesznica area in the Żywiec Beskids and in the area of Istebna and Koniaków in the Silesian Beskid. However, the attack paid the Germans a considerable price, leaving in Ujsoły, Rajcza, Nieledwi and Kamesznica over 50 dead, as well as a lot of combat equipment (mainly armored cars). At. At 11 am, the advance of the 7th Infantry Division troops was detained in Milówce.

The Germans' attack was stopped until September 2 at 11.00. At that time, the Germans pulled up the artillery and began intense shelling of Polish positions on Krzywa and further towards Węgierska Górka and Radziechów. In this way, the German headquarters tried to cut off the way of the soldiers' withdrawal.

September 2 in the afternoon, began the assault on the fortifications located in Węgierska Górka.
From the neighboring hills, the enemy began firing shelters and battles "Berezwecz" with machine guns. The crews were firing from outside the shelters, supported by infantry fire. The Germans advanced steadily under the cover of their own artillery and ckm, pushing Polish troops in the direction of the main defense position. As a result of strong and accurate fire from shelters and from the position of infantry, German troops stopped the frontal attack and went to attacks on the wings under the shelter of hills, houses and woods. From the "Waligóra" shelter, fire was fought on the foreground of our shelters. Getting shelters from the "march" has been thwarted. Unfortunately, this was only a momentary success, at the order of the brigadier, the Polish troops were to retreat towards Oczkow and further to the general direction of Kęty, Andrychów. This order reached the infantry units and the crew of the "Waligóra" shelter, for unknown reasons he did not reach the other shelters. The enemy immediately took advantage of the fact that the shelters were deprived of infantry protection and launched an assault trying to surprise the crew of the "Wędrowca" who went outside during the night. A struggle for grenades, the crew managed to reach the shelter and bolt the door. During the night from 2 to 3 September, the enemy stormed the shelter three more times. The same happened at the "Wąwóz" and "Włóczęga" shelters. In his memoirs Capt. Semik mentions two ckm positions which also did not withdraw and took up the fight.

We located them about 150 m west of the shelter "Wędrowiec" and about 200 m south of "Włóczęgi". According to the memories and accounts of the witnesses, the crews of these positions have died. They were soldiers from the "Berezwecz" battalion. So far, they have not been identified. From the night of 2/3 September, the shelters fought in the lap, and the commander lost the ability to real command of the company. The Germans used assault groups which, after a secretive approach, attacked explosives and grenades with outlets of cannons and ckm, and threw grenade beams through openings into armored towers. It was possible because the commander of the shelters, after the losses suffered, withdrew the soldiers from positions in the space intended for armored towers. At the top of the shelter, "Wędrowiec" fell down, leading a fire from a ckm Sergeant Stanisław Raczyński deputy captain. Semika.

After all-night fighting, having three fallen wounded people in the shelter of "Włóczęga", lieutenant Marian Małkowski, about 8:30 am, he ordered the cessation of the fight. After the damage visible in the photographs it can be concluded that the heaviest fire was directed to the "Włóczęga" shelter and its crew. This is also where the murder was carried out on kpr. Bolesław Wiśniewski after surrender. This murder was carried out by Edmund Strauch, a crew member who turned out to be an active member of the German minority in Poland. He persuaded the soldiers of the shelter to surrender, for which he was arrested by the commander and put under guard of KPR. Wisniewski. After the capitulation, he shot a corporal with a weapon he received from one of the German soldiers.

After the surrender of "Włóczęgi", the entire impetus of the attack focused on the shelter "Wędrowiec". According to the report of Capt. Semika "Wąwóz" shelter ceased fire in the afternoon, due to - as the crew members say - damage to the cannon and ckm. This allowed the Germans to attack the "Wędrowca" freely and to pull the artillery to shoot straight ahead. As a result of gunfire from the west, the anti-tank gun was damaged and injuries were recovered by the Cpt. Semik. In the battle-room with a gun post, Jan Kulpa dies, most of the crew wounds. Around 17 commander after hearing the situation and acknowledging that further resistance due to the depletion of ammunition, lack of hope for help and the situation of the wounded is pointless, he ordered to stop the fight and hang out the white flag. At the shelter of defenseless soldiers leaving the shelter, the times fall and the blows of angry Germans, one of them shoots the first to shoot Jan Flis by killing him on the spot. Remaining from a certain death, he rescues an order issued by a German officer.

As a bonus for your very nice admission to the group of users, I add a a photo from one of the hills with a view of my village

I greet everyone