Balloon, Himmler, ruins. What Grodno looked like during the war and after liberation. Soviet officers believed that they were being shot with “ultra rays. Black day. Grodno sector, northern claw

Grodno region during the Great Patriotic War

On June 22, 1941, the attack of Nazi Germany interrupted the peaceful creative work of the residents of Grodno. Our country has entered into a mortal battle with German fascism. It resolved the question of the continued existence or destruction of our people.

When planning an attack on the USSR, the German command relied on a “lightning war” and counted on a quick and easy victory. But already from the first hours of the war, the Nazi troops encountered heroic resistance from soldiers, many units and units of the border troops and the Red Army, who bravely defended their native land. Many examples of the dedication and perseverance of Soviet soldiers who stood to the death in the path of the enemy were given in defensive battles in June 1941 on the territory of the Grodno region.

These battles were especially fierce in the Grodno region. The enemy hoped to destroy the Soviet troops opposing him here with his first blows and then quickly advance east in the general direction of Lida and Novogrudok.

The first to fight the advancing enemy on the approaches to Grodno were the soldiers of the 86th August Border Detachment (headed by Major G.K. Zdorny). Border guards stood at their borders to the death. The enemy bypassed, surrounded and destroyed the border outposts, but could not force any of them to surrender. For 8 hours, border guards of the 3rd outpost under the command of Lieutenant V.M. repelled enemy attacks. Usov and political instructor A.G. Sharipova. The head of the outpost, V.M., died the death of the brave. Usov. He was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. The 1st (chief, senior lieutenant A.N. Sivachev), the 2nd (chief, junior lieutenant K.F. Vasilyev), the 4th (chief, senior lieutenant F.P. Kirichenko) and other outposts defended heroically.

From the first hours of the war, units of the 68th Grodno fortified region (commandant Colonel N.A. Ivanov), individual units of the 56th Infantry Division (commander Major General S.P. Sakhnov) and rifle and sapper units of other formations also entered the battle who took part in the construction of the fortified area.

Possessing superiority in forces, German troops bypassed and blocked the nodes of resistance of the Red Army and frantically rrushed forward. On June 23 they captured Grodno and Voronovo, June 25 - Oshmyany, Slonim, Smorgon, June 26 - Mosty, Svisloch, Shchuchin, June 27 - Lida, Ostrovets, June 28 - Zelva, Volkovysk, June 29 - Bolshaya Berestovitsa, Dyatlovo, Ivye, July 2 - Novogrudok. By the end of the first decade of the war, the territory of the Grodno region was completely occupied by the Nazi invaders.

Having captured the Grodno region, the Nazis, as elsewhere in the occupied Soviet territory, established a regime of bloody terror, monstrous arbitrariness and robbery. Most of it was included in the general district "Belarus", the western regions became part of the special district "Bialystok", which was under the control of the East Prussian administration, and the northern ones - in the general district "Lithuania". Using an extensive and numerous military-police apparatus of repression and suppression, Hitler's executioners carried out a policy of genocide against our people.

During the three years of occupation, the Nazi monsters killed and tortured 29,332 of our citizens in the Volkovysk region, 25,148 in Lida, 45,065 in Novogrudok, and 42,000 in Slonim. Tens of thousands of people were taken to hard labor in Germany on pain of death.

The partisan detachments launched active combat activities. Through raids on garrisons, administrative bodies and economic facilities of the invaders, sabotage on railways, highways, communication lines, and sudden attacks from ambushes, they inflicted significant damage on the enemy. By the end of 1942, 15 partisan detachments and 4 partisan groups, numbering about two thousand people, were operating here. Some of the detachments were large partisan formations with significant fighting strength. Thus, the 3649th detachment in October 1942 united over 400 partisans, was armed with an armored vehicle, three guns, two heavy and 54 light machine guns, as well as rifles and machine guns.

In July 1944, at the final stage of the Belarusian offensive operation, troops of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Belarusian Fronts brought liberation to the Grodno region in stubborn battles. After crushing defeats in the period from June 23 to July 4 near Vitebsk, Bobruisk, Minsk, the German command tried to restrain the further advance of Soviet troops by stubborn defense of large junctions of railway and highway communications and intermediate lines, for which the river was used. Neman and its tributaries.

The first regional center of the Grodno region to be liberated from the Nazi occupiers was Ostrovets. On July 3, the partisan brigade named after the Central Committee of the Communist Party (b)B (commander N.I. Fedorov) captured the village in battle, defeated the enemy garrison, and held it until the arrival of the Red Army on July 6. On July 4, they captured Smorgon. On July 7, Ivye and Oshmyany were liberated. On July 8, the Red Banner hoisted over Lida, Korelichi and Novogrudok. In honor of the troops who liberated Lida, a salute of 12 salvos from 120 guns sounded in Moscow. Four military units and formations received the honorary name “Lida”. On July 9, the liberation of Slonim was celebrated. On July 10, liberation came to Voronovo. On July 12, the Nazis were driven out of Shchuchin and Zelva. July 13 Bridges. On July 14 at 10:30 a.m., after street fighting, units of the 129th (commanded by Major General I.V. Panchuk), 169th and 5th Rifle Divisions captured Volkovysk. Moscow saluted the troops that liberated Volkovysk with 12 salvos from 124 guns.

On July 16, freedom returned to Grodno and Bolshaya Berestovitsa. Grodno was liberated by the 6th Guards Cavalry Division of the 3rd Guards Cavalry Corps, the 220th, 174th (commander Colonel N.I. Demin) and 352nd (commander Major General N.M. Strizhenko) rifle divisions of the 31st Army, 42nd (commander Colonel A.I. Slits), 95th (commander Colonel S.K. Artemyev) and 290th (commander Major General I.G. Gasparyan) rifle divisions of the 50th Army. In honor of the troops who liberated the city, a salute was given with 20 salvoes from 224 guns. 17 formations and units were awarded the name “Grodno”. Lieutenant I.I., who distinguished himself in the battles for Grodno, the party organizer of the battalion of the 494th Infantry Regiment of the 174th Infantry Division. Dyakov and the commander of the saber squadron of the 23rd Guards Cavalry Regiment of the 6th Guards Cavalry Division, Captain N.T. Ovchinnikov was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. However, on July 16, only the right bank part of the city was liberated. The fighting on the left bank continued until July 24.

In the battles for the liberation of the Grodno region, Soviet soldiers showed high military skill, heroism and courage. Thousands of soldiers and commanders were awarded orders and medals. 40 soldiers were awarded the highest degree of distinction of the Motherland - the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Four times, in honor of the liberation of Lida, Slonim, Volkovysk and Grodno, Moscow saluted the valiant troops of the Belarusian fronts.

More than 50 thousand soldiers, partisans and underground fighters are buried in mass graves in the Grodno region. More than 127 thousand civilians died.

The grateful memory of descendants is not only the immortality of the dead, because the life given in battle is the greatest thing a soldier could do for each of us.

Memory is not only a tribute to the past, but also a support for the present, for one cannot be a citizen and patriot without knowing and honoring the past of one’s people.

Based on materials from V.P. Verkhos, V.A. Nedelko “Grodno region during the Great Patriotic War (1941-1944)”

Part of the photographic materials Tomasz Wiśniewski (www.szukamypolski.com)

The book “First Strike” about the events of June 1941 near Grodno was published. The topic of the disaster in the summer of 1941, when the Soviet defense was virtually swept away by the German offensive, remained taboo in the USSR for a long time. It was not customary to talk directly about the cauldrons, the encirclement, the fate of millions of prisoners responsible for the losses. But today a historian can question the accuracy of the memories of Soviet veterans or use German sources, which allows him to look at the situation differently.

The book “First Strike” by Dmitry Lyutik and Dmitry Kienko tells about the defeat of the 29th Tank Division, which was located in Grodno. It took the Germans a few days to destroy it; soldiers died, were captured, and some went into the forests. All the facts in the book are the result of work with archival sources, memories of participants, search and contact with their relatives.

Belsat talks with military historian Dmitry Lyutik about some interesting points from the book.

Over the course of a week, the division became a mass of people retreating east

Dmitry, it seems that so much has already been written about the war. Why did you decide to take on this job?

Firstly, this is the story of one division, its formation and battles. This direction is popular in Europe: there are even multi-volume works that explore the divisional path. This is a new direction for our historiography; if something was written before, it was only about some famous guardsmen, but not about ordinary ones.

Secondly, the 29th division was stationed in Grodno, because as a Grodno resident this is interesting to me. As a schoolboy, I read about the first battles for Grodno in 1941. However, as it turned out, there are many inaccuracies in the “canonical” versions of those events - our book tries to correct them.

The 29th Division lasted very little time in battle. Was there really enough material for a whole book?

This is a fairly typical fate of divisions at the beginning of the war: some divisions existed for several days, others for several weeks... The 29th existed for a week, on June 26 it was already retreating from Grodno and after that it was difficult to call it a division. These were masses of people who were going east, and not a military formation.

Why did this happen?

The division was quite young: its formation began in March 1941. Secondly, the war in general began catastrophically for the USSR. Ideology prepared soldiers for offensive war, for battles on enemy territory. They were taught that the Red Army was the most powerful in the world... In fact, everything turned out to be wrong.

The troops were not properly trained, there was not enough equipment, there were major shortcomings in the training of officers in defensive battles, it was unknown how to defend with a tank, no one had ever heard of tank ambushes... For this reason, even tank divisions lost to the German infantry, as in the case of the same 29th division.

But in their memoirs about the battles near Grodno in 1941, veterans write that tanks came against them...

In fact, when attacking the USSR, the Germans grouped tanks in the 3rd and 2nd groups of Hoth and Guderian. One went through Brest to Minsk, the other through Lida. The 4th and 9th Infantry Armies, which marched between these groupings, did not have tank troops. There were self-propelled guns and various armored vehicles, but there were no tanks. Soviet soldiers and officers simply did not know about the existence of self-propelled artillery, so any vehicle on tracks with a cannon was a “tank” for them.

Secondly, veterans often exaggerated in their memories. Hence the numbers of 50-60-70 German tanks! These are already entire tank regiments that were not here. In the battles with Studnev’s division, for example, one German artillery battery took part - 6-8 self-propelled guns. This is a psychological justification, so the battle was lost, despite the superiority of the Soviet side. The tanks lost to the infantry! Well, it was not possible to verify this information in Soviet times - there was no way to look for German witnesses.

Still, why did the battle turn out disastrous for the defenders?

The reconnaissance of the 29th division worked very poorly. This did not make it possible to determine which German units, in what numbers, and with what weapons were going on the offensive. Captain Sergeev, who was the assistant chief of the operations department of the division headquarters, writes in his memoirs: “... We still didn’t know who defeated us? Who? Which branch of the army? Was it a real enemy or an unknown force of ultra-rays? "

That is, in the mind of this officer, his people were simply shot, the tanks were burning, the fire was fired from hidden positions, no one knew where to shoot. They were not oriented to the battlefield, so it seemed that a fantastic force with an unknown weapon was fighting against them.

“We’ll put you on the banks of the Neman, give us clubs and let them fight back”

What was the further fate of the division’s fighters after its defeat?

Unfortunately, we don’t even know how many people served there at the start of the war. Nine thousand is an approximate figure. Three thousand of them, a third, did not even have weapons at the start of the fighting... There were not enough weapons in the army warehouses, this issue was raised before the command of the 3rd Army in Grodno. Army commander Kuznetsov responded to this: “We’ll put you on the banks of the Neman, give us clubs and let them fight back.” Colonel Kalanchuk, commander of the 29th division, mentions this. These three thousand were then hastily sent to the rear; nothing is known about their fate...

So how many people do we know anything about?

Thanks to archival documents, we found a thousand names of fighters, that is, every ninth, so we can only talk about them with accuracy. A significant part fell into German captivity, many of them near Minsk. That is, they did not surrender, they retreated through shelling and in inhumane conditions. The same captain Sergeev recalled that they believed that a strong line of defense and new equipment awaited them near Minsk. They didn’t even consider it a retreat, but called it a “retreat to the old border” - that is, the border and 1939. A significant part, of course, joined the partisans, so retreating through the whole of Belarus, and in the fall even through half of Russia, is unlikely. But there are not many of them.

The main issue is people

What “blind spots” still remain in question about the defense of Grodno in 1941?

First of all, these are local battles, there are many secrets here. There is a large study by Dmitry Egorov, “The Defeat of the Western Front,” which describes virtually every day of battles of military formations. But this is a general effort; this is not yet the case for each military unit. The second question, and maybe the first one, is people. After working on the book, I realized how many relatives still do not know about the fate of their loved ones who died or disappeared during the war. Therefore, I would encourage other historians to work on finding out the names of the people who met the war here in 1941.

GRODNO, March 23 – Sputnik, Inna Grishuk. Every year in mid-March, Grodno remembers a dark date in the history of the city. 75 years ago, in German-occupied Grodno, half of the inhabitants—the entire Jewish population—were killed and sent to death camps.

Those years were remembered for brutal murders, bloody massacres and two ghettos in the very heart of Grodno, where Grodno Jews awaited departure to death camps and crematoriums in inhumane conditions.

Half of the inhabitants were Jews

At the time the Germans arrived in Grodno, about 30 thousand Jews lived - half of the total population. Many have heard a lot about German ideology.

“Jews who escaped from occupied Poland in 1939 said that the Germans were creating ghettos to exterminate Jews. They passed through Grodno in large groups and moved east,” says historian Boris Kvyatkovsky, whose father visited the Grodno ghetto, then Auschwitz, and miraculously survived , but lost his first family.

Poorly educated people did not take all this seriously. By the beginning of the war, the Jewish population consisted of women, children, old people and men of non-conscription age who knew little about politics and refused to believe in monstrous things.

“There was no one to explain to people what awaited them with the arrival of the Germans,” says Kwiatkowski.

Young people were taken into the Polish or Soviet army, and the most active people in political parties were killed or sent to prison.

According to him, the majority believed that the Germans were not fighting civilians. This stereotype has remained since the First World War. This belief was reinforced by rumors launched by the Germans at first: perhaps Jews would be sent to work.

Two ghettos

Already in the fall of 1941, two ghettos were created in Grodno, into which all Jews from Grodno and surrounding villages were resettled. Ghetto No. 1 was set up around the synagogue and in the area of modern Bolshaya Troitskaya Street, evicting local Poles and Belarusians from their homes.

Ghetto No. 2 was located in the area of modern Antonova Street near the bus station. Approximately 10 thousand Jews were resettled here, mostly women, children, and all those disabled. They occupied all the basements, shacks, and attics.

“It was a densely populated area. The Germans created such crowded conditions. People lay on the floor, often sat shoulder to shoulder, afraid to turn around so as not to disturb their neighbor’s sleep,” the interlocutor quotes the recollections of eyewitnesses.

They said that the disease never broke out. Local doctors did everything possible to provide health education and help those who were sick.

"I couldn't admit that I was a brother"

A number of people recalled that schools were open and there was a library. A number of enterprises producing soap, starch, and syrup arose. There were sewing and shoe workshops, in which, by order of the Germans, clothes and shoes were repaired for the needs of the Wehrmacht.

The Jews soon surrounded both ghettos with a two-meter fence and barbed wire.

Boris Maksovich recalls that during the construction of such a fence, the Germans shot his uncle without trial in front of his father.

My father and uncle were digging holes to install fence posts. The guard constantly bullied my uncle, called him names, and covered the hard-dug soil with his boot. The uncle could not stand it and crushed the German’s skull with a shovel. He was shot on the spot.

“My father couldn’t do anything. Moreover, to admit that it was his brother - they could have been shot for that too. With great difficulty, he only asked for permission to bury the body,” says Kvyatkovsky.

The interlocutor recalls that his father was sent to Auschwitz on one of the last trains and miraculously survived, ending up in a hospital. In peacetime, the man spoke little about that period. Boris Maksovich himself still has not decided to go to Auschwitz - it is too difficult emotionally.

Death for the Bukhara carpet

In those days, killing Jews was considered something commonplace. Actions of intimidation were constantly taking place so that people would not even have the thought of resistance. A Jew could be shot right on the street just because he looked at a German soldier or officer the wrong way.

“Many were so shocked that someone was beaten half to death or killed that they simply lost their will, even strong men,” says Kwiatkowski.

For example, during the operation of the ghetto, the ghetto commandant Wiese demanded that the Jews give him a Bukharan carpet that they allegedly had.

A rabbi, teachers, doctors and other authoritative people were taken hostage. They threatened to shoot them. The Jews did not find the carpet; someone said that the Catholic ministers in the city had such a carpet.

“It was possible to go beyond the barbed wire that surrounded the ghetto. The question is where? The occupiers hung notices on all the posts with the text of the decree, according to which it was forbidden to help Jews - clothing, food and other support. The only punishment was death,” - says Kwiatkowski.

But life forced people to go beyond the wire - in search of food, medicine, which was smuggled into the ghetto. If the Germans discovered it, then death awaited the offender.

"Raspberries" and death trains

At the end of 1942, an operation to liquidate both ghettos began. Kvyatkovsky clarifies that there were no major actions to exterminate Jews in Grodno.

“Because they didn’t want to spoil these lands - they had to become part of East Prussia,” the interlocutor explains.

Several thousand prisoners were herded into freight cars and sent to camps. They were on the road for about three days, no one gave them food or water.

The Grodno Synagogue, which now houses the Museum of the History of the Grodno Ghetto, was a gathering point for Jews. From here they were led in large columns to the “death trains” that took them to Auschwitz and Treblinka. Usually people did not return from there.

Many prisoners, realizing this, hid from the Germans and built hiding places - the so-called “raspberries”. But most of them were found or caught in the city. The fugitives were shot on the spot; explosive bullets were often used, which mutilated the bodies beyond recognition. Usually, after such massacres, dozens of bodies of ghetto prisoners lay for days on the streets of Grodno in snow red with blood.

Ice suit

Few managed to escape; none of them have survived to this day. People managed to escape or jump out of a moving train, and then avoid running into the Germans or the local population. There were cases when ordinary people handed over a Jew to the Nazis in exchange for sugar or other products.

Grodno resident Grigory Khosid jumped out of the carriage that was traveling to Treblinka. A 17-year-old boy made his way through snow-covered fields and forests for a long time to reach the Belsky partisan detachment in the Novogrudok region.

Once he almost died: Polish youth saw Hoshida and pushed him into an ice-free river. They wanted to finish him off, but decided that he would die on his own. An hour later, the clothes turned into an ice suit, but the guy forced himself to run for a long time so as not to freeze. Good physical training and the habit of hardening himself and swimming in cold water, which he had been instilled in since childhood, helped him out.

500 days in the basement

The most famous in Grodno is the story of the rescue of 15-year-old Felix Zandman, who later became a world-famous scientist and engineer.

“The boy dreamed of getting rid of what was happening. But he could not find help in his father, who was broken by the horrors of the ghetto. His maternal uncle turned out to be such a support,” explains Kwiatkowski.

When the column of Jews was being led to board the carriages, Felix and his uncle managed to escape. They reached a house in the village of Lososno. There lived the Puchalski family, which, having five children, was already hiding three Jews in the basement.

The hostess said: “God himself sent you to us. We know how hard it is in the ghetto.”

Over the course of a few nights, the family expanded and deepened the basement. Only one person could lie there. The rest were squatting. They couldn't wash themselves for several months. Only on the darkest nights did they go out to get some fresh air.

The hardest thing was to feed them. Pukhalskaya explained to her neighbors that she was bargaining, which is why she bought so many products from them.

At the March of Remembrance, they remembered the “Righteous Among the Nations” - people, such as the Puchalski family, who, under threat of death, helped Jews fleeing the ghetto and hid them.

There was a case when the fugitives almost died. The Germans went around all the houses with a dog, checking whether there were hidden people - in the underground, behind a double wall. The girl took the tobacco cut up and drying on the newspaper and, as if by accident, tripped and spilled it onto the rug lying on the basement hatch. The dog lost its sense of smell and did not bark.

Now in Grodno every year there is a “March of Remembrance”, during which all victims of the Holocaust are remembered, as well as the dead inhabitants of the Grodno ghetto. On Zamkova Street, at the entrance to ghetto No. 1, a memorial plaque was installed in memory of the 29 thousand Jews who died in the ghetto.

Author: artem_ablozhei
Original recording

Until Saturday, June 21, 1941, everything was calm and quiet in the city. The city's residents lived the same way as before. Sometimes there were groups of people who discussed something among themselves quietly (secretly).
On Saturday, June 21, 1941, in the evening, I went to Ozheshko Park - this is not far from the apartment where I lived in the owner’s house on Studencheskaya Street. I went down the stairs to the church - the church was open, but there were no people in it. And there was dead silence in the city; there were no people on the streets, which were noisy as always at this time. Not a single person. A military man was running in the park.
I came to my room, where I lived with another girl, and I told her:
- Very strange situation - dead silence. It’s even kind of depressing.”
She said that these were preparations for maneuvers - military exercises. We went to bed.
At three o'clock in the morning we woke up from the explosion of bombs - they bombed the station (it's not far from our street). We ran out of the house. There is panic in the city, everyone is shouting that this is war, that it was Hitler who started the war with the USSR at three o’clock in the morning.
On this day, trains were still running, but because of my instructions, I could not escape the war, and the house where the military registration and enlistment office was located was on fire. We stayed overnight in Grodno. The bombing is over. People began to loot stores. There is confusion in the city, no one is doing anything with the people - anarchy.
(From the memoirs of a Grodno resident) http://zhistory.org.ua/grodno41.htm
***

Grodno residents experienced the full horror of the war against Nazism in its very first days. In the first hours of the war, the city was attacked from land and air. On June 22 and 23, 1941, tens of tons of German bombs fell on Grodno. On June 23, the city was occupied by the Germans. The city was burning. The building of the Grodno market burned down for two days. It was then that the Radziwill Palace and the ancient stone buildings of the 17th - 19th centuries surrounding the square were destroyed. The Zaneman suburb burned down. Several bombs also hit buildings on Sovetskaya Street. The central part of the city was destroyed. The tragedy of the burned Grodno neighborhoods was only a harbinger of the tragedy of the city's population. The Germans drove prisoners of the Grodno ghetto to dismantle the ruins of buildings on Sovetskaya Square during 1941 - 1943.
***
The 8th Army Corps, which included three German infantry divisions, after the attack on the city wanted to quickly move in the direction of Novogrudok, but due to the resistance of the border guards of the 86 August Detachment, the Germans were delayed.
***
By the evening of June 22, under enemy attacks, the 56th Infantry Division began to retreat. It became pointless to hold the city, which was gradually finding itself behind enemy lines, especially since the threat of capturing the crossings in the Mostov and Lunno area loomed. The retreat of units of the 85th division began. The units left in the direction of the Svisloch River. To delay the enemy as much as possible, it was ordered to blow up bridges and warehouses in the southern and northern parts of the city. On June 23, at 0:30 a.m., a series of explosions followed on the Neman River and warehouses. The city seemed to jump. A huge flame engulfed its southwestern part. Here’s how the commander of the engineer platoon of the 103rd Infantry Regiment, junior lieutenant V.A. Ivanov, spoke about it: “When it got dark, very strong explosions occurred on the Neman River. They were so powerful, although distant from us, that those who were standing were knocked to the ground. At that moment I was kneeling in a roadside ditch. We were 5-6 km from the explosion site.”
Soviet troops retreated from the Grodno region on the night of June 27.

Sources:
"Grodnaznaustva, history of the European city." Garadzenskaya bibliateka 2012, pp. 260,263.
Garadzen history. Part V. Rankam 22 cherven http://www.harodnia.com/a239.php
Dmitry Kienko. The battles for Grodno in June 1941 (according to the recollections of participants) http://uctopuk.info/875/3kie.htm

City center.

German soldiers are being interviewed; a radio station is visible on the car.

Germans in the city

A German soldier looks through binoculars at Grodno.

The Germans are near the drilled houses.

Spanish soldiers enter Grodno.

Dmitry Kienko

The border position of Grodno determined the presence of permanent garrisons in it. Units of the Soviet 3rd Army under the command of Lieutenant General Vasily Ivanovich Kuznetsov were stationed in the city and its surroundings. The army included units of the 4th Rifle Corps (27, 56, 85 rifle divisions), the 11th Mechanized Corps (29, 33 tank divisions and 204 motorized rifle divisions), the 68th Grodno fortified region (9 and 10 separate artillery- machine gun battalions), 11th mixed air division, 6th anti-tank artillery brigade. The border in the army zone was covered by outposts of the 86th August Border Detachment. The task of the army was the following - to cover the Lida, Grodno and Bialystok directions with a strong defense of the Grodno fortified area and field fortifications.

For many Grodno units, the signal about the beginning of the war was not the orders of the command, but the howl of Junkers dive planes and bomb explosions on the territory of the units. Due to the lack of communications, troop control was carried out only through communications delegates, so the quality of this control was corresponding. The army headquarters had no contact with the front during e two days.

The 85th Rifle Division arrived in Grodno a month before the war and was located in the Soly camp. Two weeks before the start of the war, an order was received from the army commander to allocate a battalion for the construction of the 68th fortified area, i.e. e . There were 2 battalions left in the regiment. The division headquarters was located, according to the recollections of its commander Alexander Vasilyevich Bondovsky, at Ozheshko, 22.

In Grodno there were military facilities that were of great strategic importance: the headquarters of the 3rd Army, the headquarters of the 4th Rifle Corps, the division headquarters, fuel, ammunition and explosives depots, railway and city bridges across the Neman. 3–4 km west and south of the city were the Folush and Soly camps, as well as barracks at the Grodno station.

The sudden appearance of bombers and intense bombing of the station and headquarters caused panic among the population. One of the bombs hit the barracks - even before the order for the unit to leave the city, the first dead and wounded appeared. Participants in the battles noted that the Germans did not bomb the warehouses, apparently Knowing about the large reserves, they wanted to leave them safe. The anti-aircraft gunners performed excellently - the division under the command of Captain Gombolevsky shot down 5 enemy aircraft in their sector on the first day. His pre-war training had an effect, in which the captain ordered a drill to be declared when even Soviet aircraft were detected in the camp area.

The 141st and 103rd rifle regiments took up defensive positions in the Lososna-Kolbasino sector, and in the evening the downed pilot was delivered to the division control point. It turned out to be Major Lehmann, who behaved very defiantly and was interested in how far the German units had advanced. He said that at one time he graduated from a flight school in Engels. During the search, it was discovered that under the flight uniform there was a civilian suit.

By the evening of June 22, under enemy attacks, the 56th Infantry Division began to retreat. It became pointless to hold the city, which was gradually finding itself behind enemy lines, especially since the threat of capturing the crossings in the Mostov and Lunno area loomed. The retreat of units of the 85th division began. The units left in the direction of the Svisloch River. To delay the enemy as much as possible, it was ordered to blow up bridges and warehouses in the southern and northern parts of the city. June 23 at 0Hours and 30 minutes were followed by a series of explosions on the Neman River and warehouses. The city seemed to jump. A huge flame engulfed its southwestern part. Here’s how the commander of the engineer platoon of the 103rd Infantry Regiment, junior lieutenant V.A. Ivanov, spoke about it: “When it got dark, very strong explosions occurred on the Neman River. They were so powerful, although distant from us, that those who were standing were knocked to the ground. At that moment I was kneeling in a roadside ditch. We were 5-6 km from the explosion site.”

The retreating troops on the Grodno-Svisloch road saw a depressing picture: the road was lined with damaged vehicles of the automobile battalion. Successfully and without losses, a camp bakery left Grodno and, settling down in a ravine, started smoking in the ovens and began baking bread. Considering himself safe in the ravine, the commander did not pay attention to good landmarks in the form of a factory chimney to the right and a grove on the river bank. A few hours later, soldiers leaving Grodno observed traces of a brutal bombing at the location of the bakery.

Thus, on the second day of the war the division suffered heavy losses. A difficult situation has arisen with all types of supplies. On June 23, neither tanks nor Nazi infantry appeared in front of the division's positions, but Luftwaffe attack aircraft hovered over them around the clock. According to A.V. Bondovsky, judging by the intensity of the bombing, one could assume that the Germans knew who and what they were bombing.

On the evening of June 23, the division received an order to counterattack Grodno. The task was complicated by the fact that there were large expanses of open area around the city and only the city itself had a small forest area. And the road was mostly profiled and there was no way to get off it and take cover in case of an attack on the march.

The movement towards Grodno began at 9.30 on June 24. When approaching height 175.5, near the village of Kolpaki, the command was given to move the quadruple installation of Maxim machine guns to the head of the column. Soon after this, a German Junkers appeared from the direction of Lunno, passed at an altitude of 300-400 meters and, having received a turn in the cabin area, sat down in front of the marching outpost. Major Zavarin rode towards the landing of the plane and, returning with the crew’s documents and weapons, reported that both pilots were killed, the shooter received a fatal wound to the head, and the pilot, while transporting his body to the airfield, received a mortal wound from an anti-aircraft gun. But he was able to land the plane and signal the landing. A few minutes later, nine attack aircraft appeared from the direction of Grodno, later they were replaced by Me-109 fighters, then again by Junkers. This went on for nine and a half hours, from 13.00 to 22.30. Storm O bombings were replaced by bombings and vice versa. And if people managed to somehow get out of the way, then the guns, cars and horses were very badly damaged. The columns were pressed to the ground and before darkness were unable to fulfill the commander’s order to reach the Koshevniki-Gibulici line.

For further advancement, it was necessary to find out if there was an enemy in the Neman Valley, because. on the right side there were no sounds of battle. To solve this problem, from the fighters V and a combined mounted reconnaissance detachment was formed. And at 4 o’clock on June 25, Major Danilyuk reported an emergency. At the time when the detachment was formed by the group commander, senior lieutenant Bezmaternykh, the deputy head of the special department, senior lieutenant Zhrakov, appeared in front of the formation and, unexpectedly for everyone, killed Bezmaternykh. This was followed by confusion, and then a shot was fired, with which one of the fighters killed Zhrakov himself at point-blank range.

Meanwhile, the units reached the city limits. A participant in the battle on June 25, Lieutenant A.G. Goncharov, recalled the tragic death of a unit north of the Soly camp: “German tanks pressed the withdrawing unit to the Neman River near a destroyed bridge and forced it to swim across. Only a few crossed the river. Perhaps these were units from the 29th Panzer Division.”

The offensive continued until 10 p.m., with units holding scatteredly to the outskirts of the city. At this time, regiment commander Karavashkin reported: “At the cost of heavy losses, the regiment completed the offensive by nightfall, capturing the shooting range and redoubts of the old fortress.” However, lacking the support of other units and, most importantly, aviation, General Bondovsky ordered a retreat to the line of the Svisloch River. At night, within 2–3 hours, a throw of 12–15 km was made.

When the division retreated for the second time to the Svisloch River, the units occupied their former defensive areas. After this, the bridge on the river was destroyed. In the evening, as darkness fell, the Germans appeared on the opposite bank. Having discovered the destroyed bridge, they freely positioned themselves without guards, not suspecting that 100 m from them, along the edge of the grove, behind a brick wall, was the front line of defense. Thanks to the wall, the fighters got as close as possible to the enemy and attacked. During the battle, an order was received to withdraw to the river line. Russia.