Always and everywhere

Down the years remember this:

Tragedy came in 1941

And victory only in 1945.

Konstantin Vanshenkin

THE FIRST HOURS OF THE WAR

June 22, 1941. The darkness of the night was fading. It was about four o'clock in the morning

when frontier guards noticed many multi-colored lights in the sky, moving quickly from the west.

Soon they covered the entire horizon. Then the hum of motors could be heard. Hundreds of

planes were crossing the border with their running lights on. Black crosses could be seen on their

wings and fuselages. Artillery began to pound away simultaneously from the other side of the

river. A moment later the earth shook from exploding shells and bombs. The border areas were

engulfed in smoke and dust and fires started in many spots.

This was the initial stage of the Barbarossa Plan, approved by the nazi High Command in

December, 1940. According to this plan, three large military groupings were massed along the

Soviet border - 190 enemy divisions with solid military experience, numbering five and a half

million officers and men, roughly 4,300 panzers, about 5,000 planes and over 47,000 guns and

mortars. The numerical balance of forces in the first echelons which began to fight on June 22,

was in favor of the enemy, and in many sectors, including that of Brest, the enemy was

numerically 3-4 times stronger than the Soviet forces. In the focus of the main thrusts, where the

Wehrmacht had created large, compact, fighting groups, the nazi troops had even greater

numerical superiority.

The largest grouping, the Army Group Center, composed of two armies and two panzer groups,

was assigned to attack in the central sector of the front. Its total force was composed of more

than 50 divisions. This group had air cover provided by the 2nd Luftwaffe Division (more than

1,600 planes). The Brest sector was attacked by the 4th Army under the command of Field

Marshal Kluge and the 2nd Panzer Group led by General Heinz Guderian. Units of the 4th Army

covering 150 kilometers of the border stood firm against the nazi divisions in the Brest Sector.

The enemy forces outnumbered Soviet forces 3 times over in this area. Brest and its fortress

were located along the line of the main thrust by the Army Group Center.

Brest and its fortress were meant to be taken by the 12th Army Infantry Corps. The 45th Division,

formed in Hitler's hometown Braunau in the mountains of Upper Austria, occupied the very center

of the attack. This division was trained to be unwaveringly loyal to the Fuhrer and to believe in the

unquestionable importance of his mission. The 45th Division had been active in the occupation of

Poland and France. Now it undertook the storming of the Brest Fortress, for which it was

equipped with 12 batteries of artillery, 9 batteries of the 4th Specialized Chemical Regiment,

several powerful 550-600-millimetre Tor guns capable of shooting high explosive and bunker-

bursting shells weighing 1,250-2,200 kilograms. Five hundred guns capable of firing 4,000 shells

per minute were aimed at the fortress. Massive air coverage was provided for the 45th Division.

One participant in the storming of the Brest Fortress, a chaplain in the 45^th Division, Rudolf

Gschopf, wrote many years afterwards: "At 3:15 a.m. sharp (4:15 a.m. Moscow Time) a hurricane

began, which blew over our heads with such force that we had never experienced before, nor

during the rest of the war... This gigantic concentration of firepower literally shook the earth." Four

thousand shells and mines per minute were fired into the four-square-kilometers fortress.

According to the nazi High Command's plan, the 45th Division was to capture the fortress within a

few hours and then continue the offensive.

Who was in the fortress when this fearful blow was struck? In the months before the war began,

the garrison in the fortress numbered about 14,000 officers and men. At the end of June,

however, many units were engaged in defensive construction works or were in training camps.

On the night before the attack, there were 7,000-8,000 men from various units including the

personnel of the garrison hospital and medical unit. Moreover, the families, wives and children of

the servicemen were inside the fortress.

According to a secret order for the war-time, the troops had to leave the fortress and join their

units, scatted in the outskirts of Brest. In the first few hours of the war, before the fortress was

encircled, approximately half of the garrison managed to leave the fortress. Nearly 3,500-4,000

officers and men thus remained inside the fortress.

Five to ten minutes before the beginning of the artillery fire, German assault units captured the

bridges across the Bug River, which units of the 12^th Army Corps then crossed, heading for Brest.

A massive column of enemy panzers moved northwards and southwards of Brest, bypassing the

city as they headed eastwards.

The enemy hastened to exploit the advantages of their unexpected attack. The guns continued to

pound away while the advance assault detachments of submachine-gunners tried to force the

Bug on pontoons and rubber dinghies, hoping to capture the fortress in one energetic thrust. The

nazis' attempt to take the fortress in one fell swoop failed, however.

"We thought everything inside the fortress had been turned into a pile of rubble," Rudolf Gschopf

wrote in his memoirs. "We were proved wrong. The Russian soldiers were awakened from their

sleep by our attack, but they recovered very quickly, grouped themselves, and began a

desperate, stubborn, and organized defense."

The Brest Fortress proved to be the major point of resistance for the enemy on the

western frontier. It occupied a fairly large area. Its external boundary extended 6.4

kilometers along the outside. The western part was occupied by the Terespol Fortification

on the other side of the bridge. The Bug River flowed between the Citadel and this

fortification. The Volhyn Fortification, divided from the Citadel by the left branch of the

Mukhavets, occupied the southern part of the fortress. The Kobrin Fortification, divided

from the Citadel by the right branch of the Mukhavets, protected its north and east sides.

The Citadel itself was located on an island encircled by the Bug on the west and by the

Mukhavets on the south, east, and north.

THE VOLHYN FORTIFICATION

The Volhyn Fortification is situated beyond the calm waters of the left branch of the Mukhavets. A

bridge leads to the fortification - an exact copy of the bridge destroyed in the early hours of the

war. The ruins of the burned-out army hospital attests to the tragedy which took place here on the

morning of June 22, 1941. The fragments of casemates, overgrown with grass and foliage, look

calm and peaceful today.

The grounds of the Volhyn Fortification, which the enemy troops tried to capture in the first

hours of the war, contained border-guard details, a regimental school (whose cadets were out on

exercises), a large military hospital, and a medical unit. At the beginning of the war, the military

hospital was in the process of being moved. A large portion of the patients and medical personnel

had fortunately already been moved out. It was fortunate, because the first enemy shells and

bombs fell on the hospital buildings. The most seriously ill patients were killed, while those who

could move hid in the casemates of the earthworks, and many even took up arms to beat off the

attack. The hospital defense was organized by Commissar Nikolai Bogateyev and Dr. Stepan

Babkin. The doctors, nurses, orderlies, and patients also took up weapons, but naturally could not

withstand the crack infantry troops for long. The assault forces penetrated the hospital grounds.

By noon on June 22 the nazi troops had captured most of the buildings on the hospital grounds.

They then killed the remaining patients and wounded officers and men.

Fighting continued on the fortification grounds. The defense that was smounted at the South

Gates and on the outer earthworks was especially fierce. Nurses treated the patients and

wounded men who had hidden in the casemates. One nurse, Praskovya Tkacheva, recorded the

names and addresses of those who were there that day, on her trade-union membership card.

This document survived the war. It records that a nineteen-year-old nurse, Vera Khoretskaya,

died while shielding a wounded soldier as the enemy infantry closed in.

The nazi troops captured the main body of the Volhyn Fortification only towards the end of the

third day. Only eighteen of its defenders remained alive.

THE TERESPOL FORTIFICATION

The rubble of bricks and shattered, broken walls are all that remains today in many spots of the

Brest Fortress, including the Terespol Fortification. They are a living testimony to the fierce

fighting.

Immediately after the beginning of the military offensive, the assault troops succeeded in entering

the Terespol Fortification, which protected the Citadel on the west. Three hundred Soviet officers

and men were inside: frontier-guards, students at the army drivers' school, a transport company,

an engineer platoon, cavalry officers doing their summer training here and athletes. Although this

diverse group was unprepared to beat off an enemy surprise attack, within several hours it

managed to drive out the enemy troops from most of the fortification. Two border-guard officers,

Fyodor Melnikov and Akim Cherny, led the organization of the defense.

The defenders were too few in number, however, and they did not have sufficient ammunition and

provisions. They therefore fought their way through first - on the night of June 24 - to the Kobrin

Fortification, and then - on June 30 - to the Citadel.

The steadfastness of one defender of the Terespol Fortification is illustrated in these words:

"During our breakthrough, we found a border-guard with a light machine-gun in the bushes.

There were a great many spent cartridge cases on the ground around him, along with reserve

disks for his machine-gun, and there were dozens of dead Nazis lying nearby. This was

apparently one of the border posts. War had found him here and he remained at his post all these

days carrying on an unequal battle with the enemy. He looked terrible: his eyes were bloodshot,

his face was gray and pinched, and his bony hands clutched the machine-gun grip. He had

obviously not eaten or slept for several days. He seemed to be unconscious. Suddenly he raised

his head and looked at us. We suggested that he should join us, but he parted his cracked lips

with difficulty and said firmly: "I will never leave this spot."

Only fifteen men remained alive out of the three hundred who defended the Terespol Fortification.

The enemy suffered heavy losses, too, however. Another excerpt from Rudolph Gschopf's

memoirs reads: "Our losses, both officers and men, were soon very high... Soviet soldiers hidden

in the bushes on the West Island effectively stopped our troops." According to Gschopf, the

headquarters of the 3rd Battalion of the 135th Infantry Regiment and the 1st Battalion of the 99th

Artillery Regiment of the German army were encircled and destroyed on the first day of the war,

and the officers of these units were killed.

THE KOBRIN FORTIFICATION

Before us we see the earthwork of the Kobrin Fortification covered with grass. Part of the

embankment is occupied by a powerful cement structure. In the middle stands a gigantic five-

pointed star - the symbol of the Soviet Army. The cement structure is pierced by rays which serve

as the main entrance to the Brest Fortress.

The Battles at the Eastern Earthworks. The Citadel was protected on the north and east by the

Kobrin Fortification, the largest in area. Up to 1,000 officers and men from various units took part

in its defense. Of course, the defense of the fortification was not organized along the entire line.

There were not enough troops for that. Three pockets of resistance were therefore formed where

the defenders had to act independently.

Memories of the battles for the Kobrin Fortification are still alive. The eastern earthworks where

the cement block with the star - the main entrance to the fortress - is located is itself a witness to

the battles.

A bronze memorial plaque hangs inside the fortress' main entrance showing a page from a

calendar with broken lines running diagonally across it and the words, "July 5, 1941. Artillery

soldiers held the eastern earthworks". There are many memorial plaques of this type throughout

the fortress.

On the eve of the war this spot was occupied by the 98th Independent Anti-Tank Artillery

Battalion. When fighting began, the battalion's soldiers began to force their way out under

fire towards the main fighting area. As they approached the Eastern Gate, they entered

into battle with enemy tanks. Many of the tanks burned when hit by shells, and their

burned-out carcasses obstructed the route taken by the main body of the Soviet artillery

battalion. The soldiers were forced to take up defensive position on the Eastern

Earthworks. Lieutenant Ivan Akimochkin, the battalion's chief of staff and Senior Political

Instructor Nikolai Nesterchuk, took charge of the defense.

The artillery soldiers fought off all attacks in difficult skirmishes along the entire line of defense

until nightfall. Their supply of shells was running out, however. An ammunition supply depot was

nearby - only a few dozen meters away - but it was impossible to reach because of a solid wall of

mortar fire. Despite the risks incurred, the drivers of the still intact towing vehicles succeeded in

making several runs to the depot and brought hundreds of shells back to the fighting positions.

The days passed and the artillery units, who had occupied an all-round defense position, stopped

and burned enemy tanks and eliminated all infantry attacks. In one of the battles, a gun crew

commanded by Vasily Volokitin dispersed an enemy infantry column. When tanks appeared,

Volokitin set the leading tank on fire, but they continued to advance. The entire gun crew died in

this unequal battle.

The artillery soldiers beat off enemy attacks from the direction of the Moscow Highway and the

Volhyn Fortification in their position at the crest of the earthworks, which is still well-preserved

today. Panzers advanced on the embankment from several sides and enemy submachine-

gunners approached on foot. From up on top of the crest bursts of machine-gun fire and solitary

shell-bursts rang out. Grigory Derevyanko, the assistant political officer, met the enemy assault

units with machine-gun fire. He and his comrades dug a gun emplacement on the earthwork and

forced enemy troops back for several days.

The battalion held on steadfastly, but their situation was becoming markedly worse. Their lack of

adequate ammunition and food supplies was obvious, the soldiers had no water, and the

wounded needed medical attention. Nikolai Nesterchuk was wounded by an enemy grenade

during one of the attacks.

A small red flag was unfurled above the casemate near the Eastern Gate. It was struck down by

shells and machine-gun fire, yet each time the soldiers raised it again.

A chain of casemates guarding the Eastern Earthworks leads off to the right of the main entrance.

On July 4, the thirteenth day of the defense, the surviving soldiers headed by Akimochkin hid

inside these semicircular structures with brick walls. Many guns were damaged, the shell supply

had been exhausted, and there were very few cartridges left, yet the soldiers continued to fight.

The casemates are badly mutilated by fire. The intense heat caused their vaults to melt, forming

suspended drops of melted brick on their ceilings. The casemates might have been burning for

many days, or maybe the flamethrowers literally had burnt out the fortress' defenders.

After repeated, attacks, the nazis succeeded in breaking into the casemates. After hand-to-hand

combat, they captured Ivan Akimochkin, who was wounded and shell-shocked. Lieutenant

Akimochkin was executed.

The Defense of the East Fort. If we go further along the Eastern Earthworks, we will arrive at the

East Fort. It is surrounded by a horseshoe earthwork and the fort itself is below ground level: it

has a courtyard and a two-storey high brick wall with casemates hidden in the ground behind it. It

is a solid, powerful structure. The fighting over forty years ago is attested to by the breaches in

the walls, the badly damaged gun-slits, the shattered window openings, and the soot still

remaining from fires.

This was the largest defense sector of the Kobrin Fortification. Major Pyotr Gavrilov, the

experienced and energetic commander of the 44th Rifle Regiment, took over command of this

section.

Awakened by the first explosions early in the morning of June 22, Gavrilov dressed quickly, said

goodbye to his wife and son, and ran to the Citadel where his regimental headquarters was

located. Collecting several dozen soldiers, Gavrilov headed toward the fortress' North Gate in

order to take up position in the defensive line. The exit through the gate proved to be closed off,

however, and so Gavrilov then organized a defense sector by the North Gate on the fortress

earthwork. Other soldiers already fighting here joined his own men. Gavrilov's group kept up an

exchange of fire with the submachine-gunners in their established positions until June 24, then

retreated to the East Fort. The soldiers fighting by the North Gate were joined by anti-aircraft

gunners, transport soldiers, and soldiers from other units quartered inside the fortress before the

outbreak of the war. In addition to the rifles already possessed by the assorted group, the soldiers

now had several 45-millimetre anti-tank cannons, two anti-aircraft guns, and a quadruple-

mounted anti-aircraft machine-gun.

As soon as the soldiers took up their positions in the fort, Major Gavrilov elaborated a defense for

this vital spot. He organized the officers and men of the various units into a mighty fighting body

and appointed commanding officers of the fort. Companies were formed, defense areas were

defined, telephone links were established, reconnaissance was organized, and a medical unit

was set up where officers' wives and children who had made their way to the fort were assisting

the nurses. In the initial stage of the defense, the number of defenders in the fort was about 400

people, including women and children.

The same situation could be found in many sections of the fortress. The surprise attack had

dispersed soldiers from various units and thrown them together in a haphazard fashion. The units

themselves had been thinned out because many officers and men were killed in the first few days

of the fighting. The remaining officers tried to transform the remaining soldiers into a monolithic

force, to supply them with arms, to protect them, and to make use of the forces at their disposal in

a rational fashion. There was simply no time for the soldiers or officers to search for their own

battalions, companies, or platoons. They all had to unite to rebuff the massive onslaught of the

enemy.

Gavrilov's group spent their first day in the fort defending their positions and beating off enemy

attacks. Artillery units also took part in the battles. Anti-aircraft gunners drove back the enemy

tanks that tried to penetrate the fortress grounds through the North Gate, with their weapons. The

situation became worse on the second day. The fort was surrounded and the enemy began a

siege.

That night Senior Lieutenant Sergei Shramko and a group of soldiers mined the approaches to

the fort. Shramko and Private Ivan Zedginidze were killed on the way back to the fort. The mines

they had planted worked successfully. When panzers attacked the fort, several were badly

damaged by the mines. Volunteers holding bundles of grenades went out against the tanks, and

the tank assault was driven back.

Then the enemy intensified bombing of the little earthen horseshoe earthwork with the handful of

Soviet soldiers inside. The anti-aircraft gunners shot down an enemy airplane and continued to

beat off the panzer attacks. Each day the artillery fire increased and the bombings became more

merciless. From time to time enemy submachine-gunners reached the crest of the earthwork and

lobbed grenades into the horseshoe-shaped yard.

The commander of the nazi 45th Infantry Division wrote in his reports: "It was impossible to

advance here with only infantry at our disposal because the highly-organised rifle and machine-

gun fire from the deep gun emplacements and horseshoe-shaped yard cut down anyone who

approached. There was only one solution - to force the Russians to capitulate through hunger

and thirst. We were ready to use any means available to exhaust them... Our offers to give

themselves up were unsuccessful...

"June 28. The tanks and assault weapons continued their fire on the East Fort, but with little

success.

"Shelling from the 88-millimetre anti-aircraft gun also produced no results.

"June 29. From 8 a.m. on our planes dropped a great many five-hundred-kilogram bombs, but

also without results. Renewed artillery fire on the East Fort from tanks and assault weapons

proved just as ineffectual."

The defenders of the East Fort were given an ultimatum - to lay down their arms and hand

over their commanding officers. They were given one hour to make up their minds. If they did not

consent, the nazi command threatened to wipe the fortification and its garrison from the face of

the earth. An open Party meeting, the third and last in the East Fort, was called during this brief

hour. In explaining the situation to the soldiers, Pyotr Gavrilov said they could no longer count on

outside help and that the enemy had promised not to kill them if they ceased fighting. The

soldiers unanimously resolved to fight to their last bullet and to the last man.

When the hour passed, enormous explosions rocked the fort as a merciless assault began.

The commanding officer of the German 45th Infantry Division wrote: "June 30. The assault was

readied with petrol, oil, and grease. All this was rolled into the fort's trenches in barrels and

bottles, which we expected to burn with grenades and incendiary bullets."

The casemates caught fire from the unabated artillery barrage and the solid brick vaults

collapsed. An ammunition storage area exploded when hit by a heavy bomb and part of the fort

was turned into rubble. Enemy machine-gunners broke through to the external embankment and

then to the central yard of the horseshoe. Desperate hand-to-hand skirmishes began. At this

critical moment. Junior Sergeant Rodion Semenyuk and two soldiers buried the standard of the

393rd Anti-Aircraft Artillery Battalion in one of the casemates on the fort's west side. Fifteen years

later, Semenyuk returned to Brest, found the spot, and dug the standard up. Today we can see

the site.

Another casemate that we can view today served as a refuge for Gavrilov and two soldiers

when the garrison's resistance had been broken and the enemy occupied the fort. This refuge

was a deep burrow leading out of the casemate into the earthwork.

Gavrilov and the soldiers spent several days in this hole,

then decided to break through the enemy posts and make their way to Belovezhskaya Pushcha

Forest. They emerged from their refuge at night and, as agreed beforehand, split up and went in

different directions. Gavrilov succeeded in making his way through the line of posts and reached

the north-west section of the external earthwork. He crossed it and came out on the bank of the

canal by the fortress. However, on the other bank a massive line of enemy posts blocked the

way. Gavrilov decided to bide his time in a nearby caponier, now known as Gavrilov's Caponier.

The East Fort's commanding officer fought his last battle here.

If we follow Gavrilov's path north-west from the East Fort, we will come to the caponier. It is a

narrow, corner casemate with two firing slits, thick brick walls, and arched vaults. Water flows in

the by-pass canal and trees grow on the bank only a few meters from the caponier.

It was here in this stone hole that Gavrilov emptied his TT pistol and captured German

Walther of their last bullets. On July 23, the 32nd day of the war, the nazis finally captured the

wounded and exhausted Major Gavrilov. He was liberated from a nazi concentration camp in

Germany by Soviet soldiers in April, 1945.

Fighting in the Residential Area of the Kobrin Fortification. A major defense center was

formed in the north-west sector of the Kobrin Fortification not far from the North Gate, where the

residential area was situated. A green and flowering street lined with the homes of officers'

families stretched almost from one end of the Kobrin Fortification to the other. Fierce fighting and

time have effaced even the ruins here, evening out the remains of buildings and the ground.

On the last Sunday before the war, the officers' families relaxed, watched films in the club,

and listened to music. Night fell and in house No. 8 where the family of Senior Political Instructor

Ivan Pochernikov lived, six-year-old Alik and five-year-old Nina fell asleep. Suddenly, the earth

seemed to open up.

The children did not even have the time to get out of bed. Either a bomb or a shell hit their room

directly and killed them. Pochernikov was wounded, but managed to run out into the street with

his wife. The street as such did not really exist any longer;

instead there was a huge, tumbling pile of stones threatening the lives of anyone caught there.

Women with children in their arms ran out of the flaming houses as planes dive-bombed and

strafed the running figures. There were scarcely any men in sight, for they had already reported

their barracks and units. Only the wounded were left behind: one of these was Ivan Pochernikov.

Aided by wounded soldiers, Pochernikov organized a defense of several buildings. He chose a

location near the entrance of his own home, which was near a crossroad, as their basic position.

His wife, Alexandra, helped in the defense. They rebuffed several nazi attacks, but began to run

short of ammunition. Pochernikov's wife then crawled between buildings to remove the cartridge-

pouches from dead soldiers. Still, their ammunition was fast being used up. Finally, they were

down to their last two bullets. Enemy submachine-gunners were approaching quickly, and the

tramp of their heavy boots could already be heard. Two last shots rang out as Pochernikov and

his wife killed themselves rather than be captured.

Another group of homes was defended by soldiers headed by Captain Vladimir Shablovsky,

commanding officer of a battalion of the 1 25th Infantry Regiment. The enemy kept these

buildings under siege for three days, turning them into a pile of rubble. Nonetheless, each pile of

ruins concealed fighting men who fired at and repulsed the enemy. Women removed the

wounded from the field of battle and bandaged them, as well as bringing their men ammunition

and food.

Captain Shablovsky, who was an experienced and courageous officer, organized the defense

skillfully. The next morning fighting started again more fiercely than before and artillery fire was

intensified. German assault groups managed to occupy the ground floor of the building where

Shablovsky and his soldiers were fighting. That night, in accordance with his instructions, ten

volunteers lowered themselves on ropes from the first floor, quietly overcame the sentries, and

burst into the building, lobbing grenades at the nazi troops.

The enemy only succeeded in crushing the resistance offered by the few wounded soldiers with

tanks on June 24. Some of the defenders were taken prisoner, including Captain Shablovsky, his

wife Galina, and their children. The column of prisoners was taken under heavy convoy to the

rear of the fighting lines. When the column was in the middle of the old bridge leading across the

by-pass canal near the North Gate, Shablovsky brushed aside the guard and jumped over the

railing into the water. He was cut down by submachine-gun fire. Galina Shablovskaya and her

daughters spent two weeks in the Brest prison. Then they settled in a village outside Brest, where

Galina soon began to serve as a liaison agent with a partisan detachment. She was captured by

the Gestapo while carrying out her duties in 1943, tortured, and hanged.

The street where the officers' homes once stood and which today leads from Brest to the North

Gate of the fortress is now named in honor of the Heroes of the Defense of the Brest Fortress. It

is a very ordinary street. Young mothers stroll along it with their children. Elderly people chat

quietly in their gardens, and boys play football.

THE CITADEL'S DEFENSE

The strongest center of defense of the Brest Fortress was in its central section, the Citadel,

located on an island. In the very first hours of the attack on the fortress, the enemy infantry tried

to make their way from the western fortification towards the fortress' Terespol Gate, which was

the focus for the main thrust of the German 45th Infantry Division. If they succeeded in capturing

the gate, they would have penetrated the Citadel. Enemy assault troops also attempted to break

through into the Citadel through the Kholm and Brest Gates in order to block off the fortress'

central section and isolate it from the earthwork on the other side of the bridge where intense

fighting was in progress.

Thirst. Today a broad road made of cement blocks leads from the main entrance to the Central

Island where the Citadel is located. There is a sculptural monument entitled Thirst to the left of

this road at the spot where the Mukhavets divides into two branches and washes the banks of the

Central Island.

The memorial shows a wounded soldier making his way through fire to the river. Inside the

fortress there are soldiers, women, and children dying of thirst. The soldier crawls towards the

riverbank for their sake, barely strong enough to make it, leaning on his submachine-gun. He is

striving to get even only a helmetful of water - so near and yet so unreachable. His twisted face,

his outstretched body, and his hand gripping the helmet, reaching towards the river attest to the

cruel and inhuman suffering he and his comrades experienced.

The lives of the fortress defenders were threatened from the very beginning of the siege by the

enemy who constantly bombed and strafed the fortress and attacked it with numerically superior

assault troops. The defenders were ready to withstand even the most difficult and bloody battles,

to which the history of the defense attests.

Not only were the fortress defenders threatened by the numerically superior enemy, but soon

they also began to run out of food because many of the food supply depots had been either

destroyed or burnt. They collected whatever food there was left in the canteens and in the badly-

damaged warehouses. It was far too little, though, and each passing day made their hunger

pangs sharper.

Medical supplies and bandages also quickly ran out. The soldiers sought fresh supplies in

damaged warehouses and dressing stations which were still intact. Undergarments were torn up

and used as bandages, but wounds received in fighting were increasingly left unbandaged.

The worst hardship borne by the fortress defenders, however, was thirst. The enemy had

bombarded the fortress with incendiary bombs, dropped on defenders petrol-filled barrels, and

used shells that splattered burning liquids when they exploded. Some parts of the fortress were a

solid sea of fire. Everything that could burn, did burn. The fires continued unabated in various

spots. The hot summer air was even more unbearably hot and, together with the thick smoke and

the dust from shattered bricks hanging constantly in clouds over the ruins, it made the people

inside the fortress unbearably thirsty. There was no water, though, with which to quench their

thirst.

The water-tower located above the Terespol Gate was destroyed and the water supply system

was damaged at many spots. There were no emergency reserves of water in the fortress, nor

were there any wells inside it. True, the Mukhavets flowed only a few meters from its walls, but it

was impossible to obtain water from it. The enemy installed machine-gunners in the bushes along

the riverbanks who opened fire at anyone who ventured to reach the river. Anyone who attempted

to reach the river by day or night was immediately shot down. There were attempts to dig wells in

the casemates, and sheets attached to ropes were thrown into the river, then pulled back, and the

dirty water was wrung out of them into mess-tins; people even put damp sand into their mouths.

None of this, though, could replace a single drop of ordinary water.

The Fighting Near the Terespol Gate. The road running along the bank of the left-hand branch of

the Mukhavets River and outside of the fortress turns around the barracks. Until June 22, 1941

this building encircled the Central Island in a two-kilometer ring. During the siege, this ring was

broken in many spots. Only 860 meters of the circular barracks remain today.

One sector remaining in the south-west part of the Central Island was relatively quiet during the

siege. Exactly how quiet and undisturbed it was can be seen from the wall facing the river. Its

surface is scarred by bullet-holes and shell-splinters. After the wall is an open space which looks

as if nothing had even been there. This spot was previously occupied by part of a building

destroyed by artillery fire.

This branch of the Mukhavets, a narrow and insignificant water barrier from the military point of

view - a few strokes of the oar are enough to cross it - turned out to be very difficult for the enemy

to cross as they attempted to force it in the course of their advance. The fortress defenders

stopped any attempts to cross it with heavy, well-aimed gunfire. The enemy infantry units then

tried to cross the river's bridges.

The Citadel's Terespol Gate is located at the spot where the Mukhavets River flows into the Bug

River. Once there used to be a 3-storey structure with small turrets above the gate. Inside there

were two enormous water tanks which allowed it to function as a watertower of sorts. After the

siege only the first floor and fragments of the second were left. The rest was gone altogether,

turned to rubble and dust.

Two large two-storied buildings one behind the other, cutting across the courtyard, stood near the

Terespol Gate. One of them housed the 9th Frontier-Guard Station and the commandant's office,

while the other served as the barracks of the 333rd Rifle Regiment. When the war broke out,

there were very few men here, as in the other units, and many officers and men died at the outset

of the attack. Alexander Sanin, appointed assistant chief of staff of the 333rd Rifle Regiment only

one week before the outbreak of war, recalled the terrible first few moments in these words:

"A deafening roar shook our barrack walls. My cot stood by the wall, and this saved me because

a heavy bomb hit the roof of the building and went straight through to the first floor, so that

everyone in the room was buried under a load of bricks and rubble. The fire, deafening

explosions, collapsing walls, dust and smoke at first made it impossible to grasp what was

happening."

Bombs and shells rained down on the 9th Frontier-Guard Station. Ceilings collapsed in many of

its rooms. The guards who were not killed helped their comrades and carried out the wounded.

The enemy hastened to exploit the advantages of their sudden attack. The explosions had hardly

stopped when German infantrymen stormed the Terespol Gate. They were met with gunfire from

the windows, embrasures, and basements. Headed by Lieutenant Andrei Kizhevatov, head of the

9th Frontier-Guard Station, the frontier-guards fought the enemy in hand-to-hand combat.

Soldiers of the 333rd Regiment, led by Lieutenant Alexander Potapov, their assistant chief of

staff, soon came to their aid.

A fighting group made up of officers and men from different units took shape in the first few

minutes of the war at the Terespol Gate to defend this tactical defense position in this sector of

the fortress, as happened at other defensive positions, too.

The Kholm Gate. The First Counter-Attack. We should approach the Kholm Gate - a distinctive

symbol of today's fortress - from the Terespol Gate, crossing the Citadel's inner courtyard, and

going along the remaining part of the circular barracks. When this gate was built it was decorated

with fanciful little turrets and a medallion. They are still there - the little turrets and the medallion –

but they have been disfigured forever. All the red bricks in the Kholm Gate are scarred by bullets

and shells and blackened by smoke.

The enemy's surprise attack and their numerical superiority enabled a group of enemy

submachine-gunners to penetrate the Terespol Gate on the morning of June 22, make their way

to the center of the Citadel, and occupy the regimental club building, which dominated the entire

Citadel, rising above all the other buildings. The submachine-gunners set up a radio transmitter

inside the club to guide the gunfire of their artillery units and began to shell the barracks from the

rear, dispersing the garrison's units. In addition, some of the enemy submachine-gunners began

to move towards the Kholm and Brest Gates from inside, with the aim of fully taking over the

center of the fortress. Decisive measures were needed, and they were taken by the commissar of

the 84th Rifle Regiment, Yefim Fomin.

This regiment occupied the barracks on both sides of the Kholm Gate. Most of its troops and their

commanding officer and chief of staff were outside the fortress. Only two artillery companies, a

company of mortar-gunners and a transport company, plus an anti-aircraft unit, military band,

medical and veterinary service workers were left in the barracks on the night of June 22.

When the fortress was hit by enemy bombs and shells, Fomin took command. The first confusion

was quickly overcome, the soldiers were armed and grouped together in the safety of the

basement, from where they launched their first bayonet attack. They took the enemy by surprise

and struck at the middle of an advancing enemy group, splitting it in two. Men from other units

supported the counter-attack. Some of the German submachine-gunners ran back to the club

building and towards the Terespol Gate, while another, larger group retreated in the direction of

the island's eastern shore, hoping to cross the Mukhavets. However, the attacking Soviet troops

defeat the enemy group. This was the first counter-attack struck at the German assault groups.

Inside the Kholm Gate there is a bronze plaque in the form of a calendar page, reading: "June 22,

1941. At dawn a group of soldiers from the 84th Rifle Regiment launched a counter-attack which

destroyed the enemy assault detachment. "

All day long on June 22 the enemy made numerous attempts to penetrate the Citadel by crossing

the bridge leading to the Kholm Gate. However, Fomin organized a clear defense plan for this

gate. Wave after wave of enemy assault troops tried to cross the bridge, but were met by gunfire

from the 84th Regiment and fell on the bridge or on the riverbanks. Enemy troops opened fire

again and again, peppered the walls beside the Kholm Gate with bullet and shell holes - not a

single un-scarred spot remains today. The mutilated walls tell us how fierce the fighting was here.

The garrison's stubborn resistance brought the German Army units to a halt.

The victory won at dawn in eliminating the group of submachine-gunners who had forced

their way into the fortress gave a fresh impetus to the Citadel's defenders. The regimental

commissar, Fomin, set up his command post next to the Engineering Headquarters building in

the very middle of the Citadel's courtyard - its ruins can be seen from the Kholm Gate -and tried

to establish radio contact with divisional headquarters. No one responded to the fortress' calls.

Then Fomin broadcast an open text, saying: "This is the fortress. This is the fortress. We are

fighting..." The radio station continued to broadcast this message until it ran out of power.

The ruins of the Engineering Headquarters, standing slightly above ground level, are carefully

preserved today.

Several times during the day of June 23 nazi loudspeakers unsuccessfully urged the

defenders of the fortress to surrender. Enemy artillery ringed the fortress, constantly firing on the

Citadel, and nazi planes raided it.

Commissar Fomin organized an attack by the soldiers of the 84th and 333rd Regiments on

the club building occupied by the enemy submachine-gunners with their radio transmitter. This

two-pronged attack was a success and the enemy soldiers were forced out of the building. The

battle for the building continued, nonetheless.

Let us take a look at this building, which was so important for the fortress' defenders and

enemies, and which gave rise to so much fierce, bloody fighting. As a result of the battle, the

building lost its roof and part of the second floor, and suffered greatly from fire. The soot from the

fires settled so deeply into the bricks that even today they look charred, as if the fire were put out

only an hour ago.

On the afternoon of June 23, the men of the 44th Regiment saw a man wearing a Soviet

officer uniform, decorated with an Order of the Red Star, running through the nazi-held territory

towards the right-hand branch of the Mukhavets. A moment later he threw himself into the river,

swam across under submachine-gun fire, and arrived safely at the fortress barracks. He was

Senior Lieutenant Vasily Bytko, head of the regimental school. At the very onset of the fighting,

he had led part of the cadets out of the fortress to an assigned assembly point in case of attack,

and now he had returned for those who remained behind in the fortress. Bytko led the sector

defended by the 44th Regiment: he assigned soldiers to man the windows and gun-slits and

explained to them how they should change their firing positions; he set up communication links

with neighboring sectors and with defense headquarters. Later, Bytko and Senior Lieutenant

Alexander Semenenko, the assistant chief of staff of the 44th Regiment, capably and

courageously commanded fighting in the north-west defense sector.

The Brest Gate. The Focus of Fighting. It is not far from the club building to the right branch

of the Mukhavets. Lying before us is the bank towards which Vasily Bytko swam under

submachine-gun fire. Today there are no buildings there. The long north-west wing of the ring-

shaped barracks (almost 600 meters in length) was destroyed and the ashes and rubble blown

away by the wind.

A grave danger for the Citadel's defenders arose here. Enemy submachine-gunners made their

way across the earth-works and occupied the north bank of the Mukhavets River on both sides of

the bridge by the triple-arched Brest Gate of the Citadel. They made several attempts to ford the

Mukhavets and establish a position on the north-east edge of the Central Island. All their attempts

were futile (fell in oblivion). The soldiers of the 455th Rifle Regiment and the 33rd Engineering

Regiment, both of which had barracks by the Brest Gate, drove off the enemy with bayonet

attacks. Defense in this sector was commanded by Senior Lieutenant Nikolai Shcherbakov,

Lieutenant Anatoly Vinogradov, and Political Instructor Pyotr Koshkarov.

Two panzers headed for the bridge from the north by way of the Kobrin Fortification. The

Soviet troops cut off the enemy infantry with gunfire, but the tanks crossed the bridge and

broke into the fortress' central courtyard. One tank kept up a steady stream of fire on the

barracks. A senior lieutenant and a sergeant-major whose names we do not know ran out

of the basement, quickly making their way to the regimental artillery depot and, in spite of

fire, aimed an anti-tank gun at the panzer. Its gunsight turned out to be broken, and so the

sergeant-major took aim through the gun-barrel. The first shell hit the ground near the

tank's tracks, and the second wedged up its turret. The next two shells destroyed the

tank.

Let us walk over to the bridge joining the banks of the right branch of the Mukhavets River. The

main force of the Citadel's defenders fought here, by the Brest Gate. The gate itself with its triple

arches and powerful columns has not been preserved, for it was destroyed during the fighting.

On the morning of June 24 the enemy intensified its attack on the Citadel and brought reserve

troops into the fighting. A fierce, stubborn battle began at the Brest Gate. Regimental Commissar

Yefim Fomin transferred his command post to this area. It was here that he came across Captain

Ivan Zubachov, assistant commander of the 44th Rifle Regiment, and who was commanding the

defense in the Citadel's northwest sector. Fomin and Zubachov decided to create immediately a

joint command for the defense of the Central Island. That afternoon, during an especially

prolonged air-raid, when the German infantry usually ceased their attack, Zubachov and Fomin

called a meeting of commanding officers and political staff in a casemate in the barracks near the

Brest Gate. A directive (order of the day) was adopted as a result of the meeting that became a

historical document. This is how it began:

"Directive No. 1, June 24, 1941, the Fortress. The situation which has arisen in the fortress

requires creation of a joint command and organized military action to continue the struggle

against the enemy..." The Directive went on to say that the officers at the meeting had decided to

place all their individual units into one large, joint-fighting force. Captain Zubachov was appointed

commanding officer of the force, Commissar Fomin was appointed his assistant, and Senior

Lieutenant Semenenko was appointed chief of staff.

After three days of fighting, Joachim von Ribbentrop, the nazi Minister of Foreign Affairs, held a

press conference in Berlin to announce that Russian resistance along the border had been

broken. However, it was on this very day that a joint command was created for the besieged

garrison at the Brest Fortress. The Citadel's defense acquired a more organized, well-conceived

character. Even though the commanding officers of the joint force did not manage to unify the

defense throughout the fortress - the fighting became more and more intense, and the enemy's

onslaught became more fierce, which caused the situation to be constantly fluid, and with it the

disposition of the fighting defense units - nonetheless, the creation of a headquarters staff and the

Directive played a major role in the defense of the Citadel, strengthening it, and making it both

more stable and more flexible.

Now we shall take a look at the ruins of the circular barracks by the bridge. There is a bronze

calendar-page plaque on the wall reading: "June 24, 1941. A meeting of commanding officers

and political officers was held in the basement of this building and Directive No. 1 adopted,

creating a joint leadership for the defense of the Fortress."

When it became clear that the front had moved far eastwards and no help could be expected, the

commanding officers of the Citadel decided to form a large force to break out of the fortress. If

this attempt succeeded. Captain Zubachov was to then lead out the main contingent of the

besieged troops in the Citadel after the first group. At noon on June 26 an advance unit of 120

men rushed out of the Brest Gate in the direction of the bridge. Machine-gunners covered the

attacking troops with fire. Only a few small groups, however, succeeded in fighting their way

through the solid ring of enemy troops, and at a great loss in human life.

There is a small section of a brick wall left where the Brest gate once stood, and where the

small group of soldiers tried to break out of the fortress by running in the face of submachine-gun

fire beneath the arches and past the columns. There is another bronze plaque reading: "June

26,1941. A group of Red Army officers and men broke out of the fortress at this site on orders

from the commanders of the joint force. "

Another group of soldiers defending the Terespol Gate and what was left of the barracks of

the 333rd Regiment also decided to break out somewhat later after a week of fierce fighting. The

leaders of the defense in this sector, Kizhevatov and Potapov, decided to leave across the bridge

at the Terespol Fortification, then cross the Bug River, get through to Volhyn Fortification, and

from there make their way towards the military compound in the southern part of Brest. They

were counting on the enemy's expectation of an attempt to break out of the fortress northwards or

eastwards, but not at the Terespol Gate. Lieutenant Potapov led a detachment of soldiers in the

breakout attempt, and Kizhevatov commanded the group to provide them with covering fire.

Kizhevatov himself lay down behind a big gun to help cover Potapov's group. The attempt did not

succeed, however, and the attackers suffered heavy losses. After this, no further such attempts

were made.

On June 27, the enemy began to use 540-millimetre guns, which fired shells weighing 1.25

tons, and 600-millimetre guns, which bombarded the Citadel walls with concrete-piercing shells

weighing over 2 tons. The situation inside the fortress became even more grave.

As mentioned earlier, the war had caught women and children inside the fortress. The women

cared for the wounded, loaded the machine-gun discs and belts with cartridges, and even took up

rifles to help defend the fortress from enemy attacks. Children who had only a few days before

been at school helped bring ammunition and food supplies from half-destroyed supply depots,

searched for and brought weapons, and watched enemy movements.

Regardless of the defenders' stubborn resistance inside the fortress, the enemy with its

outnumbering forces gradually gained the upper hand. The defenders were short of ammunition.

What they had found in the supply stores was quickly running out. They now had to risk their lives

to remove ammunition from burning supply depots. The defenders began to make more frequent

use of German weapons seized in skirmishes or picked up on the field of battle. Food and water

supplies ran out.

"I remember as if it were yesterday how I went down into the basement to the wounded,

women, and children, and a boy of about six came up to me. He pulled at my trousers and

begged, 'Water, water, please'. His lips were cracked and bleeding from thirst, and all around him

were children just as dirty, tormented, and hungry as he. My heart couldn't stand it and I walked

out of the basement, hardly aware of what I was doing. All night long we searched for water, but

we couldn't get enough for everyone" (from the recollections of Pyotr Koshkarov). It was

impossible to leave women and children in the fortress in these conditions, and so they were sent

out under a white flag.

Let us return to the Brest Gate's former site. In the last days of June, the enemy began to

direct its main blows towards this point, where the main force of the besieged garrison under

command of Zubachov and Fomin was located. The enemy submachine-gunners succeeded

several times in occupying part of the barracks adjacent to the Brest Gate. Each time, however,

the defenders drove out the invaders in hand-to-hand combat. Then an attack was mounted by

German submachine-gunners and demolition squads who, during the attack, crawled across the

barrack rooftops and attics, dropping powerful charges down the chimneys which exploded,

causing the walls and ceilings to collapse on the fighting men inside. Fyodor Isayev, the

headquarters clerk of the 84th Rifle Regiment who concealed the regimental banner on his chest,

died in the explosion. Fyodor Ryabov, a cook, was also hit in the hand, but he would not stop

fighting. Somewhat later Ryabov received another, more serious wound in a hand-to-hand com

bat. His friends carried him down into the basement, where the wounded were being cared for.

When enemy submachine-gunners broke into the basement, Ryabov threw a grenade into their

midst with his last burst of energy.

On June 29, the enemy again delivered an ultimatum to the fortress' defenders: the besieged

troops would have to surrender or else the fortress would be totally destroyed. One hour was

given them to reach a decision. (How many hours were given at different times to decide the

same question!) Time ran out but the Citadel did not raise the white flag.

A massive assault on the Citadel was then begun. Dozens of bombers circled over the fortress

and showered powerful bombs onto it. These explosions caused cracks as deep as those caused

by earthquakes to appear even in buildings in the city. Inside the fortress itself walls, two-meters

thick, crumbled, age-old trees were uprooted and blown up into the air, and bricks and metal

melted. Enemy tanks penetrated the Citadel's courtyard and fired continuously at the gun-slits,

windows, and walls of the buildings still standing. German assault troops succeeded in occupying

several rooms in the south-east sector of the circular barracks building. Fierce fighting broke out

by the club building. Engineering Headquarters, and the Brest Gate.

The assault continued on June 30. The major group defending the fortress was gradually being

destroyed and broken up, and the defense headquarters was smashed.

Let us look once again at the ruins of the barracks building beside the bridge leading over the

right branch of the Mukhavets. A wall in one wing of this building collapsed from an exploding

enemy shell and buried Isayev, the clerk, with the banner hidden on his chest. Ryabov, the cook,

also died in one of the basement rooms. It was somewhere in this building, too, that the wounded

and exhausted commanding officers of the joint force. Captain Zubachov and Commissar Fomin,

were taken captive after the general assault.

The bricks had still not cooled from battle when enemy soldiers brought Commissar Fomin

outside the fortress and stood him with his back to the wall. The last thing the commissar saw

before he was shot on June 30 by the Citadel's Kholm Gate was the quiet river, overgrown by

willow bushes. A bronze plaque, marking the date, bears testimony to this. Captain Zubachov

died in a nazi concentration camp at Hammelburg in 1944.

The Last Defenders Continue to Fight. After fierce continuous fighting the enemy troops occupied

most of the fortress. But the fighting went on, even though instead of a joint defense there were

now only isolated centers of resistance -which nonetheless fought on even more stubbornly and

ferociously. The detachment defending the White Palace - a building guarding the route to the

Central Island from one fork of the Mukhavets - continued to fight. Lieutenant Arkady Nagai led

this group. The troops defending the White Palace prevented the enemy from entering the Citadel

from the eastern part of the Kobrin Fortification for a long time. They guarded the bridge, half a

kilometer east of the fork of the Mukhavets, with rifle and cannon fire and coordinated their

actions with other defense groups. During the general assault on the fortress, a large bomb

dropped from a plane hit the White Palace and exploded inside the building. The roof collapsed

and the building was almost totally destroyed, killing many of its defenders. But the soldiers who

remained alive carried on fighting. Senior Sergeant Kuvalin and his assistant, Volkov, changed

their position four times as they beat off enemy attacks with their heavy machine-gun. They only

stopped firing after a mine scored a direct hit on their gun.

We can see the remains of the White Palace today directly to the inside right of the entrance to

the Central Island. The bombs, shells, and mines not only pitted and shattered the walls, but also

turned the building's basement rooms into ruins. The vaults of the basement ceilings also

collapsed and today the sun's rays shine through into rooms that had never seen sun before.

Nevertheless, it is unpleasantly cold down there.

We can go downstairs and walk around from room to room to examine the walls and stones

which heard the roar of explosions, the crackle of rifle fire, and the thunder of the heavy machine-

gun. A miraculously preserved portion of a wall bears a bronze calendar plaque saying: "July 1,

1941. The fortress' defenders fought on in the White Palace, an important defense position for the

Citadel."

In July soldiers continued fighting from the western sector of the 333rd Regiment's circular

barracks and from the basements. The enemy used the most merciless means at his disposal to

put an end to resistance here. General Schlieper, commanding officer of the German 45th

Division, wrote in one of his reports: "The 81st Combat Engineers' Battalion was given the task of

blowing up this building on the Central Island ... in order to put an end to the Russian troops'

flanking fire at the North Island. Explosives were lowered from the roof of the building towards the

windows, then the fuses were lit. When they exploded, we could hear the Russian soldiers

screaming and groaning, but they continued to fight." In his book, Rudolph Gschopf writes: "We

only gradually managed to take one defensive position after another as a result of stubborn

fighting. The garrison of the so-called "Officers' Corps" on the Central Island only ceased to exist

with the building itself... The resistance continued until the walls of the building were destroyed

and razed to the ground by more powerful explosions." Lieutenant Kizhevatov, one of the leaders

of this sector's defense, died in the last fighting.

A granite block bears a five-cornered star and a marble plaque with the inscription: "Soviet

frontier-guards led by Lieutenant Andrei Kizhevatov heroically fought against German invaders

here, in the former building of the 9th Frontier-Guard Station of the 17th Frontier-Guard

Detachment. The name of Andrei Kizhevatov was given to a new frontier-guard station. "Nothing

remains of the old frontier-guard station today.

On July 8, the commanding officers of the 45th Division, which was laying siege to the fortress,

sent a report to their general headquarters that the fortress had fallen. This was not entirely

correct, however. Tiny centers of resistance continued in individual sectors of the Citadel and the

Kobrin Fortification from late June to mid-July. Until the very end of July, however, rifle fire and

short bursts of machine-gun fire continued to ring out from basements and half-destroyed

casemates with small groups of soldiers inside. After that, solitary fighters bravely fought on.

Even though they were starving and covered with wounds, they asked no mercy nor sought to

give themselves up. No one knows when the very last shot was fired in the fortress, who the last

defenders were, or how they died. In August of 1941, however, a German military magazine

carried a photograph on its cover, showing nazi flamethrowers still operating in the Brest

Fortress.