About the feat of defenders of the Brest Fortress
There is no more victory than a victory over yourself! The main thing - do not fall on your knees in front of the enemy.
D.M. Karbyshev
D.M. Karbyshev
The defense of the Brest Fortress is the Badge to the Third Reich about its further fate, it showed that at the very beginning of the Great Patriotic War the Germans had already lost. They made a strategic mistake that signed the verdict on the whole project of the Third Reich.
You had to listen to your great ancestor, Otto von Bismarck, who said: “Even the most favorable outcome of the war will never lead to the decomposition of the main force of Russia, which is based on millions of Russians proper ... These latter, even if they are divided by international treatises, also quickly reconnect with each other, like particles of a cut piece of mercury. This is the indestructible state of the Russian nation ... ".Towards World War II, fortresses were no longer a serious obstacle for a modern army armed with powerful artillery systems, Aviation, asphyxiating gases, flamethrowers. By the way, one of the designers to improve the fortifications of the Brest Fortress in 1913 was Staff Captain Dmitry Karbyshev, an unbending Hero of the Great War, whom the Nazis turned on February 18, 1945 into an ice block. The fate of people is amazing - Karbyshev in a German concentration camp met with another hero, Major Peter Gavrilov, who from June 22 to July 23 led the defense of the defenders of the fortress and was seriously captured as well. According to the description of the doctor Voronovich treating him, he was captured seriously wounded. He was in full command uniform, but turned into rags. All covered with soot, dust, exhausted to the extreme (a skeleton covered with skin), he could not even swallow, the doctors fed him with an artificial mixture to save him. The German soldiers who took him prisoner said that this barely alive person, when he was caught in one of the casemates, took the fight alone, fired a pistol, threw grenades, killed and wounded several people before he was seriously injured. Gavrilov survived in the Nazi concentration camps, was released in May 1945, reinstated in the army in his former rank. After the country began to learn about the exploit of the defenders of the Brest Fortress, Gavrilov Pyotr Mikhailovich in 1957 was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union.
Gavrilov, Pyotr Mikhailovich.
Defense
Approximately 7-8 of thousands of fighters from different parts were stationed in the fortress: 8 rifle battalions, reconnaissance and artillery regiments, two artillery battalions (anti-tank and air defense), units of the 17 of the Red Banner Brest Border Squadron, 33 of the individual engineer, 132 of the Redundant Brest Border Squadron, XNUMX of the separate engineer, XNUMX of the Red Banner Brest Border Squadron, XNUMX of the separate engineer, XNUMX of the Red Banner Brest Border Squadron, XNUMX. XNUMX-th battalion of the NKVD convoy troops and some other parts.
They were attacked by the 45-I German infantry division (numbering about 17 thousand people) with the help of the units of the neighboring 31-th and 34-th infantry divisions, which was due to 12 hours of 22-th June to seize the fortress. In the morning, the Wehrmacht opened artillery fire on 3.15, as a result of an artillery strike, the garrison suffered heavy losses, the warehouses were destroyed, the water supply system was interrupted, and communications were interrupted. The assault began in 3.45, the garrison could not render coordinated resistance and was immediately dismembered into several parts. Strong resistance was put on the Volyn and Kobrin fortifications. Our organized several counterattacks. By the evening of the 24, the Wehrmacht suppressed resistance at the Volyn and Terespol fortifications, two major centers of resistance remained - in the Kobrin fortification and the Citadel. In the Kobrin fortification, the defense was held on the Eastern fort before the 400 man led by Major Gavrilov, they beat off the Wehrmacht's attacks on the day before the 7-8. On June 26, the last defender of the Citadel was killed, on June 30, after the general assault, the Eastern Fort fell. Major Gavrilov with the latest 12 fighters, having 4 machine guns, hid in the casemates.
Last defenders
After that, individual fighters and small pockets of resistance resisted. We do not know exactly how long they kept: for example, an inscription dated July 132 was found in the barracks of the 20 th separate battalion of the NKVD convoy troops: “I am dying, but I do not give up! Goodbye, Motherland. On July XNUM, Major Gavrilov was captured in battle. One of the main problems of the defenders of the fortress was the lack of water, if at first there was ammunition and canned food, then the Germans blocked access to the river almost immediately.
The resistance continued even after the capture of Gavrilov, the Germans were afraid to approach the fortress’s dungeons, from there shadows appeared at night, machine guns sounded, grenades exploded. According to local residents, the shooting was heard until August, and according to German sources, the last defenders were killed only in September, when Kiev, Smolensk fell, the Wehrmacht was preparing to storm Moscow.
The inscription, made by an unknown defender of the Brest Fortress 20 July 1941 year.
Writer and researcher Sergey Smirnov did a great job, thanks in large part to him, the Union and learned about the feat of defenders of the fortress, about who became the last defender. Smirnov found a startling news - the story of a Jewish musician Stavsky (he was shot by the Nazis). The headmaster Durasov, who was wounded in Brest, was taken prisoner and left to work at the hospital, told about him. In April, 1942, the violinist, was late for about an hour, when he arrived, told an amazing news. On the way to the hospital, the Germans stopped him and took him to a fortress, where a hole was broken through the ruins, which went underground. Around was a group of German soldiers. Stavskiy was ordered to go down and invite the Russian fighter to surrender. In response, they promise him life, the violinist descended, an exhausted man came out to him. He said that he had long run out of food and ammunition, and he would come out to see with his own eyes the impotence of the Germans in Russia. The German officer then told the soldiers: “This man is a true hero. Learn from him how to protect your land ... ". It was April 1942 of the year, the fate and the name of the hero remained unknown, like many hundreds, thousands of unknown heroes, about whom the German military machine broke.
The feat of the defenders of the Brest Fortress shows that Russians can be killed, albeit very difficult, but defeated, they cannot be broken ...
Sources of:
Heroic defense / Sb. memories of the defense of the Brest Fortress in June — July of 1941, Minsk., 1966.
Smirnov S. Brest Fortress. M. 2000.
Smirnov S.S. Stories about unknown heroes. M., 1985.
http://www.fire-of-war.ru/Brest-fortress/Gavrilov.htm
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