Heroes of the defense of the Brest Fortress in 1941. Storming of the Brest Fortress

However, first let's look at its history. The beginning of construction of the Brest Fortress dates back to 1833. Note that the city is an important border garrison; it “blocks” the central highway leading to Belarusian Minsk. For this reason, it simply needed to be strengthened. IN different years“in life” the fortress was a barracks, a military warehouse, and a political prison. The city itself either fell into the possession of the Poles, then returned to the territory of Russia, or was again captured by its neighbors.

Just before the start bloody war(1939) Brest was included in the USSR. The fortress itself no longer carried the significance of a strategic military facility, but rather was a monument to past battles. On the eve of the Great Patriotic War, it housed garrisons of military personnel, a hospital, premises for household needs, and the families of the commanding officers permanently lived there. In total there are about 8 thousand military personnel and 300 “civilians” - members of their families. Of course, there were weapons and food supplies here, but more “for show.” Rumor has it that the water in the fortress ran out two days before the start of the great confrontation...

The attack on the Brest Fortress coincided with. It is not difficult to guess that residential buildings and barracks were the first to come under fire. The Germans systematically destroyed the command staff with heavy artillery fire and air strikes. Their goals were ambitious: to throw the army, left without leadership, into panic and take the fortress into their own hands before noon.

In reality, the assault on the fortification lasted several days. The surprise factor did not work as Hitler planned. Yes, most of the officers died, but the living soldiers immediately got their bearings, taking up a selfless defense. Did the Soviet high command know in advance about the impending attack on the country? There is no clear answer. But before the start of the war, a decree was issued: to immediately leave the fortress in the event of an enemy attack and take a defensive position along the perimeter. In fact, only a few were able to get out, and most of the military remained inside the bastion.

Moreover: the German command suffered enormous losses. This is not at all the start of the war that Hitler was counting on! The enemy urgently changes tactics: the storming of the fortress is replaced by its siege. Troops that have made at least a little progress in the offensive are urgently recalled, they are placed along the perimeter of the rebellious stronghold.

From now on, the enemy’s task is to completely block the entrances and exits of the fortress for Soviet troops. The besieged were literally left without supplies, weapons or water. Absence life-giving moisture it was especially acutely felt in the stone walls. The atrocity of the Germans reached the point that they took special control of all nearby sources, dooming those imprisoned to certain death.

Despite the constant bombing, artillery shelling, and foot advances of the Germans, our soldiers held the defense with dignity. Along with them, women and children showed fortitude. Many refused to leave the walls of the fortress and voluntarily surrender to the enemy for the chance to save their lives.

The Nazis tried to alternate tactics of assault and siege, but made little progress in capturing the Brest Fortress. Only by the end of June German army managed to take control of most of the bastion. However, individual scattered groups of our soldiers resisted the invaders even until the fall.

Even though it ended up in the hands of the enemy, a feat Soviet soldiers unpleasantly struck the German “elite”. To say the least, he scared me. And how can one not shudder at such will to fight, courage and dedication! Of the 8 thousand fighters, almost none survived.

Our people first learned about the heroic fortress’s feat... from captured German reports in the winter of 1942. On the border of the 40-50s. Notes about the Brest Bastion in Soviet newspapers were based solely on rumors. A key role in restoring the historical picture was played by the historian S. Smirnov and the writer K. Simonov, with whose input the book “Brest Fortress” was published. Today, the site of great battles has become. Here everyone can plunge into the picture of the events of the terrible years.

It is difficult to be a historian and have visited the Brest Fortress without writing anything about it. I can't resist either. There are many different facts in the history of the defense of the Brest Fortress, which, of course, are known to historians, but are not known to a wide circle of readers. These are the “little known” facts that my post today is about.

Who attacked?

The statement that the operation to capture the Brest Fortress was carried out by the 45th German Infantry Division is only partially true. If we approach the issue literally, then the Brest Fortress was captured by the Austrian division. Before the Anschluss of Austria it was called the 4th Austrian Division. Moreover, the personnel of the division consisted of not just anyone, but fellow countrymen of Adolf Hitler. The Austrians were not only its original composition, but also its subsequent replenishment. After the capture of the fortress, the commander of the 45th Infantry Division, Schlieper, wrote:

“Despite these losses and the tough courage of the Russian, the strong fighting spirit of the division, receiving reinforcements mainly from the immediate homeland of the Fuhrer and supreme commander, from the Upper Danube region...”.

Field Marshal von Kluge added:

“The 45th division from Ostmark (Austria was called Ostmark in the Third Reich - approx. A.G.) fought exceptionally and can rightfully be proud of its work...”

By the time of the invasion of the USSR, the division had combat experience in France and Poland and special training. The division trained in Poland at Warsaw forts in old fortifications with water ditches. Performed exercises to force water obstacles on inflatable boats and aids. The division's assault troops were prepared to suddenly capture bridges in a raid and were trained in close combat in fortresses...
Thus, the enemy of the Soviet soldiers was, although not entirely German, but had good preparation, combat experience and excellent equipment. To suppress resistance centers, the division was equipped with heavy-duty Karl guns, six-barreled mortars, etc.

What was the fortress like?

Any person now examining the remaining elements of the citadel of the Brest Fortress is struck by the inconsistency of the defensive structures with the requirements of the Second World War. The fortifications of the citadel were suitable, perhaps, for those times when opponents attacked in close formation with muzzle-loading guns, and cannons fired cast-iron cannonballs. As defensive structures from the Second World War, they look funny.
The Germans also gave a corresponding description of the fortress. On May 23, 1941, the inspector of the eastern fortifications of the Wehrmacht provided the command with a report in which he examined in detail the fortifications of the Brest Fortress and concluded:

“In general, we can say that fortifications do not pose any particular obstacle for us...”

Why did they decide to defend the fortress?

As sources show, the heroic defense of the Brest Fortress was organized... by the German command. The units that were in the fortress after the start of hostilities, according to pre-war plans, sought to leave the fortress as soon as possible in order to connect with their field units. While separate units of the 131st Light Artillery Regiment held the defense at the Northern Gate, a significant part of the Red Army soldiers managed to leave Kobrin Island. But then the remnants of the light artillery regiment were pushed back and the fortress was completely surrounded.
The defenders of the fortress had no choice but to take up defensive positions or surrender.

Who gave up first?

After the fortress was surrounded, heterogeneous units remained in it different parts. These are several “training courses”: driver courses, cavalry courses, junior commander courses, etc. As well as headquarters and rear units of rifle regiments: clerks, veterinarians, cooks, paramedics, etc. Under these conditions, the soldiers of the NKVD convoy battalion and border guards turned out to be the most combat-ready. Although, for example, when the command of the 45th German division began to lack personnel, they categorically refused to use convoy units, citing the fact that “they are not suitable for this.” Among the defenders of the Brest Fortress, the most unreliable were not the guards (who were predominantly Slavs, members of the Komsomol and the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks), but the Poles. This is how the clerk of the 333rd regiment A.I. Alekseev describes it:

“Before the start of the war, training sessions were held for command personnel assigned to the Brest region, who had previously served in the Polish army. Several of the enlisted personnel walked across the bridge and turned to left side Mukhovets River, along earthen rampart, and one of them was holding a white flag in his hand, they crossed towards the enemy.”

Clerk of the headquarters of the 84th Infantry Regiment Fil A.M. recalled:

“...from among the Westerners who were undergoing a 45-day gathering, who, back on June 22, threw white sheets out of the windows, but were partly destroyed...”

Among the defenders of the Brest Fortress there were many representatives of different nationalities: Russians, Ukrainians, Jews, Georgians, Armenians... But mass betrayal was observed only on the part of the Poles.

Why did the Germans suffer such heavy losses?

The Germans arranged the massacre in the Brest Fortress themselves. Without giving the Red Army soldiers the opportunity to leave the fortress, they began the assault. The defenders of the Brest Fortress were so stunned in the first minutes of the assault that they offered virtually no resistance. Thanks to this, German assault groups entered the central island and captured the church and the canteen. And at this time the fortress came to life - the massacre began. It was on the first day, June 22, that the Germans suffered the greatest losses in the Brest Fortress. This is the “New Year's assault on Grozny” for the Germans. They burst in almost without firing a shot, and then found themselves surrounded and defeated.
Interestingly, the fortress was almost never attacked from outside the fortress. All the main events took place inside. The Germans penetrated inside and from the inside, where not the loopholes, but the windows attacked the ruins. In the fortress itself there were no dungeons or underground passages. Soviet soldiers hid in basements and often shot from basement windows. Having filled the courtyard of the citadel with the corpses of their soldiers, the Germans retreated and in the following days did not undertake such massive assaults, but moved gradually attacking the ruins with artillery, explosive engineers, flamethrowers, and specially powerful bombs...
Some researchers claim that on June 22, the Germans suffered a third of all their losses on the eastern front at the Brest Fortress.

Who defended the longest?

Films and literature tell about the tragedy of the Eastern Fort. How he defended himself until June 29. How the Germans dropped a one and a half ton bomb on the fort, how women and children first came out of the fortress. As it happened later, the rest of the defenders of the fort surrendered, but the commander and commissar were not among them.
But this is June 29 and, perhaps, a little later.. However, fort No. 5, according to German documents, held out until mid-August!!! Now there is also a museum there, however, today nothing is known about how its defense took place, who its defenders were.

In February 1942 Soviet troops during Yeletskaya offensive operation defeated the four infantry division of the Wehrmacht. At the same time, the archive of the division headquarters was captured, in the documents of which very important papers were found - “Combat report on the occupation of Brest-Litovsk.” “The Russians in Brest-Litovsk fought exceptionally stubbornly and persistently. They showed excellent infantry training and proved a remarkable will to fight,” said the report of the commander of the 45th division, Lieutenant General Schlieper. It was then that Soviet troops learned the truth about the battles for the Brest Fortress.

Destroy in no time

Early morning On June 22, 1941, after air and artillery preparation, German troops crossed the border of the USSR. On the same day, Italy and Romania declared war on the USSR, and a little later - Slovakia, Hungary and other allies of Germany. Most of the Soviet troops were taken by surprise, and therefore a significant part of the ammunition and military equipment was destroyed on the first day. The Germans also gained complete air supremacy, knocking out more than 1.2 thousand aircraft of the Soviet army. This is how the Great Patriotic War began.

According to the “Barbarossa” attack plan on the USSR, the German command expected as soon as possible crush Soviet army, without allowing her to come to her senses and organize coordinated resistance.

Photo report:"I'm dying, but I'm not giving up!"

Is_photorep_included9701423: 1

The defenders of the Brest Fortress were among the first to fight for their homeland. On the eve of the war, about half of the personnel were withdrawn from the fortress to training camps. Thus, in the Brest Fortress on the morning of June 22 there were about 9 thousand soldiers and commanders, not counting the staff and patients of the hospital. The assault on the fortress and city of Brest was entrusted to the 45th Infantry Division of Major General Fritz Schlieper in cooperation with units of neighboring military formations. In total, about 20 thousand people took part in the assault. In addition, the Germans had an advantage in artillery. In addition to the divisional artillery regiment, whose guns could not penetrate the one and a half meter walls of the fortifications, the attack involved two 600-mm self-propelled mortars "Karl", nine mortars of 211 mm caliber and a regiment of multi-barreled mortars of 158.5 mm caliber. At the start of the war, Soviet troops simply did not have such weapons. According to the plan of the German command, the Brest Fortress was supposed to surrender in a maximum of eight hours, and no more.

“Soldiers and officers arrived one by one, scantily clad.”

The attack began on June 22, 1941 at 4.15 Soviet time with artillery and rocket launchers. Every four minutes artillery fire was transferred 100 meters to the east. The hurricane fire took the fortress garrison by surprise. As a result of the shelling, warehouses were destroyed, communications were interrupted and significant damage was caused to the garrison. A little later, the assault on the fortifications began.

At first, due to the unexpected attack, the fortress garrison was unable to provide coordinated resistance.

“Due to the continuous artillery shelling suddenly launched by the enemy at 4:00 on 6/22/41, units of the division could not be compactly withdrawn to the concentration areas on alert. Soldiers and officers arrived one by one, scantily clad. From those concentrated it was possible to create a maximum of two battalions. The first battles were carried out under the leadership of the regiment commanders, Comrades Dorodny (84th Regiment), Matveeva (333 sp), Kovtunenko (125 sp).”

(Report from the deputy commander for political affairs of the same 6th Infantry Division, Regimental Commissar M.N. Butin.)

By 4.00 the assault detachment, having lost two-thirds of its personnel, captured two bridges connecting the Western and South Islands with the Citadel. However, in an attempt to take the fortress as quickly as possible, the German troops became involved in close combat using small arms, which led to heavy losses on both sides.

The battles were of a counter nature. During one of the successful counterattacks at the Terespol Gate, the German assault group was almost completely destroyed. By 7.00 a group of Soviet troops managed to escape from the fortress, but many military personnel did not succeed in breaking through. It was they who continued the further defense.

The fortress was finally surrounded by nine o'clock in the morning. In the battles during the first day of the assault, the 45th Infantry Division, having carried out at least eight large-scale attacks, suffered unprecedented losses - only 21 officers and 290 soldiers and non-commissioned officers were killed.

Having withdrawn the troops to the outer ramparts of the fortress, the German artillery spent the entire next day shelling the positions of the defenders. During breaks, German cars with loudspeakers called on the garrison to surrender. About 1.9 thousand people surrendered. Nevertheless, the remaining defenders of the fortress managed, by knocking out the Germans from the section of the ring barracks adjacent to the Brest Gate, to unite the two most powerful centers of resistance remaining in the Citadel. The besieged also managed to knock out three tanks. These were captured French Somua S-35 tanks, armed with a 47 mm cannon and having good armor for the start of the war.

Under the cover of darkness, the besieged tried to escape from the encirclement, but this attempt failed. Almost all members of the detachments were captured or destroyed. On June 24, the headquarters of the 45th division reported that the Citadel had been taken and that individual pockets of resistance were being cleared. At 21.40, the capture of the Brest Fortress was reported to the corps headquarters. On this day, German troops actually captured most of it. However, there were still several areas of resistance, including the so-called “Eastern Fort”, which was defended by 600 soldiers under the command of Major Pyotr Mikhailovich Gavrilov. He turned out to be the only senior officer among the defenders. Most of the command was put out of action in the first minutes of the shelling.

“The prisoner could not even make a swallowing movement”

Despite the fact that by July 1 the main core of the Citadel’s defenders was defeated and scattered, resistance continued. The fighting took on an almost partisan character. The Germans blocked areas of resistance and tried to destroy the defenders of the fortress. Soviet soldiers, in turn, taking advantage of surprise and knowledge of the fortifications, carried out forays and destroyed the invaders. Attempts to break out of the encirclement of the partisans also continued, but the defenders had almost no strength left to break through.

The resistance of such isolated isolated groups lasted almost the entire month of July. The last defender of the Brest Fortress is considered to be Major Gavrilov, who, already seriously wounded, was captured only on July 23, 1941. According to the doctor who examined him, the major was in an extreme state of exhaustion:

“... the captured major was in full command uniform, but all his clothes had turned into rags, his face was covered with gunpowder soot and dust and overgrown with a beard. He was wounded and was in unconscious and looked extremely exhausted. It was, in the full sense of the word, a skeleton covered in leather.

The extent to which exhaustion had reached could be judged by the fact that the prisoner could not even make a swallowing movement: he did not have enough strength for this, and the doctors had to use artificial nutrition to save his life.

But the German soldiers who captured him and brought him to the camp told the doctors that this man, in whose body life was already barely glimmering, just an hour ago, when they caught him in one of the casemates of the fortress, alone took they fought, threw grenades, fired a pistol and killed and wounded several Nazis.”

(Smirnov S.S. Brest Fortress)

The losses of the 45th German Infantry Division on June 30, 1941 amounted to 482 killed, including 48 officers, and more than 1 thousand wounded. If we consider that the same division in 1939 during the attack on Poland lost 158 ​​killed and 360 wounded, then the losses were very significant. According to a report from the commander of the 45th division, by German troops 25 officers, 2877 junior commanders and soldiers were captured. 1877 Soviet military personnel died in the fortress. By the end of the war, there were about 400 living defenders of the Brest Fortress.

Major Gavrilov was released from German captivity in May 1945. However, until the mid-1950s it was excluded from Communist Party for the loss of a party card while in prison concentration camps. About 200 defenders of the Brest Fortress were awarded orders and medals, but only two received the title of Hero Soviet Union- Major Gavrilov and Lieutenant Kizhevatov (posthumously).

Krivonogov, Pyotr Alexandrovich, oil painting “Defenders of the Brest Fortress”, 1951.

The defense of the Brest Fortress in June 1941 is one of the first battles of the Great Patriotic War.

On the eve of the war

By June 22, 1941, the fortress housed 8 rifle and 1 reconnaissance battalions, 2 artillery divisions (anti-tank and air defense), some special forces of rifle regiments and units of corps units, assemblies of the assigned personnel of the 6th Oryol and 42nd rifle divisions of the 28th rifle corps of the 4th Army, units of the 17th Red Banner Brest Border Detachment, 33rd separate engineering regiment, several units of the 132nd separate battalion NKVD convoy troops, unit headquarters (division headquarters and the 28th Rifle Corps were located in Brest), a total of at least 7 thousand people, not counting family members (300 military families).

According to General L.M. Sandalov, “the deployment of Soviet troops in Western Belarus was not initially subordinated to operational considerations, but was determined by the availability of barracks and premises suitable for housing troops. This, in particular, explained the crowded location of half the troops of the 4th Army with with all their warehouses of emergency supplies (NZ) on the very border - in Brest and the Brest Fortress." According to the 1941 cover plan, the 28th Rifle Corps, consisting of the 42nd and 6th Rifle Divisions, was supposed to organize defense on a wide front in prepared positions in the Brest fortified area. Of the troops stationed in the fortress, only one rifle battalion, reinforced by an artillery division, was provided for its defense.

The assault on the fortress, the city of Brest and the capture of bridges across the Western Bug and Mukhavets was entrusted to the 45th Infantry Division (45th Infantry Division) of Major General Fritz Schlieper (about 18 thousand people) with reinforcement units and in cooperation with units of neighboring formations (including including mortar battalions assigned to the 31st and 34th Infantry Divisions of the 12th Army Corps of the 4th German Army and used by the 45th Infantry Division during the first five minutes of the artillery raid), for a total of up to 22 thousand people.

Storming the fortress

In addition to the divisional artillery of the 45th Wehrmacht Infantry Division, nine light and three heavy batteries, a high-power artillery battery (two super-heavy 600-mm Karl self-propelled mortars) and a mortar division were involved in artillery preparation. In addition, the commander of the 12th Army Corps concentrated the fire of two mortar divisions of the 34th and 31st infantry divisions on the fortress. The order to withdraw units of the 42nd Infantry Division from the fortress, given personally by the commander of the 4th Army, Major General A. A. Korobkov, to the chief of staff of the division by telephone in the period from 3 hours 30 minutes to 3 hours 45 minutes, before the start of hostilities, was not managed to complete it.

On June 22 at 3:15 (4:15 Soviet “maternity” time) hurricane artillery fire was opened on the fortress, taking the garrison by surprise. As a result, warehouses were destroyed, the water supply was damaged (according to the surviving defenders, there was no water in the water supply two days before the assault), communications were interrupted, and serious damage was caused to the garrison. At 3:23 the assault began. Up to one and a half thousand infantry men from three battalions of the 45th Infantry Division attacked the fortress directly. The surprise of the attack led to the fact that the garrison was unable to provide a single coordinated resistance and was divided into several separate centers. The German assault detachment, advancing through the Terespol fortification, initially did not encounter serious resistance and, having passed the Citadel, advanced groups reached the Kobrin fortification. However, parts of the garrison that found themselves behind German lines launched a counterattack, dismembering and almost completely destroying the attackers.

The Germans in the Citadel were able to gain a foothold only in certain areas, including the club building dominating the fortress (the former Church of St. Nicholas), the command staff's canteen and the barracks area at the Brest Gate. They met strong resistance at Volyn and, especially, at the Kobrin fortification, where it came to bayonet attacks.

By 7:00 on June 22, the 42nd and 6th rifle divisions left the fortress and the city of Brest, but many soldiers from these divisions did not manage to get out of the fortress. It was they who continued to fight in it. According to historian R. Aliyev, about 8 thousand people left the fortress, and about 5 thousand remained in it. According to other sources, on June 22, there were only 3 to 4 thousand people in the fortress, since part of the personnel of both divisions was outside the fortress - in summer camps, during exercises, during the construction of the Brest fortified area (sapper battalions, an engineer regiment, one battalion each from each rifle regiment and a division from artillery regiments).

From a combat report on the actions of the 6th Infantry Division:

At 4 o'clock in the morning on June 22, hurricane fire was opened on the barracks, on the exits from the barracks in the central part of the fortress, on the bridges and entrance gates and on the houses of the commanding staff. This raid caused confusion and panic among the Red Army personnel. The command staff, who were attacked in their apartments, were partially destroyed. The surviving commanders could not penetrate the barracks due to the strong barrage placed on the bridge in the central part of the fortress and at the entrance gate. As a result, Red Army soldiers and junior commanders, without control from mid-level commanders, dressed and undressed, in groups and individually, left the fortress, crossing the bypass canal, the Mukhavets River and the rampart of the fortress under artillery, mortar and machine-gun fire. It was not possible to take into account the losses, since scattered units of the 6th Division mixed with scattered units of the 42nd Division, and many could not get to the assembly point because at about 6 o’clock artillery fire was already concentrated on it.

Sandalov L. M. Fighting troops of the 4th Army in the initial period of the Great Patriotic War.

By 9 o'clock in the morning the fortress was surrounded. During the day, the Germans were forced to bring into battle the reserve of the 45th Infantry Division (135pp/2), as well as the 130th Infantry Regiment, which was originally the corps reserve, thus bringing the assault group to two regiments.

Monument to the defenders of the Brest Fortress and the Eternal Flame

Defense

On the night of June 23, having withdrawn their troops to the outer ramparts of the fortress, the Germans began shelling, in between offering the garrison to surrender. About 1,900 people surrendered. However, on June 23, the remaining defenders of the fortress managed, having knocked out the Germans from the section of the ring barracks adjacent to the Brest Gate, to unite the two most powerful centers of resistance remaining on the Citadel - the combat group of the 455th Infantry Regiment, led by Lieutenant A. A. Vinogradov (chief chemical service of the 455th Infantry Regiment) and Captain I.N. Zubachev (deputy commander of the 44th Infantry Regiment for economic affairs), and battle group the so-called “House of Officers” - the units concentrated here for the planned breakthrough attempt were led by regimental commissar E. M. Fomin (military commissar of the 84th rifle regiment), senior lieutenant N. F. Shcherbakov (assistant chief of staff of the 33rd separate engineering regiment) and Lieutenant A.K. Shugurov (executive secretary of the Komsomol bureau of the 75th separate reconnaissance battalion).

Having met in the basement of the “House of Officers,” the defenders of the Citadel tried to coordinate their actions: a draft order No. 1 was prepared, dated June 24, which proposed the creation of a consolidated combat group and headquarters led by Captain I. N. Zubachev and his deputy, regimental commissar E. M. Fomin, count the remaining personnel. However, the very next day, the Germans broke into the Citadel with a surprise attack. Large group The defenders of the Citadel, led by Lieutenant A. A. Vinogradov, tried to break out of the Fortress through the Kobrin fortification. But this ended in failure: although the breakthrough group, divided into several detachments, managed to break out of the main rampart, almost all of its fighters were captured or destroyed by units of the 45th Infantry Division, which took up defensive positions along the highway that skirted Brest.

By the evening of June 24, the Germans captured for the most part fortress, with the exception of the section of the ring barracks (“House of Officers”) near the Brest (Three Arched) Gate of the Citadel, casemates in the earthen rampart on the opposite bank of Mukhavets (“point 145”) and the so-called “Eastern Fort” located on the Kobrin fortification - its defense, consisting of 600 soldiers and commanders Red Army, commanded by Major P. M. Gavrilov (commander of the 44th Infantry Regiment). In the area of ​​the Terespol Gate, groups of fighters under the command of Senior Lieutenant A.E. Potapov (in the basements of the barracks of the 333rd Infantry Regiment) and border guards of the 9th Border Outpost under Lieutenant A.M. Kizhevatov (in the building of the border outpost) continued to fight. On this day, the Germans managed to capture 570 defenders of the fortress. The last 450 defenders of the Citadel were captured on June 26 after blowing up several compartments of the ring barracks “House of Officers” and point 145, and on June 29, after the Germans dropped an aerial bomb weighing 1800 kilograms, the Eastern Fort fell. However, the Germans managed to finally clear it only on June 30 (due to the fires that began on June 29).

There remained only isolated pockets of resistance and single fighters who gathered in groups and organized active resistance, or tried to break out of the fortress and go to the partisans in Belovezhskaya Pushcha (many succeeded). In the basements of the barracks of the 333rd regiment at the Terespol Gate, the group of A.E. Potapov and the border guards of A.M. Kizhevatov who joined it continued to fight until June 29. On June 29, they made a desperate attempt to break through to the south, towards the Western Island, in order to then turn to the east, during which most of its participants died or were captured. Major P. M. Gavrilov was among the last to be captured wounded - on July 23. One of the inscriptions in the fortress reads: “I am dying, but I am not giving up! Goodbye, Motherland. 20/VII-41". The resistance of single Soviet soldiers in the casemates of the fortress continued until August 1941, before A. Hitler and B. Mussolini visited the fortress. It is also known that the stone that A. Hitler took from the ruins of the bridge was discovered in his office after the end of the war. To eliminate the last pockets of resistance, the German high command gave the order to flood the basements of the fortress with water from the Western Bug River.

German troops captured about 3 thousand Soviet military personnel in the fortress (according to the report of the commander of the 45th division, Lieutenant General Schlieper, on June 30, 25 officers, 2877 junior commanders and soldiers were captured), 1877 Soviet military personnel died in the fortress .

The total German losses in the Brest Fortress amounted to 1,197 people, of which 87 Wehrmacht officers Eastern Front for the first week of the war.

Lessons Learned:

Short strong artillery fire on old fortress brick walls, fastened with concrete, deep basements and unobserved shelters does not allow effective result. Long-term aimed fire for destruction and fire of great force are required to thoroughly destroy fortified centers.

The commissioning of assault guns, tanks, etc. is very difficult due to the invisibility of many shelters, fortresses and large quantity possible goals and does not give the expected results due to the thickness of the walls of the structures. In particular, a heavy mortar is not suitable for such purposes.

An excellent means of causing moral shock to those in shelters is to drop large caliber bombs.

An attack on a fortress in which a brave defender sits costs a lot of blood. This simple truth proven once again during the capture of Brest-Litovsk. Heavy artillery is also a powerful stunning means of moral influence.

The Russians in Brest-Litovsk fought exceptionally stubbornly and persistently. They showed excellent infantry training and proved a remarkable will to fight.

Combat report from the commander of the 45th division, Lieutenant General Shlieper, on the occupation of the Brest-Litovsk fortress, July 8, 1941.

Memory of the defenders of the fortress

For the first time, the defense of the Brest Fortress became known from a German headquarters report, captured in the papers of the defeated unit in February 1942 near Orel. At the end of the 1940s, the first articles about the defense of the Brest Fortress appeared in newspapers, based solely on rumors. In 1951, while clearing out the rubble of the barracks at the Brest Gate, order No. 1 was found. In the same year, the artist P. Krivonogov painted the painting “Defenders of the Brest Fortress.”

The credit for restoring the memory of the heroes of the fortress largely belongs to the writer and historian S. S. Smirnov, as well as K. M. Simonov, who supported his initiative. The feat of the heroes of the Brest Fortress was popularized by S. S. Smirnov in the book “Brest Fortress” (1957, expanded edition 1964, Lenin Prize 1965). After this, the theme of the defense of the Brest Fortress became an important symbol of the Victory.

On May 8, 1965, the Brest Fortress was awarded the title of Hero Fortress with the presentation of the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal. Since 1971 the fortress has been memorial complex. On its territory a number of monuments were built in memory of the heroes, and there is a museum of the defense of the Brest Fortress.

Difficulties of the study

Restoring the course of events in the Brest Fortress in June 1941 is very difficult in practice. complete absence documents from the Soviet side. The main sources of information are the testimonies of the surviving defenders of the fortress, received in large numbers after a significant period of time after the end of the war. There is reason to believe that these testimonies contain a lot of unreliable information, including deliberately distorted information for one reason or another. For example, for many key witnesses, the dates and circumstances of captivity do not correspond to the data recorded in the German prisoners of war cards. For the most part, the date of capture in German documents is earlier than the date reported by the witness himself in post-war testimony. In this regard, there are doubts about the reliability of the information contained in such testimony.

In art

Art films

"Immortal Garrison" (1956);

“Battle for Moscow”, film one “Aggression” (one of storylines) (USSR, 1985);

“State Border”, fifth film “The Year forty-one” (USSR, 1986);

“I am a Russian soldier” - based on the book by Boris Vasiliev “Not on the lists” (Russia, 1995);

“Brest Fortress” (Belarus-Russia, 2010).

Documentaries

"Heroes of Brest" - documentary about the heroic defense of the Brest Fortress at the very beginning of the Great Patriotic War (CSDF Studio, 1957);

“Dear Fathers-Heroes” - an amateur documentary about the 1st All-Union rally of the winners of the youth march to places of military glory in the Brest Fortress (1965);

“Brest Fortress” - a documentary trilogy about the defense of the fortress in 1941 (VoenTV, 2006);

“Brest Fortress” (Russia, 2007).

"Brest. Serf heroes." (NTV, 2010).

“Berastseiskaya fortress: dzve abarons” (Belsat, 2009)

Fiction

Vasiliev B.L. Was not included in the lists. - M.: Children's literature, 1986. - 224 p.

Oshaev Kh. D. Brest is a fiery nut. - M.: Book, 1990. - 141 p.

Smirnov S.S. Brest Fortress. - M.: Young Guard, 1965. - 496 p.

Songs

“There is no death for the heroes of Brest” - song by Eduard Khil.

“The Brest Trumpeter” - music by Vladimir Rubin, lyrics by Boris Dubrovin.

“Dedicated to the heroes of Brest” - words and music by Alexander Krivonosov.

Interesting Facts

According to Boris Vasiliev’s book “Not on the Lists,” the last known defender of the fortress surrendered on April 12, 1942. S. Smirnov in the book “Brest Fortress” also, referring to eyewitness accounts, names April 1942.

On August 22, 2016, Vesti Israel reported that the last surviving participant in the defense of the Brest Fortress, Boris Faershtein, died in Ashdod.

The heroic defense of the Brest Fortress became a bright page in the history of the Great Patriotic War. On June 22, 1941, the command of Nazi troops planned to completely capture the fortress. As a result of the surprise attack, the garrison of the Brest Fortress was cut off from the main units of the Red Army. However, the fascists met fierce resistance from its defenders.

Units of the 6th and 42nd rifle divisions, the 17th border detachment and the 132nd separate battalion of NKVD troops - a total of 3,500 people - held back the enemy's onslaught to the end. Most of the fortress' defenders died.

When the Brest Fortress was liberated by Soviet troops on July 28, 1944, the inscription of its last defender was found on the melted bricks of one of the casemates: “I’m dying, but I’m not giving up!” Farewell, Motherland,” scratched out on July 20, 1941.

Kholm Gate

Many participants in the defense of the Brest Fortress were posthumously awarded orders and medals. On May 8, 1965, by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the Brest Fortress was awarded the honorary title “Hero Fortress” and the “Gold Star” medal.

In 1971, a memorial appeared here: giant sculptures “Courage” and “Thirst”, a pantheon of glory, Ceremonial Square, preserved ruins and restored barracks of the Brest Fortress.

Construction and device

The construction of the fortress on the site of the center of the old city began in 1833 according to the design of military topographer and engineer Karl Ivanovich Opperman. Initially, temporary earthen fortifications were erected; the first stone of the fortress's foundation was laid on June 1, 1836. Basic construction works were completed by April 26, 1842. The fortress consisted of a citadel and three fortifications that protected it with a total area of ​​4 km² and the length of the main fortress line was 6.4 km.

The Citadel, or Central Fortification, consisted of two two-story red brick barracks, 1.8 km in circumference. The citadel, which had walls two meters thick, had 500 casemates designed for 12 thousand people. The central fortification is located on an island formed by the Bug and two branches of the Mukhavets. Three artificial islands formed by Mukhavets and ditches are connected to this island by drawbridges. There are fortifications on them: Kobrin (formerly Northern, the largest), with 4 curtains and 3 ravelins and caponiers; Terespolskoye, or Western, with 4 extended lunettes; Volynskoye, or Yuzhnoe, with 2 curtains and 2 extended ravelins. In the former “casemate redoubt” there is now the Nativity of the Mother of God Monastery. The fortress is surrounded by a 10-meter earthen rampart with casemates in it. Of the eight gates of the fortress, five have survived - the Kholm Gate (in the south of the citadel), the Terespol Gate (in the southwest of the citadel), the Northern or Alexander Gate (in the north of the Kobrin fortification), the Northwestern (in the northwest of the Kobrin fortification) and the Southern (in south of the Volyn fortification, Hospital Island). The Brigid Gate (in the west of the citadel), the Brest Gate (in the north of the citadel) and the Eastern Gate (the eastern part of the Kobrin fortification) have not survived to this day.

In 1864-1888, according to the project of Eduard Ivanovich Totleben, the fortress was modernized. It was surrounded by a ring of forts 32 km in circumference; the Western and Eastern forts were built on the territory of the Kobrin fortification. In 1876, on the territory of the fortress, according to the design of the architect David Ivanovich Grimm, St. Nicholas was built Orthodox church.

Fortress at the beginning of the 20th century

In 1913, construction began on the second ring of fortifications (Dmitry Karbyshev, in particular, took part in its design), which was supposed to have a circumference of 45 km, but it was never completed before the start of the war.

Scheme map of the Brest Fortress and the forts surrounding it, 1912.

With the outbreak of the First World War, the fortress was intensively prepared for defense, but on the night of August 13, 1915 (old style), during a general retreat, it was abandoned and partially blown up by Russian troops. On March 3, 1918, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed in the Citadel, in the so-called White Palace (the former church of the Uniate Basilian monastery, then an officers’ meeting). The fortress was in the hands of the Germans until the end of 1918, and then under the control of the Poles. In 1920 it was taken by the Red Army, but was soon lost again, and in 1921, according to the Treaty of Riga, it was transferred to the Second Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. During the interwar period, the fortress was used as a barracks, a military warehouse and a political prison (opposition activists were imprisoned here in the 1930s politicians).

Defense of the Brest Fortress in 1939

The day after the outbreak of World War II, September 2, 1939, the Brest Fortress was bombed by the Germans for the first time: German planes dropped 10 bombs, damaging the White Palace. At that time, the marching battalions of the 35th and 82nd infantry regiments and a number of other rather random units, as well as mobilized reservists awaiting dispatch to their units, were located in the fortress barracks at that time.

The garrison of the city and fortress was subordinate to the Polesie task force of General Franciszek Kleeberg; Retired General Konstantin Plisovsky was appointed head of the garrison on September 11, who formed from the units at his disposal totaling 2000-2500 people a combat-ready detachment consisting of 4 battalions (three infantry and an engineer) with the support of several batteries, two armored trains and a number of Renault tanks FT-17" from the First World War. The defenders of the fortress did not have anti-tank weapons, yet they had to deal with tanks.
By September 13, military families were evacuated from the fortress, bridges and passages were mined, the main gates were blocked by tanks, and infantry trenches were built on the earthen ramparts.

Konstantin Plisovsky

General Heinz Guderian's 19th Armored Corps was advancing on Brest-nad-Bug, moving from East Prussia to meet another German armored division moving from the south. Guderian intended to capture the city of Brest in order to prevent the defenders of the fortress from retreating south and linking up with the main forces of the Polish Task Force Narew. The German units had a 2-fold superiority over the fortress defenders in infantry, 4-fold in tanks, and 6-fold in artillery. On September 14, 1939, 77 tanks of the 10th Panzer Division (units of the reconnaissance battalion and the 8th Tank Regiment) tried to take the city and fortress on the move, but were repulsed by infantry with the support of 12 FT-17 tanks, which were also knocked out. On the same day, German artillery and aircraft began bombing the fortress. The next morning, after fierce street fighting, the Germans captured most of the city. The defenders retreated to the fortress. On the morning of September 16, the Germans (10th Panzer and 20th Motorized Divisions) launched an assault on the fortress, which was repulsed. By evening, the Germans captured the crest of the rampart, but were unable to break through further. Two FT-17s stationed at the gates of the fortress caused great damage to the German tanks. In total, since September 14, 7 German attacks were repulsed, and up to 40% of the personnel of the fortress defenders were lost. During the assault, Guderian's adjutant was mortally wounded. On the night of September 17, the wounded Plisovsky gave the order to leave the fortress and cross the Bug to the south. Along the undamaged bridge, the troops went to the Terespol fortification and from there to Terespol.

On September 22, Brest was transferred by the Germans to the 29th Tank Brigade of the Red Army. Thus, Brest and the Brest Fortress became part of the USSR.

Defense of the Brest Fortress in 1941. On the eve of the war

By June 22, 1941, 8 rifle battalions and 1 reconnaissance battalion, 2 artillery divisions (anti-tank and air defense), some special units of rifle regiments and units of corps units, assemblies of the assigned personnel of the 6th Oryol and 42nd rifle divisions of the 28th rifle were stationed in the fortress corps of the 4th Army, units of the 17th Red Banner Brest Border Detachment, 33rd separate engineer regiment, several units of the 132nd separate battalion of NKVD convoy troops, unit headquarters (division headquarters and 28th Rifle Corps were located in Brest), total 9 - 11 thousand people, not counting family members (300 military families).

The assault on the fortress, the city of Brest and the capture of bridges over the Western Bug and Mukhavets was entrusted to the 45th Infantry Division of Major General Fritz Schlieper (about 17 thousand people) with reinforcement units and in cooperation with units of neighboring formations (including mortar divisions attached The 31st and 34th Infantry Divisions of the 12th Army Corps of the German 4th Army and used by the 45th Infantry Division during the first five minutes of the artillery attack), for a total of up to 20 thousand people. But to be precise, the Brest Fortress was stormed not by the Germans, but by the Austrians. In 1938, after the Anschluss (annexation) of Austria to the Third Reich, the 4th Austrian Division was renamed the 45th Wehrmacht Infantry Division - the same one that crossed the border on June 22, 1941.

Storming the fortress

On June 22, at 3:15 (European time) or 4:15 (Moscow time), hurricane artillery fire was opened on the fortress, taking the garrison by surprise. As a result, warehouses were destroyed, the water supply was damaged, communications were interrupted, and major losses were inflicted on the garrison. At 3:23 the assault began. Up to one and a half thousand infantry from three battalions of the 45th Infantry Division attacked the fortress directly. The surprise of the attack led to the fact that the garrison was unable to provide a single coordinated resistance and was divided into several separate centers. The German assault detachment, advancing through the Terespol fortification, initially did not encounter serious resistance, and after passing the Citadel, advanced groups reached the Kobrin fortification. However, parts of the garrison that found themselves behind German lines launched a counterattack, dismembering and partially destroying the attackers.

The Germans in the Citadel were able to gain a foothold only in certain areas, including the club building dominating the fortress (the former Church of St. Nicholas), the command staff canteen and the barracks area at the Brest Gate. They met strong resistance at Volyn and, especially, at the Kobrin fortification, where it came to bayonet attacks. A small part of the garrison with part of the equipment managed to leave the fortress and connect with their units; by 9 o'clock in the morning the fortress with the 6-8 thousand people remaining in it was surrounded. During the day, the Germans were forced to bring into battle the reserve of the 45th Infantry Division, as well as the 130th Infantry Regiment, originally the corps' reserve, thus bringing the assault force to two regiments.

Defense

On the night of June 23, having withdrawn their troops to the outer ramparts of the fortress, the Germans began shelling, in between offering the garrison to surrender. About 1,900 people surrendered. But, nevertheless, on June 23, the remaining defenders of the fortress managed, having knocked out the Germans from the section of the ring barracks adjacent to the Brest Gate, to unite the two most powerful centers of resistance remaining on the Citadel - the combat group of the 455th Infantry Regiment, led by Lieutenant A. A. Vinogradov and captain I.N. Zubachev, and the combat group of the so-called “House of Officers” (the units concentrated here for the planned breakthrough attempt were led by regimental commissar E.M. Fomin, senior lieutenant Shcherbakov and private Shugurov (responsible secretary of the Komsomol bureau of the 75th separate reconnaissance battalion).

Having met in the basement of the “House of Officers,” the defenders of the Citadel tried to coordinate their actions: a draft order No. 1 was prepared, dated June 24, which proposed the creation of a consolidated combat group and headquarters led by Captain I. N. Zubachev and his deputy, regimental commissar E. M. Fomin, count the remaining personnel. However, the very next day, the Germans broke into the Citadel with a surprise attack. A large group of defenders of the Citadel, led by Lieutenant A. A. Vinogradov, tried to break out of the Fortress through the Kobrin fortification. But this ended in failure: although the breakthrough group, divided into several detachments, managed to break out of the main rampart, its fighters were captured or destroyed by units of the 45th Infantry Division, which occupied the defense along the highway that skirted Brest.

By the evening of June 24, the Germans captured most of the fortress, with the exception of the section of the ring barracks (“House of Officers”) near the Brest (Three Arched) Gate of the Citadel, casemates in the earthen rampart on the opposite bank of Mukhavets (“point 145”) and the so-called Kobrin fortification located “Eastern Fort” (its defense, consisting of 400 soldiers and commanders of the Red Army, was commanded by Major P. M. Gavrilov). On this day, the Germans managed to capture 1,250 defenders of the Fortress.

The last 450 defenders of the Citadel were captured on June 26 after blowing up several compartments of the ring barracks “House of Officers” and point 145, and on June 29, after the Germans dropped an aerial bomb weighing 1800 kg, the Eastern Fort fell. However, the Germans managed to finally clear it only on June 30 (due to the fires that began on June 29). On June 27, the Germans began using 600-mm Karl-Gerät artillery, which fired concrete-piercing shells weighing more than 2 tons and high-explosive shells weighing 1250 kg. The explosion of a 600 mm gun shell created craters 30 meters in diameter and caused horrific injuries to defenders, including ruptured lungs of those hiding in basements fortresses, from shock waves.

The organized defense of the fortress ended here; There were only isolated pockets of resistance and single fighters who gathered in groups and scattered again and died, or tried to break out of the fortress and go to the partisans in Belovezhskaya Pushcha (some succeeded). Major P. M. Gavrilov was among the last to be captured wounded - on July 23. One of the inscriptions in the fortress reads: “I am dying, but I am not giving up. Goodbye, Motherland. 20/VII-41". According to witnesses, shooting was heard from the fortress until the beginning of August.

P.M.Gavrilov

The total German losses in the Brest Fortress amounted to 5% of total losses Wehrmacht on the Eastern Front during the first week of the war.

There were reports that the last areas of resistance were destroyed only at the end of August, before A. Hitler and B. Mussolini visited the fortress. It is also known that the stone that A. Hitler took from the ruins of the bridge was discovered in his office after the end of the war.

To eliminate the last pockets of resistance, the German high command gave the order to flood the basements of the fortress with water from the Western Bug River.

Memory of the defenders of the fortress

For the first time, the defense of the Brest Fortress became known from a German headquarters report, captured in the papers of the defeated unit in February 1942 near Orel. At the end of the 1940s, the first articles about the defense of the Brest Fortress appeared in newspapers, based solely on rumors. In 1951, while clearing out the rubble of the barracks at the Brest Gate, order No. 1 was found. In the same year, the artist P. Krivonogov painted the painting “Defenders of the Brest Fortress.”

The credit for restoring the memory of the heroes of the fortress largely belongs to the writer and historian S. S. Smirnov, as well as K. M. Simonov, who supported his initiative. The feat of the heroes of the Brest Fortress was popularized by S. S. Smirnov in the book “Brest Fortress” (1957, expanded edition 1964, Lenin Prize 1965). After this, the theme of the defense of the Brest Fortress became an important symbol of the Victory.

Monument to the defenders of the Brest Fortress

On May 8, 1965, the Brest Fortress was awarded the title of Hero Fortress with the presentation of the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal. Since 1971, the fortress has been a memorial complex. On its territory a number of monuments were built in memory of the heroes, and there is a museum of the defense of the Brest Fortress.

Information sources:

http://ru.wikipedia.org

http://www.brest-fortress.by

http://www.calend.ru