Battles of Parczew, Jabłoń and Milanów

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The Battles of Parczew, Jabłoń and Milanów[a] constituted one of the major battles between the Polish Army and the Red Army during the Soviet invasion of Poland. They took place on September 29–30 of 1939 at the beginning of the Second World War. They resulted in a Polish victory, as the Polish units successfully broke through the Soviet forces near the town of Parczew and progressed towards the Świętokrzyskie Mountains.


Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939, marking the beginning of World War II. On 17 September 1939 the Soviet Union, then an ally of Germany, invaded Poland from the east.[3] They encountered only limited resistance, as the majority of Polish forces were thinly stretched against the German invaders.[3] Despite the increasingly difficult situation, some Polish units continued to struggle against the advancing enemies; one of the units resisting the Soviets was the Independent Operational Group Polesie under General Franciszek Kleeberg.[4][5]


The Polesie Group, about 18,000 strong, was followed by the Soviets, which planned to neutralize it before securing the Polesie region.[1]

The group encountered the Soviets on September 28 near the village of Jabłoń, while advancing south towards Parczew. A number of smaller engagements took place over the next two days. The Soviet advance was interrupted by a successful Polish defense, and eventually a Polish counterattack pushed the Soviets back. As the Polish units advanced towards Milanów, they defeated another Soviet attack, inflicting significant casualties on the enemy and taking a number of prisoners.[6]


Soviets took over 100 casualties near Milanów.[7] Their casualties at Jabłoń were few dozen, with a tank captured and another few dozen POWs switching sides to join the Polish army.[8]

After the Soviet forces were defeated, they did not engage the Polesie Group again; instead they would pass the initiative in the region to the German forces, which would engage the Poles instead in what would become the last major battle of the Polish campaign.[1]


  1. ^ Those engagement are rarely referred to as individual battles in Polish historigraphy, and are usually described as part of one series of engagements. Komorowski for example refers to them as "fights near Jabłoń and Milanów".[1] The Milanów engagement is called a battle by Szawlowski.[2]


  1. ^ a b c Krzysztof Komorowski (2009). Boje polskie 1939-1945: przewodnik encyklopedyczny. Bellona. p. 164. ISBN 978-83-11-10357-3. Retrieved 3 September 2013.
  2. ^ Richard Szawlowski (1995). Wojna polsko-sowiecka 1939: tło polityczne, prawnomiędzynarodowe i psychologiczne--Agresja sowiecka i polska obrona--Sowieckie zbrodnie wojenne i przeciw ludzkości oraz zbrodnie ukraińskie. Neriton. p. 196. ISBN 978-83-86842-02-5. Retrieved 3 September 2013.
  3. ^ a b Anna M. Cienciala; Wojciech Materski; Natalia S Lebedeva (1 October 2008). Katyn: A Crime Without Punishment. Yale University Press. pp. 17–21. ISBN 978-0-300-15185-5. Retrieved 3 September 2013.
  4. ^ David G. Williamson (January 2011). Poland Betrayed: The Nazi-Soviet Invasions of 1939. Stackpole Books. p. 130. ISBN 978-0-8117-0828-9. Retrieved 3 September 2013.
  5. ^ Richard Hargreaves (September 2010). Blitzkrieg Unleashed: The German Invasion of Poland, 1939. Stackpole Books. pp. 263–264. ISBN 978-0-8117-0724-4. Retrieved 3 September 2013.
  6. ^ Adam Epler (1943). Ostatni żołnierz polski kampanii roku 1939. Wydział Prac Kult.-Ośw. Ministerstwa Obrony Narodowej. pp. 73–83. Retrieved 3 September 2013.
  7. ^ Halik Kochanski (13 November 2012). The Eagle Unbowed: Poland and the Poles in the Second World War. Harvard University Press. p. 83. ISBN 978-0-674-06816-2. Retrieved 3 September 2013.
  8. ^ Józef Tallat-Kiełpsz (1 January 1999). Polska wobec dwu wrogów: 1939-1941. J. Tallat-Kiełpsz. p. 62. ISBN 978-83-912279-0-9. Retrieved 3 September 2013.