![German prisoner Osowiec](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4f/German_prisoner_Osowiec.jpg)
Osowiec Fortress (
Polish
Polish may refer to:
* Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe
* Polish language
* Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent
* Polish chicken
*Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...
: ''Twierdza Osowiec'',
Russian: ''Крепость Осовец'') is a 19th-century fortress built by the
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...
, located in what is now north-eastern
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...
. It saw heavy fighting during
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
when it was defended for several months by its Russian garrison against German attacks.
The fortress was built in the years 1882–1892 as one of the defensive works to protect the western borders of Russia against
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
, and continuously modernised afterwards to cope with advances in heavy siege artillery. In 1889–1893, military engineer
Nestor Buinitsky
Nestor Aloiziyevich Buinitsky (russian: Нестор Алоизиевич Буйницкий, 1863–1914) was a Russian military engineer, professor of fortification, inventor and lieutenant general.
Biography
Nestor Aloizevich Buinitsky was ...
took an important part in the creation of the fortress. It was located on the river
Biebrza
Biebrza ( lt, Bebras, '' be, Bobra'', ''german: Bober'') is a river in northeastern Poland, a tributary of the Narew river (near Wizna), with a length of and a basin area of 7,092 km2 (7,067 in Poland).East Prussia
East Prussia ; german: Ostpreißen, label=Low Prussian; pl, Prusy Wschodnie; lt, Rytų Prūsija was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1773 to 1829 and again from 1878 (with the Kingdom itself being part of the German Empire from 187 ...
, in the one place where the marshlands of the river could be crossed, hence controlling a vital chokepoint. The extensive marshlands and bogs that surrounded it made attacks upon it difficult. The strategic
Belostok–
Lyck–
Königsberg
Königsberg (, ) was the historic Prussian city that is now Kaliningrad, Russia. Königsberg was founded in 1255 on the site of the ancient Old Prussian settlement ''Twangste'' by the Teutonic Knights during the Northern Crusades, and was named ...
rail line also ran through the fortress and crossed the Biebrza river there. The fortress saw heavy fighting during the beginning of
World War I in the eastern front from September 1914 until the Russian Army abandoned it in August 1915. In the interwar years the fortress was used by the Polish Army. During the
German invasion of Poland
The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week afte ...
in 1939 it was bypassed and did not see much fighting.
Today, some parts of the fortress are accessible to tourists, especially the parts within the boundaries of
Biebrza National Park ''
, iucn_category = II
, photo = Poland Biebrza Burzyn.jpg
, photo_caption = Biebrza River at Burzyn, Poland
Park logo with Ruff
, location = Podlaskie Voivodeship, Poland
, nearest_city = Osowiec-Twierdza
, map = Poland , relief = 1
, m ...
. The visitor information center of the park is located in
Osowiec-Twierdza,
[Lonely Planet guidebook Poland](_blank)
/ref> a small settlement located within the boundaries of the fortress. Other parts of the fortress still belong to the Polish Army
The Land Forces () are the land forces of the Polish Armed Forces. They currently contain some 62,000 active personnel and form many components of the European Union and NATO deployments around the world. Poland's recorded military history stret ...
and access is restricted.
First World War
First German Assault (September 1914)
In September 1914, Russian field defenses surrounding the fortress were attacked by 40 infantry battalions of the German 8th Army; the attackers enjoyed significant numerical superiority. By 21st of September, the German advance brought the fortress proper within range of German artillery; further reinforced with 60 additional guns of calibres up to 203mm, but these could only be brought into action on 26 September. Two days later, a German frontal assault was repelled by Russian artillery. The day afterwards, two Russian flanking counter-attacks forced German artillery to relocate, taking the fortress outside of German artillery range.
Second Battle (February-March 1915)
Attempting to cut the railway line between Białystok
Białystok is the largest city in northeastern Poland and the capital of the Podlaskie Voivodeship. It is the tenth-largest city in Poland, second in terms of population density, and thirteenth in area.
Białystok is located in the Białystok Up ...
and Warsaw, the Germans attacked the Osowiec fortress, which was lightly defended by a few Russian battalions. Two days of heavy bombardment by the Germans commenced on 14 February, followed by a second bombardment during the last week of the month. However, German infantry attacks were repelled, and the situation devolved into positional warfare for the next several months.
It is sometimes incorrectly claimed that Russian counter-battery fire
Counter-battery fire (sometimes called counter-fire) is a battlefield tactic employed to defeat the enemy's indirect fire elements (multiple rocket launchers, artillery and mortars), including their target acquisition, as well as their command an ...
destroyed two German heavy mortars; these guns were withdrawn for operations elsewhere.[Kauffman & Kauffman, 2016, pp. 112–113]
Third Battle (July–August 1915)
The Germans launched a full frontal offensive on the fortress at the beginning of July; the attack included 14 battalions of infantry, one battalion of sappers, 24–30 heavy siege guns, and 30 batteries of artillery equipped with poison gases led by Field Marshal
Field marshal (or field-marshal, abbreviated as FM) is the most senior military rank, ordinarily senior to the general officer ranks. Usually, it is the highest rank in an army and as such few persons are appointed to it. It is considered as ...
Paul von Hindenburg
Paul Ludwig Hans Anton von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg (; abbreviated ; 2 October 1847 – 2 August 1934) was a German field marshal and statesman who led the Imperial German Army during World War I and later became President of Germany fro ...
. Russian defences were manned by 500 soldiers of the 226th Infantry Regiment Zemlyansky, and 400 militia.
The Germans knew the Russians did not have any gas masks so they chose to use chlorine gas. The Germans waited until 4 a.m. on 6 August for favourable wind conditions, when the attack opened with regular artillery bombardment combined with chlorine gas. The ensuing battle was known as the Attack of the Dead Men. The Russians put on wet rags on their faces to filter some of the gas. Most died but some survived the gas attack. Even while suffering severe chemical burns the Russians were able to repel the attack due to German forces panicking at the sight of the Russian men, covered in blisters and coughing up their own respiratory organs, with the Germans subsequently retreating. The Russian garrison suffered heavy losses, but some soldiers survived even after the final charge, and chlorine gas barrage. This offensive by the remaining Russian troops was dubbed the "Attack of the Dead Men", as the near deceased soldiers resembled the undead, still charging despite being badly injured.
The Russians did not hold Osowiec for much longer. The Germans threatened to encircle the fortress with the capture of Kovno
Kaunas (; ; also see other names) is the second-largest city in Lithuania after Vilnius and an important centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaunas was the largest city and the centre of a county in the Duchy of Trakai ...
and Novogeorgiesk. The Russians demolished much of Osowiec and withdrew on 18 August.[Kauffman & Kauffman, 2016, p. 225]
Second World War
After the First World War, the Second Polish Republic
The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central Europe, Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 1918 and 1939. The state was established on 6 November 1918, before the end of ...
refurbished parts of Osowiec and used it to house Polish army units, including the Central School of Non-Commissioned Officers of the Border Protection Corps
The Border Protection Corps ( pl, Korpus Ochrony Pogranicza, KOP) was a military formation of the Second Polish Republic that was created in 1924 to defend the country's eastern borders against armed Soviet incursions and local bandits. Other ...
.
The 135th Reserve Infantry Regiment was formed from the school after Germany invaded Poland at the beginning of the Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. The Poles abandoned the fortress on 13 September. The Germans captured it and passed it to the Soviet 20th Motor Rifle and Machine Gun Brigade on 25 September. Osowiec was subsequently garrisoned by the Soviet 10th Army. The Germans recaptured Osowiec on 27 June 1941 during Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa (german: link=no, Unternehmen Barbarossa; ) was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and many of its Axis allies, starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during the Second World War. The operation, code-named after ...
; one use of the fortress was as an ammunition dump
An ammunition dump, ammunition supply point (ASP), ammunition handling area (AHA) or ammunition depot is a military storage facility for live ammunition and explosives.
The storage of live ammunition and explosives is inherently hazardous. Th ...
there. On 14 August 1944, the Soviet 49th and 50th Armies captured three of the forts during the Osovets Offensive of Operation Bagration
Operation Bagration (; russian: Операция Багратио́н, Operatsiya Bagration) was the codename for the 1944 Soviet Byelorussian strategic offensive operation (russian: Белорусская наступательная оп ...
. Fort II remained in German hands until January 1945, when it was abandoned during the Vistula–Oder Offensive.
Post-War
In 1953, the fortress was regarrisoned by a Polish Air Force
The Polish Air Force ( pl, Siły Powietrzne, , Air Forces) is the aerial warfare branch of the Polish Armed Forces. Until July 2004 it was officially known as ''Wojska Lotnicze i Obrony Powietrznej'' (). In 2014 it consisted of roughly 16,425 mil ...
ammunition depot, which was absorbed into the 11th Regional Materiel Base in 1998. In 2011, the Osowiec garrison became part of the 2nd Regional Logistics Base.
References
Bibliography
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*{{cite book, ref=perzyk, language=pl, last1=Perzyk Bogusław , title=Twierdza Osowiec 1882–1915 , publisher=Militaria Bogusława Perzyka , location=Warszawa , year=2004 , isbn = 83-907405-1-6
External links
Polish 1:25,000 topographic map from 1927
Osowiec-Twierdza
Forts in Poland
Establishments in Congress Poland
Buildings and structures in Podlaskie Voivodeship
Tourist attractions in Podlaskie Voivodeship
Sieges involving Russia
Sieges involving Germany
Polish Land Forces