The Battle of Studzianki was a tactical engagement between elements of the

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after ...

2nd Guards Tank Army The 2nd Guards Tank Army () was a large military formation of the Red Army and later the Soviet Army, now part of the Russian Ground Forces of the Russian Federation. The army was originally formed in early 1943 as the 2nd Tank Army. It was the ...

employed as a cavalry mechanized group of the

1st Belorussian Front The 1st Belorussian Front (Russian: Пéрвый Белорусский фронт, ''Perviy Belorusskiy front'', also romanized " Byelorussian") was a major formation of the Soviet Army during World War II, being equivalent to a Western army ...

, together with Polish 1st Armoured Brigade and elements of the German 9th Army of the

Army Group North Ukraine The Army Group North Ukraine (german: Heeresgruppe Nordukraine) was a major formation of the German army in World War II. History It was created on 5 April 1944 by renaming Army Group South under Generalfeldmarschall Walter Model. In April 1944 i ...

defending the area south of Warsaw. The battle was part of the

Operation Bagration Operation Bagration (; russian: Операция Багратио́н, Operatsiya Bagration) was the codename for the 1944 Soviet Byelorussian strategic offensive operation (russian: Белорусская наступательная оп� ...

Battle

The 2nd Tank Army was launched through the breach in the German

4th Panzer Army The 4th Panzer Army (german: 4. Panzerarmee) (operating as Panzer Group 4 (german: 4. Panzergruppe) from its formation on 15 February 1941 to 1 January 1942, when it was redesignated as a full army) was a German panzer formation during World War ...

's front between

Parczew Parczew is a town in eastern Poland, with a population of 10,281 (2006). It is the capital of Parczew County in the Lublin Voivodeship. Parczew historically belongs to Lesser Poland (''Małopolska'') region. The town lies 60 kilometers north o ...

and

Chełm Chełm (; uk, Холм, Kholm; german: Cholm; yi, כעלם, Khelm) is a city in southeastern Poland with 60,231 inhabitants as of December 2021. It is located to the south-east of Lublin, north of Zamość and south of Biała Podlaska, some ...

, and bypassing

Lublin Lublin is the ninth-largest city in Poland and the second-largest city of historical Lesser Poland. It is the capital and the center of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 336,339 (December 2021). Lublin is the largest Polish city east of t ...

attempted to find a crossing over the

Vistula The Vistula (; pl, Wisła, ) is the longest river in Poland and the ninth-longest river in Europe, at in length. The drainage basin, reaching into three other nations, covers , of which is in Poland. The Vistula rises at Barania Góra in ...

. It was supported by the

First Polish Army First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...

, including its 1st Armoured Brigade. In a hasty encounter battle, the 1st Armoured Brigade was located in the first echelon of the 2nd Tank Army. At the point where the army was able to occupy the

Magnuszew Magnuszew is a village in Kozienice County, Masovian Voivodeship, in east-central Poland. It is the seat of the gmina (administrative district) called Gmina Magnuszew. It lies approximately north-west of Kozienice and south-east of Warsaw. ...

bridgehead In military strategy, a bridgehead (or bridge-head) is the strategically important area of ground around the end of a bridge or other place of possible crossing over a body of water which at time of conflict is sought to be defended or taken over ...

, the Polish brigade engaged advance elements of the counter-attacking German Fallschirm-Panzer Division 1 Hermann Göring, which had express orders to keep the Red Army from crossing the Vistula. The German counter-attack tried to dislodge the Soviet engineers and the Polish troops providing support for them, behind the Vistula, off the bridgehead. On the 9th, the Germans captured the village of Grabnowola before attempting to push forward to destroy the Soviet forward elements. Initially achieving some success until an attack by the Polish 3rd Tank Company pushed them back before, on the 11th, an attack from the 1st Tank Company drove them from the village of Studzianki. Fierce fighting ensued as the German attack stalled with the 1st Company being forced to fight for the village more than 7 times until, on the 15th, the majority of German forces were encircled and destroyed. Remaining elements of the German forces continued to fight for another day however, retreated by the 17th.

Aftermath

The battle had been a complete failure for the Germans. Whilst they had initially achieved some success in the battle, pushing all the way to the bridgehead itself, it had been forced back by the Polish counterattack and was costly in terms of men and material. For the Polish and Soviets, the battle had been a resounding success.

Commemoration

To commemorate the battle, in 1969 the name of the village Studzianki was changed to Studzianki Pancerne, the word ''pancerne'' meaning ''armoured'' in

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 ...

. There is a small museum in the town focuses on the history of the battle."SOUNDSCAPES :: Studzianki Pancerne - 69 years after tank battle"
''Radio Poland'', 20.08.2013

References

Battles involving Poland Conflicts in 1944 Battles of World War II involving Germany Battles involving the Soviet Union Battles and operations of the Soviet–German War Tank battles involving Germany Tank battles involving Poland Tank battles involving the Soviet Union {{PAGENAME Tank battles of World War II