If it comes to the second battle of Chelm Lubelski once again:
On one hand Soviet combat diary KSOW of Ukrainian Front mentions that:
"25.09.1939: 36th Tank Brigade which was ordered to capture Chelm, until the evening hours was involved in heavy combats at the outskirts of Chelm along the line: Wolka Leszczynska - Wojslawice. Two independent tank battalions and two independent reconnaissance battalions were sent to rescue this brigade."
And on the other hand Kombrig N. Bogomolow - comander of this brigade - mentions in his report that his brigade lost two officers KIA during combats for Chelm (and he doesn't say how many NCOs and soldiers were KIA).
Also Polish historian, Czeslaw Grzelak writes about combats in and around Chelm:
"When approaching to the military barracks tanks were fired at by small arms, MGs and artillery fire. They retreated but due to barricades on the streets only one managed to break through to the eastern part of the city, where Polish soldiers were being disarmed. One of Polish units refused to be disarmed and opened fire. Soviet sources say about the death of their two officers. It is not known what happened to these encircled Soviet tanks."
After this incident Soviets retreated all of their units from the city of Chelm. Czeslaw Grzelak writes:
"After this failed attempt of capturing Chelm and disarming Polish soldiers, heavy combats started in the outskirts of the city, which later transmitted to nearby forests."
"Commander of 36 Tank Brigade decided to encircle the city and attack it with use of two tank battalions (I and III) and one reconnaissance battalion. Nothing is mentioned about the II battalion, which tried to capture Chelm previously."
"Although the report of the commander of 36 Tank Brigade does not say anything about it, but according to the combat diary of KSOW, combat situation of the brigade in the region of Chelm was so hard, that tank battalions and reconnaissance battalions of two rifle divisions (44 and 87) were send to rescue the brigade."
And this (several fragments from the report of the commander of this 36 Tank Brigade - kombrig N. Bogomolow):
"At 23:00 reconnaissance group of the brigade (infantry platoon, 2 tanks, 3 armoured cars) which was near the locality Wierba was attacked by foot and horse soldiers. As the result of this combat around 50 Polish were killed; casualties of the reconnaissance group - 2 killed, 1 wounded."
"Disarming of the garrison of Wlodzimierz Wolynski ended at 20:00. 1500 officers and 12,000 soldiers were captured, 150 cannons were captured. Own casualties: 2 killed, 5 wounded, one armoured car BA-10 destroyed."
"The battle started, as the result of which until 17:30 Chelm was captured; in the city around 8000 officers and privates were captured, 20 MGs and 10 cannons were captured. During combat 2 officers of the brigade were killed."
What is interesting is that:
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic. ... 9&t=151394
Domen121 wrote:according to the report (written on 04.10.1939) on casualties and condition of Soviet armoured forces in Poland in period 17 IX - 2 IX 1939 losses were as follows (the following numbers were reported in this report):
KIA / MIA / WIA / Tank casualties / Including tanks completely destroyed or burnt out (irretrievable losses):
In brackets - number of operational tanks on 17.09.1939 / 02.10.1939:
[...]
36 Tank Brigade - 4 / 0 / 4 / 20 / 0 (220 / 200)
While even from the report of komrig N. Bogomolow we receive higher numbers - at least 6 killed and at least 6 wounded (and these are only casualties during those three combats - in Wlodzimierz, in Chelm, near Wierba).
But as this has only relatively little to do with the main topic of this thread, so I'm ending writing about the 2nd battle for Chelm - anyway - it would be sad not to mention about it if I was writing about the first German-Polish battle.
Regards!
Peter
------------------------------
And one more thing - sources to my last three posts:
Cpt. Kazimierz Ważyński, "Kronika 41 DP Rez." ("Chronicles of 41. Reserve Inf.Div."), MiD WIH, II/2/90, pages 57 - 58
Heinz Guderian, "Wspomnienia Żolnierza" (Polish edition of "Memories of a Soldier"), page 69
Ludwik Głowacki, "Kampania wrześniowa na Lubelszczyźnie" ("September campaign in Lubelszczyzna"), pages 93 - 94
Czeslaw Grzelak, "Kresy w Czerwieni 1939. Agresja Związku Sowieckiego na Polskę" and "Kampania Polska 1939 Roku"
Janusz Magnuski, Maksim Kolomijec, "Czerwony Blitzkrieg" ("The Red Blitzkrieg")
Photo of Sawin comes from the internet (Google Images)