How the war began: the defense of the Brest Fortress. Defense of the Brest Fortress

Courage is a great property of the soul: the people marked by it should be proud of themselves.

N. M. Karamzin

The Brest Fortress was built and put into operation on April 26, 1842. It was located on the western border of the Russian Empire (the territory of modern Belarus) and was built to strengthen the western border of the Russian Empire. Initially, the significance of this defensive line was quite symbolic, but it was in Brest in 1941 that one of the most terrible battles took place, in which the defenders showed all their courage and courage.

The balance of forces and means

It was this fortress that was destined to be the first to take the blow of the German army. By June 22, 1941, there was only one division in Brest. The main forces shortly before the start of the war were withdrawn for exercises. Initially, the defense of the Brest Fortress was carried out by the following forces:

• 8 rifle battalions,
• 1 artillery battalion,
• 1 anti-tank company,
• 1 reconnaissance company,
• 1 anti-air battery.

In general, Major Gavrilov, who was in charge of the defense of the Brest Fortress, had 8 thousand soldiers, plus medical personnel. The problem for the defenders was that it was in this place that the epicenter of the movement of the German army "Center" was located, which, in order to implement the "Barbarossa" plan, planned to destroy all the key strongholds of the USSR on the western sector of the front as soon as possible. For the assault, the German 45th army was sent, which consisted of 17 thousand people. Consequently, by the beginning of the battle for Brest, the German army twice outnumbered the defenders. According to the plan of the German command, Brest was to be captured without the use of tanks. This was necessary, since the German command did not dare to send tanks to this area because of the swampy terrain.

The beginning of the assault

Preparations for the assault began at 4 a.m. in 1941. The German army began artillery preparation for the attack, inflicting its main blow on the barracks, as well as on that part of the garrison where the officers were located. The defenders were taken by surprise. It was impossible to leave the fortress, because the German artillery fired on the approaches to the fortress itself and its gates. At 4:45 the assault began.

It should be noted that the defenders of Brest, taken by surprise by a sudden artillery strike, were mostly buried in the barracks. Most of the command was destroyed by the Germans during the artillery preparation of the attack. As a result, the defense of the Brest Fortress at the initial stage took place virtually without command and consisted in holding separate fortifications. Soviet soldiers fought bravely. The Germans with great difficulty captured the fortifications. Most fierce battles were going on near the Kobrin fortification fortresses.

On June 23, the German army again began the day with artillery shelling of the fortress, after which another assault followed. Brest withstood that day as well. By the end of June 24, at the cost of colossal human losses, the German army managed to capture the Terespol and Volyn fortifications. Realizing that it was impossible to keep the fortifications further, the defenders retreated to the citadel of the fortress at night. As a result, starting from June 25, the defense of the Brest Fortress concentrated at two points: in the citadel and the eastern fort, which is on the Kobrin fortifications. The defenders of the eastern fort numbered 400 people. They were led by Major Gavrilov. The Germans made up to ten assaults every day, but the defenders held out.

The fall of the fortress

On June 26, 1941, another German offensive was successful. The citadel has fallen. Most of the Soviet soldiers were captured. On June 29, the eastern fort fell. But the defense of the Brest Fortress did not end there! Since that time, it has become unorganized, but those Soviet soldiers who took refuge in the dungeon daily engaged in battle with the Germans. They did the almost unbelievable. A small group of Soviet people, 12 people, commanded by Major Gavrilov, resisted the Germans until July 12. These heroes held an entire German division in the area of ​​the Brest Fortress for almost a month! But even after Major Gavrilov and his detachment fell, fighting continued in the fortress. According to historians, pockets of resistance in this region lasted until the beginning of August 1941.

The garrison of the fortress under the command of Captain I.N. Zubachev and regimental commissar E.M. Fomin (3.5 thousand people) for a week heroically held back the onslaught of the 45th German Infantry Division, which was supported by artillery and aviation. Pockets of resistance remained in the fortress for another three weeks (Major P. M. Gavrilov was captured on July 23). According to some reports, some defenders of the fortress held out in August. The defense of the fortress was the first, but eloquent lesson that showed the Germans what awaits them in the future.

THE LEGEND BECOME A REALITY
In February 1942, on one of the sectors of the front in the Orel region, our troops defeated the enemy's 45th infantry division. At the same time, the archive of the division headquarters was captured. While sorting through the documents captured in the German archives, our officers drew attention to one very curious paper. This document was called "Combat report on the occupation of Brest-Litovsk", and in it, day after day, the Nazis talked about the course of the battles for the Brest Fortress.

Against the will of the German staff officers, who, naturally, tried in every possible way to exalt the actions of their troops, all the facts cited in this document spoke of exceptional courage, amazing heroism, and the extraordinary stamina and stubbornness of the defenders of the Brest Fortress. The last closing words of this report sounded like a forced involuntary recognition of the enemy.

“A stunning attack on a fortress in which a brave defender sits costs a lot of blood,” wrote enemy staff officers. - This simple truth was proved once again during the capture of the Brest Fortress. The Russians in Brest-Litovsk fought extremely persistently and stubbornly, they showed excellent infantry training and proved a remarkable will to resist.

Such was the recognition of the enemy.

This “Combat report on the occupation of Brest-Litovsk” was translated into Russian, and excerpts from it were published in 1942 in the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper. So, in fact, from the lips of our enemy, the Soviet people for the first time learned some details of the remarkable feat of the heroes of the Brest Fortress. The legend has become a reality.

Two more years have passed. In the summer of 1944, during the powerful offensive of our troops in Belarus, Brest was liberated. On July 28, 1944, Soviet soldiers entered the Brest Fortress for the first time after three years of fascist occupation.

Almost the entire fortress lay in ruins. By the mere sight of these terrible ruins, one could judge the strength and cruelty of the battles that took place here. These piles of ruins were full of severe grandeur, as if the unbroken spirit of the fallen fighters of 1941 still lived in them. The gloomy stones, in some places already overgrown with grass and bushes, beaten and chipped by bullets and shrapnel, seemed to have absorbed the fire and blood of the past battle, and the people wandering among the ruins of the fortress involuntarily came to mind how much these stones had seen and how much they would be able to tell if a miracle happened and they could speak.

And a miracle happened! The stones suddenly spoke! On the surviving walls of fortifications, in the openings of windows and doors, on the vaults of cellars, on the abutments of the bridge, inscriptions left by the defenders of the fortress began to be found. In these inscriptions, sometimes nameless, sometimes signed, sometimes sketched in a pencil, sometimes simply scrawled on the plaster with a bayonet or a bullet, the fighters declared their determination to fight to the death, sent farewell greetings to the Motherland and comrades, spoke of devotion to the people and the party. It was as if the living voices of the unknown heroes of 1941 sounded in the ruins of the fortress, and the soldiers of 1944, with excitement and heartache, listened to these voices, in which there was a proud consciousness of a fulfilled duty, and the bitterness of parting with life, and calm courage in the face of death, and a covenant about revenge.

“There were five of us: Sedov, Grutov I., Bogolyubov, Mikhailov, Selivanov V. We took the first battle on June 22, 1941. We will die, but we will not leave!” - was written on the bricks of the outer wall near the Terespol Gate.

In the western part of the barracks, in one of the rooms, the following inscription was found: “There were three of us, it was difficult for us, but we did not lose heart and we will die like heroes. July. 1941".

In the center of the fortress courtyard stands a dilapidated church-type building. There really was once a church here, and later, before the war, it was converted into a club of one of the regiments stationed in the fortress. In this club, on the site where the projectionist's booth was located, an inscription was scratched on the plaster: “We were three Muscovites - Ivanov, Stepanchikov, Zhuntyaev, who defended this church, and we swore an oath: we will die, but we will not leave here. July. 1941".

This inscription, along with the plaster, was removed from the wall and transferred to the Central Museum of the Soviet Army in Moscow, where it is now kept. Below, on the same wall, there was another inscription, which, unfortunately, has not been preserved, and we know it only from the stories of soldiers who served in the fortress in the first years after the war and read it many times. This inscription was, as it were, a continuation of the first one: “I was left alone, Stepanchikov and Zhuntyaev died. Germans in the church itself. The last grenade remained, but I will not give myself up alive. Comrades, avenge us!" These words were apparently scratched out by the last of the three Muscovites - Ivanov.

Not only stones spoke. As it turned out, the wives and children of the commanders who died in the battles for the fortress in 1941 lived in Brest and its environs. During the days of fighting, these women and children, caught in the war in the fortress, were in the cellars of the barracks, sharing all the hardships of defense with their husbands and fathers. Now they shared their memories, told many interesting details of the memorable defense.

And then a surprising and strange contradiction emerged. The German document I was talking about stated that the fortress resisted for nine days and fell by July 1, 1941. Meanwhile, many women recalled that they were captured only on July 10, or even on July 15, and when the Nazis took them outside the fortress, fighting was still going on in certain areas of the defense, there was an intense firefight. The inhabitants of Brest said that until the end of July or even until the first days of August, shooting was heard from the fortress, and the Nazis brought their wounded officers and soldiers from there to the city, where their army hospital was located.

Thus, it became clear that the German report about the occupation of Brest-Litovsk contained a deliberate lie and that the headquarters of the 45th enemy division hastened in advance to inform its high command about the fall of the fortress. In fact, the fighting continued for a long time ... In 1950, a researcher at the Moscow Museum, exploring the premises of the western barracks, found another inscription scratched on the wall. This inscription was: “I am dying, but I do not give up. Farewell, Motherland! There was no signature under these words, but at the bottom there was a completely clearly distinguishable date - "July 20, 1941." So it was possible to find direct evidence that the fortress continued to resist even on the 29th day of the war, although eyewitnesses stood their ground and assured that the battles had been going on for more than a month. After the war, a partial dismantling of the ruins was carried out in the fortress, and at the same time, the remains of heroes were often found under the stones, their personal documents and weapons were found.

Smirnov S.S. Brest Fortress. M., 1964

BREST FORTRESS
Built almost a century before the start of the Great Patriotic War (the construction of the main fortifications was completed by 1842), the fortress has long lost its strategic importance in the eyes of the military, since it was not considered capable of withstanding the onslaught of modern artillery. As a result, the objects of the complex served, first of all, to accommodate personnel, who, in case of war, had to keep the defense outside the fortress. At the same time, the plan to create a fortified area, taking into account the latest achievements in the field of fortification, as of June 22, 1941, was not fully implemented.

At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the garrison of the fortress consisted mainly of units of the 6th and 42nd rifle divisions of the 28th rifle corps of the Red Army. But it has been significantly reduced due to the participation of many military personnel in planned training events.

The German operation to capture the fortress was launched by a powerful artillery preparation, which destroyed a significant part of the buildings, destroyed a large number of garrison soldiers and at first noticeably demoralized the survivors. The enemy quickly gained a foothold on the South and West Islands, and assault troops appeared on the Central Island, but failed to occupy the barracks in the Citadel. In the area of ​​​​the Terespol Gates, the Germans met a desperate counterattack by Soviet soldiers under the general command of the regimental commissar E.M. Fomin. The vanguard units of the 45th division of the Wehrmacht suffered serious losses.

The time gained allowed the Soviet side to organize an orderly defense of the barracks. The Nazis were forced to remain in their positions in the building of the army club, from which they could not get out for some time. Fire also stopped attempts to break through enemy reinforcements across the bridge over the Mukhavets in the area of ​​the Kholmsky Gates on the Central Island.

In addition to the central part of the fortress, resistance gradually grew in other parts of the complex of buildings (in particular, under the command of Major P.M. Gavrilov on the northern Kobrin fortification), and dense buildings favored the soldiers of the garrison. Because of it, the enemy could not conduct aimed artillery fire at close range without being in danger of being destroyed himself. Having only small arms and a small number of artillery pieces and armored vehicles, the defenders of the fortress stopped the advance of the enemy, and later, when the Germans carried out a tactical retreat, they occupied the positions left by the enemy.

At the same time, despite the failure of a quick assault, on June 22, the Wehrmacht forces managed to take the entire fortress into a blockade ring. Prior to its establishment, according to some estimates, up to half of the payroll of the units stationed in the complex managed to leave the fortress and occupy the lines prescribed by defensive plans. Taking into account the losses for the first day of defense, as a result, the fortress was defended by about 3.5 thousand people, blocked in its different parts. As a result, each of the large pockets of resistance could only rely on material resources in its immediate vicinity. The command of the joint forces of the defenders was entrusted to Captain I.N. Zubachev, whose deputy was the regimental commissar Fomin.

In the following days of the defense of the fortress, the enemy stubbornly sought to occupy the Central Island, but met with an organized rebuff from the Citadel garrison. Only on June 24 did the Germans manage to finally occupy the Terespol and Volyn fortifications on the Western and Southern Islands. Artillery bombardments of the Citadel alternated with air raids, during one of which a German fighter was shot down by rifle fire. The defenders of the fortress also knocked out at least four enemy tanks. It is known about the death of several more German tanks on improvised minefields installed by the Red Army.

The enemy used incendiary ammunition and tear gas against the garrison (the besiegers had a regiment of heavy chemical mortars at their disposal).

No less dangerous for Soviet soldiers and civilians who were with them (primarily the wives and children of officers) was a catastrophic lack of food and drink. If the consumption of ammunition could be compensated for by the surviving arsenals of the fortress and captured weapons, then the needs for water, food, medicine and dressings were met at a minimum level. The water supply of the fortress was destroyed, and the manual intake of water from Mukhavets and Bug was practically paralyzed by enemy fire. The situation was further complicated by the incessant intense heat.

At the initial stage of the defense, the idea of ​​breaking through the boundaries of the fortress and connecting with the main forces was abandoned, since the command of the defenders was counting on an early counterattack by the Soviet troops. When these calculations did not come true, attempts began to break through the blockade, but they all ended in failure due to the overwhelming superiority of the Wehrmacht in manpower and weapons.

By the beginning of July, after a particularly large-scale bombardment and artillery shelling, the enemy managed to capture the fortifications on the Central Island, thereby destroying the main center of resistance. From that moment on, the defense of the fortress lost its integral and coordinated character, and the fight against the Nazis was continued by already scattered groups in different parts of the complex. The actions of these groups and individual fighters acquired more and more features of sabotage activity and continued in some cases until the end of July and even until the beginning of August 1941. Already after the war, in the casemates of the Brest Fortress, an inscription “I am dying, but I do not give up. Farewell Motherland. July 20, 1941"

Most of the surviving defenders of the garrison were captured by the Germans, where even before the end of organized defense, women and children were sent. Commissar Fomin was shot by the Germans, Captain Zubachev died in captivity, Major Gavrilov survived captivity and was transferred to the reserve during the post-war reduction of the army. The defense of the Brest Fortress (after the war it received the title of "hero-fortress") became a symbol of the courage and self-sacrifice of Soviet soldiers in the first, most tragic period of the war.

Astashin N.A. Brest Fortress // Great Patriotic War. Encyclopedia. /Answer. ed. Ak. A.O. Chubaryan. M., 2010.

The attack on our country in June 1941 began along the entire western border, from north to south, each border outpost took its own battle. But the defense of the Brest Fortress has become legendary. The fighting was already on the outskirts of Minsk, and rumors were passed from soldier to soldier that somewhere out there, in the west, a border fortress was still defending, not surrendering. According to the German plan, eight hours were allotted for the complete capture of the Brest fortification. But not a day or two later, the fortress was not taken. It is believed that the last day of its defense is July 20. The inscription on the wall is dated this day: “We die, but we don’t give up ...”. Witnesses claimed that even in August the sounds of shots and explosions were heard in the central citadel.

On the night of June 22, 1941, cadet Myasnikov and Private Shcherbina were in a border secret in one of the shelters of the Terespol fortification at the junction of the branches of the Western Bug. At dawn, they noticed a German armored train approaching the railway bridge. They wanted to report to the outpost, but realized it was too late. The ground trembled underfoot, the sky darkened from enemy planes.

Cadets of the school of drivers and border guards, fighters of a transport company and a sapper platoon, participants in the training of cavalrymen and athletes - all those who were in the fortification that night took up defense. The fortress was defended by several groups in different parts of the citadel. One of them was headed by Lieutenant Zhdanov, and in the neighborhood, groups of Lieutenants Melnikov and Chernoy were preparing for battle.

Under the cover of artillery fire, the Germans moved to the fortress. At that time, there were about 300 people at the Tepespol fortification. They responded to the attack with machine-gun fire and grenades. However, one of the enemy's assault detachments managed to break through to the fortifications of the Central Island. Attacks followed several times a day, we had to engage in hand-to-hand combat. Each time the Germans retreated with losses.

On June 24, 1941, a meeting of commanders and political workers of the central citadel of the Brest Fortress was held in one of the basements of the building of the 333rd Engineer Regiment. A unified headquarters for the defense of the Central Island was created. Captain I.N. Zubachev became the commander of the consolidated combat group, his deputy was regimental commissar E.M. Fomin, and the chief of staff was senior lieutenant Semenenko.

The situation was dire: there was not enough ammunition, food, water. The remaining 18 people were forced to leave the fortification and keep the defense in the Citadel.

On June 30, 1941, a bomb hit the basement where the headquarters of the defense of the Citadel was located. Fomin was seriously wounded and shell-shocked, lost consciousness and was taken prisoner. The Germans shot him at the Kholmsky Gate. And the defenders of the fortress continued to hold the line.

When the Germans captured women and children in the Volyn fortification and drove them ahead of them to the Citadel, no one wanted to go. They were beaten with rifle butts and shot. And the women shouted to the Soviet soldiers: “shoot, don’t feel sorry for us!”.

Lieutenants Potapov and Sanin led the defense in the two-story barracks of their regiment. Nearby stood the building where the 9th border outpost was located. Fighters under the command of the head of the outpost, Lieutenant Kizhevatov, fought here. Only when only ruins remained of their building, Kizhevatov and his fighters moved into the cellars of the barracks and continued to lead the defense together with Potapov.

Defense of the Brest Fortress (defense of Brest) is one of the very first battles between the Soviet and German armies during the Great Patriotic War.

Brest was one of the border garrisons on the territory of the USSR, it covered the path to the central highway leading to Minsk. That is why Brest was one of the first cities to be attacked after the German attack. The Soviet army held back the enemy's onslaught for a week, despite the numerical superiority of the Germans, as well as support from artillery and aviation. As a result of a long siege, the Germans were still able to capture the main fortifications of the Brest Fortress and destroy them. However, in other areas the struggle continued for quite a long time: small groups that remained after the raid resisted the enemy with their last strength.

The defense of the Brest Fortress became an important battle in which the Soviet troops were able to show their readiness to defend themselves to the last drop of blood, despite the advantages of the enemy. The defense of Brest went down in history as one of the bloodiest sieges and at the same time as one of the greatest battles that showed all the courage of the Soviet army.

Brest Fortress on the eve of the war

The city of Brest became part of the Soviet Union shortly before the start of the war - in 1939. By that time, the fortress had already lost its military significance due to the onset of destruction and only reminded of past battles. The Brest Fortress was built in the 19th century. and was part of the defensive fortifications of the Russian Empire on its western borders, however, in the 20th century. it ceased to have military significance.

By the time the war began, the Brest Fortress was mainly used to accommodate garrisons of military personnel, as well as a number of families of the military command, there was also a hospital and utility rooms. By the time of the treacherous German attack on the USSR, about 8,000 military personnel and about 300 command families lived in the fortress. There were weapons and supplies in the fortress, but their number was not designed for military operations.

Assault on the Brest Fortress

The assault on the Brest Fortress began on the morning of June 22, 1941, simultaneously with the start of the Great Patriotic War. The barracks and residential buildings of the command were the first to be subjected to powerful artillery fire and air strikes, since the Germans wanted, first of all, to completely destroy the entire command staff in the fortress, and thereby introduce confusion into the army, disorient it.

Although almost all the officers died, the surviving soldiers were able to quickly orient themselves and create a powerful defense. The surprise factor did not work as expected, and the assault, which was supposed to end by 12 noon, dragged on for several days.

Even before the start of the war, the Soviet command issued a decree according to which, in the event of an attack, the military must immediately leave the fortress itself and take up positions along its perimeter, but only a few managed to do this - most of the soldiers remained in the fortress. The defenders of the fortress were in a deliberately losing position, but they did not give up their positions and did not allow the Germans to quickly and unconditionally take over Brest.

The course of the defense of the Brest Fortress

The Soviet soldiers, who, contrary to their plans, could not quickly leave the fortress, quickly organized a defense and within a few hours drove the Germans out of the territory of the fortress, who managed to get into its central part. The soldiers occupied the barracks and various buildings along the perimeter in order to most effectively organize the defense of the fortress and be able to repel enemy attacks from all flanks. Despite the absence of the commanding staff, volunteers were quickly found from among ordinary soldiers who took over the leadership of the operation.

On June 22, 8 attempts were made to break into the fortress by the Germans, but they did not give a result. Moreover, the German army, contrary to all forecasts, suffered significant losses. The German command decided to change tactics: instead of an assault, a siege of the Brest Fortress was now planned. The troops that had broken through inside were withdrawn and sorted around the perimeter of the fortress in order to begin a long siege and cut off the Soviet troops from the exit, as well as disrupt the supply of food and weapons.

On the morning of June 23, the bombardment of the fortress began, after which an assault was again attempted. Groups of the German army broke through, but faced fierce resistance and were destroyed - the assault failed again, and the Germans had to return to siege tactics. Long battles began, which did not subside for several days and greatly exhausted both armies.

Despite the onslaught of the German army, as well as shelling and bombing, the Soviet soldiers held the line, although they lacked weapons and food. A few days later, the supply of drinking water was cut off, and then the defenders decided to release women and children from the fortress so that they would surrender to the Germans and stay alive, but some women refused to leave the fortress and continued to fight.

On June 26, the Germans made several more attempts to break into the Brest Fortress, they managed to do this partially - several groups broke through. Only by the end of the month, the German army was able to capture most of the fortress, killing Soviet soldiers. However, the groups, scattered and having lost a single line of defense, still continued to offer desperate resistance even when the fortress was taken by the Germans.

The meaning and results of the defense of the Brest Fortress

The resistance of individual groups of soldiers continued until the autumn, until these groups were destroyed by the Germans and the last defender of the Brest Fortress died. During the defense of the Brest Fortress, Soviet troops suffered colossal losses, but at the same time, the army showed genuine courage, thereby showing that the war for the Germans would not be as easy as Hitler expected. The defenders were recognized as heroes of the war.

In February 1942, Soviet troops defeated a four-infantry division of the Wehrmacht during the Yelets offensive operation. 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 extremely 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 Shliper. It was then that the Soviet troops learned the truth about the battles for the Brest Fortress.

Defeat in no time

In the early morning of June 22, 1941, after aviation 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, putting out of action more than 1.2 thousand aircraft of the Soviet army. Thus began the Great Patriotic War.

According to the Barbarossa plan of attack on the USSR, the German command expected to defeat the Soviet army as soon as possible, preventing it from coming to its senses and organizing coordinated resistance.

Photo report:"I'm dying, but I don't give up!"

Is_photorep_included9701423: 1

One of the first to fight for the Motherland was the defenders of the Brest Fortress. On the eve of the war, about half of the number of personnel was withdrawn from the fortress to the camps for exercises. Thus, in the morning of June 22, there were about 9 thousand fighters and commanders in the Brest Fortress, not counting the staff and patients of the hospital. The assault on the fortress and the city of Brest was entrusted to the 45th Infantry Division of Major General Fritz Schlieper in cooperation with units of neighboring combat formations. In total, about 20 thousand people participated 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 1.5-meter walls of the fortifications, two 600-mm Karl self-propelled mortars, nine 211-mm mortars and a regiment of 158.5-mm multi-barreled mortars took part in the attack. At the beginning 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 in half-dressed clothes”

The attack began on June 22, 1941 at 4:15 am Soviet Decree Time with artillery and rocket launchers. Every four minutes the artillery fire was shifted 100 meters to the east. Hurricane fire caught the garrison of the fortress by surprise. As a result of the shelling, warehouses were destroyed, communications were interrupted and significant damage was inflicted on the garrison. A little later, the assault on the fortifications began.

At first, due to the unexpected attack, the fortress garrison was unable to put up a coordinated resistance.

“Due to the continuous artillery shelling, suddenly launched by the enemy at 4.00 on 22.6.41, parts of the division could not be compactly withdrawn to the areas of concentration on alert. Soldiers and officers arrived singly, half-dressed. From those concentrated, it was possible to create a maximum of two battalions. The first battles were carried out under the leadership of the commanders of the regiments of comrades Dorodny (84 joint ventures).), Matveeva (333 joint ventures), Kovtunenko (125 joint ventures)."

(Report of the deputy commander for the political part of the same 6th rifle division, regimental commissar M.N. Butin.)

By 0400, the assault detachment, having lost two-thirds of its personnel, captured two bridges connecting the Western and Southern islands with the Citadel. However, trying to take the fortress as quickly as possible, the German troops were drawn into close combat using small arms, which led to heavy losses on both sides.

The battles were of an opposite nature. During one of the successful counterattacks at the Terespol Gate, the German assault group was almost completely destroyed. By 7:00 a.m., a group of Soviet troops managed to break out of the fortress, but many servicemen failed to break 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.

Withdrawing troops to the outer ramparts of the fortress, the whole next day the German artillery fired on the positions of the defenders. During breaks, German cars with loudspeakers called for 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. And the besieged managed to knock out three tanks. These were captured French tanks Somua S-35, armed with a 47 mm cannon and having good armor for the start of the war.

Under the cover of night, the besieged tried to break out of 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 separate pockets of resistance were being cleared. At 21.40, the headquarters of the corps was informed about the capture of the Brest Fortress. On this day, German troops really captured most of it. However, there were still several areas of resistance, including the so-called "Eastern Fort", which was defended by 600 fighters under the command of Major Pyotr Mikhailovich Gavrilov. He was the only senior officer among the defenders. Most of the command was put out of action in the first minutes of 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 had been 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 fighters, in turn, using surprise and knowledge of the fortifications, carried out sorties and destroyed the invaders. Attempts to break out of the encirclement to 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 whole of July. Major Gavrilov is considered the last defender of the Brest Fortress, 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 turned into tatters, his face was covered with powder soot and dust and overgrown with a beard. He was injured, unconscious and looked emaciated to the extreme. It was in the full sense of the word a skeleton covered in leather.

To what extent exhaustion had reached, it 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 apply artificial nutrition to save his life.

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

(Smirnov S.S. Brest Fortress)

As of June 30, 1941, the losses of the 45th German Infantry Division amounted to 482 killed, including 48 officers, and more than 1,000 wounded. Considering that the same division in 1939 during the attack on Poland lost 158 ​​killed and 360 wounded, the losses were very significant. According to the report of the commander of the 45th division, 25 officers, 2877 junior commanders and fighters were taken prisoner by the German troops. 1877 Soviet soldiers died in the fortress. By the end of the war, about 400 people remained living defenders of the Brest Fortress.

Major Gavrilov was released from German captivity in May 1945. However, until the mid-1950s, he was expelled from the Communist Party for losing his party card while in concentration camps. Orders and medals were awarded to about 200 defenders of the Brest Fortress, but only two received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union - Major Gavrilov and Lieutenant Kizhevatov (posthumously).