Brest Fortress!

This is coolbert:

"Fixed fortifications are monuments to the stupidity of man." - - G.S Patton.

# 6 "Defenders' chances of success are directly proportional to fortification strength." - - Dupuy.

The defense of the Brest Fortress. June 1941. Soviet troops defending against overwhelming numbers and force of the German army. The tenacity and heroism of the Red Army troops becoming almost folkloric in nature. The comportment of the defenders heroic beyond question.

The Brest Fortress - - originally conceived and built in the 1830's - - by 1941 an outmoded and archaic anachronism. A citadel surrounded by three other forts, protected by moats, canals, buildings with thick walls, earthen ramparts, subterranean construction.

BUT - - to the extent the Fortress existed, it GREATLY ENHANCED THE CHANCES OF SUCCESSFUL DEFENSE BY THE RED ARMY TROOPS!! NO one would suggest that the Fortress was inpregnable. Defeat was inevitable without relief . However, the archaic but still formidable fortress did allow the defenders a fighting chance!

There are a considerable number of interesting aspects to the defense of the Brest Fortress. To include:

1. Capture of the enemy colors. German troops NOT able to capture the Red Army colors of those units defending the fortress. Extraordinary measures taken by Red Army troops to protect the colors, even to the point of death. Colors hidden and later recovered - - the type of courageous effort from which legends are made.

"The enemy couldn't get a single Red Army standard on the territory of the Fortress. At the critical moment Junior Sergeant Rodion Semenyuk and two other soldiers buried the standard of the 393rd Anti-Aircraft Artillery Battalion in one of the casemates on the East Fort west side. Fifteen years later, Semenyuk returned to Brest, found the spot and dug the standard up."

2. The use of the Germans of extraordinary weaponry to reduce and destroy the fortress. Weaponry that was not envisioned as being necessary became an essential in overcoming the most surprising resistance of the Red Army defenders.

Weaponry to include the siege mortars of 54 centimeter [21 inches] and 60 centimeter [23 inches] bore. AND THE USE OF GAS. Non-lethal [some web sites suggest it was lethal agent] riot agent [tear gas]. Another instance of the use of chemical agents by fascist forces during WW2.

"The Germans deployed various powerful guns . . . resorted to tear gas and flame throwers"

3. Surviving Red Army troops, captured, taken prisoner by the German, when repatriated, becoming pariahs among their own people, accused of collaboration, sent to forced labor camps. Harsh and unremitting treatment for persons that behaved heroically in combat, far beyond any reasonable expectations!! Heroes that were treated very badly.

"some of the survivors who returned to the USSR after spending the rest of the war in Nazi concentration camps were imprisoned by the Soviet authorities under charges of treason (see Order No. 270) and collaboration and sent to labor camps."

[Stalin was a real bastard of a human being. NO doubt about it]

4. I would be remiss in NOT mentioning that there were two defenses of the Brest Fortress during WW2. The first was in 1939 - - the Battle of Poland. Polish troops defending the Fortress for four days, successfully, before retiring.

"During the Invasion of Poland in 1939 the fortress was defended for 4 days by a small garrison of four infantry battalions and two tank companies under Gen. Konstanty Plisowski against the XIX Panzer Corps of Gen. Heinz Guderian."

5. And most evocative from the battle for the Brest Fortress [1941 is this inscription found in a cellar, a constituent part of the fortress. Scratched, presumably with a bayonet, into a wall, almost A FULL MONTH AFTER THE INTIAL ONSLAUGHT, A DETERMINED SOVIET HOLD-OUT - - TENACIOUS TO THE EXTREME!!

The Fortress of Brest's inner walls bore numerous graffiti, scratched by the heroical defenders. This one reads (left column): "I am dying but not surrender! 20 / VII - 41", (right column): "Farewell, Motherland"

That says it all, doesn't it!

coolbert.