Defense of Brest Fortress

Battle of Brest
Part of the Eastern Front of World War II
The eastern front at the time of the Battle of Brest. (click to enlarge)
Date 22–29 June 1941 Location Brest, Soviet Union Result German victory
Belligerents
Germany	Soviet Union
Commanders and leaders
Fritz Schlieper	Pyotr Gavrilov Ivan Zubachyov (POW) Yefim Fomin (23–26 June)
Strength
about 17,000	over 9,000
Casualties and losses
429 dead, 668 wounded	more than 2,000 dead about 6,800 captured

The defence of Brest Fortress took place 22–29 June 1941. The Brest Fortress, defended by the Red Army against the Wehrmacht, held out longer than expected and, after the Second World War had finished, became a symbol of Soviet resistance. In 1965 the fortress received the title of Hero Fortress for the 1941 defense.

The area around the nineteenth-century Brest Fortress was the site of the 1939 Battle of Brześć Litewski, when German forces captured it from Poland during the Polish September Campaign. However, according to the terms of the 1939 German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact the territory around Brest as well as 52% of the then Poland was assigned to the Soviet Union. Thus, in the summer of 1941, the Germans had to capture the fortress yet again - this time from the Soviets.

The Germans planned to seize Brest and the Brest Fortress which was located in the path of Army Group Centre during the first day of Operation Barbarossa. The fortress and the city controlled the crossings over the Bug River, as well as the Warsaw–Moscow railway and highway.

The garrison in the fortress comprised approximately 9,000 Soviet soldiers, including regular soldiers, border guards and NKVD operatives. The Soviet soldiers belonged to elements of the 6th and 42nd Rifle Divisions, under Colonel Mikhail Popsuy-Shapko and Major-general Ivan Lazarenko respectively, the 17th Frontier Guards Detachment of the NKVD Border Troops and various smaller units (including the hospital garrison and a medical unit, as well as units of the 132nd Separate NKVD Convoy Battalion, etc) inside the fortress. There were also 300 families of the servicemen inside the fortress as well.

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