Battle of Vilya | |||||||
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Part of the Massacres of the Poles in the Volhynia and Galicia during the Polish–Ukrainian ethnic conflict in the World War II | |||||||
Kostopol district | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Home Army Soviet partisans | Ukrainian People's Revolutionary Army(Polesian Sich) | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Władysław Kochański Zdzisław Ostromęcki † Franciszek Szafran |
Petro Dolmatyuk Ivan Mitrynga † | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
Unknown | Unknown | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
18 or 23 killed, 2 wounded | 8 Killed, 15 Wounded |
The Battle of Vilya - an armed clash that took place on 6 September 1943 in the village of Vilya in Volhynia, between a detachment of the Home Army and a group of Soviet partisans made up of Poles and a detachment of the Polesian Sich.[2][1]
On 6 September 1943, two sotnias and a staff group of the Polesian Sich stationed in the devastated village of Vilya in Volhynia (Ludwipol commune in the Kostopol district) came into accidental contact with a detachment of the Home Army and a Felix Dzerzhinsky detachment of Polish communist partisans, who were guarding a grain haul. The Home Army part of the group was commanded by Lieutenant Zdzisław Ostromęcki "Podkowa".[2] The commander of the communist part was platoon leader Franciszek Szafran.[2] In total, the Polish forces initially numbered around 40 armed men.[2]
Both sides, surprised by the encounter, engaged in a battle in which the weaker Polish side initially suffered losses of 16 men.[1] The battle was won by the arrival of reinforcements from a Soviet unit and an Home Army unit under Władyslaw Kochański, pseud. "Bomba".[1] The Ukrainian unit was smashed and pushed out of the Vilya.[1]
After bloody clashes that lasted all day, the Polish partisans also withdrew. According to Grzegorz Motyka, the Poles lost a total of 23 men in the clash.[2] According to Władysław and Ewa Siemaszek, Polish losses amounted to 18 killed; among others, Second Lieutenant Ostromęcki was killed.[1] On the Ukrainian side, heavy losses were also reported: 8 killed, including Ivan Mitrynga[ua], and 15 wounded.[1][2]