* "Szare Szeregi" - "Grey Ranks" - Clandestine Underground Resistance Scouting Organization, aiding the military organizations in fighting the occupant (transporting weapons, messages, preparing for active combat, sanitary/nursing and other duties).
** AK - Armia Krajowa - Home Army - main and largest Underground Resistance fighting force during WWII, subordinate to the Polish Government-in-Exile in London.
Below - excerpts from the text and reproductions of the situational plans from the publication: "IV Obwód Armii Krajowej - Ochota, Okręg Warszawa". ("IV District of the Home Army - Ochota, Warsaw Region" by Józef Kazimierz Wroniszewski. Publisher - Przedsiębiorstwo Wydawnicze LAM, Warszawa 1977. (ISBN 83-87065-07-2)
(pages 202 - 212) "Battle at Pecice" The night od August 1/2 was cloudy, rainy. ...Around 2:00 AM from under the gates of the ZUS (insurance company) at 7 and 9 Niemcewicza Street, the detachments of the insurgent forces started a retreat from Ochota. The main group with Lieutenant-Colonel "Grzymala" and Captain "Pawlak", consisting of about 400-500 people, followed the advance guard. ...After passing through Reguly, the insurgents turned south. In front of them was a few kilometer long stretch of the road initially flat, then quite rapidly falling off towards Pecice. ...at a distance of 50-150 meters from the edge of the park, three German cars entered the road in the direction of Reguly from the tree-lined road running along the edge of the park from the village of Pecice, ...Unfortunately, only this relatively small group of Germans from Pecice, was cought by surprise.
click on the pictures to enlarge
Battle at Pecice, 2 VIII 1944 |
Subsequent trail of "Grzymala" |
Sounds of the battle raised to their feet several dozens of German soldiers from the communication detachment, who were stationed in the (Pecice) manor with a field radio station. ... Sudden fire from at least two German machine guns cought by surprise the insurgents' advance patrol at a distance of a few dozen meters from the park ...and it did not cause any significant casualties. ...When the Germans started firing from the park, at a distance of about 400-500 meters from it... , there was a roughly 100-people strong insurgent advance guard, which included the Scout Platoon from the "Zoska" (Battalion) led by Officer Cadet "Boguslaw", Scout Guarding Platoon led by Officer Cadet "Janusz" protecting Lieutenant-Colonel "Grzymala" and the District Communication Platoon led by sergeant Kwiatek "Robak", which also included the Scout Platoon "Boernerowo". ... The rising terrain - easy to cover with gun fire, fatal for the attackers. ...The (Polish) attack line moved fast forward, but the German forces on the firing line were increasing. ... The battle ended. On the Polish side there were 31 killed and similar number wounded. The lightly wounded retreated with the detachments, the others remained in the field. The German losses can probably be estimated at approximately 20 dead. ... After the end of the battle started the second, twice as bloody episode of the Pecice tragedy. ... Immediately after the withdrawal of the organized detachments of insurgents, German tyrallier combed the field. ... The wide and dense German comb-out rounded up in the fields and meadows as well as in the park and in the farm buildings many insurgents, who were hiding there, as well as collected the wounded from the battle-field. The Germans kept the captured, totalling in excess of 80 persons, for some time under heavy guard in the park then locked them up in the cellars of the manor, where the SS-men started interrogation. They tormented and tortured the captives, not excluding the wounded. To some, they promised freedom or deportation to Germany for forced labor. ... From among the over 80 captured prisoners-of-war, the Germans shot 60 people. About 20 people, mostly women, were freed - probably on his own responsibility and without the SS-men knowledge - by a non-comissioned officer of the Wehrmacht, born in Silesia. A few people attempted successfuly the risk of extricating themselves from the hands of the slaughterers. ... Darkness and rain also aided a small number of insurgents to escape from the Pecice field of death, those who were lucky enough not to be discovered earlier by the German man hunt.
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See - Pęcice in the left
lower corner |
Out of the 91 insurgents fallen and murdered in Pecice - 89 persons were buried in a common grave in the park. Exhumation of their bodies was performed in 1946 - 67 persons were identified. Out of the 2nd Platoon of the 3rd Company of the "Zoska" Battalion of the "Grey Ranks" - 15 soldiers were identified during the exhumation: ... From the platoons of the VI-th District 47 soldiers were identified: ... (among them)...Wojciech Wajszczuk. >From the Pruszkow Platoon fell: (3 persons) ... 40 of the fallen were less than 20 years old. The youngest soldier, Zbigniew Chrzanowski was 14 years old; 15-years-olds were: Michal Dowbor, Zbigniew Matecki, Wojciech Wajszczuk and Waclaw Zawadzki. Five of the victims of execution were women. The bodies of the 89 insurgents still rest in the Pecice park, at the site of a crime on the prisoners-of-war and wounded. A monument bearing an inscription: "Fallen on the Field of Glory - 2 VIII 1944" was unvailed over their grave on the second anniversary of the battle.
On sunny days, when the sun approaches the western horizon, a shadow of the Pecice manor-house comes close to the grave. On the fronton of the house, which is a monument of the classicistic architecture from the beginnings of the XIX century, brass letters fall in line to form an inscription: "I am a Polish manor, that fights bravely and stands quard faithfully".
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After the Pecice battle, Lieutenent-Colonel "Grzymala" gathered approximately 300 soldiers on the west bank of the Utrata river, and led them south, ... A two-week period of history of this group started, which was then turned into a regiment "Grzymala" - and ended with a march towards Mokotow (district of Warsaw) and "Grzymala's" death during the night of August 18/19.
See corresponding branch of the Tree
See also:
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