- This was the greatest wartime victory of the Polish soldier – claims retired staff warrant officer FRANCISZEK ZIELIŃSKI, who captured KOŁOBRZEG 50 years ago and witnessed the WEDDING OF POLAND TO THE SEA, today still an active and dynamic president of the Polish Combatants’ Association Circle at the “Wizów” Chemical Plant in Bolesławiec. – The battle for the fortress city lasted uninterruptedly for 10 days and 10 nights, from 8 to 18 March 1945. On flat terrain, we broke through three lines of German defenses, reinforced by volleys from warships firing at us from the sea. The Nazis had a cruel order: not to surrender to the Poles, but to fight to the last round. They fired straight into our faces from four-barrelled, coupled anti-aircraft guns, which under other circumstances were used to defend against aircraft. There is no way to imagine it: it was hell—the roar of gunfire, explosions, fountains of earth, air thick with gunpowder, human bodies torn to pieces, blood, twisted metal, bullet-riddled houses, bunkers, cellars, chimney stumps, and death lurking in every corner and in the air. And we—the soldiers pressed against the hot earth, choking on dust and smoke, not feeling the pain of our wounds or fatigue, although utterly exhausted and drained of blood ...
Perhaps the film “Red Rowan” came closest to the truth: without embellishment or unnecessary pathos, it showed the effort of battle, human fear and heroism, the tragedy of a cruel fate in which, to live, one simply had to kill, outwit the enemy, shoot or throw a grenade before he did. How brutal these struggles were is attested by the graves of Polish soldiers in the Kołobrzeg cemetery—a forest of crosses—and by the memory that still endures. And by the sadness, reflection and pain that remain after losing friends, even half a century after that drama.
Only three heroes of the fighting for Kołobrzeg still live in Bolesławiec and the surrounding area: Mr Franciszek, a soldier of the 4th Pomeranian Infantry Division named after Jan Kiliński; retired Major Antoni ŚW1ERZEWSKI, who stormed the fortress with the 3rd Infantry Division; and senior sergeant and war invalid Józef PUŹ of the 6th Light Artillery Regiment (PAL). Every day of the fighting remains fixed in their memories, and they speak of everything with astonishing precision. Let us give the floor to the chroniclers of the history and dramatic events that formed part of their complicated lives. Franciszek ZIELIŃSKI says:
- During the breakthrough of the Pomeranian Wall, I was deputy platoon commander for line operations. It was no stroll and no reckless charge, but a hard, uncompromising struggle against a furious enemy, armed to the teeth, familiar with the terrain and a professional hardened by several years of combat. There is no mercy in war, and a mistake always means wounds or death. We had effective weapons, including artillery, so the soldiers’ toil, cold and blood brought military success. The path of a soldier’s glory is always marked by graves; it could not have been otherwise. Nor was it recklessness that decided matters, although we had no shortage of courage and determination. A sad, cruel, inhuman path of glory. We had no choice; it was a time of settling the account for years of harm and humiliation. We fought, destroyed the German defenses and pressed forward. We headed toward the sea.
In Kołobrzeg, I was already a company commander. It was a hard battle without a moment’s respite. The 12th Regiment advanced through the park all the way to the port, which was defending itself desperately but effectively. After the bloody assault, only 28 soldiers remained from the 1st Company. On 16 March, the company commander, Lieutenant Andrzej Krasnopolski, was killed. Before noon on 18 March, Kołobrzeg was captured. The victorious battle cost the lives of more than a thousand Polish soldiers and 400 Russians. A terrifying harvest of death. The Germans succumbed to the Poles’ frenzied yet victorious, stubborn, days-long and bloody assault. Eleven enemy ships sailed away into the Baltic, the 10th SS Corps was routed, and General von Krappe was taken prisoner. Twelve thousand German soldiers could not withstand the clash with our forces. We reached the sea and restored the Baltic to Poland; Corporal Niewidziajło threw a symbolic ring into the gray waves. It was a great and beautiful experience, moving and bringing tears to our eyes. Kołobrzeg was soaked in Polish blood—in the literal sense. FRANCISZEK ZIELIŃSKI says plainly:
-There will be no more anniversary celebrations with our participation; we simply will not be here. Who benefits from softening, distorting or falsifying the picture of the wartime hecatomb of destruction, suffering, wrongs and spilled blood? How can we fail to tell the young generation of Poles about the greatest—victorious—battle of the Polish soldier: the breakthrough of the Pomeranian Wall and the Capture of Kołobrzeg? We are still alive; we testify to the truth about those days, which are part of our life stories. We do not want honors, nor do we demand any privileges; we are not building monuments to our own military glory. We only want the memory of that victory—authentic and unaltered—to be restored, for it brought freedom closer. This is a matter of ordinary human decency and historical objectivity. The glory of those days entered the annals of history; the heroism of the Polish soldier was a fact, and it cannot be erased from the nation’s memory. Silently passing over this great and bloody victory of our arms has hurt us deeply...
It is sad, but those who fell in the terrible battle for the Polish Baltic remain alone in the Kołobrzeg war cemetery. Only the quiet Parsęta remembers their deeds. Why?