Home Army 5th and 6th Wilno Brigades: 1944-1952

The Home Army 5th Wilno Brigade [also known as the “Brigade of Death”] commanded by Maj. Zygmunt Szendzielarz nom de guerre “Lupaszka” was one of the most eminent Home Army partisan units active in the Home Army Vilnius Region. During the German occupation, it operated in particularly difficult conditions and had to fight Germans, as well as Soviet partisans, who were fighting the Home Army. The Brigade achieved considerable combat successes fighting the two enemies.

After July 1944 [‘Operation Tempest’], some of the soldiers of 5th Brigade managed to move across the Curzon Line into the so called “Lublin Poland” where under the orders of Maj. “Lupaszka” the Brigade continued its pro-independence activity for many years after the War. The post-war period in the 5th Brigade’s activity can be divided into several distinct sub-stages: the Bialystok stage [1945], the Pomeranian-Masurian stage [1946], the Podlasie stage [1946-1949, and subsequently going into 1952 in a somewhat fragmented form]. The last stage particularly concerns a new partisan unit emerging from the former 5th Brigade, which was given the name of "The 6th Vilnius Brigade". It was a partisan unit subordinated to Maj. “Lupaszka” and commanded by 2nd Lieut. Lucjan Minkiewicz nom de guerre “Wiktor” and then by Lieut./Capt. Wladyslaw Lukasiuk nom de guerre “Mlot”, perhaps the most famous partisan in Podlasie.

Left: Maj. Zygmunt Szendzielarz nom de guerre "Lupaszka". Until 1939, the commander of the 2nd squadron in the 4th Regiment of the Niemen Uhlans stationed in Vilnius, participant in the 1939 Defensive War in the “Prussia” Army formation (Armia Prusy) and the Operations’ Group of Brigadier General Wladyslaw Anders [the commander of the Nowogródzka Cavalry Brigade]. The organiser and commander of the Home Army 5th Vilnius Brigade, the “Brigade of Death”, with which he achieved a number of victories over German and Lithuanian troops, as well as Soviet partisans. While forcing his way through to the Bialystok Region, he became a commander of a partisan unit in Bialystok Province of the Citizens' Home Army (AK-AKO) which was then transformed into the Home Army 5th Vilnius Brigade, in the spring of 1945. From December 1945, he was a member of the Home Army Extraterritorial Vilnius Province Command. From April 1946, he was a commander of partisan units, which referred to the tradition of the 5th and 6th Vilnius Brigades and operated in Western and Eastern Pomerania, the Tuchola Forest, Warmia and Masuria regions, Bialystok Region and Podlasie. He was arrested on 30 June 1948 in Podhale as part of a UB (Office of Security) nation-wide sweep targeting the Vilnius area. He was murdered in Mokotów Prison (Warsaw) on February 8, 1951. In 1945, Maj. “Lupaszka’s” troops were subordinated to the Home Army Bialystok Province Command [after the official disbanding of the Home Army, it operated as the Citizens’ Home Army]. From autumn 1945, “Lupaszka” was subordinated to the Home Army Extraterritorial Vilnius Province [transferred into the area of “Lublin Poland”], which was then transformed into the Home Army Vilnius Province Mobilisation Centre.

This structure was directly in contact with the headquarters of the Commander-in-Chief in London and, although it cooperated with the Association Freedom and Independence (Zrzeszenie WiN), an independent combat and underground centre.

The activity of partisan units from the 5th and 6th Vilnius Brigades in the post-war period became a kind of a phenomenon in the history of underground activity in the now-Communist Poland. Most activities of the post-war partisan units, some of them undertaken with great determination, were, in fact, local. However, the units’ subordinated to Maj. “Lupaszka”, and then Capt. “Mlot” were characterized by a rare, grand scale of activities.

Above: Maj. "Lupaszka" and Cavalry Sgt. Waclaw Beynar nom de guerre “Orszak” [from the left Cavalry Sgt “Orszak”, soldier of the 5th Vilnius Brigade from autumn 1943]. In 1945-1948 he was a courier of Maj. “Lupaszka”. He was arrested by the UB (Office of Security) on 24 July 1948 in Gdynia and was sentenced to death. His sentence was later reduced to 15 years’ of imprisonment.

Their activity covered considerable areas of northern and north-eastern Poland. During different periods they operated in the area from the West-Pomeranian Voivodeship through Gdansk, Bydgoszcz, Olsztyn, Warsaw, Bialystok and into the Lublin Voivodeship and as far as the eastern Polish border. Maj. “Lupaszka’s” discretionary patrols reached as far as Wroclaw Voivodeship.

Perseverance was an essential characteristic of the 5th and 6th Vilnius Brigades’ anti-Communist activity. Despite the campaign of “disbanding forests” carried out by the post-Home Army command centres [The Armed Forces Delegation for Poland, DSZ and Freedom and Independence, WiN], as well as two amnesties announced by the Ministry of Public Security of Poland [MBP], this activity lasted continually until 1948-1949 and in a fragmentary form until 1952. This perseverance might have been influenced by the members of the troops commanded by Maj. “Lupaszka” and Capt. “Mlot”. The Home Army soldiers from the Vilnius area, serving under their orders, many times experienced what could be expected from the communist regime. Also, among Podlasie soldiers, not only the patriotic and devoted element predominated, but also one harbouring no illusions for the future of Poland under the communist rule. Certainly the “quality of human resources” also had an influence on durability and effectiveness of “Lupaszka” and “Mlot’s” units. For 300 people that worked for 5th Brigade, as many as 157 came from beyond the Curzon Line, and 63 from the Białystok Podlasie area. Among 180 soldiers whose files were collected by the Ministry of Public Security of Poland [MBP], 145 were peasants, 24 workers and 11 belonged to the intelligentsia. The Brigade was of Vilnius borderland nature. The personalities of Maj. “Lupaszka” and Capt. “Mlot” were not without significance. They were the type of commanders who had the ability to strongly influence soldiers and had considerable standing among them.

Left: Lieut. Zygmunt Blazejewicz nom de guerre "Zygmunt". Participant of the 1939 September Campaign. From August 1943, he was a soldier in the partisan unit of Lieut. “Tonko”. Platoon commander of the 6th Vilnius Brigade. While forcing his way through to the Bialystok Region in the autumn 1944, he was the commander of the execution section in the Home Army Bielsk Podlaski District. He carried out liquidation operations of the District Command; on the night of 5/6 January 1945 he liquidated a chief of “SMERSH” counterintelligence in Bielsk Podlaski county Senior Lieut. Aleksander Dokshyn. He was decorated with a Cross of Valour for his activity. From April 1945, he was the commander of the 1st squadron of the 5th Vilnius Brigade as part of the Citizens’ Home Army (AKO). During several months of activity, he performed a number of successful campaigns against the NKVD, the Citizens’ Militia (MO) and the Internal Security Corps (KBW) in the region of Majdan-Topilo in Bialowieza Forest. The partisans managed to fight their way through in a battle that lasted several hours and in which 2 soldiers were killed and 4 were wounded. The Communists’ losses were 15 killed and 16 wounded. On 7 July 1945 near the village of Brzeziny, the squadron of “Zygmunt” defeated a motorized column of the Soviet 5th Armored Army's prosecutor’s office. Ten soldiers of the Red Army [“krasnoarmeytsy”] including a colonel and three captains, were shot.

One of the biggest battles of “Zygmunt’s” squadron and “Mlot’s” unit, was a clash with the NKVD, the UB (Office of Security) and People’s Army of Poland (LWP) Operation Group in a forest between the villages of Sikora and Paczuski. At that time, 16 NKVD soldiers were killed in battle and about 20 were wounded. Upon getting across to Bielsk county, the unit [at the request of the local population] defeated another NKVD-LWP Operations’ Group in the village of Miodusy. Then, 18 NKVD soldiers [including the commander of the Operations’ Group, who terrorized the local population, Maj. Vasily Gribko], and 11 LWP soldiers and 3 UB officers were killed. After the 5th Vilnius Brigade was disbanded in September 1945, Lieut. “Zygmunt”, who was endangered by an impending arrest, left for the West.

Immediately after crossing over to the Bialystok Region in July and August 1944, Cavalry Officer/Maj. “Lupaszka” established contact with the Command of the local Home Army District and, in agreement with them, set about organising a cadre partisan unit of the 5th Vilnius Brigade, which consisted of soldiers left from the Home Army Vilnius and Nowogródek regular troop formations. The unit crossed over the Curzon Line and in the time between September and November 1944, operated on the Soviet side of the border in the Świsłocka and Rózanska Forests. Although survival was its main goal, the formation participated in several skirmishes with NKVD units. Not being able to hold out in Wolkowyski county, the unit returned to the Biala Podlaska Voivodeship, where it temporarily remained in hideouts in the underground area of the local Home Army network. It came out of hiding on 5 April 1945 on the orders of the Citizens' Home Army (AK-AKO) Bialystok Province Command. It was quickly developed into a partisan brigade of over 250 soldiers, while Maj. “Lupaszka” received the post of partisan commander in the Citizens' Home Army (AK-AKO) Bialystok Province Command [it came down to commanding the 5th Brigade which was a discretionary unit of the Citizens' Home Army (AK-AKO) Province Command]. The structure of the reconstructed Home Army 5th Vilnius Brigade was as follows:

Commander – Maj. Zygmunt Szendzielarz nom de guerre "Lupaszka",
Deputy Commander – Lieut. Lech L. Beynar nom de guerre "Nowina",
Adjutant – Lieut. Jerzy Jezierski nom de guerre "Stefan",
Commander of 1st squadron – Lieut. Zygmunt Blazejewicz nom de guerre "Zygmunt",
Commander of 2nd squadron – 2nd Lt Romuald Rajs nom de guerre "Bury",
Commander of 1st storm campaign – Lieut. Jan Mazur nom de guerre "Piast",
Commander of 4th squadron – Lieut. Marian Plucinski nom de guerre "Mscislaw",
Commander of a squad for non-commissioned officers – 2nd Lt Jan Zaleski nom de guerre "Zaja".

Lieut. Marian Plucinski nom de guerre "Mscislaw". Participant in the September 1939 Campaign, then in the Union for the Armed Struggle-Home Army (ZWZ-AK) underground. From April 1944, he was platoon commander of the 5th Vilnius Brigade. After the Brigade was disbanded, he made his way to the Augustów Primeval Forest, together with his unit, and then returned to the Vilnius Region. Until November 1944, he commanded a unit which consisted of soldiers who remained from the Vilnius Brigades that operated north from Vilnius. In the spring of 1945, he moved across to the Bialystok Region and established contact with Maj. “Lupaszka”. He assumed command of the 4th squadron of the 5th Vilnius Brigade, which at the time was being restructured. On disbanding the unit, in October 1945, he stopped his underground activity. He was arrested by the UB (Office of Security) in the spring of 1946, was brought to trial several weeks later, and was sentenced to death. He was murdered on 28 June 1946 in a prison in Bialystok.

The Brigade operated mainly in region “A” of the Citizens ’ Home Army Bialystok Province [Wysokie Mazowieckie county and Bielsk Podlaski county]. Periodically, it operated in the Citizens’ Home Army Bialystok, Zambrów and Ostrów Mazowiecki districts, moved across the River Bug into the left-bank of Podlasie [mainly into the areas of Sokołów Podlaski and Siedlce counties]. It conducted several dozen successful combat missions against the NKVD, the UB (Office of Security), the KBW (Internal Security Corps), the MO (People’s Militia) and LWP (People’s Army of Poland) forces.

The most combative unit was the 1st squadron of Lieut. “Zygmunt” to whom the 5th Brigade owed most of its successes [the victorious battles with an NKVD and KBW operations’ group in the Majdan- Topiło region, the liquidation of the Soviet 5th Armored Army prosecutor’s office in Brzeziny, the defeat of the 2nd “Kosciuszko” regiment’s operations’ group in the Battle of Sikory, the defeat of NKVD, UB (Office of Security) and LWP (People’s Army of Poland) operations’ groups in Miodusy Pokrzywne]. In 1945, the 5th Vilnius Brigade operated individual squadrons, usually controlling 1-2 counties. The squadrons gathered only for joint operations that were organised periodically [there were nine of them altogether] or for larger combat operations. At a concentration near a forester’s lodge in Stoczek on 7 September 1945, the soldiers of Maj. “Lupaszka” were informed of the Fifth Brigade being demobilised [DSZ mission of “ clearing the forests”].

Left: 2nd Lt Lucjan Minkiewicz nom de guerre "Wiktor". Soldier of the Home Army’s 6th Vilnius Brigade. In autumn 1944, together with Lieut. Zygmunt Blazejewicz “Zygmunt”, he got across to the Bialystok Region. He was a member of “Zygmunt's” liquidation section in the Home Army’s Bielsk Podlaski District. From April 1945, he was the deputy commander of the 1st squadron in the reconstructed 5th Vilnius Brigade. After disbanding the 5th Brigade in September 1945 and until 19 October 1946, he was commander of a partisan unit operating in the Bialystok Region and Podlasie, which from February 1946 operated under the name of the Home Army 6th Vilnius Brigade. In October 1946 during the concentration of the 6th Brigade and a part of the 5th Brigade in Rogawka and Drohiczyn communes, he was granted a leave of absence by Maj. “Lupaszka” and handed the command over to his deputy, 2nd Lieut. Wladyslaw Lukasiuk nom de guerre “Mlot”. He was arrested by the UB (Office of Security) on July 1, 1948. He was tried together with Maj. “Lupaszka” and was murdered on February 8, 1951 in Mokotów prison. A new unit was created from the remnants of the 1st squadron of Capt. “Mlot” which remained in the area, and in February 1946 it became the 6th Vilnius Brigade.

It operated in Podlasie, on both sides of the River Bug. It consisted of three cadre sub-units called squadrons commanded by: Sgt Józef Rybnicki nom de guerre “Kukułka”, Sgt Walerian Nowacki nom de guerre “Bartosz” and Snr Sgt Józef Babicz nom de guerre “Żwirko”. A military police unit was commanded by 2nd Lieut. Antoni Borowik nom de guerre “Lech”. In general, the number of soldiers in the 6th Brigade never exceeded 60-70 men. After the 5th Vilnius Brigade was disbanded, the commander of its 2nd squadron, 2nd Lieut. Romuald Rajs nom de guerre "Bury", left the ranks of the post-Home Army (AK), and moved to the National Armed Forces (NSZ) and became the head of the Special Emergency Executive [PAS] in the Bialystok Province.

Left: Gorget with an image of Our Lady of the Gate of Dawn (Ostrobramska), owned by 2nd Lieut. Lucjan Minkiewicz “Wiktor”. This emblem was often worn by soldiers of the Home Army’s 5th and 6th Vilnius Brigades. In 1944-56, different kinds of gorgets were commonly used by soldiers of the anti-Communist units as an additional element of their uniforms. The 5th Vilnius Brigade of Maj. “Lupaszka” was reorganized in April 1946 in the Tuchola Forest. Coming out into the battlefield its first cadre unit was preceded by the activity of several small combat patrols, which lasted a few months. They performed a number of sabotage and expropriation missions, not only in the Tri-city area and in Pomerenia, but in more remote regions including: banks in Koszalin and Torun, a train in Bialogard, economic and financial institutions [tax offices, the offices of the National Spirit’s Monopoly (Państwowy Monopol Spirytusowy)] in Olsztyn and also in other towns. The farthest raid was conducted by a patrol of Sgt Józef Bandzo nom de guerre “Jastrzab”, which performed several actions in Wroclaw, Walbrzych and Klodzko.

In 1946, the reorgaized 5th Brigade consisted of three cadre groups [squadrons] commanded by 2nd Lieut. Zdzislaw Badocha nom de guerre “Zelazny” [and after his death by 2nd Lieut. Olgierd Christa nom de guerre “Leszek”], 2nd Lieut. Henryk Wieliczka nom de guerre “Lufa” and 2nd Lieut. Leon Smoleński nom de guerre “Zeus”. Also, two discretionary patrols of 2nd Lieut. Feliks Salmonowicz nom de guerre “Zagończyk” and Sgt Józef Bandzo nom de guerre "Jastrzab" were part of the Brigade.

1945 - Corps of the Home Army 5th Vilnius Brigade. From the left: - 2nd Lieut. Henryk Wieliczko nom de guerre "Lufa", murdered on 14 March 1949 at the Lublin Castle prison; - Lieut. Marian Plucinski nom de guerre "Mscislaw", murdered on 28 June 1946 in the Bialystok prison; - Maj. Zygmunt Szendzielarz nom de guerre "Lupaszka", murdered on 8 February 1951 in the Mokotów prison in Warsaw; - Cavalry Sgt Jerzy Lejkowski nom de guerre "Szpagat"; - 2nd Lieut. Zdzislaw Badocha nom de guerre "Zelazny", killed in a battle with the UB (Office of Security) on 26 June, near Sztum.

The 5th Brigade operated mainly in Pomerania and the Masuria regions. Only the squadron of “Lufa” ventured into the Bialystok Voivodeship and the squadron of “Zelazny” into the Szczecin Voivodeship. During the Pomeranian-Masurian stage, there were nearly 90 soldiers in the 5th Brigade. The combat results of the modest forces that Maj. “Lupaszka” had at his disposal were very impressive. From December 1945 until November 1946, his units performed about 170 combat missions [i.e. defeated 27 People’s Militia (MO) posts, 3 posts of the Office of Public Security (UBP), 2 Soviet communication posts, performed 25 expropriation actions, and fought 14 battles and skirmishes with security forces]. Some of the most spectacular military operations of the 5th Brigade in this period were:

- defeating Internal Security Corps (KBW) and Office of Security (UB) operation groups in the Battle of Bartel Wielki, Tuchola county on 11 May 1946;
- disarming 7 People’s Militia (MO) posts and one Office of Public Security (UBP) post in Stargard and Koscierzyn counties on 19 May 1946;
- defeating an Office of Public Security (UBP) post and People’s Militia (MO) posts in Bobolice and Piotrkówek, Koszalin county, as well as Przychylew, Czluchów county, on 21 May 1946;
- defeating a People’s Militia (MO) operations’ group in the battle of Podjazdy, Kartuzy county, on 25 May 1946;
- defeating a People’s Militia (MO) and Security Office (UB) operation group in the Battle of Tulice, on 10 June 1946;
- an ambush in Czarny Piec, Ostróda county, on 23 June 1946;
- defeating People’s Militia (MO) posts in Rozogi and Lipowiec, on 28 October 1946;
- defeating a People’s Militia (MO) and Office of Security (UB) operation group on the Wielbark-Jedwabno road in Szczytno county on 28 October 1946.

In November 1946, the “Leszek” and “Zeus” squadrons were demobilised, never to regroup again. Only the remaining soldiers of “Lufa’s” squadron were included into the 6th Vilnius Brigade in Podlasie in March 1947.

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