Battle of Vilya
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
Date 6 September 1943 Location Vilya Result Polish victory[1]
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]

Battle

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, and 15 wounded.^[1][2]

Bibliography

• Siemaszko, Władysław; Siemaszko, Ewa (2000). Ludobójstwo dokonane przez nacjonalistów ukraińskich na ludności polskiej Wołynia 1939-1945 [Genocide committed by Ukrainian nationalists on the Polish population of Volhynia] (in Polish). Warsaw: Von Borowiecky. ISBN 83-87689-34-3.
• Grzegorz, Motyka (2011). Od rzezi wołyńskiej do akcji „Wisła”. Konflikt polsko-ukraiński 1943-1947 [From the Volhynian massacre to Operation Vistula. Polish-Ukrainian conflict 1943-1947] (in Polish). Kraków: Wydawnictwo Literackie. ISBN 978-83-08-04576-3.

References