Independent Operational Group Polesie

• 1. Introduction

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  Independent Operational Group Polesie, known in Polish as Samodzielna Grupa Operacyjna Polesie or SGO Polesie, was still fighting in the first days of October 1939. By then it had become the last organized regular unit of the Polish Army. Its fighting ended in the early hours of the 6th of October, at the battle of Kock. That battle is remembered as the final clash of the Invasion of Poland. How did a force assembled in the middle of a collapsing campaign outlast so many others? What was it made of, and why did it keep marching after Warsaw fell? And what became of the soldiers who would not accept the end?

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• 2. A Region to Defend

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  The orders of the 9th and the 11th of September 1939 brought the group into being. The Polish Commander in Chief issued them because German breakthroughs had opened dangerous gaps. The group was formally created on the 11th of September. Its assignment was the region of Polesie, bounded by the Muchawiec and Prypeć rivers. Within that area lay the town of Brześć, also called Brest, and the town of Pińsk, where the headquarters stood. The purpose was to keep Polish forces in central Poland from being encircled from the east. The man given this job was General Franciszek Kleeberg, and the force he received was far from uniform.

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• 3. Scraps and Elites

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  Colonel M. Łapicki served as chief of staff to Kleeberg, who had to build his group out of small units scattered around Polesie. Most were reserve or mobilizing formations, or second-line troops such as the National Defense units. Two exceptions stood out. One was the elite Border Protection Corps, known as KOP. The other was the Riverine Flotilla of the Polish Navy. On the 14th of September, when German forces engaged the group, it was organized into four named groups plus the flotilla. The Kobryń Group had seven infantry battalions under Colonel Adam Epler. The Brześć Group, under General Konstanty Plisowski, had five infantry battalions, two light tank companies and two armored trains. Colonel Kazimierz Gorzkowski led the Drohiczyn Poleski Group of three infantry battalions. Major Ludwik Rau commanded the Jasiołda Group, which was a single infantry battalion. Over the next two weeks the group suffered casualties, but it also absorbed units from the disintegrating army. Among them were defenders of the Sarny Fortified Area. Its total strength reached 18,000 soldiers. The first German formation to meet them was an entire panzer corps.

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• 4. Guderian's Panzers

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  Heinz Guderian commanded the German XIX Panzer Corps that now bore down on the group. General Konstanty Plisowski's forces defended the town of Brześć from the 16th to the 19th of September. Colonel Adam Epler's forces held Kobryń from the 16th to the 18th. Then, on the 17th of September, the Soviet Union invaded Poland. Kleeberg at first obeyed the Polish High Command and retreated toward the Romanian border. By the 22nd of September he was cut off from his superiors, and he made a decision of his own. He would go to the aid of besieged Warsaw. His men were running short of supplies, so he also resolved to retake the town of Dęblin, where the Polish Army kept large stores. The fall of Warsaw, only days away, would force him to choose again.

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• 5. Marching West

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  Warsaw capitulated on the 28th of September. Kleeberg had by then crossed the Bug river near Włodawa. He now ordered his units to advance west and begin large-scale partisan warfare from the forest complexes near the Świętokrzyskie Mountains. On the 29th and the 30th of September the Soviet Red Army engaged his units, and the Poles defeated it. On the 29th the group had also been reorganized into three formations. The Polish 50th Infantry Division, a reserve unit, was later nicknamed Brzoza after its commander, Colonel Ottokar Brzoza-Brzezina. The 60th Infantry Division, also a reserve unit, was later nicknamed Kobryń and stayed under Colonel Adam Epler. The third formation was the Improvised Cavalry Division Zaza, led by General Zygmunt Podhorski. It was built mostly from the Podlaska and Suwalska Cavalry Brigades of Independent Operational Group Narew. Three days later, the group's final battle began.

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• 6. The Battle of Kock

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  From the 2nd of October, the Poles at Kock faced the German XIV Mechanized Corps. The Germans held an immense numerical advantage. Even so, the Polish forces won several tactical victories. Their supplies kept shrinking, and ammunition ran especially low. On the 5th of October, Kleeberg decided to capitulate. That made him the last Polish general to surrender in the Polish Defensive War. He is also counted among the few Polish generals of the September 1939 campaign who were never defeated in battle. General Maczek is the other name usually placed beside his. Not every soldier of the group, however, accepted the surrender.

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• 7. Those Who Kept Fighting

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  Major Henryk Dobrzański is the best-known name among the soldiers who refused to give up. Many members of the group dispersed after the capitulation and carried on a guerrilla war. Dobrzański led the Detached Unit of the Polish Army, which is credited as the first Polish partisan unit. Its activity ended in the spring of 1940, roughly half a year after the last formal fighting.

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