Turning the pages back...

July 23, 1944

July 23, 1944, marked the end of the Battle of Brody, a 10-day bloodbath that saw the demise of thousands of young Ukrainian soldiers of the Galicia Division, seen as a precursor to a Ukrainian national army.

The Galicia Division, a Ukrainian military formation organized by the German Army to fight on the Soviet front, initially mobilized in the spring and summer of 1944 to back up the Germans near Stanyslaviv (now Ivano-Frankivsk), where they could gain experience as a unit while keeping their distance from the superior and more experienced Soviet Army. However, the battles of Stalingrad and Kursk left the German Army on the defensive, with the Soviets gaining more momentum with every skirmish. Thus, the Germans deployed the division to serve as a reserve for the German 13th Corps to defend the front near Brody, where they expected a major Soviet offensive.

The German Army sorely lacked tank and air support along the Eastern front. According to Prof. Taras Hunczak, "the [German] 4th Panzer Army, as a whole, had around 50 tanks, which had only a limited amount of gas at their disposal. Even worse was the situation with the air force - there was almost none during the Battle of Brody." The Soviets, in contrast, had 2,200 tanks and 3,000 airplanes, and 1.2 million troops on the First Ukrainian Front.

On July 7, after surveying the situation around Brody and realizing their huge advantage in airplanes and artillery, the First Ukrainian Front submitted a plan of attack to headquarters; on July 13 the Soviets began their offensive. By July 1 the Soviets had advanced 50 to 80 kilometers and encircled eight German divisions. As a result, the Galicia Division was ordered to move from its defensive position to an area outside of Pidhirtsi, where it would stage a counterattack. That move, however, made it easier for the Soviets to enclose the Ukrainian troops; by July 18 the Galicia Division was surrounded. It was pounded by Soviet artillery and bombs for the next five days. Although only 3,000 of the 11,000 soldiers survived the debacle, those who did continued the fight for Ukraine's freedom either with the Ukrainian Insurgent Army or the remnants of the Division.

Source: "On the Horns of a Dilemma: The Story of the Ukrainian Division Halychyna" by Taras Hunczak. Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 2000.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, July 22, 2001, No. 29, Vol. LXIX

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