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 Monument to the 13-year-old defender of the Oxivian cliff, Alfred Didukh. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Battle of the Oxivian Rock or the Defense of the Oxivian Rock [1] is the battle of the September War , which was fought by the Polish from September 1 to September 19, 1939 (ground operations from September 10). This is one of the episodes of the Coast Defense in September 1939.
Defense
The command of the fleet, barracks, warehouses and security premises were located on the Oksivskoye rock, positions of coastal and anti-aircraft artillery were located. In 1928–1939, it was the main base of the Polish Navy , together with the port of constituted the northern part of the Gdynia port. In the summer of 1939, after the main base of the fleet was redeployed to the Hel spit , the Oksivsky rock was reassigned to the commander of the coastal defense forces, Colonel . The role of the Rock was supposed as an additional defense to Helu , covering him from land and directly defending the port of Gdynia.
The Oksiva rock is a plateau of 40 km², which, although dominating the surroundings, does not have natural protection from observation and bombardment. Various and frequent changes in military concepts and plans led to the fact that in September 1939 the district did not have any reinforced concrete defenses. The only fortified points of defense were two 75-mm two-gun anti-air batteries and a Kane two-gun battery. One of Kano's guns was broken during a heavy bombardment, already on September 1, 1939.
On September 1, 1939, (about 14,700 people in advanced positions, on the Oksiva rock and in the Gdynia districts) were attacked by the corps of General Leonard Kaupich and the group of General F. Eberhardt. The Germans had a three-fold superiority in manpower, 4-fold in armored vehicles and 9-fold in artillery.
From September 1 to September 9, 1939, Polish units stationed on the Oksivskoy rock defended against air attacks and bombardments of the “ battleship Schleswig-Holstein ” from the sea, and also fought with German ships that tried to trawl the Gdansk bay . After the surrender of the Westerplatte garrison , the German battleship moved to the exit from the port, from where she fired at the Oksiva rock and the Hel spit . The next day, the battleship fired 10 28 cm and 192 15 cm shells on the rock.
On September 10, the Germans launched land attacks on the Oksivsky rock. On this day, after the fall of Reda and the surrender of Gdynia , the remnants of the 1st Marine Regiment (about 1,000 people) and 140 men from the defeated 5th Battalion of National Defense arrived on the rock.
On September 11, all units on the rock, Colonel Dembeck, subordinated to the commander of the People’s Defense Brigade, Lieutenant Colonel S. Brodovsky. On the same day, Schleswig-Holstein fired 28 cm shells at the port of Oksiv.
On September 12, the Germans conducted a general assault, supported by aviation and artillery (ship and field). On the northeast edge of the cliff, they broke through the positions of the Poles and occupied the village of Bridges; in the northern and western directions, the German units of the 207th infantry division broke through the Polish defense in the Kazimizh-Dambovaya Mountain area. In the situation of a threat to the whole of Oksivskoy rock, Dembek gave an order to retreat from the supplant of Gdynia. On September 13, the 2nd Marine Infantry Regiment and a company of Gdynian Cosiniers departed to the rock. On the rock were Polish units of 9,000 men, 120–140 machine guns, 14 mortars, 23 infantry cannons. Poorly armed, deprived of communications, artillery and aviation, to a large extent civilians and remnants of previously defeated units, combined into units that had not yet become a single unit, and, moreover, did not have any defensive fortifications, the Poles suffered huge losses. About 14% of the total force was killed, that is, about 2,000 soldiers (for comparison, 1,200 Poles died at Monte Cassino ). On a territory of 4 km², at least 110 clashes occurred.
After a few days break, on September 18, Schleswig-Holstein, accompanied by minesweepers, approached the Redlova area and, at 11:45, fired at Oxivier, firing 155 15-cm shells. On the morning of September 19, a German squad consisting of minesweepers began shelling the Oksiva Rocks. The Kane battery with a single 100 mm caliber gun, which was intact, fired with them. After some time, the Laskovsky battery from the Hel Spit, which was quickly shot at by the German ships, was included in the battle. After damage to the minesweeper "Nautilus" from close shell explosions, Commodore Friedrich Ruge, who commanded the detachment, hastily withdrew his fleet to the port of Gdynia.
September 19, the Germans held the last assault. The first was the 3rd battalion of reservists. The division was Solodkovsky. The commander of the unit died, and the German units broke through to the sea, cutting off small Polish forces at Oksivie, who, after strong German shelling, capitulated around 5:00 pm In the northern sector of the defense, the 1st Marine Regiment was crushed, the remnants of which capitulated at 16:30.
After exhausting all the possibilities of defense, Colonel Dembek, along with his 20 subordinates who remained with him, mainly officers, went on the attack on the Germans under the Babi Dol. The colonel was wounded by a mine shard and the last patron was shot from a pistol.
At 17:00, the Oxivian Rock, the most important bastion of the Coast Defense units, fell.
The Germans, recognizing the heroism of the defenders of the rock, allowed solemnly to bury Colonel Dembeck. The grave has survived to the present day [2] .