Battle of Vilya

The Battle of Vilya was 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.

Battle of Vilya
Part of the massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia and the Polish–Ukrainian ethnic conflict during World War II
Kostopol district
Date 6 September 1943 Location Vilya Result Polish victory
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

Before battle

The village of Vilya, where a strong UPA outpost was located in 1943, was a base for attacks on Polish settlements, including Niemilia (Ludwipol municipality). On 4 September 1943, a fight took place with armed Ukrainians while harvesting grain from the surrounding fields for Polish refugees and partisans gathered in the area of Huta Stara (Ludwipol municipality). The clash took place in the area of the destroyed Ukrainian village of Vilya, which was pacified on 28 May 1943 by the German garrison from Bystrzyce.

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". The commander of the communist part was platoon leader Franciszek Szafran. In total, the Polish forces initially numbered around 40 armed men.

Both sides, surprised by the encounter, engaged in a battle in which the weaker Polish side initially suffered losses of 16 men. The battle was won by the arrival of reinforcements from a Soviet unit and an Home Army unit under Władyslaw Kochański, pseud. "Bomba". The Ukrainian unit was smashed and pushed out of the Vilya.

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. According to Władysław and Ewa Siemaszek, Polish losses amounted to 18 killed; among others, Second Lieutenant Ostromęcki was killed. On the Ukrainian side, heavy losses were also reported: 8 killed, including Ivan Mitrynga[ua], and 15 wounded.

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.