Battle of Studzianki

Battle of Studzianki
Part of the Eastern Front of World War II
Date August 9–16, 1944 Location Studzianki, Poland Result Soviet-Polish victory
Belligerents
Germany	Soviet Union  Poland
Strength
3 divisions	Polish 1st Armoured Brigade 8th Soviet Army
Casualties and losses
At least 40 tanks, 26 guns and mortars, 9 APCs	Polish: 27 tanks 89 men

The Battle of Studzianki was a tactical engagement between elements of the Soviet Red Army's 2nd Guards Tank Army employed as a cavalry mechanized group of the 1st Belorussian Front, and elements of the German 9th Army of the Army Group North Ukraine defending the area south of Warsaw. The battle was part of the Soviet Lublin–Brest Offensive.

The 2nd Tank Army was launched through the breach in the German 4th Panzer Army's front between Parczew and Chełm, and bypassing Lublin attempted to find a crossing over the Vistula. It was supported by the First Polish Army, including its 1st Armoured Brigade.^[1] In a hasty encounter battle, the 1st Armoured Brigade was located in the first echelon of the 2nd Tank Army. At the point where the army was able to occupy the Magnuszew bridgehead, the Polish brigade engaged advance elements of the counter-attacking German Fallschirm-Panzer Division 1 Hermann Göring, which had express orders to keep the Red Army from crossing the Vistula. The German counter-attack tried to dislodge the Soviet engineers and the Polish troops providing support for them, behind the Vistula off the bridgehead. The Soviet and Polish forces held the bridgehead and the German forces suffered heavy casualties before withdrawing.

To commemorate the battle, in 1969 the name of the village Studzianki was changed to Studzianki Pancerne, the word pancerne meaning armoured in Polish.

Episodes 3–5 of the Polish TV series Czterej pancerni i pies (Four Tankmen and the Dog) depict the crew of a Polish tank during the Battle of Studzianki.

There is a small museum in the town focuses on the history of the battle.^[2]

References

1. Steven J. Zaloga (20 June 2013). The Polish Army 1939–45. Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 61–. ISBN 978-1-4728-0447-1.
2. "SOUNDSCAPES :: Studzianki Pancerne - 69 years after tank battle". Radio Poland, 20.08.2013

Coordinates: 51°41′18″N 21°19′34″E / 51.688333°N 21.326111°E