Video: Attack of the Dead: How 60 Dying Russian Soldiers Defeated 7000 Germans
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
"The Russians are not giving up!" - Many have heard this famous phrase, but few know about the tragic events accompanying its appearance. These simple words are about the heroic feat of Russian soldiers, which was forgotten for many decades.
It was the second year of the World War. The main battles between the armies of Tsarist Russia and Kaiser's Germany took place on the territory of present-day Poland. The offensive impulse of the Germans has already crashed several times against the impregnable forts of the Osovets fortress.
To the outskirts of Osovets, the Germans pulled the heaviest weapons that were only in that war. Shells weighing up to 900 kilograms flew at the defenders of the fortress. No fortifications rescued from such a caliber. During the week of intense shelling, 250,000 large-caliber shells were fired. The Russian command desperately asked the defenders of Osovets to hold out for at least 48 hours. They held out for six months.
It was only a few months after the Germans successfully used poison gases near the Belgian city of Ypres. And the defenders of Osovets faced a sad fate. The Russian soldier was completely unprepared for gas attacks. The best he could do was cover his face with a cloth soaked in water or human urine.
On the morning of August 6, 1915, the Germans released chlorine. A 12-meter-high green cloud crept into the position of the Russians. All living things died on its way. Even the leaves of the plants darkened and fell, as if November had arrived at the end of summer. A few tens of minutes later, one and a half thousand defenders of Osovets were killed. The German officers were triumphant. They were fully convinced of the deadly power of the new weapon. Several Landwehr battalions were sent to occupy the "liberated" fortifications - a total of about 7000 men.
The Germans were stunned when a thin line of surviving defenders of the fortress rose to meet them. Dying Russian soldiers were wrapped in bloody rags. Poisoned with chlorine, they literally spit out their decomposing lungs in pieces. It was a terrible sight: Russian soldiers, living dead. There were only sixty of them - the remnants of the 13th company of the 226th Zemlyansky regiment. And this group of dying people launched a final, suicidal, counterattack.
Despite the numerical advantage, the German infantry could not stand the psychological shock. At the sight of dying enemies marching directly at them, the Landwehr battalions retreated. The soldiers of the 13th company chased and shot them until they returned to their original positions. The artillery of the forts completed the defeat of the enemy.
This counterattack by dying Russian soldiers became known as the "attack of the dead." Thanks to her, the Osovets fortress survived.
World War I, provoked by one and only person, resulted in multimillion-dollar sacrifices, which, a century later, are remembered from books, films and memorable installations.
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