{"id":1438823,"date":"2026-09-11T19:52:43","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T16:52:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/ukrainian-thermopylae-how-upa-fighters-resisted-nazi-aviation-and-tanks\/"},"modified":"2026-09-11T19:52:43","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T16:52:43","slug":"ukrainian-thermopylae-how-upa-fighters-resisted-nazi-aviation-and-tanks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/ukrainian-thermopylae-how-upa-fighters-resisted-nazi-aviation-and-tanks\/","title":{"rendered":"Ukrainian Thermopylae: how UPA fighters resisted Nazi aviation and tanks"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the summer of 1943, the German occupiers declared Ukraine a “zone of anti-partisan operations.” Erich von dem Bach-Zelevsky, the commander of German anti-partisan formations on the Eastern Front, was involved in the fight against the Ukrainian insurgents.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In early June 1943, UPA units drove out the German administration and established their rule in several regions of Volhynia – Turiysk, Maciyiv, Holobach, Selyshche, Shatsk. The population of these areas provided them with all possible assistance as the true masters of their native land.<\/p>\n

Ukrainian patriots attacked the railways, disrupting the train schedule, with which the occupiers tried to deliver military equipment and military force in a timely manner to reinforce their forces on one or another section of the front where they were failing.<\/p>\n

Thus, on the night of June 23-24, 1943, the railway line between the stations of Nemovichi-Malynsk on the route Rivne-Sarny was interrupted. In the front cars were 150 Gestapo members of the punitive detachment. They were returning from the pogrom of Polish and Volyn villages, and in the last cars there were guns, tanks, ammunition and all kinds of supplies.<\/p>\n

The sleepy Gestapo men had not yet had time to open the doors of their cars to find out the reason for the train’s stop when shots rang out in the front two cars. Company commander Yarema and his friend Doros shot at the punishers. The Gestapo men tried to escape through the windows, but well-aimed shots prevented the enemies from escaping the trap. In the morning, the rebels returned to the forest with weapons and ammunition.<\/p>\n

In May and June 1943, UPA units, in constant battles with the Nazis, controlled all of Polissya and Volhynia, limiting the occupation of the occupiers to the territories of the main highways and railway lines.<\/p>\n

In early August 1943, a UPA unit attacked uninvited guests who were robbing the population of Hnidava (Lutsk district). In the fierce battle that ensued, the insurgents destroyed the robbers, and the looted property was returned to the population.<\/p>\n

On the night of August 19-20, the rebels attacked the town of Kamin-Kashirsky. After a fierce battle, the rebels won and captured valuable trophies: over 20,000 rounds of ammunition, 5 machine guns, 4 cars, over a hundred pistols, 16 typewriters, 4 radios, 11 horses with saddles, 7 motorcycles, 1 car, 15 prisoners and a lot of food. The enemy lost 100 people killed.<\/p>\n

On the afternoon of September 8, 1943, a special insurgent detachment led by Andriy Martsenyuk (“Bereza”) entered Novy Zahoriv. The insurgents camped near the Zahoriv Monastery, which was to become a reliable point of defense in the event of an encounter with the Germans.<\/p>\n

They didn’t have to wait long for the “guests”. A company of German gendarmerie, a company of Don Cossacks and a company of Volksdeutsche police were thrown against the 44 rebels – about 400 people in total. Carelessly approaching the rebel positions, they came under heavy machine-gun fire, losing about 40 fighters.<\/p>\n

The Germans tried to set the monastery on fire with torches and storm it. However, all this proved fruitless – apart from new losses, the occupiers achieved nothing.<\/p>\n

From the memories of the participants in that battle: “Mortars rumbled, machine guns, automatic weapons rattled… Grenades exploded one after another, everything merged into one terrible roar. The battle was boiling, the Germans were climbing like locusts, and with them the Vlasovites and the “Volksdeutsche”. The battle lasted all night. The insurgents could hear the cries of German radio operators calling for help. When it began to dawn, the fighters saw that new cars with soldiers had arrived at the Germans. Bereza considered the situation and gave the order to retreat from the trenches to the monastery.”<\/p>\n

Then the Germans decided to call in reinforcements. The rebels, realizing the tragic complexity of their situation, decided to establish themselves in the monastery and hold their defense within the holy walls.<\/p>\n

On the morning of September 9, additional gendarmerie forces were deployed to Novy Zahoriv. Help for the Germans arrived from three sides: from Volodymyr-Volynskyi, Gorokhov, and Lutsk. Having regrouped, they immediately went on the attack, so it was not easy to retreat. But the monastery was connected to the trenches by a ditch, prudently dug earlier, and the rebels took advantage of it.<\/p>\n

Now the rebels were faced by more than 700 fighters armed with mortars and artillery. The shelling of the monastery continued all day, and in the evening the Germans received reinforcements – ten light tanks. Three German planes also began bombing the monastery. The rebels withstood the air strikes, hiding in the deep basements of the temple, and repelled the night assault.<\/p>\n

September 10th was a real test of the rebel spirit. All day long, German forces stormed the monastery. But machine gunner Kotsiuba, who was sitting on the bell tower, repelled the onslaught of the enemy with uninterrupted machine gun fire.<\/p>\n

Only 18 of the 44 rebels remained alive. From the night of the 10th to the middle of the day of the 11th of September, the German occupiers shelled the monastery with artillery, tanks, and mortars, and in the evening they again stormed the monastery. The rebels lost three more comrades, including their commander Bereza, but did not surrender their positions.<\/p>\n

On the night of September 12, they decided to break out of the encirclement. Having hidden their wounded comrades in the basements of the church, the rebels divided into two groups of six people and, striking the German occupiers in two directions at once, broke out of the deadly ring.<\/p>\n

At 5 o’clock in the morning, taking advantage of the thick fog, the UPA threw grenades at the enemy positions and in the resulting chaos began to break through. Machine gunner Kotsiuba, who was lying wounded on the bell tower, was also lucky to escape, after the fighting had subsided. On the morning of September 12, 1943, the Germans entered the monastery. Hearing groans, they discovered one of the hidden wounded and hanged him that same day.<\/p>\n

The bodies of 29 defenders of the monastery were collected and buried by local villagers. They found them in the cellars on the evening of September 12, after the Germans had left, and rescued two more wounded. The rebels lost 29 people in battle, one was killed in captivity, twelve escaped, and two were rescued by local residents. German losses are estimated at 90-100 people killed and 150-200 wounded. According to other sources, German losses are estimated at 540 people killed and more than 700 wounded.<\/p>\n

The monastery was destroyed, but partially survived to this day. The chronicle story “Battle under the Temple Walls” by Petro Boyarchuk and the poem “Memory 29” by the poet Mykola Kholodny were published about the struggle of the Bereza detachment.<\/p>\n

In Zagorov on the mountain (rebel song)<\/p>\n

Words: unknown Music: unknown<\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n
  1. In Zagorov on the mountain,
    in the old monastery,
    on Sunday, early in the morning,
    The rebels prayed there.<\/li>\n

    <\/p>\n

  2. “Bless, Mother of God,
    to stand firm against enemies,
    to defend Ukraine
    “in a chivalrous manner – to the point of death.”<\/li>\n

    <\/p>\n

  3. “Fight, my children,
    Protect the poor land,
    following the example of my Son
    Ukraine will rise from the dead.”<\/li>\n

    <\/p>\n

  4. On Monday, at dawn,
    Tanks shine in Zagorov,
    Cars and planes are buzzing –
    The Germans are besieging.<\/li>\n

    <\/p>\n

  5. “Friends, alarm, get up,
    Don’t give me a monastery,
    “Defend Ukraine.”
    “We will conquer or perish!”<\/li>\n

    <\/ol>\n

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    \u2022 The owner of the webpage in the \u201cOPINIONS\u201d section is the author of the publication.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    In the summer of 1943, the German occupiers declared Ukraine a “zone of anti-partisan operations.” Erich von dem Bach-Zelevsky, the commander of German anti-partisan formations on the Eastern Front, was involved in the fight against the Ukrainian insurgents. In early June 1943, UPA units drove out the German administration and established their rule in several […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54,"featured_media":1438816,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[76872,76875,76893,76871],"class_list":["post-1438823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-feed","category-other-news","category-thoughts","category-news-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1438823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/54"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1438823"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1438823\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1438816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1438823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1438823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}