Battle of Bereza Kartuska


The Battle of Bereza Kartuska was fought between the combined forces of the Second Polish Republic and Soviet Russia around the village Bereza Kartuska first on 14 February 1919, and again, between July 21 and July 26, 1920. Polish units crossing the border, invasion of Belarus. They attacked into the township of Bereza, and crossing the Neman river, taking Pinsk, and reaching the outskirts of Lida.
The first skirmish of Bereza is considered to be the initial engagement of the Polish–Soviet War of 1919–1921, by some historians.

History

After German and Polish representatives signed an evacuation agreement on 5 February 1919, the ten battalions of the newly formed Polish Army were to pass through German Oberkommando-Ostfront lines at Wolkowysk to reach the Bolshevik front, where on 12 January 1919, the Soviet Supreme Command ordered a "reconnaissance in depth", codenamed Target Vistula.
In February 1919, both Soviet Russia and newly-reborn Poland were in their infancy, and both only months' old. On 13 February 1919, at 7 in the morning, 57 Polish soldiers and 5 officers, led by Capt. Mienicki of the Polish Wilno Detachment, made a sortie into the township of Biaroza, a small city to the east of Brzesc capturing 80 soldiers of the Red Army.

The second Battle of Bereza Kartuska

One year later, between July 21 and July 26, 1920, soldiers of the Polish 14th Infantry Division under General Daniel Konarzewski once again clashed with the Red Army in Bereza Kartuska, soon after the Battle of Warsaw. Poles had retreated from Baranowicze, abandoning German Imperial Army fortifications, constructed there during World War One, and took defensive positions along the Jasiolda river. After three days of heavy fighting, the 14th I.D. once again was forced to retreat towards Kobryn, after burning the bridges on the Jasiolda river. The town of Bereza Kartuska was retaken by the Polish Army and, at the end of the Polish–Soviet War, ceded to Poland in the Peace of Riga signed by the Soviet Russia. The peace treaty remained in force until the Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939..