Street small-marcinkowice and kostjuchnówka

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Ulina Mała, Marcinkowice and Kostuuchnówka". (PAP)

March through small Street and fight under the Curves

The passage through Mala Street to Krakow and the conflict of Krzywołotami went to past as a evidence to the determination of Józef Piłsudski, courage, bravado and dedication of his legionaries. The commandant defined the curvature conflict as legional Thermopile, and the artillery commander Captain Ottokar Brzoza stressed that the first shot of Polish artillery had been fired since January.

Following the failure of the Austrian-German offensive on Dęblin and Warsaw, at the end of October 1914, General Dankla's army withdrew westward, and along with it 1st Polish Legion Infantry Regiment, which had fought against Anielin and the Forests fought 23-26 October. Piłsudski expected the army to retreat to Kraków. However, the orders directed her towards Zagłębie Dąbrowski, or possibly what the Commander feared, and beyond the borders of the Kingdom of Poland.

“Going a small further, we will stand next day or the day after in defence of access to Wrocław or Zlatej Praha and Vienna. I couldn't go to that. I'd alternatively die than this future. I may have been trying to make a Polish army to fail, I may have been mistaken in my calculations, but I could not get any impression of Józef Poniatowski and drown in any Elster" – Piłsudski recalled in the memoirs written in Magdeburg, 1917. [J. Piłsudski, Collective Scriptures, Vol. 4, Warsaw1937]

Piłsudski did not intend to fight in abroad territory, but at the same time did not think about laying down his arms. He wanted his soldiers to defend the Polish land, close Krakow, or possibly in hard accessible mountain areas, in Podhale. He realized that his regiment could be destroyed. However, he hoped that the eventual defeat of the branch – he even utilized the word "hekatomba" – would leave a lasting mark in history. At the halt at Wolbromie Piłsudski, he made a decision to march on Kraków himself, without the approval of the Austrian command. He realized that his decision from a military point of view was, as he called it, "nonsensus and madness", but he took this large hazard for political reasons.

On 9 November 1914, the order for 3 battalions and cavalry to make a reconnaissance between Żarnowiec and Miechow arrived at the regiment which was in the village of Krzywołota. The honor and sense of soldier work did not let Piłsudski

to disobey this order, although he knew that he was losing valuable hours, during which the way back to Kraków through the corridor between Russian and Austrian troops could cease to exist.

Piłsudski decided to carry out the task entrusted to him, but decided that he would no longer return and would retreat towards Krakow. He chose battalions I, III and V. There were most soldiers in them, who marched out of the Oleanders in August 1914, and 2 battalions (I and III) worked perfectly in the conflict of Anielin and the Forests. Battalions IV and VI remained in position under the Curves.

The danger of the march on Kraków was that it was essential to walk through an open, practically devoid of forest area, and the gathering of 3 battalions, devoid of artillery, without device guns and having only as many ammunition as the soldiers had on them, could have ended with a disaster at a gathering with the enemy.

The march on Kraków began unfortunately, with wandering. The first halt occurred on 10 November in small Street, for remainder before further march. Here it turned out that Cossack patrols had already appeared in the corridor between the Russian and Austrian troops. The designation and information of the local population has brought even worse news.

“My strong God! Where's my hallway? How are we gonna get out of here? I got warm. That means I gotta cross the roads that Moskals marched on yesterday. More! The enemy is already marching north from me. I am in the middle, between the 2 roads of their march west: Miechów-Wolbrom and Czaple Małe-Iwanowice. After all, it is to be expected that not this one, is another side cover, yet any prop patrol will arrive in the Ulina. And then? Then it's so easy to crush us just in a fewer hours. We – a fistful without cannons and device guns, they can have all this in a fewer hours.” [J. Piłsudski, Collective Scriptures, Vol. 4, Warsaw1937]

With large sincerity, Piłsudski described his state of mind: anger and rage on himself and remorse that he had brought his soldiers into a dramatic situation that could end in a massacre of the branch.

The free corridor leading to Krakow ceased to exist. Turning towards the Austrian troops was no longer an option. Piłsudski did not know where they were; he was between enemy lines. However, he decided to go to Krakow, rejecting the advice of Sosnkowski and Kasprzycki to head towards the forests under the stone and Olkusz.

Two Cossack solstice appeared under small Street, with which there was an exchange of shots. However, the Russians' encounter with soldiers of legion battalions did not bring what Piłsudski feared: to attract more powerful enemy forces.

The order for the night march from small Street prohibited smoking cigarettes and loud conversations, soldiers were not to avoid mud and puddles on the road to avoid distractions. A pin composed of soldiers who began serving in the First Personnel Company was led by Major Edward Rydz. Pilsudski went with him. In the village of Wiktorka, the column stopped proceeding the voice of “Stop Who Idiot”. respective Russian soldiers were attacked, but escaped.

“These fewer minutes, spent at the break of roads by the hut, will stay in my memory forever. I have never been so close to the enemy, never, I seem to have thought as rapidly as I did then." [J. Piłsudski, Collective Scriptures, Vol. 4, Warsaw1937]

Piłsudski considered changing the direction of the march for a minute to get off the road to the Russian troops, who, alerted, could appear. He decided to stick to his plan, although he admitted that it was very risky. But he did not want to waste valuable time, and the soldiers inactive had 30 miles to go.

“Truly, if it had not been for this necessity to rush, if it had not been for these tense nerves, I would not have given either myself or my soldiers advice in this chaotic march on the roads.” Their guide was led by a peasant from Victoria.

In Michałowice, where 3 months ago soldiers of the First Personnel Company overthrown Russian border posts, the patrol spooked soldiers from the Finnish defender Regiment and took in a twelve of them. This was the last episode of the march. There are respective kilometres to Krakow. On 11 November Piłsudski and his soldiers entered the city.

Analyzing after 3 years of events, Piłsudski admitted that if he knew that he would be between Russian troops, he would not have decided to go to Kraków. He stated that if it had been successful, it was due to the inability of the caucasian corps, among which the troops included legion battalions. Although their march was discovered by Russian patrols, it did not entail any enemy action. They besides contributed to the success of risky action, as Piłsudski wrote, “smuggle guides”. He besides emphasized the exemplary attitude of soldiers who retained discipline and excellent morale. no of them left the ranks.

The march through the Ulina was of large importance to Piłsudski.

“I besides admit that it was only after Ulina that I began to trust myself

And believe in your strength. And possibly that's why I heard my soldiers say, "Now we'll go everywhere. If he led us out of the Ulina, then we're calm! So it was like my exam, which I took before myself as well as soldiers.” [J. Piłsudski, Collective Scriptures, Vol. 4, Warsaw 1937]

Meanwhile, battalions IV and VI stood in positions under the Krzywołotami, having planted the hill of the Holy Cross with the ruins of the monastery, dominant over the valley of the river Przemsza, in which the village of Zależe and the domaniwicki forest were located. This was so a convenient defensive position.

On 15 November, a division of Siberian gunmen appeared from Domaniowice. On November 17, an order came to attack Russian positions. The night attack was attended by 3 companies selected from both battalions. As they moved through the wet terrain, they reached Zależa and entered into a fight with the enemy. However, deprived of the support of the Austrians, they had to withdraw, having respective killed and wounded. Among the second was Major Mieczysław Trojanowski who commanded the attack.

The following day, the attack on Załęka was resumed, this time with the forces of the 6th Battalion. Even before the village was reached, the bullets reached Lieutenant Stanisław Paderewski, in the civilian mining engineer, half-brother of Ignacy Jan Paderewski, an outstanding pianist and composer. The wounded lieutenant had yet to issue an order for the company to be led by a platoon.

When the legionnaires entered Zależa and began digging into it, the village got under fire from Russian artillery. The largest losses were suffered by the company of eighteen-year-old Lieutenant Leopold Kula. And this time the Austrians, who were to cooperate with the legionaries, failed.

The situation was saved by the legion artillery of Captain Ottokar Brzozy. The branch had obsolete, extracted from Austrian warehouses, kal cannons. 70 mm, 1875, however, he repelled the powerful firing of Russian artillery. This allowed soldiers of the 6th Battalion to retreat from enemy fire. On that day, the Brzozy branch gave the first shots in this war, as the commander in the speech to the soldiers described as “the first since the January Uprising of the Polish artillery shot”, but not knowing that a fewer days earlier in the Carpathians started shooting cannons of the 1st squadron from the tactical group of General Karol Trzaski-Durski. [VI Baon of the First Brigade at the conflict of the Curves, Warsaw 1936]

The battalions participating in the fight under the Krzywołots suffered very large losses: according to Józef M. Musik – 49 killed and 121 wounded at 440 participants in the attack. The vast majority of them belonged to the 6th Battalion. [J.M. Musik, Year 1914. origin for the past of the Józef Piłsudski Brigade, Kraków 1915]

After the fight, the paramedics and volunteers under Captain Kazimierz Piątek went to the battleground to, despite Russian fire, take wounded soldiers. There were many wounded and killed in his company. “All the bullets reached, I stayed alive. I was ashamed to come back from this hell," said Friday. [J.M. Musik, Year 1914. origin for the past of the Józef Piłsudski Brigade, Kraków 1915]

On 19 November, the Austrian 32nd National Defence Regiment, composed in the overwhelming majority of Poles, began to attack. The regiment captured Russian positions in the Domaniwick Forest. On the day of the late legion battalions were withdrawn from the Curves.

The November battles of legion troops one more time confirmed the combat value of the Polish soldier. Walk through the small Street, besides known as Ulina Mała's maneuver or operation, was a breakthrough for Józef Piłsudski himself as military commander. The conflict of the Curves was called legion Thermopiles by him. In 1920, a monument was unveiled on his initiative at the cemetery in Bydgoszcz, where the dead were buried – a fewer metres stone cross decorated with legion symbols. 5 years later the conflict was commemorated on the plaques of the then Unknown Soldier's Sepulchre in Warsaw.

A monument to the conflict is besides a school in Bydgoszcz built in 1937 at the initiative and for the money of legionaries. On the 95th anniversary of the battle, the inhabitants of Bydgoszcz erected an obelisk with a cross and 2 plaques. The plates have names of the dead.

Bibliography:

J.M. Musik, Year 1914. origin for the past of the Józef Piłsudski Brigade, Kraków 1915