The first world weapon is the living dead. Fortress Osovets. attack of the dead

Russians don't give up! The press and memoirs of participants in the First World War associate the birth of this famous phrase precisely with that battle. Morning of August 6, 1915. The Germans, besieging the Russian fortress of Osovets, begin a gas attack, liquid chlorine from hundreds of cylinders rushes to the defenders of the outpost. Soon heavy gunfire is added to the gas. According to the calculations of the German commanders, few Russians could survive after this. But suddenly - the "dead" rise from the graves.

“We did not have gas masks, so the gases caused terrible injuries and chemical burns. When breathing, wheezing and bloody foam escaped from the lungs. The skin on the hands and faces was blistering. The rags with which we wrapped our faces did not help. However, the Russian artillery began to act, sending shell after shell from the green chlorine cloud towards the Prussians. Here the head of the 2nd Department of Defense of Osovets Svechnikov, shaking from a terrible cough, croaked: “My friends, do not die for us, like Prussian cockroaches from poison, we will show them to remember forever!” -

recalls a participant in the events, half-company commander of the 13th company Alexei Lepeshkin. Thus began the battle, later called the "attack of the dead". On the eve of the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of the First World War, we decided to tell in detail about one of its most striking episodes.

"Black time" of Russian fortresses

By and large, the fortresses during the First World War were not lucky. If for many years they were considered the main nodes of many kilometers of defense lines and, in this regard, they received the necessary funding for modernization, then during the Great War of 1914-1918 they faced big problems. And not only in Russia. It soon became clear that field troops could bypass fortresses, blocking their strong garrisons - sometimes as large as a small army - and turning impregnable strongholds into huge stone traps. In most cases, the general staff officers at the head of the army were not enthusiasts of serfdom war, and therefore, in the end, they found, from their point of view, the most effective method to avoid capitulations of strong fortress garrisons - simply leave the fortresses to their fate when the field army withdraws, blowing up all their fortifications and leaving a pile of ruins to the enemy. But behind these dry lines, describing the decline of the “era of fortresses”, a lot is hidden: the hard everyday life of the garrisons, the roar of thousands of guns, betrayal and selflessness, and, finally, one of the most famous episodes of the war - the “attack of the dead”. AT last years he became widely known and became a symbol of the steadfastness of the Russian soldier during the First World War (or, as it was called in Russia, the Second Patriotic War), about the same as the Brest Fortress became for the Great Patriotic War.

The summer of 1915 in general and the month of August in particular became the "black time" of Russian fortresses: it was then that the Novogeorgievsk and Kovno fortresses were rather mediocrely surrendered, and the Ivangorod and Osovets fortresses were evacuated by decision of the command. At the same time, Osovets, neither in terms of the size of the garrison, nor in importance could at all be equal to either Novogeorgievsk, or Kovno, or any Przemysl. It was a solid, with somewhat outdated fortification lines, a fortress that blocked the railway and highway routes to Bialystok.

"Where the world ends,
Osovets fortress stands,
There are terrible swamps,
The Germans are reluctant to climb into them "-

so sang the warriors of the militia who found themselves by the will of fate in the fortress.

Past assaults and forces of the parties

The first two attempts to storm Osovets ( Detailed history the defense of Osovets is described in the book of a direct participant in the events of S. A. Khmelkov “The Struggle for Osovets”. - Ed.) were undertaken in September 1914 and in February-March 1915 and ended in failure: the Germans suffered serious losses and did not resume the attack. The only thing is that the second attempt was more serious, and having failed, the Germans switched to positional warfare, actively accumulating forces and preparing a new assault.

The besiegers did not greatly outnumber the garrison of the fortress. However, the German commanders were known for their ability to create a huge advantage in the main strike sector, which they used both on the Eastern and Western fronts. This time, the 11th Landwehr (Landwehr - German militia-type troops, an analogue of the Russian militia. - Ed.) Division prepared for the assault very seriously. To take the advanced Sosnenskaya and Zarechnaya positions of the Russians, it was decided to use poisonous substances and powerful artillery support.

Attention! Gases!

Poisonous substances - in this case, chlorine - were still a novelty for the warring parties, and therefore the means of protection for the Russian troops (as well as for their allies on Western front) were not perfect. At that stage of the war, poisonous substances were usually delivered in cylinders, and not, as later, in shells, so it was very important to have a fair wind so that chlorine would not be carried away to our own troops. The Germans had to wait in full combat readiness for more than ten days until the right wind blew. For the attack, 30 gas batteries were concentrated in four places (the exact number of cylinders in each of them is unknown, but usually there were 10-12 cylinders in one battery), cylinders with compressed air. As a result, liquid chlorine was thrown out of the cylinders within 1.5-3 minutes.
The hour struck early in the morning of July 24 (August 6, New Style), 1915. As stated in the Combat Diary of the 226th Infantry Zemlyansky Regiment,

“At about 4 o’clock in the morning, the Germans released a whole cloud of suffocating gases and, under the cover of their thick chains, launched an energetic offensive, mainly on the 1st, 2nd and 4th sectors of the Sosnenskaya position. Simultaneously with this enemy, hurricane fire was opened on the Zarechny Fort, the trans-river position and along the road leading from the latter to Sosnenskaya.

However, there were already some measures to counteract the gases: the soldiers burned tow and straw in front of the trenches, watered the parapets and sprayed a disinfecting lime mortar, and also put on the gas masks and masks they had at their disposal. However, all this was not very effective, in addition, many soldiers used ordinary wet rags with which they wrapped their faces.
The defenders suffered very badly: the 9th, 10th and 11th companies that found themselves in the lowland practically ceased to exist, about 40 people remained in the ranks in the 12th company on the Central Redoubt, and about 60 near Bialogronda. The shelling of the fortress, including shells with poisonous substances, also came as a surprise to the Russian troops - that is why the Russian artillery was unable to give an adequate response to the enemy, although it had the opportunity to do so.

The German artillery created a barrage of fire, under the cover of which the Landwehr went on the offensive. No one expected resistance after such preparation. Everything went according to plan: parts of the 18th and 76th landwehr regiments took the first and second positions without any problems, easily breaking the resistance of the militia company, which was also heavily damaged by gases and shelling, standing at the Sosnenskaya position itself. However, then problems began: at first, the 76th Landsturmists were too carried away by the offensive and fell under their own gases, losing about a thousand people, and when the remnants of the 12th Russian company opened fire from the central redoubt, the attack immediately stopped.

"The living Dead"

The already mentioned Combat Diary reports: “Having received a report about this (meaning the occupation of the 1st line of defense) from the commander of the 3rd battalion, Captain Potapov, who reported that the Germans, who occupied the trenches, continue to advance towards the fortress and are not far from reserve, the regiment commander immediately ordered the 8th, 13th and 14th companies to move from the fort to the Sosnenskaya position and, going on a counterattack, drive the Germans out of our trenches occupied by them. These units, including the 13th company, whose attack was led by Lieutenant Vladimir Karpovich Kotlinsky, were also badly damaged by gas and shelling and lost up to half of their personnel (the losses of the 14th company, which was in the fortress, were less). The Germans were promised that they would simply take undefended positions. However, everything turned out differently: Russian soldiers with faces wrapped in rags, “the living dead,” rose to meet them.
“Approaching the enemy at 400 paces, Lieutenant Kotlinsky, led by his company, rushed to the attack. With a bayonet blow, he knocked the Germans out of their position, forcing them to flee in disarray ... Without stopping, the 13th company continued to pursue the fleeing enemy, with bayonets knocked him out of the trenches of the 1st and 2nd sections of the Sosnensky positions occupied by him. We occupied the last one again, returning back our anti-assault gun and machine guns captured by the enemy. At the end of this dashing attack, Lieutenant Kotlinsky was mortally wounded and transferred command of the 13th company to Lieutenant of the 2nd Osovets sapper company Strezheminsky, who completed and completed the work so gloriously begun by Lieutenant Kotlinsky. Kotlinsky died by the evening of the same day. By the highest order of September 26, 1916, he was posthumously awarded the Order of St. George, 4th degree.
One eyewitness told the newspaper, " Russian word»:

“I cannot describe the bitterness and fury with which our soldiers went against the German poisoners. Strong rifle and machine-gun fire, densely bursting shrapnel could not stop the onslaught of the enraged soldiers. Exhausted, poisoned, they fled with the sole purpose of crushing the Germans. There were no laggards, no one had to rush. There were no individual heroes here, the companies marched as one person, animated by only one goal, one thought: to die, but to take revenge on the vile poisoners.

The Germans did not expect a counterattack, they generally believed that there were no one but the dead on the positions. But the "dead" rose from their graves. The rest was completed by the Russian artillery, which finally came to its senses. By 11 o'clock the Sosnenskaya position was cleared of the enemy, who did not repeat the attack. That day the Russian battle group, collided with the enemy, lost about 600-650 officers, military officials and lower ranks killed, wounded, gassed. The enemy suffered heavy losses.

Sadly, the fate of the Osovets fortress had already been decided: an order was received to evacuate it. On August 23, the buildings and fortifications of the fortress left by the Russian troops flew into the air, and two days later the Germans occupied the still smoking ruins.
Osovets was abandoned, but the "attack of the dead" of the 13th company was not meaningless: it became miraculous monument to a Russian soldier who gave his life for the freedom of the peoples of Europe, so that they could choose their own future

07.08.2015 10:18

One hundred years ago, the phrase "Russians don't give up!" spread all over the world. Having learned the details of the defense of the small Osovets fortress, people shuddered, some with horror, some with admiration, and the enemies with impotent rage.

Osovets fortress

Osovets fortress was jokingly called "toy" and indeed, against the background of its neighbors - Brest-Litovsk and Novogeorgievskaya, it looked very modest: only four forts connected by trenches, 71 guns and 1 regiment of defenders. This fortress was a "tidbit" for the German command, it covered the flanks of two Russian armies at once and locked the Lyk - Graevo - Bialystok railway and the highway to Bialystok passing through it. It was impossible to get around Osovets, there were solid swamps around ...

First assault

In September 1914, the German army tried to take the fortress from the march (40 Landwehr battalions against one Russian infantry regiment). Two days 60 heavy guns(caliber up to 203 mm) transferred from Königsberg bombarded the fortress. Deciding that after such a shelling, Osovets would be easy prey, the Germans went on the assault. The attack was repulsed, moreover, the next day, Russian soldiers rushed to the superior enemy forces. The Germans hastily retreated, withdrawing artillery.

Second assault

A full-fledged siege began in January 1915, and the assault followed on February 3. Four "Big Berts" and 64 other powerful siege weapons were brought near Osovets, a total of 17 batteries. "Big Berts" - siege guns of 420-mm caliber, 800-kilogram shells of which broke through two-meter steel and concrete ceilings. The crater from such an explosion was five meters deep and fifteen in diameter. During the week of terrifying shelling, only 200-250 thousand heavy shells were fired at the fortress. the wire connection was interrupted, the highway was spoiled by funnels; trenches and all the improvements on the ramparts, such as: peaks, machine-gun nests, light dugouts, were wiped off the face of the earth. (From the memoirs of A.A. Khmelkov).

The Russian command, realizing that even heroism has a limit, asked the garrison to hold out for another 48 hours. The fortress held out for more than six months - 190 days!

"Attack of the Dead"

At dawn at 4:00 August 6, 1915 30 carefully camouflaged gas batteries of several thousand cylinders hit the Russian positions with a 12-meter wave of chlorine, which penetrated forward to a depth of 20 km. The consequences of the chemical attack were horrendous. “Every living thing in the open air on the bridgehead of the fortress was poisoned to death. All the greenery in the fortress and in the nearest area along the path of the gases was destroyed, the leaves on the trees turned yellow, curled up and fell off, the grass turned black and lay on the ground, the flower petals flew around. (From the memoirs of A.A. Khmelkov).

The defenders of the fortress did not have gas masks. The 9th, 10th and 11th companies of the Zemlyansky regiment died entirely, about 40 remained from the 12th company, about 60 remained from the three companies defending Bialogrondy ... 8th Army (14 battalions landwehr, at least 7 thousand people) moved after the wave of gases. They didn't attack. For a cleanup. Being sure that the living will not be met.

What happened next was beautifully described by publicist Vladimir Voronov:
“When the German chains approached the trenches, from a thick green chlorine fog, they fell upon them ... counterattacking Russian infantry. The sight was terrifying: the soldiers walked into the bayonet with their faces wrapped in rags, shaking from a terrible cough, literally spitting out pieces of the lungs on the bloodied tunics. These were the remnants of the 13th company of the 226th infantry Zemlyansky regiment, a little more than 60 people. But they plunged the enemy into such horror that the German infantry, not accepting the battle, rushed back, trampling each other and hanging on their own barbed wire. And from the Russian batteries shrouded in chlorine clubs, what seemed to be dead artillery began to hit them. Several dozen half-dead Russian soldiers put three German infantry regiments to flight! The world military art did not know anything like this. This battle will go down in history as the "attack of the dead."

Lieutenant Kotlinsky, who led the attack of the 13th company, was mortally wounded and transferred command of the formation to Lieutenant Strezheminsky, who was also killed. The remnants of the company under the command of Ensign Radke completely eliminated the consequences of the German breakthrough in this sector of defense with a fight.

Leaving the fortress

The fortress never gave up. She was abandoned later by order of the command. By August 1915, due to changes on the Western Front, the strategic need to defend the fortress lost all meaning. On August 18, 1915, the evacuation of the garrison began. Part of the guns managed to be sent to Bialystok railway, but soon it was cut by the Germans. There were not enough horses, so 30-50 artillerymen and militias each dragged cannons. On August 23, everything that survived in the fortress was blown up by Russian sappers. The Russian defenders of Osovets inspired such horror in the enemy that only the Germans, only two days later, dared to occupy the deserted ruins of the fortress.

Epilogue

AT Soviet time Osovets was not very fond of remembering, because Major General Brzhozovsky joined the White movement as the commandant of the fortress in 1919 and fought against the Bolsheviks.

Attack of the Dead. Artist: Evgeny Ponomarev

August 6 marks the 100th anniversary of the famous "Attack of the Dead" - an event unique in the history of wars: the counterattack of the 13th company of the 226th Zemlyansky Regiment, which survived the German gas attack during the assault of the Osovets fortress by the German troops on August 6 (July 24), 1915. How it was?

It was the second year of the war. The situation on the Eastern Front was not in favor of Russia. May 1, 1915 after gas attack near Gorlitsa, the Germans managed to break through the Russian positions, and a large-scale offensive of German and Austrian troops began. As a result, the Kingdom of Poland, Lithuania, Galicia, part of Latvia and Belarus were left. Only prisoners imperial army Russia lost 1.5 million people, and total losses in 1915, there were about 3 million killed, wounded and captured.

But was the great retreat of 1915 a shameful flight? No.

About the same Gorlitsky breakthrough, the prominent military historian A. Kersnovsky writes the following: “At dawn on April 19, the IV Austro-Hungarian and XI German armies attacked the IX and X Corps on the Danube and at Gorlitsa. A thousand guns - up to 12-inch caliber inclusive - flooded our shallow trenches on a front of 35 versts with a sea of ​​fire, after which the infantry masses of Mackensen and Archduke Joseph Ferdinand rushed to the assault. Against each of our corps there was an army, against each of our brigade - a corps, against each of our regiments - a division. Encouraged by the silence of our artillery, the enemy considered all our forces wiped off the face of the earth. But from the destroyed trenches, groups of people half-covered with earth rose up - the remnants of the bloodless, but not crushed regiments of the 42nd, 31st, 61st and 9th divisions. The Zorndorf Fusiliers seemed to rise from their graves. With their iron chest, they spring back the blow and prevented the catastrophe of the entire Russian armed force.

Osovets fortress garrison

The Russian army retreated because it experienced shell and gun hunger. Russian industrialists, for the most part, are liberal jingoistic patriots who shouted in 1914 “Give me the Dardanelles!” and demanding to provide the public with power for a victorious end to the war, were unable to cope with the shortage of weapons and shells. At the breakthrough sites, the Germans concentrated up to a million shells. For one hundred German shots, Russian artillery could only respond with ten. The plan to saturate the Russian army with artillery was thwarted: instead of 1500 guns, it received ... 88.

Weakly armed, technically illiterate in comparison with the Germans, the Russian soldier did what he could, saving the country, atoning for the miscalculations of the authorities, laziness and self-interest of the rear with his personal courage and his own blood. Without shells and cartridges, retreating, Russian soldiers inflicted heavy blows on the German and Austrian troops, whose cumulative losses in 1915 amounted to about 1,200 thousand people.

In the history of the retreat of 1915, the defense of the Osovets fortress is a glorious page. It was only 23 kilometers from the border with East Prussia. According to S. Khmelkov, a participant in the defense of Osovets, the main task of the fortress was "to block the enemy from the nearest and most convenient way to Bialystok ... to make the enemy lose time either to conduct a long siege, or to look for workarounds." And Bialystok is the road to Vilna (Vilnius), Grodno, Minsk and Brest, that is, the gate to Russia. The first German attacks followed already in September 1914, and from February 1915 systematic assaults began, which fought back for 190 days, despite the monstrous German technical strength.

german cannon Big Bertha

They delivered the famous "Big Berts" - siege guns of 420-millimeter caliber, 800-kilogram shells of which broke through two-meter steel and concrete ceilings. The funnel from such an explosion was 5 meters deep and 15 in diameter. Four "Big Berts" and 64 other powerful siege weapons were brought near Osovets - a total of 17 batteries. The most terrible shelling was at the beginning of the siege. “On February 25, the enemy opened fire on the fortress, brought it to a hurricane on February 27 and 28, and so continued to smash the fortress until March 3,” S. Khmelkov recalled. According to his calculations, during this week of terrifying shelling, 200-250 thousand heavy shells alone were fired at the fortress. And in total during the siege - up to 400 thousand. “The appearance of the fortress was terrible, the whole fortress was shrouded in smoke, through which, in one place or another, huge fiery tongues escaped from the explosion of shells; pillars of earth, water and whole trees flew up; the earth trembled, and it seemed that nothing could withstand such a hurricane of fire. The impression was that not a single person would emerge unharmed from this hurricane of fire and iron.”

And yet the fortress stood. The defenders were asked to hold out for at least 48 hours. They held out for 190 days, knocking out two Berthas. It was especially important to hold Osovets during the great offensive, in order to prevent Mackensen's legions from slamming the Russian troops into the Polish bag.

German gas battery

Seeing that the artillery was not coping with its tasks, the Germans began to prepare a gas attack. Note that poisonous substances were banned at one time by the Hague Convention, which the Germans, however, cynically despised, like many other things, based on the slogan: "Germany is above all." National and racial exaltation set the stage for the inhuman technologies of the First and Second World Wars. The German gas attacks of the First World War are the forerunners of the gas chambers. The personality of the "father" of the German chemical Fritz Haber is characteristic. He loved from safe place watch the torment of poisoned enemy soldiers. It is significant that his wife committed suicide after the German gas attack at Ypres.

The first gas attack on the Russian front in the winter of 1915 was unsuccessful: the temperature was too low. In the future, gases (primarily chlorine) became reliable allies of the Germans, including near Osovets in August 1915.

German gas attack

The Germans prepared the gas attack carefully, patiently waiting for the right wind. We deployed 30 gas batteries, several thousand cylinders. And on August 6, at 4 am, a dark green mist of a mixture of chlorine and bromine flowed into the Russian positions, reaching them in 5-10 minutes. A gas wave 12–15 meters high and 8 km wide penetrated to a depth of 20 km. The defenders of the fortress did not have gas masks.

“Every living thing in the open air on the bridgehead of the fortress was poisoned to death,” recalled a member of the defense. - All the greenery in the fortress and in the nearest area along the path of the gases was destroyed, the leaves on the trees turned yellow, curled up and fell off, the grass turned black and lay on the ground, the flower petals flew around. All copper objects on the bridgehead of the fortress - parts of guns and shells, washbasins, tanks, etc. - were covered with a thick green layer of chlorine oxide; food items stored without hermetic sealing - meat, butter, lard, vegetables - turned out to be poisoned and unfit for consumption.

The German artillery again opened massive fire, following the fire shaft and the gas cloud, 14 landwehr battalions moved to storm the Russian advanced positions - and this is at least 7 thousand infantrymen. Their goal was to capture the strategically important Sosnenskaya position. They were promised that they would meet no one but the dead.

Aleksey Lepeshkin, a participant in the defense of Osovets, recalls: “We did not have gas masks, so the gases caused terrible injuries and chemical burns. When breathing, wheezing and bloody foam escaped from the lungs. The skin on the hands and faces was blistering. The rags with which we wrapped our faces did not help. However, the Russian artillery began to act, sending shell after shell from the green chlorine cloud towards the Prussians. Here the head of the 2nd department of defense of Osovets Svechnikov, shaking from a terrible cough, croaked: “My friends, do not die for us, like Prussian cockroaches, from poison. Let's show them to remember forever!

And those who survived the terrible gas attack rose up, including the 13th company, which had lost half of its composition. It was headed by Lieutenant Vladimir Karpovich Kotlinsky. Towards the Germans were "living dead", with faces wrapped in rags. Shout "Hurrah!" there was no strength. The fighters were shaking from coughing, many were coughing up blood and pieces of the lungs. But they went.

Attack of the Dead. Reconstruction

One of the eyewitnesses told the Russian Word newspaper: “I cannot describe the anger and fury with which our soldiers went against the German poisoners. Strong rifle and machine-gun fire, densely bursting shrapnel could not stop the onslaught of the enraged soldiers. Exhausted, poisoned, they fled with the sole purpose of crushing the Germans. There were no laggards, no one had to rush. There were no individual heroes here, the companies marched as one person, animated by only one goal, one thought: to die, but to take revenge on the vile poisoners.

Lieutenant Vladimir Kotlinsky

The combat diary of the 226th Zemlyansky Regiment says: “Approaching the enemy at 400 steps, Lieutenant Kotlinsky, led by his company, rushed to the attack. With a bayonet blow, he knocked the Germans out of their position, forcing them to flee in disarray ... Without stopping, the 13th company continued to pursue the fleeing enemy, with bayonets knocked him out of the trenches of the 1st and 2nd sections of the Sosnensky positions occupied by him. We occupied the last one again, returning back our anti-assault gun and machine guns captured by the enemy. At the end of this dashing attack, Lieutenant Kotlinsky was mortally wounded and transferred command of the 13th company to Lieutenant of the 2nd Osovets sapper company Strezheminsky, who completed and completed the work so gloriously begun by Lieutenant Kotlinsky.

Kotlinsky died by the evening of the same day. By the highest order of September 26, 1916, he was posthumously awarded the Order of St. George, 4th degree.

The Sosnenskaya position was returned and the situation was restored. Success was achieved at a high price: 660 people died. But the fortress held out.

By the end of August, holding Osovets lost all meaning: the front rolled back far to the east. The fortress was evacuated in the right way: the enemy was left not only with guns - not a single shell, cartridge, and even a tin can was left to the Germans. At night, the guns were pulled along the Grodno highway by 50 soldiers. On the night of August 24, Russian sappers blew up the remains of the defensive structures and left. And only on August 25, the Germans ventured into the ruins.

Unfortunately, Russian soldiers and officers of the First World War are often accused of a lack of heroism and sacrifice, considering the Second Patriotic War through the prism of 1917 - the collapse of power and the army, "treason, cowardice and deceit." We see that this is not so.

The defense of Osovets is comparable to the heroic defense Brest Fortress and Sevastopol during the Great Patriotic War. Because in initial period During the First World War, a Russian soldier went into battle with a clear consciousness of what he was going for - "For the Faith, the Tsar, and the Fatherland." He walked with faith in God and a cross on his chest, girded with a sash with the inscription "Alive in the help of the Most High", laying down his soul "for his friends."

And although this consciousness was clouded as a result of the rear rebellion of February 1917, it, albeit in a slightly altered form, was revived after many sufferings in the terrible and glorious years of the Great Patriotic War.

On August 6, 1915, one of the most famous events of the First World War, which went down in history under the name "Attack of the Dead", took place - this is the counterattack of the 13th company of the 226th Zemlyansky regiment during the defense of the Osovets fortress on the Eastern Front, when, during the reflection of the German gas attacks of about fifty Russian soldiers put to flight almost seven thousand German troops.

The small Russian fortress Osovets was an important point of defense of the western borders of the Russian Empire, it was located on the Beaver River near the town of Osovice (now Poland) west of the city of Bialystok. Built 23 km from the then border with East Prussia, it was intended to defend the strategic corridor between the Neman and Vistula-Bug rivers and "locked" the railway and highway to Bialystok.

During the First World War, according to the plans of the Russian General Staff, the fortress was supposed to protect from the Germans the crossing over the Beaver and the Bialystok transport hub, the capture of which opened the road to Vilna, Brest, Grodno, Minsk and further everywhere to Russia. Despite the small size of the fortress, it was almost impossible to bypass it because of the solid swamps in the area. And the command asked the defenders of Osovets, in the event of the German army going on the offensive, to hold out for 48 hours. The fortress stood for six months.

The first attempts to storm Osovets were made German troops in September 1914, when 40 Landwehr battalions tried to take the fortress on the move. But they suffered serious losses and were forced to move on to a positional war, actively accumulating forces. Four famous "Big Berts" (420-mm caliber siege guns, 800-kilogram shells of which broke through two-meter steel and concrete ceilings) and dozens of other powerful siege guns were delivered here. Thoroughly prepared, on February 25, 1915, the Germans again launched an assault, first opening heavy fire on the fortress. For several days, despite fierce attacks and shelling, the Russian units held the defense, the fortress did not surrender. Having used up a huge number of shells, the Germans again switched to positional actions, which continued until mid-summer. In July, the German army launched a large-scale offensive, and its plans were to finally take the still unconquered Osovets. 14 infantry battalions, several dozen heavy siege guns and 30 poison gas batteries were drawn here. And they began to wait, and August 6 became a black day for the defenders of Osovets

It was poisonous substances (in this case, chlorine), with powerful artillery support, that it was decided to use when taking the fortress. By the way, the use of poisonous substances was still a novelty for the warring parties, so they had practically no means of protection, since gas masks were still being developed at that time.

And so, on August 6, 1915, after waiting for a fair wind, the Germans used poison gases - at dawn at 4 o'clock in the morning a dark green fog flowed onto the Russian positions. This day became "black" for the defenders of Osovets. As a result, the gas penetrated to a total depth of up to 20 km, keeping damaging effect to a depth of 12 km and up to 12 meters in height. In the absence of any effective means protection from the defenders of the fortress, the result of the gas attack was devastating: the 9th, 10th and 11th companies of the Zemlyansky regiment were completely out of action, about 40 people remained in the ranks from the 12th company in the central redoubt; from three companies at Byalogrond - about 60 people. Almost all the first and second lines of defense of the Sosnenskaya position were left without defenders. Fortress artillery also suffered heavy losses. More than 1,600 people were out of order in the fortress, in general, the entire garrison received poisoning of varying degrees of severity.

After the gas attack German artillery opened a powerful fire on the fortress, including shells with chloropicrin, and then 14 German battalions moved to occupy the burnt positions. Suppressing single resistance, they quickly overcame the first and second lines of barbed wire, occupied the tactically important fortified point "Leonov's yard" and moved on. According to the calculations of the German commanders, few Russians could survive after this. No one expected resistance after such preparation.

However, the Germans were moving too fast and were exposed to their own gases. In addition, the remnants of Russian artillery - the 12th company at the central redoubt - managed to open fire on the enemy. And the commandant of the fortress, Lieutenant General N.A. Brzhozovsky ordered to organize artillery fire on the sections of the Sosnenskaya position already occupied by the enemy and to counterattack with hostility "with everything possible." The remnants of the Russian infantry stood up to meet the Germans - soldiers "with faces wrapped in rags, shaking from a terrible cough, literally spitting out pieces of the lungs on bloodied tunics" (according to publicist Vladimir Voronov - ed.), who looked like "living dead".

These were the remnants of the 13th company of the 226th infantry Zemlyansky regiment - a little more than 60 people, the attack of which was led by Lieutenant V.K. Kotlinsky. According to the surviving testimonies of the participants in those events, the appearance of the counterattacking Russian soldiers was so terrible that they plunged the enemy into such horror that the German infantrymen, not accepting the battle, rushed back, trampling each other and hanging on the wire barriers. And the Russian artillery, which came to its senses, completed the work. By 11 o'clock the Sosnenskaya position was cleared of the enemy, who did not repeat the attack.

It was this battle that later received the name "Attack of the Dead", when several dozen half-dead Russian soldiers put three German infantry regiments to flight! This battle will go down in history as the "attack of the dead".

The Germans did not take Osovets, however, sadly, the fate of the fortress had already been decided: the Russian command ordered it to be evacuated. Since then the Russian army was withdrawing from Poland, and the strategic need for the defense of Osovets disappeared. The evacuation began on August 18 and went smoothly, in accordance with the plan, everything that could not be evacuated was blown up. But the "Attack of the Dead" of the 13th company has forever become a miraculous monument and a symbol of the stamina of the Russian soldier. In recent years, this event of the First World War has become widely known, being a glorious page in the history of the Russian army.

By the way, the first gas balloon attack with chlorine in the history of wars was also carried out by the German army(9) April 22, 1915 on the Western Front near Ypres.

Attack of the Dead- this is the legendary feat of Russian soldiers, which took place in 1915. He went down in history forever, glorifying the courage of the Russian spirit and his incredible courage. Let's see how it all happened.

But first I want to say that often admiring beautiful pictures Western films, young people forget that they have their own, domestic, and great and glorious. When you find out the details of the Attack of the Dead, you understand that 300 Spartans (whose feat is undoubtedly also great) are almost nothing compared to the feat of the soldiers of the Russian Empire, which we will now talk about.

Fortress Osovets

This happened during the First World War (1914-1918) during the defense of the Osovets fortress. The fortress itself was founded in 1795 by the forces Russian Empire. For more than 100 years, various fortifications. By the way, today this place is located in Poland, 50 kilometers from the city of Bialystok.

First baptism of fire happened in September 1914, when units of the 8th German Army came close to it. Despite the enormous numerical superiority of the Germans, the Russians repulsed the first attack.

Here it is necessary to explain the reasons why the legendary event, which will be discussed below, took place at all. The fact is that the Osovets fortress was of extremely important strategic importance for the Russian Empire. Impassable swamps were located to the north and south of it, therefore, in order to advance in this direction, the German troops had to take Osovets at any cost.

A few months after the first unsuccessful attack, on February 3, 1915, the Germans made another attempt to capture the fortress. After six days of fighting, they managed to take the first line of defense.

This allowed them to draw up their heavy artillery and attack the garrison with full force. Among the guns were mortars "Skoda" with a caliber of 305 mm, as well as "Big Berts" with a caliber of 420 mm.

It is hard to even imagine, but in just one week, the Osovets fortress received more than 250 thousand enemy shells. According to the surviving warriors, the earth shook like a ship in a storm, and clouds of smoke and terrible flames, enveloping the fortifications, mercilessly destroyed them.

Knowing about the colossal destruction and losses, the Osovets command ordered the defenders to hold out for only 48 hours. But the brave soldiers, apparently, remembered that the Russians did not give up! They managed not only to hold out for the required period, but also to completely push back a much stronger enemy from their positions.

Osovets Attack of the Dead

After 5 months, in July 1915, a third attempt was made to attack the impregnable Osovets fortress. It was she who became the decisive moment that forever went down in the history of Russian military glory.

After making sure that Osovets, defended by brave warriors, cannot be taken with the help of brute force and artillery pieces, the German command decided to use military poison gases.

Under the fortress, 30 gas-balloon batteries were deployed, which had previously been carefully camouflaged. The gas attack began on 6 August 1915 at 4 am.

Thanks to a tailwind, the chlorine released from the cylinders began to destroy everything in its path. The territory of the defeat of the Osovets fortress was almost fatal, since a poisonous gas wave, 8 km wide and up to 15 m high, penetrated to a depth of 20 km.

All living things were hit in the way of destructive chemicals. The leaves on the trees turned yellow, the grass turned black and fell to the ground. According to eyewitnesses, there was a terrifying smell of death in the pitch silence.

Given the fact that the soldiers of the garrison did not have any means of protection against this kind of gas exposure, they suffered heavy losses.

The 226th Zemlyansky Regiment, which was responsible for the defense in the main direction of the enemy, was almost completely knocked out of action. The 9th, 10th and 11th companies suffered so badly that they were unable to fight. In the rest of the companies, only a few were capable.

The artillerymen also suffered such heavy damage that they could not fire at all. In general, more than 1,600 people were completely disabled, and absolutely the entire garrison, in one way or another, suffered from poison gas.

Vladimir Kotlinsky

After these actions, the German side launched artillery, including those with chemical charges, and gave the command to the infantry to attack the paralyzed enemy.

Moving in orderly ranks, more than 7,000 Germans began the assault. Having easily captured the first two lines of defense, which were completely depopulated, they confidently moved on. When they approached the Rudsky bridge, there was a real danger of its capture, which in fact would mean the inevitable fall of Osovets.

At this decisive moment, the commandant of the fortress, Lieutenant-General Nikolai Brzhozovsky, gave the order to counterattack the enemy with hostility "with everything possible."

This desperate move was executed by the 21-year-old commander of the 13th company of the Zemlyansky regiment, lieutenant Vladimir Kotlinsky, originally from Pskov. Colleagues said about him:

This man seemed to have absolutely no idea what a sense of fear or even a sense of self-preservation was. Already in the past work of the regiment, he did a lot of good, commanding one of the companies.

So, the Attack of the Dead began.

Leading the remnants of his own company, he led the surviving soldiers of the 8th, 12th and 14th companies.

It was a terrible sight. Wrapped in dirty rags, with terrible burns on their faces, coughing up blood and uttering inhuman wheezing, Russian soldiers moved towards the enemy.

The Germans, being confident in a clear victory and not expecting to meet an enemy destroyed by poisonous fumes on their way, having seen a real Attack of the Dead, came to real horror and supernatural fear.

At first they began to retreat, not believing their eyes, and then the unprecedented happened. Several dozen Russians put to flight the 7,000th German infantry. Many Germans died on the wire nets in front of the second line of trenches from the fire of fortress artillery, as they crushed and trampled each other in a panic.

In this attack, Lieutenant Kotlinsky was mortally wounded and killed, who in 1916 was posthumously awarded the Order of St. George, 4th degree.

At 8 o'clock in the morning the German breakthrough was eliminated, and already at 11 it became clear: the assault was completely repulsed.

This unheard-of feat is known in history as the “Attack of the Dead”.

Attack of the Dead Reveals

AT recent times more and more "new historians" argue that Attack of the Dead is in many ways almost fiction. Of course, all such feats are eventually surrounded by a halo of glory, and inconvenient moments are gradually erased from memory. But this can hardly be considered a reason for the research of opponents of the heroic deed of Russian soldiers.

1. It's all about quotes. This is the main argument given by the "whistleblowers" of the attack of the dead. The fact is that the military engineer S. A. Khmelkov was the first to use this term in 1939 in his work “The Struggle for Osovets”. There, the word "dead" is in quotation marks, which is understandable. But can the expression "attack of the dead" be taken literally? Of course not, so the figurativeness of this phrase only emphasizes the terrifying position of the defenders of Osovets at the time of the gas counterattack. Consequently, sarcastic remarks about the fact that supposedly "it's all about quotation marks" do not diminish the amazing feat of courage of the defenders of the Osovets fortress.
2. There were more Russians. This is the second argument that the author of this article happened to meet. It boils down to the fact that according to official figures there were 7 thousand Germans, and Russians - 60 or 70; and this, allegedly, is not entirely true, since it is implausible. However, with such “revelations” of the Attack of the Dead, no one specifies how many Russians there were, if not 60. In fact, this cannot be considered an argument.
3. The Germans simply did not know. This statement is generally comical in its essence. Its supporters claim that German soldiers were sure that after the gas attack everyone would die. However, many of them not only survived, but with disfigured faces in burns and wounds went into battle. That is, the Germans simply did not know that they could be counterattacked. The supporters of this position would like to ask: so what? If the psychological effect of Russian soldiers hit by chlorine and advancing with bayonets was so great that the Germans fled in horror, does this mean that the feat is not so great? War is the art of the possible, and if only one psychological effect contributed to the flight of the enemy, the more glorious is the feat, courage and determination of the winner, who, after heavy losses, was not afraid to launch a bayonet attack against thousands of troops. And to say “if only” after the battle is pointless and stupid.

An interesting excerpt from the memoirs of a direct participant in the Attack of the Dead. There she is:

I cannot describe the bitterness and fury with which our soldiers marched against the German poisoners. Strong rifle and machine-gun fire, densely bursting shrapnel could not stop the onslaught of enraged soldiers.
Exhausted, poisoned, they fled with the sole purpose of crushing the Germans. There were no laggards, no one had to rush. There were no individual heroes here, the companies marched as one person, animated by only one goal, one thought: to die, but to take revenge on the vile poisoners.

<…>The Germans could not withstand the frenzied onslaught of our soldiers and rushed to flee in a panic. They did not even have time to carry away or spoil our machine guns in their hands.

The damaging effects of chlorine

Just in case, I would like to briefly explain what this kind of poisoning is. When chlorine vapors enter open areas of the body and mucous membranes of the nasopharynx and eyes, they cause burns of varying severity, depending on the amount of the toxic substance.

Moreover, by inhaling the poisoned gas, the soldiers suffered from toxic convulsions. chest which made it almost impossible for them to act.

It is for this reason that the Russian soldiers who took part in the Attack of the Dead looked scary, like in horror films: they wrapped the exposed areas of their faces and bodies with any rags they could get, as the skin burst, and the ulcers caused unbearable pain.

The vast majority of soldiers received severe burns. And yet, after being used against them chemical weapons mass destruction they not only withstood, but also repulsed the attack of the enemy, fulfilling the duty of the defenders of the line of defense entrusted to them.