Battle of Lwów (1918)

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Battle of Lwów

Fights for the Łyczaków Cemetery on a painting by Wojciech Kossak

Date	November 1, 1918 - June 1919
Location	Lwów
Result	Polish victory

Combatants

West Ukrainian People's Republic

Poland

Commanders

Hnat Stefaniv

Polish-Ukrainian War
Przemyśl – Lwów – Lubaczów – Gniła Lipa

Battle of Lwów of 1918 and 1919 was a six months long conflict between the forces of West Ukrainian People's Republic, local civilian population and regular Polish Army for the control over the city of Lwów (Lviv), in what was then a part of Galicia and now a part of Ukraine. The battle sparked the Polish-Ukrainian War, ultimately won by the Poland.

Despite the fact that the majority of population of the city itself was composed of Poles (roughly 60%) and Jews (roughly 20%), the withdrawing Austro-Hungarian Army decided to hand the city over to Ukrainian authorities, who represented the majority of the population of the eastern part of Galicia surrounding Lviv. It was made the main garrison of Ukrainian Sich Riflemen, while most of Polish units in Austro-Hungarian service were sent to other fronts in order to avoid conflict. The first clash happened on November 1, 1918, in the city of Lemberg (called Lwów by the Poles and Lviv by the Ukrainians). The Ukrainian militias under Dmytro Vitovskyi took the advantage during the dissolution of Austria-Hungary and took control over most of Eastern Galicia. The West Ukrainian People's Republic was proclaimed with Lviv as its capital, and claimed sovereignty upon Eastern Galicia, Carpathians up to the city of Nowy Sącz in the west, Carpathian Ruthenia and northern Bukovina. However, large part of the claimed territory was also considered Polish by the local populations.

The Ukrainian forces numbering approximately 1,500 men and aided by the Sich Riflemen entered the city unopposed by Hungarian and German units who declared their neutrality in the conflict. Upon entering the city, the Ukrainian forces were opposed only by token local self-defence units. The Polish forces, initially numbering only about 200 people under Zdzisław Tatar-Trześniowski, organized a small pocket of resistance in a school on the western outskirts of the city, where a group of veterans of the Polish Military Organization put up a fight armed with 64 outdated rifles. After the initial clashes, the defenders were joined by hundreds of volunteers, mostly Scouts, students and youngsters. More than 1000 people joined the Polish ranks on the first day of the war. This enabled the Poles to retake some of the western parts of the city, while most of the city centre remained in Ukrainian hands.

Situation after the siege was broken

Although numerically superior, well-equipped and battle-hardened, the units of Vytovskyi were unaccustomed to city fighting. On the contrary their enemies were ill-equipped and mostly untrained, but had the advantage of good knowledge of the city, which proved vital in the early days of the defence. In the following day the forces of the defenders reached roughly 6,000 men and women, more than 1400 of them being gymnasium students and youngsters. Because of their heroism and mass participation in the fights, they are commonly referred to as Lwów Eaglets. On November 3 the first units of the Sich Riflemen arrived and the command over the Ukrainian forces was taken over by Col. Hnat Stefaniv. However, the Polish assault on the Main Train Station succeeded and the Poles managed to capture two Ukrainian supply trains, which largely negated the Ukrainian superiority in arms and munitions. By November 9 the Ukrainians were pushed out of the western part of the town, yet the Polish assault on the city centre stalled and both sides reached a stalemate. With insufficient personnel to man a regular front-line, the front was stable only in the centre, while in other areas only the most important buildings were defended.

On November 11, 1918, Poland declared her independence and the following day the first units of the regular forces of the Polish Army under Maj. Wacław Stachiewicz entered Przemyśl, only some 70 kilometres away from Lwów. Believing this move to be part of the preparations to break through the Ukrainian siege, Col. Stefaniv prepared a general offensive on the Polish-held western parts of the city. However, despite the heavy fights that raged on between November 13 and November 15, the Polish defence held out and the Ukrainians were repelled. Chaos during Polish take-over of the city was accompanied resulted in isolated events in which unknown number of Poles, Jews and Ukrainians perished. This event was wildly exxagerated in western press and called "pogrom in Lviw" ^[1]. Jews were accused of cooperating with Ukrainians. It was claimed that approximately 150 Jews were murdered and 500 Jewish shops and businesses were ransacked [1], though Morganthau commission reported only 64 Jewish deaths. After establishing an order within the city, Polish autorities punished a number of people accused for participation in robbery.

After two weeks of heavy fights within the city, a 1200 men strong armed unit under command of Lt. Colonel Michał Karaszewicz-Tokarzewski of the renascent Polish Army broke through the Ukrainian siege and arrived to the city. On November 21 the siege was broken and the Ukrainians were repelled from the Łyczaków Cemetery, one of the most important areas of the city. The following day the remaining Ukrainian forces withdrew. However, heavy fights for other cities claimed by both Poles and Ukrainians continued, and the fights for Lwów lasted until May of 1919.

It is to be noted that the Polish-Ukrainian fight for Lwów is sometimes referred to as the last civilized conflict by Polish historians. Because both sides were too weak to create regular front lines and lacked heavy weapons, the civilian casualties were low and did not exceed 400. Also, both sides tried to avoid destroying the city's facilities and most important buildings were declared de-militarized zone. Among them were the hospitals, the water works, gas plant and the energy plant. Local cease-fire agreements were signed on a daily basis and there were even numerous situations where both Polish and Ukrainian soldiers played football or partied during the cease fire. In his memoirs, Polish Lieutenant (later Colonel) Bolesław Szwarcenberg-Czerny noted, that during one of the cease-fires Lieutenant Levsky, the Ukrainian commander of an outpost fighting with his unit, got so drunk with the Poles that he overslept and woke up late for the cease-fire. Immediately another cease-fire was signed to allow the Ukrainian officer to return to his unit.

Because of that, the losses on both sides were small. The Poles lost 439 men and women, 120 of them gymnasium pupils and 76 - University students. Most of them were interred in the Cemetery of the Defenders of Lwów.

[edit] References

Michał Klimecki (1998). Lwów 1918-1919. Warsaw, Bellona, 205. ISBN 8311087504.
various authors (1993). in Bogusław Polak: Walka o polską granicę wschodnią 1918-1921 (Fight for the Polish Eastern Border). Koszalin, Wyższa Szkoła Inżynierska, 86. ISBN 8390051079.