Battles of Spadshchansky forest


The Battles of Spadshchansky Forest took place during German punitive expeditions into the forest in order to liquate Soviet partisan holdout, on 19 October – November 1941.

Prelude

In September, Sidor Kovpak and Semyon Rudnev fled to the forest, where they organised their partisan detachments after German forces occupied Sumy region. These partisan detachments organised numerous raid and sabotage actions against German forces in the Sumy region. One such action resulted in the death of 6 Germans during October, among which were 2 generals after the two cars they were blown up. Actions of the Soviet partisans prompted Walther von Brauchitsch to issue an anti-partisan strategy, which was signed by Wilhelm Keitel. Kovpak was aware that soon the German forces were going to assault Spadshchansky forest, which sought him to seek alliances with other partisan detachments. On 18 October, Kovpak managed to unite with other detachments, which included Rudov detachment. These group were unified into one.

Battles

October fighting

On 19 October, partisans detected 2 German tanks approaching from Putyvl. German tanks advanced towards the partisan dugouts and shelled the house where commanders were stationed, but the commanders left on time. Sidor Kovpak ordered to mine the exit from the forest, while Kovpak himself with Rudnev and other commanders went into battle. The environment turned out to be advantageous to the partisans and German tanks were bugged down. Partisans eliminated the driver of the first tank, while the crew of another tank managed to flee. One of the enemy tanks attempting to get out of the forest blew up on the mine, out which partisans recovered 9 enemy corpses. Later, another German tank blew up on the mine. Partisans looted the remaining material of defeated German punitive detachment. Three German tanks were captured. Kovpak joyously described the victory of his unit in their first battle:
On 20 October, Germans renewed their offensive, this time supported by 12 trucks of infantry, 5 tanks and tankettes, which were attacking from multiple directions. Partisans were aware of this. Two partisan groups took defensive positions on forest heights, while German forces fired aimlessly. As the German force was advancing, two of their tanks blew up on the mines. Partisans took advantage of the confusion this caused among German infantry, opening fire on them. The battle lasted for two hours, resulting in retreat of the German punitive expedition.
On 27 October, Putyvl detachment was now a lot more organised, seizing the banner and looting all sorts of ammunition out of another blown up German tank.

November fighting

In November, 73 partisans were forced to engage in battle with the German punitive force of over 3,000 in the forest. According to Kovpak himself, this was the most intense battle they had in the forest, which would've resulted in their complete demise had they failed. However, partisans managed to hold out. Germans were defeated and left behind dozens of dead in a hasty retreat. In total, Germans lost around 200 troops in battle. Partisans seized 5 machine guns and 20 rifles. Only time Kovpak mentioned Jews in his archives was in the form of an observation of the Jewish partisan from his unit, who was a gunner during this battle:

Aftermath

Soviet partisans were victorious, but decided to withdraw to the north into Bryansk forest as they were running low on ammunition. Kovpak made his declaration on the withdrawal for 1 December: "In order to preserve the personnel for further battles, it was deemed expedient to leave Spadshchansky forest at 24.00 hs, 1 Dec. 41, and to sally forth on a raid in the direction of the Bryansk forests". Before withdrawing, partisans buried three of their fallen fighters, whose death the remaining 70 partisans and their commanders honored, buried in the place where Germans couldn't desecrate these graves.

Legacy

In 1965, a museum honoring exploits of the Sumy partisans in the was established northwest of Putyvl.