Battle of Dytiatyn

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Battle of Dytiatyn, also referred to as the Polish Thermopylae (together with Battle of Zadwórze and Battle of Wizna) was one of battles of the Polish-Bolshevik War. It took place on September 16, 1920, between units of the 8th Polish Field Artillery Regiment from Plock, and the 8th Mounted Red Cossack Division of the Red Army, near the village of Dytiatyn (now in Ukraine, northwest of Halicz).

The Poles defended themselves on a grassy hill (383 meters above sea level), but after they ran out of ammunition, they were masacred by some 3,500 Soviet mounted troops. The Red Cossacks murdered 97 Poles, and the additional number of wounded Poles were killed after the battle. Among killed was commandant of the regiment, Colonel Wladyslaw Domanski. Altogether, on that day some 240 Poles died. 8th Mounted Red Cossack Division of the Red Army was destroyed a few days later near Tarnopol.

In the interbellum period, Polish military authorities established a cemetery and a monument to the massacred soldiers. It was completely destroyed after Soviet invasion on Poland in September 1939.

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