Wilno

Wilno was annexed by Poland in 1922. It was occupied by the Red Army in September 1939 (Rus.: Vilna) and ceded to Lithuania (Lith.: Vilnius) before being occupied by the Germans (Ger.: Wilna) in June 1941. It was near Wilno, in July 1944, that the Polish Home Army (see Poland, 4) made contact for the second time—Volhynia had been the first—with the advancing Red Army as part of the Home Army's operation TEMPEST. By then local Home Army units had already fought about 30 encounters with the Germans, and had captured several towns. On 6 July 1944 they attacked Wilno itself and the next day the Red Army joined in. After it fell on 13 July the Soviet commander ordered the Home Army from the city but subsequently agreed to equip and arm them properly. However, the Home Army commander, General ‘Wilk’, never returned from a second meeting, his officers were imprisoned by the NKVD, and Wilno's civilian administration was deported. Most of the Home Army personnel who had taken part in the city's capture, about 5,700 in all, were rounded up and, when they refused to join Berling's Army, were sent to the GUlag. Some who escaped later preferred to fight than flee, and in the battle of Surkonty they killed 132 Soviet soldiers while losing 36 themselves.