At the time, Zboiska was a key strategic point during a battle for control of Lviv, then Lwów in eastern Poland.
The clash was led by Stanisław Maczek, whose 10th Cavalry Brigade mounted one of the final Polish successes of the September Campaign, albeit at a heavy cost.
The decision to allow exhumation work in Zboiska, now known as Zboishcha, indicates further positive development of Polish-Ukrainian cooperation on World War II historical sites, many of which are mired in controversy and persisting mutual pain.
The fighting in Zboiska, reconstructed in detail by military historian Prof. Wojciech Włodarkiewicz, involved not only Maczek’s own units but also several others operating under his command.
These included battalions from infantry regiments, cavalry squadrons, artillery batteries, and even a unit of border guards from nearby Rawa Ruska.
German forces seized Zboiska on September 13, 1939 cutting off the shortest Polish supply route to Lwów, now Lviv in western Ukraine.
At the heart of the battle was Hill 324, which dominated the road to the town of Żółkiew (Zhovkva) and the northern approaches to Lwów.
Initial Polish counterattacks failed to retake it.
A second assault early on September 15 made limited gains but could not secure the hill. That evening, Maczek learned that elite troops of Germany’s 1st Mountain Division under Gen. Ludwig Kübler were holding the position.
Maczek launched a third attack before dawn on September 16, involving all available forces. Despite limited artillery support and only 15 lightly armed tankettes, the element of surprise allowed Polish troops to encircle some German positions.
Supplies dropped by German aircraft to support their troops were partially intercepted by Polish forces.
Another offensive began at 5 a.m. on September 17, as Polish cavalry attacked from the south. By 4 p.m. that day, Hill 324 was finally captured. Dozens of German soldiers were killed, and their equipment was abandoned.
But Polish casualties were also severe, with an estimated 300 killed or wounded over the course of the fighting.
The hard-won victory was rendered moot hours later when news reached Maczek that the Soviet Red Army had crossed into eastern Poland.
That night, the 10th Cavalry Brigade abandoned its positions and began a retreat towards the so-called Romanian Bridgehead, eventually reaching Hungary.
From there, with Budapest’s tacit consent, many soldiers made their way to France and later formed the core of the 1st Armoured Division under Gen. Maczek.
Gen. Stanisław Maczek. Image: NAC/Public domain
Germany's Kübler would later be convicted and executed for war crimes in Yugoslavia.
Poland’s culture ministry said earlier this month that exhumation work at Zboiska would be carried out by "the Polish side in cooperation with Ukrainian authorities."
This marks the second such project greenlighted by Ukrainian authorities in recent months, after a site in the former village of Puźniki, where between 50 and 120 ethnic Poles were killed by Ukrainian nationalists in February 1945.
The exhumation in Puźniki, now Puzhnyky in Ukraine's western Ternopil region, marked the first such operation since Ukraine lifted its 2017 ban on Polish-led searches and exhumations of wartime burial sites in the country.
The ban was officially lifted in November last year, following prolonged negotiations between Warsaw and Kyiv.
Poland's top diplomat Radosław Sikorski (right) and his Ukrainian counterpart Andrii Sybiha (left) hold a joint news conference after talks in Warsaw on November 27, 2024. Photo: PAP/Tomasz Gzell
Photo: PAP/Artur Reszko
The former Polish village of Puźniki in what is now western Ukraine. Photo: Krystian Maj/KPRM
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Source: IAR, PAP