Battle of Pęcice

The Battle of Pęcice was a fight that took place on 2 August 1944 between military units of Armia Krajowa, belonging to the 4th Ochota Sub-district (of Armia Krajowa), and the German military during the Warsaw Uprising in Poland during World War II.

Course of the engagement

In the night from the first and second of August in 1944, the majority of military units of the Ochota Sub-district, commanded by second lieutenant Mieczysław Sokołowski (pseudonym Grzymała) began to withdraw from Ochota in the direction of Sękocin forest and Chojnowo forest. On 2 August at 5 a.m. the concentrated units set off from the region of Reguły village via Pęcice in the direction of the forests. German military units were stationed in the manor-house of Pęcice.

The distance from Reguły to Pęcice amounted to about 2 km. The site conditions of the march of the insurgent units were unfavourable from operational point of view. It must have been passed around 1 km of a field road leading by a slant to Pęcice and then a next 1 km section of the way leading on a dike along a broad, occasionally wet meadow.

The enemy had favourable conditions of observation and fire of the approaching Polish units. In the moment when Polish units were on the dike, cars appeared with German troops. A fight ensued, the sounds of which alarmed the German units stationed in the Pęcice manor-house. The well-placed and well-ranged German units struck the column of insurgent units with well-aimed machine-gun fire. The column of insurgent units divided itself in two parts: three scout bataillons attacking along the road and containing the main enemy force, and the main forces of the insurgent concentration, which, under cover of that attack, by-passed Pęcice from the right side and reached the Sękociny forests, and then the Chojnowo forests. The units attacking Pęcice directly suffered heavy lossess of casualties and prisoners. On 2 August the Germans executed the prisoner insurgents in the brick-yard in Pęcice.