On 16 November 1946, before the attack on Dynów, units of the Ukrainian underground assembled in the forests near Dylągowa. These included the companies of the Przemyśl battalion of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, UPA, commanded by Włodzimierz Szczygelski, “Burłaka”, Jarosław Kociołek, “Kryłacz”, and Michał Duda, “Hromenko”. Also participating were a detachment commanded by “Mrij”, from the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic and temporarily operating in Poland, and a local armed unit of the OUN-B Security Service.

The Ukrainian forces were under the overall command of Mikołaj Sawczenko, “Bajda”, commander of the Przemyśl UPA battalion. The forces involved in the operation are estimated to have numbered at least five hundred armed men. It was one of the larger UPA military operations in Poland.

The principal purpose of the raid was to obtain medicines and everyday supplies for UPA units before the approaching winter. It was also intended to demonstrate the strength of the Ukrainian underground to the Polish population.

The course of the attack on Dynów is best illustrated by the special report of Lieutenant Ludwik Turek, head of the District Public Security Office in Brzozów, dated 18 November 1946. I reproduce it below in full.

Andrzej Stankiewicz

Brzozów, 18 November 1946

To the Head of the Provincial Public Security Office in Rzeszów

Special Report

On 16 November 1946, at 21:30, a UPA gang numbering approximately four hundred men, armed with light machine guns, submachine guns, rifles and hand grenades, entered the town of Dynów from all directions. Some members wore Polish military uniforms, while others wore civilian clothes. Before entering, the gang damaged the telephone lines leading from Dynów towards Przemyśl, Sanok and Brzozów by sawing through telephone poles and severing the wires. Strong detachments were left at the points where the lines had been damaged, also guarding the roads leading to Dynów.

The gang entered Dynów in three UPA groups and one Polish NSZ group under a commander using the pseudonym “Młot”. Each group had been assigned a specific task. Part of “Młot’s” group undertook the robbery of the pharmacy. This group included two doctors and one qualified pharmacist, who specifically searched for the medicines and narcotic drugs they required. The remainder patrolled Dynów. When encountering residents, they presented themselves as members of the Polish Army and addressed their commanders in Polish as “Lieutenant, sir”, “Captain, sir”, and so forth, thereby attempting to confuse the population and the ORMO unit.

Furthermore, the group in the pharmacy informed its owner, Franciszek Baraniecki, that the medicines they were taking were intended for Polish partisan units and the UPA.

One UPA group secured the streets and engaged the ORMO and MO units, while the remaining two groups carried out the looting. The following premises were robbed:

The Agricultural and Trading Cooperative, from which assorted goods worth 300,000 złoty were taken. Its office premises were also set on fire and partially burned.

The private shop of Władysław Tarnawski, from which assorted goods worth 55,600 złoty were stolen.

The private shop of Marian Kędzierski, from which food and catering supplies worth 13,750 złoty were stolen.

The private shop of Marian Bucikowski, from which clothing worth 200,000 złoty was stolen.

The private shop of Bronisław Stankiewicz and Genowefa Kędzierska was robbed of assorted goods worth 500,000 złoty, then set on fire and burned to the ground.

The private shop of Maria Węgrzyn, from which confectionery and state-monopoly goods worth 150,000 złoty were stolen.

The shoemaking workshop of Józef Majda, from which leather worth 200,000 złoty was stolen.

The goods and medicines stolen from the pharmacy were valued at 1,000,000 złoty.

The total losses caused by the gang through the theft of goods amounted to 3,383,500 złoty.

The UPA group securing the town’s streets proceeded, together with the NSZ group, to the MO station, which had been locked from within. Only one militiaman, the duty officer Wojciech Stec, was present. The remaining militiamen had gone with their commander towards the sound of the first shots in the fighting involving the ORMO unit.

On arriving at the station, the gang surrounded it with eight light machine guns and called upon the duty officer, Stec, by name to surrender. They declared that no harm would come to him, but that if they had to break in, his fate would be grim. Militiaman Stec defended himself until he ran out of ammunition, then hid in the attic.

The gang broke in through windows closed with shutters, which had been damaged by bullets, cutting through the bar securing a shutter. Having entered the station in this manner, the gang wrecked the premises with automatic gunfire and grenades. They then stole the militiamen’s clothing, both civilian and uniform, bedding and footwear. They damaged the telephone by gunfire, as evidenced by the receiver shattered by a bullet and the marks on the wall, and then took it.

They also took the militia’s food supplies, which were intended to last until 1 December. Most of the station’s files were destroyed. The furnishings, including desks, cupboards, tables and chairs, were completely wrecked. They also took all the kitchen utensils. After plundering the station, the gang joined the groups looting the shops.

As the gang searched the town, they stopped residents they encountered, took their footwear and outer clothing, and then released them with orders to return home. They fired upon people who defended themselves or offered armed resistance.

Those killed were Jan Sikora, aged fifty-one; Stanisław Domin, aged thirty-two; and Władysław Bałdys, aged forty-two.

Those wounded were Jan Domin, Agata Drozd and Mieczysław Cymbalista.

Members of the ORMO unit killed in the fighting were Józef Rakowski, son of Michał and Paulina, aged twenty-three, and Antoni Ulaniecki, son of Jakub and Aniela, aged forty-nine. Both were from Dynów.

Stanisław Tymowicz and Karol Toczek, also from Dynów, were wounded.

During the fighting, the ORMO unit lost six rifles: two belonging to those killed, two belonging to those wounded, and two taken from men captured alive, who managed to escape after being disarmed. One rifle was captured from the gang by an ORMO member.

Traces of clotted blood indicate that members of the gang were killed or wounded, since blood was found in six places which did not come from our own dead or wounded. Four such traces were in the market square and two outside the station. The gang, however, took its wounded away.

At midnight, under covering fire, the gang withdrew from Dynów with its stolen booty, crossing the San at a ford. It also scattered a dozen or so pamphlets and leaflets among the population. These included duplicated Polish-language pamphlets entitled Polish-Ukrainian Relations and duplicated Polish-language leaflets entitled Our Answer.

The population of Dynów remained fairly calm during the attack. There was no panic. Residents rallied to the defence and resisted with great determination. As a result, their efforts saved many shops from being robbed. The post office and the Cooperative Bank, where substantial sums of cash were held, were also saved. A more complete defence was prevented by the shortage of weapons and ammunition.

It was established that the gang had succeeded in confusing the population, because its advance patrols wore Polish military uniforms, spoke fluent Polish and presented themselves as Polish soldiers.

Head of the District Public Security Office in Brzozów

Signed: Ludwik Turek

The article was based on studies by Artur Brożyniak published in the Institute of National Remembrance journal Pamięć i Sprawiedliwość, No. 1, 2008, and in Jarosławski Rocznik Armii Krajowej, No. 6, 2008.

That concludes the account of these post-war events.