On 13 August 1920, a pivotal battle of the Polish-Soviet War exploded in the town of Radzymin, some 20km north-east of Warsaw.

The first phase of the battle took place with a frontal assault by the Red Army on the Praga bridgehead. The Soviets captured Radzymin on 14 August & breached the lines of the 1st Polish Army, which was defending Warsaw from the east. Foreign diplomats, with the exception of the British & Vatican ambassadors, packed their bags & fled the capital. The Revolutionary Military Committee of the 3rd Army telegrammed Moscow with the words, ‘White Poland is dying’.

Radzymin was crucial to both sides. The Soviets planned to use it as a springboard for a breakthrough to their ultimate destination, Warsaw, while the Poles intended to defend the area long enough for a two-pronged counteroffensive – from the south by Józef Piłsudski & the north by Władysław Sikorski – to outflank the invaders.

On 15 Aug, General Lucjan Żeligowski achieved a complete Polish encirclement of Radzymin. Fearing envelopment, the Soviets abandoned the town & withdrew east. By now heavy fighting had taken its toll, one officer noting in his diary ‘not a stray dog was left behind in the ruined city’.

In the early hours of 16 Aug the Russians mounted another assault on Radzymin, reinforced by several armoured cars, but this was thwarted by the defenders who were now bolstered by three tanks. Unable to knock over Radzymin, the entire 13th Red Army stalled, then were slowly but steadily pushed back to the first line of defences they had overrun several days earlier.

True to form, the Kremlin had in the meantime begun issuing propaganda posters in Moscow proclaiming: ‘Warsaw has fallen. With it the Poland of yesterday became history… Long live the Soviets! Long live the invincible Red Army!’

In reality, Russian plans had been completely foiled by the defeat at Radzymin, then shattered by a risky but devastatingly successful outflanking manoeuvre by Piłsudski’s 4th Army. Although much has been said of this ‘Miracle of the Vistula’, General Żeligowski noted in his memoirs that ‘Warsaw was saved thanks to Polish successes at Mokra, Wólka Radzymińska & Radzymin’.

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