All Alone: A Lithuanian AAR

May, 1940. To WAR!!!

April 1st started with the news everyone was expecting, but somehow still hoped that it may somehow pass - Germany declared war on Luxembourg and the Netherlands, in three days - on Norway. In 5 days, there was no more Duchy of Luxembourg, and in two more weeks Germans were assaulting the suburbs of Amsterdam. Once all Dutch territory was occupied, Germany declared war on Belgium, which still was holding to their neutrality in empty hopes and did not join the Allies, despite intensive talks with Allies' leaders. They saw their mistake really soon.


There was also a full-blown war going in the North Sea, in Norwegian fjords and along Danish coast between British and German navies. The Allies could not let German troops reach Norway, which had only few infantry divisions and lightly protected ports. They feared Scandinavian ore deposits would be much easily obtained by Germans that way, and potential threat to British naval bases, especially at Scapa Flow, was more than enough reason to give their best - minefields, navy blockade of main Norwegian ports, even troops on Norwegian ground.

To Germans, on the other hand, this fight was also of strategic importance, potentially turning the war in their favour. Their Luftwaffe, and, especially, their huge and expanding submarine fleet was in full attack. According to rumours in the press - Germany was building 2 subs a day.


Seeing the small German neighbours assaulted without any regard to their neutrality, the President has ordered to start mobilisation, which included also our riflemen regiments, on the 2nd of May. Since the priority was, of course, given to regular troops, only the remainder of the reserve was allowed to join Territorial Defence Forces, and even that process was slower, despite an unexpected surge of volunteers to join armed forces. Only about 7000 out of 12000 that were supposed to make up my regiment, as well as 5 other TDF divisions, were fit for service. We also envied our troops their equipment, as we got only outdated Russian and German carbines made before WW1 or by 1925, that the army was no longer using, some Polish artillery guns from 1897 and fragmentation grenades as our AT weapons, and even those were quite rare.


And then, on May 26, 1940, at 9 P.M. , the blow came from another side - Soviet Union has sent ultimatums to all Baltic states, demanding free military access and the right to establish several military bases all over our territory. Latvia and Estonia surrendered at once.

As my brother told me much later, there were a lot of heated talks in the President's palace that night, with Chief Army commander Bykauskas and other top officers present. Chief of the Army argued that there is no real possibility to defend our country, which, unlike Finns, had no fortifications, and no winter outside to stop the Red Horde. However, the younger officers disagreed, stating that even token resistance would allow our state to survive, even if only in the long run, and Lithuanian Army, even if small, was valiant and qualified enough to meet the enemy. The President agreed in the end, and ordered to prepare the country for all-out defence, total mobilisation of all resources and industries for this sole purpose, and arrange everything necessary for eventual evacuation of the government offices, archives, treasury and civilians, willing to leave the country. The Chief of the Army was replaced by gen. P.Liatukas, also an old guard, but capable in defence and surprise manoeuvres, and, most important - willing to defend the fatherland at all costs.

The plan for defence, codenamed 'Plan R' (as Russia), was just a modified plan from 1930's against Poland - TDF regiments were to meet the enemy some 20-30 km deep in our territory and do everything to stall their advance - destroying bridges, supplies, communications, engaging vanguard scouts - to give as much time as possible for our regular troops to entrench properly along Nemunas river in the south, in capital Kaunas and in the northern woody hills around Panevezys and Joniskis.


Even if coincidence, Germany annexed Belgium the next day and reached French borders, stretching now in one continuous front line from Switzerland to Calais. Perhaps Soviets even planned the date for the ultimatum according to tbhese developments, so the eyes of the World nations would be on the Western front, instead of Eastern shores of the Baltics.
Norway still stood undefeated.

End of May, 1940. The First Blood.

And here we were - small and proud, just the same as Finns so recently, against a giant, which seemed to have no boundaries, no limits. There, on the front line we didn't know how many of the enemy soldiers are there on the border - we got just scattered reports of endless columns crossing into our lands, taking border villages and towns one after another.

We only had so much - 66 000 troops in regular army, supported by 45 000 hastily mobilized Riflemen Union members and Border guards, just a little more than 110 000 in total. We had 220 artillery pieces, 300 20mm automatic guns, 110 mortars, more than 900 heavy and about 4000 light machineguns, nearly 50 light tanks and armoured vehicles, and about 100 working planes - mainly Gloster Gladiators, Ansaldo's A.120 and nearly 40 home-made ANBO's.

The Soviets, on the other hand (and I learned this only much later), after their failure in Finland, have massed several armies on the borders of Baltic states, in the event their ultimatum is refused, and than half this force was directed at Lithuania - 435 000 troops, 8000 artillery guns and mortars, 3000 tanks and 500 armoured cars, more than 2600 planes, including at least 6 wings of medium and heavy bombers.

May 28. Morning. First to fall was the town of Utena. Our forward positions have been pulled back, further to the West, at Ukmerge, since there was the closest TDF mobilization center for the whole county, and the region closer to the border was only lightly populated.

First shots of the war were shot at sundown, at the eastern approaches of Kaisiadorys. Soviets main attack came along the railway from the direction of Vilnius and Trakai (although the bridges and railway itself was blown a bit earlier). Even if the enemy was expected to show up, the onslaught of 12500 troops (two infantry divisions at once - and one of them motorized, with regiments of TD's and AC's ) was impossible to repel by mere 7 500 of ours, and their advance was turning into a breakthrough. Luckily enough, the night came, and the lines were held for several more hours.



Almost at the same time, at 22:00, single infantry division (6260 troops) tried our defences in the woods at Ukmerge, further North (about 7000 troops). Since it was already a night, only forward patrols exchanged fire, killing one Soviet soldier.

May 29. With the first rays of sun, two wings of IL DB-3 bombers came roaring from the East to each town. Even if bomb-drops were not very accurate, it was decided not to wait for the daylight, and an order to withdraw was issued, towards fortified positions near cities of Kaunas and Panevezys. The first night saw 53 soldiers lost on our side against 3 Soviet soldiers in Kaisiadorys, and 15 vs. 1 in Ukmerge.

Last days of Spring, 1940. The ring is tightening.

May 29. We were listening to the radio closely. France was still fighting in the West, but Germany has surrounded significant Allied forces in Belgium and were tightening the noose trying to cut them from the North sea. Nearly 300, 000 French troops were caught in the pocket, while BEF scrambled for the coast in hopes to save the remaining forces by sea.


In addition to that, Italy, seeing the weakening of their main rival - France, declared that it is their time to rebuild Empire and joined Germany in this war. Italian bombers started flying over the Southern Alps the very same day. Ethiopian puppet government have followed their master country and joined the war a day later, even though surrounded by British and French holdings.

Again, when the sun was setting down in the West, Red Army moved towards Jonava, against our 3rd TDF division, lead by Maj.Gen Musteikis. They must have expected resistance, since the advance by an Infantry division was overly careful. After initial exchange of fire, it was decided to withdraw, blowing the bridge leading to the town, and so delaying enemy's advance for another few days, so desperately needed for our 2nd infantry division, digging-in around Kaunas. We have lost 10, and Russians 5 troops.

May 30. The positions of our TDF division - four regiments, each almost 2000 men strong, were covering the southern front in the hills near Marijampole, stretched for more than thirty kilometres, mainly focusing on river defences on the on our left flank, and roads and railway coming from the South. We knew that all three bridges across Nemunas river (upstream from Kaunas) have been already blown-up by our engineers, but Soviet positions were also further south, towards Suwalki, in former Polish lands, and there were no natural obstacles for them to cross.

It came as quite a surprise when our forward scouts noticed Soviet troops trying to cross the river on rubber boats in the town of Prienai, without even waiting for darkness to come. This prompted a swift response from our light machineguns, stationed in nearby buildings and trenches on the woody banks. After several boats were sunk, they turned back, but, of course, we knew they will return.



May 31. The very same night, at least two bomber wings bombed our positions until morning twilight, killing or wounding at least 117 men. While it seemed that we can still hold our lines, all our hopes vanished in the afternoon, when Soviets brought their artillery closer on the other side of the river and two more divisions advanced from the south. First, artillery shelling turned to rout our hastily arranged river defences, then the bombers came in several waves from the south, leaving to our commander no other choice than to order the withdrawal North, to Kaunas. We could do nothing there anymore to stop the Soviets. Our losses were heavy - more than 430 troops, mostly due to bombings, while we estimated 30-40 lost on the enemy side. We saw none of our fighters trying to intercept the bombers, only several light planes, surveying enemy positions.


In the meantime, further north, our most mobile unit - Cavalry division, was dashing towards Riga, combat-scouting, full division-strong. It was thought that such a manoeuvre, even if discovered, would further delay the enemy from advancing towards critical points in the frontline. We needed time.

June, 1940. The First Victories.

June 2. There was a short pause in the fighting, while we were marching towards Kaunas. We only reached left bank of Nemunas, when we heard that Soviets reached the city from East and North, but withdrew after 2 hours, leaving 21 dead on theirs, and 10 on our side. At the same time, one motorized Soviet division assaulted our positions in the hills near Kybartai in the South and 2 divisions at Pasvalys in the very North. Four wings of bombers also descended on Kaunas in two waves, killing 198..


June 3. TDF division in Pasvalys retreated in the morning with 73 in casualties, and only 6 enemy troops were lost. In Kybartai, Soviets were only slightly more in number, but their heavy weapon advantage showed - we lost 84 and they - 35 men.

June 4. Our Cavalry division in Latvia met 3 enemy divisions (including one tank division) in the middle of the night, causing confusion and delay in advance by a sudden charge of cavalry mixed with light tanks. Our guys disengaged shortly, though, having lost several horses and riders, and destroying one of Soviet BT-7 light tanks.

Few hours later, we finally got over the bridge to the inner Kaunas city, and it was blown-up in front of the advancing Soviets, along with the railroad bridge nearby.


Perhaps led by desperation of stopped advance, the commander of 182 Riflemen division, Gen Susaikov ordered forcing the river and began construction of the pontoon bridge under the cover of artillery shelling. Motorized division 'Sivashskaya' was to advance from the North, and 169. Riflemen division from the East, where there were our defences were supposed to be weaker, totalling in about 25,500 men.

On our side, lead by Maj. Gen. Vitkauskas, there were already almost 33,000 men defending the city - it was 3 TDF divisions, and a fortified 1st Infantry division with attached Air-Defence regiment.

The bombers were not slow to show-up. Over the next 3 days, bombing were constant, in regular waves. 1819 men were lost or wounded by bombs, but the defences were held. Our own artillery, even if outnumbered, was still barking further east, while our division was pushing back Soviet attacks trying to get over the river, day after day. Especially hard targeted were our air-defence positions, losing more than a third of the regiment in 3 days. Soviet bombers were falling from the sky everyday as well.


June 8. During the night, Soviets, probably annoyed by lack of any progress mounted an all-out attack on all our positions in Kaunas at once, recklessly throwing their men and machines in the fields of fire of our artillery and machine guns.
News also reached our lines from the North that in the morning, as Soviets attacked in the same way, by 3 divisions, including one tank- and one motorized divisions, our positions near Panevezys, defended by one TDF, and one infantry division, fortified with artillery batteries all along the line.
Bombers zoomed overhead again, both in Kaunas and Panevezys, killing 530 and 506 men respectively.

June 9. While battles raged all along the Eastern front, in the North, the 17. Tank division tried to push through Joniskis, defended by our Infantry, Cavalry and TDF divisions.

Later that day, we have noticed that Soviets are withdrawing from all the positions around Kaunas. This was quite unexpected, but a joyful moment, nevertheless, even though we lost more than 804 men in 5 days of fighting, not counting those 215 lost to the last bombings that day only, and 262 lost in Panevezys. Our defences, especially AA, were weakened significantly. Our estimation was that approximately 1460 Soviets were lost in the fighting, not counting downed aircraft.

It took, however, only 3 hours, for Soviets to regroup and send 3 more fresh divisions to the fighting, one of them - cavalry. By evening, another 120 of our troops were lost in action, with 273 Soviets, when an order for retreat was sounded both in Kaunas and Panevezys, where 640 our troops lost their lives, against 260 Soviets, including almost 30 tanks and armoured vehicles.

Our fight in Kaunas has won another 5 days, needed for civilians to move by roads and rail towards the ports, where our navy and merchant fleet was busy transporting anyone willing to Sweden. The President and most of government officials were still in Klaipeda, while at the same time arrangements were being made with Swedish and British government for further cooperation.

June 12. Our forces have thrown back the Soviets in Joniskis, with the loss of 380, mostly lightly armed TDF troops, against 398 Soviets, and an unknown number of tanks. Due to these losses, it was decided to withdraw the TDF division to prepare defence positions in the woods of Plunge, where a new, shorter defence line was being prepared with the help of all spare forces and civilians.