All Alone: A Lithuanian AAR

End of June, 1940. Live to Fight Another Day.

Soviets were wasting no time with securing their positions. Confident that the frontline is broken they sent armoured spearheads in the middle of the line towards Raseiniai and Ariogala, trying to split our forces in half. Seeing this, it was decided to leave our current defences and tactically withdraw all our divisions to the third defence line to avoid possible encirclements. While we were scrambling from Kaunas in order to stop soviet tanks and troops from 10. division in the plains of midland Lithuania, enemy bombers followed our every step. June 13 alone, we lost 221 men, and our guys in Joniskis - another 90.

June 14. The night battle in Joniskis against 4. Tank and 6. Guards Rifle divisions (more than 16000 enemy troops against almost 10000 of ours) was short and ended with 35 our casualties against 25 of Soviets.


At the same time our forces were holding the line in the West, near Siauliai, so troops retreating from Joniskis could withdraw safely.

Further south, in Ariogala, we were fighting for every feet of our land, but exhausted after defence of Kaunas, we were no match for iron beasts, constantly crawling from the East. Our AA regiment, equipped with Swiss made 20mm Oerlikon guns used them as AT weapons, but they were dangerous only to armoured cars and rear compartments of light tanks, where armour was not that thick, and the machines could be ambushed. However, since we had no time to prepare any defences, such positions was a luxury, which we did not have. After losing 381 more men, against 95 of Soviets, 12 damaged tanks and some Armoured cars, we turned back, to the woods of Taurage, where one of our Infantry division and TDF division (moved from Jurbarkas) were digging-in.

June 15. Before reaching these positions, we were overtaken by a Soviet cavalry division, attacking from the North, trying to cut all our ways of retreat. With the cost of 70 lives, and 26 of theirs, the attack was stopped, clearing the path for us. We took our positions several hours later that evening.
June 16. Soviets, seeing our defences along Nemunas, around Jurbarkas, weakening, started an overwhelming attack with 5 divisions, more than 40000 strong, with a tank division from Kaunas leading the blitz. Understanding that defence in this stretch is no longer feasible, commander Maj.Gen Nagevicius decided it was time to join our defences in Taurage. 90 Lithuanian troops were lost, and 15 Soviets.


June 17. Our positions in Siauliai were under constant bombing for several days already, having lost 463 men. Under the threat of imminent breakthrough, and despite the efforts to delay enemy's advance, our two infantry divisions withdrew in good fighting order towards Plunge, with casualty count of 243 of ours, and 320 of enemy troops.

June 18. At noon, the radio was turned on in all units, still fighting or resting in the rear areas. The President announced that in order to keep the fight for the freedom of our Homeland alive till the victorious end, upon agreement with the British Government, a government in exile is formed in London. Our Leader and all the ministers have left by plane to Sweden, under the escort of Air Forces, and then - to Great Britain. It was there, that our fighting force should be formed anew to fight for the liberation of Lithuanian people from the yoke of Communists.

While it was a heartbreaking, even if expected, announcement, it was the secret order that we got from our commanders shortly thereafter, which showed that the current fight is coming to an end. All TDF divisions were to be disbanded, weapons hidden in the woods and still-unoccupied cities of Western Lithuania, and we were to return to our civilian lives for now, if possible, or leave the country along the others. Almost a half, about 20 000 members, mainly mobilized from these parts, have returned to their homes. The other half joined our troops for the last stand in the woods of Plunge and Taurage.

June 19-22. Last battles were the bloodiest this war saw. After 543 men lost to bombings, first to break were 3 divisions in Taurage, having fought against 3 times their number - 65000 Red Army troops. 2292 men were lost, against 1216 of Soviets.

June 19-26. Or troops in Plunge were in a better position - strengthened by armour, even if light, they were defending a shorter stretch of the front against one Infantry division, supported, however, by five more, including 2 Tank divisions. Bombings here were even more terrifying - 2000 men were lost within that week. Machines, horses, men - everything was being smashed from the sky, day after day. After attacking Soviet infantry division was turned to rout, it was replaced by the 29. Motorized division. When it was at a breaking point as well, Soviet tanks joined the attack, and there just was not enough of everything to stop them. We withdrew in the middle of the night, towards the port of Palanga, with direct losses being lighter than those in Taurage - 1294 vs. 1696 Soviet troops.


June 28. For some reason, the Soviets did not rush to occupy Klaipeda and Palanga. Perhaps, it was diplomatic pressure from the British, that gave us 2 more days, or perhaps they were content without taking almost 70,000 troops as prisoners, but that was enough time to board the ships, waiting at the harbours, and sail towards Sweden. True, all our equipment, artillery, armour, supplies.. all was lost to Soviets. But our lives were saved, to fight another day. While the evacuation was a small-scale when compared to the one at Dunkirk just little less than a month ago, it was OUR Dunkirk.

Our losses in the war, which took exactly one month, were heavy - 7671 men lost to fighting, almost the same amount - to bombings. Besides, we had to leave all our tanks, artillery pieces and equipment.
Soviets were bleeding too - almost 6000 men were killed or wounded, nearly 40 bombers were downed, more than 60 tanks burned or damaged.

Early July, 1940. Away from home.

The coastline was fading in the last rays of setting sun. There was no joy among any of us for saving our lives. Our hearts were broken, some men cried. There was a strange mix of despair, fear, anger and hatred in the eyes of my brothers in arms, all of us sailing away from Lithuania, away from home.

It took us almost two days to reach the coast Sweden. After standing one more day in the harbour, we were allowed to get ashore. Only then we found out that our ship, along with several others, bringing Lithuanian number here in total to almost a thousand, came to the harbour of Malmö. We were told only much later, that transport ships docked along eastern shore, with the bulk of our forces landing all over Southern Sweden. We were escorted to the territory of the local barracks and ordered to surrender our arms, except only for basic equipment and personal things.

We were all mixed - a lot of guys from TDF, from cavalry units, infantry, different companies, regiments and divisions. A battalion command was created from available officers to bring this mass of scared and tired people into some order. Our officers were our only source of information. It is from them that we knew what awaits us further.

Even though Sweden was officially neutral, their sizeable reservist army, reaching at that time up to 400 thousand men, was the main guarantee of their neutrality, giving at the same time some flexibility to Swedish government to conduct their own politics. After intensive talks for the past several weeks between British, Lithuanian and Swedish governments it was agreed for unhindered passage of the troops to Allied Norway. It was insisted by the Swedes, though, that internment procedures would be followed according to the Law, since, after the Winter War Soviet Union was on the Swedish doorstep already and needed to be reckoned with.
The next day, we were lead to the train station, ready for the departure further north, along the coast, to our new future, to Norway.

Just several days later, after countless paper check-ups, marching, standing, sweating, sleeping, our ragtag battalion finally reached the port of Kristiansand. In about a week, we were joined by another several thousand Lithuanians, transported all the way from Stockholm, and the formation of the 1st volunteer division began. Another division was stationed in Stavanger, further West, while several more regiments were being formed all along the southern coast of Norway, manning the coastal fortifactions.
This was all a part of the Allied Command plan, since Norvegians had trouble covering their vast shores by themselves, having only six fully-staffed infantry division, several support brigades and a light tank/armoured car regiment.

Early October, 1940. Foreign Shores

First half of July was quite uneventful there on the sunny shores of southern Norway. Routine drills, new tactical trainings by British instructors, at last - British Enfield guns (although old) - all looked good. Well, our new British-model helmets were queer nevertheless. All in all, every one of us started feeling as soldiers again. Even us, former TDF members, mere civilians just over six weeks ago. Our home, our families, our land - so much was left behind, and the only way to get all this back was with hope, courage and arms.

The news from the war were dire. The French were still holding the line along the Seine, from Le Havre up to Paris, and further to the Maginot., at least by Mid-July. At first we thought that our (now almost complete) three divisions of lightly armed troops will be sent there to help hold the Germans, but my guess now is that it was all too late. Just one week later we heard rumours that Germans have broken through the line along the beaches and in several places deeper inland and were rampaging the countryside, taking Paris in pincers from East and West.


Brits in Egypt were taking the beating from Italy. 10th Italian Army (up to 10 divisions strong, including several Blackshirt militia divisions) under Graziani pushed outnumbered British forces (2 undermanned infantry divisions) up to El Alamein, almost reaching Alexandria, until Italians were stopped and routed by a division of British Marines, supported by several divisions of Iraqi infantry by the end of July.


While battles on land did not go that great, French and Brits had huge superiority out in the sea. Just in two months allies sunk more than 20 German and Italian ships, not counting more than 10 sub packs and several flotillas of destroyers without losing a ship. Most notable was the sinking of Graf Spee, the pride of Kriegsmarine, on its way to Southern Atlantic, just outside of Biscay bay. The killing blow was landed by a French WWI dreadnaught Courbet, which was already outdated and living it's last days.

On July 31 France surrendered. Well, not quite, but the war in Europe has essentially paused for a while. We were starting to feel desperate - Soviets looming in the East, Germans trampling everything they set their foot on. And our allies - overstretched, frightened, ill prepared, shamed by the defeat.

By the end of August an order was sounded to move for the harbour and board the ships, this time - to Britain! We were at that time complete five divisions. True, only two were fully staffed, others had only 60% of needed number. As we were told, in Britain, in particular - Cardiff, we were to be fully equipped to constitute a fully functioning infantry division - one, at first, with artillery pieces, mortars, AT guns - everything that we have left behind on Lithuanian beaches.

Our place at the harbours in Kristiansand and Stavanger was at last taken by Norwegians themselves, after they finally got their mobilization running. Just a few weeks later after our arrival to Cardiff, we heard that Germans have landed in Narvik, a harbour far in the North, probably deterred by the constant presence of allied troops on the Southern shores of Norway and manned coastal fortifications.


Once we heard about this, we all rushed to our division commander Vitkauskas, asking about further plans to get back, to help the country that was so willing to accept us for several months. However, all our pleas were unanswered. The commander of the whole Lithuanian Liberation Army - Gen.Liatukas made an announcement that Brits were lending a hand to the Norwegians, and in the meantime, we will be packing our summer gear and heading South, to Africa.
Allied forces (4 Iraqi divisions and 2 British) under Middle East Command have managed to cross the border in Libya and even captured Tobruk, but being totally exhausted were having trouble defending their positions under the pressure of several newly arrived Italian elite Alpini divisions. This is our new destination - Tobruk!

End of 1940. White and Red Sands of Libya.

3 Divisions of Lithuanian volunteers of the Lithuanian Liberation Army were sailing south. A rag-tag army in fact, equipped with leftovers of British army, sailing further away from known shores, to fight against Italians. Guys, that we did not thought to be our enemies, in a war at the end of the world. But, as our company commander has always said, an enemy of your friend is your enemy as well, so better just stick tight and keep punching.

We have unloaded in Tobruk on October 10 and where ordered to form the defensive perimeter straight away, as several divisions of Iraqis were streaming from the West, beaten, tired and bleeding, in no shape to put any resistance, at least for a week or so. Our supreme headquarters have stationed in Alexandria, while our Army commander Gen. Nagevicius and Operative HQ, which was supported by two brigades, lead by Gen Rastikis, stayed with us.

We haven't even had time to adjust to the change of climate, to barren landscape, to the fact that we will be shot at - again, were attacked on the next morning, on October 11, by a single 5th Alpini division, led by Damazzio. Since they did not expect any resistance, our fire came as a surprise to the Italians and they were poking at our defences cautiously for another day. On October 12, a full assault started in the afternoon, with a barrage from mortars and artillery shells. In the meantime, one of the Iraqi divisions finally formed in our rear, ready to assist, should this be needed.



By the night of October 13, the attack watered down and stopped, leaving our 222 guys lost and wounded, against 467 Italians. First fight, first victory!

The very next morning we heard that Yugoslavia has succumbed to German pressure and joined Axis. One more enemy to the list! Enemies, we do know nothing about..

It was relatively quiet for several days. We were digging in where we can, repairing barbed wire, installing our 20 pieces of 18-pounder artillery guns and building machine gun nests. While we were promised better equipment by the British command, but it seemed that they already had their hands full, and we were quite satisfied with what we had, even if some guns had seen the WWI. A week later, first news reached us about the fight of Norwegians against Germans in the mountains of Northern Norway. It seemed that those tough northern lads were still keeping their land from the invaders and did not intend to lay down and simply die. However, as we learned from our guys coming from Sweden, joining us late, it appeared that Swedish have buckled under Germans as well, as their rail system was overloaded with German troops travelling from Malmo and Goteborg to the far North..


There was some fighting further south, in the desert, going back and forth several times, but in the end two British divisions had to withdraw, leaving our left flank open for attack, covered by an Iraqi division. In the meantime, our undermanned 3rd Volunteer division "Kaunas" has moved together with Army HQ further to East as a reserve and to protect our communication and supply lines.

In the afternoon of October 24, another attack came from the west by Riserva Centrale division. While not as good trained as Alpini, machine gun fire and shelling did not feel any lighter. We had our positions ready to defend in depth, and allowed the Italians to come closer, before unleashing a hurricane of fire. After their first attack was beaten in about an hour, they did not dare to try any more. We had 3 wounded guys against 48 Italian casualties.

Despite our stand in Tobruk, the overall situation looked bleak. Italians have pushed through the desert and were threatening to surround us, if our 3rd division (just more than 7000 lightly armed guys) is routed from the hills East of Tobruk. British command was considering a full retreat to form a new defensive line about 100 km further East, while the front line was currently held by 2 barely organized Iraqi divisions.


On October 31 Italy declared war on Greece, swiftly joined by Yugoslavia and Bulgaria. The Brits vowed to assist Greeks in their struggle, but apart from patrolling the shores in search for Italian navy or an occasional bombing raid, there was not much they could do, with whole Middle East Command committed to defending Egypt.

Royal Air Force had total superiority at least in Libya and were not shy to use it. Every day we saw planes coming from airfields around Alexandria, and even some based in Tobruk, bombing the Italian positions. Since Lithuanian Air Force did not have big bombers, it was an incredible sight and feeling to have such machines on our side this time. Not every one of us could forget the terrifying hum of Soviet bombers flying over our towns and villages.

On November 12, just after sunrise, an alarm was sounded all along the lines around Tobruk. Italians had come this time in strength, nearly 24000 soldiers, at least from two sides at once. Our forces were 2 full staffed divisions, an Operative HQ brigade (nearly 6000 soldiers) and 2 Iraqi divisions, totalling almost 45000 soldiers. After 2 days of fierce fighting, the attacks was stopped, with the cost of 191 Lithuanians, 70 Iraqis and 662 Italians.

Just a week after the battle, several cargo ships have docked in the harbour, bringing a new weapons, sufficient for at least 2 of our regiments - Enfields Mk.III rifles, new mortars, Hotchkiss 25 mm AT guns, loads of ammunition and supplies.

Strange as it is, another month went absolutely uneventful. However, this lull could not take forever - on December 18, 5 fresh Italian divisions, including one Alpini, attacked from three sides at once. This time we have been assisted by the 7th Indian Infantry division, sent as reinforcements from East Africa Command.


It didn't work quite well though, as in that month we were fortifying our positions with everything we had - and there is no lack of stone and sand in a hilly desert. The attack ended with 154 our casualties, 276 allied troops and 616 Italian soldiers lost.

However, as soon as this attack ended, two more fresh divisions jumped on us from South West on the 21st, turning into an all-out assault during 22-23 of December. Then, as two more divisions joined the attack from Gazala, we changed our tactics to elastic defence, avoiding unnecessary casualties and stopping the Italians at every opportunity.



The fight raged for another 3 days, with one by one Italian divisions refusing to rise for an attack. Once there was only the sole Alpini division remaining on the battlefield, ambushed on every corner, we understood that we have survived 1940, after all. Not every one, however. In a week of fighting we have lost 330 guys, there were 460 casualties in 7th Indian division, and Italians lost 2017.

In the meantime, Iraqis and Brits recaptured Fort Capuzzo. And Norway still stood undefeated.