The Raid on Truskaw was a surprising attack on the battalion stationed in the village of Truskaw by the Kaminski Brigade, carried out on the night of 2/3 September 1944 by a detachment from the Kampinos Group led by Lieutenant Adolf Pilch, codenamed Dolina.
On 27 August 1944, the vicinity of Truskaw and Sieraków was occupied by units of the collaborating Kaminski Brigade, thus preventing communication between Home Army units in the Kampinos Forest and the insurgent Warsaw. The enemy soon began to attack the Polish outpost in nearby . In this situation, commanding the "Palmiry-Młociny" Regiment, Lieutenant Dolina organized a night raid on the Kaminski troops stationed in Truskaw. With minimal losses of their own, the Poles completely defeated two enemy subunits, capturing large quantities of weapons and ammunition in the process. This success – combined with a successful the following night – forced the Kaminski Brigade to retreat from the southern outskirts of the Kampinos Forest.
"Independent Republic of Kampinos"
After the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising, fighting also spread to the northwest of the capital, in the Kampinos Forest. At that time, the structures of the Home Army from the pre-war gminas of Czosnów and , as well as from the eastern part of the , were part of the VIII District Łęgi of the Warsaw County Subdistrict of the Warsaw District. This district was commanded by Captain , codenamed Szymon. On the eve of the uprising, the Home Army units under his command could deploy two infantry battalions with the strength of five first-line companies. However, the weakness of these units lay in their armament. Captain Szymon estimated in his post-war memoirs that after the mobilization in July 1944, his district could muster only from 350 to 400 armed soldiers for combat. Fortunately for the Polish side, the balance of power in the Kampinos Forest changed dramatically at the end of July 1944 when the Stowbtsy-Naliboki Group arrived in Dziekanów Polski from the Naliboki forest in the Eastern Borderlands. It consisted of 861 well-armed soldiers, led by Lieutenant Adolf Pilch, codenamed Góra or Dolina – a Silent Unseen paratrooper, an experienced partisan who had been fighting against the Germans and Soviet partisans since autumn 1943. Initially, the Polish Underground State received Dolina and his soldiers with great mistrust due to accusations of collaboration with the Germans. However, the Home Army High Command eventually agreed to incorporate the Naliboki group into the VIII District.
On 3 August 1944, based on the units of the VIII District and the Stowbtsy-Naliboki Group, the Palmiry-Młociny Regiment was formed, commanded by Lieutenant Dolina. After the outbreak of the uprising in the Kampinos Forest, small Home Army units from various districts of Warsaw also appeared, leaving the city after the failure of the initial Polish attacks during "W" Hour. Gradually, units from other regions and districts of the Warsaw District, as well as from the neighboring Western Sub-District of the , also arrived there. Based on these units, a partisan formation called the Kampinos Group was created. At its peak, it numbered about 2,700 soldiers and 700 horses.
The actions of the Kampinos Group did not change the fate of the uprising. After unsuccessful attacks on the Bielany airfield (from 1 to 2 August 1944), Polish units had to temporarily withdraw deeper into the Kampinos Forest. Meanwhile, the Home Army command, which had high hopes for the presence of a strong partisan group in the immediate vicinity of Warsaw, directed Major , codenamed Okoń, to the forest, instructing him to organize relief for the capital and then carry out vigorous offensive actions towards Powązki. Okoń reached the Kampinos Group on the night of August 15/16. However, before this happened, there was chaos in the command of the forest units, which would profoundly affect the actions of the Polish group. Due to mutual disagreements and indecision among Home Army commanders, it was not possible to organize an attack on the rear of the German Battle Group Reinefarth. Ultimately, nearly 1,000 soldiers of the Kampinos Group crossed into Żoliborz, where they were intended to be used to break through the German barrier separating this district from the Old Town. However, two night attacks on the heavily fortified Warszawa Gdańska Station ended in defeat and the loss of nearly 500 soldiers (August 20/21 and August 21/22). After the failed assaults, some of the "forest" soldiers returned with Major Okoń to the Kampinos Forest, while others remained in Żoliborz. Along with the soldiers of the Kampinos Group, a certain number of insurgents, including primarily the 100-strong company of the under the command of Lieutenant , codenamed Jerzy, left the city.
Upon returning from Warsaw, Major Okoń brought with him an order signed by General Tadeusz Pełczyński, codenamed Robak, confirming that Okoń was in charge of all Home Army units in the Kampinos Forest. In the same order, the Chief of Staff of the Home Army Headquarters also assigned new tasks to the Kampinos Group. Essentially, they had a passive character and did not involve conducting major diversionary actions behind the German lines fighting in Warsaw. According to General Pełczyński's order, the tasks of the forest units were to:
organize a supply base for insurgent Warsaw; organize deliveries of weapons, ammunition, food, and equipment to the fighting capital; expand the drop-off reception base, used to receive weapon drops and supplies made by Allied aviation; expand the radio center to ensure continuity of operation; cooperate with Home Army units fighting in Warsaw to eliminate German units in the northwestern part of the city; organize standby units to ensure protection of the drop-off reception base.
At that time, the Kampinos Group already firmly controlled the central and eastern areas of the Kampinos Forest, encompassing the villages of Ławy, Łubiec, Roztoka, Kiścinne, Krogulec, Wędziszew, Brzozówka, Truskawka, Janówek, Pociecha, Zaborów Leśny, and Wiersze. The headquarters of the formation was located in the latter village. Polish patrols were also able to penetrate numerous neighboring towns previously unoccupied by the enemy. The area controlled by the Home Army soldiers was called the "Independent Republic of Kampinos".
Arrival of the Kaminski Brigade in the Kampinos Forest
The task of separating Warsaw from the Kampinos Forest was initially entrusted by the German command to their Hungarian allies, specifically to the 12th Reserve Division of the II Reserve Corps. However, the Germans quickly realized that the cordoned zone created by their allies remained largely fictional, as the Honvéd troops openly sympathized with the Poles. Although the Hungarian command rejected the Polish proposal to change sides, both parties entered into an informal "non-aggression pact". The Hungarians did not interfere with maintaining communication between the forest units and Żoliborz, even allowing on several occasions the passage of compact and well-armed Home Army units near their outposts. In this situation, at the end of August, the Germans withdrew the Hungarians from the vicinity of Warsaw, while simultaneously strengthening the cordon around the city. The Kampinos Group quickly felt these changes. On the night of August 26/27, or in the early morning of August 27, a unit of Jerzyk soldiers heading towards Żoliborz with a transport of weapons, ammunition, and food was warned by the chaplain of the hospital in Laski, Father Professor Stefan Wyszyński, codenamed Radwan III, that the road to Warsaw via Truskaw, Laski, and Izabelin was blocked by strong enemy positions. Moreover, the Germans were reportedly well-informed about the approaching Polish unit. When hastily dispatched patrols confirmed the validity of the warning, Lieutenant Jerzy withdrew his unit back to the forest.
On August 27, in the afternoon, a detached regiment from the Kaminski Brigade arrived in Truskaw and Sieraków, numbering nearly 1,500 soldiers. Kaminski Brigade was a collaborationist formation, composed mainly of Russians and Belarusians. It was led by SS-Brigadeführer Bronislav Kaminski. From August 4, the Kaminski Brigade had been fighting in the Warsaw district of Ochota, and then in the southern part of the city center. However, the first clashes with the insurgents showed that Kaminski's unit had minimal combat value, and its soldiers were interested only in looting, alcohol, and women. During the battles in Ochota, the Kaminski Brigade soldiers committed many cruel crimes against the Polish civilian population. Their victims even included German women serving in Wehrmacht auxiliary formations. Furthermore, Kaminski, citing alleged authorizations obtained directly from Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler, openly displayed insubordination to German generals. In this situation, the German command concluded that the further presence of Kaminski Brigade in Warsaw could bring more harm than benefit. Probably on August 19, Kaminski was relieved of command, and a week later he was summoned to Łódź, where he stood trial before a German drumhead court-martial, which sentenced him to death. The sentence was probably carried out on the night of August 28/29. The soldiers of the Kaminski Brigade were informed that Kaminski was killed by Polish partisans.
Meanwhile, on August 23, the Kaminski Brigade was transferred from the southern part of the city center to Muranów, from where it was redeployed to the Kampinos Forest after a few days, occupying the positions vacated by the Hungarian troops, who were not trusted by the Germans. Kaminski Brigade quickly established a solid line of defense stretching through Laski, Izabelin, and Borzęcin towards Leszno. Similar to what had happened earlier in Warsaw, the Kaminski Brigade brutally terrorized the Polish civilian population. For the inhabitants of Kampinos villages, robberies and rapes became a daily occurrence. Individuals who resisted or angered the soldiers were often murdered on the spot. The first skirmishes between the Kaminski Brigade and the soldiers of the Kampinos Group occurred on August 28. That day, in the morning, a patrol from the Jerzyk company went to Truskaw, where it engaged in a fight with a strong Kaminski Brigade unit. In the clash, three Home Army soldiers were killed or mortally wounded, while the enemy losses were estimated at two killed and eight wounded. Later, in the evening, Kaminski Brigade conducted a reconnaissance by combat in the vicinity of the hamlet of Pociecha. Home Army soldiers repelled the attack, killing or injuring several Kaminski Brigade soldiers.
Fighting at Pociecha
Pociecha became the target of numerous enemy attacks in the following days. This was because the roads from Sieraków and Truskaw, through which the Germans and their collaborators could penetrate deep into the forest controlled by the partisans, converged there. The potential loss of the hamlet would also mean pushing the Home Army units away from strategically important roads like Warsaw–Modlin and Warsaw–Leszno, and ultimately isolating the "Republic of Kampinos" from insurgent Warsaw. Furthermore, the presence of a Polish outpost in Pociecha prevented the Germans from using a convenient forest trail leading from Warsaw through Palmiry to Kazuń and Modlin.