Brest is located in the westernmost part of the Soviet Union and the westernmost part of Belarus, and its opposite bank is Poland, and from Brest to the east is Kiev, to the northeast is Minsk and Vilnius, and then to Moscow. The Brest Fortress was handed over to the Soviet Union by the Germans after the German invasion of Poland in 1939 under the secret terms of the Soviet-German Non-Aggression Pact, and from then on the German army and the Soviet Union were bounded by the river here. Therefore, for the German army, to finally occupy Moscow and annex the Soviet Union, Brest became a place of contention.
After the return of the Soviet Union to Brest, the restoration of the fortress was carried out by prisoners, and by the time the Soviet-German War broke out, the reconstruction work was not completed, and many heavy weapons positions were not completed. At that time, the Soviet troops stationed in the fortress were the 42nd Infantry Division of the 28th Infantry Army of the 4th Army of the 4th Special Military Region of the Western Soviet Union and the 7 infantry battalions of the 6th Orlov Red Banner Division, 1 reconnaissance battalion and 2 artillery battalions, the 17th Red Flag Brest Border Garrison, the 33rd Independent Engineering Construction Regiment and the 132nd Battalion of the Soviet Internal Affairs Force, with a total number of about 9,000 people, and about 300 military family members.
The Germans were responsible for the attack with 17,000 men of the 45th Infantry Division of the 12th Army of the 2nd Panzer Group, and in order to quickly capture the fortress, the German army also equipped the force with 12 artillery detachments, including several 550-600 mm mortar guns dedicated to destroying the fortifications of fortified forts.
At 3:15 a.m. on June 22, the Soviet-German War broke out, and the Germans across the river crossed the Bug River in just 12 minutes. But when the Germans arrived at the central fort, they found that, despite heavy artillery fire, the fort was still intact, and the Soviets immediately organized an effective defense. On June 22, the Germans organized several attacks throughout the day, but all of them were stubbornly blocked by the Soviets. On the first day of the battle, 21 officers and 290 soldiers were killed, more than the division had died throughout the Polish campaign.
The Soviets, despite their bravery, had no support and held out against a German army several times larger than themselves and with heavy weapons until 30 June, when most of the fortress was occupied by the Germans. Despite this, the remaining Soviet troops in the fortress continued to fight in the ruins, and some even fought until the end of July.
The Soviets lost 2,500 killed (4,000 in German figures) and 7,223 were captured throughout the Battle of Brest Fortress. The Germans lost 453 dead and 668 wounded. After the end of World War II, the Soviet Union excavated a total of 832 Soviet remains in the fortress in the 1950s. The Brest Fortress also became a symbol of the Soviet Union's indomitability in World War II. In 1965 the Soviet government awarded the Brest Fortress the title of "Heroic Fortress". In 2010, the battle was made into the Russian film Decisive Battle Fortress and received unanimous praise.
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