Visvalžas Brizga (Kārļa krauja) National Partisan Group

The “Kārļa Krauja” national partisan group was formed in 1947, from persons serving in the Latvian Legion, from persons who had avoided service in the Soviet Army, or persons who had been forced to join the aforementioned group for other reasons. The group’s commander was Visvaldis Žanis Brizga. In October 1948, the “Kārļa Krauja” group merged with the Lithuanian national partisan group, which was commanded by the group commander with the nickname “Bize”. The group operated in the vicinity of Zebrene, Auce, Biksti, Slagūna, Naudīte and Īle in Jelgava County. The group consisted of about 30 national partisan members. In October 1948, in Lielauce parish, near Īle forestry, the group built a closed, well-camouflaged underground bunker measuring 9 x 6 m, with two exits, and mined the area with remote-controlled mines. In terms of size, this was the largest national partisan bunker in Latvia. During the existence of the group, about 20 anti-Soviet actions were carried out. On March 17, 1949, troops of the Latvian SSR Ministry of State Security surrounded the bunker of the “Kārļa Krauja” group in the forest massif of Auce parish, Jelgava district, 300 meters north of the “Priedaiši” houses. The attack on the “Kārļa Krauja” group was carefully planned and already approved on March 11, 1949. As evidenced by the attack plan approved by the commander of the 5th Division of the Internal Troops of the USSR Ministry of State Security (VDM) Major General P. Ļeontjev on March 16, 1949, a unit of 760 VDM soldiers participated in it, which included 261 of the VDM 5th Division deployed in the territory of Latvia; Soldiers and officers of the 36th and 32nd regiments, of which 600 were in the blocking group, 120 in the reconnaissance group, and 40 in the reserve group. The VDM troops arrived in the attack area on March 17, 1949 at 5:00 a.m., in 35 trucks. First, a blockade operation was carried out in the area. The reconnaissance group arrived at the starting position at 7:30 a.m., the attack began at 8:00 a.m. At around 9:00 a.m. a strike group of 120 people discovered a well-camouflaged bunker, the length of the passages of which reached 45 m, the surroundings within a radius of 15-20 m were mined with remote-controlled mines. When the strike group discovered the bunker and approached it, 24 members of the joint Latvian-Lithuanian national partisan group were in the bunker together with a guard post. The previous evening, 3 members of the group, commander Visvaldis Brizga, Juris Krusts and Reinis Hercs, had left the bunker. The national partisans in the bunker started the battle from both exit hatches and detonated 42 mines, the remaining 28 mines were neutralized by sappers during the attack. As a result of the five-hour battle, by blowing up the bunker cover in 2 places, the attackers managed to force the surviving national partisans to surrender by throwing hand grenades into the bunker and trying to set it on fire. After the battle, 9 members of the group were arrested (7 Latvians and 2 Lithuanians), but 15 fell during the battle (8 Latvians and 7 Lithuanians), some of whom shot themselves. Attacker losses: 2 lightly wounded, 2 seriously wounded, and 2 VDM soldiers died from their injuries.