The last battles near Seda
On October 7, 1944, one of the last major battles of the regular army on Lithuanian territory took place near Seda, where volunteers of the Homeland Defense Team joined the fight against the Red Army, defending the freedom of Lithuania.
"There were battles. The Lithuanian state and its army no longer existed, but here came former Lithuanian army officers and soldiers, volunteers even from the independence struggles, and high school students who left books for other, happier generations," says Paulius Jurkus.
The volunteer units fought bravely - they destroyed eight Bolshevik tanks and a considerable number of men with their Panzerfausts. However, new enemy forces were pouring into the place of the fallen. "The entire sky to the north, to the northeast of Samogitian Kalvarija was burning, glowing from the rockets launched and rumbling with a great bang. Artillery guns were roaring. Airplanes were roaring in the sky and dropping rockets," - recalls the witness.
In the old cemetery of Seda, in Grūstė, about 5 km outside the city, on the road to Ylakia, and in the new cemetery by the Sedula lake on a hill, over a hundred fallen volunteers rest. "Over the years, they were forgotten, unknown, only someone's unknown hands kept cleaning the graves, planting flowers..."
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Monument to those killed in the Battle of Seda
The monument to those who died in the Battle of Seda stands in the town of Seda itself, next to the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This monument was unveiled on August 1, 1999. The author of the monument is sculptor Osvaldas Neniškis. The monument is dedicated to the memory of the soldiers of the Homeland Defense Team who died in the Battle of Seda on October 7, 1944.
The Battle of Seda was an armed clash between units of the Lithuanian Homeland Defense Forces and the Soviet Army that took place on October 7, 1944.
In the first half of 1944, the German occupation authorities in Lithuania abolished the Local Unit led by General Povilas Plechavičius, but as the situation at the front deteriorated, it had to take into account the Lithuanians' desire to create independent military units to fight the advancing Soviet army. In July, all Lithuanian combat units operating in Viekšniai parish and Mažeikiai county were merged into the so-called Homeland Protection Unit, which was subordinate to the German army. It was to defend the front line near Seda, as the USSR army advanced in the direction of Klaipėda.
As autumn approached, Seda was prepared for a circular defense: the majority of the Homeland Security Forces were deployed to the east and north of Seda, with one incomplete battalion near Barstyčiai, on the western side.
The units of the USSR army, which began the Klaipėda operation, reached the Seda area in early October 1944. On the morning of October 7, several dozen Soviet tanks attacked the approaches to Seda, defended by the Homeland Defense Team, followed by a rifle division. The battles for Seda were fought only in July, when about 6,000 volunteers, including 112 officers, 5 of whom had the rank of colonel, gathered into a military unit called the Homeland Defense Team.
The location of the battles is not marked, but you can visit the monument dedicated to those who died in the Battle of Seda.
