Battle of Stompaku III National Partizans, II WW2
On March 2-3, 1945, the Battle of Stompaku took place in Viļaka Parish, Abrene District (now Susāji Parish, Viļaka District) - the largest battle of the Latvian national partisans against the armed formations of the Soviet occupation regime at the end of World War II.
An armed national resistance movement in Abrene County began to form in the summer of 1944, when the territory was re-occupied by the Soviet Union. In order to avoid arrests and forced mobilization in the Red Army, many residents became illegally living in the forests individually or in small groups. On the night of October 2, 1944, the Germans landed a group of 11 divers under the codename "Lapland" in the Abrene district. It was headed by the former chief agronomist of the county Pēteris Supe ("Cinītis") and his deputy, Stanislavs Ločmelis ("Ace"), a student of the Faculty of Economics of the University of Latvia. On December 10, 1944, they founded the Latvian National Partisan Association (LNPA).
At the beginning of January 1945, the partisans of the LNPA, on the order of P. Supe, began to gather in the Stompaku bogs between Balvi and Vilaka, where a camp was established on several bog islands, which is considered to be the largest partisan camp in the entire Baltic region. Its official name for the partisans was "Island Shelters".
The camp, which housed about 350 partisans, was attacked by the NKVD (USSR People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs) troops from the 143rd Rifle Regiment of 483 men. The battle lasted from March 2 at 7.30 to 19.30, when the battle noise subsided by the morning of March 3rd. The positions of both sides were only 70-80 meters away, and longer or shorter shots continued from time to time. Using heavy snow and night cover, most partisans managed to escape the siege. 28 national partisans were killed or later wounded in the battle, but the enemy lost 46 people.
A monument with the names of the fallen partisans has been erected in Vilaka near the Catholic Church on the side of Parka Street.
A monument to the 28 national partisans killed in the Battle of Stompaku was unveiled on the side of the Balvi - Vilaka highway on August 11, 2011.
A marked trail leads to the National Partisan settlements in the nature reserve “Stompaku Purvi”, which was opened on March 2, 2019.
More information sources
Zigmars Turčinskis. Battle of Stompaku on March 2, 1945. SARGS.LV (12.04.2016): https://www.sargs.lv/lv/otrais-pasaules-kars/2016-04-12/stompaku-kauja-1945-gada-2-marta
Uldis Neiburgs. We had to die to live a hundred. Battle of Stompaku - 70. LA.LV (14.03.2015): https://www.la.lv/mums-bija-jamirst-lai-dzivotu-simtistompaku-kaujai-70
In the dreams of a distant bog edge come ...: [Book about national partisans in Latgale] / iev. aut. J.Kīdzējs. -. Rezekne: Latgale Culture Center Publishing House, 1997.
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