War souvenir in Promiski

Each village in the parish that we index has its own interesting history. Today, not genealogically, but militarily.

Near the town of Promiski, which territorially belongs to the Augustów commune, but "spiritually" to the Sztabin parish (until 1895 it belonged to the Krasnybór parish), there is a complex of three combat bunkers built in 1939. On March 23, 1939, Marshal Edward Śmigły-Rydz established the "Narew" Independent Operational Group to defend the north-eastern section of the front, which was based on the Lithuanian border and the line of the Augustów Canal, Biebrza and Narew. The front was divided into sections, one of them was the section "Augustów". It was planned to build 57 concrete and wooden-earth bunkers there. Brought from the Latvian border in April 1939, the KOP infantry battalion "Słobódka" under the command of Lt. Col. Jan Lachowicz was to build fortifications from Augustów up to the Dębowo Lock. Work on the construction of the shelters began on May 21, 1939. Until September 1 thre were buit only few: 1 concrete bunker in Augustów, 5 wooden and earth bunkers in Białobrzegi, 2 medium-sized concrete bunkers in Gliniski (one of them had no armored dome installed) and three light concrete bunkers in Promiski. Almost all the bunkers were connected by shooting ditches, the so-called "tranches". A dam was also built on the Netta River and the meadows from Promiski to Dębowo were flooded. Two northern bunkers No. 1 and 2 were intended for one HMG for side fire, No. 3 was intended for two HMGs with the so-called oblique fire.

On September 1, the bunkers in Promiski were manned with a platoon of KOP rifles. Actually, they did not play a major role, there were no major fights in this area, and the platoon continued to build shooting ditches and barbed wire entanglements. The platoon of rifles, as well as the entire infantry battalion of the KOP "Słobódka", left the section "Augustów" on September 13, was loaded onto a railway transport and set off towards the Romanian Suburb, i.e. to the area of ​​Eastern Lesser Poland. On September 23, the territories were occupied by the Russians, and the fortifications were incorporated into the Grodno Fortified Region, i.e. part of the Molotov Line. On June 22, 1941, the Augustów fortifications were occupied by the Germans and they held them until January 1945. The shelters in Promiski have been preserved in good condition to this day, maybe except for shelter No. 2, in which sappers blew up misfires after the war. Today, the guards are surrounded by a huge, several-hundred-year-old oak with a circumference of 6.5 m.