Grodno — the harcerze on Skidelska Street

Grodno, 60,000 inhabitants, on the Niemen, is one of the oldest towns of historic Poland — the seat of the Sejms of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the sixteenth century. By 20 September 1939, after the Soviet invasion of the 17th, the town has no regular garrison: its infantry regiment (the 76th), sent westward, is no longer available. The civilian authorities — Prefect Władysław Daleki, Mayor Jerzy Dziekoński — decide to throw together an improvised defence with 200 police and gendarmes, 500 railwaymen and postal volunteers, around 300 harcerze (Polish scouts), boys and girls aged 12 to 17 who have had rifle training in the Junackie Hufce Pracy, and 50 veterans of the Polish-Soviet War of 1920.

The weapons available: Mauser wz. 98 rifles (about 600), a dozen machine guns, hand grenades, Molotov cocktails made up in the night of 19-20 September in the cellars of the Technical School.

On 20 September at 14:00, the Soviet 15th Tank Brigade under kombrig Mikhail Petrov (around a hundred T-26 and BT-7 tanks) debouches onto the road from Warsaw. Tadeusz Jasiński, 13 years old, a sixth-form pupil at the Adam Mickiewicz School and a scout since the age of 10, is with his group on Skidelska Street. His "mission": throw Molotov cocktails onto the tracks of the Soviet tanks. His elder brother Maciek, 17, was killed that morning at the bridge over the Niemen. The local adults have to decide quickly.