Northern Operational Group The Defence of Przebraże (Polish: Obrona Przebraża, Ukrainian: Оборона Пшебража; 4 July — 15 October 1943) was fought between the Ukrainian Insurgent Army against the Polish Self–Defense, Home Army and Soviet partisans in the Łuck County of the Wołyń Voivodeship.
[6] Some time in April 1943, Poles in Przebraże under former officers 'Harry' Henryk Cybulski and Ludwik Malinowski (a veteran of the Polish–Soviet War), decided to create a self-defence force, which would help them to resist future Ukrainian attacks.
Sentries were posted, armed with weapons found in the fields after the border battles of the 1941 German invasion of the Soviet Union and Sten guns made by the Prżebraze gunsmithery.
The regional Armia Krajowa also supplied arms and money so that Poles could buy weapons from corrupt Hungarian soldiers stationed in Volhynia.
A train driver with AK contacts also delivered arms to the Polish railwaymen at Kiwerce, which were then transported to Przebraze.
[7] According to the memoirs of Henryk Cybulski, the German commander of Kiwerce was bribed with a pig and gold jewelry, after which he signed a document that stated: "Hereby authorized inhabitants of the village of Przebraże are allowed to use weapons to fight forest gangs, which harm [the] interests of the German Reich".
In June 1943 Polish units from Przebraże scouted the area, telling all Poles to leave their houses and move to the fortified settlement.
[6] At the beginning of the summer of 1943, local Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) commanders suggested that Henryk Cybulski, Ludwik Malinowski and their men should meet and talk.
The first attack by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army made the self-defence command realise the scale of the threat and demonstrated the shortcomings and deficiencies of the defence system.
It became apparent that shelters and entanglements were particularly lacking, the condition of the trenches needed to be improved and the north-eastern section reinforced.
The 3rd company of self-defence retreated to the edge of the Jaromelski forest, where it repulsed fierce attacks by the UPA.
Ukrainian forces numbered around 10,000 men, including a 4,000 strong unit from the area of Lviv and 5,000 drafted local peasants, armed with axes and scythes.
The Przebraże defenders asked local Home Army units and the Soviet partisan forces of Nikolay Prokopiuk for help, (the latter were numerous in the area and themselves threatened by Ukrainians).
As a result, the UPA, attacked from the rear, withdrew, losing more than 100 men and abandoning a large quantity of arms.
A raid against the UPA NCO training school in Omelno on 5 October 1943 was carried out as a joint operation with colonel's Prokopiuk unit.
A similar action was undertaken on the night of 27/8 October 1943 when a joint party with Prokopiuk's partisans attacked Słowatycz.
A 100 Uzbek deserters from the German Army, who were serving in the UPA forces were taken prisoner and went over to the Soviet partisans.
[6] In 1945 Poles from this part of Volhynia were forced by Soviet authorities to move to the area of Niemodlin, in Opole Voivodeship, the land that had belonged to Germany before the war.