The first days of ‘Operation Barbarossa’ were a real nightmare for the Red Army. Breaking through the Soviet defensive positions, the Wehrmacht was rapidly advancing deep into the country. In some areas, the pace of the German offensive reached 30 kilometers a day.
Nevertheless, some Soviet units, at the price of enormous efforts, managed to keep the enemy at the border for a long time. One of them was the 102nd Rifle Regiment of the 41st Rifle Division, which held on to the Rava-Ruska fortification line near Lvov in western Ukraine.
Regiment not only withstood the onslaught of German troops on June 22, but, the next day at 8 a.m., launched a successful counterattack. Dislodging the enemy from the Soviet territory, it continued to pursue them and for three kilometers deepened into the limits of the so-called ‘Governorate General’ (established by the Germans in the occupied Poland in 1939).
On the evening of the same day, the Soviet soldiers returned to their positions. The 41st Rifle Division held on to the Rawa Ruska fortification line until June 27, when, under the threat of being cut off from the main forces, it had to abandon it.
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