Eve of The Battle
During the invasion of Poland the Polish Border Defence Corps (KOP) was severely stripped of all the reserves and heavy armament. All the available Polish forces were sent to the west to reinforce the units resisting the German invasion. When the Red Army invaded Poland on September 17, there were barely any Polish forces to oppose them. The garrisons of the KOP were overstretched and after initial clashes and skirmishes for the border forts, the Polish units had to fall back.
The deputy commander of the KOP, general Wilhelm Orlik-Rueckemann decided to unite as many troops under his command as possible and join with the rest of Polish forces in the west. He ordered all the KOP forces in Polesie area to withdraw. In several days he managed to gather approximately 9 000 men under his command, coming from various units spread along a 300 kilometre long strip of the Polish-Soviet border. On September 19 he ordered all his units to march towards Kowel, where his forces were to be joined by the Independent Operational Group Polesie under general Franciszek Kleeberg. However, the difficult situation and the outcome of the battles of Brześć and Kobryń forced Rueckemann's group to change the plans. The Polish units changed the direction and started to march through the forests towards Włodawa and Kamień Koszyrski.
The group found itself in a no-man's-land between the Soviet forces and the Wehrmacht and could operate freely. However, the morale of the troops was low and on September 27 general Orlik-Rueckemann decided to engage the Soviet forces in order to achieve a victory and raise the morale.
Read more about this topic: Battle Of Szack
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