Battle of Kock (1920)

Battle of Kock
Part of Polish-Soviet War Battle of Warsaw
Date 14–16 August 1920 Location near Kock, Poland 51°39′N 22°27′E / 51.650°N 22.450°E / 51.650; 22.450 Result Polish victory
Belligerents
Russian SFSR	Poland
Commanders and leaders
Tikhon Khvesin	Andrzej Galica
Units involved
170th Rifle Brigade of the 57th Rifle Division	21st Mountain Infantry Division[a]
Strength
6,800 bayonets, 1,200 sabres, 45 guns[1]	Unknown
Casualties and losses
Unknown 198 taken POW[2]	4 killed 46 wounded[2]

The Battle of Kock was fought between 14 and 16 August 1920 in the vicinity of the town of Kock in east-central Poland. The town was to serve as a bridgehead across the Wieprz river for Gen. Józef Piłsudski's counter-offensive against the Russian forces storming Warsaw. However, on 14 August it was captured by forces of the Russian Mozyr Group and the Poles withdrew across the river. In the early morning of 16 August the 21st Mountain Division counter-attacked and retook the town.

The battle, while minor, was one of the last skirmishes of the Polish retreat from Belarus that had started in the early summer – and the first of the Wieprz Counter-offensive, the flanking manoeuvre that gave Poland victory in the Warsaw Operation, better known as the Battle of Warsaw.