Near Halicz, 17 km from Bołszowce, where the Franciscans run the Peace and Reconciliation Centre at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Bołszowce, near the village of Dytiatyn, one of the most important battles took place, the consequences of which were very important for the entire defensive campaign against the Soviet troops.. The soldiers heroically defended a piece of their homeland – Hill 385. Almost all of the combatants gave their lives there. The battle took place on September 16, 1920. Sacrificing what was most valuable, the soldiers of a small unit of the Polish Army stopped the enemy for many hours – a division of Red Cossacks, supported by a brigade of Bolshevik infantry, saving the parent VIII Infantry Division and the Ukrainian Cavalry Division from being crushed. The battle was of key importance for maintaining the offensive on the front in Eastern Lesser Poland.

Marshal Józef Piłsudski posthumously awarded 17 artillerymen the Silver Cross of the Order of War Virtuti Militari, and 11 officers and 41 privates the Cross of Valor. At the same time, he granted the 4th Battery the right to bear the title of the Battery of Death. The remains of one of the soldiers who died there were chosen to be placed in the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Warsaw. The date and place of this battle were crowned on its columns.

At the burial site of the soldiers, a chapel-monument of St. Teresa of the Child Jesus was built in honor of the fallen, consecrated on September 21, 1930. The commanders of the nearby garrisons and invited guests regularly took part in the anniversary ceremonies. The most important ceremonies took place on May 3 and September 16. The chapel, systematically devastated after 1945, was finally dismantled by the Soviet authorities in 1947.

In 2009, for the first time after the war, a Holy Mass was celebrated there for the intention of the fallen soldiers. These prayer meetings were initiated by Szymon Hatłas, a descendant of the inhabitants of Dytiatyn, the organizer of the project Dytiatyn 1920 – Polish Thermopylae, and Fr. Grzegorz Cymbała, the then parish priest of the Franciscan parish in Bołszowce.

Father Bronislaw Staworowski