1 November in military history: Defense of Lwów, 1918

As Austria-Hungary collapsed, Ukrainian soldiers took over the main buildings of Lwów before dawn, almost without bloodshed, and raised a yellow and blue flag over the town hall. Polish residents took up arms the same day, starting three weeks of street fighting for the city.

The Ukrainian Military Committee, chaired by Captain Dmytro Vitovsky. By ArmiaInform's count he had about 1,400 riflemen and 60 officers; the Encyclopedia of Ukraine gives 1,200 soldiers and 60 officers. Command later passed to Colonel Mykola Marynovych, on 5 November to Hryhorii Kossak and on 9 November to Colonel Hnat Stefaniv.

The young Polish defenders of Lwów in November 1918, many of them school pupils and students. The IPN counts 6,021 people in the November street fighting, 1,374 of them school and university students; dzieje.pl gives 1,422 defenders under 17. The two central figures of their legend are Jurek Bitschan, killed on 21 November at the Łyczakowski cemetery, and Antoś Petrykiewicz.

Yes, but fewer than the legend suggests. The IPN and dzieje.pl both list 427 women among the defenders. The historian Marek Kozubel says only 10 to 17 of them fought in the street battles; the others served as couriers and nurses.

A Polish relief column arrived on 20 November, a combined attack followed on 21 November, and on the morning of 22 November 1918 the city was in Polish hands. The Polish-Ukrainian War went on, and Lwów stayed under threat until the Polish offensive of May 1919.