I will guard you, I will not hesitate to shed my blood for the Fatherland, neither will I hesitate to give my life so that you do not return to Germany. You will remain Polish forever". Soon afterwards, a number of weddings took place:   On March 17, 1945, two fully armed regiments of uhlans of the First Warsaw Cavalry Brigade stood ready at the main market square at Gryfice (Greifenberg). Following the order of their commandant, Major Stanislaw Arkuszewski, the soldiers headed towards Mrzeżyno, via Trzebiatow (Treptow an der Rega). After reaching the coastline, corporal Sochaczewski and uhlan Kobylinski rode their horses into the water, throwing two rings, which they had received from Major Arkuszewski. At the same time, uhlans of the 2nd and 3rd Regiments said the following words: "We swear eternal allegiance to the sea". Some sources claim that the oath was taken only by Major Arkuszewski. The tradition of the 1945 wedding is still alive in Mrzeżyno. Every year, patriotic events take place on March 17, and the ceremony is repeated by mounted reenactors, with rings thrown into the sea. First Soviet units appeared in western suburbs of Kołobrzeg (Kolberg) on March 4, 1945. The Battle of Kołobrzeg began on the same day. By March 17, the Germans were pushed back to the beach and the sea, and in the night of March 17/18, the defenders of the city decided to abandon their lines, and evacuate most units to Swinemünde. The ceremony took place on March 18 in the evening. Polish historian Pawel Pawlowski, manager of the Museum of Polish Weapons at Kołobrzeg says that the town was chosen for the main 1945 Wedding to the Sea due to its symbolic importance, as the Germans turned it into a fortress (Festung Kolberg). Furthermore, Nazi propaganda turned the 1807 Siege of Kolberg into a myth, making an expensive film about it. The decision about the main Kołobrzeg ceremony was taken on March 18 in the morning, after the hostilities had ended. On the same day in the evening, soldiers of the 7th Infantry Regiment of the First Polish Army were to take part in the wedding, which was organized by Colonel Piotr Jaroszewicz, who later became the Prime Minister of Poland.