Tank Battles During the Polish Campaign ?

Some tank engagements must have taken place. The Poles had more tanks than the U.S. in 1939 and even though most of them were small and lightly armoured, so were most of the German tanks.

 

The German suffered heavy loses against AT guns and street fighting. Tank v tanks was one sided towards the Germans or they just called in the Stukas.

 

Welcome to the forum, Paul Stebbings!
Can you tell us something about Polish city battles? I ask this because I know none. :cry:

 

In George Forty's book Tank Aces he includes a chapter on a Polish Officer Cadet Sgt. R.E.Orlik who knocked out about seven Czech 35(t)s with a TK S tankette armed with a 20mm cannon in just one action. Will post more about it if you want it.

 

Many geetings to all. Just a vague memory of something I read. I know after the Polish Campaign there were calls for the German tanks to be up-armoured esp Pz IIIs and IVs. I will try to dig out more information.

 

A few sites for now:

http://www.kasprzyk.demon.co.uk/www/WW2.html

http://www.achtungpanzer.com/pol.htm

http://mailer.fsu.edu/~akirk/tanks/pol/poland.htm

Will be back with more detailed information.

 

Thank you Paul, and welcome to the forum.

 

Corrected an above post to 35(t) and TK S. On 1st Sept the 4th Pz. Div. lost over 30 tanks to the dismounted Wolynian Cavalry Brigade defending with 37mm Bofors AT guns and 75mm field guns at Mokra. The 4th Pz. Div. also lost 57 of 120 tanks in the suburbs of Warsaw on 9th September. Most of the 217 German tanks lost in Poland were to AT guns while the Poles lost most of theirs in small fights. The largest tank battle was between the Warsaw Mechanised Brigade and the 2nd Pz. Div at Tomaszow Lubelski on 18th Sept and ended on 20th Sept with the destruction of the Polish armour. Found another reference that stated the German lost was 674 tanks destroyed or irreparably damaged so the 217 might mean just the destroyed ones.

 

Yea! Go Poles!!!!!

I like this guy!

:smok:

 

Makes people who believed the Polish cavalry charge myth look kind of stupid. Good work Paul! This is phenomenal stuff.

 

People think Cavalry and imagine them riding around all day on horses but I will come back to that in a minute.
Back to Orlik, it would appear he knocked out 13 35(t)s with his little TK S but I don't know how many more tanks he got. On 14th Sept at the River Bzura crossing at Brochow he knocked out 3 from Regiment 38, 4th Pz. Div. Four days later (18th) while breaking through the Kampinos Forest towards Warsaw he got 3 more this time from Regiment 11, 1st Light Div.
The following day (19th) while supporting the 7th Mounted Rifles and 9th Uhlans of the Wielkopolska Cavalry Brigade at Sierakow he got 7 more. The Cavalry got 13 with thier 37mm AT guns and 75mm field guns.
Orlik was part of the 71st Armoured Battalion, Wielkopolska Cavalry Brigade and his tanks was their only one that got to Warsaw. He was awarded Poland's highest military distinction, the Cross Virtuti Militari Vth Class.
This was from G.Forty's Tank Aces From Blitzkrieg to the Gulf War.

 

Did Orlik survive the war?

 

He joined the resistance movement in Poland for the rest of the war. Afterwards he graduated from university to become an architect but died in 1982 following a road accident.

 

What is it with great men and car accidents? :-?

 

Ouch



I don't know.

 

After the Polish Campaign the Germans stopped using the large white crosses on their AFVs as it was found the Polish gunners used them as aiming points.

 

Well done!

 

yeah nice topic here. Some good info supplied by Paul Stebbings,too. Well done, Paul! (may I call you Paul?you can call me panzer )
It's a good thing that we finally have some topic on this, cause I did not know much about it and I believe I do not stand alone in that.

 

No, Mr Stebbings to you Mr PanzerProfile, Paul is fine. I could have called myself Monty!!
Sadly not many books in print that even have a brief seaction on this. Tank Aces is still in print but I only brought it because it was a remainder book and cost £3.95 (normanaly £20). I think the Osprey's New Vanguard on Light Panzers has bits in it but not sure. Don't buy it if you can't read it first to check.
I think Poland could have put up a better show if it had mobilised quicker. France and Britain asked them not to just incase it provoked in the Germans. As if. The Germans had mobilised 98 divisions during August. Not saying Poland could have beaten them but certainly drawn it out but would this have been better in the long term? Another of those "what ifs".

 

That depends. It seems that the Poles had quite an idea of how o deploy their armour (in independent units) so having more men in suport of those mobile units may have helped. If these xtra divisions would have ben used to take up static positions along the border, however, then the difference would have been minimal as the Blitzkrieg only hits a small fraction of your line.