Polish Forces

The only time for the Poles in 1939

When Germany invaded Poland in 1939 it was the begining of the Second Wolrd War.During the first few days,Polish forces showed a military resistance quite painful for the Germans .But finally, they were forced to retreat (they were defeated but not destroyed-I mean the situation on 1-4 IX 1939)

On 3 IX 1939 ,the UK and France declared war on Germany-in Poland everything appeared that war was won for the Poles.Meanwhile,the Polish army "Łódź" was painfully attacked by the Germans-even thought ,the Polish "Wołyńska" cavarly brigade destroyed 70 tanks during the battle for Mokra -1 IX 1939.

All the Polish armies got an order to retreat behind the Vistula river to create a defence line.It was a very long distance-Polish armies were too slow to run away from German forceps.

General Tadeusz Kutrzeba,the commander of the Polish army "Poznań" knew that all the Polish armies were obsolete and their only chance to get any success with the Germans were movements,gathering huge masses of troops on enemy's places of invasion and movements,movements and movements.....

During the first few days of the campaign,German armies were penetrating Polish territory.They were so fast,that they didn't take care of their own flanks.Such situtaion took place when the German 8th Army was going towards Łódź and defeating the Polish army "Łódź" with very good results.General Kutrzeba noticed that,German 8th Army had bare flanks.It was a perfect target for the Polish armies.What is more,the Germans thought that the Polish army "Poznań" was retreating towards Warsaw-it was their mistake ,as the army "Poznań" was hidden near Bzura and Kutno.The Germans got a report that,Polish forces were gathering near Kutno for a bigger operation but they ignored this report as they though that all Polish divisions fell back towards Warsaw.

Kutrzeba,found a perfect occasion to create his plane of a big offensive against German 8th army.He wanted to defeated it with the help of army "Pomorze" commanded by general Władysław Bortnowski.It was a perfect plan as the Poles could destroy one German army,take Łódź and give help to army "Łódź" which was slaughtered by German forces.Armies "Poznań" and "Pomorze" had totally 150 000 troops.It was enough to do a good ofensive.Morover,the Poles would have an element of suprise and even superiority over Germans.It was a perfect plan but Kutrzeba needed an agreement of the Polish Supreme Commender Edward Rydz-Śmigły yet he refused

Why did he refuse to do such a perfect offensive?Because he wanted all the Polish armies to retreat behind the Vistula river to create a line of defence and wait for the help for France.Unfortunately,it was a naive plan.Śmigły-Rydz didn't pay attention to the fact that the Germans had thousands of planes and tanks,yet he thought that German tanks would be useless in the muds of Eastern Polan behind Vistula river.

Kutrzeba's plan was turned down.He was ordered to retreat behind Vistula river.Days and time were running out.Polish superirity and suprise near the German 8th army was running out ,too.During the first 10 days, Polish armies were in a high and hopeless retreat with big loses.On 9 IX 1939,the Polish supreme commander let Kutrzeba to realise his plan of offensive but it was too late.Of course he did it,but his superiority and the element of surprise disappeared.The battle for Bzura started.First days were good for the Poles but they were finilally defeated as general Blaskowitz got additional troops and planes.The Poles wasted their perfect occasion to give heavy loses to Germans during the first few days of the campaign only because Kutrzeba was not allowed to create his plan .

The picture above was taken in 1938 during Poilish war games but it gives a taste to Kutrzeba's plan.-I only wanted to write about Kutrzeba's paln : ) The picture is only a pretext : )

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