Is the Polish cavalry true in World War II tried to chop German tanks with sabers?

The story of the suicidal attack of the Polish cavalry on German armored vehicles in the early days of World War II was mentioned many times in films and fiction. Contemporaries also write about her - for example, Winston Churchill in his multi -volume work “Second World War”. We decided to figure out whether it really happened.

On the attack of Polish cavalrymen He wrote In his memoirs, German General Gainz Guderian, then history Repeated Winston Churchill. Until now, some historians can meet the statement that “the Polish cavalry rushed against German tanks” - for example, in this Interview of Professor Vyacheslav Dashichev. In fiction, the image of the Polish Ulan, attacking armored vehicles, was used quite often. The most famous example is the film "Fly"(1959) The famous Polish director Andrzej Vaida, in which the olan vains vain pinches peaks and chop Sabers tank armor. This battle was poetically described by Gunter Grass in the novel “Tin drum”: “And the squadron enters Krupovskaya steel into gray flanks, forcing the evening dawn even redner.” Polish cavalrymen He mentioned Joseph Brodsky in the poem “September 1, 1939”: “And with a bundle tanks, like a fingernail - chocolate foil, they smeared Ulan.”

The battle in question is a fight under the cuts on September 1, 1939. At dawn German troops Crossed The border with Poland. The main blow was to be delivered to the 4th Army of General Gunther von Klage and the 19th Panzer Corps of General Gaints Guderian, which was part of it. Polish troops retreated in an organized manner, the 18th Pomeranian Ulan regiment was in the rearguard.

In the evening of September 1, ulans discoveredthat near the village of Coarse, the battalion of the German 76th Infantry Regiment stopped at the village of Coarse. The commander of the Pomeranian Ulan regiment Casimir Mastalezh threw two squadrons on the infantry, the Germans were forced to retreat. But then the cavalry fell under the fire of two armored vehicles not noticed by intelligence. Ulans suffered serious losses and hastily retreated. Already in this brief synopsis of the battle, inconsistencies with a later myth are visible: Polish cavalrymen attacked the infantry, and not tanks, which, however, were not even tanks, but armored vehicles.

The primary source of the story of a crazy attack with sabers and peaks against tanks is General Guderian himself. In his memoirs, he Writes: "The Polish Pomeranian Cavalry Brigade, due to ignorance of constructive data and methods of action of our tanks, attacked them with cold weapons and suffered monstrous losses." This contradicts his own records of the first hours of the war, when in a similar situation the Poles successfully restrained the offensive of the German troops: “The commander of the 2nd motor division reported after midnight that he was forced to retreat under the onslaught of the Polish cavalry. Hearing this, I first lost my speech, then, pulling myself together, asked the division commander if he had ever heard that the Pomeranian infantry would run from the enemy cavalry. ”

The next day, correspondents arrived at the location of the Guderian headquarters, both German and foreign. They were shown the bodies of the Polish cavalrymen, and then the journalists set out the version invented by Guderian, which stated that the stupid Poles simply did not know that the armor could not be cut. The relevant article appeared in the journal DIE WEHRMACHT and other propaganda publications.

Later, this plot was repeatedly used by Nazi propaganda. The powerlessness of the Polish cavalry against the power of German tanks was shown in the 1940 film "Polish campaign"(Feldzug in Polen) and in the picture of 1941"Bombing squadron "Luttsov""(Kampfgeschwader Lützow).

There are many inconsistencies in the version of Guderian. The 18th Pomeranian regiment was Armed Not only with sabers and peaks. Cold and stitching weapons remained a tribute to tradition. Ulans relied on carbines or rifles. Before the battle, the regiment had 26 machine guns and four anti -tank rifles.

Historian George Parade NotesWhat is the least believable in the retelling of Guderian about ignorance of the characteristics of armored vehicles. Polish army I used it Tanks since 1919, it was the French Renault FT-17.

By 1939, 574 wedges (light intelligence tanks), more than 300 light tanks of Polish and French production, 100 armored vehicles and 11 armored trains were at the disposal of the Polish army. Moreover, TK and TKS wedges were also part of the 18th Pomeranian Ulan regiment.

Finally, the fight under the cuts is just one of many September battles in which the Polish cavalry participated. On the same day, September 1, the Volyn Cavalry Brigade, which fought with the support of armored trains, light tanks and infantry, forced the tanks of the 4th division of General Reinhardt. And in a battle in the royal forest, the Polish cavalry defeated German horsemen. 

With the light hand of General Guderian, the image of Poles with peaks and sabers against tanks was rooted in Poland, only with the opposite sign. The main motifs of the film of Vaida “Flight” are desperate courage and at the same time the obvious doom of the defenders of Poland. The myth of the Pomeranian olan and German cars successfully fit into this semantic canvas.

Nevertheless, the myth remains a myth. The Polish military were equipped worse than German - this is true. The Cavalry of the Polish army had more reasonable from the point of view of the modern military affairs for that time and in comparison with neighboring countries - this also apparently corresponds to reality. However, under the cuts, as in other battles of September 1939, Polish cavalrymen did not chop tank armor with sabers.

Not true

What do our verdicts mean?

Read on the topic:

1. Alexey Isaev. Ten myths of World War II.
2. Steven J. Zaloga. The Polish Army 1939-45
3. Richard Hargreaves. Blitzkrieg Unleashed: The German Invasion of Poland 1939