Debunking Polish stereotypes: the cavalry charge against German tanks

The story of Polish lancers charging at a panzer division is not only Nazi propaganda but belittles Poland's real contribution

Debunking Polish stereotypes: the cavalry charge against German tanks | World news | The Guardian

 

My Roommate knew a Polish guy serving in the US Army during the mid 70s or early 80s. This guy started his career as a Para in some Russian unit, I dont know the decade? perhaps in the 60s??? Then he transferred to a Polish Para unit because of punching put his Russian Commanding Officer and he was either to transfer to a Polish unit-or spend 10 years in the Russian version of Gitmo.

According to my former roommate-this Polish guy was one tough ________ __ _ _______! You fill in the blanks.

 

Now I am forced to re-visit........Indiana Jones on horseback chasing around the Nazi tank with his father and friend prisoner inside the tank......it made good Hollywood...........now its back to reality, nothing but Royal Wedding on the news.....bored.

 

feel free to join us in the quizzes Victor - we need some new blood

 

The first work against the Enigma encryption system was done by the Poles, who graciously turned it all over to the British.

 

Very good point - after all the Poles designed the machine itself as well.

edit ( a similar machine)

 

I did not know that! Interesting.

Another thing most people don't know is that the Enigma was originally developed for civilian use to ensure privacy in telegrams, etc.

 

Many of the early similar versions were presented to the militaries of several countries who weren't interested, so the civilian telegram market became the only one. And the Polish design of the first comparable one is disputed, there are German and Swedish claimants as well.

 

Just to defend the Polish who always seem to take a beating when war is being analyzed....I learned this with a college friend (Polish)that was always reminded of this and that failure here and there in history.......well my friend grew up to be a FAA supervisor and had practiced the emergency responses with those who were involved with the famous ditching in the Hudson where everyone was rescued and survived. He was in charge of the practices that prepared even the boat crews that responded. Of course no mention was ever made of this other than to recognize the valuable responses of those crews that took them aboard.

 

The Poles did much of the dirty work when retaking Narvik in 1940. The Germans had a healthy respect for the Poles flying in the RAF.
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I dont't think the Germans could differentiate Polish crews from the others, on the other hand Anders's II Polish corps that fought in Italy was pretty good and so were it's forerunners that fought as part of 8th army in the desert campaign.

 

Planes of Polish squadrons had these red & white checkers on them:



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BTW - check this thread for some info on Polish cavalry charges in 1939:

http://www.ww2f.com/wwii-general/52020-last-cavalry-charge.html#post575167

 

Two Polish Squadrons in the Battle of Britain had the highest number of kills. Just read an account of a British Spitfire Squadron where there was thick fog but German aircraft could be heard above. The two Poles in the Squadron didn't hesitate and shot off to do battle - they also are the only "British" pilots who have been confirmed as shooting down German aircrew whilst bailing out and parachuting - can't say I blame them.

Innumerable acts of bravery and professionalism. Took over the defence of Tobruck from the Australians, captured Cassino, finally closed the gap at Falaise - superb fighters.

 

The interesting detail is that nearly all Anders Army fighters came from Gulag camps (after the 1941 amnesty). The same was true for the Polish Army of general Berling. Anders' Army fought under the UK command (in North Africa and Italy). Berling's army fought under the Soviet command. Polish contributions to the WWII victory were far from negligible.

Ludwik Kowalski (see Wikipedia)
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Polish 303rd squadron was the most efficient squadron flying on Hurricanes and one of the most efficient of all squadrons in the battle of Britain.

Just a few squadrons flying on Spitfires had similar numbers of kills as 303rd with Hurricanes. But 303rd had the best Kill : Death ratio of all squadrons.

This despite the fact that Spitfires > Hurricanes. But Poles were flying only on Hurricanes.

 

On the other hand, Poles had experiences from the 1939 campaign with slow & obsolete, but very maneuverable fighter aircrafts (PZL P-11 and P-7).

Hurricane - although slower, less well armed and generally more obsolete than Spitfire - was a maneuverable plane.

Polish pilots were able to exploit that nimbleness of Hurricanes and achieved good results.

 

The Red Army that crashed into Hitler's war machine had large numbers of Poles; Polish Army on the Eastern Front
Then there was the Pole Rokosssovski who was allowed to ride a black horse to Zhukov's white in the victory parade in Moscow. Hitler committed a fatal mistake by pissing off these tough and tenacious fighters! And it is no coincidence that the Red Empire started unravelling in the streets of Gdansk back in the 70s.

 

There is no doubt that Poland had large cavalry at the begining of the war. Lets not forget that cavalry was a major part of armies in WW1 and Polish Soviet War. The German generals were the first to use mechanized cavarly to their full destructive potential. No one was ready for it. Anyway, there wasnt a single case of a horses mounted soilder charging a tank. The Poles had tanks too. However the Poles did use their cavarly to charge German troops in the forest and at night. And it was very effective. However, in order to hide the true German loses in the Polish Compaign, German and Italian media reported how 'backward" the Poles were. But the truth was that the Poles did more with less then anyother nation. What is amazing is just how long propaganda can last. I can't help to "laugh" when I watch on the History Channel, how "bad" the Polish army was since they used horses to fight against tanks, and then 30 minutes later I see German troops (5 years later) running back to Germany on horse back (the few they didnt eat) while being hunted down by Russians. Oh ya, whats even "funnier" is that thousands of "brave" cossacks on horse back were also chasing them down too. But they were brave while the Poles were "stupid". Amazing just how propaganda can have life of its own.