Is anyone here an Polish WWII expert?

I am looking to fact-check something my grandfather wrote about his time during the Soviet invasion of 1939.

Thank you very much

 

I have many Polish friends that moved here I could ask.

 

None on the members map, sad to say. http://www.ww2f.com/membermap/
It would make it a damn site easier if people would take a moment to add their pin there to take make this sort of query considerably less necessary.

 

How can we add our pine to the map?

 

Fwd from Otto:
Once on the Member Map found in our Forums header bar, there is an "Update Location" button on the upper right. It opens a box to update your location.
That will be found, center header left. Enter your address / city / county / country, you can be as specific as you like.

 

I would be happy to translate something in Russian.


Sorry best I can do

 

:bow: WOW! That's a Forum "News" Topic Header. :wub:
There were a couple of occasions I could have REALLY used Russian translation help on some "trivial" aka small clarifications year or so ago.

Please consider:
1. Entering that information in your "My Profile" Overview. Click on your Name, Top Right Corner to get started.
2. Adding that information to your already terrific sig.

PS: I just added you to my Friends list. K? That is one rare honour. Trust me.

Thanks for this - and all! You made my day!

 

Actually we do have at least three polish members, aka : commissionner , Roy24 and Cecylia.

 

Polish Cavalry was only still active during 1930s out for nostalgia reasons for Poland-Lithuania.

Polish people have mixed relation with the nations on her borders during at world war ii.

 

One needs to be careful of statements like this. Certainly Polish horse cavalry proved itself useful several times during the German invasion and horse cavalry was used more extensively than many believe on the Eastern Front during the war and at times proved itself very useful indeed. Then there's the transition form horses to armored vehicles for use as cavalry.

 

Didn't a unit of Polish cavalry over run and pretty much destroy a German infantry unit of approximately the same size? I seem to recall other incidents from the war but it's been a while since I read them. The tactical mobility of cavalry units was useful again from what I recall reading in both the Polish campaign and indeed on the Eastern front in general. Horse cavalry units could move over terrain that wasn't passible by vehicles of the period. Then there's the problem in how you define "cavalry" for instance the US still has cavalry units but starting a bit prior to WWII armored vehicles began replacing horses.

A quick google found these:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horses_in_World_War_II

Other links of possible interest:
http://militaryhistorynow.com/2013/08/19/war-horses-the-cavalrys-contribution-to-second-world-war/
http://www.lonesentry.com/articles/cavalry/
http://www.lonesentry.com/articles/germanhorse/
http://www.militaryhistoryonline.com/wwii/usarmy/cavalry.aspx


All in all an interesting subject and more complex than many would think at first glance. I'm far from an expert in the area by the way but it does look to me like a bit more than nostalgia was involved.

 

My post this time is about history: did any planning or whatnots about Józef Piłsudski's Prometheism or Intermarium projects take place ?

 

The Polish Cavalry wasn't about charges. It was fast, mobile infantry. Its main role was to stop enemy operational and strategic penetrations till the the more capable forces would arrive; infantry, artillery.
They knew there would be penetrations, the Polish border with Germany/USSR was very long and impossible to defend. So the (fast) cavalry brigades were tasked with halting them for a short time, giving the other (slower) divisions time to react.
They weren't going to do it with lances and sabers - they were mostly ceremonial things, but with rifles, machines guns, anti-tank guns and artillery.

I've read, this scenario, in that case stopping a Panzer division was wargamed during military exercises in 1938, I don't know successfully or not...

Poland had over 800 tanks, tankettes, armored cars - they couldn't afford more without destroying their economy. It wasn't nostalgia but cold economic calculation.

 

Poland was a desperately poor country, destroyed by partitions, the WW1, the Great Depression. They couldn't afford any grandiose plans like Prometheism. So it was all talk and no action. They wrote articles, books, disseminated information about the USSR.
Later, as the Polish-Soviet relations improved even these activities stopped.