What are we reading?

[Gusington]

Yes please. By 0430 EST.

:)

[JasonPratt]

Well, I might get it done by 1630 CST!

The account takes up much of the content of chapter 6, "Much Blood Has Flowed". Summarizing will be hard, but I'll try.

The Polish commander was Taduesz Kutrzeba, former chief of staff during WW1, who had been agitating for a counter-offensive since the war started. An intelligent, decent commander, liked and highly regarded by all, his main weakness was being a textbook theoretician who lacked the ability to estimate tactical conditions. His own commander, the current Polish chief of staff, refused to approve the counter-offensive until signed off by the commander in chief, Smigly-Rydz -- who had fled for Romania already at the start of the war. Seriously bad communication problems hampered the attempt, delaying it until September 10th, although the first fighting of the offensive started on the 9th thanks to an impetuous local commander.

Kutrzeba had the mostly untouched Army of Poznan, bypassed in the Corridor, reinforced by the remnants of the Army of Pomorze which had been slaughtered by Guderian's famous 19th Corps on its dash eastward across the Corridor into East Prussia (aiming for the deep encirclement around the Mlowa fortifications, though it would be held up 3 days by the famous 40:1 defense of Wisnia.) TK thought the Army of Lodz would provide blocking security to the south, but didn't realize it had been too mangled to offer more than randomly effective defense.

TK's plan was to lunge to recover Lodz, relieve the Pomorze Army which could withdraw toward Warsaw, and so also rescue the Lodz Army which had been pushed south.

TK's communications lacked contact with Polish Intelligence, so he was operating on suppositions and a hastily scrawled map. He lacked practically any airpower, and local recon had been indifferent at best. He would be fighting with somewhat more than 60 light tanks and armored cars combined. And his opponents would know exactly where all their own forces were deployed, and would understand their own conditions.

On the other hand, TK had no less than seven fresh infantry divisions and two cavalry brigades, somewhere around 150K troops, outnumbering the Germans 3 to 1, and 2 to 1 in artillery, plus at least one more solid division of the Army of Lodz at his disposal, not counting remnants of the withdrawing Pomorze. Moreover, while the Germans had excellent information about their own dispositions, they had only a general idea of the size of the Polish opposition, and no information on deployments or plans -- a lack of Polish communications in this case kept the Germans in the dark about what was coming.

[JasonPratt]

The operation would be concentrated on the Bzura River, which TK's forces would have to swim across at first until bridges could be secured. On the defense would be the German 30th Infantry mainly (commanded by Kurt von Briesen at the Piatek front-line), plus the 24th Inf, and 1st Panzer Div nearby within range of reinforcement. (The next nearest force was 4th Panzer, already being held up at the gates of Warsaw.)

The initial Polish infantry push across the Bzura at dawn on the 9th caught everyone by surprise (including TK, who had been planning for the 10th!), quickly crumbling through a dozen miles of KvB's lines. By midday artillery was already falling on German positions on the outskirts of Piatek, and the population of the historic small town of Leczyca (20 miles NE of Lodz) rose up to try to help overthrow the German 46th Infantry Regiment (of the 30th Division), heedless of Polish artillery and the fires that soon engulfed the place. The 46th defended beyond the last round as horse-drawn ammo supply struggled past Polish lines, but by midnight only the command staff effectively remained, radioing to vonB "Situation hopeless." The normally unflappable 30th Infantry General radioed his report that night, "Situation deadly serious. Request urgent support."

An entire Polish division crossed the Bzura during the night, and started a full assault upon Piatek at dawn of the 10th (the original op d-day), plastering the city with arty. A shell landed upon the German 30th Divisional command, shattering KvB's right arm. By mid-day the 30th Division had routed south back toward Lodz, being shadowed by a Polish arty spotting plane.

[JasonPratt]

KvB's own father had died on the Vistula during WW1, only 40 miles away, and he had no intention of following after. KvB regarded the Poles as mauraders of his homeland in Pomerania, where 20 years previously he had directed defense against their invasion. He was adored by his men, whose officers swore by him, and he seemed to know every recruit of the 30th personally. Under his command, the 30th had been arguably the finest infantry division in the German army. And now it was ruined in one day.

According to the divisional history, he stepped from a car or truck onto the road with his torn uniform and arm, and personally rallied the fleeing 30th remnants into a counter-attack. But only briefly; they had to settle into a defense against the continuing surge of the Polish attack across the Bzura and the marshes, which did at least favor the defender.

Now the Polish communication crisis hit hard, as they lacked radios, phone lines, or enough air spotters, to effectively direct artillery upon defenders in the marsh. And while more Polish crossed the Bzura all the time at will, the brave Polish troops, eager for payback, threw away their pre-war training and rather than focusing on German lines per se tried to rescue and retake particular towns and villages, without waiting for local artillery support to arrive. The Polish retained the momentum for now, but the attack was (somewhat literally!) bogging down by the end of the 10th.

[Gusington]

 :clap:

[ArizonaTank]

Well, I might get it done by 1630 CST!

The account takes up much of the content of chapter 6, "Much Blood Has Flowed". Summarizing will be hard, but I'll try.

:bd: Great Stuff Jason.  Putting this on my reading list!

[ArizonaTank]

Having recently finished Hargreaves' Blitzkrieg Unleashed (see my earlier posts for comments), I'm chewing steadily along on (among other things) Robert Forczyk's Case Red: the Collapse of France.

Another one to read for me. 

The subject of France's defeat in WWII has always fascinated...  I agree the French military fought too hard to give Bart Simpson much traction. I also think that Petain's political deal with the devil was in the end an act of lost nerves and treason. But I really don't know enough of the details...so looking for good reads on the subject.

Earnest May's "Strange Victory" has been on my list for a while. I will add "Case Red".

[JasonPratt]

AzTank: RF seems to like Strange Victory more than the much more classic Strange Defeat (written shortly after the events), for what it's worth.


Although TK understood by the morning of the 11th that his attack was diffusing too far to keep up its momentum, as far as the troops were concerned the attack was continuing to be a smashing success! They had achieved total operational surprise (partly thanks to lunging a day early), catching their opponents unprepared for defense; they had practically destroyed the vaunted 30th Infantry division; most of their troops were over the river safely now; and many towns and villages in the region had been freed from Nazi occupation.

But now, the undisciplined ferocity and courage of the Polish avengers were starting to come up against remnants of the 30th ID who had shifted to fully defensive warfare. While still relatively green, the 30th had been strenuously trained, with clear understanding for why their training was necessary; and the men who remained were necessarily those with enough courage and skill to survive and stand against the storm of vengeance.

Unskilled human-wave bravery now would be crashing against professional defensive bravery, as the remnants of the 30th ID collected supplies into small fortified areas, prepared to repel the Polish with superior firepower. Command and control having broken down for the Polish, the local commanders simply saw the hated invaders still holding positions, and tunnel-visioned onto rooting them out at all costs.

At Piatek, the Poles were prevailing at hand-to-hand fighting, but the scattered remaining companies still held their ground. Being ordered to retreat, some company commanders realized any retreat would be through Polish encirclements and resolved to stay until rescued. One German survivor, Christian Kinder, reported this anecdote later:

A platoon leader drew the Hauptmann's attention to the Poles, who were trying to establish themselves in the company's rear. Each man could see individual soldiers with their triangular caps. The Hauptmann answered him curtly: "Who here sees any Poles in our rear? I cannot see any! If you don't believe me, then go there for yourself and find out!"

In Lodz, a city of 700,000, the joyous inhabitants were already talking about "the miracle of the Vistula". (The Polish army had attacked from the land between the two rivers.) Technically Lodz was still held by the German 13th Corps, with the Polish Lodz army still lodged to the south, but corps commander Freiherr (Baron) von Weichs did not even know that apart from his staff the only German troops remaining in the city were just 40 field police and clerks. Most of his forces had been marching on Warsaw when TK attacked, and now they were strung out northeast of the city. Eight Army HQ, with its chief of staff General Hans Felber, meanwhile was stuck in its trucks on the outskirts of Zgierz four miles away, with Polish forces hitting hard only a dozen miles away. Felber recalled later, "There was bad news followed by more bad news, raining down on us like blows from a club... extremely black."

But the 8th Army's CnC Johannes Blaskowitz stood firm. Hailing from an insignificant village of East Prussia near the Lithuanian and Polish border, he hated what the Versailles Treaty had done to Prussia, but also hated the brutality of the Nazi regime, and had boasted of overthrowing them if they ever took power. Nazism jarred with his religious beliefs, too, as a devout Christian, who read a passage from the New Testament every night in peace or in war. Supposedly lacking ability, due to timidness during pre-war maneuvers, he had still been assigned command of the 8th Army, and now Felber marveled as his Commander took "tough decisions" to block the Polish thrust.

KvB of the 30th Infantry held his remaining defensive points throughout the day, but as night fell even the holdouts realized the Polish were forcing them to burn through too much ammunition and no relief would be arriving on the 11th. Withdrawals started after dark, and as expected they fell into Polish ambushes. By dawn Monday, only scattered companies remained, navigating by stars and local landmarks across fields.

But by dawn, Blaskovitz had at last positioned a coherent German line for the 30th to retreat through, "presenting the enemy with a united front," (he wrote in his diary.) "The crisis has passed."

General Tadeusz Kutrzeba meanwhile issued the order of the day: "FORWARD TO TOTAL VICTORY!!"

{cue the Winged Hussar theme}  :D

[JasonPratt]

The thin line where the destroyed 30th ID retreated, held throughout the 11th, despite massive Polish pressure, bolstered by the survivors of the onslaught.

6 miles north of Zgierz, on the heights of Celestynow, the Polish 17th bludgeoned 900 men out of the German 17th. But despite heroic efforts the 17th couldn't uproot the 17th.

Northwest of Lodz, a Panzer Regiment, the 23rd, finally rumbled to the rescue near the village of Orla -- and ran straight into a murderous anti-tank ambush. One company commander recalled:

A Polish anti-tank gun, situated behind the corner of a house, was particularly dangerous. Even though one crew after another was killed as a result of our panzer's machine-gun fire, again and again Polish soldiers jumped out of the house to man the gun. The last man to shoot -- and die -- at the gun was a Polish Lieutenant.

The panzers withdrew after a day of fruitless losses.

(I will note here that around 90 percent of the armor invading Poland didn't even have proper cannons, at most rapid-fire 20mm in the PzIIs. Most were basically tracked go-carts with a machine-gun turret. ;) By the time of France's invasion, matters had significantly improved: now only 60% of the tanks lacked a true cannon!)

The thin German line bent and buckled, and the arrival of their first available relief armor got butchered like sheep by the Polish avengers -- but the line did hold.

The Polish heroes had struck forward with all their might. But they had lost total victory.

[JasonPratt]

On the 12th, TK tried again, striking southwest this time to seize the heights east of Lodz. But once again the attack bogged down, this time near Glowno.

And now the German 3rd Corps was arriving from his own northwest, cutting into the rear of Pomorze's Army, which had been reconstituting and resurging as his reserves, after his daring rescue of their withdrawal.

TK did not believe that continued pushing south would create the breakthrough he needed -- or he lacked the ability (and certainly the field communications) to coordinate a concentration of his forces in a narrow thrust for a decisive Schwerpunkt of his own. His only hope now, he believed, was to withdraw his Armies to the defense of Warsaw while Pozan Army still retained substantial fighting strength. But this would mean funneling them through a corridor barely 10 miles wide, along a road bordered by a forest infiltrated by German invaders.

At 10am on Wednesday Sept 13th, Adolf Hitler stepped down out of a Ju 52 at an airfield west of Lodz, to see the Polish counter-attack for himself. 8th Army General Blaskowitz himself escorted the Nazi Fuhrer around (not through) the city of Lodz to his headquarters on the eastern outskirts.

Felber, chief of staff for the 8th Army, gave a concise account of the Army's recent exploits. Hitler nodded, evidently satisfied by the efforts; and as they departed his own chief of staff, Keitel, warmly grasped Felber's hands, declaring, "Your Army has had the most difficult task up to now. We all know that."

Hitler toured the HQs for 10th ID, 17th ID, next 13th Corps, and finally to a rundown schoolhouse serving as the last redoubt for 30th Infantry's staff. Hitler turned to his Army liaison officer von Vormann after receiving von Briesen's report -- who had tried not to call attention to his wounded arm -- and near tears declared, "That is how I imagined a Prussian general to be when I was a child!"

Hitler smoldered about Blaskowitz however, on the return trip to the airfield: "He didn't seem to have realized his mission!" Yet in awe of von Briesen, he resolved, "I'm looking for hard men. I need fanatical National Socialists. If their ability is somewhat lacking, put a trained General Staff officer at their side. See to it that such officers are brought forward."

Felber finally relaxed, back at 8th HQ. He had thought the Poles would attack again that day -- and had worried that this time, they would surely succeed in punching through, perhaps overrunning the Fuhrer himself!


But the Poles were regrouping on the 13th, and on the 14th -- or as much as they could, with the Luftwaffe now having arrived for operational support, pouncing from above. Felber wrote admiringly in his diary of his unknown Polish opponent, "That chap, the commander facing us, has an amazing brain! He must be their best and youngest leader. He defends himself with the utmost bravura."

The 56-year-old Kutrzeba did not regard himself, or his situation, so warmly. "By Sept 14th," he wrote, "we were encircled and the noose around our necks would tighten day by day, if Warsaw did not come to our aid." Which, he knew, they simply could not.

[Gusington]

CnC B. Johannes Blaskowitz??

[JasonPratt]

CnC B. Johannes Blaskowitz??

That's him, 8th Army commander. Hitler didn't like him much, and the feeling was more than mutual.

[JasonPratt]

September 15th. The decisive battle of the Polish offensive.

Kutrzeba rallied his troops:

You have already destroyed two German divisions [the 17th and 30th infantry][...] Now a fresh victory awaits you. We know that we are stronger than the enemy facing us. Summon your strength, smash the Prussian hordes with a single, powerful blow and open the road to Warsaw. Full of belief and determination, throw yourselves into battle. Glory awaits you! Forward for the glory of the Fatherland, avenge the ravaging of our homeland!

General Knoll-Kownacki also assured the men of his ad hoc group that they were attacking a weaker enemy, and it would be disgraceful if they could not break such a foe. "Once again I stress with the greatest emphasis that our attack must have a desperado character!"

But they weren't striking now to destroy this arm reaching against Warsaw. They were only striking to escape to Warsaw.

And the Germans had also been regrouping -- for a counter attack to destroy the Polish armies on the Bzura, partly by crossing the Bzura themselves in daring raids. The 17th Infantry Division, despite Polish hopes, had only been punched hard, not destroyed, and its artillery played a key role. But the true leaders of the attack were the 1st Panzer Division, which had arrived the day before and had maneuvered toward the Bzura since midnight, crossing over two bridges the German engineers had thrown up overnight. The SS Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler had also arrived to drive a stake through the heart of the Polish resistance. "The Poles attack with great determination and prove yet again that they know how to die!" Hauptsturmfuhrer Kurt Meyer complimented them. "The finest Polish blood mixes with the waters of the river. The Poles' losses are awful."

Wave after wave of Stuka bombers dove through the heavy rainclouds upon the masses of Polish troops, so cleverly and skillfully using the cloud cover that some anti-aircraft posts themselves were destroyed without even firing a shot, despite loaded barrels.

The 17th Division proved its survival against the Polish 17th, by crossing a wooden footbridge under heavy machine gun fire, and then fixing bayonets -- proving also that Germans could overrun positions hand to hand.

Things didn't go entirely the Germans' way. 19th Infantry was held up behind the 1st Panzer; and Polish guns very nearly slew their generals along with visiting 10th Army Commander Walther von Reichenau! -- who, unfazed by the splintering death outside, continued to hand out orders for reconsolidating the thrust.

1st Panzer's Kielmansegg would go on to be the final living Panzer General, leading the post-war Bundeswehr as its first commander, and eventually becoming NATO Supreme Commander of Central European forces, living into the early 21st century.


1st Panzer had driven a knife into the belly of the Polish attackers on Sept 16th. On the 17th, they would twist it. As with much of the Polish campaign, the Wehrmacht demonstrated its true strength lay in the discipline of combined operations. Kielmansegg would later write of the captured Poles on the banks of the Bzura, that even Polish officers were visibly shaken and repeated expressed the opinion that no human being could endure panzers and stukas. "The captured Poles are driven half-insane by fear and throw themselves to the ground -- even in captivity! -- whenever there is one sound of an aircraft engine from somewhere."

The men of the 8th Machine-Gun Battalion cannot even take time to properly set up and fight during their march, due to Polish soldiers rushing out to surrender as the Luftwaffe drops bombs only a few hundred yards ahead of the Battalion's advance, seeming spawned by the gathering storm overhead.

By mid-morning on Sept 17th, General Kutrzeba had crossed back to the right bank of the Bzura -- into the path of the combined assault. "Hell on earth had begun," he later wrote. Abandoning their vehicles, he and his two companions eventually fell exhausted into a cluster of trees, unable to stir for fear, so threatened by death from the Luftwaffe.

The woods and copses of the Kampinos became "the grave of the Army of Poznan," TK recalled. But here and there the Poles managed to wilt German pockets piecemeal, including the 4th Panzer Division down to its headquarters staff.

TK was eventually led by Polish woodsmen to relative safety, but most of his men did not escape the hell of the Bzura -- and most of those who did found their fate soon beyond it. Elements of the German 1st Light Division were drawn up on the edge of Wolka Weglowa, half a dozen miles from the heart of Warsaw, when squadrons of Polish cavalry, fleeing the pocket, came galloping out of the broken terrain and into the German armor -- to be massacred. A Polish regimental commander surrendered to the 1st Light's commanding officer, offering Major General von Loeper his sword. "Keep your sword," Loeper told him. "The fortunes of war have gone against you."

The battle petered out on Sept 19th. 4th Panzer Division alone, surviving after its own desperate defense, took 20K prisoners.

In Lodz, Blaskowitz printed and handed out the order of the day:

The ten-day battle on the Bzura has been waged victoriously. An enemy who was cleverly led and who fought with determination has surrendered.

You have grappled the enemy forces left west of the Vistula. You have withstood and thwarted all attempts to break through until fresh forces were brought up. You tightened the ring of encirclement as planned. A victory of decisive importance for the war is yours!

With just pride, you can take the lion's share of this great battle of encirclement. With justification you bear the number of the famous Eighth Army of Tannenberg!

[Sir Slash]

The Poles had a general named, 'Rommel' too. I learned that playing Decisive Campaigns.

[JasonPratt]

In the author's estimation -- and by contemporary accounts -- the riposte of the Polish counter-attack by the 8th Army was the battle of the Polish campaign.

At least 17K Poles died; another 180 thousand captured, at least 300 field guns, 3500 horses, thirty tanks, more than 4000 trucks (much needed by the Wehrmacht's motorization projects), and 180 trains, all captured. The OKW report to Hitler boasted that the captives lined up man to man would stretch for 125 miles, and for 500 if the loot were added in.

The German 30th Infantry suffered heaviest on the invading side: 29 officers and 766 men, with another 794 wounded. Several hundred more had been marched around by Polish captors for days on end, without clear aim, covering upwards of 30 miles a day on thin cabbage soup and occasionally some bread.

At its height, the Battle of the Bzura had drawn in nearly half a million men, including nine Polish infantry divisions and nineteen German divisions, five of those armored and light formations. Eighth Army's operations officer Erwin Jaenecke conceded that "the miracle on the Vistula which the Poles so ardently longed for was tangibly close." Had the Poles been able to coordinate their efforts in striking at a decisive point, they would have sliced through 8th Army's flank and into the rear of the 10th. "The Poles," he commented, "did not know how to make use of their moment and so met their fate."

General Tadeusz Kutrzeba could only agree.