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Orzel Bialy -> The Sabre Charge (12/23/2002 11:20:22 PM)
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Yes and it was that second engagement you listed which gave birth to the "legend" of Polish cavalry units charging tanks with sabres and lances. :(
For those interested in a history lesson...here's what happened (to the best information at my disposal)
September 1st 1939
In the early evening hours, after a full day of heavy fighting all along the Pomeranian sector of the front some of the German units that had crossed the Brda River halted to rest and regroup. (I believe the unit in question was an infantry battalion assigned to the 20th Motorized Division.)
In the meantime, units of the Polish Pomorska Cavalry Brigade and the 81st armored battalion (consisting of mostly worn out Tks') had been holding a defensive line in the same local...covering the retreat of the rest of the cavalry brigade away from the area of Brusy.
In the late afternoon Colonel Kazimierz Mastelarz mounted up half of his 18th Lancer Regiment and took off on a mission to try and hit the flank of German units that had been reported in the area. Around 1900 the Poles spotted the German infantry battalion at rest in a forest clearing.
History and fantasy are made over the next fifteen minutes. The Poles decide on a sabre charge so as to have the best chance at surprise (normally a attached MG unit would lay down surpression fire in advance). The Poles galloped out from around the hills and outcrops of trees...and literally cut their foes down with the sword!
However, at the same time an German armored car unit happened to be in the area and sped to the sounds of battle. They emerged from the opposite side of the clearing with guns blazing...catching a large portion of the Polish cavalry units in a withering fire as they regrouped to withdraw.
20 men, including Colonel Mastelarz were killed...the rest of the unit making it back to the cover of the wooded hills...and beyond.
Later, when an Italian war reporter happened upon the area (the German bodies had been mostly removed by their comrades by this time) he asked about all the dead Poles and their horses...he was told they were cut down when they attacked tanks in a foolish cavalry charge. Thus was born one of the biggest propoganda stories of the war!
Whew!:p
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