Battle of Wizna
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Battle of Wizna | |||||||
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Part of the Invasion of Poland | |||||||
Tactical map of the battle | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Germany | Poland | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Heinz Guderian Ferdinand Schaal |
Władysław Raginis † Stanisław Brykalski † | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
41 000 infantry 350 tanks 657 artillery pieces |
900 infantry anti-tank rifles | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
Unknown |
~660 casualties 40 captured |
The Battle of Wizna was fought between September 7 and September 10, 1939, between the forces of
Because the battle consisted of a small force holding a piece of fortified territory against a vastly larger invasion for three days at great cost before being annihilated, Wizna is sometimes referred to as the "Polish Thermopylae".[4][5] One of the symbols of the battle is Captain Władysław Raginis, the commanding officer of the Polish force, who swore to hold his position as long as he was alive. When the last two shelters under his command ran out of ammunition, he ordered his men to surrender their arms and committed suicide by detonating a grenade against his neck.
History
Background
Construction started in June 1939, only two months before the outbreak of World War II.[6] The spot was chosen carefully; most of the concrete bunkers were built on hills overlooking a swampy Narew River valley. They could be reached either through direct assault through the swamps or by attack along the causeway leading from the bridge in Wizna. Before September 1, 1939, only 16 bunkers were built out of 60 planned.[6] Six bunkers were made of heavy concrete with reinforced steel cupolas weighing 8 tons each, armed with machine guns and anti-tank artillery.[6] Two were light concrete bunkers, armed with machine guns only.[6] The remaining eight were ad hoc machine gun pillboxes, protected mostly by sandbags and earthworks. Four additional heavy bunkers were under construction when World War II started. In addition, the area was reinforced with trenches, anti-tank and anti-personnel obstacles, barbed wire lines and land mines. There were also plans to break the dams on the Biebrza and Narew rivers to flood the area, but the summer of 1939 was one of the driest seasons in Polish history and the water level was too low.
Although not all bunkers were ready by the beginning of the war, the Polish lines of defence were well-prepared. The walls of an average bunker, 1.5 metres thick and reinforced with 20-centimetre-thick steel plates, could withstand a direct hit from even the heaviest guns available to the Wehrmacht at the time. The bunkers were situated on hills which gave good visibility of all the advancing forces.
Opposing forces
The Polish defensive line was initially manned by a single battalion from the 71st Infantry Regiment, commanded by Major Jakub Fober. However, shortly before the outbreak of World War II it was reinforced with a machine gun company from Osowiec Fortress under Captain Władysław Raginis, as well as numerous smaller detachments from a variety of units.[6] On September 2, 1939, the III/71 battalion departed for Osowiec, and Fober passed command over Wizna to Raginis and his men. Altogether, the Polish defensive position was manned by 720 men: 20 officers and 700 NCOs and privates.[6] However, some sources claim that the Polish unit was even weaker, no more than 360 men strong.[7]
Although the Polish units were almost entirely composed of conscripts mobilised in August 1939 rather than professional soldiers, their morale was very high.
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Before the battle
On September 1, 1939, the
After initial clashes at the border, the Podlaska Cavalry Brigade operating in the area, during the night of 3/4 September was ordered to withdraw and on September 5 it left the area and marched toward Mały Płock to cross the river Narew. On September 3 Polish positions were spotted from the air and strafed with machine gun fire from enemy fighters.
On September 7, 1939, the reconnaissance units of the
On September 8, General
Defence of Wizna
In the early morning, German planes dropped leaflets that urged the Poles to surrender and claimed that most of Poland was already in German hands, and that further resistance was futile. In order to strengthen the morale of his troops, Władysław Raginis and Lieutenant Brykalski swore that they would not leave their post alive and that resistance would continue.[1] Soon after that a German artillery barrage and aerial bombardment started.[8] The Polish artillery was much weaker and was soon forced to retreat towards Białystok. After preparation, the Germans attacked the northern flank of the Polish forces. Two platoons defending several bunkers located to the north of Narew were attacked from three sides by German tanks and infantry. Initially the losses among German infantry were high, but after heavy artillery fire, the commander of the Giełczyn area, First Lieutenant Kiewlicz, was ordered to burn the wooden bridge over Narew and withdraw to Białystok. The remnants of his forces broke through the German encirclement and reached Białystok, where they joined the forces of General Franciszek Kleeberg.
At the same time, an assault on the southern part of Polish fortifications became a stalemate. The Polish bunkers lacked adequate anti-tank armament, but were able to rake the German infantry with machine gun fire. However, at 6 o'clock in the evening, the Polish infantry was forced to abandon the trenches and field fortifications and retreat into the bunkers. The German tanks could finally cross the Polish lines and advance towards Tykocin and Zambrów. However, the German infantry was still under heavy fire and was pinned down in the swampy fields in front of the Polish bunkers.
Although Raginis was subordinate to Lieutenant Colonel Tadeusz Tabaczyński, commander of the
Heavy fighting for each of the now isolated bunkers continued. Several assaults were repelled during the night and in the early morning of September 10.
Aftermath
After the Polish resistance ended, the XIX Panzer Corps advanced towards
Although all the bunkers were destroyed and the Polish resistance was finally broken, the fortified area of Wizna managed to halt the German advance for three days.[9] The heroic struggle against overwhelming odds is one of the symbols of the Polish Defensive War of 1939 and is a part of Polish popular culture.
Casualties
Exact Polish losses are unknown, mostly because very little is known of the soldiers that were taken as
German losses are not known either. An official release by the Wehrmacht mentioned "several dozen dead".[13]
The
The history of the 10th Tank Division for September 8 mentions 9 killed and 26 wounded in action for the ALA.[clarification needed] The I./IR 86, which was the main unit of the capture of the bunkers reported on September 9 at 17:00 the loss of 40 men.[15] There are some losses of the Tank Regiment 8 reported as well. The following fighting at Wysokie-Mazowieckie and Andrzejewo make it difficult to differentiate the losses.
In popular culture
The Battle of Wizna is the theme of the song "40:1", on the album The Art of War by the Swedish metal band Sabaton. The title comes from the disparate ratio of forces and the lyrics compare the Polish forces with the 300 Spartan warriors at the battle of Thermopylae.[16]
See also
Notes
- ^ a b c Moczulski, p.765
- ^ Dobroński, p.21
- ^ Moczulski, p.767
- ^ Wiśniewski, op.cit.
- ^ Krajewski, pp.16-17
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Komorowski, p.448
- ^ Zychowicz, p. A6
- ^ a b c Wojskowy Przegląd Historyczny (1960), p.246
- ^ a b c d Komorowski, p.451
- ^ 53°12′45″N 22°29′23″E / 53.2124837°N 22.4896574°E
- ^ Williamson, p.180: Guderian surrendered to the Americans but was not charged with war crimes, despite the Poles insisting that he had threatened to shoot Polish PoWs at the battle of Wizna unless their Polish commander ordered an immediate capitulation.
- ^ Wiśniewski, 29
- ^ Wiśniewski, 35
- ^ Zygmunt Kosztyła, Obrona odcinka "Wizna" 1939, BKD (Bitwy, Kampanie, Dowódcy) [7/76], 1976. Also: P. Kupidura, M. Zahor, "Wizna", Wojskowy Przegląd Techniczny i Logistyczny, nr 3, 1999
- ^ Die Geschichte der 10. Panzer-Division 1939 - 1943 - Albert Schick, Hrsg. von der Trad.Gem. der ehem. 10. Pz.Div., Köln 1993
- ^ "Minister obrony narodowej docenił muzyków Sabatona" (in Polish). Gazeta Wyborcza. 2013-03-02. Archived from the original on 2014-01-08. Retrieved 2013-07-13.
References
- Articles
- Adam Dobroński (1972). "Pod Wizną". Mówią wieki (in Polish). 15 (9).
- Andrzej Krajewski (2009-09-04). "Polskie Termopile, czyli cud pod Wizną". ISSN 1898-3081.
- (in Polish) Zygmunt Kosztyła, Obrona odcinka "Wizna" 1939, BKD (Bitwy, Kampanie, Dowódcy) [7/76], 1976
- (in Polish) P. Kupidura, M. Zahor, Wizna, Wojskowy Przegląd Techniczny i Logistyczny, nr 3, 1999
- (in Polish) A. Wiktorzak, Wizna - Polskie Termopile, Głos Weterana, nr 9, 1997
- BD (1960). Jerzy Bordziłowski (ed.). "Heinz Guderian". Wojskowy Przegląd Historyczny (in Polish). V (1/4).
- Piotr Zychowicz (2011-12-16). "Awans dla Raginisa" [Raginis promoted]. OCLC 264077858. Archived from the originalon 2014-12-07. Retrieved 2011-12-21.
Do tej pory uważano, że Raginis dysponował 720 żołnierzami. Analiza nowych źródeł skłoniła nas do przekonania, że nie miał nawet tego. Pod jego komendą mogło znajdować się góra 360 ludzi
- Books
- Krzysztof Komorowski (2009). Boje polskie 1939-1945 (in Polish). Warsaw: Bellona. p. 504.
- ISBN 978-83-11-11584-2.
- David G. Williamson (2009). Poland Betrayed: The Nazi-Soviet Invasions of 1939. Stackpole Military History. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books. p. 272. ISBN 978-0-8117-0828-9.
- (in Polish) Kazimierz Stawiński, Bój pod Wizną. Warszawa 1964. Wydawnictwo Ministerstwa Obrony Narodowej.
- Audio-visual
- Leszek Wiśniewski (director), Kamil Wertel (historical editor), Maria Mazurek (producer) (2009). Polskie Termopile [Polish Thermopylae] (in Polish). Warsaw: Telewizja Polska.
External links
- (in Polish) BITWA POD WIZNĄ