The Rise of the Third Reich

Polish tanks...and cavalry! ?

"Fire!...Fire!" Before Armored Meyer could react, he heard a voice shouting, which sounded like the commander of Car No. 3, Schwartz, who was walking at the front alongside Car No. 2.

"Damn it! We are an armored reconnaissance company. If we attack without finding out the situation, we are not afraid of exposing the target..." Meier pushed open the hatch above his head, then stood up from his seat and reached out halfway He stood up and hurriedly raised his telescope to see what happened.

But as soon as he showed his head, there was a loud "boom" in his ears! This was the sound of a shell exploding, and it was not far away from him. If Meier hadn't been wearing headphones, it might have shattered his eardrums.

The Poles are firing! Panzer Meier thought it might be the heavy mortars assigned to the Polish infantry regiment that were firing.

"Boom, boom, boom..." Several more loud noises were heard, and several fireballs were raised not far away.

"Hell!" Armored Meyer cursed, quickly retracted into the turret, closed the hatch, then picked up the communicator and shouted: "Car No. 2, Car No. 3, report your position, are you out of the forest?" "

"No, no!"

"not yet."

"Then let out the smoke, retreat, all vehicles behind you, back up 30 yards, and then turn around! Don't get bombarded here..." Meier ordered, "Let's hold on... as long as we hold on to the exit of the forest, it's enough! "

He estimated in his mind that blocking the exit of this forest was at least one regiment reinforced with a tank company and a cavalry company - a Polish infantry division had a company of TKS small tanks and two or three squadrons of light tanks. A reconnaissance force composed of cavalry. It seems that this reconnaissance force has now been strengthened to the infantry regiment blocking the way...

A Polish infantry regiment has nearly 2,000 people according to its establishment, as well as anti-tank guns, plus a company of small tanks and an unknown number of cavalry. It is not something that a heavy armored vehicle company of my own can handle.

When he thought of this, Armored Meyer felt a huge vibration in his armored vehicle, and at the same time there was a muffled thunderous roar. Because he was thinking about something and did not grab the handle, he was shaken around and his head hit the steel plate. A few times, it hurt like hell.

"Damn!" He covered his head, thinking that a shell must have exploded very close to the armored vehicle, so he shouted to the driver, "Retreat, retreat quickly, don't wait!"

The car drove for a while, not knowing where it went, but there seemed to be no sound of shells exploding outside.

"Attention all crews," Panzer Meier picked up the intercom again, "Stop now and report the damage."

…

"Long live! Long live Poland!"

Polish cheers rang out, and the commander of the 15th Polish Division, Major General Zzislaw Przyakovski, held up his binoculars and looked at the smoke ahead and a car that had somehow overturned on the side of the road in the smoke. The German "tank" in the mud suddenly felt relieved.

The three hours since the war started are probably the most depressing three hours since Major General Przyakovsky entered the army. First, his own division headquarters, divisional artillery positions, and a logistics vehicle and supplies center were blown to pieces by the German air force! Then I heard the news about the massive breakthrough of German tanks from the Tuhola Forest. The strongholds I deployed in the Tuhola Forest also lost contact one after another. It was obvious that they had suffered!

Knowing that something was wrong, Major General Przyakovsky responded promptly and immediately mobilized all "mobile forces", including cavalry and tanks, along an important road (the road where Panzer Meier was traveling) to reinforce his troops. 59th Infantry Regiment. On the road, several German planes fired several times with machine guns and cannons, damaging five TKS tanks and injuring dozens of people. I also saw with my own eyes that a PZL.11 fighter jet flying from nowhere was shot down by a German plane!

Fortunately, the troops arrived in time and repelled the first wave of German tank attacks.

"Send power to the Army Group Headquarters, we repelled the German tank troops in the Tuhola Forest!" Major General Przyakovsky said with some satisfaction, "Now it is certain that the Tuhola Forest area will There will be a decisive battle! I recommend that the Army Headquarters use the reserves on the Tuhola Forest battlefield."

Major General Przeyakovsky's judgment was correct, and his suggestion was recognized by the army commander, Major General Przetemirski. But this brave Polish major general never imagined that the decisive battle in the Tuhola Forest would be decided in a short time!

…

"The situation is indeed quite serious. The enemy is well prepared (is Poland unprepared?), and is well-equipped and has a powerful air force..."

At 8:30 a.m. on September 1, 1939, Marshal Rez Himmiweg, who was meeting in the Belvedere Palace, still seemed very calm - in fact, he had no idea how bad the situation had become. Because in this war, the situation deteriorated faster than everyone realized.

The fight has only lasted less than 4 hours. How can we determine the outcome of the war? Even if Poland can't defeat Germany, it won't be defeated so quickly, right?

"But the war has just begun," Marshal Rez-Himiweg nodded gracefully to the British and French ambassadors who came to attend the meeting, "and the Germans have already made a fatal mistake!"

"Fatal mistake?" The French ambassador was a little skeptical. He was a retired army officer and had fought in World War I. He knew that German soldiers were not easy to deal with.

"Yes, they exposed their intentions prematurely," said Marshal Rez-Hmiweg. "Based on the current battlefield situation, we can already determine that the Germans' main attack directions are the north and south. Or to be more precise Some are the areas defended by the Coastal Army and the Krakow Army."

"What? Is it confirmed so quickly?" The French ambassador was very surprised. He knew what it meant to determine the enemy's main attack direction on the first day of the war - it meant that the Poles could calmly mobilize reserves for reinforcements and build fortifications in front of the German advance route.

"That's right," Marshal Rez Himiweg smiled, "because they have begun to launch what can be regarded as a general offensive. They have dispatched a large number of armored forces."

In fact, what the Polish soldiers on the front line now see are only a small number of German tanks and armored vehicles - in the Polish campaign in this time and space, the German army dispatched more than 3,000 tanks and self-propelled artillery alone. If you include various wheeled armored vehicles, the number is as high as more than 5,000 - but their judgment on the direction of the German army's main attack was correct.

"What?" The Frenchman was stunned again, and the fight started now! Why the general attack? Have the Germans forgotten how to fight a war after 20 years of peace?

Rez Himmiweg shrugged and said in an extremely confident tone: "Obviously, the German high command is making mistakes, which determines that they will lose another world war! I have decided to pay tribute to the coastal areas and Reinforcements from two armies will be sent to the Krakow area, where we will fight the invading German forces and defeat them!"

He paused, then looked at the British and French ambassadors, and said: "In order for us to win the war as soon as possible, I hope that Britain and France can immediately fulfill their obligations to fight Germany, and at the same time provide us with some new weapons and equipment." Fighter squadrons of aircraft...because the German air force is stronger than ours, this is indeed a big problem!”

…

As if to prove that Rez Himiweg's prediction was correct, on the front line of the Tuhola Forest, the Polish division commander Major General Przyakovsky ordered his troops to attack!

This is a behavior that is difficult for soldiers from other countries to understand - no matter from any aspect, the Polish 15th Division is at a disadvantage. They should not even consider defending on the spot now, but should first withdraw across the Brachi River and then defend along the river. If he were replaced by a French general who believed in the omnipotence of defense, he would almost certainly do this.

But Polish soldiers don’t think like this, they like to attack! It's been like this for 20 years. Attack is their first reaction, even when facing a superior enemy!

Of course, when Guderian's more than 700 tanks really rushed out of the Tuhola Forest, the Poles would not be stupid enough to use cavalry to attack them. But now there are only a small number of German armored vehicles in front of Major General Przyakovsky.

"Get ready to fight! We must avenge our dead comrades!" Panzer Meier saw the Polish TKS tanks covering the infantry advancing along the road through the telescope, and he quickly picked up the intercom and shouted.

In the encounter just now, Meyer's company lost an 8-wheel heavy armored vehicle, the No. 2 vehicle. None of the four people in the car showed up. It seemed that they were either sacrificed or captured. Another mortar shell exploded next to a company of half-tracks, killing two and wounding two.

In just a few hours, his company lost six men, which made him a little angry. However, he did not recklessly return to fight the Poles, and continued to retreat for about 1 kilometer, reaching a village that he had previously occupied, and then began to set up defenses.

17 wheeled armored vehicles were driven into the village and relied on the dilapidated buildings that had been shelled several times by artillery for defense. The soldiers who were advancing in half-track vehicles were also asked to get off, and a mortar position and several sniper positions were set up.

They wanted to hold on here until the armored training battalion and a motorized infantry battalion attached to the 3rd Armored Division arrived.