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The Interwar
History of the Polish Cavalry
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By Marek Kiewel,
ammeded with info by Pawel Szczolkowski and myself
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This page was updated the last time on 7 March 2002
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The contents of this
site is the product of litterally years of exhaustive work on the part of my
contributors and I. It is therefore imperative that you, should you want to
use any of the info in it for anything but personal entertainment, contact me
and ASK! You can do so here.
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Main Page - where everything
comes together...
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Articles - anything but unit
histories...
Countries - the geographical
areas....
Discussion - my forum for
you....
Orders of Battle - units on specific
dates in specific areas....
TO&Es - how the units are
organised and equipped...
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The setting
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After
the Polish-Soviet war 1919-1921, the Polish army had 20 regular
cavalry regiments (2 Light Horse - in Polish "szwoleżerów", and 18
Lancers - in Polish "ulanów") plus several volunteer cavalry
regiments. After signing a military treaty with France in 1921, Poland was
obliged to maintain an army of 10 corps with 30 infantry divisions and 10
cavalry brigades. The units were to be organised like this:
Infantry Division
3 x infantry regiments
3 x
infantry battalions
1 x light artillery regiment
3 x light
artillery battalions
Cavalry Brigade
3 x cavalry regiments
4 x
line squadrons
1 x
HMG squadron
1 x horse artillery battalion
The
Polish order of battle included:
3 army inspectorates (Warszaw, Wilno, Lwów)
10 corps area commands (Warszawa, Lublin, Grodno, Lódz, Kraków, Lwów, Poznań,
Toruń, Brest-Litowsk, Przemysl)
30 infantry divisions
10 cavalry brigades
90 infantry regiment (84 infantry, 6 mountain rifles)
30 (line) cavalry regiments (3 light horse, 27 lancers)
10 mounted rifles regiments (divisional cavalry)
30 light artillery regiments
10 heavy artillery regiments
1 mountain artillery regiment
1 heaviest artillery regiment
10 horse artillery battalions
5 tank battalions
10 car battalions (transport units)
3 aerial regiments (army air force)
5 balloon (or aerostatics) battalions
10 engineers regiments
3 signal regiments
3 railway regiments
and other units and sub-units
A note on the cavalry: The mounted rifles regiments were also cavalry, but
the regiments would be disbanded on mobilisation, and their cavalry
battalions would be parcelled out, each infantry division being given one for
reconnaissance purposes (something like the French GRDIs). For that reason,
the mounted rifle regiments were second-class units in eyes of Polish
cavalrymen, and nobody wanted to serve in them. The problem ended in 1924
with the reorganisation of the cavalry arm, when the role of the mounted
rifles was changed, and the regiments were organised as line cavalry and
split into new units with the light horse and lancer regiments. This happened
as follows:
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The 1924
reorganisation
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The
mounted rifle regiments were now taken away from the divisions, and organised
into cavalry brigades along with the regular cavalry regiments. The cavalry
arm thus all in all consisted of 40 line regiments (3 light horse, 27
lancers, 10 mounted rifles). Divisional cavalry (reconnaissance battalions)
were to be organised shortly before the breakout of war from the
replacement squadrons of the line cavalry regiments. From the original 10
brigades and the mounted rifle regiments were organised 4 cavalry divisions
(1st Bialystok, 2nd Warszawa, 3rd Poznan, 4th Lwów) of 3 brigades each, each
brigade being of 2 regiments, and 5 independent cavalry brigades (four of 3
regiments, one of 4 regiments), 17 brigades in all.
1st Cavalry Division – Bialystok
4th Cavalry Brigade - Wolkowysk
2nd
Lancers Regiment – Suwalki
3rd Light
Horse Regiment – Suwalki
8th Cavalry Brigade – Bialystok
10th
Lancers Regiment – Bialystok
3rd
Mounted Rifles – Bialystok
11th Cavalry Brigade – Augustowo
1st
Lancers Regiment – Augustovo
9th
Mounted Rifles – Grajewo
2nd Cavalry Division – Warszaw
1st Cavalry Brigade
1st Light
Horse Regiment – Warszaw
1st
Mounted Rifles – Warszaw
12th Cavalry Brigade – Ostroleka
5th
Lancers Regiment - Ostroleka
7th
Lancers Regiment – Minsk-Mazoviecki
13th Cavalry Brigade – Plock
11th
Lancers Regiment – Czechanow
4th
Mounted Rifles Regiment – Plock
3rd Cavalry Division – Poznan
7th Cavalry Brigade - Poznan
15th
Lancers Regiment - Poznan
17th
Lancers Regiment – Lissa
14th Cavalry Brigade – Bydgoszcz
16th
Lancers Regiment - Bydgoszcz
7th
Mounted Rifles – Poznan
15th Cavalry Brigade – Grudziadz
18th
Lancers Regiment – Grudziadz
8th
Mounted Rifles – Culm
4th Cavalry Division – Lwow
10th Cavalry Brigade – Przemysl
20th
Lancers Regiment - Rzeszow
10th
Mounted Rifles Regiment – Lancut
16th Cavalry Brigade – Lwow
14th
Lancers Regiment – Lwow
6th
Mounted Rifles – Zolkiew
17th Cavalry Brigade – Hrubieszow
24th
Lancers Regiment - Krasnik
2nd
Mounted Rifles – Hrubieszow
2nd Cavalry Brigade – Rowno
3rd Cavalry Brigade - Wilno
5th Cavalry Brigade - Krakow
6th Cavalry Brigade - Stanislawow
9th Cavalry Brigade - Baranowiczi
The
organisation of the units were as follows:
Cavalry Division - HQ and staff
3 x Cavalry Brigades
2 x
cavalry regiments
2 x horse artillery battalions
1 x armoured car squadron
1 pioneers squadron
1 signal squadron
Independent Cavalry Brigade - HQ and staff
3-4 cavalry regiments
1 horse arty battalion
1 pioneers squadron
1 signal squadron
The
largest of the independent brigades (the one with 4 cavalry regiments) also
had 1 armored car squadron. The horse artillery was equipped with French 75mm
(M1897) or ex-Russian 3-inch (M1902) guns. The armored cars were French -
"Citroen-Kegresse" (90) and "Peugeot" (20). The
individual cavalry regiments were organised as follows:
Cavalry Regiment – HQ
1 x signal platoon
4 x line squadrons
4 x
cavalry platoons
1 x HMG squadron (MGs also pack on horses and
on the carts)
1 x replacement squadron
Also organised in 1924 was the "Korpus Ochrony Pogranicza" (KOP),
the Frontier Protection Corps, with 20 infantry battalions and 20 cavalry
squadrons - the best and most well-trained units in the Polish army.
After the coup d'etat of Jozef Pilsudski, the man who led Poland into
independence in 1918, in May 1926, there was only one person who decided over
matters in the Polish armed forces - Pilsudski himself. The whole top of the
of the military hierarchy were reorganised. The First Marshall of Poland (his
personal military rank awarded by the Polish parliament on his own request)
disliked staff officers and staff work very much. All corps area commands
were only territorial posts, without any operational competence, all
divisions and brigades were controlled from Warsaw . He disbanded all (except
1) signal regiments and almost all engineer regiments, artillery was only
support (not one of the main weapons), he overruled funds for AA and AT guns.
Pilsudski didnt believe in any technical formations, for him the infantry was
the main force of armed forces.
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The 1929
reorganisation
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In
1929 a number of changes were put through in the cavalry arm.
- All armored units were concentrated into independent battalions
under the Armored Weapons Command, and thus the armored car squadrons from
the cavalry units were removed and grouped into 2 independent battalions.
This concentration of armored vehicles under one separate command was to have
repercussions later, when the 10th Motorised Cavalry Brigade had to be formed
without any tanks.
- The cavalry divisions had shown themselves to be too cumbersome, a
fact that became accepted after the fall maneuvers in 1928. During the spring
of 1929, a new reorganisation of the cavalry was devised, and from 1929 to
1930, three of the four cavalry divisions were disbanded, and new brigades
created of their regiments.
The 2nd Cavalry Division in Warsaw remained in existence because the
divisional commander, general B. Wieniawa-Długoszowski, was a favourite aide
de camp of Pilsudski from the WWI years and was one of his favourite officers
after the war. Another reason would have been the fact, that the
division controlled the only cavalry in the capital of Warszaw, thus acting
as kind of a precautionary measure against any coup-attempt. The ease with
which Pilsudski himself had moved into the capital in 1926 would have given
food for thought.
Instead of concentrating the cavalry brigades into divisions and use them as
the prime maneuver element, the idea was thus to conduct a manoeuver war
with infantry divisions (on foot - Polish infantry was able to day-march up
to 30 km and then go into combat), with the cavalry covering the flanks of
the infantry.
Under ideal circumstances, it would have worked, but the speed with which the
German tanks and trucks moved in September 1939 showed the concept to
be outdated.
When the infantry was unable to keep pace, only the cavalry was thus left,
but dispersed along the front, and in some cases even without heavy weaponry
(see below), the task was unsolvable.
The new organisation of the cavalry was as follows:
1 x cavalry division (6 regiments)
12 x independent cavalry brigades
- 2 of 4
regiments
- 6 of 3
regiments
- 4 of 2
regiments
The
smallest brigades (those of only 2 regiments) didn't have any support -
artillery, pioneers etc. Essentially only a combination of two cavalry
regiments under a brigade HQ, there was little the smallest 4 brigades could
do when faced by an enemy possessing heavy weapons. No criticism was
accepted, though:
I 1930 or 1931, one of the officers of the General Staff during a briefing by
his general asked why, in city Rowne, (one of the strategic regions on the
border with USSR) there was located a 2-regiment cavalry brigade, without
even one artillery gun? The answer was: “Because Marshall Pilsudski WANTS a
2-regimental cavalry brigade in the city of Rowne”. The Polish officers went
from the briefing in silence.
In all, the cavalry consisted of the following after the reorganisation:
1,142 officers (incl. 3 generals), 3,644 professional NCOs, 27,125 privates
and 22,781 horses (numbers as of on 8 July 1931).
While the above pretty much outlines the peace-time organisation of the
cavalry, there were also certain measures only to be taken when war
had broken out. Thus, for example, the mobilisation plans until 1934 included
the formation of “light mixed divisions”, that were to be organised after the
war had actually begun. They were to be organised like this:
Light Mixed Division
1 x Cavalry Brigade
1 x Motorised Infantry Regiment
1-2 x artillery battalion (motorised)
1 x Tankette Company
1 x Light Tank Company
1 x Armored Car Company
1 x Engineer Company
1 x Signals Company
Divisional Services
When this measure was introduced into the mobilisation plans is uncertain…I
would tend to say it was probably at the same time as the general
reorganisation of the cavalry in 1929. If so, then this measure would
(depending on the number of the divisions to be organised) put the cavalry
back in the role as the prime maneuver element.
Anyhow, given the problems Poland had with mechanising even two brigades in
the late 1930s, it is a big question where the motorised regiments for these
divisions would have come from. Probably realising this, the planned units
were also removed from the mobilisation plans in 1934.
Even after Pilsudski's death in May 1935, the trust in infantry and cavalry
only as deciding arms was still present in the Polish army, though other
lines of though were also acted upon. The new General Inspector of the Armed
Forces began buying AA and AT guns from the Swedish company of Bofors.
With the need for change being apparent, and the main stumbling block for it
now out of the way, a number of ideas were brought forth for what to do with
the cavalry:
Some officers put forth the idea of forming special light motorised units (3
in number, as a counterpart to the existing 3 German armored divisions), but
the idea was never realised. They were to have been organised as follows:
Light Motorised Division
2 x Cavalry Regiment
2 x Infantry Battalion
1 x Bicyclist Company
Another
group of Polish officers (the so-called "young cavalry school") pushed
for the formation of cavalry corps (9 to 12 cavalry regiments), probably out
of desire to put the horsed cavalry back into the role of the prime maneuver
element. They proposed the formation of 2 corps (each of 12 regiments) and 4
independent cavalry brigades (each of 4 regiments).
The new General Inspector (Marshal Edward Rydz-Smigly) had his own ideas,
however: Initially he wanted to reorganise the cavalry into 11 uniformly
organised brigades of 3 cavalry regiments each, and then motorise the remaining
7 regiments as a nucleus for future Polish armored brigades, or even
divisions. While the need for modernisation was thus realised, the means to
push it through were limited, and lack of funds and equipment set narrow
limits for what could be done. The next reform came in 1937.
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The 1937
Reorganisation
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During
the reorganisation of the Polish cavalry, that ended on 1 April 1937, the
first steps towards its mechanisation were taken. Due to a lack of equipment
(especially trucks), only the 10th Cavalry Brigade was motorised, however,
and initially it also had no light tanks. The armored battalions were still
under the control of the Command of Armored Service in the Ministry of
Military Affairs, not the Department of Cavalry. One squadron of tankettes in
the reconnaissance battalion was the only armor until the brigade was
mobilised.
The 10th Independent Cavalry Brigade began its transformation into a
motorised cavalry brigade in March 1937, with the following units:
10th Motorised Cavalry Brigade - Bde HQ
1 x traffic control platoon
1 x signal squadron
1 x reconnaissance battalion
1 x
tankette squadron
1 x
motorised rifle squadron
1 x AT battalion
2 x
companies (each of 9 Bofors gun 37mm)
24th Lancers regiment
10th Mounted Rifles regiment
After mobilisation was added:
1 x motorised artillery battery
1 x
battery (with 4 guns 75mm)
1 x
motorised battery (with 4 howitzers 100mm)
1 x tank battalion
1 x
tankette company
1 x light
tank company (Vickers E tanks)
1 x motorised engineer battalion
2 x
motorised engineer companies
1 x AA battery (4 x Bofors 40mm)
brigade motorised services
As
if the inter-departmental squabbles about the tanks were not enough, the
cavalry itself also gave sore troubles.
Originally one of the 2-regiment brigades without support weapons, it
contained the 10th Mounted Rifles and 20th Lancers, who were both slated to
be motorised. When they learned of their planned fate, the commander and the
entire officer corps of the 20th Lancers mutinied, however, and refused to
execute the order about motorization. After a long back-and-forth, the
commander of 24th Lancers instead voluntarily agreed to transfer his regiment
to the newly motorised brigade in the 20th Lancers place.
While the 20th Lancers thus were granted their wish to remain horsed, it
would ultimately prove to be the beginning of their end - the history of the
20th Lancers ended in September 1939, while the 24th (motorised, later
armored) Lancers fought in Poland in 1939, France in 1940 and again in
France in 1944 and Belgium, Holland and Northern Germany in 1944-45.
The largest part of the cavalry was exempt from the process of mechanisation,
though changes also took place here. The regiments of the 11 independent and
2 of the 3 brigades of the 2nd Cavalry Division were reorganised into 11
independent cavalry brigades, all named after the provinces of Poland where
they were stationed (the “Mazoviecka” Cavalry Brigade in I Corps Area,
“Wolynska” and “Hrubieszow” CB´s in II Corps Area, “Wilensko” CB in II Corps
Area, “Krakowska” CB in V Corps Area, “Kresowa” and “Podolska” CB´s in VI
Corps Area, “Wielkopolska” CB in VII Corps Area, “Pomorska” CB in VIII Corps
Area and the “Novogrodska” CB in IX Corps Area. The 10th Motorised Cavalry
Brigade was located in the II Corps Area).
They did not have a uniform number of regiments, but were allocated regiments
as follows:
6 brigades of 3 regiments
5 brigades of 4 regiments
The 2nd Cavalry Division survived this reorganisation, although it lost all
its subordinate brigades. As explained previously, two brigades were taken
away from it to be reorganised along with the independent cavalry brigades.
The remaining one, the 1st Cavalry Brigade, had had the only two cavalry
regiments based in the capital of Poland, Warszaw, under its command, and it
seems as if these were to be kept under one command – perhaps the memories of
the coup of 1926, when few troops were under central control to crush the
coup, might have had some significance. The division was also still needed to
provide a post of seniority for its commander. Whatever the reason, it seems
as if the Brigade HQ was simply disbanded, as its two regiments (1st Light
Horse Regiment and the 1st Mounted Rifles Regiment) are hereafter mentioned
as directly subordinate to the 2nd Cavalry Division.
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Last minute changes
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As
world war two approached, the year 1939 saw a number of changes
in the cavalry organisation to better cope with any coming attack.
Around Wielun in W-Poland, the 1st KOP (Border Defence Corps) Cavalry
Regiment began forming. It was formed by taking cadres from 8 different KOP
cavalry squadrons.
2nd Cavalry Division, having survived the 1937 reorganisation, only lasted
little less than 2 years more. It was finally disbanded on 2 February 1939,
at the same time when its commander, general Wieniawa-Długoszowski was sent
to Rome as the Polish ambassador to Italy. Its two regiments were then put to
different use, the 1st Light Horse Regiment joining the “Mazoviecka” Cavalry
Brigade (the cavalry brigade of the Warszaw Military District), while the 1st
Mounted Rifles Regiment was used to form the second mechanised brigade of the
Polish army, the “Warszaw” Armored -Motorised Brigade.
This unit began forming at the end of May. What is interesting about it is,
that, contrary to the 10th Motorised Cavalry Brigade, that totally derived
from the cavalry, the “Warszaw” brigade was dominated by the infantry.
The resistance against motorising the cavalry had been strong all the time,
but it came to a peak now: When the 1st Mounted Rifle Regiment was motorised,
its first two commanders refused to command a non-horsed unit, both staying
only a month each. When the problem was finally solved by putting in a man
from the infantry as commander, he requested that the cavalry and horse
equipment stay in the regiment.
At the same time, the Cavalry Department refused to hand over any more
cavalry regiments for mechanisation. Therefore, the second regiment of the
brigade was created from independent rifle battalions. In effect, this meant,
that all the commanders of the brigade came from the infantry arm.
The brigade was now organised as follows:
“Warsaw” Armor-Motorised Brigade - HQ with HQ platoon
1 x traffic control platoon
1 x signal squadron
1 x reconnaissance battalion
1 x AT battalion
1 x motorised artillery battalion
2 x batteries
(75mm guns)
1 x engineer battalion
1 x tank battalion
1st Mounted Rifles regiment
1st Foot Rifles regiment
The brigade was still forming on 1 September 1939, and indeed had a
long way to go before it was fully formed and trained. The drivers of the
brigade only began training for their job on 22 July.
An even later initiative than the “Warszaw” armored-motorised brigade was a
plan put forward by Lt. General Kazimierz Fabryczy. Lack of heavy weapon at
cavalry brigades was the reason for his project, put forth in June 1939,
that would have seen the 11 cavalry brigades reorganised into 9 light
divisions, each organised as follows:
Light Division
3 x horse cavalry regiments
1 x motorised cavalry regiment
1 x light tank battalion
1 x motorised artillery battalion with 4
batteries
1 x pioneer battalion (with horse squadron,
mot. company, mining platoon)
1 x armoured battalion (as a reconnaissance
unit)
Given the time the plan was put forward, there was no time to review it, or
even put it into effect: the Polish army was mobilising and preparing for war.
The Polish cavalry started the war with 11 independent cavalry and 2
motorised brigades.
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The Brigades at
Mobilisation
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When
these last-minute changes had been put through, and right before the cycle of
mobilisations began in March 1939, the cavalry brigades were thus
allocated the following regiments:
The individual cavalry brigades had the following units allocated during by 1
September 1939 (it has to be remembered, that many detachments took
place during mobilisation and:
“Mazoviecka” Cavalry Brigade
1st Light Cavalry Regiment “Jozef Pilsudski”
7th Lancers Regiment “Lubelskich”
11th Lancers Regiment “Legionowych”
1st Mounted Artillery Regiment
“Wolynska” Cavalry Brigade
12th Lancers Regiment “Podoski”
19th Lancers Regiment “Wolynskich”
21st Lancers Regiment “Nadwislanskich”
2nd Mounted Rifles Regiment
2nd Mounted Artillery Regiment
“Wilenska” Cavalry Brigade
4th Lancers Regiment “Zaniemenskich”
13th Lancers Regiment “Wilenskich”
23rd Lancers Regiment “Grodzienskich”
3rd Mounted Artillery Regiment
“Suwalska” Cavalry Brigade
3rd Light Cavalry Regiment “Mazowieckich”
1st Lancers Regiment “Krechowieckich”
2nd Lancers Regiment “Grochowskich”
3rd Mounted Rifle Regiment
4th Mounted Artillery Regiment
“Krakow” Cavalry Brigade
3rd Lancers Regiment “Slaskich”
8th Lancers Regiment “Prince Jozef
Pontiatowskiego”
5th Mounted Rifles Regiment
5th Mounted Artillery Regiment
“Podolska” Cavalry Brigade
6th Lancers Regiment “Kaniowskich”
9th Lancers Regiment “Malopolskich”
14th Lancers Regiment “Jazlowieckich”
6th Mounted Artillery Regiment
“Wielkopolska” Cavalry Brigade
15th Lancers Regiment “Poznanskich”
17th Lancers Regiment “Gnieznieskich”
7th Mounted Rifles Regiment “Wielkopolskich”
7th Mounted Artillery Regiment
“Nowogrodzka” Cavalry Brigade
25th Lancers Regiment “Wielkopolskich”
26th Lancers Regiment
27th Lancers Regiment
4th Mounted Rifle Regiment “Ziemi Leczychiej”
9th Mounted Artillery Regiment
“Pomorska” Cavalry Brigade
16th Lancers Regiment “Wielkopolskich”
18th Lancers Regiment “Pomorskich”
8th Mounted Rifles Regiment
11th Mounted Artillery Regiment
“Kresowa” Cavalry Brigade
20th Lancers Regiment
22nd Lancers Regiment “Podkarpakkich”
6th Mounted Rifles Regiment
1st KOP Cavalry Regiment
13th Mounted Artillery Regiment
“Podlaska” Cavalry Brigade
5th Lancers Regiment “Zaslawskich”
10th Lancers Regiment “Litewskich”
9th Mounted Rifles Regiment
14th Mounted Artillery Regiment
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Mobilisation
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The
Polish army began its cycle of mobilisations in March 1939, when
Germany and Hungary invaded and tore apart the rest of what was once
Czechoslovakia, taking large tracts of land for themselves, and in the
process establishing the independent state of Slovakia. The progressive
mobilisations of the cavalry brigades looked as follows:
March 15
10th Motorised Cavalry Brigade
March 23-25
“Nowogródzka” Cavalry Brigade
“Pomorska” Cavalry Brigade
August 13
“Wolynska” Cavalry Brigade
August 24
“Krakowska” Cavalry Brigade
“Mazowiecka” Cavalry Brigade
“Podlaska“ Cavalry Brigade
“Suwalska” Cavalry Brigade
“Wielkopolska” Cavalry Brigade
“Wileńska” Cavalry Brigade
August 27
“Podolska” Cavalry Brigade
“Kresowa” Cavalry Brigade
August 30
“Warszaw” Armored-Motorised Brigade
Each
of the “regular” cavalry brigades were to have been organised in the
following way:
Cavalry Brigade - HQ (on horses, with 1 (sic! one) persons car for the
commander)
3-4 x cavalry regiments
1 x rifle battalion (on foot)
1 x horse artillery battalion
3-4 x
horse artillery batteries (4 x 75mm guns)
1 x motorised AA platoon (2 x Bofors 40mm)
1 x armoured battalion (for reconnaissance) -
HQ (1 x armoured car)
1 x squadron
of armoured cars (7 x armored cars)
1 x
squadron of tankettes (13 x tankettes)
1 x bicyclist squadron
1 x pioneer squadron + bridging equipment (a
30-m pontoon bridge)
1 x signal squadron
2 x radio
stations type N1 for tactical correspondence
1 x radio
station type RKD for operational correspondence
brigade services (on horses and horse-drawn
carts), 6 on horses train columns
The main unit in these brigades, the cavalry regiments, were organised like
this:
Cavalry Regiment – HQ
4 x line squadrons (each of HQ section, admin
section, 3 cav platoons)
1 x HMGs sqdn (12 HMGs in 4 platoons)
1 x bicyclists platoon (at regiments of
Wielkopolan and Pomeranian Bdes a full squadron)
1 x AT platoon (4 Bofors 37mm)
1 x signal platoon (2 radio stations type N2
for tactical communications)
1 x equipment (supply) sqdn
horse regimental train
As
can be seen, it was not only a question of bringing the regiments up to
strength, but also of adding a host of supporting units. Among these were the
rifle battalions, that were to be allocated on the basis of one to each
cavalry brigade. In the pre-war army, the three existing rifle
battalions were considered elite, light infantry units, with their own
artillery platoons and AT guns platoons, the 1st Battalion in the city
Chojnice, the 2nd in the city Tczew (both cities in the Pomeranian Corridor)
and 3rd at the small town Rembertów (near Warsaw) as a training elite unit in
"Centrum Wyszkolenia Piechoty" (Infantry Instructions Center -
something like School of Infantry at Fort Benning, Georgia, USA). The Navy
also had two (1st and 2nd) Marine Rifle Battalions, as a core of Land Defence
of the Coast.
These were far from enough, though, and additional rifle battalions were
formed by regular infantry regiments. This happened as follows:
Mobilised rifles battalions as of 1 September 1939:
1st and 2nd (pre-war units) - for the “Pomorska” Cavalry Brigade
3rd (pre-war unit) - for the “Mazowiecka” Cavalry Brigade
4th (from the 31st infantry regiment at Sieradz) - for the “Kresowa” Cavalry
Brigade
5th (from the 32nd infantry regiment at Modlin) - for the “Nowogródzka”
Cavalry Brigade
7th (from the 68th infantry regiment at Wrzenia) - for the “Podolska” Cavalry
Brigade
11th (from the 43rd infantry regiment at Dubno) - for the “Wolynska” Cavalry
Brigade
1st Foot Rifle Regiment (TOE as a motorised cavalry regiment) was organised
from a cadre of the Infantry Instructions Centre at Rembertów - commander and
some officers were drafted from units of 14th inf div)
Other than that, a 6th Rifles Battalion is also mentioned by some sources in
the “Nowogrodzka” Cavalry Brigade, but the official history of Army
"Modlin" does not confirm that).
Finally, some brigades also had ordinary infantry, or ON (Home Guard)
battalions attached. The “Wolynska” Cavalry Brigade thus had the IVth bn of
the 84th inf regt, and the “Krakowska” Cavalry Brigade had the ON battalion
"Koszęcin" (also known as ON battalion "Lubliniec");
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Questions?
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