Last charge of Polish cavalry. “The forest was breathing fire”

• The conflict of Borujsko (then German Schönfeld) was 1 of the episodes of fighting for Western Pomerania during planet War II. Polish units under russian regulation tried to conquer the village for respective weeks
• A decisive start came on 1 March 1945. Infantry and armored troops were incapable to break through the reinforced positions of the Germans. Everything changed erstwhile the 1st Cavalry Brigade entered the battlefield.
• The maneuver utilized by the commanders was amazing and already unusual, but the hazard paid off. A bloody battle, abounding in shocking events, was won
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The first weeks of 1945 were besides the last moments of the German business of Poland. The Red Army occupied further areas, and the fighting had already moved to the lands belonging to the 3rd Reich, including Western Pomerania. There, at the side of the Soviets, units made up of Polish soldiers fought. At 1 point before Poles, the task was to break through the fortifications in the village of Borujsko (then inactive German Schönfeld).

One

The first clashes in the Borusian area began on February 11, 1945, erstwhile a railway station and a field airport were occupied. However, the village itself remained unattainable despite repeated attempts at assault and fighting lasting until February 15. Another attack occurred 4 days later, but he did not bring the expected results. He signed up for it in past as a black Monday. Blood fighting abounded in many victims.

Casper Szlepński in his book “Tankists. The actual past of the 4 Armoured” wrote: “The flames appeared on 1 side and on the another side. Poles lost armor guns and tanks, There were tankers around the black bodies with fire feathers on their suits.. The odor of steel, bodies and rubber hangs over the battlefield.”

1. Separate Cavalry Brigade, March 1945.Public domain

“We will show eagles how to fight”

However, Poles did not quit acquiring the village. The decisive attack came on March 1. 2 regiments of infantry and a battalion of tanks were sent to the battle, but as it later turned out, the 1st Cavalry Brigade played a key function in the battle. It was a branch formed a year earlier by the Soviets in Troscianiec in the Ukrainian Socialist russian Republic and incorporated into the USSR-controlled 1st Army of the Polish Army.

However, it included many experienced bachelors from the pre-war Polish army. These were people who had been in russian captivity since 1939 and who, as was frequently the case, “did not make it to Anders”. Consequently, they had to return to the country in the ranks of an army subordinate to Stalin. In time, the brigade besides included a draft from Volyn and Podola, as well as a group of guerrillas from the celebrated 27th Volyn Infantry Division of the AK, which had previously been broken up by the Red Army.

The 1st cavalry brigade has come a long way. From the USSR it was transferred to the vicinity of Kiwerc and then to Chełm and Lublin. In September 1944 she entered Warsaw Prague, and in early 1945 she participated in the fighting in Pomerania. It was then that the cavalry were thrown under Borujsko.

Cavalry of the Polish People's Army after planet War II.National Digital Archive

On 1 March 1945, as in erstwhile weeks, the infantry and tanks were to launch. The horses were waiting in retreat.

— warmed up in the evening to fight Major Walerian Bogdanovich. He was the leader of the group, and he was straight subject to the squadrons of lieutenants: Zbigniew Starak and Mieczysław Spisacki.

"In front of the office tent, Major Arkuszewski, deputy commander of the political and educational brigade, an old revolutionary activist. He speaks to the drawn-out Ulan lines, talks about the weight of the task, about the waiting their fight. They will come along with tanks and infantry, and they are convinced that neither command nor country will fail. A cry and a cavalry orchestra, as in the tradition of grey horses, plays Poland is not dead yet...In his book “Pomer. study from the battlefield".

LWP cavalry after planet War II, Kraków.National Digital Archive

Fire strikes

The morning of 1 March was grey and foggy. But everything changed at 6:30 erstwhile "horizont caught fire with a 100 fires and rumbled with a 100 artillery shots"As Flisowski mentioned. Polish soldiers set out to fight through the fields surrounding the village.

“ We were in the embrace of a semicircular hot line, ” says the magazine. The forest was spitting, breathing fire. The fiery semicircle ran northward, turning as if towards German lines. Hundreds, thousands of missiles cut through the air, walked above us, creating strings of hell's instrument of war. They were like the whistling meridians of the vault’s hemisphere — which grey, nameless, depressing found the fighting. And the land? At times it seemed to want to devour the sky, or that it was giving him fiery blows, wanting to fall...’.

The remainder of the text is under the video.

Further string of article under video material

The artillery was first launched. The cannons and mortars were filling the positions of the Germans, then there was fire from aircraft. Finally, the infantry began to attack with the support of the armored squad. The 5th regiment struck Borujsko, 6th at that time attacking located next to Żabin. However, the Germans did not quit and returned fire to Poles.

The Wehrmacht maintained its positions, utilizing panzerfausty, mortars and cecamas in combat. Poles slowly, laboriously approached German positions, but the fire barrier proved impossible to pass. During this time, the cavalry waited in the close forest for their turn. They saw how wounded and killed were taken from the battlefield. Borujsko was “protected with jaras and fenced distant from attacking a smooth field, shot to all sides.”

The staff stationed in the makeshift shelter sat in a tense atmosphere. The first hours of the fight were dense losses, but did not consequence in much. Poles gained only about 200 metres of land.

LWP cavalry column after planet War II.National Digital Archive

Blood flowed on steel plates

After revived conferences, another attack began. Another battalion of tanks began to fight. "They walked towards a large lonely tree, visible in the field towards Borusian. Through a breach, they were guided by the targets of the tiny blondes, the infantry caper. The tank commander spoke to the corporal erstwhile and for all. erstwhile he leaned out again, the blonde fell down on transmission, His blood flowed on steel plates and blinds to the gearbox. — That's what the sons of bitches killed our gamer...!,” described the events of Flisowski.

Another part of the study on the fighting in Pomerania shows us a dramatic and poignant image of the conflict with Germany. We read: “The Pawelczyk of his lower device gun, mounted next to the radiotelegrapher’s place, He put a full series in them.. They approached them with all the velocity they could compression in this area from T-34. Rossowiecki drove without pity through their caterpillar positions.”

Many Poles were cut down with guns. Even if they survived the hit, the wounded were lying in the mediate of the battlefield, where the another tanks entered: “When Dziemia leans out of the hatch for a while to better realize the terrain, he hears the call of the wounded. any dead lives! There are terrible moments coming. You gotta maneuver, change your position, shoot, sometimes go back respective meters. The tank must not stand still, must not stand, still, on a stiff opponent!’ Many armored men have besides escaped death. Tanks were on fire, hit by panzerfausts by the Germans in the trenches.

LWP cavalry after planet War II.National Digital Archive

Get to the enemy!

The fight was fierce, but the main point of German opposition moving through Borujsko itself remained intact. After a fewer hours, it was yet bachelor time. The command decided on a risky, different manwer already in these days and placed on a frontal attack of horse formation.

Flisowski wrote: “The horse group is moving, the 180 sabers, the cecams, and behind them both operate and under the steel sky, the clouds covered, both squadrons leave the forest — initially in a compact formation. In front of them a long wide field with miniature human figures and boxes of dark tanks against the background of snow spots, flashing fire over and over again. The field is filled with poles of earth and smoke — Germans beat guns and mortars. On the left wing, at the airport, there are burnt German aircraft.”

The cavalry moved forward, towards German defense, accelerated and stretched along the full line of fighting. “And 1 of the large wonders of this war happens: this infantry, hardened above all else... able to fight against infantry, artillery and tanks, equipped with all that the German manufacture could give to its soldier, sees a power beyond its grasp, whose presence on the modern battlefield cannot be explained: KAWALERIA”.

LWP cavalry unit, 1946-1947.National Digital Archive

The formation moving towards the trenches, among fire and smoke poles, completely confused the Germans. Col. Zbigniew Starak recalled: “We walked, we passed the tanks. What are you reasoning at a time like this? Only 1 thing: get to the enemy! We jumped through the recesses of the panzerfausts, horses took ditches, who leaned out or fled, got a saber!’

The cavalry action combined with the attack of tanks and infantry broke German defence in the field. Poles destroyed further fire points, enemies died from weapon and tank barrels, and from the already mentioned sabers. The Germans tried to escape, but behind their backs they met their flanking bachelors. It was a breakthrough. Poles had already reached the village, soldiers could get off their horses and join the walking fight. The Germans fired at each other, around the roaring mortars, moving down the missiles.

LWP cavalry after planet War II.National Digital Archive

Cross for September

The clashes began over individual buildings and streets. There were grenades, device weapon shots. 1 of the Polish soldiers mentioned taking the enemy prisoner. "In the smoke appears the grey German, badly wounded, with the full left side of the body bleeding. ... Holding a weapon in my hand, I ripped off his badge. — The 1939 Iron Cross, silver and gold garlands, and infantry badges: 2 rifles on the cross on the ribbon. Why did I do that? It enraged me that he had a cross for September.”

There was another Wehrmacht soldier nearby. “The another lay, was badly wounded, spoke Polish — that he was from Sosnowiec, asked for a cigarette. It was moving out. - Why did you fight? He could no longer answer...’ “ Zbigniew Flisowski described it.

Those were the last hours of the battle. Poles pushed the Germans out of subsequent buildings and shelters. any of the enemy's army died, any were taken prisoner. Others left their rifles and fled through the fields, but further distant from the Poles. A wave of Polish tanks poured into the village. The last German positions were taken from the infantry wing. At 17 Schönfeld/Borujsko was acquired.

LWP cavalry soldiers, 1945-1947.National Digital Archive

The Germans lost over 500 dead and 50 wounded that day. Nearly 150 soldiers were killed on the Polish side and 350 wounded. Among the cavalry alone, however, there were fewer losses. 7 Ulans were killed, respective wounded.

In the following weeks, the 1st Cavalry Brigade continued to fight Germany in West Pomerania, and at the end of the war it operated in the suburbs of Berlin. After the war, it functioned as a division, and in 1947, like all another cavalry troops in the Polish People's Army, it was dissolved. The charge under Borujski is considered the last charge of Polish cavalrymen in history.

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The material was created through the collaboration of Onetu with a partner — the National Digital Archive, whose mission is to build a modern society conscious of its past. NAC collects, stores and makes available photographs, audio recordings and videos. Digitized photos can be viewed on nac.gov.pl.