How to deal with an aggressive crowd throwing dense objects and petrol bottles – this is 1 of the training points that the soldiers of the 15th Giżycka Mechanized Brigade pass before service on the east border. Hangers, equipped with shields, batons, and smooth-bore weapons, must meet attacks of attackers who do not dress in the means during the exercise.
The change of defender on the east border of Poland is coming in large steps. Already at the turn of July and August, soldiers of the 16th Pomeranian Mechanized Division will begin to service as part of Operation Safe Podlasie – replace colleagues from the 12th Szczecin Mechanized Division. The service of the division at the east border takes six months. A key component of the upcoming change will be the soldiers of the 15th Giżycka Mechanized Brigade, who will leave in the Podlasie in November and spend 3 months there.
– Full service at the border as part of the Operation “Safe Podlasie” is simply a difficult, demanding and crucial task for which we prepare our soldiers comprehensively – says Captain Małgorzata Misiukiewicz, press officer of 15 GBZ. Preparations of the hangars include, depending on the specificity of the tasks planned to be performed, about 100 to 170 training hours. First, soldiers will learn the procedures and regulations related to the specificity of the service at the border. Then they go to applicable classes. 1 of the key issues is crowd training and shooting training – shooting and utilizing smooth-bore weapons.
Production: Jakub Zagalski, Marcin Kopeć
This training is conducted by soldiers of 15 GBZ who had previously held an instructor-methodic course in the peculiar Military Gendarmerie Division in Minsk Mazowiecki. Instructors supply brigade colleagues with cognition of how to operate smooth-bore rifles, present rules of operation, method of decomposing and folding weapons, which is importantly different from fixed weapons Wischaks. Soldiers besides have shooting training – utilizing both rubber bullets and penetration ammunition.
Another component of preparation is CRC (Crowd and Riot Control) – crowd control and riot control. Soldiers equipped with protective shields and helmet-mounted helmet-mounted helmets stand in line with their mates armed with batons behind them. Students practice fighting in close contact with a compact sub-division, excellent cooperation to respond to attacks and avoid threats, execute separations and tactical connections. All this involving instructors and trained pretenders soldiers who aggressively attack colleagues with shields and batons. They run with momentum into a compact sub-chapter, kick into the shields, punch with fists, throw pieces of wood.
Defenders are not spared, but through commitment and cooperation they endure violent attacks. The training does not prepare them solely for defence – they hit them with sticks to overpower the opponent. Instructors explain that in case of real danger, each section of the sub-chapter is besides equipped with 1-2 smooth barrel shotguns. Soldiers with specified a weapon at their command thin from behind the shield and shoot towards the aggressors. With this training, the hangers will be prepared to execute tasks at the border in QRF groups, designed to respond rapidly to threats arising from mass border crossings by immigrants.
– We want this training to be carried out as realistic as possible," says Captain Misiukiewicz. Therefore, during training, soldiers gotta face an attack, for example, utilizing Molotov cocktails. At the shield wards, asphalt floods burning gasoline mixed with pieces of glass from broken bottles. However, the soldiers do not retreat 1 step. They proceed in short circuit, observing the behaviour of the “enemies” from behind transparent shields, to launch a march towards the aggressors on command.
CRC instructors shall make all effort to guarantee that hangers are prepared for different scenarios. “We train soldiers so that everyone knows that they are going to the border well prepared. He has knowledge, skills and is able to safely execute any task. With this training, the soldier will know how to react, how to deal with various situations that may happen during the service," explains press officer 15 GBZ.
The Polish Army has been present on the east border since autumn 2021. Operation Safe Podlasie began on 1 August 2024 and continues to support the Border defender in maintaining security.