The Warsaw Armoured Motorized Brigade ( pl, Warszawska Brygada Pancerno-Motorowa, WBP-M, WBPanc-Mot) was a motorized unit of the

Polish Army The Land Forces () are the land forces of the Polish Armed Forces. They currently contain some 62,000 active personnel and form many components of the European Union and NATO deployments around the world. Poland's recorded military history stre ...

during the

interbellum period In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days), the end of the First World War to the beginning of the Second World War. The interwar period was relativel ...

. The

brigade A brigade is a major tactical military formation that typically comprises three to six battalions plus supporting elements. It is roughly equivalent to an enlarged or reinforced regiment. Two or more brigades may constitute a division. B ...

was one of two such units in Poland (the other being the

10th Motorized Cavalry Brigade (Poland) The 10th Cavalry Brigade ( pl, 10. Brygada Kawalerii) was a Polish military unit in World War II. It was the only fully operational Polish motorized infantry unit during the Invasion of Poland, as Warsaw Armoured Motorized Brigade was not complete ...

; several more were planned). Not fully formed by September 1, it was nonetheless partially combat ready and immediately rushed into battle during the

Polish September Campaign The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week af ...

. Following heavy losses during the

Battle of Tomaszów Lubelski The Battle of Tomaszów Lubelski took place from 18 September to 20 September 1939 near the town of Tomaszów Lubelski. It was the second largest battle

, it was disbanded on September 20, 1939.

History

The Brigade was formed in early June 1939, when the Polish Minister of Military Affairs, General Tadeusz Kasprzycki, gave order to transform the 1st Regiment of Mounted Rifles from the

Garwolin Garwolin is a town on the Wilga river in eastern Poland, capital of Garwolin County, situated in the southeast part of the Garwolin plateau in Masovian Voivodeship, 62 km southeast of Warsaw, 100 km northwest of Lublin. As of December ...

garrison into a motorized unit. On June 10, 1939, Colonel Stefan Rowecki was appointed brigade commander (later, under the pseudonym "Grot" (spearhead), he became the first commander of the

Home Army The Home Army ( pl, Armia Krajowa, abbreviated AK; ) was the dominant resistance movement in German-occupied Poland during World War II. The Home Army was formed in February 1942 from the earlier Związek Walki Zbrojnej (Armed Resistance) est ...

, and was killed by the Germans). The new unit was also based on other regiments, such as the 1st Rifle Regiment from Rembertów, the sapper battalion from

Puławy Puławy (, also written Pulawy) is a city in eastern Poland, in Lesser Poland's Lublin Voivodeship, at the confluence of the Vistula and Kurówka Rivers. Puławy is the capital of Puławy County. The city's 2019 population was estimated at 47,4 ...

and the 2nd Motorised Artillery Battalion from Stryj (8×75mm guns), which joined it on September 6. The unit was equipped with Polish-made

TKS The TK (TK-3) and TKS were Polish tankettes developed during the 1930s and used in the Second World War. Design and development The TK (also known as the TK-3) tankette was a Polish design produced from 1931 based on the chassis of the British ...

tankette A tankette is a tracked armoured fighting vehicle that resembles a small tank, roughly the size of a car. It is mainly intended for light infantry support and scouting.

s (13 tankettes, 2 of them with 20mm guns, 11th Recce Tank Company), and British-made light tanks

Vickers E The Vickers 6-ton tank or Vickers Mark E, also known as the "Six-tonner" was a British light tank designed as a private project at Vickers. It was not adopted by the British Army, but was picked up by many foreign armed forces. It was licens ...

(17 machines, 12th Light Tank Company). The

tankette A tankette is a tracked armoured fighting vehicle that resembles a small tank, roughly the size of a car. It is mainly intended for light infantry support and scouting.

s(except for the tankettes equipped with 20mm AT MG 38FK), were no match even to German

PzKpfw II The Panzer II is the common name used for a family of German tanks used in World War II. The official German designation was ''Panzerkampfwagen'' II (abbreviated PzKpfw II). Although the vehicle had originally been designed as a stopgap while la ...

, and the

were outclassed by

PzKpfw III The ''Panzerkampfwagen III'', commonly known as the Panzer III, was a medium tank developed in the 1930s by Germany, and was used extensively in World War II. The official German ordnance designation was Sd.Kfz. 141. It was intended to fight oth ...

and

PzKpfw IV The ''Panzerkampfwagen'' IV (Pz.Kpfw. IV), commonly known as the ''Panzer'' IV, was a German medium tank developed in the late 1930s and used extensively during the Second World War. Its ordnance inventory designation was Sd.Kfz. 161. The Panz ...

. On September 1, 1939, the Brigade left the barracks and concentrated its forces around Garwolin. It stayed there until September 3 as a reserve of the Commander-in-Chief of the Polish Army, then was ordered to prepare the defence of the

Vistula The Vistula (; pl, Wisła, ) is the longest river in Poland and the ninth-longest river in Europe, at in length. The drainage basin, reaching into three other nations, covers , of which is in Poland. The Vistula rises at Barania Góra in ...

river line between

Dęblin Dęblin is a town at the confluence of Vistula and Wieprz rivers, in Lublin Voivodeship, Poland. Dęblin is the part of the agglomeration with adjacent towns of Ryki and Puławy, which altogether has over 100 000 inhabitants. The population o ...

and Solec. On September 5, it became part of freshly created Army Lublin, under General Tadeusz Piskor. The first contact with the enemy took place on September 8: the Brigade delayed the German advance and covered the retreat of the Polish forces. In the course of time, it absorbed remains of other Polish armoured units. On September 10 Brigade's positions were attacked by the 4th and 14th Infantry Divisions of the

Wehrmacht The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the ''Heer'' (army), the '' Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmacht''" replaced the previo ...

. The Poles defended themselves, three days later counterattacked and the Germans retreated towards the

river. However, the Polish offensive was stopped by the Army Headquarters and the Brigade began withdrawal towards Lwów (Lviv). On September 15, Rowecki ordered to destroy all unnecessary equipment and divided the Brigade into two columns. On September 16, the Brigade, together with other Polish units, was surrounded in the area of

Tomaszów Lubelski Tomaszów Lubelski is a town in south-eastern Poland with 19,365 inhabitants (2017). Situated in the Lublin Voivodeship, near Roztocze National Park, it is the capital of Tomaszów Lubelski County. History The town was founded at the end of t ...

(see:

Battle of Tomaszów Lubelski The Battle of Tomaszów Lubelski took place from 18 September to 20 September 1939 near the town of Tomaszów Lubelski. It was the second largest battle

). The Polish forces decided to attack the town of Tomaszów Lubelski; the offensive was carried out in the morning of September 17 by Warsaw Armoured Motorized Brigade, which managed to catch the German XXII Corps by surprise. However, the Germans quickly organized a defence and the Polish attack failed, with the Brigade losing half of the equipment. On September 19, another Polish attack did not succeed, and one day later, after fierce fighting and destruction of large part of equipment, General Piskor decided to surrender. Rowecki ordered the destruction of remaining heavy equipment and all soldiers to try to break through the German encirclement on his own. He himself was not caught by the Germans, also hundreds of Brigade's soldiers managed to escape to

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the ...

and later to

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It i ...

, where they joined the Polish 1st Armoured Division of General Stanisław Maczek.

Sources

* Rajmund Szubanski: "Polska bron pancerna 1939"; Warszawa 1989 * Waclaw Zaleski: "W Warszawskiej Brygadzie Pancerno-Motorowej 1939", Warszawa 1988 * http://www.wojsko18-39.internetdsl.pl/wrzesien/strona3.htm * http://derela.pl/brigades.htm#wbpm * http://www.wojsko-polskie.pl/wortal/document,,id,1536,pageNo,14.html {{Authority control Armoured brigades of Poland Military units and formations of Poland in World War II Military units and formations established in 1939 Military units and formations disestablished in 1939

History

See also

Sources