Battle of Warsaw

Tomorrow, 15.08.2006 there will be anniversary of great victory.
In 1920 Poles defeated Russian army, which had invaded Poland. Russians behaved like barbarians (killed prisoners of war, even injured, murdered, raped and destroyed everything) but fought like pus-sies. They have been destroyed near Warsaw and later close to Niemen river. That battle is perfect example of old military truth - smaller, better commanded army with high morale can crush 3 times more band of criminals.
Cav army, proudness of soviet army, has been destroyed later by polish cav divisions. That unit fight well with polish mitiary hospitals or very well murdered prisoners but sucke-d facing organised cav.
During August 1920 Poles captured over 100.000 prisoners of war. Despite they should be all killed for war crimes, they were sent to prison and released after war. This is for me one of differences between Poles and Russians.
Without that victory, all Europe would be captured by communist. Russian communist revolution would connect with German communist and capture all Europe.
For long time it was worst defeat of Soviet Union, compared only with loses from 1941. Even with german help Russians couldn't face polish army and they still remember their defeat. They keep telling that Poles murdered prisoners into prisoner camp or that they keep using poisons. It's false. Russians just lost because of their commanders stupidness, low morale of their soldiers (criminals never had good morale) and high morale of polish army.
So remember "eastern friends" - never try again or prepare on polish flags on Kremal.:skull:


My post seems to be nationalist - exactly!!! It is nationalist because I'm pround nationalist. I'm pround because we didn't kissed russian ass, we hold formation and we won.

I can understand your pride, but that doesn't mean you should just throw out verbal conventions or general nice behaviour.

Instead of a 1337-speak styled jab at the Russians, you should perhaps structure it differently and refrain from using words such as 'sucked' or 'pussies'.
Keep it intellectual or I will have to move it to the Backroom where it presently deserves to be.

Now I will let it stay because generally people here are more calm and won't enter a pissingcontest.

So people, discuss away, just remember I'm here too and I'm watchful.

world war II could have been a whole lot different and perhaps earlier, later or never happened. The invasion of Poland could have been seen as liberation instead of occupation.

Killing and/or torturing POW's has at times brought disasterous results and to my knowledge has never had a great benifical gain.

The Poles more than likely got knowledge of this treatment and therefore more than likely led to more cases of fighting to the death.

Quite often generals/commanders reguraly discouraged unfair treatment of prisoners knowing that it is easier to entice a surrender.

COUNTEROFFENSIVE OF 15.08.1920

Yes, very important event in european history. Consequences of a defeat would be enormous with another world war in the 20s itself.

It bought very important 20 years of independence for the whole central-eastern Europe without those present Europe would be much, much different.

Cegorach :2thumbsup:

You know, I've always looked with suspicion at paople that claim that ALL russians were criminals, and ALL poles were heroes, and specially with claims of russian communists joining german communist in some sort of quest to conquer europe.

And, personally, if I were russian, I'd be offended.

Genocidal campaigns of the Red Army against the Don Cossacks at that time. The imposed terror in the territories they conquered. The way they treated the deputees who appeared to create new Russian constitution, the way they dealt with peasants... you can find hardly anything better, any difference so crystal clear - the Bolshevick government were murderers and war criminals.

The Russians were however both a victim and the perpetrator in this case. That is why they were treated fairly when captured or even joined pro-Polish Russian units which DID appear in this war ( Kuban Cossacks brigade for example).


It is better to describe this war as conflict between a democratic state and society vs brutal regime interested in conquest in the name of their sick ideology.:book:

I'm actually suprised the Russians managed to form such large an army only three years after they left WWI, on the other hand without wanting to say anything about Polish bravery, I think it would be very unlikely that a country like Germany would've been able to field armies large enough to once more march through Belgium and France.

I personally doubt they were able to conquer entire Germany even if notable numbers of communist supporters or people who would join them later due to various reasons.

Still the entire central-eastern Europe would fall, the consequences of the Red expansion are still apocaliptic with some sort of world-wide conflict immediatelly emerging. The treaty of Versailles would be scrapped and Europe would find itself at war another time.

Possibly there would be no Holocaust, but given the anti-semtism so deeply rooted in Russia and among some important members of Bolshevick leadership ( e.g. Stalin) it could easily be replaced my massive pogroms and re-settlement at enormous scale which de facto equals the Holocaust - this time a Red one...

Well the Reds fared overall pretty good in the post-WWI conflicts. With so many enemies over a vast amount of territory, the fact that they managed to finally consolidate power and regain most of the lands that were occupied by counter-revolutionary forces spells out a success.
Now, in the scenario that Poland was removed as a buffer state between the future USSR and Germany, it'd be quite interesting to see how the internal balances in Germany and by extension the whole continent would have formed up. If again it came down to Hitler's Drang nach Osten, then one can develop a mind-numbing number of possible outcomes for WWII. But ofcourse a decent awareness amount of the butterfly effect means that some of the things mentioned could had been mutually exclusive.

EDIT: Stalin's antisemitism was more of a consistent Cold War propaganda stunt than a hint of systematic Jew persecution. It's just that some of his harshest measures were put out of context for evident purposes.

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Originally Posted by Conradus

I'm actually suprised the Russians managed to form such large an army only three years after they left WWI, on the other hand without wanting to say anything about Polish bravery, I think it would be very unlikely that a country like Germany would've been able to field armies large enough to once more march through Belgium and France.

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Well, the troops deserted in WWI because they were fed up with the system, both politically and militarily. They were among the first to join the the communists in St. Peterburg.
So it isn't that surprising, to me at least, that after the civil war where more or less all the troops of WWI joined up on way orthe other, Russia could field a rather large army to fight Poland.

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Originally Posted by Kraxis

Well, the troops deserted in WWI because they were fed up with the system, both politically and militarily. They were among the first to join the the communists in St. Peterburg.
So it isn't that surprising, to me at least, that after the civil war where more or less all the troops of WWI joined up on way orthe other, Russia could field a rather large army to fight Poland.

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True enough Kraxis, but on the other hand, the Russians were badly armed and equipped in the first war and yet be able to field armies to invade Poland seems quite an accomplishment to me. On the other hand, Russia was/is a huge country and an army of 900,000 isn't quite the staggering number that armies had during WWI. Still I'm suprised they actually tried it.

The Red Army was more than 3 000 000 large at that time.:book:

Actually 5 million, but 'only' around 800-900,000 troops were actually involved in the war. Partly because the Red Army didn't have enough weapons.

Those numbers aren't too far from the 737,767 troops of the Polish forces on the eve of the Battle of Warsaw.
So not only did the Soviets get outmaneuvered but they also underestimated the strength of their enemies.

Poles didn't have enough weaponry too - a large part of deliveries was blocked either by Germans in Danzig or by Czechs (railroads).

About the numbers - Red Army had other wars o fight and a number of its own citizens to control and they didn't stop to wait for supplies and more men.
Poles on the other hand had a huge rise of volunteers and were fighting on their territory - the Bolshevicks were counting on some sort of revolution among Polish peasants and workers, but they seen little reason to rebel or join the horde-like army invading their country.
The battle for minds was won a long time before the war by Polish socialists and various activists, mass education ( rabid anti-Polish in Russia and Germany) was used against the German and Russian plans and patriotism was present in the entire society. Still victory was a matter of great riske taken by Jozef Pilsudski ( https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped.../Pilsudski.ogg) who redirected most valuable units in the army for a suprising and devastating counterassault.:2thumbsup:

I do not deny that, of course not. But the Red Army wasn't the huge mass of men it has been viewed to be in most conflicts.
Now losses and all that can of course be disguised so I suppose that the Russians had more troops posted to the Polish front than the 900,000 all together, but I doubt they had more at any one time.

:poland:

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Originally Posted by KrooK

Tomorrow, 15.08.2006 there will be anniversary of great victory.
In 1920 Poles defeated Russian army, which had invaded Poland. Russians behaved like barbarians (killed prisoners of war, even injured, murdered, raped and destroyed everything) but fought like pus-sies. They have been destroyed near Warsaw and later close to Niemen river. That battle is perfect example of old military truth - smaller, better commanded army with high morale can crush 3 times more band of criminals.
Cav army, proudness of soviet army, has been destroyed later by polish cav divisions. That unit fight well with polish mitiary hospitals or very well murdered prisoners but sucke-d facing organised cav.
During August 1920 Poles captured over 100.000 prisoners of war. Despite they should be all killed for war crimes, they were sent to prison and released after war. This is for me one of differences between Poles and Russians.
Without that victory, all Europe would be captured by communist. Russian communist revolution would connect with German communist and capture all Europe.
For long time it was worst defeat of Soviet Union, compared only with loses from 1941. Even with german help Russians couldn't face polish army and they still remember their defeat. They keep telling that Poles murdered prisoners into prisoner camp or that they keep using poisons. It's false. Russians just lost because of their commanders stupidness, low morale of their soldiers (criminals never had good morale) and high morale of polish army.
So remember "eastern friends" - never try again or prepare on polish flags on Kremal.:skull:

My post seems to be nationalist - exactly!!! It is nationalist because I'm pround nationalist. I'm pround because we didn't kissed russian ass, we hold formation and we won.

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I don't fault you for your obvious pride in the achievements of the brave Polish army in this affair. It is a shame that you could haven't provided us, those interested in the historical aspects, with a more detailed account of this Battle of Warsaw. I am curious about the units involved, the terrain, the tactics, the key generals on both sides, and of course any particular heroics during the fight. In what ways did it differ from the siege of Warsaw by the Germans in 1939?

Thanks in advance for any more that you might tell us.

Regards brave Polski! May Poland live forever free! :poland:

Wikipedia is very helpful.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish-Soviet_war


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish-Soviet_War_in_1920


and here is the map of the particular battle

https://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b..._-_Phase_2.png

The image doesn't show... Try imageshack.

I can see it perfectly well. The image is from wiki anyway, one can click on the link as well.

Ah yes it is up now... Previously it was just the little red cross.

As Kraxis has pointed out, the fielding of a large Soviet Army was hardly surprising.

The Soviets, following the revolution, were immediately involved in a civil war Red v White and in countering incursions by the Western expeditionary forces and the anti-communist volunteer groups.

The conflict was not all that much shorter than, and was just as visciously fought as, the Spanish Civil war a few years later -- it simply didn't have the degree of "coverage" lavished on Franco and company.

The war against Poland was executed by a Soviet Army that really had not done more than pause between conflicts -- they had plenty of folks in uniform (though their logistics sucked).


Moreover, as to morale, this army was no longer fighting to free Russia from the Tsars. Traditionally, the Russian soldier has always been a fierce opponent when defending the Rodina -- but prone to mixed results when fighting off Russian soil.

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Originally Posted by Seamus Fermanagh

...The Soviets, following the revolution, were immediately involved in a civil war Red v White and in countering incursions by the Western expeditionary forces and the anti-communist volunteer groups...
The war against Poland was executed by a Soviet Army that really had not done more than pause between conflicts -- they had plenty of folks in uniform (though their logistics sucked)....

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Seamus gives a far better overall description of the factors involved in the Red Army's defeat at Warsaw than our Polish friend did with his "unique" view. It is worth noting that the Russians were not the only ones who were effected by poor morale. The so-called Mozyr Group of the Red Army that continually pushed back four Polish divisions all the way to the Wieprz River south of Warsaw. When Pilsudski was able to regroup these divisions and reinforce it with a fifth he attacked the Mozyr Group on August 16th which quickly began to retreat.

As it turns out this 'powerhouse' formation that had so roughly handled the Poles on their retreat consisted of little more than elements of a single Soviet division, the 57th Rifle. What was importatnt about the location of the attack was that it uncovered the entire flank of the Soviet 16th Army then attacking Warsaw. As the Polish formation bagan to wheel in behind the Red Army it began to collapse, creating a larger gap in the front, further uncovering the flanks of the other armies and forcing them to withdraw. As the front began to crumble the entire Polish army was able to go over to the attack and the reatreat turned into rout. The Soviet 3rd, 4th, 15th and 16th Armies as well as the 3rd Cavalry Corps had no choice to withdraw or be encircled. Losses were heavy and 70,000 soviet troops were captured and 70,000 more forced to withdraw into East Prussia where they were interned by the German army. Some 231 artillery pieces were lost along with 1,000 machine guns and 10,000 carts and wagons.

The Polish attack had been fortunate to attack the weakest point of the Red Army's front and the breakthrough was totally unexpected. However, history is full of such lucky events for one side or the other and things might have worked out differently if Pilsudski had struck anywhere else. It is also worth noting that the Polish delegation in Minsk, unaware of the victory for some five days, was trying to negotiate a ceasefire and settlement of the border issues in the face of what appeared to be certain defeat. The peace talks were then moved to Riga where on October 18th the ceasefire was signed followed by the Treaty of Riga in Mar 1921, ending the war.

[QUOTE=Pontifex Rex]

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When Pilsudski was able to regroup these divisions and reinforce it with a fifth he attacked the Mozyr Group on August 16th which quickly began to retreat.

As it turns out this 'powerhouse' formation that had so roughly handled the Poles on their retreat consisted of little more than elements of a single Soviet division, the 57th Rifle.

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This task force was never strong - 1 infantry division and two weak brigades. It is hard to call that a powerhouse simply Pripet Marshes covered Red flank well enough.

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The Polish attack had been fortunate to attack the weakest point of the Red Army's front and the breakthrough was totally unexpected.

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Luck or good planning ? THe decision to concentrate on attacking in this place was hard to make and involved some pretty massive redeployement - 4 elite infantry divisions and two cavalry brigades were sent there to overrun Mozyr group and cut off as many Red Arm's units as possible.
The flank of the attacking force was covered by weak force ( 6th Ukrainian allied division mostly) so it could be risky.

However we know now that it were the Polish code-breakers who made the decision much easier. It wasn't lucky, though remained dangerous if the Horse Army was redeployed fast enough. Good that it wasn't but heavy fighting at Lwow and the local counteroffensive in that are in July has something to do with that.

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It is also worth noting that the Polish delegation in Minsk, unaware of the victory for some five days, was trying to negotiate a ceasefire and settlement of the border issues in the face of what appeared to be certain defeat.

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The Bolsheviks blocked all communication between them and the government and tried to intimidate them, but they stopped after the news of defeat reached them.



Low morale of the Red Army ?

Don't forget that it was at the gates of a big city which meant massive plundering. Also anti-Polish sentiments were strong among their troopers especially with CZk behind the lines with machine guns to 'boost the morale' (in 1920 they started using the tactic known better from 2nd WW).

The main problem was that the army was advancing quickly for last 5 weeks - supplies and replacements were not quick enough to reach the front in time, but stopping that was also risky - would give the Poles enough time to re-group, so Tuchachevsky decided to carry on the offensive.

We shouldn't go to far in judging the Red Army so harshly otherwise me might reach the conclusion that Poles couldn't lose this war at that time - contrary to the belief of all other european governments at that time - NOONE expected Poles to win !:inquisitive:

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Originally Posted by KrooK

Tomorrow, 15.08.2006 there will be anniversary of great victory.
In 1920 Poles defeated Russian army, which had invaded Poland. Russians behaved like barbarians (killed prisoners of war, even injured, murdered, raped and destroyed everything) but fought like pus-sies. They have been destroyed near Warsaw and later close to Niemen river. That battle is perfect example of old military truth - smaller, better commanded army with high morale can crush 3 times more band of criminals.
Cav army, proudness of soviet army, has been destroyed later by polish cav divisions. That unit fight well with polish mitiary hospitals or very well murdered prisoners but sucke-d facing organised cav.
During August 1920 Poles captured over 100.000 prisoners of war. Despite they should be all killed for war crimes, they were sent to prison and released after war. This is for me one of differences between Poles and Russians.
Without that victory, all Europe would be captured by communist. Russian communist revolution would connect with German communist and capture all Europe.
For long time it was worst defeat of Soviet Union, compared only with loses from 1941. Even with german help Russians couldn't face polish army and they still remember their defeat. They keep telling that Poles murdered prisoners into prisoner camp or that they keep using poisons. It's false. Russians just lost because of their commanders stupidness, low morale of their soldiers (criminals never had good morale) and high morale of polish army.
So remember "eastern friends" - never try again or prepare on polish flags on Kremal.:skull:


My post seems to be nationalist - exactly!!! It is nationalist because I'm pround nationalist. I'm pround because we didn't kissed russian ass, we hold formation and we won.

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Don't forget that pride can be a dangerous thing. Probably because of that pride polish commanders thought that their "invincible" cavalry can hold its own against german tanks 2 decades later.

Also, calling an entire russian army "rapists, criminals, murderers, bandits" is very rude, and I would also be offended if I were russian.

I think the very fact that a single division of "thieves, murderers and rapists" was able to force back four Polish divisions is a pretty impressive accomplishment in and of itself. Had things been a little different- mainly, had the Red Army had better logistical trains- the Mozyr group might have become known as the standout unit in the battle.

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Originally Posted by cegorach1

Luck or good planning ? The decision to concentrate on attacking in this place was hard to make and involved some pretty massive redeployement - 4 elite infantry divisions and two cavalry brigades were sent there to overrun Mozyr group and cut off as many Red Arm's units as possible.
The flank of the attacking force was covered by weak force ( 6th Ukrainian allied division mostly) so it could be risky.

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Probably a bit of both, most victories are a combination of good luck and good planning. I am sure you would agree that the retreat from Russian and the Ukraine had actually helped the Polish army. The retreat had been going on for some six weeks and while the Polish were suffering morale problems the armies did not collapse. The retreat to the west had brought the Polish armies closer to their supplies and sources of replacement while the Red Army drew further away from their own. By August the Poles had some 191,000 "fighting men" (rifles and sabres) compared to the Red Army's 177,000 (Bitter Glory, Richard Watt, pg 143).

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Originally Posted by cegorach1

However we know now that it were the Polish code-breakers who made the decision much easier. It wasn't lucky, though remained dangerous if the Horse Army was redeployed fast enough. Good that it wasn't but heavy fighting at Lwow and the local counteroffensive in that are in July has something to do with that.

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I believe you are talking about Captain Jan Kowalewski, who broke the Red Army codes and made possible the monitoring of the Red Army's radio traffic.
I would submit that the luck, good planning, Pilsudski's skill, errors on Red Army's part, logistics and morale all played a role in the victory. Had Yergarov followed his orders and swung his 'Army of the Southwest' northward instead of heading for Lwow, the Russian plan of encircleing the Polish army near Warsaw *may* have worked. Instead, a gap grew between his armies and those of Tukhachevky's 'Army of the West' which could only be filled by the scratch "Mozyr Group". Pilsudki saw this growing gap and decided to try and take advantage of it. Unfortunately, even with being able to read the Russian codes the Poles did not have a good idea of how strong this group was.

With only five divisions for the attack, it was definitely a calculated risk and Pilsudki was concerned the attack could fail as the "enemy who up till now, had constantly broken the resistance of the great part of our army" ("Decisive Battles", JFC Fuller, pg 954, quoting General Pilsudski). The five Polish divisions were not of uniform quality and varied greatly in strenght and weapons and Polish intelligence could not identify more than the 57th Rifle division on the other side of the river. Since the Mozyr Group had driven back the 21st Polish division so easily it was thought the group was much stronger than it turned out to be (Bitter Glory, Richard Watt, pg 146-147).

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Originally Posted by cegorach1

The Bolsheviks blocked all communication between them and the government and tried to intimidate them, but they stopped after the news of defeat reached them.

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Agreed, the tone of the discussions changed 180 degrees after August 21st and the Polish delegation demanded the talks be moved to a neutral site (Riga).

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Originally Posted by cegorach1

Don't forget that it was at the gates of a big city which meant massive plundering. Also anti-Polish sentiments were strong among their troopers especially with CZk behind the lines with machine guns to 'boost the morale' (in 1920 they started using the tactic known better from 2nd WW).

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I would suggest that the use of "blocking forces" to prevent Red Army units from retreating speaks volumes about the level of morale within the Red Army.

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Originally Posted by cegorach1

The main problem was that the army was advancing quickly for last 5 weeks - supplies and replacements were not quick enough to reach the front in time, but stopping that was also risky - would give the Poles enough time to re-group, so Tuchachevsky decided to carry on the offensive.

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Exactly. Also, the Soviet government expected revolution to breakout as soon they entered Poland and were very surprised when it did not. Instead of being supported (materially) by the peasants they were uniformly ignored or treated with hostility. As such, there was now a need to leave troops behind to secure the rear areas where the Poles could use the vast majority of their troops to fight. The Red Army's logistical services were almost non-existant and thus the troops often had to resort to the older practices of foraging from the countryside and population to feed themselves (as in the days of Napoleon, for example). Supplies and reinforcements simply could not keep up.

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Originally Posted by cegorach1

We shouldn't go to far in judging the Red Army so harshly otherwise me might reach the conclusion that Poles couldn't lose this war at that time - contrary to the belief of all other european governments at that time - NOONE expected Poles to win !:inquisitive:

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I agree. There were so many factors that took place that made the Polish victory possible that it does seem like a "Miracle on the Vistula". It is in examining these factors that we learn what happened and why.

Cheers. ~:cheers:

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Originally Posted by Zorba

I think the very fact that a single division of "thieves, murderers and rapists" was able to force back four Polish divisions is a pretty impressive accomplishment in and of itself. Had things been a little different- mainly, had the Red Army had better logistical trains- the Mozyr group might have become known as the standout unit in the battle.

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Hmm... When ?:inquisitive: :inquisitive:


@ Sarmatian
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Don't forget that pride can be a dangerous thing. Probably because of that pride polish commanders thought that their "invincible" cavalry can hold its own against german tanks 2 decades later.

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What ?:inquisitive: On what grounds are you making this statement ?


Though you are right in one thing Polish cavalry handled German tanks in 1939 pretty well, that is true.

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Also, calling an entire russian army "rapists, criminals, murderers, bandits" is very rude, and I would also be offended if I were russian.

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Of course it wasn't me who wrote that... thing, but I will answer that. It wasn't Russian, but the Red Army formed from severla nationalities, mainly Russian true, but as a force of totalitarian, despotic regime it cannot be treated as normal forces unless we call Nazi SS or Wehrmacht 'liberational forces'. Tne number of criminals was generally quite high in the Red Army sent to Poland in 1920 acting often as mongolic hordes from legends. If someone uses POWs for sabre practice, kills soldiers and civilians in hospitals, cuts a part of civilian population in every city it passes it certainly shouldn't be treated the same way as every other force or army. Or should it ?

@Pontifex Rex

'Bitter Glory' by Richard Watt

Is generally a good source, although the author could add more of the Nemel offensive which decided the outcome of the war.

Also N.Davis 'White Eagle and Red Star' is better in details like internatioal situation, consequences of the war and also some other pieces of information like the state of the Red Army at the end of this war which literally was falling apart.



Few notes only:

The force used to counterattack consisted of elite divisions which used some of the best soldiers available so even if it was only roughly 5 of them it certainly equalled at least 7-8 Red Army's divisions.


The entire war had one interesting feature - almost irregular character of warfare with 'normal' infantry like the Polish forces from Greater Poland never used to one particular problem - fighting wih exposed flanks - it was not possible to halt enemy outflanking your position which easily ended in a retreat, sometimes in a rout.


The volunteer force rised at the eve of this battle proved to be suprisingly effective with losses in regular forces replaced and their morale notably rised by those 'priests and poets' as they were called. In fact it is the beginning of modern Polish officer cadres who later were called by German Abwehra 'fanatical'.:2thumbsup:

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I would suggest that the use of "blocking forces" to prevent Red Army units from retreating speaks volumes about the level of morale within the Red Army

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It is however a logic conclusion to the long tradition of handling similar problems in Russian/Soviet forces starting with Oprychniki or even the Streltsy of Ivan the Terrible.

Terrorist dictatorship of Ivan III or Ivan IV and Communist state have so much in common.:book:

Regards Cegorach:2thumbsup:

Polish cav charging german tanks.

Interesting stereotype - don't you think Cegorach1?

In my opinion it's all results of french propaganda from 1939/1940.
French high command couldn't understand that Germany won because of new tactic and powerfull air/tank support, so they thought that Polish army was simply untrained. Later it appeared that French soldiers were fighting much worse.

Everyone who thinks that cavarly can't stop tanks - read about Battle of Mokra. Remember that in polish army cav brigades were simply elite infantry brigades on horses. They were charging when situation was suitable, but normally they were fighting like typical infantry.

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Originally Posted by KrooK

Polish cav charging german tanks....
In my opinion it's all results of french propaganda from 1939/1940.....

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This an old stereotype that just refuses to die. Actually, Krook, the myth began as a result of an Italian journalist who witnessed a battle near Krojanty in the opening days of the war. In one instance, on September 1st, 1939, the 18th Uhlan Reg't of the Pomorska Cavalry Brigade rode in to rescue elements of the 13th Infantry Reg't of the 9th Infantry division.

The Uhlans swept through the woods and stuck the flank of the 76th infantry reg't of the 20th Motorised division. The Germans tried to pull back but were hit hard by the charge. Just as the Germans were beginning to crumble a column of German light tanks and armoured cars arrived who in their turn caused very heavy casualties to the Polish cavalry. The Uhlans pulled out only after the infantry they had come to help had made good their withdrawal. They did not charge the tanks.

Cheers.

From the articles and map provided us by cegorach1, it appears that the Polish army was able to use good economy of force along with trading space for time in order to spring thier flank attacks on the Soviet thrusts. The only way for it to have succeeded so well was for the Soviet command to have failed to make adequate reconnaisance of the Polish army's strength and intentions. Perhaps they were so focused on thier objectives that they forgot this elemental procedure. This was also quite common of them during WWII during thier relentless offensives.

Interesting battle, almost looks like armored tactics in some ways.