A Fascist Masterpiece

(Pictured: Polish 18th Uhlan Regiment)

Of all the nations that fought in the Second World War, Poland has perhaps had the most lies told and pervasive myths spread about it. The bare facts of Poland's participation in the war are grim: Over six million dead (more or less evenly split between Jews and Christians) and the highest per capita civilian losses of the war. The various Polish armies of the war hold the distinction of being the sole allied force to have fought on every major front in Europe.

How is it, then, that in popular western memory, the Poles are remembered as romantic (or worse) fools whose most memorable action of the war were the cavalry charges against German tanks in 1939?

In fact, horse cavalry troops were used by every army (yes, even the Germans had horse cavalry divisions) on the eastern front during the Second World War. Indeed, the Soviets did not disband their horse cavalry units until the 1950s! There is no mystery, incompetence, or misplaced romanticism here. The use of mounted troops was driven by the vastness of the land on the eastern front, and the relative lack of good roads in the region. Put another way, horse mounted troops were exceedingly useful to all combatants in eastern Europe. It should, therefore, come as no surprise that the Polish army of 1939 counted several brigades of horse cavalry.

The legend of the Polish cavalry charges against the German tanks is just that: a legend. It is a legend that had its birth in the foul practice of wartime propaganda, and as such, it has represented an enduring triumph of fascist propaganda since so many people continue to believe what is essentially a lie.

A good description of the battle that led to the propaganda can be found here, but the essence of the action follows.

On the first day of the war, German infantry of the 20th Motorised Division paused near the village of Krojanty to rest in a nearby wood. The Germans made the mistake of letting their guard down, and were surprised and routed by a mounted cavalry charge of the Polish 18th Uhlan Regiment. Here is an essential clue that what we have heard all along is wrong somehow -- the Poles are initially victors, not hapless fools better suited to an earlier era. But, as the Polish cavalry completed their charge against the German infantry (cavalry charges can't be stopped at a moment's notice), German armored vehicles entered the battlefield. Before the Poles could get their horses out of the area, the German armored vehicles fired on them using machine-guns, causing predictably high casualties given the high profile of the mounted troops. There was no cavalry charge against tanks. The resulting Polish casualties laid the foundation for the propaganda blitz that followed.

German and Italian journalists were brought to the scene of the battle and shown the German armored vehicles and the fallen Polish cavalrymen and their horses. Reports to the press soon followed that described a mythical battle in which the Polish cavalry heroically but stupidly charged German tanks with lances and sabers. According to the site mentioned above, the Soviets continued to fan the flames of this particular bit of propaganda after the war, as they wished to make the prewar (republican) Polish army look ridiculous in the eyes of a people who still mourned for their dead and honored in particular those who had fallen in 1939.

Ironically, in 1945, the 1st Army of the Polish People's Armed Forces counted among its major units the 1st Cavalry Brigade. Among its more famous actions was a horse-mounted charge near Berlin that stormed and overran a German antitank gun position near Schönefeld, proving that the era of horse-mounted troops was not yet quite over. Another irony is that though the fascists made much (falsified) hay of the Krojanty battle, there is no shortage of modern Nazi sympathizers who adore the horse-mounted troops of the 8. SS-Kavallerie-Division.

Yes, even the notorious SS had horse cavalry troops. My, how the myths of World War II collapse when given even only a cursory examination . . .