Recently another Great History blogger, Rob Citino, discussed the oft-repeated, and entirely false claim that Polish cavalry had been butchered conducting foolish mounted charges against tanks. Another claim, equally false, persists from that same campaign. If you ask people about the air campaign over Poland, most will reply that there was no real air campaign in 1939 because the Polish Air Force was caught by surprise on the ground the first day and destroyed. That was one of the earliest wartime propaganda fabrications by the Germans.
Why make something like that up?
To cover up the extent to which the Polish Air Force thrashed the Luftwaffe.
For Germany, the stunning reverse the Luftwaffe suffered in the air over Poland needed covering up, particularly from its own population and ground forces. With Germany facing the combined strength of France and Britain in the next campaign, it would hardly have inspired confidence to learn that the Luftwaffe had outnumbered its opponent by 4:1 in its first serious outing, had superior aircraft, and had been humiliated.
How was it even possible, given the numeric and technical qualitative edge enjoyed by the Germans?
Part of the answer lies in a fact which is all but forgotten now. Poland in 1939 was the most aviation-conscious nation in Europe, as measured by the number of trained pilots as a percentage of the total population. Poland produced excellent aircraft designers and top-notch pilots, and competition for the flying positions in the Polish Air Force was fierce. Pilots, once accepted, trained rigorously and became the most tactically proficient in the world, as the record of the single squadron of escaped Polish pilots in the Battle of Britain would later confirm.
This is also borne out by the statistics of the air campaign, one of the most striking being the comparative losses in fighter combat. In the first six days of the war, Polish fighters racked up 105 confirmed kills, while losing only 63 of their own fighters. Overall in the campaign the Poles would maintain a 2:1 kill ratio in aerial combat – not bad for a force outnumbered 4:1 and with slower and more lightly armed aircraft.
Statistics – particularly air combat statistics – can often be misleading, but there is one element to the statistics of this air campaign that is unique in World War II. Routinely, and in almost every air force in the world, the “confirmed” kills from aerial combat usually ran about two to three times higher than the actual losses suffered by the opponent, as verified by the post-war examination records of those air forces. To my knowledge there is only one exception to this rule. The claimed kills by Polish pilots and AA gunners in the September campaign – because the Polish criteria for a confirmed kill was so exacting – were actually lower than the recorded German combat losses.
Here are the statistics on the comparative numbers and losses in the campaign.
Polish Air Strength
Total Aircraft: 435
First Line Combat Aircraft: 313
Total Losses: 327
Combat Losses: 187
Air-to-air combat: 70
Enemy ground fire: c30
Friendly Ground Fire: c33
Destroyed on ground: c54
Damaged and written off: 140
Evacuated to Romania: 98 (mostly fighters)
Unaccounted for: 10
German Air Strength
Total Aircraft: 2085
First Line Combat Aircraft: 1323
Total Losses: 564
Combat Losses: 285 (from German records)
(Polish claimed kills: 220)
(Polish claimed air-to-air kills: 133)
(Polish claimed ground-to-air kills: 87)
Damaged and written off: 279
What about the old saw that the Luftwaffe caught the Polish Air Force on the ground and destroyed it in the opening round of the offensive? The Polish Air Force was mobilized and prepared for the German offensive, and its combat squadrons were well-dispersed to satellite fields the day before the war began. On the first day of the German offensive, the only airfield attacked in strength was a field near Krakow where 28 unserviceable aircraft (which had not been able to fly to the dispersion fields) were destroyed. The only other really successful Luftwaffe attacks on a Polish airfield took place on September 14 and 15, two weeks into the campaign, when German bombers managed to catch and destroy 17 serviceable PZL 23B light scout bombers at the Hutniki airfield.
The Polish Air Force remained a dangerous, if seriously out-numbered, force throughout the campaign until the Soviet intervention on September 17, at which time the surviving fighter squadrons were ordered to fly to Romania and intern themselves. By this act, one third of the original first-line combat strength of the Polish Air Force survived destruction. The dwindling force of bombers continued to make pin-prick raids while their aircraft lasted.
The material impact on the Luftwaffe was dramatic. Over a quarter of the total first-line air inventory of the Luftwaffe was lost in Poland. All of the aircraft production and pilot training between then and the start of the campaign against France were barely sufficient to bring the front-line strength back to the same as it had been the day the Germans took on the Poles.
On the other hand, the Luftwaffe learned enormously from the punishing losses it took. The force which took on the British and French the following summer was definitely battle-seasoned, although at a considerable price.
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Gerald D. Swick said:
Interesting how often conventional wisdom is accepted without reviewing hard data. (Everyone who still believes the Union cavalry was armed with repeaters at Gettysburg raise your hand.) Polish fighter planes enjoyed a good reputation in the 1930s and, based on your data, Frank, apparently their pilots were top-notch, too.
One note on the fighter planes that escaped to Romania: Only 30-some P.11 types were deemed by the Romanians to have any combat value, according to “Rumanian Air Force: The Prime Decade, 1938 – 1947,” by Denes Bernad (squadron/signal publications, 1999).
September 8th, 2009 at 10:19 am
Barbaross@ said:
My grandfather’s brother serve in Polish Air Forces in September campaign 1939, on P-37 Łoś bomber. His crew was shoot down 14 Sept. after mission against German armoured column near Jaroslaw in southern Poland. Two weeks after begining of war, and Polish bombers had been still operational.
Thanks for this text.
September 8th, 2009 at 3:08 pm
Frank Chadwick said:
Barbaross,
Thanks for your comment. The P-37 was one of the best medium bombers in the world in 1939. Compared to the workhorse bomber of the Luftwaffe at the time (the He-111) the P-37 Łoś had a heavier bomb load (3000 kg as opposed to 2,500) and more speed (445 kph as opposed yo 405). The German Ju-88 was faster but carried only about 2,000 kg of bombs. Your grandfather flew one of only 36 P-37 Łoś bombers in service in 1939. The mission on September 14 against an armored column in which your grandfather’s crew was shot down was probably against the spearhead of the 2nd Panzer Division.
September 8th, 2009 at 7:12 pm
Barbaross@ said:
Mr. Chadwick. Thanks for detailed informations. Indeed P-37 Łoś was a very good construction, and looks great.
I wish more such articles about Polish campaign 1939.
Best regards
September 9th, 2009 at 10:23 am
Trace Dawson said:
One of the reasons that I enjoy this website is that it constantly challenges traditional historical thought. In all my historical training and study, I never knew that the Poles put up a good fight against the Germans. I would be interested in your sources for this information. Another historical note is that the victors get to write the history, which of course is slanted towards the winning cause.
September 9th, 2009 at 11:50 am
Frank Chadwick said:
Trace: The best history of the Polish armmed forced in the 1939 campaign is THE POLISH CAMPAIGN 1939 by Steven Zaloga and Victor Madej (1985, Hippocrene, ISBN 0-88254-994-4), which is now quite rare but worth finding. The information on the air war came from that source. Jozef Garlinski’s POLAND IN THE SECOND WORLD WAR (1985, Hippocrene, ISBN 0-87052-372-4)is much broader (and so less detailed) in scope but also worth finding.
September 9th, 2009 at 5:00 pm
Mitridate said:
Unfortunately this is another article of many popping up recently and claiming, how good and superior the Polish army, airforce and god knows what else have been in comparison with the German forces.
I.e. fact is, that the headline of the post:
Polish cavalry–presumably with lances lowered–decided to have a go at some German Panzers …
is NOT one of the greatest and most enduring myths of World War II. It took place and even fotos and a short movie do exist (not the typical propaganda stuff the Nazis came up with!!)
There seems to exist a kind of Polish Mafia, most prominent in the US, to make convert Poland into some kind of larger than life hoax.
Sorry, but Poland got wiped out, which was very unfortunate and sad for the Polish people as such, and luckily the Nazis lost at the end.
And we better don’t forget, that Poland took their defeat to justify their card blanche to kill and “relocate” millions of Germans after the war.
September 10th, 2009 at 6:51 am
drfubar said:
Mitridate the Poles never attacked Nazi German tanks on horse back with lances in World War II. If you have a link to this supposed attack on film please link it here. Where that myth came from was after a Polish cavalry unit launched an attack against Nazi German infantry and were then repulsed by armored cars. This scene of dead cavalrymen and their horses were then shown to an Italian reporter and he was told that they had attacked tanks. As for the Polish Air force another great book about them in World War II is A Question of Honor by Lynne Olsen and Stanley Cloud. This book mainly deals with the Kosciuszko Squadron, but also deals with the Polish Air force during the war.
September 11th, 2009 at 11:17 am
Jake Strangeway said:
Mitridate,
I’m not sure where the venom behind the post comes – but I think we can discuss this rationally. I am not sure which articles/sources you are referring to that prove that the Polish cavalry charged German tanks – if you link them here I’m sure people would like to see them.
As for the idea that there is a group writing articles inflating the performance of the Polish forces during WWII, I can only ask – why? It makes complete sense for a German army, outnumbering the Polish army 1.5 to 1 in infantry, 3 to 1 in field artillery, 4 to 1 in combat aircraft, and a 5 to 1 advantage in both tanks and anti-tank guns would want to hide having difficulties in their campaign from their own populace. It makes much less sense that historians, 70 years after the war, would want to rewrite history to make the Poles seem better – unless you are aware of a motive I haven’t thought of?
Certainly the Poles lost the war, and there really was never any doubt, given that their high command based their defensive positions with two incorrect assumptions – the invasion of Germany in the west by France, and the non-intervention of Russia from the east.
The Poles deployed most of their army in positions unsuitable (or at least, less suitable) for a defense of their own country, but close to jump off positions to support the French. Given the fact that the German army was significantly more motorized than the Polish one (I believe an entire Polish infantry division had less vehicles than a signal battalion of a German infantry division) and their lack of corps and army group commanders left them in a position to be bypassed, and then, while out of communication, slowly ground to death by superior German forces.
That being the case, it still is shown over and over again that the Poles, in general, significantly outclassed their German opponents man for man – at battlefields like Mokra, Bruchow, Piotrkow, Bzura River, and the clashes in the air, that the Poles could give as well as they received in the smaller battles.
The Germans won, and relatively quickly, but it was not the walkover that it is perceived by some to be.
September 11th, 2009 at 2:21 pm
Frank Chadwick said:
Mitridates, let me be completely clear on this — Polish cavalry did not attack German panzers with lances, ever. If you believe otherwise, you have been misled. If you would like to share your “evidence” with us, I’d love to see it. (I like a good laugh as much as the next guy.)
If you honestly think that the German Army destroyed the Polish Army without breaking into a sweat, then you are in disagreement with, among other people, the Bundeswehr — the contemporary German Army — whose own historical work on the subject uncovered serious and systemic failures of German infantry, covered up by the propaganda services at the time, and which prompted a crash retraining program for infantry junior officers and NCOs during the winter of 1939/40. Perhaps you were unaware of that, but you should at least know that some really excellent historical work done by the German Army is in part the genesis of all those articles you notice “popping up recently and claiming, how good and superior the Polish army, airforce and god knows what else have been in comparison with the German forces.”
September 11th, 2009 at 5:20 pm
Which fighter brought the biggest new advantage when introduced? - Page 7 - Aircraft of World War II - Warbird Forums said:
[...] Originally Posted by Glider An observation re the Poles. During the battle for Poland the Poles considered the 110 to be better than the 109. I am looking into it to see if I can work out why, but if anyone has any ideas I would welcome any suggestions. Doesn't really answer your question but it's an interesting read, doesn't sound like the Poles really cared. I was aware of Polish excellence in aviation, their fighter school at Deblin was arguably the finest in the world at the time, but I also thought the Poles were largely caught on the ground Deadly Eagles: The Polish Air Force in 1939 : Great History [...]
October 23rd, 2009 at 4:53 pm
Bartek said:
Polish fighters at number about 135 planes ” were largely caught on the ground “,and after that killed in air-to-air fights about 133 German planes .
So the questions are :
1.How much does it means “largely” : 50 , 60 , 80 % ?
2.How many German planes killed one Polish fighter in air-to-air fights after survived the caught on the ground : 5 to 1 , 7 to 1 ?
January 27th, 2010 at 6:02 am