Going to Magdeburg Meeting

© Col. J. Albrecht, Landowski's wife and Capt. A. Landowski looking on Wisła River

© Kazimierz-nad-Wisłą view from the hills

© Town square of Kazimierz-nad-Wisłą

© Capt. Landowski with his wife on town square of Kazimierz-nad-Wisłą.
LUNCH AT THE KAZIMIERZ-NAD-WISLA; HOT RED BORSCH WITH LAMB STUFFED RAVIOLI. BAKED KASZANKA (A BLOOD/BUCKWHEAT SAUSAGE) WITH MASHED POTATOES SPRINKLED WITH FRESHLY CHOPPED CHIVES PLUS A LOCAL BLACK CURRENTS WINE.

© Kazimierz-nad-Wisłą; street view

© MP's car develops a problem on the way to Magdeburg meeting.
WE ARE WELCOMED AT THE BORDER. AFTER THE PARTY, LATE IN THE NIGHT, GESTAPO AGENTS SEARCH OUR BAGGAGE THINKING THAT WE ARE UNAWARE. NEXT DAY, AFTER BREAKFAST, A LINE OF CARS FLYING NAZI AND POLISH FLAGS DRIVES TO MAGDEBURG.

On 28 May 1920, the 55th Infantry Regiment of the 14th Wielkopolska Infantry Div. captured one Austin-Putilov near Bobruysk. It had Soviet name: "Styenka Razin" and belonged to the 1st avtobronyeotryad. It supported Soviet infantry, and then stuck in a ditch and was abandoned. Just after its capture, it was given a name "Poznańczyk" (of Poznań city) and was the first vehicle to constitute the newly created Wielkopolski Armoured Car Platoon. The car's (and platoon) commander was Lt. Feliks Peto. In July the platoon was fighting in retreat from Bobruysk then was moved to Warszawa, where in August it was reformed into the 2nd Armoured Car Platoon. The captured "Styenka Razin" without its Polish name yet. The car was light grey, with red inscription "Styenka Razin".

On 21 March, Austin-Kegresse, named "Ukrainyets" ('the Ukrainian'), was hit and immobilized by a 76.2mm gun of a Polish heavy armoured car Garford named "Dziadek" ('Grandfather'), from "Dziadek" Autopluton (automobile platoon).

The former "Ukrainyets" was repaired and used in "Dziadek" platoon during the rest of the war

28 April 1920, during the Polish Kiev Offensive, near village Kotyuzyntse, after being shot by the Polish 1st Battery of the 13th Kresowy Field Artillery Regiment, the blended train was abandoned and captured by the Polish troops of the 50th Kresowy Rifle Regiment. After repairs, it was manned by the Polish crew and entered service as: "Strzelec Kresowy", assigned initially to the 13th Infantry Division.

On May 7, 1920, the combined Polish-Ukrainian forces captured Kiev. Polish forces had begun preparing for an offensive towards north and the city of Zlobin, which would open the shortest train communication between Polish held Minsk and Kiev. Soviet Southwest Front was commanded by Aleksandr Yegorov.

On May 9th the Polish troops celebrated the capture of Kiev with the victory parade on Kreschatyk, the city's main street. However as the parading troops were Piłsudski's Poles instead of Petliura's Ukrainians, the Kievans watched this demonstration of force with great ambivalence, which looked to them just like another occupation army.

On 15 May Soviet 15th Army attacked Polish positions near Ulla, and 16th Army crossed Berezina River between Borysów and Bobrujsk Polish forces in that area, preparing for offensive towards Zlobin, managed to push back the Soviet forces back into the river, but were unable to pursue their own planned offensive. In the north, Polish forces have done much worse. Polish 1st Army was defeated and started a retreat towards Molodeczno, pursued by the 15th army which recaptured territories between Dzwina and Berezyna. At the end of May the front has stabilised near the small river Auta, and Soviet forces begun preparing for the next push concentrating in the Polosck region.

On May 24, 1920, the Polish-Ukrainian forces in the south were engaged for the first time by Semyon Budionny's famous 1st Cavalry Army (Konarmia). The Polish-Ukrainian forces succeeded in slowing and even defeating the Red Army on a number of occasions.

On May 29, 1920, the Soviet First Cavalry Army's 4th Cavalry Division attacked Polish positions at the villages of Volodarka, Berezno and Novokhvastiv. The area was defended by the Polish 44th Kresy Rifle Regiment, 16th Uhlan Regiment, elements of the 1st Uhlan Regiment, and the 7th Mounted Artillery Group. The Polish defenders formed strong pockets of resistance in the villages - a tactic that had shown itself to be superior to an attempted defense of an entire frontline. The Russian commander decided to attack them frontally. After the initial Cossack cavalry assault was repelled with heavy-machine-gun fire, the Polish cavalry counter-charged the Cossacks, and an intense hand-to-hand cavalry battle with sabres ensued. Both sides suffered major casualties. For example, the Polish 1st Uhlan Regiment's third squadron lost 30 of 72 men and a similar number of horses. The Polish charge succeeded. When further reinforcements arrived and joined in, the Cossacks fled the field. The commander of the Polish 3rd Army ordered a counterattack. Lt Col Stefan Dąb-Biernacki's newly-formed Wasilków Group was to attack the Yakir Group before it could attack the weakened 7th Division. The assault was successful, and the group - comprising a 5th Legions infantry regiment, reinforced with one battalion of the elite 1st Legions Infantry Regiment, two artillery groups, and two cavalry squadrons - was able to take the Soviets by surprise. After the first assault, the bolshevik 44th Rifle Division had lost one of its brigades and its entire staff, which delayed the Soviet assault on the Polish northern flank, thus securing it. It slows the Russian offensive. Two days later, Budionny's cavalry, with two major units from the Russian 12th Army, opened an assault on the Polish forces centered around Kiev. After a week of heavy fighting south of the city, the Russian assault was repulsed and the front line restored. During the battle Polish routed the bolshevik 4th Cavalry Division. The following day, the 3rd Don Cossack Cavalry Brigade, comprising Cossacks who had formerly served in Gen Anton Denikin's White Russian army and then been forcibly drafted into the Red Army, approached Polish positions and, after brief negotiations, switched sides to fight on the Polish side against the bolsheviks, under the name of Free Cossack Brigade. Colonel Vadim Yakovlev would remain the brigade's commander until it was disbanded in 1923. There is evidence that this Don Cossack Ukrainian, Vadim Yakovlev was a bloody marauder of villages and towns in Ukraine and Belarus.

On June 3, 1920 another Russian assault began north of the city.

On June 5th, repeated attacks by Budionny's Cossack cavalry, however, broke the Polish-Ukrainian front and sent mobile cavalry units to disrupt the Polish rear communication and logistics. The Soviet advance into Ukraine was characterized by mass killing of civilians and the burning of entire villages, especially by Budyonny's Cossacks, designed to instill a sense of fear in the Ukrainian population. Behind Polish lines, the Soviet forces destroyed railroads, hung suspected enemies on the spot, and cut telegraph wires. Ultimately, in the soviet pacification of Ukraine that began during the Soviet counteroffensive in 1920 and which would not end until 1922 the Soviets would kill 10,000s of Ukrainians.

In the aftermath of the defeat in Ukraine, Polish government of Leopold Skulski resigned on the June 9, and a political crisis gripped Polish government for most of June.

By June 10th, the Polish armies were in retreat along the entire front. However, mostly due to lack of reconnaissance, poor command and conflicts within the staff of the soviet South-Western Front, the Polish-Ukrainian units managed to withdraw in order and relatively unscathed. Soviet forces under Golikov crossed Dniepr west of Czerniow cutting the rail communication in that region Soviet forces under Yakir captured the Bila Tserkva. Polish 3rd army in Kiev faced the danger of being completely enveloped.

June 13, they abandoned Kiev to the bolsheviks. Petliura's Ukrainians, though a small force, fought with fierce determination throughout the rest of the campaign. In the face of near-unlimited Russian reserves and only slow growth in the Ukrainian Army, the Polish and Ukrainian forces were ordered to retreat. The commander of the Polish 3rd Army in Ukraine, General Rydz-Śmigły, decided to break through toward the northwest and the town of Korosten, thus avoiding a direct confrontation with the bulk of Soviet 1st Cavalry Army near Koziatyn. Polish forces managed to withdraw in orderly fashion and relatively unscathed. Polish 3rd Army and newly formed 2nd Army regrouped near Slucza and started a series of their own counterattacks. However, Polish counterattacks in June and July all failed after initial successes. In the battles (19th June at Usza, 1 July at Horyn, 8 July at Równe) bolsheviks were delayed but eventually Budionny's forces advanced east.

Due to insufficient forces, Poland's 200-mile-long front was manned by a thin line of 120,000 troops backed by some 460 artillery pieces divided between the 1st and 4th Armies and Group Polesie Gen Szeptycki, commander of the Polish Northeast Front, had no strategic reserves, and some forces have been shuffled south to stop the Soviet offensive in Ukraine and Galicia. Against the Polish linear formation the Red Army gathered their Northwest Front led by the young General Mikhail Tukhachevski. His troops were organized into one cavalry corps and four armies: the 3rd cavalry and 4th, 15th, 3rd and 16th armies, deployed respectively from north to south. Their numbers exceeded 108,000 infantry and 11,000 cavalry, supported by 722 artillery pieces and 2,913 machine guns The Russians at some crucial places outnumbered the Poles four-to-one.

On July 4, Tukhachevski launched his offensive along the axis Smolensk-Brest-Litovsk, crossing rivers of Auta and Berezyna. The northern 3rd Cavalry Corps of Gej-Chan was to envelope Polish forces from the north, moving near Lithuanian and Prussian border territories, both unfriendly to Poland 4th, 15th and 3rd Armies were to push decisively west, supported from south by the 16th Army and Grupa Mozyrska. For the three days the outcome of the battle hung in the balance, but the Russians' numerical superiority finally became apparent. The battle was replete with wasted opportunities, encirclements, breakthroughs and heroic deeds. One of the latter was performed by two battalions of the Polish 33rd Infantry Regiment, which for a full day stopped the advance of two and a half Red Army divisions, denying them a chance to turn the northern flank of the Polish front. After the day's heavy fighting, the 33rd Infantry still managed to withdraw. Due to the stubborn defense by Polish units, Tukhachevski's plan to break through the front and push the defenders southwest into the Pinsk Marshes (Błota Poleskie) failed. Gej-Chan broke through the northern Polish units on the first day of the offensive and Polish 1st Army pursued by Gej-Chan forces started a disorganised retreat.

From July 7 the Polish forces were in full retreat on the entire front.

From July 11 to 14, the "Battle for Wilno" took place. Once again, however, the Polish troops were insufficient to adequately man the whole line of defenses. Soviet forces selected a weakly defended part of the front and broke through.

On 14th July, Gej-Chan forces, supported by Lithuanian forces, captured Wilno making Polish plans for defensive along old German trenches useless.

On 19th July Grodno fell and after a failed Polish counterattack towards Grodno the 1st Army had to retreat behind Niemen River and was soon pushed further back. The whole front was rolled back as, once again; the Red Army turned the northern flank. In the south, in Galicia, General Semyon Budionny's Red Cavalry Army advanced far into the Polish rears, capturing Brodno and approaching Lwów and Zamość. In early July it became clear to the Poles that the Russians' objectives were not limited to pushing their borders farther west Poland's very independence was at stake.

July 19, when Grodno in Belarus fell, Tukhachevski ordered that Warsaw be occupied by August 12.

French General Maxime Weygand, chief of staff to Marshal Ferdinand Foch, Supreme Commander of the victorious Entente, had traveled to Warsaw in the expectation of assuming command of the Polish Army, but had found a disappointing reception, aggravated by the fact that around the same time France have frozen its financial aid to Poland.

On July 24, his first meeting with Piłsudski began on the wrong foot when he had no answer to Piłsudski's opening question, "How many divisions have you brought?" Weygand had none to offer. On 27 July, he was installed as adviser to the Polish Chief of Staff, Tadeusz Rozwadowski, where Weygand was surrounded by officers who regarded him as an interloper and deliberately spoke Polish, depriving him not only of a part in their deliberations but even of news from the front. On the whole he was quite out of his element, a man accustomed to command but placed among people with no inclination to obey, a proponent of defence in the midst of enthusiasts for the attack.

On 28 July, in Białystok, by the order of the Soviet Communist Party a Polish puppet government, the Provisional Polish Revolutionary Committee, TKRP (Tymczasowy Komitet Rewolucyjny Polski), has been formed to organise administration on the Polish territories captured by the Red Army. It was composed of jewish communists and members of the Politburo of the Central Committee Soviet Communist Party: Julian Marchlewski (chairman), Edward Próchniak (secretary), Felix Dzerzhinsky, Feliks Kon and Józef Unszlicht. It began operating from 1 August issuing various decrees like nationalisation of industry, promising the creation of Polish Socialist Republic (Polska Socjalistyczna Republika Rad), creating 65 revolutionary committees, issuing newspaper "Goniec Czerwony" and recruiting soldiers for the 1 Polish Red Army commanded by R. Lagwa. The TKRP had no support from the Polish population and recruited its supporters mostly from the ranks of Byelorussians and jews. Political games between Soviet commanders of Soviet Fronts grew in the face of their more and more certain victory. Eventually the lack of cooperation between Soviet commanders would cost them dearly in the upcoming decisive battle of Warsaw.

Prolog   Cavalry   Players   Trip   Meeting   Airport   Boat ride   Castle   Visiting   Bad Harzburg   Epilog   Executions   Photos   The End