Chapter 850 Cavalry vs Tanks

It has been proven that morale has a great impact on the combat effectiveness of an army.

Although the Polish army was able to bravely resist the German army in the early stage, the morale of the Polish army was drastically fluctuated when it was learned that the rear support was blocked.

The biggest impact was that the Polish soldiers lost their determination to win and the courage to fight to the death when facing the German army.

The bravest of the two sides wins when they meet on a narrow road. Richard's Fifth Infantry Regiment quickly won the battle against the Polish army and successfully captured the position of the Polish Eighth Infantry Regiment before dark.

The position of the Polish Eighth Infantry Regiment is still very important. After the position was captured, the entire Polish 35th Division's front was torn open, waiting for the German army to enter at any time.

The fatal thing is that once the 35th Division is defeated, the defensive line of the Polish Third Army will also have problems. Rising to the entire Third Army, this is extremely harmful to the entire Polish front.

This is the real battlefield. The defeat of a small-scale army may cause a comprehensive defeat on a larger scale.

The worst thing is that the entire Polish Third Army has suffered heavy losses.

As one of the most elite armies in Poland's defense against Germany, the Third Army has a total of seven infantry divisions, three artillery divisions, one tank division and four cavalry divisions.

So far in the war, the total force of the rear support to the Third Army does not exceed one division, but the losses of the Third Army have exceeded the strength of two infantry divisions.

This also means that the Third Army no longer has too many reserve troops to support the troops whose defense force has collapsed.

You can't let the cavalry division abandon its warhorse and enter the trenches to fight offensive and defensive battles with the enemy.

Although doing so may solve the urgent needs of the front line, for the Third Army, it is equivalent to giving up its most elite cavalry unit and placing all hopes on the infantry.

This is simply impossible for the Polish army, which attaches great importance to cavalry. In order to hold the front line, the commander of the Third Army formulated a plan to use cavalry to raid the German flanks in an attempt to temporarily delay the German attack.

This also created one of the famous scenes in the history of World War II.

Following the order of the commander of the Third Army, three Polish cavalry divisions launched a surprise attack on the German Second Army.

Why were only three cavalry divisions dispatched? Because the only remaining cavalry division had to stay to protect the headquarters of the Polish Third Army and serve as the only reserve force of the entire Third Army.

In order to create opportunities for the three cavalry divisions as much as possible, the Polish Third Army put all its reserve forces on the battlefield, trying to delay the Germans as much as possible.

Although only 20 years have passed since World War I, the fighting methods of World War II have changed a lot compared to World War I.

It is undoubtedly very difficult for the three cavalry divisions to raid the flank of the German Second Army from behind.

You know, the German Air Force occupied the airspace advantage on the front line and dispatched a large number of reconnaissance aircraft to detect the intelligence of the Polish army.

To conceal these reconnaissance aircraft and to perfectly perform the raid mission, this requires a lot of Polish cavalry.

The Polish cavalry did a good job at the beginning. Not only did they conceal the German reconnaissance aircraft, but they also arrived at the raid location planned at the beginning.

But when the Polish cavalry approached the German army, they found something wrong. The flanks of the German Second Army were not infantry, but tanks and motorized units surrounded by iron lumps.

The Polish army tried to calm down and launched an attack on the German tank units that had been prepared in front.

But soon, the Polish soldiers realized the huge gap between cavalry and tanks.

The enemy's tanks were like a movable fortress, able to withstand their rifle and machine gun fire.

This situation was completely different from World War I. When facing tanks, the cavalry seemed to have no room for resistance.

Although the cavalry division also carried a small amount of artillery, it was obviously impossible to stop and rely on artillery to bombard the enemy's tanks at this time.

Looking at the enemy's slowly rotating gun barrels, they would definitely not give them the opportunity to stop and deploy artillery.

Boom! Boom!

With the continuous firing of tanks, the three cavalry divisions of Poland were instantly severely affected.

Although the war horses of the cavalry division were trained, the explosion of artillery fire still caused some panic to these horses.

As the cavalry got closer and closer to the tanks, the enemy tanks stopped firing and began to use the machine guns on the top of the tanks to fire.

From the beginning, the outcome of this encounter was doomed.

The Polish cavalry could not deal with the German tanks at all. The German tanks were completely invincible and could easily deal with various attacks of the Polish cavalry division.

Not far from the battlefield, a tank that was obviously larger came with the chuckle of the tank division commander: "The stupid Poles are still fighting with the thinking of the last European War. They don't even know that 20 years have passed since the last European War.

Now it's time to send them to see God. Our mission is not these cavalry units, but the main force of Poland on the front battlefield."

As the German commander laughed, cavalry raids and frontal charges were the tactics used in the First World War 20 years ago.

At that time, the number of tanks in various countries was not large, and the failure rate was very high. Cavalry still played an extremely important role.

But now, in addition to the strategic role of cavalry in some steep mountainous areas, tanks are obviously more dominant on the vast and flat plains.

Although Poland has more people, three cavalry divisions still have no room for resistance in front of a tank division.

This encounter lasted less than two hours and ended with the complete victory of the German army.

Except for a small number of Polish cavalry who fled the battlefield, the remaining Polish cavalry either fell in the previous charge or were captured by the German army.

The appearance of the tank army completely changed the situation of the entire German-Polish War.

Here we have to mention the deployment of the Polish army. Like the First World War, the Polish army generally adopted full-line defense measures.

In short, although Poland has more than 300,000 troops on the Western Front, these 300,000 troops are deployed along the entire border like a wide net.

Although the number of troops has now increased to about 400,000, it still cannot change the fact that the Polish army is small and scattered on each section of the border.

If it was in the First World War, when both sides carried out a frontal advance of the army group, there would be nothing wrong with such a defense.

But times have changed. The Poles still take such defensive measures, which is obviously actively exposing flaws to the Germans.

How to effectively deal with the Poles' decentralized defense arrangement?

The simplest way is to use tank troops like a sharp knife to quickly tear the Polish defense.

Five days after the outbreak of the war, a large number of German tanks finally entered the battlefield and joined the battle against Poland.

Although the number of tanks in the German Second Army is not large, it also has the size of two tank divisions.

Compared with Polish tanks, German tanks pay more attention to defense and firepower, and have more advantages in combat.

In addition, the Polish Third Army has only one tank division, which obviously cannot compete head-on with German tanks.

First, the news of the failure of the cavalry raid and even the complete defeat surprised the commander of the Polish Third Army. Then, the German tanks quickly cut through the Polish defense line like a sharp knife, which directly made the commander of the Polish Third Army a little overwhelmed.

The current problem is no longer the German tanks cutting the defense line. But after the defense line is cut, the large influx of German troops will tear the entire defense line apart, thereby destroying the defense line of the Third Army.

What's more terrible is that around the battlefield, Poland's main army is only the Third Army. If the Third Army is defeated, without sufficient military support, the road to Warsaw will be unobstructed.

Moreover, the defeat of the Third Army will seriously affect the Modlin Corps and the Narev Corps in the north of Warsaw. The Polish Second Army, composed of these two troops, is the main force to counter the German First Army.

If the defense of the Polish Second Army is affected, what will be faced at that time may be the German First and Second Armies jointly encircling Warsaw.

When the German army is connected in a line, the Polish First Army will also fall into the encirclement of the German army. In this way, Poland will be in a great disadvantage.

Not only will the capital be surrounded, but most of the troops on the Western Front will also face a crisis.

"We must not let the Germans break through the defense line!" The commander of the Polish Third Army said with a firm face: "It's time to test us! Tell all the division commanders that I want them to hold the defense line at all costs, at least until the reinforcements arrive."

So where are the reinforcements?

The commander of the Second Polish Army also had such doubts at this time.

Compared with the Third Army, the Second Polish Army faced less pressure.

Because up to now, the First German Army has not launched a large-scale offensive. This also made Poland conclude that the main battlefield was on the Western Front, and it transferred some soldiers from the eastern border to the Western Front.

But the commander of the Second Polish Army always felt that something was wrong. Since the Germans had been prepared for the war, it was impossible for them to launch an attack only from the front.

You know, after taking back the Polish Corridor, Poland's situation in the west was not very good. East Prussia and Silesia swallowed Poland whole like an open mouth.

This also means that attacking Poland from these two directions can achieve better results.

Especially the East Prussian direction, which is very close to the Polish capital Warsaw, is also one of the directions that the Germans are likely to attack.

Although the Germans have not made much noise so far, the commander of the Second Polish Army believes that the situation is not that simple.

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