We remember the Polish pilots who defended England. Why then have we forgotten about the tank aces looting German tankers? It's high time to change that!
6. Mark Weissenberg
Photo taken in preparation for the Battle of Lenino, during which Weissenberg was lucky to… fall into a swamp.
Second lieutenant from the 1st Armored Brigade Heroes of Westerplatte - known from the series "Czterej Pancerni i Pies". At Lenino, his tank fell into a swamp and was taken out of the fight - considering the bloody slaughter that the Germans inflicted on Polish troops fighting together with the Red Army, it can be said that he was lucky.
Members of the 1st Warsaw Armored Brigade Heroes of Westerplatte on the Warka-Magnuszew bridgehead. Part of his defense was the battle of Studzianki.
Fortune smiled at him at Studzianki again - he destroyed two German Ferdinands, then his tank was hit by the Germans, but Weissenberg managed to survive.
On January 24-26, 1945, the tanks of the 1st Armored Brigade. The heroes of Westerplatte supported the Soviet infantry in the fights for Bydgoszcz. For Weissenberg, it was unfortunately the last battle.
A few months later, during the night attack on Bydgoszcz, the tanks were moving very fast, in complete darkness, so the second lieutenant sat on the fender to help steer the tank. Tired, he fell asleep and slumped under the caterpillars.
5. Bohdan Tymieniecki
Tymieniecki traveled the entire Italian campaign with Sherman. The photo shows the sappers on the M4 Sherman on the way to the "Gullet" during the Battle of Monte Cassino.
A flesh-and-blood armored man, twice decorated with the Virtuti Militari, a fierce critic of inept commanders and the author of great memoirs "Her name was Lily". In them he wrote about the cannon of the Sherman tank, which he traveled with the 2nd Polish Corps in the Italian campaign. An extreme wartime pragmatist - he had no qualms about changing the captured Silesians from Hermann Göring Panzerdivision into Polish uniforms and replenishing their own tank crews with them.
The photo shows Bohdan Tymieniecki with the M4 Sherman tank hanging on a cliff during the fighting in Italy.
“I can't penetrate the armor, it's full 20 centimeters in front, but that's for theorists behind the green table. The first missile will burn all the electric wires and immobilize the turret, and the second one the crew will lose the will to fight and leave the tank "- he wrote about the way of fighting the famous German panthers.
4. Aleksander Stefanowicz
Commander Aleksander Stefanowicz with the banner of the 1st Armored Regiment in St. Nicolas (Belgium) on March 3, 1946.
During the Spanish Civil War, he analyzed the actions of the armored forces for the Polish government, predicting their key importance in the coming conflicts. In 1940, in France, he became an adjutant to general Stanisław Maczek, and then the commander of the Polish armored units.
You can learn more about Polish heroes from the book by Marcin Szymaniak entitled "Fighters. The best Polish warriors. From Zawisza Czarny to commandos from Iraq "(Znak Horyzont 2017).
During the fighting in Normandy in August 1944, he became famous for leading a charge on the so-called hill 111, where Polish armored personnel carriers managed to retake several dozen tankers from the Canadian Armored Division, who lost their orientation in the field at night, lost their way and were completely smashed by the Germans. The attack cost Poles the loss of 15 tanks and 29 killed and wounded. Major Stefanowicz received the Silver Cross of the Virtuti Militari Order for this action.
Destroyed German column in the "dog's field", after the Battle of Mont Ormel (hill 262).
A few days later, its tankers smashed an entire column of German tanks on Hill 262 - the Poles later called this graveyard of burned vehicles and human corpses "dog's field".
3. Jerzy Wasilewski
Wasilewski was Maczek's favorite. And it is hardly surprising, knowing the exploits of this commander. The photo shows General Stanisław Maczek in 1938.
A favorite of general Maczek, who described his adventures as a tanker:“I look for targets and suddenly a light point appears in the binoculars against a dark background, which grows and rushes exactly along the line of my eyesight. I hide in the tower and feel a blast on my beret. ”
What to do with a concrete obstacle? Best to blow it up! The photo shows a Cromwell VII tank, such as Wasilewski was driving, waiting for the departure.
When in the Netherlands in 1944 his armored units encountered insurmountable reinforced concrete anti-tank obstacles, he drove the tank alone 30 meters from the obstacle to cover it with missiles, ignoring both hurricane German shelling and orders to withdraw. He only left when his ammunition ran out, and then he ordered his men to "watch out for sniper fire, shoot calmly and aim well, because the wall is thick", and when there are no missiles - make way for another tank. After a few hours the road was clear.
2. Michał Gutowski
Michał Gutowski was great at driving not only tanks but also horses. During the Olympics in Berlin, he took part in a show jumping competition, which he did not finish because of a horse breakage. In the photo his teammate from the national team, Captain Henryk Roycewicz, on a gelding "Arlekin III" during a dressage test at the final competition.
An outstanding horse rider, participant of the Olympics in Berlin in 1936, after the September defeat, he was active in the underground, arrested and sentenced to death, he was released by the German commander - also a cavalryman. He got to France, then underwent armored training in Great Britain and moved from horse to tank.
Gutowski has made quite a trick - he has hunted down a Tiger. Colorized photo of Panzer VI (Tiger I), taken in Northern France.
It was his tankers who managed to eliminate the legendary German Tiger in the Netherlands:“Two Tigers and a few other vehicles left the forest and then they were attacked from the rear, we managed to approach from the rear and with an anti-tank missile from our 75 mm. the guns hit the rear of the turret, more specifically the loader escape hatch "(the advantage of the Tiger's fire was so great that the Allied tanks approaching from the front had virtually no chance).
1. Edmund Roman Orlik
One of the few shots of Edmund Roman Orlik with a TKS tankette.
An absolute tank ace, the best tanker in the history of Polish armored forces and one of the best in the world. During the Polish defensive war, while commanding a light two-man TKS tankette with a 20mm cannon, he destroyed 10 German tanks in the Kampinos Forest in just two days (September 18-19).
TKS tankette at the Polish Army Museum in Warsaw.
He destroyed three tanks near Pociecha (including the death of the commander of the German armored platoon, Prince Victor IV Albrecht von Ratibor) and seven the next day near Sieraków. Then he withdrew to Warsaw, took part in the defensive fights of the capital, later he was active in the Home Army.
Orlik's achievement was appreciated by the creators of the game "World of Tanks". Photo taken during Intel Extreme Masters 2013 in Spodek in Katowice.
His spectacular successes have gained international recognition - incl. among the creators of World of Tanks, where you can receive a special award, "Orlik's Medal", for destroying at least three more powerful enemy vehicles with a light tank. Roman Orlik is also a "hero" character in the figure battle game Flames of War.