Polish Army crushes Wehrmacht at Mokra, Sep.1,1939 - 70th anniversary of WWII first battle

http://www.armchairgeneral.com ^ | Sep.1, 2009 | http://www.armchairgeneral.com

[Matt_Rel]

Polish Army crushes Wehrmacht  at Mokra, Sep.1,1939 - 70th anniversary of WWII first battle

 

The Battle of Mokra took place on September 1, 1939 near the village of Mokra in Silesia, Poland. It was the first crutial battle of  World War II and one of the first Polish victories in the war.

In brief:

On  September 1, 1939 gen.Reinhardt's 4th Panzer Division  and German 31st Infantry Division were crushed by Poloish Volhynian Cavalry Brigade.

Germans lost about 150 tanks and armored vehicles and more than 1,000 soldiers. The remnats of the 4th Panzer Division were forced to withdraw back to Germany.

Polish loses: ca.500men, 9 guns and 300 horses

 

One of the most decisive factors of the Polish victory was ultra-secret Polish weapon, an 7.92mm anti-tank rifle, model 35. It was also known by its code name, kb Urugwaj (kb Ur), or by the name of its designer, Jozef Mroszek.You can see it here (unfortunately the commentary is in Polish)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAly_UY4EGE&feature=related  (time 2:52)

 

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BATTLE OF MOKRA

read more:

http://www.armchairgeneral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=55062

 

see television reenactment of the battle:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FETzEboEs1Q

 

[Matt_Rel]

"And when the days completed

death came in the summer

In fours to Heaven marched

Soldiers of Westerplatte"

                                K.I. Galczynski  ( Polish poet)

[Matt_Rel]

ping

[lizol]

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[Ozone34]

One of the most decisive factors of the Polish victory was ultra-secret Polish weapon, an 7.92mm anti-tank rifle, model 35. It was also known by its code name, kb Urugwaj (kb Ur), or by the name of its designer, Jozef Mroszek.

Not to be confused with that other great "Polish Rifle", Ron Jaworski (aka 'Jaws').

[Oberon]

One of the most decisive factors of the Polish victory was ultra-secret Polish weapon, an 7.92mm anti-tank rifle, model 35.

I want to know how they got an 8mm to shoot into a tank.

[Welcome2thejungle]

The Polish calvary didn’t stand a chance against the Reich’s armored tank divisions and Stuka dive bombers. Poland was the first guinea pig for blitzkrieg type warfare.

[Welcome2thejungle]

Exactly. Just as effective as shooting spitballs at the German panzers.

[romanesq]

Thought Spain was the testing ground under Franco with Germany.

Poland held out resistance for six weeks. As we now know the second front opened up by the Soviet Union made their resistance untenable.

[Welcome2thejungle]

Germany did a lot of ariel bombing in Spain. Franco’s troops did most of the ground fighting. Don’t recall any armored divisions being sent to Spain.

[fogofbobegabay]

It had a really huge cartrage case that was necked down to 7.92 mm and a hardened bullet. The rife itself was quite heafty. I saw one this spring in the Polish Army Museum in Warsaw.

[Frantzie]

Note:

This is the same brave Polish Army or their decendants who ensured Europe would not be Islamic in 1683 AD at the Battle of Vienna along with Germans, Austrians and some Northern Italians.

It is also the same Polish Army that Gen. Jaruzelski knew would not turn their guns on the Polish people during the fall of the wall and iron curtain. He knew the Polish Army would back and protect Poland’s citizens.

Let’s hope our military feels the same way in the near future.

[ArrogantBustard]

Wikipedia, for what it's worth, describes the thing ...

Uniquely, compared to other armour-piercing designs, the DS round instead of using tungsten or a similar hard metal for the core had lead in a steel coating, like ordinary rifle bullets. The penetration was not through punching the core through the armor but from the impact of the bullet flattening against the plate, transferring kinetic energy to the metal. The key to success for this technique was a very high bullet velocity. The result was that the bullet was punching a core, about 20 mm in diameter out of the armour, a larger size than the actual rifle caliber. The core would then ricochet inside of an armoured vehicle damaging the engine or killing the crew.

[Little Ray]

A LOT of propellant and really thin, possibly somewhat brittle armor (Pkw II and Pkw 38(t) probably). Think of a 7.92mm bullet sitting on the top of a .50 cal. BMG cartridge that has been necked down for it and you get the idea.
The Germans had a similar ATR. Other folks went for bigger ATRs in the .50 cal to 20mm size. But they (esp. the 20mm ones) were not very portable.

[lizol]

Actually - "Ur" anti-tank rifle had a 7,92 mm caliber.
Its effective range was 300 metres and it could penetrate 15 mm of armor at 300 m distance, or 33 mm of armor at 100 m.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-tank_rifle,_model_35

[Pyro7480]

Here's the rifle in question:

[BenLurkin]

What really hurt them was being attacked in the rear by the back-stabbing Russians.

[Welcome2thejungle]

Even if the Soviets had not have invaded eastern Poland, the Polish army would have been defeated in any event. It was simply no match for the German Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe.

[Pyro7480]

And the ammo:

[ArrogantBustard]

Wiki lists the muzzle velocity at 4180 f/s.

Hell of a "varmint rifle" ...

[Behemoth the Cat]

The key factor is the speed of the bullet. Anti-tank rifles were sufficiently effective against armored vehicles (including tanks) during early stages of WWII.

However, it is an exaggeration to call the battle of Mokra a crushing Polish victory. The Polish forces managed to stop the advance of the opponent, but at the price of heavy losses (similar to the German ones) and only thanks to the support of armored trains.

A “crushing victory”, according to my definition, involves disintegrating the enemy as organized fighting units. Nevertheless, stopping an armored assault (with air support) with anti-tank rifles, Bofors 37mm anti-tank guns and some artillery support is quite an achievement.