Facts have proved that morale still has a great impact on the combat effectiveness of an army.

Although the Polish army was able to resist the German army valiantly in the early stage, the morale of the Polish army was greatly affected by the learning that rear support was being blocked.

The biggest effect was that the Polish soldiers did not have the determination to win and the courage to fight against death when facing the German army.

Richard's 5th Infantry Regiment quickly won the battle against the Polish army, and successfully captured the position of the Polish 8th Infantry Regiment before dark.

The position of the 8th Polish Infantry Regiment is still very important. After the position was conquered, the entire front of the Polish 35th Division was torn open and waited for the entry of German troops at any time.

Fatally, once the 35th Division was routed, the defensive front of the Polish Third Army would also have problems. Rise to the entire Third Army, which was extremely harmful to the entire Polish front.

This is the real battlefield, and the defeat of a small army can lead to a full-scale rout on a larger scale.

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

As one of the most elite armies in Poland to defend against Germany, the Third Army had a total of seven infantry divisions, three artillery divisions, one tank division, and four cavalry divisions.

Up to the end of the war, the total strength of the rear support to the Third Army did not exceed one division, but the battle losses of the Third Army had exceeded the strength of two infantry divisions.

This also meant that the Third Army no longer had much reserve to support the forces that had collapsed the defensive line.

We must not let the cavalry division abandon its horses and enter the trenches to fight offensive and defensive battles with the enemy.

While this may have been a relief for the immediate needs of the front, for the Third Army, it was tantamount to abandoning its most elite cavalry units and pinning all its hopes on the infantry.

This was simply impossible for the Polish army, which attached great importance to cavalry. In order to hold the front, the commander of the Third Army developed a plan to raid the German flanks with cavalry, trying to delay the German offensive.

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

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

Why were only three cavalry divisions dispatched? Because the only remaining cavalry division was to remain to protect the headquarters of the Polish Third Army, and at the same time serve as the only reserve for the entire Third Army.

In order to create as many opportunities as possible for these three cavalry divisions, the Polish Third Army threw all its reserves into the battlefield in an attempt to hold back the Germans as much as possible.

Although only 20 years have passed since the First World War, the way World War II was fought has changed a lot compared to the First World War.

It was undoubtedly very difficult for the three cavalry divisions to attack the flank of the German Second Army around the rear.

You know, the Luftwaffe occupied the airspace advantage of the front line and dispatched a large number of reconnaissance planes to reconnoiter the intelligence of the Polish army.

In order to conceal these reconnaissance aircraft, it is necessary to perfectly carry out the raid mission, which is very demanding for the Polish cavalry.

The Polish cavalry did a good job at first, not only concealing the German reconnaissance planes, but also reaching the position of the surprise attack planned at the beginning.

But it was not until the Polish cavalry approached the German army that they realized that something was wrong, and the flanks of the German Second Army were not infantry, but tank and motorized units surrounded by iron lumps.

The Polish army tried to calm its mind and launched an offensive against the German tank units, which had already been prepared at the front.

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

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

This situation was completely different from the First World War, and the cavalry seemed to have no room for resistance when faced with tanks.

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 slowly turning barrels of the enemy, they will certainly not be given the opportunity to stop and deploy their artillery.

Rumble! Boom!

With a continuous stream of tank fire, the three Polish cavalry divisions suffered a serious impact in an instant.

Although the horses of the cavalry division were trained, the explosion of artillery fire caused a certain panic among these horses.

As the cavalry got closer and closer to the tanks, the enemy tanks also stopped shelling and began to strafe with machine guns on the top of the tanks.

From the very beginning, the outcome of this encounter was already preordained.

The Polish cavalry simply could not deal with the German tanks, and the German tanks were completely invincible and could easily cope with all kinds of attacks of the Polish cavalry divisions.

Not far from the battlefield, a significantly larger tank was heard, and the chuckle of the commander of this tank division was heard: "Stupid Poles are still fighting with the mentality 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 God, our task is not these cavalry units, but the main Polish forces on the front-line battlefield. ”

As the German commanders ridiculed, cavalry raids and frontal charges were the tactics used in the First World War 20 years earlier.

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

But now, in addition to the fact that the cavalry has a certain strategic role in some steep mountainous areas, on the vast flat plains, it is clear that tanks are more superior.

Although the Polish were outnumbered, three cavalry divisions still had no room for resistance in front of a tank division.

The encounter lasted less than two hours and ended in a complete victory for the German army.

With the exception of 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 Polish troops. As in the First World War, the Polish army generally adopted a full-line defense.

To put it simply, although Poland had more than 300,000 troops on the Western Front, these 300,000 troops were deployed along the entire border like a wide net.

Although the number of troops has now increased to about 400,000, it still does not change the fact that the Polish army is small and scattered along every stretch of the border.

If it had been in the First World War, and the two sides had made a frontal assault on the army group, there would have been nothing wrong with such a defense.

But times have changed, and the Poles are clearly taking the initiative to expose the Germans to such defensive measures.

How to effectively deal with the scattered defense of the Poles?

The easiest way to do this is to use tank units like sharp knives to quickly tear through the Polish defenses.

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

The German Second Army, although it did not have many tanks, had the size of two tank divisions.

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

Coupled with the fact that the Polish Third Army had only one tank division, it was obvious that it could not compete head-on with German tanks.

First the news of the failure of the cavalry raid and even a total rout took the commander of the Polish Third Army by surprise. Subsequently, German tanks cut through the Polish defense line like sharp knives, which directly overwhelmed the commander of the Polish Third Army.

The problem at the moment is no longer the cutting of the line of defense by German tanks. Rather, after the line of defense was cut, a large influx of German troops would tear the entire line apart, thus destroying the defensive front of the Third Army.

What's worse is that on the periphery of the battlefield, the main Polish army was only the Third Army. In the event of a rout of the Third Army, the road to Warsaw would be unimpeded without sufficient force support.

Moreover, the rout of the Third Army would seriously affect the Modlin Corps and the Nalev Corps north of Warsaw. These two forces formed the Polish Second Army, which was the main force against the German First Army.

If the defense of the Polish Second Army was affected, the German First and Second Armies would probably have to encircle Warsaw.

By the time the German troops were in a line, the Polish First Army would also fall into the encirclement of the German army. As a result, Poland will be at a great disadvantage.

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

"The Germans must not be allowed to break through the lines!" 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 line at all costs, at least until reinforcements arrive. ”

So where are the reinforcements?

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

The Polish Second Army was under less pressure than the Third Army.

Because until now, the German First Army had not launched a large-scale offensive. This also led Poland to conclude that the main battlefield was on the Western Front, and to transfer some soldiers from the eastern frontier to the Western Front.

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

You know, after the recovery of the Polish corridor, the situation in Poland in the west is not very good. East Prussia and Silesia swallowed Poland whole into their mouths like open mouths.

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

In particular, the East Prussian direction, which was particularly close to Warsaw, the capital of Poland, was also one of the directions in which the Germans had a high probability of attacking.

Although the Germans had not moved much until now, the commander of the Polish Second Army believed that the situation was not so simple.

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(End of chapter)