# German attack on Poland



## v2 (Sep 1, 2006)

At the outbreak of the war, Polish army was able to put in the field almost one million soldiers, 2800 guns, 500 tanks and 400 aircraft. On the September 1st, the German forces set to war against Poland amounted to more than 1.5 million solders, 9000 guns, 2500 tanks and almost 2000 aircraft. The Red Army began the invasion sending in the first lot more than 620 000 soldiers, 4700 tanks and 3200 aircraft. Despite the overwhelming odds and the necessity of defense against the offensive in all directions, the Polish army fought for 35 days. Warsaw held until September 28th, the Polish garrison of Hel Peninsula for more than a month. The last battle against German troops took place on October 5.


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## v2 (Sep 2, 2006)

On september 1,1939 Germany attacked Poland from the west, the north and the south. World War II started. Despite the enemy’s tremendous military superiority, especially in armoured and air forces, Poles resisted with stout determination and defended their homeland and freedom. On one of the sectors of the front line, near far from Grudziadz ( north part of Poland) fighting took place, which was later called “the Battle of Grudziadz”. Hundreds of Polish soldiers fell in that battle, which bears witness to their determination to fight against the invaders. On September 2nd the commanding staff of the Polish “Pomorze” Army determined to deploy its scanty air force against the German armoured units. They had a fighter squadron consisting of 20 fighters. P.11 were totally unsuitable for the task, armed only with two (a few aircraft had four) 7.92mm machine guns and offering no armor protection. The squadron’s commander, Capt. Florian Laskowski, acknowledging reservations of two of his commodores, made a self – dependent decision: only one fighter flight was to attack the tanks, while the oder was to fly at a higher altitude, at 2500m (8000 ft), to fight the enemy planes. The assignment of the two tasks for respective fighter flights was decided by tossing a coin. The more difficult, and as it turned out later, the tragic assignment of attacking the German forces by flying just above ground, fell to the 141 Fighter Flight’s share. Capt. Laskowski decided to take command of the flight. The flight’s 9 planes were showered with German bullets. Capt. Laskowski was hit during the first attack and his machine crashed to the ground. P/O Wladyslaw Urban and L/Ac Benedykt Mielczynski were wounded and forced to land their damaged planes on land already occupied by German forces. The Germans did not apply first aid to the wounded pilots and all three of them died. 
Other pilots from the 141 Fighter Flight returned to the base in planes riddled with bullets. 
A different finale had the action of the 142 Fighter Flight, which engaged in fighting German planes: 9 Polish air fighters downed 7 German bombers Dornier 17 , and did not suffer any loses....


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