

Horses are led across the Weichsel River bridge (National Archives).

No mounted Polish cavalrymen ever charged at German tanks with lances in World War II…What really happened is a far more interesting story, one of bravery and professionalism in the face of overwhelming odds.

This post is only a snippet. Please purchase the Winter 2011 issue of MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History to read the entire article.

On September 1, 1939, German land, air, and sea units struck targets all across Poland. Although it was not a surprise attack, the speed and level of violence of the assault were unprecedented. Polish defenders had to react quickly as planes, tanks, and infantrymen surged into their country. To Poles, this was Kampania wrzesniowa (the September Campaign), when every branch of the armed forces produced heroes and myth. In the front ranks stood ulanow (uhlans, or lancers), szwolezerow (light horsemen), and strzelcow konnych (mounted riflemen)—all cavalrymen employed to cover retreats, gather intelligence, and when possible capture key terrain to support infantry counterattacks. This put these troopers into many of the initial skirmishes, some successful, more not. Soon, dead horses and their riders littered the fields.

Some died after being caught in the open by Ju-87B Stuka dive-bombers; others were mowed down by small-arms fire. Especially unlucky were those cavalrymen who encountered armored vehicles. German general Heinz Guderian recalled Polish uhlans armed with lances and swords charging “in ignorance of our tanks’ capabilities.” Time magazine described German panzers sweeping Polish cavalry “out of the way like rubbish,” while the New York Times suggested Polish tactical methods echoed those used by the British during the Crimean War, most famously in the disastrous Charge of the Light Brigade. Even Hollywood was intrigued: In the movie In Our Time (1944), Paul Henreid’s Polish character recounts how his cavalry was wiped out by German tanks.

Uhlans spearing tanks with lances became an enduring image of the September Campaign. American generals and high-ranking diplomats peppered speeches with allusions to “quixotic Polish cavalry charges against invading German panzers” as metaphors for stupid futility. Even as recently as 2009, an editorial in the Guardian called on politicians to stop comparing modern conflicts to World War II, when “Polish lancers turned their horses to face Hitler’s panzers.”

The problem with all these reports is that no mounted Polish cavalrymen ever charged at German tanks with lances in World War II. It was, as an abashed Guardian confessed two weeks after its gaffe, “a myth of the second world war, fostered by Nazi propagandists….There is no evidence that this occurred.” Indeed, Poland’s cavalrymen—wielding rifles, machine guns, and antitank guns—played an important role in just about every major battle of the September Campaign, yet for seven decades they have had to face down the propaganda promulgated by the Nazis and inflated into myth by the Western press. What really happened is a far more interesting story, one of bravery and professionalism in the face of overwhelming odds, a story that clearly indicates that far from being a military anachronism, the Polish uhlan in 1939 was a tough and dangerous adversary.

This post is only a snippet. Please purchase the Winter 2011 issue of MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History to read the entire article.