After the Soviets captured a cape in Wisla close Magnuszew, in August 1944 a fierce conflict between the German and russian selective units took place at Studzianki. The Polish 1st Westerplatte Armored Brigade played an crucial role.
T-34 from the Polish 1st Armored Regiment during the crossing under Smolensk,1943. photograph from the archive of P. Korczyński
Famous for the Stalingrad conflict 8th General Vasily's defender Army On 1 August 1944, the detector pushed the Vistula in Magnuszew's area, which completely amazed the enemy, and captured the cape. The Germans engaged in the elimination of the Polish 1st Army landings under Dęblin and Puławy had small force, in addition to bad for them, that day. In Warsaw the uprising broke out. So the guards had time to strengthen themselves at the bridgehead between the mouths of Pilica and Radomka and then, after cutting the Magnuszew–Mniszewski road, decision on. German commanders, for whom the large conflict of armor at Warsaw ended in victory, fell into dismay. abruptly there was a threat that they might lose Warsaw from the west or north.
On the night of 3 to 4 August, the commander of the Field Marshal Walhter Model Army Group ordered the immediate departure from Warsaw of parts of the 19th Armoured Division and the Padour-Pance Division “Hermann Göring”. This was not a simple task, as the russian 2nd Armoured Army was inactive fighting under Volommin and Okuniev, and the uprising continued in Warsaw. erstwhile the first troops of the 19th Armoured Division arrived in the morning on 4 August, this was already 24 km wide and up to 14 km deep. This time, however, the emergence of German tanks was a surprise for the Soviets. Shortly after the Battleships of the 19th Armoured Division were joined by the "Hermann Göring" division's snipers (a erstwhile armored unit). Luftwaffe moved to the east front from Italy) and grenadiers of the 45th Grenadier Division. Titanic battles began between the elite of both totalitarian armies, and the village of Studzianko was in their epicentre.
1st Brigade becomes “fire guard”
When on 9 August a powerful German counterattack interrupted the defence of the 4th General Vasily Głazunov defender Corps under Studzianki, Marshal Konstanty Rokossowski sent him to Polish aid 1st Westerplatte Heroes Panzer Brigade. It was for the majority of General Jan Mierzycan's tankers that her combat baptism was. For most, due to the fact that 1st Brigade Regiment in October 1943 took part in a bloodbath under LeninoWhere most of his tanks sank in the swamps of the Mierea River. It is worth mentioning that General Mierzycan, like Viczkow, a veteran of Stalingrad, a russian officer, seconded to Berling's army due to his Polish background, however, stood out against the background of another "full-time Poles" of the Red Army. He came to the Polish army on his own request, spoke Polish fluently and emphasized his origin, he was besides sincerely liked by soldiers.
The fight at Studzianki was not a typical armored clash, specified as the 1 at Kursk or even the mentioned conflict at Warsaw. Tanks assigned to individual defender divisions or sent as a ‘fireguard’ to ‘extinguish’ the fire, i.e. to interrupt 1 of the defensive sections, led an uphill fight in forest passes and repeatedly charged with surprise. This was where the reflexes were, who would be the first to see and miss. German armadillos, grenadiers, and paratroopers were a dense opponent. They were able to place mistakes in armored art at erstwhile – like the deficiency of designation before attacking tanks. On August 10th, Jagdpanzer IV tank destroyers virtually shot a column of 3 companies of Lt. Ruscisław Tarajmowicz from the 1st Tank Regiment. Six Polish tanks were destroyed in little than half an hour. Lieutenant Tarajmovich, platoon commander, 2 tank commanders and respective crewmen died. Only 4 efficient machines survived from the full company.
The Polish T-70 pushes the Vistula on the Magnuszewskihead. Collections of Piotr Korczyński
Number on the tower: 102!
The conflict of the 1st Armoured Brigade at the Magnuszewskihead is simply a series of episodes – the hero of 1 of them was the crew of the 102nd tank. In the actual past of tank 102 compared to the iconic series there were mostly 2 things – 102 as a reconnaissance tank frequently fought in front of the brigade alone, and for any time was on board a German Shepherd named Szarik. And the most crucial thing – the commander of the tank was Lieutenant Wacław Ferynczyk, who already at the ferocious conflict of Lenino proved that he had the talent and the propensity for an armored ace, and above all that he had frontal happiness.
This happiness was revealed besides under the Studzianki due to the fact that before the ferocious attack of Lieutenant Tarajmowicz, “one 100 and two” she received a different task from the commander of the 1st Tank Regiment of Lieutenant Colonel Piotr Czajników. A bishop arrived to Tajnikov from the commander of the 142th Major Leonid Gorshanov defender Regiment begging that tanks pluck his battalions from the German boiler in the forest and give them ammunition to anti-tank guns. It was a dangerous task, even for a full company of tanks, and specified a force of Tajnikov was not possible to send. The only thing he could do was send his reconnaissance to a reconnaissance – possibly he can scope 1 of the circular battalions. 3 tanks went for this designation – T-34 Lieutenant Ferync and 2 T-70 Lieutenant Julian Messing and Ensign Stefan Sirota. A platoon of regimental physicists sat on their armor to destruct the ambush of panzerfaustlers if necessary. The first 1 was "a 100 two", followed by 2 light "carcases" – due to the fact that their armor was like cardboard and no of the machines were opposed to German tanks or armor guns. The scouts drove a fewer miles through the forest inseparations, and erstwhile they approached the next one, they saw the trench line intersecting it. They stopped between the trees, those from the trenches did not announcement them – the full forest has been pulverized by explosions and series. The Ferynek, who stood all the way in the open hatch, noticed that the soldiers in the trenches had Russian device guns – Diegtiariv's erectem with characteristic disc magazines and Maxim's coils. He concluded that so many captured copies in 1 place could not be gathered by Germany, which means that they had arrived at the guards unexpectedly quickly!
The farmer jumped out of the car, went out to the clearing, waved his hand and shouted in Russian to welcome. And just as right He assumed, he received an answer in that language, but it was a curse, immediately after him a series of Pepesza knocked him to the ground. This time his instincts let him down. He did not foretell that in the trench they could be alleged hiwiss – there were red-armists who switched to the Germans. The physicists immediately opened fire from their vending machines, and a shrapnel bullet from “one 100 and two” yet turned the hivis trenches into a grave. It turned out to be the outer lap line, surrounded by collaborators – cleverly 1 of the German officers worked out. Colleagues dragged Feryniec back into the tank – he had both legs shot. His crew and commanders of both the "seventys" wanted to turn around, but the lieutenant ordered himself to make a dressing and pull forward. He was furious that he, a veteran of Lenino, who as 1 of the fewer left the swamp of Mierea undamaged by a machine, was so deceived and exposed to his reconnaissance to destruction. War can surprise anyone, but a good soldier can learn from the fact that he can rapidly shake them off. Ferinity did. The lieutenant clenched his teeth in pain and went on.
The tanks with the landing of the physicists with a wide arch circled the trenches with corpses, shattered with cecaems, and moved from the overflow into the forest. They were inactive shot at by an anti-tank gun, but luckily, it wasn't good. The tanks overran his service with 3 volleys, and have already arrived at the guards without hindrance. A fewer anti-tank guns boxes, dressings, and food raised the morale of the surrounded, but the most crucial thing for them was knowing that the boiler was not tight, that they could hope for help. The way back was no adventure. Lieutenant Feryniec was taken to the sanitary point – that ended his participation in the conflict of Studzianki, which was just entering the decisive phase.
Hell in the Farm
At the monument-mausoleum commemorating the conflict of Studzińki no accident stood and inactive stands the tank number 217. It was the first device of the Polish brigade to enter the centre of Studzianki and fight for the farm, changed by German paratroopers into a reduction. His commander was Lieutenant Mateusz Lach, the lowest officer in the full brigade, and – as in the case of Sienkiewicz Volodyjowski – the "mediocre appearance" could confuse those who were in his way. He was Lach an armored ace. erstwhile the “two-seventh” was on a pedestal in the Armoured Studs, thirteen white lines were seen on its barrel – so many destroyed enemy machines were counted against Lach.
A tank-memory in Studzińki set in the 20th anniversary of the battle. This machine, number 217, was commanded by Lieutenant Matthew Lach. photograph by Piotr Korczyński
Lieutenant Lach had not seen his parent and siblings for 4 years, and a brigade mailman brought him a letter just after a dense crossing through the Vistula River, erstwhile they had to pull 1 of the sunk platoon tanks out of the river floor, and before entering the fight, shortly after the Germans shot Lieutenant Tarajmovich's company. There was a customized in the brigade taken over from the Red Army – before you got a letter from home or from your fiancée, you had to dance. So Lach had to make a fewer clumps under the force of his crew and with her accompaniment and erstwhile he yet grabbed the envelope, it turned out that it was not a letter from his relatives but from Ukrainian neighbors... He danced the death of his mother, brother and sister – all Germans murdered. With that message in his pocket, he went into combat. First, they helped the destroyed defender company in Łękawika, and respective officers were defended in the tranches with their clerks and cooks. From the side of Studzinek – Windy Hill, with a wooden windmill on top as from Dutch landscapes – a column of enemy machines with a Grenadier defender left. Lach counted eleven "fours" – PzKpfw IV.
For his mother, brother and sister – he hit 2 machines, he missed the 3rd time, but the column was dispersed by canonada of others lurking around brigade tanks. That's how Lieutenant Lach and his crew sailed on August 10. The next fewer days are the continuous ramps around Hotch. Lieutenant Lach felt pain from losing his loved ones, but the fight worked like a sedative. He couldn't let his emotions to take over, lose his tank commander concentration, due to the fact that that would mean death to him and the crew. In a critical situation, he had a celebrated 15 seconds, the alleged life time that remained for tankers after the enemy identified the position of their car...
Until August 14 – the day of deciding the conflict for the Studzanki, the day erstwhile Matthew Lach was relieved and first entered his “two seventeenth” into the center of the village. "Our 3 machines were walking on the left side of the road, and the remainder with [Lieutenant Roman] Kozinci to the right. We were supported by the infantry from the motorized battalion. I saw Captain [Daniel] Kulik raising soldiers... The attack was violent. And Germans, and we led a strong fire. The platoons yet got to the brickyard.” The infantry couldn't keep up with the tanks. 1 of them hit the German "four", another threw a advanced brick chimney, which throughout the conflict was a landmark. From the brickyard, the tankers wanted to hit the farm right away, due to the fact that the elite of the “Hermann Göring” Divisions-Kampfschule, the divisional martial arts school, and Fallschirm-Panzer-Aufklärungs-Abteilung, a parachute-tank reconnaissance battalion, defended its solid brick walls. However, Lieutenant Kozinice stopped his company and gave precedence to the assault of motorized infantry and guards. The tanks were expected to support their fire.
Janusz Przymanowski gave a thrilling description of the last moments of the parachute simplification of the elite: "In 1 moment, the farm became the eye of the cyclone, the place of the clash of fury, the hellish translator of Poles, Russians, Germans, grenadiers, infantrymen, paratroopers and guards, tanks and transporters, steel and stones, grenades and sinister bullets like gravel squeezed on a sheet. Blast of explosion, darkness between stone walls, orange sun through smoke and dust. The grenade, the jump, the series, the butt blow, the bayonet thrust, the bombshell cutting. Engine roaring, booming under the walls, crackling of broken rafters, howling crushed by caterpillars. Screaming of the enemy jumping down his throat, groaning of the wounded, silence of the killed.” The "two 100 and seventeen" and another tanks of the 2nd Tank Regiment then fired after "two 3rd units of fire", or over sixty missiles each.
This was the baptism of the 1st Westerplatte Armored Brigade. Most of her crews were mixed: between Russians and Ukrainians seconded from the Red Army, as were Ferynczyk and Lach, Poles from Kresów. They were aware that they were fighting not only for the freedom of their homeland, but besides for the freedom of their families inactive on inhuman soil...
The text was based on the book: Piotr Korczyński “Fifteen Seconds. Polish soldiers on the east Front”, Warsaw 2023.
