Narcyz Witczak-Witaczyński, part 2
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Today we see more photos by Polish photojournalist and cavalry officer Narcyz Witczak-Witaczyński documenting the Polish cavalry between World War I and World War II.
Above, soldiers of the Presidential Commonwealth Squadron in connection with summer horse grazing take a dip in the Lasomin area, 1924.
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More soldiers of the Presidential Commonwealth Squadron in connection with summer horse grazing in the Lasomin area, 1924.
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A group of bathing lancers on an islet in Lasomin, 1925.
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On a meadow and in the river in Lasomin, 1925.
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School of Professional Cavalry, 1927.
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Recruits in the 1st Cavalry Regiment being examined in the barracks at 29 Listopada Street in Warsaw, 1928.
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The Bzurze-Szwoleżerów Regiment, 1929.
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Machine gun squadron bathing, 1932.
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Machine gun squadron dressing after bathing, 1932.
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Uhlans showering, 1935. Uhlans were a type of light cavalry armed with a lance.
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Recruitment & Conscription Committee in Garwolin, 1937.
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Recruitment Committee, 1939.
Of course, the Polish cavalry was no match for the Nazi tanks that overran Poland in 1939 to start World War II. After Germany took over, Witczak-Witaczyński created a resistance organization of which he was head of counterintelligence and editor of an underground magazine. He was arrested by the Nazis and died in a concentration camp in 1943.
4 comments:
What will be wrought with WWIII....
I like photo #11. For some reason, it takes eight clothed soldiers to examine three nude recruits.
These old military images are always interesting.
Evocative images of military life in interwar Poland.
The military in Poland made the same mistake of the military in France in believing Ww2 would be fought as trench warfare just like Ww1. The tactics of blitzkrieg from Germany caught them all off guard even when warned by some of their own officers to develop new military tactics. The military establishment in Poland was too conservative and did not allow for much innovation. Also not helping was the fact that many of the senior officers in Poland had seen service in the Armies of Germany, Austria Hungary and Russia in Ww1. In the interwar period some of these Ww1 veterans would have reunions with their German and Austrian comrades in arms from Ww1 during which some of the Polish veterans would discuss Polish military secrets and tactics they were privy to, in turn their German and Austrians comrades would pass this vital information to the Nazis, all of which was a boon for German intelligence which helped in the quick defeat of Poland as the same had happened in Czechoslovakia with old time veterans not being wise enough to keep their mouths shut. Loose lips sink ships and wagging tongues kill men at the front.
-Rj
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