Polish retreat into Romania-1939

Discussions on all aspects of Poland during the Second Polish Republic and the Second World War. Hosted by Piotr Kapuscinski.
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STALAGl3
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Polish retreat into Romania-1939

#1

Post by STALAGl3 » 08 Mar 2005, 03:50

Please forgive me if my info. is off, but I read somewhere there was a number of Polish soldiers that retreated from the Nazis and Soviets by running across the Romanian border. If so, how many were there? What happened to them? Romania wasn't an Axis ally until '40 or '41.

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Victor
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#2

Post by Victor » 08 Mar 2005, 08:41

49,547 Polish refugees entered Romanian soil, of which 23,638 were soldiers. The vast majority were helped to board ships and travel to France or England.

82.4 tons of gold in 1,261 crates were evacuated to the West, while 2,738 tons of gold and other values were kept in the vaults of the National Bank of Romania.

The war material brought by the retreating Polish forces to Romania was obviously confiscated and used as payment for the food and shelter provided by the Romanian state. Most notable are the 34 R-35 tanks of the Polish 305th Tank Battalion, that added up to the existing 41 R-35s in the Romanian arsenal to form the 2nd Tank Regiment and the nearly 300 military and civilian aircraft.


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fallweiss
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#3

Post by fallweiss » 08 Mar 2005, 19:17

That was 21 Light Tanks Battalion from Łuck.

In Romania were internated Polish president ,goverment and HQ.

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Liluh
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#4

Post by Liluh » 08 Mar 2005, 20:15

In brief, whole remaining and operational polish airforce landed in Romania, which means, most of what Poland had at the time . Plus those tanks mentioned earlier (although I think we need to add few TKS and 7TP`s) and plenty of rifles, grandes, ammunition etc. Whole goverment and General staff also made it to Romania. Most soldiers and their leaders made it to the west and took part in battles in France 1940. Exception, marshall-general Rydz-Smigly, highest figure in polish army, returned to Warsaw in 1940 and died (heart attack I think). Note the fact mentioned earlier, about gold reserves. Evacuation of some units began after SU attacked on 17-19th september.

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Steve
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#5

Post by Steve » 09 Mar 2005, 02:08

Poland had a mutual defence pact with Rumania against Soviet aggression. Beck said he did not invoke this pact as there was no chance of Rumania respecting it and by "releasing" Rumania from the pact he hoped to gain favourable consideration for the crossing of Rumania by the Poles en route to France. Members of the British military mission to Poland who should have been interned were directed to drive into an enclosure to make it look as if the Rumanians were going to hold them but once in the enclosure were directed out through another entrance.

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fallweiss
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#6

Post by fallweiss » 09 Mar 2005, 17:03

There wasn`t any 7 TP-10 Motorized Brigade hadn`t that tanks on 19 September(her company was lost near Debica) .Polish Air Forces evaced to Romania Pirsuit Brigade(44 fighters) and Bomber Brigade(27 planes) plus extra units.

Rydz-Smigly probably died in 1941-some historican says that he was murded by ZWZ(Polish Resistance)

Best Wishes

Pozdrawiam :D

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Victor
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#7

Post by Victor » 11 Mar 2005, 16:57

The case of Rydz-Smigly is interesting indeed. There was an entire article on his escape from the villa where he was interned at Dragoslavele together with a colonel (Vadna I believe) about a year ago in a Romanian magazine. In September 1940, prior to his escape, there was a proposal from the Gestapo to kidnap the former King Carol II from Spain and trade him for Rydz-Smigly and Beck, but it was refused. Beck also tried to escape, but was caught. He passed away at Stejarul (today Stanesti), Vlasca county (today Ilfov county), on 5 June 1944 at 0519 hours, because of his illness. He was buried with military honors at the Bellu Cemetary in Bucharest.

The evacuation of former Polish military was usually done by ship from Constanta. In order to keep them away from the eyes of foreign secret services (German and Soviet usually) they were housed in garrisons in Dobruja like Babadag, Casimcea, Sarichioi, Topolog etc. and brought to Constanta under the pretext that they required urgent paperwork from prefecture or the Polish Consulate, conveniantly when the passenger ship was in the harbor.

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DenesBernad
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Polish refugees

#8

Post by DenesBernad » 28 Mar 2005, 17:56

One can just imagine the amount of bribe money changing hands during those escapes... :D

Dénes

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#9

Post by Mimo » 13 Feb 2008, 16:26

Yes! especialy those who canot understand how was possible....

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henryk
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#10

Post by henryk » 13 Feb 2008, 22:33

The Polish military also retreated to Hungary, Lithuania and Latvia. A Polish submarine was interned, before escaping, in Tallinn, Estonia.
http://www.polandinexile.com/airforce01.htm
In the aftermath, it appeared significant numbers of military personnel had escaped and started their campaign in exile. The navy had escaped and Poland’s gold reserves too thanks to the planning of General Rayski. 900 airforce personnel had made their way to Hungary and approximately 1,000 to the Baltic States of Latvia and Lithunia.

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Patzinak
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#11

Post by Patzinak » 13 Feb 2008, 23:29

henryk wrote:A Polish submarine was interned, before escaping, in Tallinn, Estonia.
The Orzel -- she finally reached Britain, like the Wilk. The other three Polish submarines were interned in Sweden. Is it known who sunk the Orzel afterwards?

--Patzinak

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#12

Post by Mimo » 14 Feb 2008, 07:55

"The Polish military also retreated to Hungary",......- now I can imagine how can one just imagine the amount of bribe money....

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DenesBernad
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#13

Post by DenesBernad » 14 Feb 2008, 08:10

Mimo wrote:"The Polish military also retreated to Hungary",......- now I can imagine how can one just imagine the amount of bribe money....
Sorry, I don't get it. Mimo, would you care to explain your sentence a bit more detailed? :?

Dénes

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#14

Post by Mimo » 14 Feb 2008, 09:18

Yes, Denes! But right now I'm occupied. I just issued an ideea and now I try to decode what I meant!
Kind Regards!

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RG
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#15

Post by RG » 14 Feb 2008, 17:30

fallweiss wrote:There wasn`t any 7 TP-10 Motorized Brigade hadn`t that tanks on 19 September(her company was lost near Debica) .Polish Air Forces evaced to Romania Pirsuit Brigade(44 fighters) and Bomber Brigade(27 planes) plus extra units.

Rydz-Smigly probably died in 1941-some historican says that he was murded by ZWZ(Polish Resistance)

Best Wishes

Pozdrawiam :D
If I remember well, 10 Brigade did not have 7TP at all (there were only plans to organise unit with modernised 7TP [they were named 9TP if I remember well] and the Brigade had only old Vickers E and TKS. And finally they enetered Hungary, not Rumanien.

siemanko

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