7. Flieger-Division during the Polish Campaign

[Sid Guttridge]

Duplicate post. See below.

[Sid Guttridge]

Hi Guys,

According to Axis Slovakia: Hitler's Slavic Wedge by Axworthy, the paratroop unit used to occupy Spisska Nova Ves airfield was apparently II/2 Battalion. The Luftwaffe unit based there was I/St.G76.

There was no open mutiny in the Slovak Army at this time. The paratroops were flown in as a precaution because Slovak reservists were being slow to respond to call-up and there had been demonstrations in several places.

Once the Germans were confident of Slovakia's internal stability, the II/2 Battalion was used to occupy southern Polish airfields.

It would thus appear that the unit used in Slovakia was not the one mentioned at the start of this thread.

Cheers,

Sid.

[Sid Guttridge]

Hi Phylo,

A few corrections and clarifications.

"Bernolak" was the radio call sign and code of the Slovak field army HQ based at Spišská Nová Ves. Each division also had similar named call signs and codes as illustrated on the map you reproduce. I think this peculiar usage comes from Czechoslovak military historians working from original signals. Every other army had such codes, but they don't seem to have crept into the literature in the same way.

Slovakia issued 161,567 call up papers, to which 148,113 men responded.

However, the field army strength only peaked at 51,306 on 24 September.

Slovakia was short of officers as Slovaks had been under represented in the old Czechoslovk Army's officer corps. The army also had not had time since "independence" in March 1939 to organise its reserves properly as the Germans had only agreed to a mobilisable figure of 150,000 on 12 August. These, and the brevity of the campaign, account for the large shortfall between the number of men called up and the actual number fielded.

The reluctance of Slovak reservists to report was, indeed, related to widespread unpopularity of the mobilisation against Poland. (However, this should not be mistaken for a widespread vote of confidence in Poland, which had annexed some disputed frontier regions off Slovakia in late 1938. Marked in red on your map.) Once in uniform, Slovak reservists seem to have been largely quiescent. The nearest thing to a mutiny was apparently a march by 3,500 men from a troop train through Kremnica on 15 September. German fears of real Slovak resistance proved unfounded and the field army proved a local asset in southern Poland, keeping some minor Polish units occupied and taking some 1,350 Polish prisoners.

Much fuller details can be found in Axis Slovakia: Hitler's Slavic Wedge 1938-1945 by Mark W. A. Axworthy (Axis Europa, N.Y., 2002).

There is also reportedly a new Slovak book out on the subject, but I have yet to track it down.

Cheers,

Sid.

[Piotr Kapuscinski]

Is this nearby?

Yes, it is nearby. It's in Dęblin. Thanks very much!

taking some 1,350 Polish prisoners.

Polish sources do not confirm capturing any major numbers of Polish soldiers by Slovakian forces.

They might have captured 1,350 prisoners, but not military prisoners.

[phylo_roadking]

Sid -

Once the Germans were confident of Slovakia's internal stability, the II/2 Battalion was used to occupy southern Polish airfields.

Does Axworthy say this?

[Sid Guttridge]

Hi Domen,

On p.81 Axis Slovakia states:

“1,350 Polish prisoners had been taken. However, few of these were as a direct result of Slovak operations. Almost all were stragglers belatedly mopped up from Polish formations already dispersed by the Germans. Although the Poles preferred to surrender to the Slovaks rather than to the Germans, it did them little good in the long run, because in February 1940 1,200 were handed over to Germany and the rest to the Soviet Union, depending on which occupation zone they came from.”

This seems to relate to two earlier entries on p.57:

Referring to a Slovak advance into Poland through the Lupkow Pass over 10th – 14th September under General Malar:

“A number of Polish troops were still at large behind Slovak lines, but Malar found that the local population, half of whom were Ukrainians, were very co-operative in pinpointing their whereabouts.”

and

“As early as 11th September, Polish forces were in such a difficult position that they had been ordered to fall back into the south-east of the country, and form a redoubt along the Romanian border. On 16th September, the Slovak Field Army headquarters, acting on German orders, instructed 2nd and 3rd Infantry Divisions and the Rapid Group to help block this route by mopping up in an area bounded by the line Cisna-Jablonki-Baligrod-Lesko-Sanok-Krosno-Dukliansky Pass. To avoid clashes with the Hungarians, they were not to approach nearer than one kilometre to the Hungarian border. Russian intervention on 17th September rendered the Polish situation hopeless, and all Polish forces were then ordered south towards the neutral Hungarian and Romanian borders.”

Pages 72-74, which deal with initial Slovak operations in southern Poland, mention only a few dozen Polish prisoners. It is not explicit, but it seems that almost all the 1,350 Polish prisoners claimed by the Slovaks were stragglers taken in the Cisna-Jablonki-Baligrod-Lesko-Sanok-Krosno-Dukliansky Pass zone while heading for the neutral Hungarian (Ruthenian) border between 16th September and the time the Slovaks began to withdraw on 27th September.

You will know better than me, but I believe some tens of thousands of Polish troops interned themselves successfully in Hungary, so this Slovak claim seems plausible in numbers, timing, circumstances and place.

Cheers,

Sid.

[Sid Guttridge]

Hi Phylo,

Yes. The exact quote on p.79 is, “Once the Germans were confident enough about the internal situation in Slovakia and the progress of the campaign in Poland, they released II/2 Paratroop Battalion from static guard at Spisska Nova Ves airfield and redeployed parts of it to Polish airfields and near the Dukliansky Pass.”

Cheers,

Sid.

[Piotr Kapuscinski]

only three are named..Bader,Mensch,Weise.

One of Falschirmjaegers KIA in Poland was also Unteroffizier Falschirm-Jaeger Hans Morcinek.

His name appears on an obituary.

[Ypenburg]

only three are named..Bader,Mensch,Weise.

One of Falschirmjaegers KIA in Poland was also Unteroffizier Falschirm-Jaeger Hans Morcinek.

His name appears on an obituary.

I think you mean the Oberjäger Johannes Morcinek.

[Piotr Kapuscinski]

I think you mean the Oberjäger Johannes Morcinek.

It's the same, I have quoted the obituary.

[Ypenburg]

I think you mean the Oberjäger Johannes Morcinek.

It's the same, I have quoted the obituary.

Unteroffizier Fallschirmjäger is not a rank. Within the FJ it was called/named Oberjäger. All 1939-1940 FJ Gefechtsberichten I have speak of Oberjäger i.s.o. Unteroffizier. The only one's that do not are from the Sanitätskompanie.

Can you provide some more details about this obituary (nationality, year, place, unit/graveyard, etc.)

[Peter H]

From Jean-Yves Nasse's Green Devils.

"Gardelegen 13 October 1939:the first 2nd Class Iron Crosses are awarded to men of III/FJR1.."

[Peter H]

"Radom,12 September 1939,II/FJR1 arrive at the airfield"

[Peter H]

"..II/FJR1 ..in the Mokowka-Andrezejew sector.."

[Peter H]

Sucha 14th September 1939

From Jean-Yves Nasse:

Adolf Müller,III/FJR1--I had my first experience of war near the village of Sucha.In the night of 14th September thousands of Poles who had gathered in a nearby forest attempted to fight their way through and I was shot in the foot,my first wound.This night was the worst I experienced in the course of the war..

"III/FJR1 suffered its first casualties (losing 39 men) during these bitter engagements against Polish forces.."

A Fallschirmjäger named Meusel is listed as the first FJ fatality of the war here.No breakdown of FJ killed,wounded is given.