Noon, 19 September 1939 in a captured Vilnius, a BT-5 from the 24th Cavalry Division drives on its wheels not tracks.
“The Soviet Union can no longer remain indifferent to the sufferings of its blood-brothers the Ukrainians and Belorussians who, inhabitants of Polish territory, are being abandoned to their fate and left defenceless. In consideration of this situation the Soviet Government has ordered the Red Army to send its troops across the frontier to take under their protection the lives and welfare of the populations of western Ukraine and western Belorussia.”
Vladimir Potemkin,
Soviet Deputy Commissar for Foreign Affairs
03.00 September 17, 1939
The Soviet Union attacked Poland on Sunday September 17 and the Polish government fled across the border into Romania, but was interned following Soviet pressure. The invading Soviet forces consisted of the Belorussian Front (Army Group) under General Kovalev made up of the Vitebsk, Bobruisk, 10th and 11th Armies and to the south the Ukrainian Front under General Timoshenko composed of the Zhitomir, Vinnitsa and 12th Armies. The Pripet Marshes that divided the two Fronts proved no obstacle to their advance.
Red Army units which attack Poland on 17.09.1939
White Russian Front; Hqs Minsk (Commander M.P. Kovalev)
3rd “Vitbesk” Army (Objective: Vilnius)
-4th Rifle Corps
–5th Rifle Division
–50th Rifle Division
–18th Tank Brigade
-Army Group “Lepelska”
–27th Rifle Division
–24th Cavalry Division
–16th Tank Brigade
4th “Bobruisk” Army (Objective: Brest-Litovsk, Bialystok)
-6th Cavalry Corps
–4th Cavalry Division
–6th Cavalry Division
–11th Cavalry Division
–16th Light Tank Brigade
-16th Rifle Corps
–4th Rifle Division
–13th Rifle Division
–33rd Rifle Division
–21st Tank Brigade
-23rd Independent Rifle Corps
–93rd Rifle Division
–109th Rifle Division
–152nd Rifle Division
-15th Tank Corps
–27th Light Tank Brigade
–45th Light Tank Brigade
–20th Motorized Brigade
10th Army
-24th Rifle Corps
– 29th Rifle Division
–139th Rifle Division
–145th Rifle Division
11th Army
-1 Tank Corps
-1 Infantry Corps
-1 Cavalry Corps
Ukrainian Front; Hqs Proskurov (near Lvov) (Commander S.K. Timoshenko)
5th “Zhitomer” Army
-8th Rifle Corps
–44th Rifle Division
–46th Rifle Division
–89th Rifle Division
-3rd Cavalry Corps
–7th Cavalry Division
–11th Cavalry Division
–27th Cavalry Division
–3rd Light Tank Brigade
6th “Vinnitsa” Army
-17th Rifle Corps
–72nd Rifle Division
–96th Rifle Division
–97th Rifle Division
-2nd Cavalry Corps
–3rd Cavalry Division
–5th Cavalry Division
–14th Cavalry Division
–24th Light Tank Brigade
12th Army
-4th Cavalry Corps
–10th Cavalry Division
–12th Cavalry Division
–13th Cavalry Division
-5th Cavalry Corps
–16th Cavalry Division
–25th Cavalry Division
–30th Cavalry Division
-15th Independent Rifle Corps
–7th Rifle Division
–45th Rifle Division
–60th Rifle Division
-25th Tank Corps
–4th Light Tank Brigade
–5th Heavy Tank Brigade
–1st Motorized Rifle Brigade
–23rd Independent Tank Brigade
–26th Independent Tank Brigade
Committed to their fight to the death in the west the Polish forces were in no condition to offer a coherent resistance though they hung onto the important rail junction of Moledeczno on the line between Minsk and Vilna. In the first day’s fighting the Red Air Force reported that it had shot down seven Polish fighters and three bombers and the Army said that its troops “were greeted with cheers by the local White Russian and Ukrainian populations”.
The Soviets land and aviation forces invaded Poland on 17 September 1939. On the first wave was send 466 000 soldiers, 5500 armoured vehicles (including 4850 tanks) and about (3300 combat planes- only about 800-1000 used).
On the first day of this traitorous invasion (Stalin had broken a number of international pacts [1] signed before 1 September 1939) actively participated Soviet VVS Aviation. According data from Ukrainian front Soviet made over 600 sorties against Poland (bigger VVS force was on Belorussian Front).
The surviving 116 aircraft of the Lotnictwo Wojskowe flew into Romania where they were interned.
On September 21 Soviet troops reached Lvov. The garrison under General Langner put up a tough resistance for ten days before being obliged to surrender. Soviet forces finally halted on the north south line of the Rivers San and Bug. When Soviet forces linked up with the German 4th Army at Brest-Litovsk on September 18 the German News Bureau reported smugly “On Monday, German and Soviet troop detachments rendezvoused at Brest-Litovsk: the officers exchanged greetings”.
Surviving Polish forces began to fight their way towards Romania and Hungary, countries that at the time were still neutral and eventually some 120,000 managed to escape to serve with the Allies.
Ten Polish divisions trapped near Modlin north of Warsaw were finally forced to surrender on September 28. By now German and Soviet troops had reached the demarcation line that split Poland in two. A day later von Ribbentrop and Molotov met in Moscow to modify the non-aggression pact between the two countries. It was agreed that the Soviet Union would be given a free hand in Lithuania and would retain Belorussia and Ukrainian Poland. In exchange Germany was given the whole of ethnic Poland.
The Soviet Union lost 737 dead and 1,859 wounded [2]. Soviet aviation had lost during the whole campaign (17 September -15 October 1939) about 20-25 planes from all causes. It was almost “nil” losses. Poles had lost in fighting against the Soviet invasion forces about 6,000-7,000 killed or murdered in September-October 1939.
The Poles lost 70,000 killed and 130,000 wounded while the survivors marched into grim captivity. They had been unable to mobilise their full strength from September 1 and so had only 540,000 men and 160 tanks in the field. Crucially they had been let down by Anglo French forces in the West.
On Sunday October 1, 1959 the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill broadcasting to the world summed up the feelings of the West. “Poland has again been overrun by two of the great Powers which held her in bondage for 150 years, but were unable to quench the spirit of the Polish nation. The heroic defence of Warsaw shows that the soul of Poland is indestructible, and that she will rise again like a rock which may for a spell be submerged by a tidal wave, but which remains a rock.”
[1] During the interwar period, Poland and the Soviet Union signed a number of legally binding treaties and international agreements; among them:
09 February 1929 – a protocol enforcing the Kelogg-Briand pact.
25 July 1932 – Polish-Soviet non-aggression pact (reconfirmed in 1934, to be in force until 1945)
03 July 1933 – the Litvinov protocol defining aggression
28 November 1938 – reconfirmation of the Polish-Soviet non-aggression pact
[2] Some Polish texts disagree with these figures, estimating Russian losses in Poland on 2,500-3,500 KIA Russian soldiers
