Heroes of the Battle of Wizna ~ Sabaton 40 to 1
From time to time something really catches your imagination. One such thing was brought about by a song by, new obsession, Sabaton.
It’s about the true story of the heroic Polish troops who fought at Wizna - please give it a read it stirring and is truly impressive
Heroes of the Battle of Wizna
In Poland for 3 days in September 1939 720 troops under the command of Captain Władysław Raginis held the Polish village and front of Wizna against the German Army.
And ? . . . you may say !
Well, and this is the stuff of heroes, Captain Władysław Raginis made his stand with 700 soldiers and 20 officers ready to face the might of the German Army. Raginis swore to defend his land with honour and valour and would not leave it alive !
He and his men had:
-
6 pieces of artillery
24 heavy machine guns
18 machine guns
2 anti-tank guns
The valiant Polish army numbering only 720 men with only the equipment above stood defiant in the face of . . .
-
The XIX Panzer Corps
The 3rd Panzer Division
The 20th Motorised Division
The 10th Panzer Division
The “Lötzen” Fortress Brigade
42, 000 men
350 tanks
108 howitzers
58 pieces of artillery
195 anti-tank guns
108 mortars
188 grenade launchers
288 heavy machine guns
689 machine guns
For 3 days the Poles held out against 42,000 with all the equipment above and air support !
The Germans had to fight with all at their disposal trying to take one bunker at a time, eventually of course the inevitable happened but what should have been a quick decisive action by the huge German forces was anything but . . .
They hadn’t reckoned on the heroic Captain Raginis and his equally heroic men
If that’s not a matter of huge Polish Pride then nothing is.
In Awe and Admiration
Rod
You may want to listen to the track below with some of the above in mind
Sabaton 40:1
Tom said,
December 23, 2009 @ 9:52 am
31 seconds into the vidio is a pic of my father . any idea where this came from . and any info would be great thanx tom
Amiguru said,
December 23, 2009 @ 1:22 pm
Hi Tom,
Until Rod is able to reply you could try contacting djszopen6 at:
http://www.youtube.com/user/djszopen6#g/a
Regards,
N
le
Rod said,
December 23, 2009 @ 4:17 pm
Hi Tom,
I did try emailing you but your email address bounces the emails straight back to me.
Neville’s idea your best bet.
Please do come back and let us know if you can find out anything
All the best
Rod
jacek said,
July 23, 2010 @ 7:43 am
Hi all grettings from Poland
I’d like to inform you that you have a little mistake in your (very fine) article.
“He and his men had:
6 pieces of artillery
24 heavy machine guns
18 machine guns
2 anti-tank guns”
2 antitank guns… well those weren’t guns jus antitank riffles here is wiki entry for it http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karabin_przeciwpancerny_wz._35
sorry its in polish i couldn’t find english version but you may see how it looked.
Sorry for my bad English
Ur is cryptonim name because those riffles were top secret new design. And in documents it posed as wepaon that will be soled to Urugway.
It was higly effective riffle that colud pierce almost all german tank of that time but polish goverment kept i too secret. So polish soldiers recived Urs in low numbers and hadn’t chance to train with this weapon. They had to learn on battlefield.
Rod said,
July 23, 2010 @ 7:49 am
Hi Jacek,
thanks for the comment and welcome to the site - you shuld, and I’m sure you are, be very proud of your countrymen.
Regards from England
Rod