Salvete Omnes,
Today's post is about yet another anniversary of the German September invasion of Poland( in 1939), the quintessential beginning of World War II, but this time from more of a horse side angle.
Before the war Polish governmental and private stud farms bred fine quality riding and draft horses, those herds- dame and sire lines rebuilt from the destruction of 1914-20 wars.
So when Germany invaded on September 1 1939 many of the goverment owned stud farms were put on the evacuation orders, and started marching their precious stallion, mares and their progeny east or south east. Many of the farm workers still remembered the Great War, march of the German troops into the Russian Poland, and then the Bolsheviks war and mayhem and murder that followed the March Revolution of 1917 and German conquest(including robbery and pillaging) of eastern Old Poland and their riches there.
Note that Polish goverment started the governmental studs with three farms in 1920s, - Racot (in Greater Poland), Kozienice (Mazovia) and Janow Podlaski (Podlasie), they were to provide remounts for the Polish army horse cavalry and to provide better horses for the agricultural farms etc via better quality stallions etc. Later more stallion farms were created - Boguslawice, Sadowa Wisznia, Łąck, Białka etc.
So when the German invasion of 1939 consumed more and more of Polish Republic's territory as the second week of September progressed then the stud farms marched east. They were joined by the privately-owned stud farms and individual horse breeders and owners, it was as if a stream of horse aristocracy flowed east away from the front, but not away from the bombs and machine guns of the German air-force aka Luftwaffe.
One of such stud farms ordered by the officialdom to march east was the Janow Podlaski governmental stud farm (PSK). During these times Stanislaw Pohoski was the managing director of this farm with 2 deputy directors and a veterinarian, master of the stables and deputy master of the stables, accountant , along with some 40 grooms and horse handlers employed. Next to this breeding farm, there was also a stallion training farm (PSO) training about a 125 stallions with about 40 grooms under master of the stables Jan Stasiak , nominally presided over by Walenty Jachmimowicz but the outfit in fact run by Tadeusz Marchowiecki.
The stud, in its most fantastic 'blooming' period since prior to 1914, was bombed and its rooftops raked with machine gun fire on September 4, 1939, but no horses were injured.
On September 8 all personnel was paid wages 3 months in advance, stallions (top ones, the PSO ones etc) and horses designed to pull wagons were being shod and prepared for marching out.
on September 10 he had the whole stallion farm horse population moved out - some stallions in hand led by mounted grooms, others tied to the wagons with fodder and foodstuffs etc.
On September 11 at 1700 hours director Pohoski commenced his stud's trek - about 260 horses and foals and 16 horse wagons left the Janow Podlaski farm - since they had no enough grooms or other personnel to led the horses out, with help from Witold Pruski and town's mayor they recruited men from Janow town and thus this huge herd moved out marching south-east towards Volhynia land, without any particular final destination .
They watered the horses 2-3 times a day, bought hay along the way, and only stallions and draft horses pulling wagons got oats twice daily - while marching about 20-30km nightly - while resting at various stables, shacks and barns along the way.
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| Kuhailan Said from Baza Koni |
Kuhailan Said got a little fever at first, but two veterinary doctors - Gruszka and Wilczynski - cured the stallion's malady and he resumed being used under saddle.
The roads were full of refugees going east, demoralized soldiers and regular army units , so from the start there were losses to panics and alarms, or common human stupidity. During the first night hey last about 80 horses that panicked run away. Among the lost was the daughter of Kuhailan Haifi Oda with a foal,
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| Oda from Baza Koni |
while stallion Taki Pan returned on his own.
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| Taki Pan from Baza Koni |
Once they crossed the bridge over the Bug River, the country was less panicked and there was less traffic, but the populations was less friendly. During this march they learned that during the German bombardment of the marching refugee columns near Maciejowice, the horse column for Racot was also bombed and their director Wladyslaw Sieminski was killed, while during the bombing of Nowe Miasto on Vistula River the director of PSO Boguslawice Tadeusz Nosarzewski was killed. The director of Bialka Horse Farm Kalikst Sosnowski committed suicide. Losses were mounting within the Polish civilian horse community..
The Janow Stud Farm marched on, towards Kamien Koszyrski, where they hoped to find Polish officials and administrative help in their trek.
During the night march from the village of Postupula towards Kletyck the horse column, augmented by some refugee horse wagons, including people from Poznan Land, the horses were marched over a rather narrow and wet road with some barbed wire fences along the edges, so in the darkness many horses got entangled in those barbed wires. By morning they were able to untangle horses and asses the losse. Three horses had to be put down, while overall losses were 8 horses, including the sister of Kaszmir, named Laka (Farys & Hebda) was put down due to her injuries.
Famous Ofir got entangled and fell, but they managed to save him without injury.
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| Ofir from Baza Koni |
When they got to the village of Kletyck they learned that the Rad Army crossed into eastern Poland and their nightmare doubled suddenly.. Note that the leadership of Polish Republic, sitting in Zaleszczyki and Kuty, did not declare this invasion of the Soviet armies as the actual transgression and hostile invasion and thus left Polish commanders and officials bewildered and often confused...
to be continued
Based on Andrzej Krzysztalowicz' recollections about 1939 from this Polish language site.
Valete
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