Polish Army Day - a millennium of defending the realm

 Salvete Omnes,

so  this day, August 15 is the Polish Army Day (Feast of the Soldiers) - the date is also the Feast of Assumption of Mary. 
So for more than millennium Polish warriors, knights and soldiers, mostly peasants led by their noble lords and officers defended the Polish lands.
This particular August date  commemorates the battle of Warsaw, AD 1920, when the Red Army Juggernaut of an  offensive was broken and eventually rolled back into the Red Russian lands (although there are many disagreements and disputes on why the leadership did not help White Russians finish off the Bolshevik rule and restore Russia from the communist monstrosity), thus preserving the newly restituted Polish state. 
The battle is important to the XX i XXI century modern Polish state ideology and politics, but we have had many battles equally important and momentous in our millennium long history. But be what it may, at least the holiday falls in the summer month, when the weather is warm and sunny. 

Hail to the defenders - and may war never return to the Polish lands

and along with the text I am including some photos of the Polish cavalry drummers of the mounted musicians platoon from the 1 pulk szwolezerow (1st chevau-leger regiment) of the 2nd Republic -  Polish names for these musician-soldiers were 'kotlista'(modern) and old 'pauker, paukier, pałkier, & pałkierz,  '

during the pre-partition Poland - Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Crown of Poland - the mounted drummers were part of the cavalry units and were very colorful, while playing an important role of signaling and providing psychological support to the fighting troops.

and although the Napoleonic 1st Polish chevau-legers of the Guard were not part of the Polish army, their splendid uniforms and short but illustrious history merits to have them included here - painted by Bronislaw Gembarzewskie (great historian and illustrator, another victim of the Nazi German genocidal policies in occupied Poland)

Valete

Polish Cavalry Trumpeters - interwar period I

 Salvete Omnes,

a short summer entry - Polish cavalry trumpeters from 1930 in the lenses of Narcyz Witczak-Witaczynski, nota bene tortured by German gestapo at Pawiak German prison and eventually murdered by the Germans at the KL Majdanek  (concentration camp) in March 1943.

Today the cavalry trumpeters of the 1st szwolezer (chevau-leger ) regiment - famous for the 1918-20 wars for independence, and for bravery and heroism during the 1939 campaign.

note that the Polish cavalry arm of the Polish army, organized from nothing in 1918, developed training, uniforms, weapons, and especially for this blog theme their own saddles for soldiers and officers and horse tack during the 1920s and 1930s, encouraged  horse breeding and remount service(my great grandfathers bred horses for Polish cavalry)  and training centers (Grudziadz) for the cavalry regiments and horse artillery etc - it was all short of miraculous, I think.
The invasion of Nazi Germany with allies along along the Soviet Union occupation after 17th September 1939, and the partition of occupied Poland between Germany and Soviet Union 1939-41, and the later war in the east 1941-45 ended Polish equestrian & cavalry traditions in Polish lands. And the Communist goverment extinguished any cavalry regiments and traditions within the Polish Army 1949-89, in the late 1940s, after the end of World War II.  

Valete.

Polish cavalry regiments - 1919-20 war

Salvete omnes,

since we are living during the 100th anniversary year of the great Polish-Bolshevik Russia war, then over the next months I am going to spend a number of posts on these Polish cavalry regiments.

I do not really have much on the Bolshevik Russia side, apart from some Russian very general material, so my entries will have to be generalized and rather more or less prejudiced in favor of my Polish horsemen.
 
The war of 1919-20 abounded in cavalry actions on both sides - note, there have been also Belarusian, Lithuanian, Ukrainian, Cossack, White Russian cavalry regiments and smaller units.
The Polish et al., troops on war footing  were very colorful when comes to uniforms, horses, equipment and arms.

For example the Polish government had been buying American equipment left in Western Europe, but any equipment that they could get their hands on was purchased from near and farther removed allies and former allies.

One thing is certain that the Polish cavalry regiments of this war used lances and used them often in countless charges and raids they did during the period.
Saddles and other horse tack was as varied as the uniforms, from German, Russian, Austro-Hungarian to American (often called Mexican in Poland) types.
Welcome to the cavalry war after the Great War.
...


ad rem,
I will start with a number of art plates painted by by friend Krzysztof Komaniecki.
 Krzysztof, living in Szczecin the WestPomeranian capital since 1945, has been painting, reconstructing and reenacting Polish cavalry (12th Podolian Uhlan cavalry regiment)  from the period of 1914-139.

Krzysztof recently created a comics book retelling one of the many cavalry charges of the period - Rokitna-
They actually published first a black and white version and later on there color version of the comics has been released.

You can easily inquire about Krzysztof's art, perhaps come to acquire his original plate or a printed copy of one, and/or  exchange ideas about the Polish cavalry of the period etc via his Facebook page: Komaniecki Art.

 
Valete

ps
at the present Belarus has been  in upheaval, that is why in the sign of solidarity I am starting my posts with the badge worn by the soldiers of the 1st Lithuanian-Belarusian Division of the Polish army.