APRIL 9 - DAILY CHRONICLES OF HISTORY

APRIL 9

1241

Battle of Legnica:  Mongol armies defeated the Polish and German armies. Just days days earlier a combined force of Poles and Moravians under the command of the Polish Duke Henry II the Pious of Silesia, supported by feudal nobility and a few knights from military orders sent by the Pope, attempted to halt the Mongol invasion of Europe. But the Mongol victory over the Hungarians came later at the much larger Battle of Mohi. The Mongols had much success in the battle by feigning their retreat. After the Polish knights detached from the main body of allied forces in pursuit of the fleeing Mongols, the invaders were able to separate the knights from the infantry and defeat them one by one. Henry II was struck down and beheaded while attempting to flee the battlefield with three bodyguards, and the Mongols paraded his head on a spear before the town of Legnica.

1936

The National Defense Fund (Poland) was established by special decree of Polish President Ignacy Mościcki.  Its objective was to collect additional sources of money, necessary for supplying shortfalls in equipment of the Polish Army. The response was overwhelming. The Fund collected over 1 Billion Zlotys. Forty million of it was given by patriotic Polish citizens from their personal savings, jewelry, precious coins, gold earrings, valuable plates and utensils, and other precious belongings.  Even school children gave their pocket money.

1940

The Battles of Narvik were fought from April 9 to June 8, 1940. The first phase was a naval battle in the Ofotfjord, followed by a battle in the mountains surrounding the north Norwegian city of Narvik (part of the Norwegian Campaign of the Second World War).  Two naval battles were fought on April 10 and 13 April  between the British Royal Navy (and its Allies) against Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine.  Among others, the Polish destroyers Grom, Burza and Błyskawica took part in these operations. Tragically,  Grom was sunk by German aircraft on May 4, 1940, with the loss of 59 Polish sailors. The other Battle of Narvik was a land campaign, two-months in duration, fought between Norwegian, French, British, and Polish Allied troops against German sailors, mountain troops and paratroopers. Although they were defeated at sea off Narvik, and lost control of the town of Narvik (being pushed back towards the Swedish border) the German forces eventually prevailed. ( due to the Allied evacuation from Norway in June 1940 following the Battle of France.)

1943

Exterminations at Chelmno ceased temporarily. The camp would be reactivated in the spring of 1944 to liquidate ghettos. In all,  the deaths of prisoners in Chelmno would reach 300,000.  The SS of the camp began extermination processes on December 8, 1941. Among the first transports were Jewish and Romani populations of Koło, Dąbie, Sompolno, Kłodawa, Babiak, Izbica Kujawska, Bugaj, Nowiny Brdowskie and Kowale Pańskie. A total of 3,830 Jews and around 4,000 Romani were killed by gas before February 1942. From January 1942 the transports included hundreds of Poles and Soviet prisoners of war. In addition, they included over 10,000 Jews from Germany, Austria, Bohemia, Moravia and Luxembourg, who had first been deported to the ghetto in Łódź an detained there already for weeks. In late February 1942, Stanislaw Kaszynski,  the secretary of the local Polish council in Chełmno, was arrested for trying to bring public attention to the killings in the camp. He was interrogated and executed three days later on February 28, 1942, near a church along with his wife. He wrote a secret memorandum  but it was intercepted by the SS-Sonderkommando. Today, there is an obelisk to his memory erected at Chełmno.

1945

German cruiser Admiral Scheer was sunk in a general RAF bombing raid by over 300 allied aircraft which struck the harbor in Kiel. Admiral Scheer was hit by bombs and capsized. After the end of World War Two,  she was partially broken up for scrap though part of the hull was left in place and buried with rubble from the attack in the construction of a new quay. The number of casualties from her loss is unknown.


German submarines U-804 was attacked and sunk:  (Note:  After her second patrol  U-804 returned to the port of Flensburg after 116 days at sea. Five days later she left  for Kiel, where she remained until April 4, 1945 then left for occupied Norway. The U-804, accompanied by U-843 were spotted on April 9, 1945 at Skagerrak Strait,  and attacked by over 30 De Havilland Mosquito aircraft from RAF Squadron No. 143.   Another German sub, U-1065 succeeded in shooting down one of the Allied attacking aircraft before being hit by several rockets fired by 10 Mosquitos from RAF Squadron 143 and Squadron 235. The U-boat exploded and sank with the loss of her crew of 45.

REMEMBRANCE: BATTLE OF NARVIK

Decoration of the Polish Highland Brigade 1940 (0:56 sec)




WW II : RARE COLOR FILM : BATTLE FOR NORWAY : PART 1 OF 3 (07:53m)




WW II : RARE COLOR FILM : BATTLE FOR NORWAY : PART 2 OF 3 (08:08m)




WW II : RARE COLOR FILM : BATTLE FOR NORWAY : PART 3 OF 3 (08:02m)

April 8th 1940 marked the start of the Battle of Narvik.  At 11:12 hours, the Polish submarine ORP Orzel surfaced after having shadowed the Rio di Janeiro for some time.  Polish Command ordered the German ship to stop and be searched. When the Germans refused to obey the order, the Poles sprayed the ship with machine gun fire. The Germans abandoned ship and fifteen minutes later the Orzel fired torpedoes sinking the German vessel. Debris confirmed Polish suspicions - that the ship was a military troopship en route to invade Norway.

The next day a fleet of 10 German destroyers were headed towards Narvik. The Norwegian destroyer Eidsvold refused to surrender and was torpedoed and sunk by German warships. The vessel was blown into 2 pieces. The forward part of the ship sank in seconds. Of 175 Norwegian sailors, only 8 survived. The German warships tracked down the Norge and fired three salvoes. The first two missed because the cold weather rendered the optical sights less effective.  The third salvo struck and the Norge sank. One hundred and one sailors perished. The battle was over in less than 20 minutes.

The first naval battle on April 10th between Great Britain and Germany resulted in a British victory:  2 German Destroyers were sunk, as well as one ammunition supply ship, 6 cargo ships, and 4 German destroyers damaged. On April 13th, the second naval battle ensued, again in England's favor:  8 German ships were sunk or scuttled, 1 U-boat sunk and over 1,000 Germans were killed. The remaining 2,600 Germans survived and joined their infantry for the subsequent land battle.

The Burza, Blyskawica, and Grom were Polish Destroyers under Commander Porucznik S. Hryniewiecki, which had left Harwich via Scapa Flow and headed towards Norway escorting troop ships. On May 3rd the Burza landed French alpine troops at Graatangend Fjord, while Grom and Blyskawica shelled German positions.The next day Grom was sunk during a heavy air attack by the Luftwaffe.


Initially the land battle, begun on April 9th, was fought between the Norwegians and Germans but Allied troops would soon enter the fray, eventually reaching over 24,000 men and greatly outnumbering German troops.  On April 14th and for the next several weeks the British continued to deploy more troops. Three battalions of the British Expeditionary Force were soon joined by 3 battalions of Alpine troops, and 2 battalions of 13th Foreign Legion Demi-Brigade. Four Polish battalions arrived on May 9 and were reformed in June under the name of the Polish Independent Highland Brigade under the command of Zygmunt Bohusz Szyszko. However despite the Allied reinforcements, German troops were able to conduct surprise attacks on more than one occasion though their advantage was often eroded by difficulty in bringing in supplies.

The land battle was plagued by many difficulties; first and foremost was the lack of an Allied Commander. Each contingent was led by it's own commander, and theirs was seldom a consensus of agreement. While the Norwegians made their way easily through the mountainous terrain, the French, British and Polish troops lagged behind due to poor equipment and lack of training. It wasn't until mid May that the Allies took initiative and won some victories.

On May 12 an Allied amphibious attack was directed towards Bjerkvik which was taken by the French Foreign Legionnaires, supported by five light French tanks which then advanced northward where German troops where withdrawing. The Polish Independent Rifle Brigade planned to advance to Bjerkvik as well but were hindered by rough terrain. The French and Norwegian troops planned to trap the Germans but it never materialized as both units were beset with cooperation problems.  This quibbling providing the Germans with an easy means of escape.

On May 14, 1940 the MV Chrobry was attacked and sunk. Eleven members of the crew and an undetermined number of Polish troops drowned. The Burza and Blyskawica were dispatched to the south towards France. ORP Burza saw action on May 21st off the coast of Calais, shelling German positions as she provided cover during Allied troop withdrawals.  She was attacked by Ju-87s and badly damaged but was able to return to Dover, and then Plymouth for repairs. 

The Allies planned another attack but were delayed for having to wait for air support to be fully operational. At 23:40 on May 28, 1940 the British began a naval bombardment from the north while two French and one Norwegian battalions were advancing on Narvik from the west and north, and the Polish battalions from the south.  At 07:00 hours the German Commander gave the order to evacuate the area.

The resulting "victory" for the Allies however was only tentative.  As fate would have it, the Allies received orders from London to evacuate on May 24th.  Allied Command urgently need to deploy troops to France to provide support for the evacuation at Dunkirk. Allied destroyers transported the troops the waiting vessels 112 km offshore. The Polish vessels, MS Sobieski and MS Batory  took part in the  operation. The Independent Polish Rifle Brigade was evacuated on the night June 4 to 5 and two days later the Norwegian commanders, their government and the remaining Allied troops. The Norwegian forces embittered and dismayed, surrendered to the Germans on June 10th, 1940.

Polish troops

French Foreign Legion Battalion

Norwegian troops

British troops back in UK June 1940

souce: Wikipedia


Link:
Polish Greatness.com