FoW: Infantry Platoons Obrona Narodowa (National Defence)

The Polish Obrona Narodowa (National Defence) was the Polish Second Republics equivalent to our Home Guard and existed between 1937 and 1939.

In this time the manpower for the organisation as a whole was drawn from politically reliable individuals who initially did not have call up papers for any other organisation or who were not already serving members of the armed forces, although as time went by these restrictions were loosened.

Three platoons of a Type IV Battalion National Defence Company

Different areas of Poland had different forms of National Defence Battalions and all of them went through an endemic process of adjustment and refinement right up until the outbreak of hostilities in 1939. Not all of these changes were for the good however with the Battalion command structure being marginalised in favour of the command process being undertaken by divisional or other allocated coimmanders who neither knew the quality of the troops he was representing or else were unable to grasp the combat limitations that the structure of these formations imposed upon them.

Because of the staggered establishment of these battalions and the constant modifications that the troops went through on their way to war, the net result was that there was a massive variety in quality of combat value for these battalions which ranged from troops being able to conduct operations of no more complexity than glorified behind the lines police duties which was common around the southern borders of the country to Lwow in the Type I Battalions, right up to the formations that were so well trained and with such high elan that they were considered the equal of any of the regular troops (albeit lacking somewhat in arms and equipment) such as the National Defence troops to be found in Silesia and with the Coastal Land Defence along the Baltic coastline such as the Silesian Type III battalions and the Baltic Type IV battalions.

There were two main formats that the infantry platoons of the National Defence took. Both types had three sections (or teams as they are termed in Polish) but the sections for each type took different shape.

A WIP of the Intelligence Briefing's Combat Platoons page...

With the first type of platoon, found in the Type IV and Type S battalions, there were three sections of equal size, 14 men apiece and with no LMG's although just before the outbreak of war it seems that some of these battalions started to have LMG's provided to them in order to give them more clout in the field. 

Three platoons of a Type I, II and III Battalion National Defence Company

The second type of platoon that was prevalent in the Type I, II and III Battalions also had three sections in each although in this case each section only had 10 men. In the second phase of the National Defence development these platoons were each supplied with one LMG fire team which was added to the first section of each platoon. This gave an overall structure of one section of 14 men with an LMG and two sections of ten men armed only with rifles.

A typical command base for my National Defence... defenders of faith and fatherland!

The next area to be looked at in a little more detail could perhaps be the weapons that the Obrona Narodowa infantry platoons were provided with then they were founded.

If anything told a story of how the ON fared in 1939 a lot of their troubles could be boiled down to this!

A typical Type IV infantry section. Nout but rifles!

Poland, by 1937, was very happily producing its own small arms but, being a largely agrarian country with a significant dirth of industrial capacity they were simply incapable of adequately providing for the needs of its regular armed forces let alone a new experiment such as the National Defence.

frontal view of the above

As a result of this when these battalions were initially established they were forced to supply them with weaponry gradually, and even then from retired stocks of ex world war one weapons such as the Austro-Hungarian Mannlicher M1895 which was widely regarded as having little practical use and were mainly retained by the Blue Police (Policja Państwowa ) or else the French Lebel wz.86/93's or Berthier 07/15-16's which were the most common weapons available to the National Defence due to the large amounts that had been purchased for use when Poland was fighting with the Communists in 1920.

...and the obligatory rear view of the above above!

One of the biggest problems encountered by the National Defence in 1939 was the supplies of ammunition with which they were given. Frequently they discovered under combat conditions that the ammunition that they had been provided with was the wrong type and couldn't therefore be used.

They would have to have a mad scramble to dig up usable ammunition from somewhere as a result of this...

A typical command section of a Type I infantry platoon. A blue Christ because they are feeling pretty blue about things!

Where the light machine guns was concerned the choices were limited here as well to retired stocks of barely functioning weapons.

The majority of the National Defence light machine gun requirements were fulfilled with the heavy but accurate and fast rate of fire German Lkm 7.92mm wz. 08/15 "Maxim" or in much reduced numbers the Rkm 7.92mm wz.15 "Chauchat". The Chauchat could fire both single shot and fully automatic although its rate of fire wasn't great. The benefit of this however was that this quality gave the weapon a greater longevity than other weapons accessible to the National Defence although the complexity of the weapon itself caused difficulties in cleaning the weapon and thus frequent jamming.

A view of a full Type I, II & III infantry platoon

There were very few handguns issued to the reserve officers and NCO's of the National Guard unless they were provided for by themselves and were instead usually equipped with the same rifles as their men.

A Type I second phase infantry section with its additional LMG team

A rear view of the same infantry section

Where uniforms are concerned the National Defence suffered the same problems as with their weaponry. There simply weren't enough stocks of modern pieces to equip this second tier force.

A view of a normal Type I, II & III infantry section of only 10 men.

At inception, they were frequently issued with the old pre 1936 uniforms with the characteristic leg wrap puttees and adrian helmets. It is this particular uniform that I have chosen to model my company on.

A rear view of the above infantry section

As time went by and new battalions were raised and established they would be provided with more up to date equipment as it became available. This meant that by the time the war started the majority of the National Defence would look almost identical to the regular army having been kitted out with the wz.1936 uniforms.

A close up look at one of the LMG bases

The two main things that these new battalions would be missing however, which were to have a sadly significant impact on them under combat conditions in 1939 is that they were not supplied with either helmets or entrenching tools.

A rear view of the same base.

Those battalions that were raised at the start and were later reorganised and upgraded were able to retain their adrian helmets, although they still had no entrenching tools provided.

If you want to field a force of Obrona Narodowa for your games its a simple case of just modelling the usual piechoty models that are wearing the Rogatywka. Even the Baltics Naval (Morska) brigade wore regular army uniforms by 1939 signified as ON and Naval only by the anchor on their collars.

So there we have it. Buckets of meat to throw on German, Slovakian and Soviet bullets!

Fix Bayonets gentlemen! I feel a charge coming on!