Flames of War: The Black Brigade 7: 24th Uhlans Regiment (24. Pulk Uhlanie)



24th Regiment of Uhlans. Officers and NCO's in their black leather jackets

So we are finally almost at the very end of our Black Brigade odyssey. This will be the last post that I have planned on doing that looks at a constituent part of the Black Brigade with a modelling section covering what I will be talking about.


After this I only have one post left, covering the uniforms of the Black Brigade and how I went about basing them and then ladies and gentlemen I WILL be doing something non-Polish! :D


But today I would like to introduce you to the Polish 24th Regiment of Uhlans. I just cant sing enough praise when talking about these men and what they achieved so I wont. Ill just let you read about them if you are interested.


After the potted history you will find the modelling section where I give you a look at the infantry company that I've done for the 24.ul and their half track transports that were all converted for them to ride around in.


I have to say that at this point I have grave doubts as to whether or not the 10BK used terrain transports for the infantry in '39 but I've done them anyway because it was a great modelling opportunity.


When all is said and done however these really are just infantry so I thought I would add one final thing to this blog and that was the machine company that each of the motorised infantry regiments can call on, and in any case it will give you all a chance to have a glance at my motorised Tczankas that I sculpted, cast and painted.


Anyway, I will waste no more time and allow you to plough on...

The Early Days of the Regiment

The 24th Uhlan Regiment of Crown Hetman Stanislaw Zolkiewski was a cavalry regiment of the Polish Army in the Second Republic.

General Jozef Haller

The pedigree of the regiment dates back to 6th July 1920 when Colonel Tadeusz Zolkiewski was instructed by the General Inspector of the Volunteer Army, General Jozef Haller, to commence the organisation of the Malopolska Volunteer Brigade in the Lwow General District with concentration centres positioned at Lwow, Przemysl and Stanislaw

The formation of the Brigade never ultimately materialised but instead whilst Zolkiew was in Lwow with the 14th Reserve Squadron of the Jazlowiec Uhlan Regiment in August of 1920 he decided to use the squadron as a cadre for a new regiment; the 214th Uhlans Regiment.

On the 8th August 1920 the newly formed regiment was placed at the disposal of the Army High Command with directions to transport and assemble at Mlawa. Between the 9th and 10th of August, 35 Officers and NCO's, 805 enlisted men with 422 horses made their way to Mlawa.

The charge of Polish Uhlans in 1919

Polish Uhlans just before the Battle of Warsaw

However because of the fluid situation across the front lines their disembarkation point had to be relocated. The first arrivals were redirected across to Modlin whereas the remainder of the arriving troops ended up debussing in the area of  Nowy Dwor, Mazowiecki and Blonie. Further dribs and drabs of this new regiment also ended up finding themselves in Warsaw.

From these disparate locations the regiment collected its assets and participated in driving back the Bolshevik terror in battles around Zamosc, through Volhynia and finally in central Lithuania. 

The Regiment in the Interbellum

In the second part of November 1920 the regiment was relocated by rail from Grodo down to Zolkiew. On 20th February 1921 the regiment was moved again, this time to Debica followed up with a move to Staszow and Pinczow in July. Due to challenging accommodation conditions that the regiment was faced with in Pinczow the decision to move was once again taken on 4th December 1921 with the affected part of the regiment this time finding itself at Jaroslaw.

On April 4th 1922 this itinerant regiment was relocated from Jaroslaw to Krasnik where they would eventually find their home until the mobilisation order of late August 1939.

Marshal Jozef Pilsudski

On 27th May 1927 the Polish Minister of Military Affairs (Along with almost every other title of importance in the country) Marshal Jozef Pilsudski approved the establishment of 21st September as the date of the regimental holiday with the regimental feast being celebrated on the anniversary of the battle of Warsaw and a signal charge of the regiment which was remembered as a great triumph for the volunteer cavalry men.

Throughout the '30's the regiment unofficially used the name 'Hetman Stanislaw Zolkiewski' with the name only being officially approved when the regiment was eventually reformed in France June 1940.

 On 26th June 1935 the head of the Ministry of Military Affairs, Brigadier General Tadeusz Kasprzycki changed the date of the Regimental holiday from 21st September to 6th July which was of course the anniversary of Zolkiew's formation of the Regiment in the first place.

Czechoslovakian forces advance

At the end of November 1938 the 24th Uhlans found themselves participating in the reoccupation of Polish territory formerly snatched by the Czechoslovakian armed forces whilst Poland was struggling for its life against the Bolsheviks.

The majority of this work resulted in bloodless occupations of territory but at the Zdziarska Pass there was one Polish casualty in the 24th Uhlans. A major of cavalry called Stefan Rago, or 'Ciepcio' to his friends.

This guy was somewhat of an interesting character so is worth dwelling on for a moment.

Rago on the left in 1919 as a Second Lieutenant

He was born on February 2nd 1896 and during the First World War he fought as a volunteer, a volunteer in the ranks of the 1st Regiment of the Krechowiec Uhlans.

During the war against the Bolsheviks he fought in the ranks of the 7th Lubelski Uhlans regiment.

Whilst garrisoned at Minsk Mazowiecki he served with the 7th throughout the 20's and 30's, on 15th October 1929 he was appointed to a 7  month training course for junior cavalry officers at the Cavalry training centre in Grudziadz.

In 1938 he reached his last home, as commander of one of the squadrons of the 24th Uhlans in Krasnik.

So this guy sounds like he was the real deal right? Well lets see what Skibinski, 2iC of 10BK has to say about him:

Major Stefan 'Ciepcio' Rago  in 1938

Franciszek Skibinski described Rago as:

"smart, very smart. A good rider, a perfect cavalry officer. Handsome and well liked but he had one single crack. He was not an alcoholic but every few months he had 'Three Drops' and then you couldn't count on him. In the spring of this year [1938] he had one of these three days, which prevented him from attending the regiment for interdisciplinary exercises. Dworak who warmly liked and appreciated Ciepcio was furious then! He almost didn't send him for treatment but he wanted to save him at all costs. A few days before the Jaworczyna alarm Ciepcio was returning from treatment to the regiment and on his way he joined me in Bielsko with such a speech: "Franek, you have no idea how grateful I am to Dworak. This is a real commander, and a friend. I'm already a completely different person at the moment. Another man stopped the car before the first pub in Bielsko and by the end of the night he had worked out how many hours had been wasted in treatment! He did not come back to the regiment after three days this time but was only one day late. Unfortunately as drunk as a Lord. The dwarf (Skibinski is referring to Dworak who was VERY short!) was furious a second time and decided to reassign Rago to the reserve but Ciepcio didn't make it, because there was an alarm and - already sobered - Rago drove to the Zdziarska Pass where he was shot in the forehead. On 29th November there was a ceremonial export of the dead to a station on Nowy Targ, with torches, trumpeters, rifle salvos, all other military honours and a crowd of highlanders, this time really spontaneously. On 1st December in Warsaw there was another funeral, this time at the expense of the State. In the Brigade some cynics claimed that Ciepcio, as always, was lucky. Instead of a shameful departure to civilian life, he left this world almost as a national hero, whose coffin was headed by the Chief Commander himself"

The funeral of Major Stefan Rago

He was killed on 27th November 1938 leading an assault on Czechoslovakian positions at the Zdiarska Pass from the front by the village of Zdziar.

He already had a Virtuti Militari, awarded in 1922, he was awarded the Cross of Valour twice and in light of his somewhat heroic death he was also awarded the Cross of Merit for Brethren.

The September Campaign

The 24th Uhlans defence of the Wysoka Heights. 2.IX.1939

When the Nazi's piled across the borders of Poland in September 1939 the 24th Uhlans had already received their emergency mobilisation orders and were standing in a state of readiness awaiting developments.

Part IV of the blog about Stanislaw Maczek goes into some detail of what happens to the regiment in September and it demonstrates amply just what calibre of men the 24th Uhlans sought to recruit.

The regiment took part in the battles around Jordanow and the Wysoka Heights as well as several other battles such as Kasina Wielka, Leszczyna, Wisnicz, Lancut, Rzeszow, Radymno, Dobrosin near Grzybowice and of course the Zboisk hills as a part of the defence of Lwow... and all this in only 17 days before they crossed over into Hungary on the 19th September.

For their part in this campaign the entire regiment was awarded the Virtuti Militari.



Staff Organisation as of 1st September 1939

Colonel Kazimierz Dworak

Commander of the Regiment - Colonel Kazimierz Dworak
Deputy Commander of the Regiment - Major George Deskur
Adjutant - rtm. Stefan Lukowski
2nd Adjutant - see. Janusz Nowakowski
Marshal - Capt. Int. Gustaw Hopting
Purser - st. Wachm. Stanislaw Szymanski
Food Officer - see. Rey Zygmunt Kozlowski
Technical Officer - see. Br. Corps. Jan Sochacki
Commander of Comms Platoon - see. Stanislaw Michalski
Commander of Recce Platoon - see. Zbigniew Szumanski
Commander of Anti Tank Platoon - p. Regis Jerzy Telatycki
Commander of 1st Squadron - Marian Piwonski
Commander of 2nd Squadron - Wladyslaw Rakowski
Commander of 3rd Squadron - rtm. Jan Kanski
Commander of 4th Squadron - rtm. Wiktor Zarembinski
Commander of cmk Squadron - Tadeusz Maleszewski



Zurawiejka



As I believe I mentioned in my blog posts about the 19th Volhynian Uhlans, it was tradition for Polish cavalry regiments to have facetious two line couplets composed for them called a Zurawiejka.



This is the one for the 24th Uhlans regiment:

They drink jugs full of wine
Lublinian ladies love them
Lances to fight with...

They lose lances, not worth shit,
This is the twenty-fourth regiment
Lances to fight with...

Modelling the 24th Uhlans Infantry and Heavy Machine Gun platoons


So where do we begin with all this then? Well I'm not going to tread over too much old ground as by now I am sure you will all be very well aware of how it is I go about painting all of this motorised infantry.


Suffice it to say that you will find detailed instructions in Part 2 of the Flames of War Black Brigade photos where I talk about the 10th Mounted Rifles Regiment.


Instead, in this blog I will mostly be talking about vehicles as it is here where we may find something of some interest to those of you that want to take the time to read.

So above we can see the second full company of motorised infantry, this time of the 24th Uhlans, complete with their fistful of wz.34 half track trucks along with the attached HMG section that ride around in their Furgon picks ups.

A full motorised infantry platoon with transports

Here we can take a closer look at a full motorised platoon. I decided on modelling the 24.ul on the basis of a wooded-ish area because of intensity of the fighting that they participated in around the wooded hills of the Wysoka Heights outside of Jordanow. Ill go more into how I got the effects that I got in the final part of the Black Brigade posts for anybody that wants to  know.

A pair of wz.34 Half Tracked Trucks

A close up look at a pair of the wz.34 half tracked trucks that were originally supplied for each of the Terrain Battalions that each of the Regiments had. I have found no evidence whatsoever that these were still in use by September '39 and in fact I rather suspect that the conclusion was drawn that the motorised infantry were better off sticking to the roads, just for the  speed of movement.

On top of which wheeled vehicles require a lot less maintenance to keep in the field (so to speak) and require a lot less spare parts to be carted around everywhere. Owing to the traction and the torque that half tracked vehicles provide I can totally understand why they would have been kept for the artillery but speed of reaction would have been better for the infantry if simply provided with trucks. 

These wz.34's are the result of a lot of sculpting and conversion work with the models being PF 621L trucks from True North whilst the canvas backs are home sculpted and cast and the track sections all come from QRF's Citroen-Kegresse halftracks (they were good enough to sell me 20 odd pairs of tracks only). Each of the spare door wheels is actually the outside half of the read back wheel with plastic sheeting used to create the brackets and the solid windows, True North's trucks having hollow cabs which I've never been a fan of.

If you want detailed instructions of how to put these beauties together then make your way over to my Polish half tracks post where I go through all of the half tracks that the Poles had in '39 and give proper instructions on how to make them.

The Motorised Infantry Company Command Section and transport

No force of any type in Flames of War is complete without its command bases and with the Black Brigade they are a bit special because of all the leather jackets that they swan around in. As before I've explained how I went about painting these, so I wont bore you with it again but instead just point out that their PF 508/ III Lazik staff car is one of the ones that I sculpted myself. Hasn't come out too bad in the final analysis I think, the only downside is that I've had to swathe it in mud and weathering to cover up a multitude of sins!

The entire Black Brigade Machine Gun Company

...and so we finally reach the last pieces of vehicle modelling I believe that you will ever see from me for the Black Brigade. Most of the stuff for this company is pretty simple and done in the same way as for all of the other elements for the Brigade BUT the Heavy Machine Gun companies in the Brigade were known to use Motorised Tczanka's.

I had a choice of two models to choose from. The 'Falcon' with a guy that looks like hes sitting on a science lab stool and all but flying off the back of the Tczanka or the more stately pick up with the back refitted to house a heavy machine gun with some stability, with the result that it actually looks like a vehicle that could do the job!

That's obviously the one I chose...



A full Heavy Machine Gun section and Polski Fiat 621L transport truck

So a look at one of the heavy machine gun sections and we can see how it is I've taken small branches out of my garden, sawed and snapped them into shape and stuck them to the bases before getting jiggy wid it! Head swaps for berets are in evidence and for once the associated vehicle is actually unconverted, although it does still have the home sculpted canvas back. 

A single Heavy Machine Gun base

Not much to say here other than you can have a closer look at the way I've used the garden branches and used headswaps to provide more variety to the troops along with another black leather jacket in evidence.

Polski Fiat 508/518 motorised taczankas

I don't know why but of all the stuff that I did for my Black Brigade it was these that I enjoyed the most. I found them relatively simple to put together, they looked accurate, the troops fitted well inside them and when they were cast I found that they had the least problems with fenders breaking and stuff like that.

A frontal view showing crew and weathering in abundance.

The one downside to these types of taczankas is that there really is very little photographic evidence for what they looked like so apart from the very few photographs that I had to rely on, once again I had to resort to a Polish model manufacturer to draw inspiration from.



A view showing the rear compartment of the taczanka

On the whole though, I do believe that the dimensions are believable and my force now has upwards of 4 taczankas that can rip around the field dishing out hot lead when and where it pleases them...

A front view of a different one... just for a bit of variety!

I think at this point Ive run out of things to say about the Black Brigade. Whatever is left to say is either not worth mentioning OR Ive already covered it in great detail in other posts...

the full complement of four taczankas that the heavy machine gun companies were provided with.

Finally! I hear you say.

The End!

Finis!!!

... but no! Well not quite anyway. I actually thought that this might be the end but then I realised that I hadn't spent any time explaining how I went about doing my basing for this army AND of course is the perennial problem of modelling the Brigades uniforms.

There are just so many misconceptions about what these sledgehammers in human guise wore that I thought it would be worth while to have something, somewhere, in the English language that people can refer to if they wanted to tackle a project like this themselves... and so there is just one more post to go before I can leave these behind me for good!

... and thank GOD for that!!!