FoW: Supporting Artillery Obrona Narodowa (National Defence)

Only three more modelling posts about the Obrona Narodowa and we can move onto something new... which I'm sure will have some of you breathing a sigh of relief. 

This one errs on the side of interesting though because it covers the artillery platoons that were provided to the Obrona Narodowa... and as it happens there weren't that many and those that there were required some digging around to find any evidence of them at all!

The complete Obrona Narodowa Mountain Gun Battery

When I started out on this epic journey of unknown troops as far as a I was aware the Polish Obrona Narodowa had no organic artillery available to them in 1939. The majority for certain fought without any artillery in their makeup at all and instead had to rely on the regular army artillery battalions that were assigned to their sectors of combat.

A Mountain Gun Battery in action in Palestine in WW1

As it turns out however, there was one area that actually did have artillery assigned to the Obrona Narodowa. Army 'Karpaty'! 

I'd long been aware that there were a couple of artillery platoons fighting alongside the 10th Cavalry Brigade and specifically supporting the National Defence and Border Defence Corps troops fighting around Jordanow and Wysoka but I no matter where I was digging around I couldn't find any references to old WW1 vintage 65mm mountain artillery pieces being provided to either the ND or the BDC... that is until I translated Kazimerz Pindel's 'Obrona Narodowa 1937-1939' when I stumbled across the details quite by chance.

Schematic of a deployed artillery piece

In July 1939 the idea of providing the Obrona Narodowa with its own organic artillery support was finally addressed. Initially a paltry four old 65mm wz.06 mountain guns were transferred from the stores for use by the ND. There were still another 21 guns left in the stores from a former total of 26 due to the fact that one of these pieces had been removed from the stores in order to conduct field trials to gauge their suitability for inclusion into front line organisations and to train the artillery crews before they took receipt of their guns.

Schematic of a limbered piece

On 27 August 1939 the creation of a couple of artillery platoons using these venerable 65mm howitzers finally took place in the "Podkarpacka" and the "Podhalanska" National Defence Brigades. The organisation of these platoons was along the principles of 20 December 1938 and of 12 june 1939. The platoons offices were drawn from the reserve pool and assigned by the commander of the Corps District. A decision was reached to provide professional non commissioned officers from existing artillery regiments to give some expertise and experience in the use of the pieces. A completion target for the creation of these platoons was set for 1 September 1939 with the training to have commenced no later than 5 September 1939 in the city of Krakow.

A view of a 65mm wz.06 with a gun shield probably taken about 1921

Now, as it happens at least two of these platoons were providing a vigorous resistance to the Nazi avalanche on 1 September 1939 so I haven't quite reached the bottom of the mystery of this chronological drift has come from... another story for another post maybe. 

The organisation of the platoons was determined to consist of the following elements. A single platoon was set to consist of a command post, a gun section (2 guns) and rolling stock. The platoon was to consist of a total manpower of 37 individuals. These comprised one professional officer, one professional NCO, 11 Reserve NCO's, and 25 serving soldiers.

A good view of a deployed 65mm wz.06 Mountain Artillery Piece

At the headquarters of Corps District No.V a total of three artillery platoons were formed. Two were to be established in Nowy Sacz which would use Nowy Sacz and its surrounding poviat (district) as its recruitment base whilst the third platoon was to be established in Zywiec with the assistance of  the 12th Infantry Regiment as its administrative unit stationed in Wadowice. The city of Zywiec and its poviat provided the recruitment base. All three platoons were to be subordinated to the "Podhalanska" National Defence Brigade.

A Polish Mountain Gun Battery with their 65mm wz.06 taken at the time of the Russo-Polish War in 1921

In Przemysl a further two artillery platoons were planned on being established with the assistance of the 22nd Light Artillery Regiment. The manpower for the platoons was to be drawn directly from the city of Przemysl and its surrounding poviat. These platoons were to be subordinated to the "Podkarpacka" National Defence Brigade.  

An existing monument of one of these venerable artillery pieces.

What fragmentary data survived the war and was able to be collected together shows that by 1 September 1939 these platoons had reached full personnel establishment but had still not received either its equipment or any training. The "Zywiec" platoon took receipt of two cannon from the 12th Infantry Regiment stores just before the outbreak of the war although it can be stated with some certainty that by the outbreak of the war almost none of the newly established artillery crews had reached combat readiness owing to a lack of prompt delivery of their new equipment.

The WIP of the Mountain Gun Battery Page

As before I've provided a WIP of the intelligence briefing page that has the National Defence Artillery Platoons on it. I've yet to add that these platoons can only be taken if taking either Mountain Infantry or Motorised Cavalry platoons. 

A complete gun team with limber. One half of a platoon.

This limits the choice to those National Defence armies that are fighting in the Beskids and Karpaty. There are mistakes in the text and organisational level of this page currently in light of new information that I've found but this will all be fixed when I go through and edit the work.

A close up look at one of the Mountain Gun bases.

The reverse view of the above shown mountain gun base

Where the modelling is concerned fortunately the guns themselves were relatively simple to find. Battlefront's Gebirgsjager Mountain Guns are a close enough approximation to be useable if one ditches the gun shields and I just drilled holes through the trails to represent the swiss cheese look of the actual 65mm wz.06's

The Command, Staff and Spotter team with their accompanying wagon.

 The figures are a usual mix for my Obrona Narodowa. the gun crews were a mixture of French Motorised Gun Crews, French Motorised 60mm Mortars and Spanish Civil War generic Anti tank gun crew, all from Peter Pig of course.

A closer look at the Staff Team

The reverse view of the Staff Team

The Spotters were Peter Pig Spanish Civil War Nationalist Gun Crew and a True North Polish radio operator whilst the command base and the staff base were a mixture of Peter Pig Polish Gun Crew, Spanish Civil War Nationalist Officers and Carlist Officers and of course a True North miniatures Podhale Mountain Infantry Officer... all with the obligatory head swaps!

A close up view of the Command Team

A close up view of the Spotter Team

So there we have it. Another asset for use with the Obrona Narodowa.

...and not a bayonet in sight!