Flames of War: The Black Brigade 6: Reconnaissance Battalion

The Reconnaissance Battalion of the Polish 10th Cavalry Brigade was, at the commencement of the second world war, essentially representative of a microcosm of the Brigade as a whole.

Fulfilling the ostensible function of the eyes and ears of the Brigade as a whole they were nonetheless through the fighting of September '39 signed off to operate in areas on their own whilst the remaining organic reconnaissance elements still present with the other formations such as the 24th Uhlans and 10th Mounted Rifles would fulfil the immediate reconnaissance requirements of these formations.

A composite of images showing the Brigades motorcycle troops in various circumstances

When the Brigade was reborn as a trial motorised formation in 1937 it was originally envisioned that each of the two newly motorised cavalry regiments would have its own organic reconnaissance formation at Squadron strength. Although this process was started, due to financial constraints by 1938 the Army High Command had issued a volte face and decreed that the regimental organic reconnaissance troops would now only be of platoon strength whilst an entire Battalion would designed and integrated into the overall structure of the Brigade.

A Motorcycle platoon of the 10th Cavalry Brigade

This was achieved in April 1938 where command was handed to a new commanding officer:

______________________

Major Ksawery Swiecicki.

Swiecicki was a born and bred cavalryman. Born on October 9th 1895 to a family that were landowners, growing up in an environment that behind closed doors was fanatical about Polish cultural identity.

On the outbreak of the first world war in 1914 he joined the Polish legions, serving in the 1st Lancers Regiment quickly rising to the rank of Corporal. As soon as Poland gained her independence from the Central European powers Swiecicki quickly signed up with the nascent Polish army with the 11th Lancers Regiment, as a result of which he fought in the Polish Bolshevik War and the Polish Ukrainian War rising to the rank of Lieutenant of Cavalry.

Throughout the interbellum he rose through a quick series of academic positions with a succession of different regiments eventually being rewarded with command of the 10th Cavalry Brigades Reconnaissance Battalion. Leading this hard core little force through the September Campaign saw him awarded with the Silver Cross to the Virtuti Militari, Poland's highest award for valour.

After the fall he carried on fighting for Poland and most especially alongside Maczek, the commander of the Black Brigade, escaping from Hungary to rejoin the fugitive forces in France, then fleeing to Britain when the French attempted to sell the Poles out to the Nazi's. Between December 4th, 1940 and November 8th, 1943 he served with the newly constituted Polish 10th Armoured Cavalry Brigade, serving as commander of the Reconnaissance Battalion of the 10th Dragoons.

From here he parted ways with Maczek however as he was given command of a distribution camp that was set up for former Polish prisoners of war that had been freed from German captivity where he served all through 1944 - 1945. It was at this time that he achieved the rank of Colonel.

After the war Ksawery Swiecicki opted not to return to Communist occupied Poland and decided to remain in London where he died in 1966 at the age of 71.

He is laid to rest in Streatham Park Cemetery.

Polish graves in Streatham Cemetery

___________________________________

A good look at a 10BK Motorcycle and sidecar with crew

According to order 6277/ Org.Tjn.37 of the General Command Department of the Ministry of Military Affairs it seems that the 10th Mounted Rifles based in Lancut were to form the nucleus of the entire Brigades reconnaissance facilities but this was never achieved and in fact an entirely new battalion was formed and garrisoned in Rzeszow under order L. dz. 1525/ tjn. z20 of April 20th 1938.


The unit was accommodated in the barracks of the former 10th Artillery Squadron and thus became a permanent organic component of the 10th Cavalry Brigade.

On 15th August 1938 this small force was listed as being composed of 12 officers, 24 NCO's and around 150 serving men.

Rtm. Krahelski. Officer in charge
of the Mounted Rifle Squadron

From September 8th, 1938 the Reconnaissance Battalion took part in the Volhynian manoeuvres as a consistutent component of the 10th Cavalry and immediately following the military parade at Moktow Field they accompanied the rest of the Brigade in taking a part in occupying Zaolzie returning to their depots on December 8th, 1938.


The Reconnaissance Battalion was listed as being one of the Mobilisation Units according to Plan 'W' where it would continue to serve with the command of the 10th Cavalry Brigade.


...and by now of course you will be aware of just what kind of fight these boys put up before crossing the border with Hungary having lost almost half of their number in the tooth and nails fights that they had.









Reconnaissance Battalion Structure - 1st September 1939

Headquarters Platoon
Officer in Command - Mjr Ksawery Swiecicki
2nd in Command - Rtm Stanislaw Siewicz
Adjutant - cf. Stefan August Piklikiewicz
Technical Officer - kpt. Tadeusz Pobralski
Doctor - Tadeusz Przezdziecki
7 officers, 36 NCO's
8 Pistols, 1 Rkm, 34 Carbines
2 Polski Fiat 508 III Lazik, 4 motorcycles with sidecars, 4 motorcycles, 1 Polski Fiat 508 III Furgon, 1 Polski Fiat 621L Truck.


Mounted Rifle Squadron
Squadron Commander - rtm. Stanislaw Kazimierz Krahelski (murdered by the Soviets in Kharkov, 1940)
4 officers, 20 NCO's and 90 Serving Soldiers
10 pistols, 10 Rkm's, 3 AT Rifles, 89 Carbines
2 Polski Fiat 508 III Lazik, 8 Polski Fiat 621L Trucks, 3 motorcycles with sidecars, 1 motorbike, fuel bowser


Reconnaissance Tank Squadron
Squadron Commander - rtm. Lucjan Pruszynski
3 officers, 20 NCO's and 35 serving soldiers
32 Pistols, 1 Rkm, 25 Carbines
13 TKS tanks, 1 Polski Fiat 508 III Lazik, 1 Polski Fiat 508 III Furgon, 1 Polski Fiat PF618 radio van, 1 Tanker, 2 Polski Fiat 621L Truck, Field Kitchen, 2 tracked trailers (for use with the TKS' for carrying repair equipment), 1 motorcycle, 4 motorcycles and sidecars


Anti Tank Platoon
Platoon Commander - por. Jan Fedoruk
1 officer, 6 NCO's and 23 serving soldiers
1 Pistol, 29 Carbines, 4 Bofors wz.36 37mm anti tank guns
1 Polski Fiat 508 III Lazik, 4 Polski Fiat 508/518 light tractors, 2 TKS-D's


Communications Platoon
Platoon Commander - see. Maciej Nowicki
1 officer, 6 NCO's and 19 serving soldiers
1 Pistol, 25 Carbines
1 Polski Fiat 508 III Lazik, 1 Polski Fiat 508 III Furgon, 1 Polski Fiat PF618 radio van, 2 motorcycles and sidecars, 3 motorcycles


Motorcycle Reconnaissance Platoon
Platoon Commander - see. Jan Jaroszewicz
1 officer, 8 NCO's and 32 serving soldiers
2 Pistols, 6 motorcycle mounted Rkm's, 51 Carbines
1 Polski Fiat 508 III Lazik, 1 Polski Fiat 508 III Furgon, 1 Polski Fiat 621L Truck, 19 Motorcycles with sidecars, 2 motorcycles and 1 Fuel Bowser


Heavy Machine Gun Platoon
Platoon Commander - por. Otto Saxl
1 officer, 6 NCO's and 26 serving soldiers
6 Pistols, 27 Carbines and 4 Ckm heavy machine guns
4 Polski Fiat 508 III Lazik, 1 Polski Fiat 508 III Furgon, 1 Polski Fiat 621L Truck, 1 Fuel Bowser


Sapper Platoon
Platoon Commander - kpr. Bronislaw Chojnacki
5 NCO's and 7 serving soldiers
1 Pistol, 11 Carbines
3 Polski Fiat 621L Trucks


Modelling the elements of the Reconnaissance Battalion for the Black Brigade

If there is any part of the Black Brigade that truly deserves the epithet it is the reconnaissance battalion.

A TKS-D fording a river in Poland '39

All parts of this little force can be put together using elements that I have already built and will be covering as parts of other posts outlining how I put this monster together over the last 8 months.


There are two parts however that I have allocated to this post where I actually get to talk about the Reconnaissance Battalion and that is the motorcycle troops and the TKS-D's!

Now, the Motorcycle troops are quite possibly the most attractive of any of the troops of the Black Brigade, both mounted on their bikes and dismounted to skirmish, and that is because ALL of these troops wore the black leather jackets! If there is ever any reason to paint all of your Polish mounted troops in black leather jackets then this is it.

Apart from the limited numbers of photographs available of the Brigade fighting in September '39 leading to most manufacturers sculpting their miniatures in textile greatcoats the other option we get is jackets that go down to just above the knee... and these of course are the wz.36 Kurtka Skorzana (shown to good effect in the photo below).

A study of Vehicle and Uniform... see where they got the epithet now?

Finally we have a force that all of those manufacturers out there can turn around and say " See? We did sculpt and paint our miniatures correctly after all!" Ha ha

If you take a close peek at these guys all mounted on their motorcycles you may notice that there are two different manufacturers represented here.

Anybody who has been following my blog will by now know that I hold no truck with sticking square pegs through round holes where they relate to appropriate equipment for a force. I'm not total anal about accuracy and have bodged many things in my days BUT where errors are glaringly obvious I just cant bring myself to settle. I have suspected for a LONG time that the uniforms that are being sculpted for the Black Brigade troopers are inappropriate for September '39 but I didn't have proof until long after I bought all of my miniatures so I have just had to suck it up and get on with things.

I'll be posting a blog giving a detailed breakdown of the Brigades uniform items after I finish my Stanislaw Maczek series for anybody who is interested?!?!?

I bought a 10BK motorcycle from True North miniatures a while ago and realised that their motorcycles, whilst being nicer sculpts than those from Battlefronts were just totally the wrong design. This wouldn't have been a deal breaker if it was just the bike but it wasn't... and isn't! Its the sidecar and its as different as a Landrover from a Lada from the 80's!!!

Whilst Battlefront without a doubt produce the absolute worst figure sculpts for the Polish on the planet their bikes for the Polish are, however close to perfect... and this put me in a dilemma! I couldn't settle for the whole package with either of these manufacturers and as such I decided that I should just stump up the cash and get the correct numbers from both manufacturers and mix the BF bikes with the True North crews... the pillion rider notwithstanding.

A couple of headswaps for berets and the pillion riders all having German helmet heads later, and we were good to go.

It also turned out somewhat serendipitously that I had just enough rogue Black Brigade troopers from Forged in Battle and True North left over to put together a dismounted base for each of the Motorcycle bases in the force, again doing some tidy beret headswaps and providing each base with an NCO with binoculars to indicate reconnaissance troops for the game rules.

The real key to these miniatures is obviously the leather jackets that they all wear... if you remove the bases and faces from consideration that is... oh yeah, and the bikes they are all sitting on! :D

The leather jackets are such a key point that I think they require dwelling on a little.

So, just to quote a previous blog post I wrote:

Leather is leather is leather, and that means its brown... even when its black! :D I undercoat the leather jackets of the Black Brigade troops with Vallejo German Camo. Black Brown. This then has three coats of black ink put over it, or at least enough so that there is only the merest hint of brown in the final appearance. Once these coats are dry, I apply a drybrush over all of the leather coat with a subtle (or not so subtle in some of my cases!) Vallejo Yellow Ochre.

At this point the jackets will look like they have nosedived. Don't worry, its intentional. The Yellow Ochre is only a supporting chroma and will be almost totally disguised by the final step whilst still adding its organic feel to the overall leather-i-ness!

The final step on the leather jackets is to use Vallejo Ivory, or Vallejo Offwhite to paint fine lines on the most pronounced areas of the jackets, with the occasional line (just two or three should be fine) wet blended into the background of the jacket.

Be VERY careful here. You need to think about where you are putting these lines as in just the right places and in just the right amount it can make the jackets look real but if their positioning is poorly thought out and you use too many, or even make them a little too thick it can look a bit crap unfortunately (just take a close look at the photos to see evidence of this).

Its also a nice touch to wet blend with water some of these lines as it can disperse the hard edge effect somewhat and allow the yellow ochre to provide an organic background resonance to the miniature.

Other than that the bikes are all done with a Tamiya Olive Green by airbrush followed by an AK Interactives Filter for NATO camo vehicles and the usual dramas that go with painting awkward vehicles....

Now, the next and final piece of modelling news for this post is the results of painting the two TKS-D's that I modelled a while ago.

To be sure these were as awkward as hell to make due to all of the small parts and fine details that needed to be captured but I have to say that these are what I am possibly most proud of in my Black Brigade and I may even tentatively claim that these may even be unique on the planet. 15mm TKS-D's!

There isn't actually much to tell here about how I went about painting them as I used the same process as with all of my other Polish vehicles so let me just direct you to the blogpost covering the Black Brigades Command and Control elements at the start of August. Detailed instructions are in the vehicle modelling section at the bottom if you are interested! :D

However the work didn't stop there as these two little dragons needed to be crewed up. Now. the actual TKS-D's were crewed with four troopers each, I however could only find the room in the vehicle for three in each...and for these I had to quite a bit of nip and tuck to get them to fit.

As with all of the other vehicles for my Black Brigade I opted to use Skytrex's German vehicle crews reasoning that when sat in a vehicle you wouldn't be able to tell much of a difference. The Polish wz.36 kurtka was almost an identical cut to the German cotton field jacket. The German y-straps were almost identical to Polish cavalry straps. The packs and pouches on the back of the Germans could be cut off as they would be sat on anyway. Early war Germans along with all German officers through the war wore boots and with some headswaps for berets when a correctly coloured paintjob had been applied you could barely, if at all tell the difference.

Bosh! Job done!!!!

...and of course the bases will all be covered in a Blog post I'm putting together about Black Brigade uniforms as its modelling component!

So.... ummm... Fix Bayonets?

Flames of War: The Black Brigade 4: 16th Motorized Artillery Bttn (16. Dywizjon Artylerii Motorowej)

In 1931 the Polish high command decided to disband the 1st Mountain Artillery Regiment and in its place the 1st Artillery Regiment was established with its annual birthday being celebrated on 16th September on the anniversary of the Battle of Dytiatyn, in which the 4th Battery of the 1st Artillery Regiment commanded by Captain Adam Zajac faced off against the Soviets 8th Division Cossacks. In the closing hours of the battle Captain Zajac along with two other battery officers and aboout 50 ratings and their pieces were killed. After the battle the commander of the 8th Infantry Division, Colonel Stanislaw Burhardt-Bukacki wrote "as proof of the recognition of this valor and sacrifice 4th battery of the 1st Mountain Artillery Regiment will be known as 'the death battery' and awarded the Virtuti Militari'

Official symbol of the 1st Motorised Artillery Regiment

On September 15th 1938 the 1st Artillery Regiment once again went through an internal reorganisation and was provided with two 75mm batteries, one 100mm battery and two 120mm batteries, as well as a communications, a technical and an administrative platoon and transport pool.

Through August and September 1938 the regiment accompanied the 10th Cavalry Brigade in its Volhynian manoeuvres ending in Lutsk. Immediately following the end of these field tests the regiment was transported to Skoczow where it joined Independent Operational Group 'Silesia' under Brigadier General Bortnowski participating in the Zaolzie reoccupation in October.

Portrait shot of Battery 1 of the 1st Motorised Artillery Regiment

In the summer of 1939 the Warsaw Armoured Brigade was formed within which the organisational structure provided for the support of light artillery to be provided to the 10th Cavalry Brigade. Because of this within the organisational structure of the 1st Artillery Regiment the III Squadron was instituted on 25th June 1939. According to this order the squadrons organisation was due to be completed by 1st August. On July 24th the Army Administration Office was instructed to equip III Squadron with a battery of four 75mm field guns and a battery of four 100mm howitzers.

Battery 1's 75mm field guns showing the pneumatic tyres and gun shields to good effect

According to a mobilisation plan, in case of war, the regiments subdivisions would be liquidated and different element allocated to new formations and signed off to new organisations. I Squadron would be allocated to the 10th Cavalry Brigade and as such was stationed around Rzeszow.

On August 15th the squadron was placed in combat readiness after an emergency mobilisation order was received. On 31st August, on the first day of general mobilisation the I Squadron was renamed the 16th Motorised Artillery Battalion. On the occasion of this event the commanding officer, Major Kazimierz Zmudzinski organised a dinner for the senior officers of the 10th Cavalry Brigade.

16dam. on the move...

There was a third battery, comprising four 75mm's which should have also been allocated to the 16th dam but for one reason or another they were never signed off, instead becoming a constituent part of the remnants artillery battalion.

Colonel Kazimierz Zmudzinski

The battalion went to war with 10BK but for the tale of what happened from this point you will have to read part IV of Maczeks biography!

Staff Structure of 16dam in September 1939

Battalion Commander: Major Kazimierz Zmudzinski

1st Battery - Captain Jerzy Janasiewicz
2nd Battery - Captain Wincenty H. Pawlowski
Ammunition Column - ppor. Downie-Berger

Personae Dramatis - September 1939

Battalion Commander - Major Kazimierz Zmudzinski
Adjutant - ppor. Alfred Zawadzki
Technical Officer - see. Eugeniusz Olszewski
Payroll Officer - ppor. Rez Waclaw Sierakowski
Doctor - ppor. Rez Dr Abraham Kupfer

Commander of Reconnaissance Platoon - ppor. Jerzy Zarski
Observation Officer - ppor. Rez Eugeniusz Siedlecki
Liaision Officer - ppor. Henryk Greiner

Commander of the Communications Platoon - ppor. Henryk Jozefowicz

Commander of 1st Battery - Captain Jerzy Janasiewicz
Technical Officer - ppor. Rez Jerzy Wendecker
Scout Officer - ppor. Rez Andrzej Kowerski
Fire Officer - ppor. Rez Marian Garczynski
1st Platoon Commander - ppor. Zygmunt Haupt
2nd Platoon Commander - ppor. Rez Tadeusz Smyczynski

Commander of 2nd Battery - Captain Wincenty Pawlowski
Technical Officer - ppor. Rez Tadeusz Olanczyk
Scout Officer - ppor. Rez Kazimierz Hawrysz
Fire Officer - ppor. Rez Marian Kupniak
1st Platoon Commander - ppor. Stanislaw Taras
2nd Platoon Commander - ppor. Stanislaw Gawlikowski

Modelling the 16th Motorised Artillery Battalion

The entire 16th Motorised Artillery Battalion as it was in 1939

There is not a massive range of artillery to choose from when choosing to field the Black Brigade. They only had a battery of four 75mm's and a battery of 100mm howitzers. That's not to say that there were not other more unusual pieces fielded by their allied formations, such as 1st KOP's 65mm mountain artillery battery but to stick to the point we just need to deal with the 16th Motorised Artillery Battalion whilst modelling the Black Brigade. 

Battery 1 with its 75's, caissons and the C4P artillery halftracks

Battery 1's command team, staff team, spotter and transports

The 75's are no problem here as the artillery pieces produced by Battlefront are, for once, the correct ones. The only issue with these guns is the tires for the caissons. Normally the same tires were used on canon and caisson but Battlefront supplies two types of pneumatic tires which meant I had to copy and cast up another 8 of the thicker tires to supply the caissons with ones that matched. No big deal really and easily done in a day.

A closer look at one of the 75's with its caisson and half track

Another close study of one of the 75's showing the dirt road on the base to good effect,
Battlefront  Germans being re-purposed and of course the gun officer in his leather jacket!

Where the 100mm howitzers are concerned however, these required a considerable work over to resemble the motorised versions of the gun.

Battery 2 of the 16th Motorised Artillery Battalion

Now the problem with these guns is that unless you happen to have a Polish military library to hand, images of this fine specimen of a death dealing piece of engineering are  as rare as rocking horse shit. I was able to find one image and one image only of one of these Polish versions of the 100mm motorised howitzer and it doesnt really give a lot away.

However I did come across a nice range of photos of a 1/72nd resin kit of this cannon produced by Mars of Poland and I ended up using these as the visual keys that I needed to produce 4 of theses bad boys.

A before and after shot showing the original Battlefront 100mm howitzer and what it should really look like with 10BK

A view of the rear of the pieces

Taking some of the 100mm howitzers that Battlefront produce I was essentially going to have to do a complete rebuild from the ground up.

The only pieces retained from the original Battlefront 100mm Howitzer

Thick pneumatic tyres again needed to be cast up to provide all of them. The gun trail needed to be considerably lengthened, a new gun shield needed to be created as well as adding the guns furniture. 

a view showing the brass pins put into the original pieces and the plastic trail arms to be used

The barrel extensions in place and the start of the gun shield construction

The completed gun trails ready for everything else to be fixed to them.

I believe I wouldnt be too far off of the mark if I described this particular mini project as a Major ball ache but entirely necessary because as we all know; the devil is in the details!

The completed howitzers less gun shields showing gun sites and gun trail handles and hinges fixed in place

The completed gun shields

The final assembly of the 100mm wz. 14/19 howitzers

A rear view of the final assembly of the four howitzers 

The crews for the guns were a real hodge podge and were a mixture of Battlefronts Early War German Artillery Crew in Greatcoats (on the sage council of Ricky Moore). Not a perfect fit but with the merest nip and tuck they fit in just fine (so long as you are happy believing that in the hottest September on record the professionals soldiers of the Black Brigade were running around in Great Coats. 

A look at one of the complete howitzer bases with its C4P tractor

A close study of one of the long wheel base C4P Artillery Tractors used with Battery 2

I just decided on them because I really liked the variety to the artillery crews that True North provide) so I mixed them in with True North's 10th Motorised artillery crews. I love the results. Thanks for the heads up Ricky.

A close up view of one of the howitzer bases showing two of the Battlefront Germans used as Black Brigade artillerymen

Another view of the same gun

Finally these artillery pieces all need their half tracked tractors, of which it appears there were two types. 

The howitzer batteries command elements showing command base, staff team and spotter with their two PF 621L transports.

The short chassis ones that pulled the 75's and the long chassis' ones that pulled the 100mm's. How these are actually converted I've covered in a previous blog but the painting, just as with the artillery pieces is pretty much the same as with all of the other vehicles that I've done for my Polish army, with some slight differences for the muddying up which I will share shortly.

A close look at Battlefront Germans in greatcoats being used as a Black Brigade artillery spotter team

Another look

... so there we have it. The artillery for the Black Brigade is complete and looks the part. I am not really a fan of having to do artillery because of the amount of prep work that needs to go into it to make it work, obviously in this case having to completely rebuild four artillery pieces into ones that nobody in the world produces in 15mm... however I have to say that the work I put into these two batteries has given me a sense of satisfaction as the 100mm battery may very well be the only one of its type in the world... they may actually be unique! Thats no small thing to claim either!

Onto the next then....