Chapter 14 Battle of Bzura

While the fighting in the Radom area was still going on, the signs of victory were clearly in sight, but as a result of the enemy's initiative, our attention was again drawn to the northern flank of our army group above. During the first nine days of this campaign, everything went very smoothly, and it seemed that it could be carried out according to the plan. Therefore, it is believed that there will be no more obstacles now, and there will be no obstacles in the scheduled combat schedule. real change. Despite this, I still have a vague feeling that some new changes are brewing on the northern flank of the Army Group.In any case, we know that the enemy has assembled a strong force in Poznań Province, but it has not yet used it.Therefore, on September 8th and 9th, I repeatedly instructed the Chief of Staff of the Eighth Army to pay special attention to the search on its northern face.We were also discussing the location of these Poznan forces between ourselves and the Army Headquarters. As a result, on September 9, the Army Headquarters sent us a telegram telling us that the enemy had collected all the means of transport and began to move in. Therefore, the depth profile of the Eighth Army no longer feels threatened.Nevertheless, we estimate the presence of about ten enemy divisions south of the Vistula, between Lodz and Warsaw.

As already stated above, the intention of the Army Group was to use the Tenth Army to block the retreat to Warsaw of the enemy forces (about five to six divisions) assumed to be concentrated near Lodz, while the Eighth Army was to attack this area from the west. support troops.The original task of the Eighth Army, which is to provide deep and echelon protection for the operations of the entire army group in the north, will naturally remain unchanged. Even so, the Eighth Army Headquarters seems to have paid more attention to the aforementioned tasks than to the developments in the north, because in the early morning of September 10, it reported that its 30th Division had received a surprise attack from the north. The army's strength is quite strong.This situation is becoming more and more serious. In order to stabilize the situation, the group army has repeatedly launched counterattacks, but they have all failed.However, the army still tried to stop the enemy's advance. The enemy's strength was undoubtedly quite strong, probably composed of the main force withdrawn from the Poznań province, so it turned the front of its two corps. Come over and form a line of defense facing the north.At the same time, it asked for help from the headquarters of the army group, asking for a quick reinforcement of an armored corps to stop any enemy stalking south and break through to the city of Lodz, which was occupied by the Germans without resistance on September 9.

However, the view of the Army Group Headquarters is not the same.Even if there is a partial crisis, and it may be a serious crisis, it does not necessarily have any impact on the entire operation.Instead, it actually gave us a chance to win big.For now that a strong enemy force is engaged west of the Vistula, we can completely destroy it if we take the right action. Therefore, the Army Group Headquarters was not busy directly reinforcing the Eighth Army, but began to prepare a big plan to encircle the enemy.The two divisions, which are the general reserve of the Army Group, still continue to advance eastward, and they can just threaten the western flank of the enemy attacking the Eighth Army from the north.As the fighting near Radom was now drawing to a close, another light division was transferred to the same task.The greatest wish of the army group headquarters is to force the enemy to accept the battle head-on.So it ordered the Sixteenth Armored Army, which has now reached the south of Warsaw, and the subsequent Tenth Army, to turn their heads to assist the Eighth Army's battle from the east.The task of the Eighth Army is to block the enemy as much as possible, and wait until the enemy is attacked by the enemy before shifting the offensive.

At this time, Admiral Rundstedt and I visited the headquarters of the Eighth Army (on one occasion Hitler was present), and according to the impression we got, the headquarters of the Army Group decided to take direct command of this operation.The two corps of the Tenth Army attacked from the south and the east, under the personal command of General Reichlau, and the Eighth Army Command commanded its own two corps to attack the north and surround the enemy's forces from the west.Finally, according to the request of the army group in this group, the army group in the north also sent the third army, crossed the Vistula River from the north, and attacked the enemy's rear, creating a situation of encirclement.During the battle, it was discovered that a large number of enemy troops were attempting to flee to the Modlin Fortress along the Vistula River, so the headquarters of the Army Group even pulled out the Fifteenth Motorized Army from the Radom area to block this area. A last escape route.

The enemy first wanted to break through to the south, then to the southeast, and finally to the east. After fierce fighting, their resistance finally completely collapsed on September 18.By September 20, the Tenth Army reported that it had captured 90,000 prisoners, equipped with 320 guns, 130 aircraft, and 40 tanks. The Eighth Army reported that it had captured 90,000 people, equipped with Quantities are yet to be calculated.The enemy lost nine infantry divisions, three cavalry brigades, and part of another ten divisions. In fact, so many units were far beyond our imagination. The Battle of the Bzura River was the largest, if not decisive, but perhaps the climax of the Polish campaign.

From the operational point of view, the so-called decisive action was a larger encirclement operation, in which the Northern Army Group from the north and the Fourteenth Army from the south wiped out the entire Polish force.As for this large-scale counterattack, its motivation is difficult to determine.Perhaps the Polish High Command was trying to make a last stand in the Vistula Bend, or perhaps it was simply trying to help the enemy south of the Vistula and open a route back to Warsaw.In any case, it no longer has any influence on the fate of the Polish Army. Although compared with the encirclement battles fought in Russia in the future, the Battle of the Bzura River can only be regarded as a small witch against a big witch.But at the time, it was the biggest one.It was not a plan and a powerful tank force to break through the enemy's front; rather, it was the enemy's action that gave us this great opportunity by accident.