Chapter One Hundred and Twelve: Ploughing On
(1-10 September 1947)
Polish infantry from 42 DP advance carefully through the forests south of Vologda during the offensive to secure the key railhead there in early September 1947. [MS Copilot]
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Eastern Front: Northern Sector
By 4 September 1947, the Allies had firmly constricted the Narva-Petrograd pocket but were still having some problems constricting it further. Further to their east, the Poles had advanced south of Volkhov in an attempt to cut off the salient south of Petrograd and secured a toehold on 2 September.
However, a Soviet counter-attack ejected the advance guard on the afternoon of the 4th. Fortunately, two follow-on Polish divisions arrived in time to establish a quick defence and secured the lodgement by midday on 7 September after a tough fight.
In the early hours of 9 September the drive to close off the salient resumed after Allied reinforcements arrived. A Turkish division was already making good northward progress when the weary but game Polish 79 and 109 DP added their weight to the attack, winning the victory a day later.
Eastern Front: Central Sector
The ‘reserve’ 5th Army had five of its second-line militia and Lithuanian EF divisions detached from the Central and Southern sectors for redeployment by rail to ports for a new mission on 1 September.
At the front, the main focus for this period was on the Vologda-Petrograd rail line, which was the main supply route for all Soviet forces in the north, including a branch line stretching up to Murmansk that serviced the Finnish front.
One more major and another secondary line from the east were all that was left of the Soviet rail network west of the Ural Mountains and the southern one, which also branched off to supply Iran, will be discussed later.
Early on 2 September, a new operation was launched to drive to cut the northern rail line at Vologda. Supply remained poor and the forested terrain difficult, as more forces were brought up from further south through Yaroslavl, where they had been trying (not always successfully) to reorganise and resupply.
A day later, the Polish Air Force reoriented itself to push further forward and focus its operations. All wings operating over the Central Russia Air Zone (CRAZ) were held and rested, leaving that zone to the ample Allied air forces on mission there. 150 CAS were redirected to operate in the Northern Front AZ to support the Petrograd sector attacks.
A heavy fighter wing was pushed forward from Nowogródek to Kharkov as it finally began to fall out of range. And one fighter wing based in Dnipropetrovsk was added to interception duties in the main Western Steppe AZ, which was now the primary air focus.
Early on 4 September the relatively fresh 42 DP arrived at the Vologda front and would soon reinforce the cavalry of the Wilenska DK in their faltering attack northwards.
It would take a difficult fight and another three days to finally defeat the determined Red Army defenders of 317 SD after a militia division arrived on 5 September and was thrown into the battle. Attrition, poor supply and the dense forests all helped to make progress difficult, but still the Poles drove on. It would take another two days to finally win through.
The first new Polish division to complete training in a long time was deployed at midnight on the 5th: the new fully mechanised 113 DZm. It was shipped east and would be allocated to 1st Army later. It was hoped the mech div orbat would be built up a little more over time with more battalions.
By 0300hr on 7 September the battle south of Vologda was just about to be won. At that point, the line stretching all the way to Volkhov was vulnerable to being cut at any point, but both the Poles and the rest of the Allied formations in that sector were either unwilling or not ready to advance, as the Poles had hoped they might of their own volition while the Petrograd pocket battles raged on.
The advance towards Vologda crept forward on the late morning of 7 September but 42 DP were soon counter-attacked and were unable to hold on, thrown back south on the morning of the 8th.
But the Soviets were in turn too exhausted to hold on against the rest of the Poles, further reinforced by arriving units from the south, who launched their own counter-attack. After a five hour skirmish the Soviets once more retreated by midday on the 8th.
After a pause to regroup for a couple more days, a more general offensive with the largely disorganised and poorly supplied Polish infantry along the Tikhvin-Vologda line when an apparent gap opened up in the Soviet defences on a five-province front at midday on 10 September.
Eastern Front: Southern Sector
The rail junction at Kuybyshev was identified on 2 September as the key point for the Poles in the Southern Sector for the month. Taking Kuybyshev would also intercept the long rail line that stretched all the way down to Soviet-occupied Iran.
The build-up for the new offensive began straight away with three well-rested (if still poorly supplied) mobile 1st Army divisions being pushed up to the front to move through Saratov to the jumping-off point in Engels, which the Soviets had just retreated from.
Of interest, at midnight on 2 September, for the first time in recent memory, not a single offensive or defensive battle involving Polish troops was in progress anywhere in the world, reflecting the recent decrease in operational tempo as the Poles waited to see what the now ubiquitous Allies did to advance the cause while the Poles prepared and regrouped for their planned limited and focused offensives in all three sectors of the Eastern Front.
And a wider view showed a bit was happening in that regard, less successfully in the north and centre and most intensely in the south, especially in the Caucasus. The Finland and the Middle East and Iran were temporarily silent: but this would not last the whole month!
Engels was occupied by 4 September but the Polish divisions there were in a fairly poor state and not yet ready to attack further, though more were on their way. They were still consolidating and preparing four days later, with four divisions in place in Engels. The situation was little changed by the 10th, though improved supply in depth west of Saratov was seeing more divisions recover strength and organisation.
In the far south of the sector, after a deliberate build-up four Romanian 8th Army divisions join a faltering British attack on Ganja in Azerbaijan on 10 September. This turned the battle around and the defending Armenian troops (that SSR by then largely occupied by the Allies) were defeated ten hours later.
On the far northern end of the Southern Sector, a secondary limited advance was launched to support Allied advances south of Nizhny Novgorod on the afternoon of the 10th. This was curtailed after four Soviet divisions reinforced the position south-east of Nizhny Novgorod and casualties mounted to an unacceptable level.
As the 10th closed out, the Allies were still broadly engaged across the Eastern Front, including a new and somewhat promising offensive along the length of the Finnish border, where they had been steadily building up number in recent days.
Middle East, Iran and Central Asia
In the first few days of the months a series of large battles were resolved in southern Iran, including a successful push to the west in Fars as the link-up to the Allied advance from Iraq was sought. The rest were defensive victories where the Soviets suffered heavy casualties for no reward.
Six days later, the long-sought link was re-established at midday on 8 September: just as the Polish advance guard secured the Fars salient (after two more attacks against arriving Soviet divisions had to be fought on the 6th and 8th), the Allies joined then from the west along a narrow border. Both footholds were being subjected to strong Soviet counter-attacks as they tried desperately to cling on.
To help spoil the counter-attack in Fars and expand the link, a new Polish attack was launched on Yazd, despite those divisions now suffering attrition as well as poor supply.
A day later and the link had been strengthened: the Fars salient was successfully held by 1700hr on 9 September, while the Allies had heavily reinforced their salient which now looked secure. The attack on Yazd was won early the next day.
Another small Soviet pocket had been formed on the Persian Gulf coast, though they still held the port of Bushehr. By the end of 10 September, Allied progress out of Kurdistan and Iraq remained slow, despite their huge numerical superiority (which was probably paralysing supply, but there was nothing the Poles could do to affect that).
This was illustrated across the entire front, especially the Middle East, with supply struggling to support the huge Allied forces now being fielded, with most sectors badly backed up. It explained much of the slow progress during this period for the Poles and Allies more generally.
Maritime South East Asia
The slow deterioration in maritime South East Asia continued with a new US build-up and attacks in Java making headway again by 4 September, though their supply situation was becoming difficult.
The Allied last stand in North Borneo continued, though with little hope as supplies drained away under the MAB blockade.
By the end of the 10th, the situation in Java remained critical but the US had not advanced any further despite superior numbers and large gaps in the Allied line. Perhaps supply shortages were hindering movement.
The final act of the tragedy in North Borneo was almost over. Soon the entire remaining forces would be in the MAB bag.
There had been no change in Singapore, which still held out for the Allies without any serious MAB effort to expel them.
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Australia and PNG
The first of the 5th Army divisions withdrawn from the Eastern Front reach Batumi on 3 September and took ship for a long voyage to Perth, which if still held when they arrived would see them join 7th Army and hold the only port on the West Coast of Australia. If not, they would be diverted, probably to the East Coast.
The next set sail from Dnipropetrovsk the following day, where the German LfD 2 had finally reached after its retreat from the north and began digging in. The other three left Gdansk on 10 September on to the same destination.
More widely, it seemed poor US supply on both sides of the island continent was holding up their further progress by that time. Another Allied division had just arrived in Perth and there had been no further movement on either front.
There had been no change in the PNG front-line during the first ten days of the month: for now it had become another of those stalemated side theatres.
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The Americas
Some Allied units appeared to have recently left the southern part of the Yucatan enclave by 4 September.
But despite a few battles there and in Eastern Canada, no significant changes occurred during the ten-day period.
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Research and Production
Action was taken on 1 September to start addressing the recent deficit in heavy 27TP infantry support tanks, with effort diverted from the now far healthier infantry equipment production lines. When the next research team became available, it would be directed to update the now antiquated mid-1930s design to something a bit more contemporary.
As the new military factory in Lublin neared completion, a parallel construction was begun in Gdynia on 3 September.
The same day, another new occupied military factory came on-line (now 13 out of the 52 total available) and was allocated to AT production.
A new military factory started construction in Lublin as soon as the latest one finished on 7 September. That capacity was allocated to support equipment, another large equipment deficit.
By the end of the 10th, there were seven equipment deficits in Polish holdings. The next research project – Poland’s first nuclear reactor – was not due to finish for another month and a half.
The state of the main Allied theatres at that time is shown below, by factional alignment.
The first part of September 1947 had been comparatively quiet for Poland compared to the recent high intensity but preparations were in place for a series of new offensives – and hoped-for Soviet pocket liquidations – in the next part of the month.
