Poles Apart – an HOI4 Ahistory

[Bullfilter]

Chapter Seventy-eight: The Grindstone
(June 1946)​

AuthAAR’s Note: Merging it all back into a single episode to cover the whole month across the world. Trying to push through to see if one side or the other can finally get a decisive upper hand, given how evenly balanced the war remains after all these years at the grindstone.

Polish troops taking a break from the fighting on the Eastern Front to discuss the latest ‘world great power rankings’ and the fact it does not include Poland (due to industrial capacity). “But we punch above our weight, which is the most important thing,” Jerzy remarks to his friend. “That’s right,” agrees Tadeusz. “And the Allies still control significantly greater combined industrial capacity than the enemy, even including the power of America. We can still win this thing.”

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The Americas

May 1946 had ended with a deteriorating Allied position in Mexico, with new large=-scale American landings in south-east Mexico and an American breakout along the Baja Peninsula. On 6 June, the US had 13 divisions ashore in two separate beachheads, though they had not yet been able to take a port to bring in the vital supplies needed to sustain them. Though they were trying hard in Coatzacoalcos.

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And in Mexico more widely, by mid-June the US was progressing steadily down the Baja Peninsula. But their other attacks in the north were all being successfully defended for now and they had failed to gain that vital port in the south-east, where lack of supplies once more seemed to have bogged down the landings.

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Once again, the Allies seemed to be more resilient in Mexico than many had expected. And there had been no change of the front lines in eastern Canada.

By the end of June Baja had been lost but the rest of the theatre, both in the north and south-east, held firm for the Allies. The US landings in and around the Yucatan Peninsula remain contained and the Allies still held territory in southern Texas and in southern California and Arizona.

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Bafflingly, the US had been unable to push out of Villahermosa to Coatzacoalcos, even though the latter was now undefended: perhaps they did not have the supplies to move.

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In the north-west, Phoenix remained in Allied hands and an Anglo-German column was still holding east of Los Angeles.

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And in the north-west, the Allies were holding fast against the latest US offensive in the centre and held onto San Antonio.

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By the end of June, the US had managed a modest push forward in the south of the line in Canada.

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There was regular fighting but no change on the ground in Guyana, where three French divisions held out in Cayenne against the latest American attack.

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Western China

With the Allies holding well enough in Sinkiang, another Polish division – mountaineers this time – was pulled out from Yarkand on 1 June, to be transferred to Iran, where their specialist skills would come in handy in the mountainous east of the country.

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By mid-June, the Allied line was being held in the west and north, while a slow fighting withdrawal continued in Western China.

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To assist the remaining defenders in Yarkand, which came under frequent attack during the month, a branch rail line from Kashgar was begun on 21 June in an effort to improve their supply situation.

By the end of June 1946, the MAB had made modest but steady gains in Western China (pink on the map below) and the 4thInt had reclaimed a little territory in the north. Yarkand was under attack once again: there had been 14 battles decided so far during the month, with the Soviets suffering a ridiculously high casualty ratio for no gain.

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South East Asia

After their May landings in the eastern Indonesian islands, the US made no further progress in early-mid June. But in Indochina, the Allied position continued to collapse in on itself. Though Phnom Penh was still holding on, by 4 June the MAB was enveloping the Allied line in the north, where there were no troops to stop them.

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By 15 June, Phnom Penh had fallen and the remaining Allied troops were falling back on the last Allied port in Indochina.

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Five days later the last stand was being made: it was hoped that the encircled Franco-German task force might be able to escape by sea.

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Within a week it was all over: Indochina was fully in MAB hands.

At the end of the month, the US were still trying – unsuccessfully so far – to get across into Eastern Java against the Anglo-Dutch defensive force east of Soerabaya.

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And sometime in the last week or so a Japanese force had landed in southern Malaya. But they had again not been able to gain a port on landing and were now facing supply shortages as they sat in their beachhead.

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Iran and Iraq

The Polish presence in Iran continued to keep Iran in the fight during June 1946 but it was tough going: not as large a grindstone to work on as the Eastern Front though still intense enough. On 2 January, an important defensive victory was won in Yasuj (1,340 Allied, 2,450 Soviet casualties) but the enemy would continue to attack the key point throughout the month as the Poles were forced to rotate troops through in combination with British formations.

Over in the east, Birjand was another target of intense Soviet pressure, who seemed determined to take back the centre that the Poles had fought for so hard in the preceding weeks. By 7 June the previously solid defence was in trouble, as the Polish and Nationalist Chinese (under British command) forces there began to buckle.

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6 and 32 DPs were ordered up to reinforce the defence., though the 32nd in particular was not yet fully recovered from their previous efforts. By that evening, on the KBK remained in the line, while 8 DP was added to what was not anticipated to be a relief in place or counter-attack.

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The KBK would be forced to retreat the following morning.

6 DP would arrive in Birjand first to start a new defence on 11 June but were soon under the pump, being attacked by five Soviet divisions (and three more in reserve) while 8 and 32 DPs were in place but also remained in reserve. The now mainly recovered 7 DP was ordered up to help from the south.

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However, after another hard fight, the battle would be lost three days later before 7 DP could arrive, with 8 DP (the last resisting division by the 13th) having been ordered to withdraw. Birjand was reoccupied by the Soviets later on the 14th.

With Birjand lost and a more defensive posture being adopted, rail upgrades were begun on 16 June to assist with the difficult supply situation in Kerman.

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Over in Yasuj, repeated Soviet attacks were beaten back, until by the early morning of 22 June their latest assault looked like it would succeed. Three refreshed Polish divisions were sent back up to relieve Yasuj, though the current British defenders would be defeated by the early afternoon. It had been a costly battle for both sides.

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Fortunately, 16, 26 and 29 DPs arrived in time to mount a renewed defence and would heavily defeat the now more tired Soviet attackers by 26 June.

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On 28 June, a Soviet assault on northern Kerman had wrested more ground from the Poles south-west of Birjand, but General Żeligowski was unwilling to surrender that ground without another fight. The Soviet advance guard was counter-attacked early on the 30th and had been defeated by the afternoon.

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Before the province could be retaken, a Soviet cavalry division had arrived to mount a hasty defence, which the Poles, with a little Allied support, was in the process of throwing back.

As the month ended, Yasuj was under attack again but holding. It had been the focus of the fiercest fighting in the theatre all month, with 25 battles fought over it (sometimes multiple attacks and probes in a single day) and tens of thousands of troops dying in it.

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The Allies had managed to mainly hold the line in Kurdistan and Iraq, with Mosul and Baghdad being retained. Iran had been kept in the fight for another month, at least distracting the Soviets from (for Poland) the ‘main game’ on the Eastern Front.

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Georgia

The Allied invasion of Georgia had appeared on the brink of defeat by the end of May 1946. By 6 June they were still in place, having largely help in place for the last week. However by the 11th they had suffered a setback with a Soviet drive to the Black Sea Coast cutting off four Anglo-Dutch divisions around Sukhumi. And the Soviets were attacking all along the line of the southern Allied beachhead.

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The Allies were not yet out of it though, with a counter-offensive moving east out of Sukhumi supported by a strong Allied counter-attack from the south to relieve the Sukhumi pocket by mid-June.

The relief had been completed by the 30th, with Sukhumi back in supply and the province to its east still in Allied hands. Again, the Allies had defied expectations to hold on in a difficult situation.

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Eastern Front

The heavy but largely stalemated fighting on the Eastern Front continued through June 1946, with Poland taking the lead in the fight against the Soviets, heavily supported by the Czechs, Yugoslavia and the other Western Allies. A series of large battles carried over from late May in the north and centre concluded on 2-3 June in Wilejka, Minsk and Wołyn. In each case, the Soviets suffered very heavily by comparison to the Allied defenders.

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By the 13th, the Polish high command had decided that the mountain division currently in the Khmelnytskyi sector would be better used in Iran – and could be spared from the heavy ongoing battle there. 50 DPG was soon loaded on trains and headed for Athens, for transhipment to the Middle East.

In the south, a series of large battles in the Khmelnytskyi were concluded from 1-10 June – the largest, in the south-west, incurring very heavy casualties on both sides, with more than 20,000 men falling.

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By 26 June, the latest Soviet attack on south-west Khmelnytskyi was making progress, with a massive 25 Soviet divisions tackling 12 defending formations. Four more rested divisions were sent back into the line and an upgrade begun for the Lwów-Khmelnytskyi branch rail line to help with the bad supply situation.

By the morning of the 28th, the situation in the south-west had been stabilised but a new attack on western Khmelnytskyi was making inroads, with one rested heavy division and another still disorganised militia division sent in to help their outnumbered comrades.

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The latest great fight for south-west Khmelnytskyi was won – more convincingly this time – by early on the 30th.

More widely, a new large Soviet offensive was under way at this time, being held in most places comfortably but causing problems (other than in western Khmelnytskyi) south of Minsk, where the earlier Czech-Yugoslav offensive had taken ground the Poles had not themselves moved into (due to past heavy losses in such adventures).

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Two more large defensive battles in the north and centre, in Wilejka and Wołyn again, would be won by the Allies on 29-30 June. The situation in Estonia remained deadlocked and relatively quiet. Surprisingly, the Czech and Yugoslavian toehold would be held by the end of the month after some fresh reinforcements arrived there to reinforce their comrades.

And in a rather perplexing aside, a survey of Norway revealed Kirkenes, on the northern (neutral) Finnish border had, in addition to the one Norwegian garrison division, 14 French and three British divisions defending it!

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Domestic Front

The Polish destroyer fleet received a major upgrade design on 6 June, with research then being applied to developing a basic strategic bomber – just in case Poland ever managed to develop an atomic weapon it would be needed to deliver.

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A few days later, that atomic research received a boost with the completion of the Polish Atomic Physics Institute. The focus was then switched to construction repairs, given the heavy toll on infrastructure on the Eastern Front (though looking at it in retrospect, I should have chosen construction engineering instead and will do when I resume).

On 10 June, the recruiting of new divisions finally resumed (they had been on hold due to ongoing AA and AT equipment shortages) with a new mountain division begun (which just needed some more infantry equipment). And the relative weakness in Polish military manufacturing was addressed again when a new military factory was commenced in Warsaw on 26 June.

By the end of the month, the AA and AT shortages persisted, but the Air Force had now built up a decent reserve of aircraft types, with the most modern versions becoming a higher proportion of the wings. Once more, none were committed during June and they were left in reserve for a more decisive point.

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In summary, Polish manpower gains had greatly outweighed combat losses (22,000) in June, leading to a rise in the reserve manpower pool of around 90,000 men, despite the raising of the new mountain division. More than half the Polish combat losses had been due to enemy air action: the possibility of the PAF taking to the skies again on the Eastern Front would at least be considered in July.

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Both sides in the war fielded about the same manpower, perhaps the Allies a few million more, and likewise a far larger industrial output. Poland and the USR dominated each other’s casualty counts (caused and received). The overall Soviet-Polish casualty ratio (caused to each other) stood at 5.5-1: it had been getting steadily worse for the Poles since May.

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But the Soviets were taking almost 100,000 casualties from the Poles alone per month: importantly, the median Allied intelligence estimate was they had around 2,090,000 men in reserve at that time (pretty accurate when compared with the actual figure). Given the further attrition from other Allied armies, it seemed the Soviet manpower pool was far from inexhaustible. For now, this would persuade the Polish General Staff (at least) to persist with the current defensive blood-letting strategy.

Although not considered a ‘major power’ in the Allies, Poland had the fifth largest army (by a long margin over the Czechs and Italians) and was the fifth largest overall war contributor (fourth if the surrendered China were eliminated from the equation).

 

[Bullfilter]

Chapter Seventy-nine: Determination
(July 1946)

Polish President Ignacy Mościki addresses troops on the Eastern Front, 1 July 1946. A count of the words used in the speech showed that ‘determination’ featured more prominently than any other concept. Hope was for the faint of heart: determination and persistence were now the order of the day as the ‘endless war’ just kept rolling along without quarter or mercy.

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The Americas

The US landings in the Yucatan area remained out of supply and contained all through the first three weeks of July 1946. But in the north, the situation had deteriorated steadily for the Allies, who had lost San Antonio in the east and Phoenix in the west, retaining only small footholds in the US in both areas by 22 July.

It was in this context of the worsening Allied position in Mexico that Poland received a very surprising offer from Germany on 24 July: a corps of six Wehrmacht divisions was offered as an expeditionary force – but they were all scattered over the Mexican theatre! The offer was accepted the divisions grouped under a new 7th Army, commanded by General Stanisław Sosabowski [an exquisite irony, German troops under Polish command in WW2].

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They were in turn placed under Field Marshal Rydz-Śmigly’s renamed Expeditionary Army Group, along with the 4th army in Iran and the small 6th Army (more a small corps strength now) in Sinkiang. For the rest of the month they would broadly try to assist the Allied delaying defence in northern Mexico, while the High Command decided what to do with them in the longer term.

By 27 July the Allied front in the east was collapsing, with a dozen divisions surrounded on the Gulf Coast as the Allies tried to break them out in the south with an attack that did not look to be strong enough.

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In the centre and west, four of the new EF divisions were trying to help the Allies hold back the enemy as they risked another pocket forming along the border towards the end of the month. And in an ominous development, two Japanese divisions were spotted, assisting their Mexican allies east of Tijuana.

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Little had changed in Canada over the month, with a few indecisive smaller scale battles fought, while the US and its partners (Mexican, Philippine and now Japanese troops) kept up the pressure in northern Mexico.

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The Gulf pocket was still holding out, but it looked like half the trapped divisions must have surrendered and no serious attempt was being made to rescue them.

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The Yucatan beachheads remained well contained, with more Allied troops (including one of the expeditionary divisions) now in the vicinity.

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But in sad news, after many months of resistance, the French foothold of Cayenne in Guyana had been lost during the month to American occupation.

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Asia

The Japanese landings in Malaya were still active early in the month, but they were unable to capture a port and would eventually wither on the vine later in the month.

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The US would remain stalled in Bali, unable to cross into Eastern Java by the end of the month. But the Japanese once more managed to get ashore in Papua late in the month. This time they were able to capture a port to provide resupply. It remained to be seen whether the Allies would be up to responding to this latest landing effectively.

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And in Western China, a number of Allied divisions were also in danger of being cut off after the MAB broke through to the Tibetan border: they were not quite cut off yet, as Tibet had joined the Allies some time back.

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Georgia

The somewhat Quixotic Dutch-led invasion of Georgia carried on into July 1946 with a surprising revival. By 5 July, another province was won back to deepen the bridgehead to the east and the Allies were attacking into the mountain while they resisted the latest Soviet attack west of Tbilisi.

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A week later, the Allies had carved out a salient into the mountains but were being counter-attacked strongly north-east of Sukhumi.

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However, twelve days later all of these gains had been eroded and the Soviets were again closing in on Sukhumi, this time from the north-west. The Allied beachhead was now being controlled by the British in the north around Sukhumi and the Dutch around the port of Batumi in the south.

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By the end of the month, the Soviets had compressed the beachhead back to the Batumi enclave, where a largely Anglo-Dutch force continued to hold out. This time at least they had viable escape routes either by sea or through neutral Turkey, where the Allies had military access.

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Eastern Front

The Eastern Front was relatively quiet through July 1946. The Poles launched no attacks of their own and there were relatively few Allied or Soviet offensives during the month. Only three large battles involving Polish troops were resolved, two in the south around the Khmelnytskyi hotspot, the other to the north in Wilejka. The front line remained static and as the month ended the only fighting in the east was up in Estonia.

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Iran

This month, by far the heaviest Polish involvement in fighting occurred in Iran, concentrated around Kerman and Birjand in the east and Yasuj-Ahvaz in the west. This was a mixture of defensive and attacks designed to just do enough to keep Iran in the war. The battles were far smaller in scale than those on the Eastern Front, so while the fighting was fierce and more even, the overall Polish casualties for the month were considerably lower than previously.

The month started with three Polish generals, led by the redoubtable Lucjan Żeligowski, racking up some new combat skills on 1 July. Unfortunately, within a week old Żeligowski was wounded as he got a little too close to the fighting in Kerman and would be recuperating for the next three months.

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Józef Haller was transferred to command the 4th Army in Iran, while the experienced Marian Kukiel (injured months before and then forgotten about after his recovery) came in behind Haller to take over the much-reduced 6th Army in Sinkiang. [Note: had I realised that before moving Haller over, I would have swapped him in straight for Żeligowski. This was also well before Sosabowski was drafted in to command the new EF in Mexico.]

Another determined Soviet attack on Yasuj was defeated on the morning of the 1st (471 Allied, 2,100 Soviet casualties) though it would be far from the last for the month. But for the newly appointed Haller, most of the action at this time was concentrated in the east. A counter-attack to retake the recently lost north Kerman province encountered a recently arrived Soviet mechanised division early on 2 July but brushed them away easily after a three-hour skirmish.

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North Kerman was reoccupied that night, coming under immediate heavy counter-attack by three Soviet divisions. 18 DP was the first to arrive and had to soak up the punishment until their comrades could reinforced them. By the following morning, the defence had at least been stabilised.

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And with Birjand apparently unguarded, Haller risked a quick probe with 6 DP from north-east Kerman, to see if they could slip in without the Soviets noticing.

However, that evening 6 DP ran into a recently arrived Soviet division, which was significantly disorganised and with poor supply but occupied good mountain defensive terrain. 6 DP pushed on, hoping for a quick victory dash.

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Unfortunately, the Soviets had strong air support and 6 DP soon began to run low on supplies and the momentum of the battle flipped completely. Despite a victory in north Kerman, the attack on Birjand had to be abandoned by the evening of the 4th after turning into an expensive failure.

Over in Yasuj, the Allies won another big defensive victory in Yasuj on the afternoon of 5 July (2,900 Allied, 5,290 Soviet casualties; one Polish out of 10 defending Allied divisions, some of the others having been forced to retreat earlier) but the pressure was kept up by a determined enemy after that.

In north Kerman, the Soviets took advantage of 6 DP’s weakness after their Birjand probe. An attack by three divisions from Birjand badly defeated them and a co-located British division at 1300hr on 8 July (1,360 Allied, 373 Soviet casualties). Relief was on the way though and 28 DP was able to resume the defence on the morning of 10 July.

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Their prospects were improved when four Polish divisions struck Birjand from north Kerman that evening. The defence of north-east Kerman would be won by midday on the 11th, while the larger fight for Birjand continued.

While this dynamic situation played out in the west, the previously strong Allied defence of Yasuj had been worn away by constant Soviet attacks and by 12 July their hold was becoming precarious. A three-division Polish relief column of now rested troops was sent to relieve their comrades.

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They would not arrive in time to save the current defence, which was lost on the 13th with heavy casualties on both sides. Then a British division managed to arrive in time to set up a fragile defence while the Poles rushed to reinforce them.

Meanwhile, the Polish attack on Birjand was proving tough going, with momentum flagging by the morning of 13 July: two of the four attacking divisions had been forced to abandon the assault.

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The recently arrived 2 DP in north-east Kerman then made a flank attack on Birjand, breaking the deadlock and leading to an expensive victory by the afternoon of the 14th.

The Poles arrived on the morning of 15 July to join British and South African divisions in the defence of Yasuj, swinging the battle back in favour of the Allies. Both sides would rotate troops through over the following nine days.

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But in the end Soviet numbers and determination prevailed, one of the hardest-fought battles of the Iranian campaign ending in an enemy victory on 24 July.

In the interim, Birjand was re-occupied on 16 July by the Polish advance guard of 32 DP – who were quickly overpowered by a three-division Soviet counter-attack (just 31 Polish casualties taken before they fled). More Polish troops were arriving piecemeal, with 2 DP renewing the defence on 18 July before again losing on the 20th.

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By that time, another four divisions were on their way to Birjand, including a recently transferred mountain division from Sinkiang. Haller was determined to retake Birjand, in part to offset the expected loss of Yasuj in the west.

Those troops would arrive progressively in the coming days, the first two re-establishing the defence of Birjand on 21 July and then finally winning the defence on the 29th after more reinforcements assisted.

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In the west, Yasuj still held out on 26 July, despite the earlier enemy victory, with 15 DP mounting a desperate defence after pulling in to the ruined town early that morning. Only 1 DP was sufficiently recovered by that point to be sent to their relief from the south-west, but it would take them some time to complete the march.

It was not quick enough to save Yasuj from being occupied soon after 15 DP was defeated on the morning of 27 July. Then the advancing 1 DP quickly defeated the Soviet advance guard and desperately tried to retake the key town that had been fought over so hard for so many weeks. A plea was put out for Allied support to help hold Yasuj.

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At midday, disturbing reports were heard from Ahvaz: the previously secure Allied defence was now under heavy pressure from a Soviet attack. This risked the loss of the nearby oilfields and a threat to the narrow Allied land corridor running through Iraq and Kuwait to the rest of Iran, plus the two ports at the top of the Persian Gulf.

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Two recovered divisions that might otherwise have been sent to support 1 DP in Yasuj were instead sent north-west to assist the defence of Ahvaz. Things were becoming ever more precarious in this corner of the front.

1 DP was able to retake Yasuj on the evening of 27 July, even as 15 DP was still retreating. Of course, they came under immediate Soviet counter-attack. With the situation worsening in Ahvaz, those two divisions were kept on course.

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But the cupboard was bare: no more Allied units would arrive to assist and the Poles had no ready units to send into what now looked increasingly to be an impossible situation. 1 DP was forced to flee early on the morning of 29 July. The long Allied defence of Yasuj was over.

As the month was drawing to a close, Ahvaz fell to the Soviets: 16 and 29 DPs were still en route, delayed by an irritating series of Soviet holding attacks. They did manage to defeat the worn out Soviet troops that had occupied Ahvaz at 0700hr on 31 July but were still some way off.

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The other three Polish divisions were sent to secure the port south of Ahvaz, to ensure it was defended and able to provide both supply and a fall back position and escape route in case the Poles made it to Ahvaz but were not then able to hold it.

As it happened, 23. Pz Div was able to retake Ahvaz a few hours later, though by the end of the day they had almost been defeated by the Soviet follow-on force. The Poles were still stuck in a new holding attack, this time from Yasuj.

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The second half of the month had been relatively quiet in eastern Iran, where the defence of Birjand and northern Kerman was being consolidated. Iran remained in the war but teetering close to capitulation, Kurdistan somewhat less so. The Eastern Front was quiet, as we have seen.

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The Allied position in Western China continued to gradually erode, especially in the south, as noted previously, though with Tibet still available for a long delaying defence if the Allies could avoid encirclement and destruction in the south.

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Domestic and International Affairs

By 1 July all the equipment demands had been met for the new mountain division – 113 DPG – under training in Warsaw. While a majority of the infantry equipment requirement had been met from a mix of older and newer Polish gear. All that was left now was their training time.

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A growing shortage of AT guns led to offers of lend-lease equipment being made by Ireland and Australia on 18 July. The other area of equipment deficit remained AA guns, where production was slowly ramping up and little or no LL support was available.

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A small sliver of good news came on 25 July with the entry of Denmark into the war as a member of the Allies: every little bit would help, though it was hardly a game-changing development.

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As the month ended, a new military factory came on line in Warsaw and it was tasked to increase AA production (now 4/34 factories). Construction output was directed to another military factory for Warsaw, which should be ready towards the end of August (bringing it to 19/20 building slots used).

The Allied-Communist-US War had now seen over 27 million killed with about the same total manpower (or slightly less) fielded in the militaries of both sides. Total Allied casualties were 70,000 higher during the month than for the enemy. Poland had only suffered 13,100 in losses, all to the Soviets, causing around 27,300 to them. This lower ratio was due to the nature of the fighting in Iran, which made up the bulk of Soviet-Polish combat in July.

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According to the available figures – which may be a little rubbery for the Soviets – Poland had seen a net growth in manpower reserves of over 139,000 during July. The Soviets had lost around 170,000 men in fighting but had seen a decline in reserve manpower of over 350,000 to about 1.735 million. It was presumed this must have been accounted for by the recruiting of new units (perhaps the equivalent of around 10-15 new divisions). With their current conscription laws, the Poles figured they were now in a state of low manpower and would be forced to either widen the draft (at the expense of domestic industry) or start suffering shortages at the front in coming months.

 

[Bullfilter]

Chapter Eighty: The Jakowski Review
(1-11 August 1946)

British troops disembark in Archangelsk in an initially unopposed surprise landing in mid-July 1946. The landings were kept so quiet by the British that the Polish Government did not become aware of them until the end of the month!

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Archangelsk

The surprise British landings on the White Sea coast in northern Russia took place in around mid-July, though the Poles did not become aware of them until a low-key cable from their Embassy in London communicated the existence of the new front after being informed by the British at midnight on 31 July. A report was provided showing how the lodgement had expanded unopposed by 22 July [my previous game save], but no more details than that were forthcoming. It was seen as a typically Churchillian amphibious scheme 'at the periphery'.

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By the end of July, the landing zone had expanded a little with an overland drive to the south-east, but by then Soviet units – including a number of tank divisions – had begun to arrive along its western edge to begin the job of containing the unexpected new front.

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The Jakowski Review

With Allied prospects in Iran, the Middle East and central Asia steadily deteriorating while the lull in heavy fighting on the Eastern Front continued (perhaps explained by the Soviet focus on Iran, the Middle East and now the diversion in Archangelsk), Poland decided it was time for a thorough review of its force structure, research and industrial priorities. The other driver was re-gearing Army Group East and the Air Force to be ready for the coming offensive that was planned to coincide with the long-planned coup in Belarus.

To help them with this daunting task, the services of respected Polish military thinker Władisław Jakowski [aka @jak7139 – thanks so much mate!] were called upon to provide recommendations and advice in many areas of Polish strategy, industry and military organisation. This produced the 7,139-page Jakowski Review, most of which began to be implemented from midnight on 31 July onwards.

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A quickly adopted recommendation related to the Navy’s use of outdated ship designs. New hull types had been developed in recent years but never completed with the required modules to allow construction of them to commence. For example, the 1944 submarine hull needed a minimum of torpedo tubes to be included, while the new 1940 destroyer hull required at least a gun battery to be installed.

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With only limited Naval effort available for this work [ie 35 design points total], it was decided that for now a minimum would be done to make the new subs seaworthy. The main effort would go into making a credible destroyer design, as they were seen as more likely to be of use in the future for escort and ASW work. The last of each of the old vessels would be completed during August and would be replaced by the new ones when the time came.

Next came a change to the standard infantry division template. To help save on equipment requirements and erase the AT gun deficit – and be able to suspend their further production to consolidate industrial effort – the AT battalions in the first brigade of each division would be replaced with a support AT company at divisional level, leaving hundreds of spare AT guns available. The field hospital and logistics companies were removed, with an engineer company brought in to aid with the defence, the support AT company taking the other slot. However, more infantry equipment would be needed, leading to a temporary shortage.

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Another idea that the general staff and been mulling over was the creation of cavalry divisions, to give them more punch and durability. At Jakowski’s recommendation, the new template did away with the recon detachments. [Cavalry brigade template duplicated then the extra four cav brigades added, to save some design points].

The first new cavalry division was created with two co-located brigades in northern Poland straight away. The rest would be completed in a similar fashion as they were brought together behind the lines during coming days and weeks.

Note the wide range of old and new Polish and borrowed equipment in use.​

In all, the ten Polish cavalry brigades would be consolidated into five divisions. Most would assemble behind the lines on the Eastern Front and combine one by one when gathered.

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The KBK, currently in Birjand with 4th Army, was put on trains for Bandar e’Abbas from where they would take ship back home after years away fighting in China and Iran. As they headed back home, so the mountain troops of 50 DPG took ship from Athens to Beirut, on transfer to the 4th Army in the Middle East and Iran.

Another Jakowski recommendation saw the last three divisions of the 6th Army Sinkiang also transferred to the 4th under its temporary commander Haller, freeing up the experienced General Marian Kukiel for a new job when the time came. The two infantry divisions were sent on to Iran, leaving just the one division of mountain troops to assist with the defence of Yarkand.

This was the cue for the much-awaited broader reorganisation of Field Marshal Sikorski’s Army Group East to begin.

By its end, the four armies in Army Group East were organised into three different types. 1st Army, already with a majority of the mobile units, would become Poland’s fully mobile force, designed for exploitation of any breakthrough that might be made. General Roman Abraham, imbued with the offensive spirit, would remain in charge. It now contained all the light armoured and new motorised divisions, the four newly reorganised cavalry divisions, plus the one armoured and two cavalry formations the Czechs had provided as EFs.

The 2nd Army, under Władysław Anders, contained the four ‘heavy’ divisions (which included the heavy infantry support tanks but were essentially leg-infantry formations despite the symbol) and 20 regular infantry divisions. It would provide the backbone of the defence in coming months and would be called upon to fight the expected grinding breakthrough battles for 1st Army to exploit in the offensive. 3rd Army (Sosnkowski) and 5th Army (Kowalski) were the lighter line armies. Each had seven regular divisions each at their corps, supported by a mix of the Polish militia divisions (more like reinforced brigades) and lighter Latvian or Czech EF infantry formations to bring both up to 21 divisions.

​

The idea was that 3rd and 5th Armies would be evenly distributed along the line to provide the base of the defence. As the offensive came close, the plan was as many as possible of 1st and 2nd Armies would be held back and fully prepared for the offensive. If that induced an exhausting attack by the Soviets that could then be exploited by a counter-offensive, then all the better. 2nd Army would then launch in to crack the Soviet line in at least two places if possible, hopefully exploiting the pro-Polish Byelorussian uprising, allowing 1st Army to breakthrough and conduct ‘lightning war encirclements’ if at all possible.

Field Marshal Rydz-Śmigly’s Expeditionary Army Group was now roughly in its settled form, barring a few planned adjustments along the way.

Largely in accordance with Jakowski’s advice [any changes or omissions are my responsibility], production priorities would be progressively adjusted in coming days. For now, the one factory allocated to Light SP artillery (of which there was enough in stockpile) was re-tasked to AA production. Other changes would follow.

For some time, the equipment for a proposed mechanised division (medium tanks, mechanised infantry and medium SP Artillery - not part of the Jakowski Review) had been under production with no template provided. There was now almost enough to fit out a prototype division that would eventually be allocated to 1st Army. Its initial template would be added to as time went by (and more equipment was produced). It was uncertain whether it would be ready to deploy as part of the proposed winter offensive of 1946.

​

Its main tank was the 14TP, but a range of German and Italian lend-lease vehicle helped make up its numbers. Similarly, there was some German SP artillery and the usual mix of Polish and borrowed infantry equipment, but all the personnel carriers were of the Polish C7P design. It was still awaiting delivery of support equipment, AA and trucks.

The Air Force was also subject to some consolidation. The Pustułka Mk1 interceptor would continue production as the main fighter type. Production of the Lis (Fox) Mk1 heavy fighter would be discontinued: its main role was to provide escort to Poland’s tactical bombers on any longer-range missions and it was considered there was now enough of these for that job.

​

A similar process was applied to the bomber arm: Jakowski had recommended discontinuing TAC production to concentrate on the cheaper Okoń (Perch) CAS aircraft, but the Air Force brass wanted to also retain a deeper range and more multi-purpose (though more slowly built) tactical bomber force, so the Dzik (Boar) TAC was retained. The three freed factories went to building more Lis, Dzik and AA (not shown).

The 73 remaining stockpiled Lis heavy fighters and 39 Okoń CAS were added into new or existing wings in Lwów. The stockpiled fighters were all older models (some inter-war vintage) so were left as ‘emergency spares’.

Building the lagging industrial base was also given higher priority, with new military and civilian factories programmed and sent to the top of the construction queue, being built in the provinces with the best infrastructure.

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The Americas - Mexico

The responsibility for commanding the German Expeditionary Corps in Mexico (dubbed the 7th Army) meant there was now some direct Polish interest and involvement at the tactical level. General Sosabowski – a special forces operator – looked to use his commando and camouflage skills to help his men if they found themselves lacking supply and to protect them from US CAS attacks. One of his divisions – stuck down on the Yucatan Peninsula – was however ordered to head across the Atlantic for Beirut, where it was planned they would join the 4th Army in the Middle East.

On 1 August, 2 Pz. and 340. Inf Divs still found themselves somewhat exposed in north-western Mexico by the enemy’s advances there. Both were ordered to withdraw to Hermosillo but were delayed twice that day by enemy holding attacks: both won by 2000hrs that night, with time being the only cost incurred.

​

At the same time, 198. Inf was ordered north to see if it could establish a strong river defence and firm base for their retreat, plugging a dangerous gap in the Allied line.

The next day, further north just over the border in Arizona (the last little foothold on US territory), the Anglo-German defenders risked isolation and encirclement. They had managed a strong defensive victory that morning but were under attack again two hours later, where the Polish-commanded Germans had just had to brush off another delaying attack in Sonora.

​

In the east, the Allied pocket trapped on the Gulf Coast had been whittled down to three divisions and looked to be on their last legs. They retained supply as they were actually in a port, but it seemed unclear if any of their comrades had escaped to sea: none had yet been observed getting away. [Question, when attacked in such situations and forced to retreat, are units usually destroyed? Do they ever escape to sea?]

​

2 Pz. Div reached Hermosillo at 1100hrs on 2 August and started digging in, to provide a safe base for 340. Inf (and any other Allied units to the north) to retreat through. Early the next morning, the 340th had to defeat yet another delaying attack (25 German, 357 US casualties) and were still some way of reaching safety.

They completed their long, harried march to Hermosillo on the night of 4 August. A day later and they were ordered to keep heading south-east to join 198. Inf in their defensive line. With its extra speed, 2 Pz. Div would be able to withdraw if necessary, so stayed in the screening position at Hermosillo. By then, the pocket in the east had been eliminated, with Polish observers not seeing any indications of the troops escaping to sea.

By the night of 6 August, the Allied line in northern Mexico again seemed to have stabilised. And the US seemed to have significantly thinned their lines across the front, especially in the far south-east, where a surprising gap had been left along the Texan border. Conversely, the Allies had also been thinning their lines, with a lot of units seen crossing back over the Atlantic: perhaps to Europe and/or the Middle East. As for where the US divisions had gone, there was no indication, with no big increase seen in eastern Canada or anywhere else – yet, anyway.

By 9 August, the Allies had successfully evacuated their men from Arizona, 198. Inf had reached their defensive assignment and been joined by a British division as 340. Inf still marched towards them from Hermosillo. The two other Polish-commanded German divisions to the east also held firm while the front remained fairly quiet.

​

Little would change over the next few days, similarly in Canada, where no significant developments had occurred.

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Georgia

To the surprise of many, the perimeter around Batumi remained firm by 5 August, with the Soviets either unable or unwilling to wipe it out, despite a number of previous attempts.

​

The perimeter would remain intact for the rest of the period until the end of 11 August.

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Asia and the Middle East

The Soviets continued to heavily dominate the skies over Iran, with over 1,200 aircraft (of all types) operating there on 1 August 1946, and only 200 RAF bombers contesting. It was here that the vast majority of Polish casualties from air strikes were being suffered and there was virtually nothing the Poles could do to alleviate this, other than continue to increase the spread of AA guns through their divisions.

By the evening of 2 August, two Polish divisions had (after being delayed a number of times by Soviet holding attacks) almost reached Ahvaz from the east, where an Anglo-German force was still holding on grimly. Another Polish division was almost at the port to its south, where it would try to aid the Allied defence of the last land connection to the rest of the Middle East should Ahvaz fall, as seemed likely.

16 and 29 DPs arrived in Ahvaz early on the 3rd, already somewhat disorganised after their fights to get there. Even with their arrival (in reserve for now) the defence was in big trouble, with the Anglo-German divisions having apparently been forced or pulled out and just one Iraqi division holding the line against 8 Soviet attackers. There was only one way this combat was likely to end.

​

At this point 1 and 15 DPs also began heading west, following 26 DP to the head of the Persian Gulf, to avoid being stranded in Iran if at all possible. At 1300hr that day the Iraqi defence of Ahvaz folded without the Polish division being engaged: they were forced to join the retreat to Basrah, but at least they had been spared a mauling at the hands of superior Soviet firepower.

By early on 5 August, they were in place behind the Shatt Al Arab waterway, which should afford a decent defensive boost. 26 DP was starting to dig in to the east, but 1 and 15 DPs had been detained by a Soviet spoiling attack on the sole British division left to defend while all the other Allied formations were either counter-attacking Ahvaz or (like the Poles) trying to move elsewhere.

​

By that night, the Poles (though still well enough organised) had been caught up in a general confused withdrawal, their march west abandoned as they were instead made to retreat south-east to Shiraz. The Allied grip in the sector was rapidly slipping.

​

At this juncture, 50 DPG arrived in Beirut with the mountain troops still being sent by train across to Kuwait City, where it was envisaged they would be shipped across the Gulf to help the defence of mountainous Iran.

The Soviets had pushed through to the Gulf and thus isolated Iran from the rest of the Middle East by the evening of 8 August. 1 and 15 DPs had just arrived in Shiraz, leaving the large body of Allied troops gathered there to head south to secure Bushehr – one of the remaining Iranian ports and a possible exit point should a general Polish withdrawal from Iran be ordered.

​

The next day, 26 DP was ordered out of Iran to join their comrades in Basrah, as the Soviets tried to cross the Tigris River at three different points, with the key city of Baghdad under severe threat, one crossing to its south an even-money bet and the third attempt north of Basrah being resisted more strongly. The worried Poles sent a message strongly urging the Allies to hold Baghdad as a high priority.

​

From 9-10 August, the strong Polish defence of hard-won Birjand started to come under increased Soviet pressure. A particularly heavy battle was won late on the 9th and another smaller attack defeated the following morning. The three infantry divisions were starting to fell the effects but still held strong.

​

10 and 17 DPs arrived in Iranshah from Yarkand on the morning of the 10th and were ordered to continue their train trip to Bushehr. Birjand was under determined attack again, which would be defeated the following evening.

​

Iran was edging closer to surrender, while the MAB kept up the pressure in Western China and Tibet with another front-wide offensive.

​

On the evening of the 11th, the situation in Iraq had stabilised a little. Baghdad had been reinforced and was now holding, as was the middle crossing attempt of the Tigris, while the southern one had been defeated.

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The Pacific

While the US remained contained in Indonesia, the latest Japanese invasion of New Guinea had fanned out by 10 August as the Australians and their allies tried to contain the breakout.

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The Eastern Front

Despite its reorganisation and the deployment of new aircraft mentioned earlier, the Polish Air Force was not yet ready to commit to the contested air zones in the East. They would be preserved for the decisive moment (either in a desperate defence or, as hoped, for the winter offensive). But for now, with the front quiet few if any casualties were being taken there from enemy air action.

​

In any case, the Ukraine was too heavily controlled by the Soviets, though Belarus was being more evenly contested by the RAF. The PAF could muster around 900 fighters of all types at that point. Other Allied air forces were present but not too active for now, with Nowogródek somewhat overcrowded.

By 3 August all remained quiet on the Eastern Front, with no battles in progress from Estonia to the Romanian border. The situation was little changed by the 9th, so it was deemed timely for General Kukiel – a highly skilled defensive commander returning from previous injury and then brief service in Sinkiang – to take over 5th Army in eastern Poland.

​

Up in northern Russia, the British Archangelsk landing were being more fully sealed off by the Soviets with further progress curtailed and counter-attacks begun. The British did not seem to have reinforced the sector: perhaps it was intended more as a diversion than a serious assault?

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Industry, Research and Reorganisation

After the initial adjustments of the Jakowski Review, on 1 August the military production allocations were as follows:

Infantry equipment, TAC, interceptors and AA production had all been increased, though it would take a while for efficiency to raise output to the maximum level. Medium tank and SP artillery plus mechanised carriers were kept going to help fit out the new mechanised division. AT production was kept ticking along for now until the recent reorganisation had shaken out and the new requirements were clearer.

On 3 August, AT production was cancelled with 353 guns now in stockpile after the reorganisation with the spare factory temporarily allocated to medium SP artillery production to speed the equipment provision for the mech div. Apart from the AA rollout (-1,000), the other current deficiency was in infantry equipment (-369), needed for new units and replacements, hence its ramping up previously.

There was big news on 4 August when Poland’s first operational jet fighter – the PZL.71 Orzeł (Eagle) – design was completed. The first production model would have extended range (to match the current Pustułka Mk1 piston-engine interceptor) and an improved engine (all that could be afforded in design points).

​

Due to initial start-up inefficiencies production was scaled down from 8 to 5 factories when the Pustułka (Kestrel) was discontinued. The saved effort from that and ramping back on artillery production was sunk into AA and more infantry equipment: if all that extra manpower was going to be used for new divisions (or supplementing the current militia establishment) then a lot more of that was going to be needed.

On the 5th, on Jakowski’s advice, the Governments-in-Exile of Pakistan and China were both tapped for manpower support, ostensibly for the garrisons Poland had to maintain in Byelorussia and Romania, effectively adding 113,000 to the Polish reserve pool.

​

The current artillery surplus allowed for a battalion of field artillery to be added to all 20 militia divisions the same day, with the rollout starting immediately, beefing up those formations for the demands ahead.

​

And that evening the KBK took ship in Bandar e’Abbas for the long voyage around Arabia and through the Suez to Athens for their return home. By 8 August, the new mountain division – 113 DPG – had all its equipment issued and had finished 41% of its training, due to deploy in late October.

 

[Bullfilter]

Chapter Eighty-one: Always Something New and Old
(12-31 August 1946)

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North America

By mid-August 1946, the Allies remained on the back foot in northern Mexico but their position had not collapsed as the US thinning out along the front remained unexplained. The line was generally quiet, while a seeming yawning gap had opened up along the south-eastern border with Texas along the Rio Grande.

​

While in the south, the US failure to secure a port meant the total of 13 divisions landed there seemed trapped as their supplies steadily dwindled and the Allies had mustered sufficient divisions to contain both the beachheads.

​

Five days later, the attack on the western of the two pockets had eventually ground the defenders down, resulting in eight US divisions being forced to surrender. Some welcome news for the Allied cause.

​

At the same time, the Allies had managed to probe across the Rio Grande, though had encountered at least four US divisions in reserve positions behind the line and the initial bridgehead was having trouble holding on under the US counter-attack.

By the following afternoon the counter-attack had been repelled and another division was across the Rio Grande along the coast to widen the bridgehead, though it remained thinly held.

​

However by 29 August, both the crossings had been withdrawn and the US had recreated the previous ‘DMZ’ in both provinces and the line was only thinly held by both sides.

And while it was only one small contact in isolation, an Allied report of an engagement in the Mid-Atlantic on 31 August, where two German U-Boat wolfpacks had found what appeared to be an American troop convoy had some analysts wondering whether it might be an early indicator of US intentions for all those troops withdrawn from the Mexican front.

​

As the month ended, all was quiet both in Mexico and Canada as both sides seemed to be focused elsewhere. The only change of substance had been the surrender of the US landing in the south earlier in the month.

​

A closer look at northern Mexico showed how far both sides had reduced their numbers in recent days.

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The Middle East and the Black Sea

Early on 14 August, 26 DP had completed its withdrawal across the from Iran into Basrah and was sent north to reinforce the defence of the Tigris River in the south-east of the Baghdad region. The Iraqi capital now seemed to be strongly held, though the line along the Tigris from there to Basrah looked a little vulnerable.

​

The last Iranian port at the head of the Gulf, just east of Basrah, fell to the Soviets on 20 August, though Allied units in Basrah were attempting a counter-attack against the Soviet advance guard that had taken it. Two days later the Soviets had reinforced and six divisions now held the port as the attack faltered and would eventually fail by the evening of 22 August.

​

26 DP had reinforced the Tigris defence line north of Basrah by then and it was just as well. In the preceding days the Soviets had forced their way across the Tigris east of Karbala and only a 26 DP and the German 711. Infanterie were holding in south-east Baghdad province, where the Tigris joined the Euphrates.

The Georgia lodgement had continued to hold on grimly and at that stage contained a heavy concentration of Allied divisions resisting heavy Soviet attacks towards Batumi from the north and east.

​

And a new Allied diversion had begun in the Black Sea, with early reports of attempted Allied landing in the south of the Crimean Peninsula. These first landings were being led by French units under General Pierre Hoch.

​

In Iraq, the Soviet crossing of the Tigris prompted 16 DP to be detached from its defence of Basrah – which was by then heavily garrisoned by other Allied divisions – to try to hold the Allied line in front of the Euphrates, in the hope the Allies might eventually be able to restore the Tigris defensive line.

​

South-east Baghdad was still under attack in what had developed into a major battle that was won by the Allied defenders five days later after the Soviets took heavy casualties.

In Crimea, the initial French landing attempts had failed but now the Germans were in the Sea of Azov and attempting to land at the north of the peninsula.

​

The Soviets were however on the attack along the Tigris, both in Kurdistan and Iraq. The Allies were mainly holding though the situation east of Mosul was becoming concerning and the battle for Karbala was evenly poised.

As August was ending, the Allied landing attempts on the northern coast of Crimea had intensified, with British units joining in and four landing sites now under attack.

​

Then by midnight on the 31st, three British divisions were ashore east of the Kerch Strait, with the other four landings on northern Crimea still under way and new direct assaults on Sevastopol and Odessa had begun.

​

If the Allies could get a beachhead in Odessa and expand it to the (neutral) Romanian border, Allied military access should allow it to be substantially reinforced.

In Georgia, it seemed many of the Allied units that had been there must have been used for the recent spate of Black Sea landings, but the thinned defence was still holding for now, if under pressure, sustained in part by military access through Turkey.

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Iran

The heaviest Polish engagement in the region remained in Iran, which by mid-August 1946 was cut off by land from the rest of the Middle East and teetered on the edge of capitulation. In the west, the Poles were trying to help the Allies hold the cities of Shiraz and the key port of Bushehr, now the principal link with Iraq and Kuwait.

In the east, the Poles still held onto the much-contested Birjand with five divisions, repelling yet another Soviet attack on 14 August (196 Polish, 671 Soviet casualties). A new attack was soon being made.

On the night of 17 August, 50 DPG – the mountain formation redirected from Poland during the Jakowski reorganisation earlier in the month – had arrived in Kuwait and began the short crossing of the Persian Gulf to Bushehr. 10 and 17 DPs were at the same time in transit by rail from eastern Iran but had been caught up in a Soviet attack on the rail line.

​

Due to their disorganisation in transport mode, they would be forced to withdraw south-east towards Bandar e’Abbas the next day, slowing down their progress to reinforce their comrades at Shiraz and Bushehr.

The latest Soviet attack on Birjand had been defeated on 19 August but the casualties were starting to mount (782 Polish, 1,890 Soviet) and one Polish division had been forced to retreat. Of course, a new attack was already being made on 20 August.

50 DPG arrived in Bushehr on 21 August and began reorganising there in the mountains surrounding the port. The Soviets had closed up to the port and a first enemy probe on it was defeated easily enough (11 Allied, 725 Soviet casualties) on the 22nd, though only two Polish and one British division now held on, the rest having been withdrawn by the Allies.

And in the last few days, the situation had deteriorated significantly in Birjand as the constant Soviet pressure, including air support, finally saw the defence fade by the afternoon of the 23rd, with just the mountain specialists of 21 DPG left in the fight.

​

2 and 7 DPs were belatedly ordered up to either reinforce 21 DPG or slip into the city after the defence broke at midnight on the 24th. It was in fact a counter-attack that was mounted when the Soviets occupied Birjand on 27 August, with the Poles quickly defeating the Soviet advance guard at midday.

​

While that was happening, in the west the Allies seemed to be landing troops back into Bushehr while the Soviets attacked Shiraz, where the Polish division had been forced to retreat but the British still held the city. Fars was under attack again, even after the earlier battle had seen each side lose over 4,000 men by the 22nd.

​

The Poles were now moving to reinforce both Bushehr and Bandar e’Abbas, the last two Iranian ports still in Allied hands. And calling on the Allies to rush reinforcements to defend Shiraz.

But the Allies were unable to rescue Shiraz before the defence faltered on the afternoon of the 27th and then failed a day later with the city falling into Soviet hands.

​

Also on the evening of the 28th, the Soviets had managed to reinforce Birjand and the prospects of a second Polish attack turned from positive that morning to negative. This became too much for 2 and 7 DPs and the attack was cancelled as casualties began to mount and the situation elsewhere in Iran deteriorated.

​

The Poles began to thin out their presence on northern Kerman on the morning of 30 August, leaving screening forces while the rest headed further south to set up delaying lines and ensure there would be no cutting off of the major part of the 4th Army if things worsened rapidly.

Shiraz was occupied by the enemy on the evening of 30 August and 1 DP was ordered into a last desperate counter-attack, despite the unfavourable mountain terrain. 50 DPG, by then well dug in to the mountains of Bushehr, was not risked in this last-ditch gamble to head off Iranian surrender.

​

With the writing on the wall, the thinning out in the east increased in pace that evening as the most exhausted divisions from the fighting in Birjand were sent further south to recover. The Allies till retained a large presence in central Iran, including 11 South African formations in Fars alone.

​

The inevitable happened after midnight: Iranian capitulation. Some unoccupied provinces in the south-east were transferred to nominal Soviet control and some of the rail lines in the south-east leading to Pakistan were damaged, even though held by an Allied division.

​

But in general, the remaining Allied dispositions were not greatly affected, at first anyway, with the Battle for Iran continuing – if likely doomed. The short attack by 1 DP on Shiraz was clearly not going to succeed and was called off at 0700hr on the 31st.

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Asia-Pacific

On 18 August 1946 PLA troops managed to cut off a pocket of four Allied divisions in the south of the Western China front as they started pushing on the Tibetan capital of Lhasa. At first, the Allied divisions were generally in good condition and well dug in, but they were already starting to draw down on their limited supplies.

​

From Western to Central Asia and onto Western China, on 22 August the Communists were on the offensive, except for the already mentioned landings in Crimea. The Allies were holding in most bot not all of these battles.

​

Towards the end of the month, the Japanese launched yet another amphibious attack, this time on Okinawa again, with exiled Korean and Manchurian troops mounting the defence.

​

While the main line in Western China was generally holding, Tibet looked to be in trouble and the southern pocket was under attack from three sides.

​

Lhasa itself was under attack and in danger of falling as the month ended, with the southern pocket still fighting hard but with little realistic chance of avoiding defeat and destruction.

​

On Okinawa, the initial Japanese attempt to take the Naha by direct assault had not yet succeeded but a division had made it ashore to the north to reinforce the seaborne attack. The battle was looking a bit difficult but the defenders may still be able to turn it around. And the large Allied fleet there seemed to be unable to disrupt the invasion, either from lack of supplies or inexcusable inertia.

​

There had been little change in the situation in New Guinea or Indonesia over the last few weeks.

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Eastern Front

With all their other distractions, the Soviets had not made any serious offensive effort on the main part of the Eastern Front, which remained largely quiet for the rest of the month after a relatively small probe in Bessarabia that was easily defeated on 15 August, over a 1,000 Soviet troops killed for no Allied casualties.

The apparently diversionary Archangel landing had been contained by the Soviets, who were gradually compressing it by 22 August.

​

The KBK landed in Athens on 31 August and began its train trip north to complete the last of the cavalry division mergers.

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Industry and Diplomacy

The first of the new destroyer designs (1940 hull Mark 1), the ORP Orkan, began construction on 12 August 1946. By this stage import requirements for steel and chromium left 22 civilian factories available for construction and repairs.

With the German elections due to occur in September, by 21 August the Communist KPD led the polls with 435, followed by the Polish-aligned conservative DNVP on 34%, the governing Zentrum democrats on 21%. Though a Communist victory would be politically uncomfortable, for the purposes of the war it should not affect the German war effort.

With AA remaining the main logistic shortfall, another round of lend-lease negotiations won minuscule (0.25 unit) promises from Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia. Since January, the UK had delivered 45 and France 71 20mm flak guns but none of the other smaller donors (Hungary and China, who did not have a valid transport path for their excess gear) had delivered any.

A new military factory came on line on 26 August and was dedicated to AA production, bringing that to eight but with efficiency that was still below 50%. And in Byelorussia, the planned coup was still on course for being launched in Mozyr on 2 December 1946, which if successful would trigger the major Polish winter offensive.

By the end of August, Poland had 35 military factories and 12 dockyards on line, with AA guns the only equipment still in deficit. The only aircraft being produced now were the new jet fighters and tactical bombers. 164 old piston fighters being kept as surplus, for use as emergency replacements if needed during the coming offensive.

​

In order to speed up production, the national focus was switched back to aircraft production.

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Summary

At the end of the month, fighting in Eurasia was largely concentrated in three hotspots: in Crimea, along the Tigris River and in Western China.

​

Over the whole of August 1946, the enemy (the Communists and the US combined) had suffered more casualties than the Allies. In the Polish-Soviet comparison, casualties had been very low for the Poles (only 9,000 for the month), while those of the Soviets were now being measured in less accurate units, having risen above 1,000,000 caused by the Poles since the start of the war. This was an overall ration of around 6:1, but closer to even in August – almost all in Iran in more even battles and a large majority to air attack rather than ground combat, on a small sample size.

​

Thanks to the garrison contributions from Pakistan and China and natural net growth, Polish manpower reserves were now above the 1.17 million mark, while those of the Soviets were estimated at around 1.675 million.

Another month had ended with slow deterioration for the Allies around the periphery but a solid position in Poland, while Allied landings nibbled away on the Black and White Seas. Neither optimism nor despair reigned in Warsaw. There was still a chance to turn things in the Allies’ favour in Europe at least before the end of 1946. Would it be enough? This remained a moot point.

 

[Bullfilter]

Chapter Eighty-two: A Change of Seasons
(1 to 15 September 1946)

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North America

Mexico remained quiet for the first half of September 1946, as the leaves started to change colour in the northern hemisphere autumn. But in Canada, some of those troops that had left the Mexican front seemed to have finally reinforced the Canadian front, where the US was now making gradual progress.

​

A week later, a couple of US divisions had closed up to the Rio Grande and were attacking along the Gulf Coast. The Allies were holding strongly though there was a gap in the line to their north-west.

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The Black Sea and the Middle East

The big news at the start of the month was the declaration of war by the Soviets on Turkey on the morning of 1 September 1946. They must have become impatient with Turkey giving access and support for the Allies in recent weeks. This brought another 47 divisions and 1,600 aircraft into the field and extended the active front from the Black Sea to the Persian Gulf.

Turkish troops launching an early attack over the Armenian border towards Yerevan, 1 September 1946.​

In Crimea, the British were ashore in Yalta at midday on the 2nd while the Germans attacked Sevastopol from the sea.

​

A day later the Allies were ashore in a number of places, but no ports had been taken and the lodgements were not strong.

​

On the Georgia-Turkey front, the Turks had almost pushed across the Armenian border west of Yerevan.

​

The next day Turkish forces had pushed forward into Armenia and northern Kurdistan and were holding both strongly.

​

There was more good news along the Tigris, where the British had evicted the Soviets from their bridgehead over the great river. 16 DP, which had been holding in reserve, went forward quickly to reinforce them, given the likelihood of a counter-attack.

​

In Less favourable news, the ensuing days saw the poorly supported landings in Crimea largely been rolled up, while a heavy Soviet presence had assembled around the Kerch-Krasnodar beachhead, which also remained without port access and thus unsupplied.

​

Six days later, the expected Soviet counter-attack along the Tigris had been launched and the Allies were having difficulty holding despite the Polish reinforcements and General Haller taking over command.

​

26 and 29 DPs were therefore shuffled north-west to see if they could help hold the key river line, given Basrah was now very strongly held by the Allies.

A day later the defenders had managed to turn the momentum around, even before 26 DP had arrived. But in Crimea and across the Kerch Strait, all Allied beachheads had been eliminated. That distraction had not been properly supported and had now failed.

On the Tigris, the arrival of 26 DP on 15 September decisively turned the battle in the Allies’ favour and victory would follow the following evening, resulting in heavy Soviet casualties. An separate attack on Baghdad was also in the process of being defeated.

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Iran

The Poles took a more defensive posture in Iran in the first half of September, assisting the Allies with fighting a slow delaying defence that continued to occupy large amounts of Soviet troops and would see them forced to attack in difficult terrain against entrenched positions.

​

By 7 September, the front remained largely static as the rear areas were gradually brought back under control after the previous month’s Iranian capitulation. A screen of Polish units bolstered the Allied front lines while previously retreated divisions rebuilt or defended depth positions.

But the next day, things had begun to turn as Soviet pressure increased along the front. The one area the Poles had not helped garrison was being driven back in the centre near Fars and would soon fall. And in the east, south of Birjand, a strong Soviet attack was making headway against principally Polish defenders.

​

Somewhat belatedly, the depth divisions in the east, still not properly recovered, began spreading out into wider depth positions in response to these imminent Soviet advances.

Later on 8 September the battle turned for the worse in north-east Kerman, triggering withdrawals all across the line in the east. In north Kerman, a number of delaying attacks would have to be defeated over the next few days, starting on the morning of the 9th, before they could safely withdraw.

​

In north-east Kerman, the Poles were unable to disengage until the evening of the 9th.

By 14 September, the Soviets had ground forward as the Poles fell back and tried to avoid getting cut off.

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Asia-Pacific

From 1-3 September, three Soviet attacks on Yarkand were heavily defeated (total of 85 Allied and 4,700 Soviet casualties).

On Okinawa the Manchurian-Korean defence was holding up against the Japanese whose supplies were beginning to run down.

​

The Japanese landings in New Guinea were now running roughshod over the Allied defences in bad news for the Australians, in particular.

​

In Western China and Tibet, the Allied position was also deteriorating and the pocket now had only two divisions left fighting.

​

After the Allies continued to easily brush off attacks on Yarkand, 22 DPG boarded the trains and headed towards the mountains of eastern Iran.

​

The Western China pocket had been eliminated and Lhasa captured by 15 September, leaving Tibet on the brink of capitulation.

=======​

The Eastern Front

Another big change from the month before was the ‘reactivation’ of the Eastern Front. In recent days, the Allies had pushed forward strongly from Estonia, taking Pskov by 2 September.

​

But the main source of this burst of activity was somewhat unexpected: on 3 September a massive Czech-Yugoslav Autumn Offensive was launched all across the line. And initial progress was quite promising in many of these battles, though that was often the case early in attacks.

​

Three days later, while many of these battles had started to turn against the Allies, the offensive was still largely in progress – a higher rate of sustainment than most such operations in recent months. This was partly explained by the sheer number of Czech and Yugoslav divisions in Poland and Byelorussia. And in one place, the offensive would take ground south of Minsk by that evening.

​

A day later, the offensive continued but seemed to be getting worn down in most places by the Soviet defenders.

​

In Archangelsk, the situation had not really changed during the first week of September.

​

By 8 September, the offensive was still going, despite the resistance, though the Soviets had attempted counter-attacks in a few locations.

​

While in Crimea, as we saw above, the fighting was still in progress at that stage.

By the morning of 11 September, the offensive had largely ended in Byelorussia – but mainly because its first phase had been completed, making surprisingly wide gains.

​

And they were mainly being held. Salihorsk had been isolated with the attack making some progress. At this point Poland committed to assist the Czech-Yugoslav push in this specific case as it would help advance the line towards Mozyr, where the impending coup was going to be based.

Initially, one tank and one infantry division were committed to the assault at 0700hr on the 11th.

​

But even with this assistance and Roman Abraham taking over command with improved tactics, the momentum had edged towards the defenders by the end of the day. With plenty of reserves on both sides however, the fight would not be over any time soon. The Poles resolved to ‘stay the course in Salihorsk’.

Three days later the fight for Salihorsk was still evenly balanced and the Allies had managed to take a sliver of land along the Romanian border. In most places, the Allies were trying to consolidate what they had gained earlier in the month.

​

For the Poles, except at Salihorsk, they largely held back, not moving forward into the newly occupied territory in Byelorussia and defending in place if necessary where they were still on the front line. They were in most instances preserving their strength for their own coming offensive and relying on this current one to do a bit of softening up against the Soviets.

The grim battle in Salihorsk continued to ebb and flow, narrowly in one side’s favour and then the other. The fighting on 15 September was a case in point with more troops being thrown in at 1300hr to tip the fight in the Allies’ favour before things turned to the Soviets’ advantage eight hours later as divisions from both sides fell away from the combat. Abraham still had the tactical edge on his new opposing commander.

“The Hell of Salihorsk”, a painting in the Polish National Gallery depicting the horrors of hand-to-hand fighting in ‘the cauldron’, which would continue well into the second half of September 1946.

=======​

Industry and Government

With rubber processing improved on 7 September (allowing a decrease in one trade to add a civilian factory back for construction), Poland sought to improve its night-fighting gear next, for all the hard combat that lay ahead.

​

Another recommendation of the Jakowski Review related to the tweaking of a couple of military appointments within the government. Field Marshal Rydz-Śmigły would double up to serve as the chief military theorist (he was simply a bit better than the man he replaced).

​

Józef Zajac would take over as Chief of Air Force for a few months before the Winter Offensive to improve doctrine research, with Ludomił Rayski slotted to resume the appointment once air combat resumed.

On 14 September the new military factory was completed, being allocated to AA production (now 9 factories at 42.77% efficiency). At that time, 22 civilian factories were available for construction tasks, with the new factory in Lódz the top priority. This was followed by rail works for the Eastern Front, then repairs from combat damage (which should decrease somewhat now that the ‘C-Y Autumn Offensive’ had pushed the front line forward in many areas.

 

[Bullfilter]

Chapter Eighty-three: A Blanket of Dead Leaves
(16 to 30 September 1946)

A Polish 9TP light tank advances to the front during the massive Battle of Salihorsk, September 1946.

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The Americas

The US managed to push a division over the Rio Grande on 16 September, through a large gap in the Allied line but they did not seem to be following it up in any strength.

​

However, northern Mexico remained largely quiet for the rest of the month. It was on the diplomatic front that things hotted up. On 27 September, President Truman dropped a ‘news bomb’ with the announcement of the formation of a new US-led faction.

​

Many Caribbean, Central and South American nations joined the Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance (TRA) – but not the key powers of Brazil or Argentina, nor Bolivia, Venezuela, Paraguay or Peru.

By 28 September, all US resistance on the Yucatan Peninsula had ended, with thousands more American prisoners crowding south-east Mexican POW camps.

A few days after the TRA was concluded, the first three members joined the war as active combatants on the US side – though no others did before the end of the month.

​

The closest of these new participants to the main front in Mexico was Honduras but it did not share a land border with the Allies.

​

As the month ended, the 7th Army had not been involved in any further combat [the irony of Sosabowski commanding German troops gets me every time]. The US incursion over the Rio Grande had been ejected, though troops under Mexican command were trying to get back over again.

​

The modest US build-up in eastern Canada continued to squeeze the Allied enclave in the west, while a previously promising Allied counter-offensive on its south was now starting to go against the attackers.

=======​

The Black Sea and the Middle East

This sector was also comparatively uneventful during the second half of September. Fighting continued, but little ground traded. Two fresh Soviet attacks on the perimeter of the Georgian enclave were in progress on 27 September and three along the Turkish border, with all being resisted strongly by the Allies at first.

Along the Tigris, another Soviet attack had been repelled on 26 September, while another between it and Basrah had almost been defeated.

​

Early on the 28th, 718 Infanterie Division finally landed in Beirut and was transferred to 4th Army, ordered across to provide an operational reserve for the Tigris defensive line.

By the end of the month, the Georgian province just north of Batumi had been retaken by the enemy, though with Turkey now in the war this loss was only a minor setback.

​

The line through Turkey and Kurdistan remained unchanged since the 16th, with substantial Allied reinforcements bolstering the Turkish divisions at the front.

=======​

Iran

Similarly, the situation in Iran had almost stabilised by mid-month. In the east, a Polish spoiling attack in north-east Kerman was launched to save the still-disorganised Polish division that had just arrived in east Kerman to come under Soviet attack.

​

This worked within five hours and was then persisted with until the Poles won in north-east Kerman as well that night.

More widely, by the end of the 16th the areas behind the lines had all been reoccupied by the Allies, while the Poles continued to advance to retake north-east Kerman.

​

Two weeks later, Soviet advances in the north and the Poles in north-east Kerman, the front line in Iran was more regular as the Poles once again helped to secure that north-eastern sector, the Allies holding the rest of the line strongly enough.

=======​

The Asia-Pacific

The Japanese invasion of New Guinea seemed to be expanding easily by the evening of 16 September. They still only controlled one port of entry but the Allied defence was being fragmented.

​

The fight for Naha on Okinawa continued, with another Manchurian division having been shipped in to bolster against the Japanese attack, which had become badly disorganised and was running out of supplies.

The Japanese had spread further through New Guinea in just five days as the Allied defence looked to have largely collapsed.

​

Things got worse for the Allies with the capitulation of Tibet on 22 September.

​

Across the Middle East and Iran, the Allies had largely stabilised the front by the end of September but the position in Western China and Tibet had continued to worsen.

​

And in New Guinea the ports of Lae and Rabaul had fallen to Japan and Port Moresby was surrounded, being held by a lone French division. The Allies still held Jayapura in West Papua.

​

While on Okinawa, the Japanese had given up their attack and languished, out of supply, in the north of the island. Though the Allied presence was back down to two divisions, one of them very disorganised and they did not appear to be pressing a counter-attack.

=======​

The Eastern Front and the USR

As it had in the first half of the month, the fighting on the Eastern Front remained the most significant and busiest theatre in the sprawling global war. Within an hour of each other, the Poles led large defensive victories against the Soviets in the Khmelnytskyi sector, where over 14,000 enemy soldiers fell attacking prepared positions, for around 2,200 Allied casualties. The southern sector currently sat largely on the defensive on 16 September.

​

The vicious fighting for Salihorsk continued with two more Polish divisions – 52 and 90 DP – being thrown into the fight at 1700hr on 17 September as others tired and pulled out of the attack, putting it back in the balance. Poland now fielded most of the divisions in contact in Salihorsk.

​

This initially gave the Allies the upper hand, but by 2300hr the pendulum had once more swung back the Soviet’s way. Some survivors of the battle would later recount how bodies lay on the ground in many places like ‘a blanket of fallen leaves.’

On 20 September, the C-Y offensive resumed across much of the front while the terrible fight for Salihorsk had swung back in the Allies’ favour. Over that day and the next, two more large Allied defensive victories (as usual, the only ones statistics were available for as they involved Polish divisions) were won in the Khmelnytskyi sector.

​

Up in the north, the Allies had driven a surprising spearhead through the south-western Soviet perimeter, however Polish observers were concerned that this spearhead had been driven into the most remote part of the line and risked becoming isolated.

​

Around Salihorsk, the new C-Y offensive had managed to take the province to its north and after a tricky start was now holding the newly gained ground, further isolating the Soviet defence. The Battle in Salihorsk would swing from evenly poised on the night of the 22nd through to a clear Allied advantage by the following morning as one of the recently amalgamated cavalry divisions was brought up and thrown into the meat-grinder.

​

One of the great battles of the war to date would carry on for another two days before General Roman Abraham could claim victory on the morning of 25 September. Over 20,000 men from both sides would never leave that bloody patch of ground alive. For the Allies, of course many of those casualties were not Polish, though thousands had fallen.

The news was not as favourable in the north. As the Poles had feared, the ill-advised Anglo-German breakout had been isolated and surrounded by the time the victory in Salihorsk was being grimly ‘celebrated’.

​

Salihorsk was duly occupied by the Poles later that morning, with a brief Soviet counter-attack easily defeated an hour later. By the 26th, the C-Y formations to the north were trying to push forward but without enough strength to seriously threaten the next line of Soviet defences.

​

Two days later, the C-Y second phase offensive continued, though most of its attacks were beginning to peter out and the Soviets were trying to counter attack in a few places, having reclaimed the small enclave along the Romanian border seized earlier in the month.

​

Of great interest were a couple of Turkish divisions that had appeared on the Eastern Front, keen to make a contribution there even as many Allied units had been assisting their own defence against the Soviets in eastern Turkey.

A quaint piece of diplomatic news was received on 28 September, when Trotsky annexed their supposed small ally, Tannu Tuva. This was cynically framed as resulting from a ‘request by the Tuvan parliament’. No-one was taken in by that statement!

​

By 30 September the Allied pocket south of Archangelsk had been further compressed and isolated; their sad fate was clear.

​

As the month ended, the second C-Y push was largely over, though a couple of attacks continued. The Soviets were attempting a limited counter-offensive but that was being held solidly for now. It seemed another landing was being attempted in Crimea, to little effect. Estonia had remained largely quiet and unchanged since mid-month.

​

Promisingly, the hard-won gains of the C-Y offensive and the Polish effort in Salihorsk remained secure, providing a potential springboard for the planned operation that was now less than three months away.

​

And the KBK had finally arrived after its long journey from China, then Iran and all the way to southern Poland. They merged with the other remaining cavalry brigade to join Abraham’s 1st Army as the KDK: the Kresowa Dywizja Kawalerii.

=======​

Industry and Technology

Poland developed the doctrine for paratroopers on 28 September, with researchers next working on upgrading the engineering equipment integral to all line infantry divisions.

​

All the recent fighting in Salihorsk had resulted in a shortage of light tanks, with a deficit of 24 vehicles by 28 December. This oversight began to be corrected with a factory switching from medium to light tank production, which had been suspended when it was thought the stockpile was sufficient. It was a timely reminder of the likely attrition of armour in the coming offensive: production would likely need to be ramped up in the coming weeks to rebuild the stockpile, if possible into a surplus by December.

Just a few days later the deficit had been reduced to 15 (perhaps some equipment trickle-back had been at play). The AA deficit had been reduced well below 900 and there were now 17 operational jet fighters to hand, though not yet deployed.

=======​

Summary

In Eurasia and Africa, the three main factions controlled almost all the nations, with relatively few neutrals left.

​

The German elections had been held during September (the date was unclear) and against all expectations Adenauer’s democratic Zentrum party had retained government, despite being the third most popular party. How he managed to contrive this (some kind of coalition, or just luck of the draw) was unknown but there was considerable relief in the UK and Poland as a result.

Konrad Adenauer sworn in for another term as German Chancellor, September 1946.​

The monthly casualty analysis showed Allied losses outweighing those of the enemy during September, though not by an enormous margin. Poland had lost only 12,430 men on all fronts in combat during the month, despite some hard fighting in Salihorsk and eastern Iran. Of those, 10,400 had fallen to the Soviets, with an estimated 49,900 of them being killed by Polish troops [given their casualties to Polish action are now only recorded in increments of 100k, this was estimated by subtracting those attributed to others from their overall total].

​

Polish reserve manpower had risen by around 100,000 during the month, while the estimated Soviet reserve had decreased by approximately 280,000 over the same period, after they suffered an estimated 330,000 casualties, the Czechs in particular taking a large share of the total so far. This gave the Polish High Command some limited optimism for their prospects in the winter, even if the Allied effort in the Americas, the Middle East and Asia Pacific remained concerning.

 

[Bullfilter]

Chapter Eighty-four: Many Foreign Fields
(1 to 21 October 1946)

Czech troops on the attack during the ‘C-Y Autumn Offensive’, which continued into October 1946.

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The Americas

The main north Mexican front remained largely static in the first days of October 1946, with the only light action once again on the lower Rio Grande, as the US again tried to push across it on the Gulf Coast.

​

At that time, the Sierra Madre air zone was contested between the US and the Allies, by the US retained air superiority over the other active North American air zones.

​

The next major development in the region was diplomatic, with the remaining six TRA nations joining the war as active combatants on the side of the US on the morning of 8 October.

​

By 19 October the US had again gained a new bridgehead over the lower Rio Grande, however the Allies seemed to have contained it and no further inroads followed.

=======​

The Middle East and the Black Sea

On 1 October a lone French division was trying to land on the northern end of the Crimean Peninsula but the attack would fail over the next few days. Two stronger Franco-German opposed landings on Odessa and Cetatia Alba started more strongly around the same time, but they too would ultimately fail to get ashore.

Along the Tigris River, the now well-established Allied defences resisted major concerted Soviet attempts to cross in the first week of the month.

​

In addition to the Polish troops helping to hold that line, Turkish troops were now spread out all along the line from Baghdad to Basrah.

By 12 October, the Soviets were attacking strongly in Batumi and along the Turkish border, with both sides now composed of multi-national forces.

[Note: the AI seems compelled to do things like send Turkish troops long distances to man other fronts, while bringing in lots of other Allied troops to man the line in Turkey. It ends up creating quite a few 'homogenised' zones in different theatres.]
​

One of the largest attacks of the period along the Tigris saw another Soviet crossing attempt defeated with heavy enemy casualties on 14 October. As far as the Poles were concerned, if the Soviets wanted to add the blood of their soldiers to the waters of the great river, they were welcome to keep trying!

​

It was not only the Soviets who were willing to attack in the region though, as a major escalation in operational tempo saw both sides trying their luck on 18 October as a new round of fighting kicked off from the Black Sea to the Persian Gulf. Despite this, like many other theatres in this war, neither side was finding it easy to break through.

=======​

Iran

After a fairly quiet week, the Iranian front burst into life on 7 October with a major Soviet offensive. The Poles were involved in all four battles and the early signs were positive that the assault could be held.

​

So it was with bemusement that General Haller learned in the early hours of 11 October that the three Polish divisions helping to defend Bushehr seemed to have been swept up in a retreat by most of the Allied divisions without seemingly even being engaged!

​

The key port was now being held by just one weakened German division with a French armoured division in reserve and was in danger of falling. Whether French commander General de Gaulle was the architect of this fiasco or had come in to try to retrieve it was unknown.

[Note: perhaps they had been in reserve in an earlier Allied defeat and these latest units had come in afterwards, before it fell, but I could find no record of such a battle/defeat in the combat results list. Both mystifying and frustrating!]

The three essentially fresh Polish divisions completed their retreat at 1500hr on 11 October and were immediately ordered back to Bushehr by the incensed Haller.

By the afternoon of 12 October, the Soviet offensive remained in full swing, expanding to north-east Kerman and almost victorious in Bushehr as the Poles prepared what would now likely be a quick counter-attack.

​

Bushehr duly fell on the morning of 13 October and the Poles found themselves attacking the Soviet advance guard that had occupied it with some Allied support, though most of the six divisions in reserve looked almost spent.

​

To the north-east, the long battle in Fars had also swung in favour of the Soviets. And as more Soviet divisions arrived in Bushehr and Allied support faded away, the Bushehr counter-attack turned against the Poles and it was called off a day later as casualties threatened to mount further for no likely gain.

At least the rest of the front seemed to be holding, with Kerman being quiet again by the morning of the 14th, including a good victory in north-east Kerman that cost the Soviet attackers dearly.

​

And as the attack on Bushehr was being aborted, another unexplained withdrawal was happening in Fars! The Polish division there was still well enough organised but another Allied mass withdrawal seemed to have been sparked [again with no battle report I could find to explain it].

​

Fars had been lost by the afternoon of the 15th and though an Allied counter-attack was mounted, the Poles did not take part this time, having lost some faith in the local Allied commanders.

​

With Bushehr now lost, this left Bandar e’ Abbas as the last remaining Iranian port in Allied hands, though the ports of Pakistan and the British Raj would still be available if an evacuation became necessary.

Early the next day, Haller ensured his three divisions in the west would not be exposed to isolation, ordering them to help reinforce the defence of the port and the province to its north.

​

The adjusted Iranian front lines would remain unchanged through to the end of 21 October.

=======​

The Asia-Pacific

Port Moresby fell to the Japanese on the morning of 5 October, effectively ending Allied resistance in New Guinea. It was now up to the stronger Allied force in Papua, based around Jayapura, to keep up the fight for the island.

​

In better news, the small fight over Okinawa was over again for now, with the north of the island retaken and the Japanese invaders destroyed by around the same time.

The Allies still had a considerable army in Papua and were still holding on two days later.

​

However in more worrying news for the Allies in this theatre, the US had finally managed to push across the narrow strait from Bali into Eastern Java and were advancing to the south of Soerabaja at midday on the 14th.

​

Five days later, the Allied defence had consolidated and the battle south of Soerabaja was in the balance.

In Western China, the PLA’s advance had spread further through Tibet and into the northern part of the sector by early on 19 October, threatening to isolate some Allied divisions at the eastern end of what was now a narrowing salient.

​

And in the far south, the single narrow pass over the Himalayas between neutral Nepal and Bhutan was the subject of an attack by no fewer than 12 PLA divisions. For now the seven Allied divisions (including one Turkish and one Swiss division) were holding on in good defensive terrain.

A new threat in Papua emerged on 19 October with an isolated landing by one PLA division on the western tip of the island. There was no port nearby, so supply would become a problem if they could not link up with their comrades far to the east over mountains and jungle.

​

Along the main line of battle in Papua, an Allied counter-offensive was meeting with mixed success.

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The Eastern Front

As the time for the planned Winter Offensive drew ever nearer, the Poles were now beginning to ‘prepare the battle space’ for the coming effort. To start with, a new military branch rail line was put onto the construction queue to better link recently gained Salihorsk into the supply network.

​

With Belarus to be the main initial focus of the offensive and given the C-Y Offensive had managed to secure some more forward territory during September, the Poles began ordering up holding forces from 2nd Army to help strengthen those lines as later stepping-off points.

​

And further north, divisions around Minsk similarly pushed forward to the new front line, while the reserve moved up into Minsk itself, which was now no longer on the front line.

​

Sadder news came from the north, as the last Anglo-German troops trapped in Syktyvkar surrendered on 3 October.

​

On the main front, 4 October saw another renewal of the C-Y Offensive, even as the Soviets still attacked in some areas.

​

A day later, it was only the Allies on the offensive with five of the remaining 12 attacks still showing some promise.

One of the Soviet attacks had been in Mozyr, on the Byelorussia-Soviet border, which the Poles had moved to reinforce at the start of the month and ended in a hard-fought Allied victory by early on the 5th.

​

At this point, the Soviets were maintaining air superiority across the Eastern Front and in Iran and Central Asia, while the Allies had the advantage in the battle fronts in Arctic Russia, the Caucasus, Middle East and Himalayas.

​

By 13 October, the C-Y partners were still attacking across the front, though the Soviets also continued to launch local counter-attacks. A lot of shots were exchanged, but not a lot of territory.

​

This persisted into 15 October, by which time it was the Soviets doing somewhat more of the attacking. The following morning, among many smaller fights another large battle in Mozyr (in the salient just north of the one previously reported) was won by the Allies, with another fierce battle decided in Wilejka that night.

A brief threat from another large Soviet attack in the Khmelnytskyi sector emerged on the 15th saw the local reserve of three Polish divisions (one of them a Lithuanian EF) deployed to put the result beyond any doubt.

​

Their arrival ended up ensuring a heavy defeat for the Soviet attackers two days later.

East of Minsk, on 19 October three Polish militia divisions helped contribute to another successful defence that inflicted over 5,000 casualties on the Soviet attackers, once more justifying the decision to push some defensive forces forward to assist the gallant C-Y troops.

​

Another tough battle in the south of the Khmelnytskyi sector resulted in heavy casualties on both sides by the time victory was achieved early that day. The Soviets were still able to generate plenty of combat power along the south of the front on Soviet territory, where Allied gains were harder to come by.

​

However, C-Y divisions had been able to break through on the far southern end of the line along the Romanian border once again, this time widening their salient between the two rivers that bordered Soviet-occupied Bessarabia by 21 October.

The Poles held back in this area, as they began thinking about the need to reposition some of the mobile 1st Army divisions further north, where they would be needed for the Winter Offensive.

=======​

Production and Research

As Poland gradually ramped its light tank production back up to replace recent battlefield losses and try to prepare for the coming offensive, a survey of its current holdings showed the older 7TP Mk1 was still the most widely used vehicle in Poland’s armoured divisions in early October 1946.

​

The current 9TP was the next most widespread, with numbers now being gradually increased. Three different variants of Skoda’s LT vz. 35 were the next most widely employed, followed by and handful of French FCM 36s.

On 21 September, an upgrade for the Armata plot. 75mm AA gun was completed to integrate radar direction, with the next iteration being pursued straight away.

​

And so the first three weeks of October continued the trends that had merged by the end of September in the many foreign fields upon which the live of around 30 million soldiers had been lost just in this Allied-Communist-American phase of the seemingly interminable Second World War.

 

[Bullfilter]

Chapter Eighty-six: Gearing Up
(November 1946)

Polish troops on the move to jumping off positions for the Great Winter Offensive, early November 1946.

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The Americas

In early November 1946, a mix of US and allied TRA plus MAB forces increasingly present to support the resurgent Mexican regime had begun a new offensive in northern Mexico. Allied lines, including Polish Mexiko Korps (7th Army) divisions, were currently resisting strongly in the Hermosillo-Chihuahua sector. Any Fall Phoney War had ended.

​

Further east, the Allied failure to properly man the line along the Rio Grande had seen US/TRA troops take both Reynosa and Matamoros by 12 November, threatening the key rail hub of Monterrey.

​

A week later, with the enemy’s northern offensive held off and the threat growing to the east of Mexico, the PMK began sending three of its five divisions south-east, to both help shore up the line but also to extract themselves from a potentially isolated position.

​

Four days later, the situation was still gradually deteriorating in the north of Mexico.

​

Exacerbating Allied concerns was a new US incursion in the south, where the Allies had been slow to respond to a new amphibious lodgement.

​

This eventually prompted an expansion of the PMK redeployment to the south-east by 28 November.

​

As November came to a close, it seemed clear that the slow Allied downfall in Mexico was continuing as Polish concerns now turned to preservation of the PMK and avoiding a possibly hazardous eventual evacuation from Pacific Coast ports, given US control of the Panama Canal and a number of hostile TRA countries – and navies in Central and South America.

​

In Canada, the Allies seemed to have pulled most of their troops out again – perhaps heading back to Europe and the Middle East – as the US slowly squeezed the perimeter in again towards Newfoundland.

​

By 9 November the Soviets had made an incursion into the north-eastern tip of Turkey, though in a line to the south down to Kurdistan the Allies held steadily.

​

More generally, 4thInt and MAB pressure in north-west China and the Himalayas continued to slowly grind down the Allies front, though the fighting was hard and progress limited. Iran had been fairly quiet for some days and Iraq was a steady front for the Allies.

​

On 18 November, a large Soviet offensive along the line in the rump Iran front caused some initial concerns in three of the four battles in progress, all of which involved Polish troops. These moderated during the afternoon until by late that night all three major battles still in progress had swung through balanced to being in the Allies’ favour.

​

All four battles would be won and a follow up attack in Fars (where the heaviest fighting had occurred) defeated by the night of 21 November.

Polish 4th Army troops holding the line in Kerman, Iran, as colder conditions in the mountains especially began to make fighting even more miserable by mid-November 1946.​

By the end of the month, a new Allied naval invasion of Batumi in Georgia had seen an Anglo-French corps lodged successfully, making the northern flank of the Soviet incursion into Turkey quite insecure.

​

Iraq continued to hold comfortably for the Allies.

​

The Allies continued to largely hold their own or, in north-west China and Tibet, fight a slow withdrawal against the combined Communist forces. No ground had changed hands in Iran.

=======​

The South West Pacific

By 9 November the American lodgement in northern Australia seemed to have lost momentum and they had still not been able to capture a port for resupply. Two Australian divisions were now in place in a still sparse defensive line.

​

The MAB continued to try to compress the Allies in Papua, though the latter remained in supply from a securely held port and had considerable forces holding the perimeter.

​

The US had managed to push further along the southern coast of Java but the overall Allied position was not at hazard. No further advances would be made there for the rest of the month.

​

By the end of November, the territorial situation in Papua and northern Australia remained unchanged. The two initial Australian divisions had been reinforced by a third Australian division and two more recently arrived South African and New Zealand formations in Darwin, facing six unsupplied American divisions.

=======​

Poland and the Eastern Front

The Polish stance on the Eastern Front would remain defensive during November, weathering the inevitable Soviet offensives and watching the Czechs and Yugoslavs conduct their periodic attacks. All in the hope of seeing the Soviets tire themselves out and run down their manpower reserves before the proposed Polish attack in early December.

​

The month began with a realignment of many formations as the Poles sought to bring the bulk of the mobile forces of the 1st Army to reserve positions near Minsk, which would be the focal point of the first phase of the offensive. About a third of 1st Army would be left in south: in part because they were needed to hold the line against regular large Soviet offensives. Also so that if the northern offensive achieved a breakthrough, a southern pincer could be launched to achieve an encirclement of the Soviets centred on the marshland in and around Mozyr.

East of Minsk, the Poles assisted the C-Y defenders east of Minsk to hold that province against a determined Soviet assault. The province would form an important stepping off point for the offensive, so it was considered important to retain it (and also deplete Soviet forces in the area). A hard-fought victory was achieved on 3 November, with Polish militia divisions doing the heavy lifting.

​

The Soviets remained very active along the southern sector, where the Poles had been gradually replacing some of their prime striking units with second line defensive forces from further north. The Soviets were very strong in this area with over 50 divisions on the front line, so care had to be taken not to unduly weaken the defences there.

​

A look at the terrain over the front line showed that the marshes of Mozyr would present a challenge to attacking and attrition and slow movement considerably. It was also the focal point of the imminent coup.

​

This was the reason the primary Polish attack would come to its north, through the plains in the Minsk sector. If it looked worthwhile, the southern pincer would strike through the plains of eastern Ukraine towards Kiev.

On 10 November, the 670 PAF aircraft based in Nowogródek ceased pilot training, to conserve airframes and fuel for the coming air component of the offensive. Six days later, a trade deal was done to import 14 units of oil from Romania to help run up the fuel reserves to full capacity.

The biggest battle of the month concluded late on 17 November in south-west Khmelnytskyi, where the latest Soviet attack saw over 15,000 of their men fall to a little over 4,000 Allied (mainly Polish) troops.

​

Four days later, another Soviet offensive began in both the northern and southern sectors of the front, with the usual initial panicked estimates of outcomes in a few areas.

​

Within a day, all major battles involving Polish troops were under control, with four major victories coming between 22-26 November in the north, centre and south.

A few days later, the Allies reported some significant progress being made in Estonia, where the Allies had gained a numerical advantage and were pushing forward, including an isolated run along the border of neutral Latvia where a Czech division had almost managed to link up with north-eastern Poland.

​

By 25 November, the Soviet offensive was petering out and a new broad front C-Y offensive had begun. Most attacks were being strongly resisted by the Soviets but a few were making progress.

​

However, the Czechs who had driven through from Estonia to northern Byelorussia had been cut off and a C-Y attack to rescue them was failing. Still, this Allied effort was an excellent distraction and showed Soviet weakness in the sector.

​

Overall, by the end of the month, the useful C-Y offensive was still in progress: an excellent preparation to sap Soviet readiness. And the distractions of Archangelsk and Estonia were still also diverting some of the attention.

​

Along the Polish sector, a few of the C-Y attacks were still making progress in the proposed Polish breakthrough sector.

​

Two of these, one east of Minsk, the other to its south-east, were looking particularly promising. The map below also highlights the 14 mobile divisions of the 1st Army which had moved into reserve positions behind the front during November.

​

While the global casualty numbers and troops under arms remained comparatively even between the two sides of the conflict, Polish monthly casualties had remained relatively light and their manpower reserves strong. Conversely, the Soviets continued to see their reserves reduce quickly. And that pressure would soon increase.

​

Much of the AA gun deficit had been reduced, though hundreds were still needed to fully equip all those divisions needing them. Light tank attrition was still causing shortages there and it would still take some time for the increased production directed that way to ramp up to efficient levels. The Air Force had discontinued piston-engine fighter production some months before, with the excess of older models being kept in stockpile to replenish anticipated losses in the coming air offensive.

​

There were now almost 50 jet fighters available, but these had still not been deployed into an active wing: the PAF would wait to see how their conventional fighters went before throwing in their prized new jet aircraft into the anticipated aerial mayhem. TAC bomber production continued, with a similar stockpiling of older models ready to replace losses in the air campaign.

The earlier oil and fuel planning had seen the stockpile almost back to maximum capacity: just in time for the campaign. The coup in Byelorussia would launch in just a couple of days, with estimated popular support for the pro-Polish BSA at a high point of 57%. Its launch would signal the beginning of the most ambitious and potentially decisive Polish operation of the war so far.

 

[Bullfilter]

Chapter Eighty-seven: A Winter Storm
(1-15 December 1946)

Polish troops in Western Byelorussia prepare their detailed battle plans after being given the initial orders for Operacja Zimowa Burza (Operation Winter Storm), 30 November 1946.

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Winter Storm – Week One

With the Byelorussian coup just a day away and some separate Allied attacks already showing promise, ‘Phase 0’ of Operacja Zimowa Burza (OZB) kicked off at midnight on 30 November 1946 with a ‘shaping’ attack to reinforce the Czechs [already at 70% progress] east of Minsk.

​

At the same time, the majority of PAF fighter wings were ordered into the air to run intercept missions in the Belarus air zone. It would also test the environment before the bombers were committed as the offensive geared up.

​

It would take some time for the full picture, including the Soviet and Allied responses, to develop. But initially, the enemy presence was relatively modest.

After a few hours, a more detailed analysis of enemy numbers was made, after the 4thInt added more bombers into the fray, while a wing of Estonian fighters was assisting the Poles. Polish air power was not yet being factored into the air superiority calculations.

​

As it happened, the first advance of the offensive at the end of the day had been achieved by the Czechs without the need for Polish support, whose troops had so far just been in reserve (no battle report). They would push forward to assist the Czech advance guard which was being counter-attacked, while reserve forces moved up to the front line, including the bulk of 1st Army mobile divisions.

​

By that time, the first aerial victories for the PAF had been recorded.

The coup in Mozyr went off right on schedule at 0100hr on 2 December 1946. The marshes of Mozyr came under nominal rebel control east of those already in Allied hands, throwing the local Soviet forces into confusion.

​

The Belarusian Socialist Assembly (who did not seem to be socialists at all by political ideology) fielded five divisions and a small squadron of aircraft; they soon joined the Allies. The storm had broken!

Up in Estonia, the Allies were making a useful diversion, though a large part of their forces in the region remained well behind the lines in reserve at Tallinn.

​

In the southern sector, at this time the Soviets were largely on the offensive, so the Poles were content to hold the line and inflict as many casualties as they could for now.

​

South-east of Minsk a C-Y attack was beginning to bog down, so that afternoon the Poles ordered two militia divisions to reinforce: the Soviets had plenty of numbers, but many of their formations were quite disorganised from the fighting so far.

​

As 3 December began, the Soviets seemed to have temporarily removed their fighter cover in Belarus. So far, four enemy fighters had been shot down and two bombers brought down by AA fire in the sector, for no Allied losses.

​

As the main first wave of Polish troops got into their forward positions, three attacks were in progress by early on 4 December aimed at the cities of Mogilev and Bobruysk. Some initial analysis was done of the ratio of air to ground combat casualties in a few of the larger battles, all of which had been won by the early morning of 6 December. The heaviest fighting was in Bobruysk province with 10,000 men in total from both sides killed.

​

By this time the Allies (mainly the PAF) had achieved air superiority over Belarus as the 4thInt had still not reintroduced fighter cover to the air zone. This reprieve would not last, however.

The morning of 5 December saw over 1,200 Soviet fighters re-enter the fray. The Allies had thrown in wings from a number of countries, plus the plucky ‘Free’ Belarussian squadron. Far more Allied support planes had joined in (almost 1,700) plus 300 German tactical bombers. With that kind of enemy fighter presence, the precious PAF bombing arms were kept back for now.

​

Within two hours, another 200 Allied fighters had been committed (one wing each from Nationalist China and Bulgaria) and enemy losses crept up, with no Allied planes downed yet since the start of the month. By that evening, the multinational Allied effort had maintained air superiority, as they added more fighters and the Soviets withdrew them.

The first three OZB objectives had been taken early on 7 December, bringing the Polish advance guard divisions to the outskirts of Mogilev and Bobruysk as the main assault force continued to push forward in an attempt to maintain the momentum. The first week of the Winter Offensive drew to a promising close.

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The Americas

None of the news out of Mexico was good for the Allies. Although there had been many ebbs and flows there, in December 1946 their cause seemed to be in a terminal decline. The US effort was now being bolstered by co-belligerent MAB forces sent to support the MAB-aligned Mexican government, while the new TRA allies of the US had also begun to feed troops into the conflict. On 4 December, the Polish-led PMK was part of an Allied defensive line that was solid enough in the north but whose southern flank was not anchored due to the US-TRA breakthrough into eastern Mexico.

​

And in the south, a range of TRA allies from the Caribbean and South America had come ashore in strength in Veracruz and Coatzacoalcos. This seemed to doom the substantive Allied presence in Mexico, even if they managed to keep some enclaves alive in the longer term as they had in Canada and Newfoundland.

​

By mid-month the main Polish concern was to ensure none of their EF there ended up being cut off and destroyed.

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The Middle East and Central Asia

After a period of stasis in Iran, the Soviets had managed to push forward into a salient between Kerman and Bandar e’Abbas. On 11 December, the largest battle in Iran of the first half of December had been won by the Allies at Kerman and it was decided to ship across the last Polish mountain division (which had made its way by rail through Turkey all the way from Poland) to Bandar.

​

On the morning of 15 December, the situation in Turkey and the Middle East was little changed since the start of the month. The two Communist factions were making slow (but hopefully expensive) headway in Western China.

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The South West Pacific

By 6 December the Allied front line in Papua was holding fast, while the three isolated and unsupplied Japanese divisions on the north coast were being attacked and finally looked like collapsing.

​

Although the US now had a full corps in the salient south of Soerabaja, the Allies had also brought in reinforcements to strengthen the line in Java. It would hold through to 15 December.

​

Similarly, the US had made no more progress in Northern Australia by mid-month. Papua was holding strongly and had destroyed the Japanese enclave in the north.

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Winter Storm – Week Two

With the success east of Minsk of the initial Polish offensive attacks and the disruption caused by the Belarus coup, the Soviets had slightly thinned their line in the south and stopped attacking. The Poles decided to make a couple of strong probes of their own at midday on 8 December, to see if any inroads could be made and to at least ensure the Soviets had another distraction to cope with. The first signs were promising as the non-mechanised divisions made the first attacks.

​

The air war in Belarus was going well, with only one fighter lost and twelve enemy fighters and six bombers shot down since the start of the month.

​

Two hours later, Poland sent in more fighters from their reserve in Warsaw plus 270 bombers and 99 CAS, deeming it now safe enough to do so.

The breakout from the first objective line in Byelorussia began towards Mogilev and Bobruysk that evening as the rest of the 1st Army mobile assault force continued to move up from depth. If Bobruysk could be taken, it would cut off up to 15 Soviet and Byelorussian divisions in the marshes to the south-west, wedged against the new Allied Belarus.

​

And by 0600hr the next morning Polish advance guards had taken Bobruysk and Mogilev and three 4thInt corps cut off, with the Poles now working to secure their recent gains.

​

That evening both cities were being more strongly held, placing the Byelorussian SSR under increased pressure.

​

But to the south, the attacks in Khmelnytskyi had run into trouble as the Soviets dug in.

​

By the morning of 10 December the Poles in Mogilev had defeated one counter-attack and were fending off a new one, even as the province to their south was occupied and they were making a river crossing to the east.

​

The attacks in the south were still being pressed and a new opportunity to the north was taken where the Soviet line had been thinned.

​

The air war over Belarus was now in full swing, with thousands of aircraft involved on both sides, with the Allied casualties starting to come but 4thInt losses still far heavier.

​

The attack south of Khmelnytskyi was faltering as the enemy spoiled to its south, so was called off on 11 December. By then, the attack to the north had succeeded as the Poles sought to outflank the city of Khmelnytskyi from that direction.

​

That province was occupied at 0100hr on the 13th, with a flanking attack launched three hours later on Khmelnytskyi. This climactic battle would end two and a half days later in a Polish victory.

​

The bridgehead from Mogilev to northern Gomel was seized on the evening of the 13th after a short attack, coming under strong enemy counter-attack when it was occupied. More Polish forces were seeking to expand this bridgehead to the south even as the defending Soviet army commander was recuperating from wounds suffered in the fighting, hampering their efforts.

​

The air war in Belarus raged on as the Allies maintained a slight edge in the superiority stakes. The Allies had lost 21 aircraft in the first half of December, the 4thInt 58 according to the available records [not sure how many of these were Polish].

​

Since Operacja Zimowa Burza had started, the Poles had lost a total of around 14,000 troops on all fronts; of these the Soviets had killed about 13,100. During the same time period, the Soviets had sustained around 240,000 casualties, with an estimated 135,100 lost to the Poles.

​

On the broader Eastern Front, fighting continued in the Archangelsk enclave and in Estonia. Many 4thInt troops remained trapped in the marshes just north of Mozyr as fighting raged in western Ukraine and central Byelorussia.

 

[Bullfilter]

Chapter Eighty-eight: Red Blooms on the Snow
(15-31 December 1946)

Polish infantry march towards the enemy in the culminating battle of the Bobruysk Pocket, December 1946.

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The Gomel Bridgehead: 15-18 December

By mid-December 1946, the first two weeks of Poland’s Operacja Zimowa Burza (Operation Winter Storm) had made strong gains in Byelorussia (or Belarus, as the Poles would now start referring to it) as the Mozyr Coup saw a friendly regime installed in the south of the country and over 150,000 4thInt troops isolated in the frozen marshland of the Bobruysk Pocket.

​

For the next few days, Polish efforts would concentrate on expanding the line of advance in Gomel and consolidating their victory in the major Battle of Khmelnytskyi in the southern sector in the face of Soviet counter-attacks.

A secondary effort to support a C-Y attack in the north of Belarus west of Vitebsk, with mixed success, an expensive victory eventually being achieved in the far north after another six days of bitter fighting to gain the bridgehead (and noting not all the casualties suffered were Polish).

​

By midday of 16 December, the initial battle to defend the first bridgehead in Gomel had been won, and then expanded to the south with another Polish corps lodged.

​

The air war over Belarus had intensified, with a massive injection of German air power, plus considerable support from the RAF and other Allied air forces. Soviet losses were mounting as both sides used ground attack missions to support their troops in the field.

Note: I’m still not really sure if the loss figures related to all the Allies or just Polish aircraft.​

The next phase of the Gomel Bridgehead battle began early on 17 December and saw the line of attack extended to the east, against Soviet opposition that was light or non-existent initially but kept building up.

​

Soviet numbers increased as Polish supply and the weather became more difficult. Momentum was slowed a little, but not stopped and both battles would be won in the next four days.

During this time, the Bobruysk Pocket had been ‘left to stew’, as sporadic Yugoslav attacks ran down 4thInt supplies without promising victory. On the Allied side, supply shortages in the breakthrough salient remained difficult but not critical.

​

By the evening of the 17th, the next bridgehead battles remained in progress with stiffening resistance while the Bobruysk Pocket was firmly surrounded but no longer under C-Y attack.

​

In the southern (Ukrainian) sector, the Soviets were trying to counter-attack after the Poles occupied the city of Khmelnytskyi.

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The Americas

On 15 December the Polish-led DMK (7th Army) was still trying to help the Allies hold the line in central Mexico but the gaps were too many and enemy strength growing through a mix of US/TRA and MAB forces.

​

By 22 December, 340 Infanterie Div had completed its withdrawal, the Luftwaffen-Feld-Div 2 was trying to fight its way out of a possible encirclement and the 198th was also falling back to the closest port on the west coast.

​

Three days later, on Christmas Day 1946 Luft-Div 2 was still stuck in its breakout attack, so the now in-position 198 Inf was able to assist. The battle was finally won that night.

​

Having reached safety the next day, Luft-Div 2 continued falling back as 3 Gerbirgs-Div also tried to extract itself. The rest of the DMK either fell back towards its planned evacuation point or was covering the retreat if their comrades.

​

As 1946 came to a close, Newfoundland/Labrador held its perimeter and all was temporarily quiet there. But in Mexico, the collapsing Allied position remained under heavy pressure as another potential disaster loomed: it was hoped the rest of the Allies managed to extract as many of their remaining troops there as possible before the end.

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The Battle of the Bobruysk Pocket: 18-23 December

At 0400hr on the morning of 18 December an intense artillery barrage heralded the start of the main Polish effort to reduce the Bobruysk Pocket, where 16 mainly Soviet divisions had been trapped for some days now.

​

Ten Polish divisions from three different armies reinforced a struggling attack by four Yugoslav divisions on the main eastern end of the pocket, where eight Soviet and one Byelorussian division were trapped. This soon shifter the momentum in the Allies’ favour.

In the Gomel Bridgehead, an attempt to expand the lodgement further to the south had failed against increasing Soviet resistance on the evening of the 19th. But late that night an advance was made to the east of the bridgehead and the battle just north of that continued.

By the afternoon of 20 December, the Soviets were counter-attack in many places across the front with mixed success and maintaining a perimeter around the Byelorussian temporary capital of Gomel. But the Allies were also still attacking in some places, with the greatest emphasis remaining on the Bobruysk Pocket.

​

That battle was won shortly after and the eastern half of the pocket occupied at 0800hr on the 22nd. Within an hour of those lead Polish divisions had arriving, they had begun the final assault, reinforcing the almost-failed Yugoslavian attack before the enemy could regroup, immediately shifting the balance.

​

Some shifts in the aircraft numbers deployed over Belarus had caused air superiority to shift in favour of the 4thInt on 21 December and Allied (Polish?) losses had begun to increase quite significantly. The Polish jet fighter reserve now numbered 62 aircraft, but they had yet to be risked in combat as the PAF continued to want the far larger Luftwaffe and RAF to carry the heaviest load.

​

There was more unpleasant news when an Allied despatch reported that the Soviets had retaken Narva in Estonia. The Allies had many more divisions in reserve but at the front the odds were far more even. Whether this was because of logistics, weather and/or timidity was unknown to the Poles.

​

As the fighting raged in the pocket west of Bobruysk, the Poles attempted to secure the southern flank of Khmelnytskyi with a large force overrunning a Soviet division there on the afternoon of the 22nd.

​

In Bobruysk, the first Polish division had reinforced the front line of the attack. For the Poles, there were only minor logistical problems (-7.4%) but it was terrain (-43.6%) and the enemy’s entrenchment that were the major difficulties. The weather was an issue for both sides, while for the Soviets being unsupplied and encircled were the telling problems.

​

The net effect was far more heavily in favour of the Allies than the Soviets on balance, despite the 4thInt’s greater numbers.

In Khmelnytskyi, the Soviets managed to slip in four better organised divisions by midday on the 23rd to resume the defence as the Poles and Yugoslavs tried to push onto the major rail junction of Vinnytsia. Soviet numbers had decreased somewhat in this sector over the last couple of weeks but they were still able to offer determined resistance.

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The Rest of the World

The front in Iran and the Middle East remained relatively stable in the second half of December, though by the 29th a determined attack on the Kerman salient had swung decisively in the Soviets’ favour.

​

The Poles there were not willing to take on the brunt of the casualties and there was no desire to throw more troops into an exposed position. 5 and 32 DPs were ordered out before they started taking heavier casualties.

​

At the end of 1946, the Allies had lost more ground in Western China, mainly to the MAB. The fronts in Turkey and the Middle East to the Persian Gulf remained stable.

​

Not much had changed in the South-West Pacific either as the Allied defence of both Papua and Northern Australia had firmed up.

​

One new development was a new US landing in east-central Sumatra, just across from Kuala Lumpur. There were considerable Allied defenders in the vicinity, so this looked like being another large side-show for both factions.

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The Last Dark Days of 1946: 24-31 December

The last week of the troubled year of 1946 began with one of the largest Allied victories of the war to date, certainly on the Eastern Front. Resistance in Bobruysk ended at 0500hr on 24 December, with over 150,000 enemy troops either killed or (mainly) captured. Not only did this permanently remove 16 enemy divisions from the order of battle, but in also freed up ten Polish divisions (all of them ‘foot’ infantry and militia) for other duties.

​

In the Gomel Bridgehead, things were tough in the last week of December. In the south of the lodgement, two defensive battles secured that flank but further progress proved impossible for now, especially with the weather and supply conditions in the salient.

​

But in the north of the bridgehead, no fewer than eight battles would be decided from 27-30 December over the depth objective. Three times, the Poles got troops in and three times they were ejected in increasingly small skirmished between exhausted opponents. But still the Poles persisted.

South of Khmelnytskyi the long battle raged on, flagging on the 24th, seemingly back on track when reinforcements were thrown in at midday, only to eventually be called off on the afternoon of Christmas Day when the Poles had been unable to reinforce the Yugoslavs to break through.

​

That attack was discontinued, then re-launched as a purely Polish operation involving three corps later that night. This time the battle was won convincingly a day later, the province occupied and then defended from a Soviet counter-attack by the morning of the 28th.

​

Supply in the cauldron of the Gomel bridgehead remained poor by 27 December as the Poles tried to maintain some forward momentum and awaited reinforcements released from the Bobruysk Pocket battle.

​

Finally, by the end of the month a sturdier defence of the latest bridgehead breakthrough east of Mogilev seemed to have been established, though the latest Soviet counter-attack remained in progress. It remained to be seen how much regrouping and resupply would be needed before the next phase of the northern pincer thrust in Gomel could begin.

​

In Ukraine, the key city of Zhytomyr was now contained in a large salient as the Allies, led by the Poles, encroached on Vinnytsia from the west and north in tough fighting. The Soviets had massed 16 divisions in the city itself. If another pocket could be created, their determination to hold it might be converted into an Allied triumph – though at what cost?

​

Polish casualties had risen in the second half of December as the fight got nastier, though this was more than balance by the other heavy casualties suffered by the Soviets including in the Bobruysk Pocket, which helped to increase what would otherwise have been a closer casualty ration from ‘ordinary’ battles.

​

It also appeared the Soviets must have been taking heavy casualties on other fronts too (depending on how some of these were being allocated) as they seemed to have suffered a massive loss of 620,000 men on all fronts in December. Their manpower reserves had now been reduced to around 330,000, while the Poles remained at a healthy 1.45M, essentially balancing their losses with new recruits for a roughly neutral outcome during a whole month of the offensive in atrocious winter conditions.

Few in any of the four major factions believed the new year of 1947 was likely to see the overall war swing decisively in favour of one side or the other, though both optimists and cynics had their views. Realists just saw another generation at war without relief ...

 

[Bullfilter]

Chapter Eighty-nine: Winter Wolves
(1-19 January 1947)

Polish troops prepare another attack in the forests of Gomel, January 1947. The latest Polish propaganda campaign has christened them the ‘Winter Wolves’.

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The Second Phase Begins: 1-5 January

As the new year of 1947 began, after a month of Operacja Zimowa Burza (Operation Winter Storm) the Polish High Command had completed its first phase after heavy fighting across the front. The difficult winter conditions hampered both sides in terms of attrition, slowing down combat and movement, but still the Poles were happy enough with the progress made. They had stepping off points for the next phase of operations and had helped – along with other Allied efforts on this front and further east – to severely deplete the Soviets’ manpower reserves.

The purpose of the operation remained to break through and begin to roll up the Red Army through attrition to weaken their front-line units, disrupting set defences and then sweeping through any gaps that could be forced to encircle and destroy many of the enemy’s most experienced divisions.

To try to improve supply distribution, once the current infrastructure upgrade was finished in eastern Poland, construction priority went to building new rail lines and repairing damaged ones in the northern salient.

​

At the front, in the southern sector a powerful new Polish attack began south of Vinnytsia early on New Years Day, with the best part of three corps attacking four Soviet divisions. Man-for-man, the Poles had the better of the fighting mainly due to superior weaponry, good night fighting gear and better leadership and tactics. The Soviet General Chuykov still being injured did nothing to help the defenders’ cause.

​

Despite bitter weather, a tough battle would be won just under two days later, though Polish occupation was delayed until the night of 4 January after the Soviets rushed in reinforcements for a quick defence.

As that attack went in and the Soviets in Vinnytsia tried to counter-attack the Polish breakthrough to their north, spare Polish forces began advancing from the west and south into gaps that had appeared on the eastern approaches to the key town of Zhytomir, supporting C-Y operations in the area. It was hoped such operations could help rupture the enemy line severely enough to allow an advance all the way to Kiev: in other words, the southern pincer that had been envisaged before OZB began. A late arriving screen would be brushed aside west of Zhytomir early the following morning.

​

At this stage, with air superiority over Belarus in the balance, the PAF began to switch a number of its fighter wings from interception to air superiority missions, a trend that would continue in the first half of January. It was estimated that the almost constant snow degraded the efficiency of air operations (for both sides) by 10%. Early on 1 January, both sides had thousands of aircraft operating in the skies of Belarus.

​

By that evening, the PAF commanders received a report on estimated casualties on both sides since the Winter Offensive began. In recent days, the rate of loss of PAF fighters had increased, however this seemed to be the result of intense combat against Soviets tactical bombers and CAS, who were being knocked out of the sky in ever increasing numbers.

​

Overall, since the start of the offensive, it was estimated the Poles had lost 178 aircraft to all causes, the 4thInt 291. For now, with good reserves and other Allies also chiming in, it was a rate of exchange the Poles could put up with. And a massive amount of enemy bombing sorties seemed to have been disrupted, which was crucial to the ground offensive.

Another excellent boost for the air war and its switch to superiority tactics came at that time with the adoption of improved offensive formation doctrine (the last advance available), giving a significant boost to the offensive operations of the Polish fighter arm.

​

These changes (or blind luck) seemed to have worked very quickly, as the next day the Allies won back air superiority in the Belarus air zone. And a new fighter ace was promoted the following day, which would have boosted support for the war had it not already been at a bloodthirsty 100%!

​

To complement the attacks in the south and in the hope of driving the Byelorussian SSR out of the war, early on the 3rd a new assault was launch towards Gomel by a corps of infantry and militia divisions to the east of the enemy’s provisional capital.

​

The fighting would be hard and relatively even against entrenched enemy positions, with Polish experience, intel, night vision gear, commander skill and tactics evening up the tactical odds.

Meanwhile, in the south the Poles arrived west of Zhytomir on the evening of the 3rd and were straight away thrown in to support the Czechs, who had encountered two Soviet divisions sent to hurriedly plug the gap south of Zhytomir. Their intervention would see that battle won the following afternoon.

​

On the Gomel front, a major defensive battle was finally won in the north on the evening of the 3rd, while the attack south-east of Bobruysk had run into some trouble by the morning of the 4th, though it would eventually end in a Polish victory that night, at some expense in the difficult battlefield conditions.

​

While that was unfolding, the casualties in the air were mounting on both sides but the Polish-led Allied air forces retained the upper hand. The PAF now fielded the bulk of the Allied fighter force in the zone and it was decided the new Orzeł Mk1 jet fighters would get their first taste of battle: a wing of 72 was deployed. It would take them a few days yet to be operational for missions.

​

Only seven Soviet divisions remained in the city of Vinnytsia itself by the morning of 5 January. They were assessed to be rather low on organisation (average 58%) and somewhat under-strength (average 88%). There would be no mass encirclement here as the previous concentration had spread out across the line. Up in Estonia, that evening the Allies were making a strong counter-attack on Narva, which had fallen to the Soviets in December.

The Czechs and Poles had occupied the south-eastern approaches to Zhytomir by that time and were facing a Soviet counter-attack. A spoiling attack was launched with six largely ‘second string’ formations (Lithuanian and militia formations and one armoured division); it would be called off three days later after fierce fighting after its purpose had been fulfilled.

​

The first five days of the year had seen the Poles press the enemy hard, with some incremental gains made and air superiority being maintained. Nonetheless, it was clear much hard fighting remained ahead if a genuine breakthrough was to be forced.

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The Zhytomir-Vinnytsia Gap: 6-14 January

The Soviet defence of the key rail hub of Vinnytsia had been thinned sufficiently by 6 January for the Poles to throw 16 divisions against its trench lines in what would be another heavy but successful fight, with the Poles eventually defeating a last-minute blocking move on the evening of the 8th.

​

As that fight began, six recovered mobile divisions (including three lighter Czech EFs) from 1st Army were shifted from depth to the north, into the ‘Zhytomir-Vinnytsia Gap’, ready for the next planned pincer operation, as both attacking and defensive battles raged to hold and expand recent gains there.

​

The Polish AA inventory got a welcome update to its capability on 6 January – just at the right time. It coincided with the long drive to fully equip all main line divisions AA batteries was almost completed by now, despite the attrition of recent heavy fighting. With fuel reserves beginning to drain again, refining methods would again be improved.

​

When those 1st Army reserves reached the Z-V gap on the evening of 8 January, they were hurled into the attack south-east of Zhytomir, while the ‘P-C-Y’ defence to their north continued.

​

The Czechs and Yugoslavs had been particularly active of late, strong enough together across the front to allow the Poles to leave them to run entire sections of the front themselves, where they were often able to mount serious attacks of their own. This allowed ever greater Polish concentration in selected breakthrough areas in the north, centre and south.

More general Allied materiel assistance was also being offered, with new lend-lease offers of AT guns (now in deficit due to combat losses) accepted from Australia, Czechoslovakia, Denmark and British Malaya on the evening of the 8th. Another advantage of being in a large faction with good productive capacity – older surplus gear to help replace battlefield losses was better than nothing!

In the air, the Allies continued to prevail over Belarus, with Poland contributing half the fighter strength by the evening of 8 January. The 4thInt had temporarily almost abandoned the skies, giving comprehensive Allied air superiority for now.

​

A closer analysis of air casualties to date showed the majority of Polish losses had been in air battles, while on the Soviet side more than half their bomber and CAS losses had actually come from AA fire. That pre-offensive AA investment seemed to have paid off handsomely!

Fighting around Gomel and Zhytomir-Vinnytsia continued through 9 January and by the morning of the 10th, the Poles were in position for a big assault by three full corps on the eight Soviet divisions defending the north-western approach to the city of Gomel, from four directions.

​

The fighting would be hard and initial estimates by General Anders that ‘it will all be over in a day’ proved to be grossly optimistic and were soon revised. The balance would swing to the Soviets early on the 11th, then back to the Poles by midday. Nearly 10,000 men from both sides would fall before the enemy broke on the evening of the 13th.

In the southern sector, a full Polish corps south of Zhytomir was finally free to join the attack into the Z-V gap on the night of the 10th, leading to a victory on the early afternoon of the 11th, as fresh troops were rotated into the assault.

​

Some moderately good news came from the Allied commanders in Estonia on 11 January with news that Narva had been reclaimed, Pskov taken and an offensive had pushed to the outskirts of Luga in the centre, though the Allies again seemed to be on the defensive.

​

And the useful Anglo-French diversion in Archangelsk still soaked up at least three Soviet corps and seemed to be holding on solidly enough in the terribly cold conditions. This front would continue to remain largely static all month.

​

After the victory in the Z-V gap, the light Czech cavalry and Polish militia advance guard divisions came under heavy Soviet counter-attack on the night of the 11th as more troops kept arriving.

​

Four more divisions arrived by midnight, but still the Soviets pressed hard. Even though 11 Polish and 2 Czech divisions were in place by early on the 13th, the Soviets kept up the attack, desperate to repel this dangerous Allied incursion as the battle raged on.

The jet-equipped 14. Dywizjion Myśliwski joined the air war at 1900hr on 12 January in the air superiority role, though it would take some time to work up their mission efficiency (9.9% at first, including a 10% snow penalty).

As the fight for the Z-V gap continued, a Polish assault to its south was heavily reinforced on the morning of the 13th and there too the fighting would swing in favour of one side and then the other over the next day as the Soviets held on strongly.

​

North-west of Gomel, by midday on the 14th the province had been taken though was under heavy counter-attack by eight Soviet divisions. To aid their defence, a spoiling attack had been launched from the north-east, though it was having problems making headway.

​

While down in the Z-V gap there was heavy fighting to hold the initial breach (where it would take until 17 January and over 3,000 casualties for the victory) while a supporting attack to its south to try to widen the breakthrough would result in another six days of heavy fighting with even more casualties on both sides.

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A P-C-Y Effort: 14-19 January

It was at this point that the ever-helpful (and numerically significant) C-Y Allies launched yet another concerted offensive along the front in support of the main Polish effort.

​

At this time, the C-Y armies on the Polish section of the Eastern Front had around 104 divisions between them and the Poles another 88, up against an estimated 159 Soviet and Byelorussian counterparts. The other main Western European Allies seemed to have focused their efforts in Turkey and the Middle East.

A Yugoslav division had joined in on the attack north-east of Gomel, but by the end of the 14th it was still running against the Allies; their comrades to the west were still being held up by the enemy counter-attack, so could not assist yet. C-Y attacks had also begun east of Mogilev, though all three were making limited headway.

​

Things then hotted up in the northern Belarus sector around Vitebsk on 15 January. A powerful C-Y attack was in progress north-west of Vitebsk. And a Polish militia division was ordered to support another attack south-west of Vitebsk, which yielded a victory by the 17th. That battle showcased the greater impact of Allied air power on the Soviets, with a little over a third of their losses coming from air attacks.

​

Six Polish divisions joined the battle north-west of Vitebsk as the C-Y attack ran into trouble, giving an initial boost. As had happened elsewhere, the balance swung to and fro over the next day, with the Allies back on top by the end of the 16th as the fight continued.

​

And east of Mogilev, the most promising of the three C-Y attacks was reinforced by three Polish divisions, improving the odds (from 39 to 51%).

​

A C-Y attack on the city of Zhytomir was also making progress (42%), despite only three Allied divisions assaulting seven Soviet divisions, though the odds had evened up by that evening. However, many of the P-C-Y attacks were going quite well.

​

With field artillery now running short, Germany made a new (and potentially large) lend-lease offer of surplus 150mm guns. An inventory of equipment holdings showed battlefield damage (or the original AA shortfall) had resulted in deficits in AA, AT, artillery, light tank and light SP artillery. This effectively meant any new divisional recruitment was on hold, as the ancillary equipment needed to complete them would not be available.

​

Heavy fighters were no longer being built, so that deficit would continue to climb as the aircraft type was phased out. The same went for CAS, though a few older models remained in stockpile, while older fighter models were still available to replace losses in the piston-engine fighter wings (also now discontinued). Tactical bomber reserves remained strong, while the jet fighter reserve was being built up (with the deployed wing being kept at 72 strong for now).

The 150 CAS based in Nowogródek now only had partial coverage of the front in Belarus, so were moved forward to the airfield in Gomel. This (plus the weather conditions) reduced their mission efficiency to just 6.8% initially and it would take time to recover as they settled in. The Allies retained air superiority in that zone, though over 1,000 4thInt fighters and 1,200 bombers had returned to contest the skies there.

The Zhytomir salient remained under enemy counter-attack, with a Polish militia and Czech EF tank division forced to withdraw on 16 January. Fighting continued on in the same vein for the next couple of days across the front.

Up in Gomel, the Allies had finally prevailed in the north-western approaches to the Byelorussian capital on 16 January and then in the north-east on the 18th after inflicting heavy casualties on the Soviet defenders.

​

Early on the 19th they rushed to support a single-division Yugoslavian attack on Gomel itself, but were unable to fully reinforce before a heavy loss was suffered on the morning of 20 January.

Otherwise, by midday on 19 January, the P-C-Y forces were on the offensive on the Eastern Front and ahead in most of the battles that continued. In this phase of the offensive, some limited territorial gains had been made and the fighting had been tough, but in Belarus Allied air superiority was having a positive impact and the Poles believed the enemy defences were beginning to fray in Ukraine.

 

[Bullfilter]

Chapter Ninety: At the Edges
(The Rest of the World - January 1947)

Australian infantry assault US troops as they roll back the invasion of the Northern Territory, January 1947. [Something of an irony there!]

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Retrospective

As the year 1947 began with no clear end to the great global war in sight, some observers pondered the age-old question: “How did we end up like this?” What had begun in 1939 as essentially an Allied war against Fascism had then turned into a three-way tussle with the Communists in the Far East. The final defeat of the Fascists in December 1943 had seen the continuing war between the Old World (mainly European democracies) Allies against the emerging Asian Communist bloc, where China and Japan dominated.

This metric had changed abruptly on 11 June 1944 when – for reasons that were never entirely clear – the Democratic US President F.D. Roosevelt declared war on France, thus broadening the war against the whole Western Alliance. And over time, while the US never formally allied themselves with the Communist MAB, they collaborated closely in their common war against the Old European Order.

No matter how incongruous it appeared to most Western scholars, the conflict could perhaps now be seen (broadly at least) as the Old World against the New World. This picture resolved into its current form when Trotsky’s USR, the last of the neutral major powers, led their 4th International bloc with a declaration of war on Poland (and thus the Allies as a whole) on 29 October 1945, after a period of rapidly deteriorating relations.

Fourteen months later, both sides remained fairly evenly balanced in fielded military strength, with the US having recently founded their own TRA faction in the Americas. The Allies still had the edge in total industrial production, while China in particular meant the manpower base of the anti-Allied coalition were greater.

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The Americas

The war for Mexico that had begun in June 1944 was finally coming to an apparent imminent conclusion by January 1947. The US had done most of the fighting, recently aided by its TRA proxies, while the Mexican government they were fighting for was actually part of the MAB, which had also sent forces to assist with its liberation.

In northern Mexico, by 1 January the Polish Mexican Korps (five German EF divisions) was back-pedalling towards their proposed evacuation port on the west coast, fighting rear-guard actions as they withdrew under fire to fall back positions.

​

Five days later, the line had been stabilised. To the north, Allied resistance continued as they too still held a port on the coast from which it was hoped the six remaining divisions might also be able to evacuate.

​

On the night of 10 January, that Polish-commanded line still held, with a major defensive victory won at Durango (159 Allied, 2,220 enemy casualties). But the pressure continued to mount and by 19 January the Polish positions in the north and south of Durango were no longer tenable. Withdrawals were ordered, though it took until the 22nd for 198 and 340 Divisions to disengage after inflicting heavy casualties on the attackers.

​

In the south of Mexico, the Allied position had collapsed. Some Allied troops were surrounded, most had withdrawn to the east of the Yucatan Peninsula, where they still held two ports and an airfield.

​

One week later, the situation was similar, with essentially three centres of Allied resistance still holding: two on the west coast, one in Yucatan, under enemy attack but generally hanging on. It also appeared US forces had largely left the fighting to its TRA allies and MAB partners by this point.

​

During the final week of January, the MAB and TRA peppered the Polish defensive perimeter – including the key port of Culiacán – with a series of attacks that were all defeated. However, the withdrawal under fire of 3. Gebirgs-Division from the town of Durango would continue, so they would be directly adjacent to their evacuation point.

​

As the month ended, the remaining Allied pockets in Mexico had all been cut off from each other, as they sought to make the enemy fight on for as long as possible. Canada/Newfoundland held on as they had done for many months now, with neither side apparently that keen to wrap things up.

​

Culiacán remained under periodic attack but still held strongly enough but in the south, 2. Pz-Div had come under strong attack and might soon need to fall back to the port. The time for a full PMK evacuation was approaching.

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The Middle East to China

In Iran, December 1946 had seen the evacuation of Kerman by the allies, including by the Polish 5 and 32 DPs. On 1 January, those divisions continued moving to the south-east as their colleagues continued to hold the line in combination with other Allied forces.

​

The first of a series of Soviet attacks on the port of Bandar e’Abbas began on 4 January and was heavily defeated by the Allies, commanded by General de Gaulle, as the city of Kerman occupied by the Soviets. Attacks such as these were actually welcomed by the Allies, as all they did was burn away Soviet manpower for virtually no reward for the enemy or cost to the Allies.

​

The situation in China continued its slow-motion train crash, with a number of British divisions at heightened risk of encirclement in the north-east end of the line while the Communists probed away at the centre of the salient.

​

In the wider Turkey-ME area, the lines remained fairly static. Here, the UK and Germany were the main external contributors in Turkey and Kurdistan, plus the French in Iraq.

​

The neck of the Sinkiang-Western China salient remained under intense Communist assault by 6 January but was still holding.

​

In Iran, the Soviets began attacking north-east Kerman from around 10 January, however the Poles were able to inflict some very heavy defeats on the 11th (374 v 4,630 and 162 v 1,280 casualties, for example).

By 19 January, the latest Soviet offensive had made a little ground in eastern Turkey but was now being held in the favourable defensive terrain and the line was amply garrisoned.

​

That offensive had been seen of by the 23rd, but in Western China-Sinkiang the Communist pressure was increasing, with the threat of an encirclement in the far north-east of the salient increasing. By this stage, Soviet reserve manpower was assessed to be no more than around 120,000. Nearly bottomed out given the high casualty rates they were encountering on all fronts.

​

In eastern Turkey, 24 January saw the Allied line secure and a promising attempt in progress to regain some of the lost border territory.

​

But in Western China, by the end of the month the feared pocketing had happened, with 10 Allied divisions of various nationalities encircled and doubtless now doomed, with others to their west also in danger.

​

The Middle East and Central Asia remained in play, but the last vestiges of ‘old China’ were being steadily mopped up by both the 4thInt and MAB communist efforts. The next concern would be for the Raj, should the Allies not competently garrison the key passes – or the MAB launch amphibious attacks in India.

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South East Asia and the South West Pacific

By 5 January, the US landing in Sumatra had been contained, while the Allies had invaded Borneo in the west and north-east. East Java and Papua were stable and the Allies were counter-attacking the renewed US invasion of Northern Australia.

​

The US in Northern Australia and had put six divisions ashore without any realistic hope of gaining port access. The Allies had similar numbers but were far stronger: the difference between having supply or not.

​

The lines had stabilised for some time in Papua and there had been little recent action on either side.

​

The same could be said of eastern Java.

​

At sea large British fleet had made contact with five Japanese subs in the Straits of Malacca at this time. The subs were evading as the British pursued with around 55 escorts, a CA, six BB, three BC and four CV.

While the Japanese had again invaded Okinawa, failed to gain the port and were making a weak attack on Naha.

​

By 11 January, the Sumatran beachhead was being counter-attacked, the Allies were making inroads in Borneo, had pushed the Americans into a corner in Northern Australia and were trying to counter-attack in Papua as well.

​

And on 19 January the only remaining US presence in Northern Australia was an unknown number of units hiding in islands to the north.

​

The US landings in Sumatra had been eliminated by that time. But new landings had been made in and around Batavia in western Java on the 24th, where another naval battle was being fought offshore.

​

A detailed look at the participants showed a major action in progress, with large carrier contingents on both sides. The Allies had a large advantage in capital ships and escorts, though so far had lost three transports and three DDs. But the Japanese cruiser force had suffered some heavy damage from the heavy guns of the British, with the Haguro almost sunk and the Mogami heavily damaged.

​

The Japanese carriers in Makassar had disengaged by midday on the 24th; a final battle result was not obtained.

To the north, the battle for Naha had almost been won by the exiled Manchurian division holding the Okinawan city by 27 January.

​

Another naval battle in Makassar was tracked on 27 January, where the four Japanese carriers and their escorts had engaged British destroyers and transports, but most of the main British battle fleet was closing in as the Japanese once again sought to disengage.

As at the afternoon of 27 January, the Allied invasion (liberation) of Borneo had gathered pace with a great many divisions ashore in two different locations.

​

Meanwhile, by 1400hr on the 27th, a Japanese DD had been sunk, while three Italian transports and three more British DD had gone to the bottom. At 1700hr, a significant portion of the British contingent had joined the battle while the Japanese still tried to escape.

​

The Allies had largely withdrawn from Northern Australia by 28 January but had failed to account for the US division hiding just offshore. Another response would be required.

The naval Battle of Makassar was almost over early on the 29th, with all but the enemy subs having evaded. While the port of Batavia had been occupied by the US earlier, it had just been successfully counter-attacked, while the last US beachhead looked ready to collapse.

​

As the month ended, the Allies had joined their beachheads together in northern Borneo as more divisions seemed to be on their way.

​

The status quo had been maintained in Papua, as the Allies returned to evict the Americans from Northern Australia.

​

Overall, the developments in this theatre had been quite positive through January 1947.

 

[Bullfilter]

Chapter Ninety-one: To the Dnieper
(20-31 January 1947)

Polish infantry on the offensive near Grodno, 20 January 1947. [Image from Leonardo AI adapted from an RL reference image]

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Two Prongs: 20-24 January

By 20 January 1947, the Polish Army, assisted by Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia, was still trying to generate the full breakthrough it sought on the Eastern Front. Of the envisaged two pincers of the second phase of the 1946/47 winter offensive, heavy fighting in Belarus saw a grinding advance on Gomel encountering fierce 4thInt resistance that had been yielding gradually in the past few weeks.

The southern pincer was beginning to make ground to the south of Zhytomyr as Poland’s mobile forces concentrated their efforts on breaking through to Kiev. If the two prongs of this movement could meet, it may be possible to complete another large encirclement of Soviet forces. This in turn might lead to a genuine and widespread break in the Soviet line that the Poles hoped would begin to turn the tide of the war in Eastern Europe and perhaps in the Allies’ favour more widely.

On the morning of 20 January, a new attack on Gomel was launched from two directions by three full corps (all bar one division Polish) against just four defending Soviet divisions in the Byelorussian SSR’s provisional capital.

​

This time, the Poles would not be denied and a tough battle through the streets of Gomel would end in Polish victory just under three days later.

The existing secondary offensive in northern Belarus, west of Vitebsk, led to a very destructive battle and difficult victory for the ‘P-C-Y’ attackers on the afternoon of the 20th. To the south, C-Y forces were simultaneously pressing on towards Vitebsk, where they seemed to be making fair progress.

​

In the air over Belarus the Polish Air Force continued to receive good support from its Allies in the ground support roles but the PAF was bearing the brunt of the fighter commitment. Two Polish CAS wings had to push forward to a new air base in Gomel province as they fell out of range with the advancing front line. The snow, lack of supply and negligible mission readiness would inhibit their efficiency for some time to come.

​

With thousands of aircraft currently deployed in the Belarus air zone, enemy bomber casualties were mounting rapidly and many of their bombing sorties had been disrupted – at an increasing but sustainable cost in fighters lost. In recent days, out of 24.47k Polish ground casualties, only 821 troops had been lost to enemy air attacks.

Yugoslavia, striking out in tandem with the Czechs, to the city of Zhytomyr on the evening of 21 January as the Polish motorised formations advanced on a two-province front to its south, aiming for Kiev, then three provinces distant.

Meanwhile, in northern Gomel state, a first battle to expand north brought a very expensive victory at midday on the 20th but a second failed two days later as the Soviets rushed in reserves and an enemy counter-attack north of the Gomel airfield was proving difficult to stop.

​

On the road to Kiev, the 22nd saw the C-Y forces pushing ahead east from Zhytomyr, while south of that the Poles took and then held ground from 20-22 January.

​

And east of Vinnytsia, while an initial probe was fought off by the Soviets at 1700hr, a second more powerful attack under way an hour later, despite some disorganisation and low supplies among the attackers.

On the research front, engineer companies were further improved on 23 January, with equipment conversion engineering being the next project.

​

The air war over Belarus raged on, with an analysis by the PAF highlighting the leading fighter models fielded by each side. 14 DM was the elite Polish jet fighter wing, boasting the highest speed, range and air defence stats. The mainstay Pustułka Mk1 had better agility and air attack, while the Soviet Yak-3 B2 used the fewest supplies and was the most reliable air frame.

​

At that point, the 4thInt was flooding the air zone with a lot of fighters but the Allies seemed to be holding on well enough. Indeed, that morning another Polish fighter ace was promoted: Tomasz ‘Lightning’ Kwiatkowski.

Later that morning, the Poles arrived in sufficient force to augment the existing C-Y attack east of Zhytomyr that had been flagging by 0800hr. This injection of troops first balanced the odds then, by 1500hr, swung the battle in the Allies’ favour.

​

The northern pincer closing in on Gomel had to fight three more skirmishes against late-arriving Soviet reinforcements during 23-24 January as the enemy desperately tried to hang onto the key city.

​

Long Polish experience in Western China and more recently on the Eastern Front had ingrained the importance of logistics, especially when attempting to maintain offensive momentum involving large forces operating in difficult terrain and weather conditions. More rail upgrades were commenced in central Belarus on the 24th as the massed units at the front struggled for sufficient supplies.

​

The latest attack east of Vinnytsia failed on the morning of 24 January after its promising start two days earlier. But fresh units had again moved up to the front and the next push with eight well-organised divisions – three fielding heavy infantry-support tanks – would succeed against the tiring opposition the following morning.

​

As that attack was playing out, more rested and resupplied divisions were brought up from the rear echelon to reinforce the front line and drive the sought-after breakthrough to Kiev.

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A Tale of Two Cities: 24-31 January

Gomel was occupied at 2100hr on 24 January but it was not quite enough to force the Byelorussian SSR to capitulate: they would make a final stand in Vitebsk, where a secondary P-C-Y offensive was slowly inching forward.

​

The first of the intermediate objectives was now in Allied hands; the second, Kiev, was in their sights.

And now Vitebsk was added to the list of intermediate objectives as its capture should force the Byelorussian communist government into exile and remove the first country from the ranks of the 4th International. As 24 January was ending, the C-Y offensive to approach its western outskirts was given a large influx of Polish forces.

​

The Soviets broke within an hour of the intervention.

Having taken Gomel, seven most organised Polish divisions attempted to continue the advance east to maintain momentum. It would take just over four days of fighting to dislodge the two well-rested and supplied Soviet defending divisions, but a good victory would be won by early on the 29th.

​

As ever, while the attack continued the construction engineers were following up the advance as best they could, working on an upgrade of the rudimentary Mogilev-Gomel line to carry supply to the newly acquired supply hub at tip of the spear.

​

The wider supply picture was fair, given the conditions and high concentration of troops on the front line. Behind that, logistics support seemed to be quite effective.

​

A crucial day in the winter offensive concluded with the High Command guardedly optimistic about prospects in the coming days: perhaps a long period of softening up may start to pay some dividends if the momentum could be maintained.

The battle to push east of Vinnytsia had been won and the ground occupied by the night of 25 January and the augmented push from Zhytomyr to Kiev would also end in a victory by the following morning. This aimed to expand the front of the pincer to the south to see if larger breakthrough could be achieved.

​

It took a couple of days to move sufficient fresh (enough) forces into the breach but by the early hours of 27 January the next major thrust towards Kiev was launched. The Polish mechanised forces leading the northernmost attack had moved to within two provinces of Kiev and were under Soviet counter-attack, which in turn was spoiled by the latest major attack which gathered momentum as the day wore on. A conclusive victory would be won early on the 28th.

​

In northern Belarus, the P-C-Y drive to Vitebsk had closed in to its western edge on the evening of the 27th. While the first three divisions to arrive were quickly counter-attacked, their comrades were on the way. The gain would eventually be held after a defensive battle that would last for another two days.

​

Another Polish fighter ace, Marcin ‘Handsome’ Szymański, was promoted late on the 27th as the Poles continued to fiercely contest the skies over Belarus.

In Ukraine, as the main pincer closed in on Kiev, the latest attack south of Vinnytsia, being conducted by four C-Y divisions, was reinforced by five of Poland’s rested and resupplied ‘leg’ infantry on the afternoon of the 28th.

​

This aimed to use the C-Y efforts to create multiple weak points and perhaps overwhelm the whole Soviet defence in the south. An easy victory was won by the evening of the 30th.

With another gain south-west of Kiev very early on the 29th, the drive on Kiev gathered pace. More important than the symbolic value of the city was the potential to encircle many enemy divisions still engaged with C-Y forces, strung out to the west.

​

By the evening of 30 January more Polish formations had pushed forward into the newly secured south-western approach to Kiev while the attack to its north-west was heavily reinforced and would be won by the afternoon of the 31st. And C-Y troops were already pressing towards Kiev.

​

That latter attack was also reinforced once more Polish troops were ready: a massive augmentation of another 14 divisions, mainly infantry to be used for the main assault on Kiev once its approaches had been secured.

​

And at midday on the 31st, yet another Polish ace was recognised as Paweł ‘Sunshine’ Piotrowski took command of his fighter wing. And the Allied air forces continued to ensure that ground combat losses to enemy bombers was kept minimal: 1,716 out of 38,100 in the last month.

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Eastern Front Monthly Summary: January 1947

As the month ended, most of Belarus had been liberated and significant gains made in western Ukraine. Many attacks (mostly ‘in the red’) were being made by the C-Y forces, with Polish efforts more concentrated as they tried to take Vitebsk and extend the pincer movements from Gomel and to Kiev.

Pink-shaded areas indicate ground captured since the start of January.​

In the air, an intense month of combat over Belarus ended with a strong Allied superiority in numbers (though these do fluctuate a lot day to day) and significantly heavier total 4thInt aircraft losses in the last month and overall since the offensive began in December.

​

Enemy bombers had been brought down in great numbers and thousands of their sorties disrupted. PAF fighter losses had mounted, but as far as could be ascertained the bulk of these were in older models.

Little (if anything) had changed in Archangelsk in the last month and both sides hunkered down in the bitter Arctic cold.

Some ground had been made by the Allies in Estonia, though the bulk of the multi-national Allied force still held back in reserve (some seemingly only recently arrived and regaining organisation).

​

Around Vitebsk, C-Y troops were still making most of the running, as the largely militia-composed Polish divisions positioned themselves for a renewed offensive towards the last Byelorussian SSR stronghold, having closed up to its western outskirts.

​

In the Gomel sector, C-Y divisions were making broad-front attacks, while Polish efforts were more concentrated north-east of Gomel, as divisions were reconstituted and (hopefully) resupplied after the recent heavy fighting and weak points explored for the next attempted breakthrough.

​

To the south, the Polish motorised spearhead had just occupied the north-western approach to Kiev as the attack on its south-west sought to gain a workable front to attack the city itself. The next objective after that was to force a crossing of the Dnieper River and then drive one arm of the pincer north towards Chernigov with the aim of linking up with the Gomel salient and cutting off as many enemy divisions as possible.

​

Apart from showing the difficult state of resupply in the crowded breakthrough zones, the logistics map below also outlines the state of the pincer operation and the narrowing 4thInt salient south of Mozyr it is seeking to cut off.

​

On the production front, this detailed graphic shows where surpluses and deficits of major equipment stood as January ended. Items highlighted in orange were not currently being produced. Notably, older model fighter and CAS reserves had still not been exhausted, while jet fighters and bombers were also in surplus against the current wing establishments.

​

Increasing deficits (though combat and attrition losses) continued in AT and field artillery guns, while the AA gun deficit had been almost completely removed – and the effects on enemy bombers since its wide introduction to Polish main line infantry divisions had been pronounced during the current offensive. Light tank and SP artillery numbers also lagged, despite ramped up production lines. It was hoped lend lease support (existing and new) from a wide range of Allies might help to address these deficits.

A survey of these equipment types currently in service with the Polish Army showed how much indigenous and imported equipment was already deployed and which of the various Polish models constituted the largest proportion of the indigenous components.

​

Of note was significant German and Czech support in field artillery. The Germans were also the largest contributor of AA guns, but the vast majority had been locally produced. The vast majority of Polish AT guns were of the latest model, while the old 7TP Mk1 light tanks still outnumbered the newer 9TPs. The multitude of field artillery models from lend-lease contributions was dizzying, though most of the Polish guns were now of the latest model (the Armata 155mm wz. 40).

The overall casualty count for January 1947 was also instructive. With the increased tempo of attacks in the atrocious mid-winter conditions, Poland had lost around 38,000 troops during the month (the largest monthly loss to date in the war) and had killed around 80,800 Soviet troops in combat (including in Iran), out of a total of 310,000 Soviet losses on all fronts.

A Polish soldier takes a moment’s rest as his unit prepares for the next attack near Kiev, 31 January 1947. In his heart, he knows this war will drag on perhaps for years more – and that his chances of surviving it are dicey at best. But he also knows he must do his duty … and he will. Chwała Polsce! [Image from Leonardo AI, from scratch by prompt]​

Polish manpower reserves were holding up strongly, with recruitment of new divisions effectively halted by the lack of ancillary equipment (eg artillery, AT, AA, light tanks etc). By contrast, intelligence estimates indicated the Soviets had almost exhausted their manpower reserves and should soon be unable to replace all their combat losses unless they changed their recruiting laws.

Total losses for both sides of the Allies-Communist-US/TRA conflict so far were now almost exactly even with over 32 million military casualties to date – a horrendous toll which was only going to increase, with no early end in sight. Estimates also indicated the Allies retained a numerical advantage in fielded manpower, as well as in industrial capacity. It just needed to start reflecting this on the ground, which so far was proving far more difficult than expected. Poland aimed to be part of that turn-around in battlefield fortunes.

 

[Bullfilter]

Chapter Ninety-one, Annex A: Situation 1 Feb 1947​

Note: Because it’s been a while – especially since the last ‘rest of the world’ update – and to further follow up a question or two in the comments on the last chapter, here is a supplementary annex to set the scene for the forthcoming chapter. I’ll be resuming ‘whole of the world’ chapters and seeing if I can cut it back to two such per month, so this reminds us where we left on all major fronts at the end of January 1947.

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North America

The Eastern Canadian front had barely changed for months and remains a backwater, with occasional forays by one side or the other.

​

But the Allied position in Mexico had collapsed, with just a collection of small Allied enclaves left and most divisions already withdrawn.

In the Durango enclave, where the Polish commanded German Mexico Corps continued to hold out, pressure from America’s TRA allies was incessant but not yet decisive – and virtually all US Army units had been withdrawn to places unknown, leaving the fight mainly to TRA minors and the MAB (to which the Mexican government owed its allegiance).

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Central Asia and the Middle East

The Allies continued to resist stoutly in Sinkiang, but were now hemmed in along a narrow front, with the ten most exposed divisions now cut off in a pocket in the far north-east, with the Soviets on one side and the PRC on the other.

​

More broadly, the rump Iranian state remained propped up by the Allies, supported by much of the Polish 4th Expeditionary Army. The front was largely stalemated from the Black Sea to the Red Sea.

​

As of 1 February, the Allies had a number of contingency plans for advances in the region and amphibious attacks against the Soviet Black Sea Coast, but none of these seemed to be active operations at this time.

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South East Asia and Australasia

The Allies had initiated a large amphibious attack on Northern Borneo in January 1947, which seemed to have met with initial success.

​

The US landing in Northern Australia had floundered and was in the process of being mopped up. In Papua, the Allied defensive lines had stabilised and were now strongly held in another apparent stalemate against the MAB (mainly Japanese) invaders.

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The Eastern Front

Poland had made steady gains in January through bitter fighting in equally bitter weather. One Soviet pocket had been eliminated around Mozyr, Gomel had been taken and most of the Byelorussian SSR occupied, but they Soviet puppet still held out (only just) in Vitebsk, their last stronghold. It was hoped the pro-Polish Belarus regime would soon be the only government present in the war-torn country.

​

The next major Polish operational objective was to seal off the Kiev-Chernigov gap, pocketing another large group of enemy divisions and preparing the way for renewed thrusts in the more open country east and south-east of Kiev. As February began, that gap was still three provinces wide.

​

In the air, the combat had also been heavy, with the PAF generally getting the better of the balance sheet in direct comparison to the 4thInt air forces (with the wider Allied-4thInt comparisons not available). Polish AA had also been taking a heavy toll on enemy TAC and CAS bombers, justifying the investment and rapid introduction of AA guns to most line divisions in the lead-up to the 1946-47 Winter Offensive.

​

Allied plans for the Eastern Front had been shared with the Polish High Command and these tended to complement those of the Poles quite well. The Czechs and Yugoslavs still provided the bulk of the supporting Allied forces, but some early indications of other Allied units beginning to show up in greater numbers were also welcomed.

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Transport Logistics

Per @TheButterflyComposer‘s observation, Polish truck and train numbers remained very healthy and neither were currently being produced due to the large stockpiles of each, even with the recent heightened operation tempo.

​

However, if any observers advise that this may not be enough in the mid-term, the production lines could be revived. Though for now, shortages in some other key equipment lines through recent combat and attrition had a more immediate priority for Poland’s quite limited military industrial capacity.

This is where things stand as the Poles attempt to drive home their next big encirclement. I will now right up the next chapter which I hope to have out in a few days.

 

[Bullfilter]

Chapter Ninety-two: A Death Wish
(1-17 February 1947)

Soldiers of 106 Dywizja Pechoty advance on Soviet positions in the Zhytomyr Salient, 9 February 1947. [Image from Leonardo AI using a reference picture originally featuring German soldiers]

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The Zhytomyr Salient: 1-11 February 1947

As February 1947 began, one Polish pincer was on the outskirts of Kiev while to the north, Polish and Allied forces were in Gomel, with C-Y divisions having begun an attack south while their Polish colleagues resupplied after a tough fight for the Byelorussian SSR’s provisional capital in January. At 0500hr on 1 February, seven Polish divisions added their weight to the C-Y assault north of Chernigov. It would take three more days of bloody fighting for the battle to be won as the Soviets put up a dogged defence.

​

Elsewhere around the Zhytomyr Salient, C-Y troops carried out four more autonomous attacks, two of them showing some promise. But the Poles let these go ahead without intervention for now, as their next major move was ready. Another C-Y attack on the south-west approach to Kiev provided just the opportunity to close up to the great city: three Polish corps were thrown into an overwhelming assault that ended in victory at midnight on the 2nd.

Even before that latter attack was finished, four of the mobile divisions of 1st Army were ready to widen the hoped-for breakthrough south of Kiev and into the more open land of central Ukraine.

​

At 0600hr on 3 February six Polish divisions had closed up to Kiev’s south-western outskirts. A determined Soviet counter-attack was defeated by that afternoon.

​

As we saw earlier, the major Allied attack north of Chernigov succeeded by 0900hr on 4 February, but the Soviets were able to bring in more troops who delayed the Polish advance until the afternoon after a rearguard action. The neck of the Zhytomyr Salient had now been narrowed to two provinces.

All was ready for the main assault on Kiev itself by 1700hr on 3 February. Though only one division was left there to defend it, occupation would be delayed until the following evening after a second assault was required to dislodge a new hasty defence.

​

Meanwhile, the Soviets began a counter-attack north of Chernigov against the first three Polish divisions to occupy the recently gained ground. More defenders were on the way, with both these factors delaying the next move south to close the Chernigov-Kiev gap. It would take until the following morning for the enemy attack (more of a probe) to be defeated.

​

The Soviets were also unwilling to let go of Kiev just yet: having failed to defend it properly, they put in a strong counter-attack on the first three Polish divisions to occupy it. Although the defenders were in some trouble at first, another eight Polish divisions were on the way. And south of that, the additional Polish breaching attack proved long and quite costly, with the win coming on the morning of the 6th. In the end, the Poles would win a comfortable victory in Kiev, though only after almost three days of house-to-house fighting.

The Soviets in the Zhytomyr Salient had managed to resist the separate C-Y attacks on them for now and Poland was happy to let them stew for a while longer. In fact, they wanted them to hold out while the fight to encircle them played out.

In northern Belarus, more Polish divisions were diverted from northern Gomel towards the south of Vitebsk, where C-Y troops were also present in force and the Poles anticipated a new offensive by them on the last Byelorussian SSR hold-out.

​

By 6 February, the crucial supply situation remained difficult at the front but sufficient to allow continued Allied progress.

​

Later that evening, a new Polish attack further south from Kiev began while (the Soviet counter-attack on Kiev was still in progress at that point, but the Poles had fully reinforced and were holding comfortably). They were sufficiently comfortable that three standard infantry divisions were sent north to prepare for a river-crossing north of Kiev, while and second-line Latvian EF had been forced to retreat from the current attack.

​

Meanwhile, the fight for Chernigov itself had begun, with seven Polish divisions attacking a similar number of Soviet and Byelorussian counterparts. The fighting there would be bitter and was predicted at that time to last another two days.

At midday on 7 February, the battle for Chernigov rage on and while one Soviet division had been forced to retreat, the local commander still anticipated at least another two days of combat would be required.

​

Near Kiev, those three reinforcing divisions had arrived on the west bank of the Dnieper while the Soviet counter-attack on Kiev had been defeated. The river crossing operation duly started against four weakened Soviet divisions and would succeed by early on the 9th at relatively little cost.

The attack south of Kiev however had been weakened by the removal of those three divisions to the north and had run into trouble after the Soviets reinforced the defence. The commander there did not believe he could achieve his objective without further reinforcement.

​

In another setback, the Soviets had managed to delay the river crossing north of Kiev by getting another division into the thin wedge of land that was now the only path to the rest of the Zhytomyr Salient after the Poles occupied Chernigov at 0700hr on 9 February – where they were probed straight away (probably surprised Soviet forces that had been intending to aid the defence).

​

Concerned that the Soviets might keep squeezing formations out of the salient and into the narrow remaining gap, a holding attack was launched into the neck of the salient by two Polish divisions at 0600hr: even as a Soviet probe on the south of Kiev sought to divert those troops from the renewed river crossing. The battle to close the Chernigov-Kiev gap was proving to be both epic and complicated.

The enemy counter-attack on Kiev was beaten back at 1100hr while that on Chernigov was not defeated until the late afternoon of the 9th, with one Polish division forced to retreat. But two of the stronger armoured divisions were ready by midnight to assist the river-crossing operation which was still being strongly opposed.

​

9 February was proving to be a critical day in the desperate push to seal off the Zhytomyr Salient. 106 DP (pictured at the start of the chapter) had been sent in to reinforce the faltering spoiling attack on the south of the salient at 1500hr and by midnight that battle remained evenly balanced.

New night vision research should prove very helpful in the days, weeks and months ahead as the Poles push day and night to advance into the Soviet hinterland. The next project would be to improve synthetic rubber production.

​

The ‘Battles of the Gap’ continued all through 10 February but by 0400hr on the 11th the main battle was won and the gap closed an hour later. And it was just in time, as the advance guard came under immediate attack from four Soviet divisions attempting to break out from what was now the Zhytomyr Pocket.

​

With more reinforcements on the way, the Poles were confident of holding the line. It seemed around 20 Soviet and Byelorussian divisions were now trapped in an iron grip.

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The Rest of the World: 1-17 February 1947

During the first half of February, there were relatively few developments in the other theatres of the war. In Mexico, the Polish-led German Mexico Korps continued to be able to hold off a series of enemy attacks with relative ease in early February. They were left in place for now as a diversion for the US, TRA and MAB troops surrounding them.

​

To the north, the other Allied enclave (which also had a port for supply) was also still fighting on.

In Sinkiang, the Allies still maintained a narrow corridor from Kashgar to the north on 4 February, with the ten-division Allied pocket to the north of that salient still resisting MAB attacks.

A couple of Soviet attacks on Bandar e’Abbas in Iran were attempted during the period, but both were beaten off with heavy enemy casualties against an Allied garrison of 20 divisions guarding this last Iranian port. The rest of the line there remained fairly quiet.

Back in Mexico, there was an interesting development on 11 February when Korean troops striking south linked the two enclaves back together again. It seems this happened after the last US divisions in the area had withdrawn elsewhere, leaving the theatre entirely to TRA and MAB troops. The 7th Army (EF) continued to push back against MAB and TRA attacks in the south.

​

TRA forces had occupied most of the Yucatan Peninsula, but the Allies held out in the last two ports on the east coast.

There was less happy news from Borneo though: by 11 February the Allies seemed to have been set back on their heels by MAB attacks and to have perhaps begun withdrawing formations rather than reinforcing. They were still attacking in the east, but the overall situation no longer looked too promising.

​

At least by that stage the foolhardy US invasion of Northern Australia had been completely eliminated.

To balance that, the Communists had made no progress in Sinkiang, where the beleaguered Allied pocket in the north still held out and the enemy seemed unable to cut the narrow Allied corridor.

​

Little more of note occurred in these or the Middle-Eastern theatres by 17 February.

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The Vitebsk Offensive: 11-14 February 1947

The relocated Polish divisions were largely in place south of Vitebsk by the morning of 11 February and (despite poor supply) able to launch a flanking attack against a single Byelorussian division that folded by that afternoon.

​

In the air war over Belarus, the PAF still held on well, while the Soviets seemed to have diverted much of their effort elsewhere by now. In recent days the Poles had lost 112 aircraft while shooting down 158 4thInt planes through a mix of fighter interceptions and AA. More enemy troops had been bombed and bombers disrupted than the Poles.

​

Meanwhile, the Allies had poured 1,100 aircraft into the recently liberated Kiev air base – but the PAF did not follow, given its damage, poor supply and likely overcrowding. Despite the losses, the old piston fighter and CAS wings still had enough aircraft left to provide replacements, while the jet fighters and TAC both remained with healthy surpluses. A new TAC wing might even be deployed if the numbers kept building.

Given how important it had become now to the latest Polish offensive, an analysis of the air situation in Ukraine was also made. Neither side had air superiority while both sides had thousands of aircraft deployed, the Allies from a wide variety of countries (including Australia and an expat Manchurian wing).

​

Given no PAF aircraft had been deployed in this air zone, the only casualties recorded there in recent days were friendly troops bombed and enemy aircraft shot down by AA.

Supply around the Zhytomyr Pocket remained strained but bearable, with shortages causing some attrition but allowing the sustainment of both offensive and defensive operations. The situation of the Soviets in the pocket would naturally be getting much worse with every day they were cut off.

​

The previous Polish spoiling attack on the neck of the Pocket had been maintained since it was closed off, with victory finally coming early on the 12th after a hard fight just as the attempted enemy breakout through the closed gap failed. The province would be occupied later that morning to further constrict the Zhytomyr Pocket.

​

In Vitebsk, poor supply and poor conditions hampered the advance on the south of the city, which had still not been occupied by the morning of 12 February after the earlier victory.

As the Poles now left the Pocket to ‘stew’ some more, a new line of attack was developed south-east of Vinnytsia towards Balta where a weak point was found: it did indeed take less than a day, with victory coming in just six hours.

​

At the same time, the Poles began sending mobile divisions out of Kiev to send them south, where it was planned the southern breakthrough offensive would be widened.

At this stage of the fighting, Poland had equipment shortfalls in AT (256), artillery (500) light tanks (282) and light SP arty (70). They were waiting for lend-lease pledges and indigenous production to narrow these gaps in time. But in good news, AA guns were now in surplus (63).

By early on 14 February, a new attack was required south-east of Vinnytsia as the Soviets poured in two more divisions and those mobile divisions were in place for the next attack south of Kiev, with the aim being to widen the line of attack and keep the enemy off-balance. The Winter Offensive was far from over yet.

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Self-Immolation: 14-17 February 1947

Poland occupied the southern approach to Vitebsk at 0600hr on 14 February but were quickly counter-attacked and in some trouble. Rather than waiting for better supply as he had been planning, General Marian Kukiel immediately launched 11 divisions to assault Vitebsk from the west, both to spoil the enemy attack on their comrades and to seize the last Byelorussian stronghold.

​

Poor supply, bad weather and difficult terrain all hampered the assault, while an enemy ambush of the attacking divisions also took its toll. Nonetheless, the attack was pressed home and helped their comrades to hold their ground.

It was at this time, as the Zhytomyr Pocket had been closed and a new Polish offensive aimed at driving on Crimea had just started, that Trotsky carried out an act that many considered to be self-destructive.

“Is he losing it?” Trotsky declares war on Romania, 14 February 1947. [Leonardo AI, using a reference portrait of Trotsky from 1936.]​

On the evening of 14 February, he declared war on Romania who were admitted into the Allies an hour later.

This would widen their front to the Black Sea and bring in the sizeable and as yet unblooded Romanian army into the fray. For the Poles, the timing of this folly could scarcely have been better.

​

Neither side attacked the other along the Romanian border straight away. But it appeared the Romanians had the numbers already, and surely more divisions would be coming from the rest of their border zones soon now they were flanked by friendly countries. The Romanian border was still quiet by the start of the 15th.

The bitter fighting went on in Vitebsk, though things would improve after midday when the enemy attack to its south would fail. Two divisions were then able to contribute to the main attack on the city by the night of the 15th.

​

Two more attacks had been required south-east of Vinnytsia before the objective was finally secured at 0500 on the 16th.

​

To its north, the heavy attack south of Kiev was won on the night of the 15th with it being occupied (and of course counter-attacked) early on the 16th. By that afternoon the enemy probe had been repelled and two new incipient Polish pincers developed, aimed ultimately in cutting off the entire south-west of Ukraine at Mykolaiv.

After a few days pause, the Polish Army began a major attack to divide the remaining Zhytomyr Pocket into two, thus making it easier to liquidate in parts. The battle would last for almost two days.

​

Early on 17 February, the first new Polish division in some time was deployed, this one was a top-line mechanised striking formation employing the 14TP medium tank plus some ‘donated’ Panzer IVs and M16s, with medium SP artillery.

​

It was soon on its way to the front by train, allocated for now to Sosnkowski’s 3rd Army (the rest being at full strength). There was very nearly enough gear to equip another of these divisions, which began training straight away.

In the new southern offensive, the next phase was launched late on the 17th when a gap in the enemy line was spotted in Balta, complemented by a drive to the lone Soviet division to its west.

​

Earlier in the day the Cherkasy pincer had extended south-eastwards at 1000hr after victory there shortly before. The inevitable enemy counter-attack was defeated that night. Another battle to the west of that was also being fought and won at around the same time.

In the air over Belarus, the Soviets had restored notional air parity on the night of the 17th, but this was more from the presence of bombers with no 4thInt fighters deployed. Bombers on both sides were being shot down, PAF aircraft by enemy AA alone. Proportional aircraft losses (only Poland-Allied losses tracked) remained similar to previous days.

​

The Poles were well pleased with their progress in the first half of February, after heavy but rewarding combat in Belarus and Ukraine. Kiev had been taken and many tens of thousands of enemy troops had been cut off around Zhytomyr, Vitebsk was vulnerable to Polish seizure and the new southern offensive was showing great promise, aided by the reckless USR declaration of war on Romania. It seemed this was now the largest and most dynamic and critical front in the war as the other theatres seemed to tread water.

 

[Bullfilter]

Chapter Ninety-three: With Hardened Hearts
(17-28 February 1947)

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Cherkasy and Vitebsk: 17-21 February 1947

Polish construction priorities remained solely focused on providing transport and infrastructure support for the offensive in late February 1947. For now, other projects would simply have to wait as perhaps the most crucial battles of Poland’s war to date were being fought to knock out Byelorussia, eliminate the Zhytomir Pocket and drive through Western Ukraine to the Black Sea.

​

In the Cherkasy sector, late on 17 February 1947 mobile formations of the Polish 1st Army sought to exploit recent breakthroughs while slower units secured the flanks of the advance and followed up to secure the axis of attack.

​

It would take two attacks and another five days to flush out the enemy as they sought to stem the tide of the Polish advance.

Up around Vitebsk, the enemy’s resistance finally collapsed on the evening of 18 February after a hard fight. By 0100hr on the 19th, the Byelorussian government capitulated, with significant amounts of equipment being surrendered as well. AT, AA and field guns would come in handy as replacement gear for front line units, while a few old fighters, strategic bombers and light tanks would also be put to use.

​

By then, the Byelorussian SSR had lost an estimated 159,000 men during their participation in the Soviets’ war of aggression against Poland.

Other than a small Soviet counter-attack on Vitebsk that would be defeated two hours later, a C-Y probe in the Zhytomyr Pocket and an advance from an earlier victory to divide the pocket in two, the rest of the significant action on the Eastern Front at this time was the two Polish attacks of the Ukraine offensive.

​

In the Zhytomyr Pocket, the Soviets were running out of supplies, with their divisions estimated to have only around 2% of their requirement, with organisation around 45-50% and unit strengths 75-80%. For the time being, the Poles prepared but did not yet launch the final attacks to liquidate the pocket.

The two lines of the current offensive in Cherkasy were making progress where they could. A final attack on Balta was required, which was won at 0300hr on the 19th. The town was occupied by three rifle divisions at midday who then defeated a Soviet counter-attack with heavy casualties by early the next morning.

​

In the northern pincer the leading armoured divisions were still advancing but were running very low on supply. Supply was also a problem in northern Belarus, where both Polish and C-Y divisions had completely run out by early on the 19th.

An influx of Allied divisions – no longer just the C-Y and including Romanian troops now – guarding the eastern side of the Pocket from Chernigov to Kiev prompted the Polish High Command to begin a mass re-staging of both infantry and mobile troops south to exploit the developing breakthrough in Ukraine on the afternoon of the 19th.

​

The advance south of Mozyr to divide the Zhytomyr Pocket in two was completed on the afternoon of 19 February, with an attempted breakout by Soviet cavalry easily repelled by that night. Now was the time for more perimeter reduction, with an attack on the northern (Mozyr) sub-pocket going in first, bringing victory seven hours later.

​

The three Polish heavy divisions were by then in place to the south, preparing for an attack on the main southern Zhytomyr sub-pocket.

Following recent lend-lease deliveries, Polish production and the weapons cache obtained from Byelorussia’s capitulation, some of the recent equipment deficits had been reduced or, in the case of AA and field artillery, turned into quite healthy surpluses.

​

AT guns were still in demand, as were light tanks and light SP artillery. Production of the last few APCs for the new medium mechanised division (and any concurrent combat replacements) was nearing completion. A reordering of production priorities in March became even more relevant.

In the air, the reintroduction of many 4thInt bomber wings (though not fighters) in the Belarus air zone brought air parity. Poland continued to carry most of the fighter burden but had some help from the Czechs and Danes. The other Allies provided plenty of bomber support, especially German CAS wings.

​

Losses on both sides remained on par with recent trends.

By the following evening, the Balta-Cherkasy pincer movement had forced the Soviets into another narrow salient, as both the north and south thrusts tried to seal off this smaller potential pocket and also expand the line of attack towards Tiraspol.

​

It would take four attacks in all to finally secure the southern pincer’s objective by the morning of 25 February, after which a determined enemy counter-attack ensued. By 1100hr on the 25th, reinforcements had arrived and the battle was in the balance.

​

By that time, the northern cut-off attack had been reinforced and remained in progress though still heavily outnumbered against almost three full defending Soviet corps. To the north, an Soviet attempt to attack the flank of the northern pincer had been defeated on the 24th, delaying further reinforcement of the spear’s tip.

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The Rest of the World: 17-28 February 1947

The Allied position in Borneo had collapsed rapidly by the evening of 17 February. It seemed most of their forces had managed to escape by sea with few formations now left ashore near the last open port.

​

In Sinkiang, the Allies still held on doggedly along their narrow corridor to Kashgar and the northern pocket still contained nine resisting divisions.

In western Mexico, the briefly opened corridor to the northern Allied enclave was closed again on the morning of the 18th as the Mexico Corps continued to resist strongly in the south, imposing delay and heavy casualties on the TRA-MAB attackers. No more US-commanded divisions were observed on the front line.

​

On 20 February, the UK guaranteed Finland’s independence and Finland rejected a Soviet ultimatum for the return of Karelia. [NB: it was unclear which came first - the guarantee or the threat, probably the threat]

Trotsky wouldn’t, would he!? Not with the Finns poised next to the Soviet capital, the Allies pressing in Estonia on one side and Archangel on the other, a major Polish offensive in progress and the recent declaration against Romania?

“He wouldn’t, would he?” Trotsky threatens Finland, 20 February 1947. [Pic Leonardo AI, from a reference image]​

Warsaw could only hope he did again pull the trigger on a gun pointed at his own head.

In Mexico, the port of Culiacán began coming under attack again, but so far was holding without trouble. So too north of Durango, where the latest major enemy attack ended in them taking horrific casualties.

​

The screening 2 Pz Div to the south still held on the night of 22 February, but their position was less secure.

By that time, the Allied evacuation of Borneo was well advanced.

​

Sporadic attacks on the port of Bandar e’Abbas in Iran continued, with another heavily defeated (11 Allied, 1,520 Soviet casualties) on the morning of 23 February.

The enemy had finally amassed enough firepower to force 2 Pz Div to execute an orderly withdrawal to Culiacán on the night of 26 February, successfully disengaging a day later.

​

The worn out troops then immediately took ship to begin an estimated 49 day transit naval transfer to Sydney. This would be a bit of a test run to see whether US naval interdiction would be likely on the way across the Pacific. For now, the other Mexico Corp divisions remained dug in and holding on.

As the month ended the position of the Allied enclaves in North America was little changed from its start.

​

In Canada, it was uncertain whether the US lodgement south of Labrador was a previous naval invasion or a land thrust that had since been cut off. In any case, it would be mildly interesting to see what became of it in coming days.

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Zhytomyr and the Cherkasy-Mykolaiv Gap: 22-28 February 1947

The hammer fell on the main concentration in the Zhytomyr sub-pocket on the morning of 22 February, with an attack from three different directions on eight exhausted Soviet divisions in the southern part of the enclave, reinforcing an extant assault by a lone Czech division.

​

Even so, the initial odds remained against the attackers but the Poles persisted, assessing that the momentum would begin to turn as more of their divisions were able to move into the first line of attack and enemy supplies continued to dwindle.

By the following morning, the southern attack had evened up and two of the Soviet defending divisions had been forced to retreat north. At that point, another major attack began on the last sub-pocket near Mozyr, where Soviet supplies had been completely exhausted among the weakened and disorganised defenders.

​

The last stragglers in the north were rounded up on the morning of 24 February, with over 80,000 Soviet soldiers either killed or captured. Another smashing Polish victory for Operacja Zimowa Burza (Operation Winter Storm).

Heavy fighting also continued on both spearheads of the drive into Ukraine. A new attack to push towards Cherkasy and widen the breakthrough began at midday on the 25th, resulting in a hard-fought victory the following night.

​

The Balta pincer had finally been secured against enemy counter-attacks, allowing one of the Polish armoured divisions to augment the ‘gap battle’ which had been in trouble by that time as 13 Soviet divisions put up a strong defence against the mainly 1st Army mobile units trying to take it. Together with two more mobile divisions being thrown into the attack, this at least evened up the battle again but more hard fighting remained in prospect to close off this latest pocket.

The end game in the Zhytomyr Pocket came as the last Soviet remnants were forced into a last stand in the north on the afternoon starting with a fresh attack on the 25th. Another 77,000 Soviet troops were bagged and the pocket liquidated on the evening of 26 February.

​

Long lines of captured Soviet soldiers became a common sight in the Mozyr-Zhytomyr sector as over 150,000 POWs were marched off to internment during the actions of February 1947.

[Leonardo AI, from a general reference picture]​

As the Zhytomyr operation was concluded and following the capture of Vitebsk a few days earlier, all PAF air operations were ceased at 2000hr on 25 February. The wings would rest, recuperate and look for possible new bases (where necessary) to support operations in Ukraine, which now became the clear primary Polish focus for the Eastern Front.

As the air operations over Belarus were winding down, stock was taken of the respective Polish-4thInt are losses over Belarus since the offensive had begun in early December 1946. At that point, the Allies maintained air superiority over the whole Eastern Front, though of note the enemy seemed to be preponderant (somehow) in the skies over Germany.

​

While PAF loss rates had fallen substantially in recent days, they had still taken a heavy toll of the enemy’s bombers. Overall, as far as they could be verified, in recent months the Poles had lost 255 aircraft of all types to all causes over Belarus, the 4thInt 508 to the PAF alone, the great majority bombers. All told, this was taken as a significant success for the PAF and the Army’s tactical AA batteries.

Of course, the wrapping up of the Zhytomyr Pocket allowed a fresh flow of another two corps of Polish troops to be redeployed to follow up the Ukraine Offensive, as Allied logistics were tested to the hilt. Other Allied forces were holding the front lines by then in significant force, allowing the Poles to concentrate with confidence.

​

The northern pincer was successfully widened on the afternoon of 27 February, though the Lithuanian EF advance guard came under a quick counter-attack. However they should be safe with another five divisions on their way to assist.

​

To their south, the fierce battle for the ‘Mykolaiv Gap’ continued as the Soviets clung on grimly and even managed a simultaneous counter-attack against their attackers from the direction of Balta.

Early on the 28th that counter-attack had ended and the savage Mykolaiv Gap battle raged on. Further west, Romania had begun to assert its strength on the attack as it mounted useful holding attacks on the salient the Poles were trying so hard to cut off.

​

The arrival of reinforcements west of Cherkasy itself had turned in the Poles’ favour as those reinforcing divisions poured in. And at 1300hr, the Poles tasted victory in a battle where over 10,000 men from both sides had fallen – the great majority of them Soviet.

As this was going on, more widely other Allied divisions mounted a front-wide offensive in support. The most promising of these attacks came in the south. To the north, the going was harder, but many of the attacks were still substantive and should at least distract and hold the Soviets in place, while further depleting their disappearing manpower reserves.

​

Following their victory at Mykolaiv Gap, fast-moving 1st Army divisions occupied the province in force by 1400r that day, trapping another seven Soviet divisions in a pocket to the north-west, as the Romanians continued to press in on them.

​

As February 1947 ended, most of the Allied attacks to the north of the Ukraine Offensive had ended or were dying down, Finland was quiet and the Allies continued to press in south-western Ukraine with some victories already won along the Romanian border.

​

With one new pocket just formed and a larger one in prospect, the Soviet position in Ukraine was looking very precarious. March would doubtless see a renewed push by Poland to seal off that corner at Mykolaiv.

​

It may prove that February 1947 marked the true turning point of the war on the Eastern Front.

March would also see a reassessment of Polish production requirements. Some pundits had advised a resumption of truck and train production to ensure future needs could be met, while a debate would be had about the merits of continuing with the dual stream of light and medium armoured equipment.

Note: orange boxes highlight equipment already discontinued or that has not yet started (ie the two captured STRAT bombers from Byelorussia).​

In addition, requirements would be reassessed in areas where previous shortages had been remedied, such as in AA, artillery and infantry equipment.

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General Summary

In the Eurasian Theatres, the only significant changes on the ground had been on the Eastern Front, with the short-lived Allied invasion of Borneo already in its last throes. Elsewhere, including in Sinkiang, Iran and the Middle-East/Turkey, almost nothing had changed.

​

Global casualties just in the current ‘Soviet-German’ War had now topped 33 million. The ‘Big Three’ Allied powers had each lost more troops fighting the US than any other country, most especially the Germans. The MAB accounted for a majority of the rest, followed by the USR. Polish monthly casualties were noticeably fewer than in January, just 21,170 – mostly against the Soviets of course (around 17,900 of these). The Poles still had 1.39m men in reserve.

​

Meanwhile, the Soviets had lost a total of 360,000 men on all fronts, around 200,000 of them to Poland (mainly in the Zhytomyr Pocket). And Trotsky now had an estimated manpower reserve of around 11,000 men, with calculations [ie. the averaging of estimated division numbers from end Jan compared to end Feb] showing the Soviets had lost about 21 divisions overall: very close to the estimate for those destroyed in the Zhytomyr Pocket.

Of the countries contributing to the Allied war effort, Poland (8%) was now seen to rank fifth, after the ‘Big Three’ and (the capitulated) Nationalist China.

 

[Bullfilter]

Chapter Ninety-four: Through Blizzard, Mud and Blood
(1-15 March 1947)

Polish soldiers tend to a wounded comrade during the Odessa Offensive in south-west Ukraine, March 1947. [Leonardo Phoenix 1.0, pro colour photography style, from style reference image]

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Drive on Odessa: 1-7 March 1947

As March 1947 began, supply throughput remained troublesome for the Allies along most of the Eastern Front. And in the northern and central sectors, the weather was not helping the offensive either. Deep snow in the northern Vitebsk-Smolensk sector would persist for the rest of the month, with periodic new snow and even blizzard conditions.

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Further south in the Vinnytsia-Cherkasy Pocket cold to very cold conditions across the zone had less though variable effect from one part of the pocket to the other. But in the south towards Odessa and Mykolaiv, a patch of clear weather seemed promising for new attacks to seal off well over 30 Soviet divisions in south-west Ukraine, though supply remained a problem at the forward edge of the breakthrough near Mykolaiv.

Despite these conditions, a ‘test attack’ was staged from Vitebsk towards Smolensk, which met with determined resistance when it launched at 0600hr on 1 March.

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To the rear, urgent moves had to be made to restore the line, where Allied withdrawals had left gaps in the line and the way up to northern Belarus.

The Smolensk probe was reinforced an hour after first contact and this evened up the odds. By that afternoon, the attackers were gaining the upper hand. Although the fighting was evenly poised again by the night of 2 March, the Poles eventually prevailed, though it would take another two days of fighting.

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In the end, the casualties were heavy on both sides. It was clear to the Polish high command that the weather and supply conditions in the north did not warrant further offensive activity for now. No new offensives were contemplated in this sector for the rest of the month as both sides sought to consolidate, dig in and see what the spring might deliver.

Things were different in the south, where the Poles now sought to complete the south-west Ukraine cut-off north-east of Odessa. A preparatory attack was duly launched north of Odessa at 0800hr on 1 March by against a lightly held part of the Soviet line.

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After a stiff fight won by the following afternoon, the Poles arrived in the forested province on the evening of the 3rd and secured it against the usual Soviet counter-attack just before midday on the 4th.

Supply had improved somewhat by 2 March, though levels would vary up and down over the coming days, for instance again with 103 DP at the spearhead near Mykolaiv. But it was enough to sustain the attack north of Odessa.

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On 3 March, an attempt was made to begin the liquidation of the Vinnytsia-Cherkasy pocket, which contained seven Soviet divisions. When first launched that evening, good progress was being made. But by the early morning of 5 March this had turned around as the Soviets refused to yield ground, even after additional Polish units were thrown in from the east.

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Other potential Polish assistance was being held back by a Soviet spoiling attack to the east. By that afternoon the casualties were mounting and it became clear that the Soviet defenders still had sufficient supply stocks to hold on for now: the attacked was called off. The Poles would allow the Soviets to ‘stew a bit’ before trying again.

The next phase of the Odessa offensive kicked off on the night of 5 March with an attack on three axes – the one from the north over the river was more of a secondary or diversionary probe to outflank the defenders. The main push came from the recently secured province north of Odessa. However, the effort was affected by the weather, which had closed in with a blizzard hampering air support (for both sides) and snow making the ground assault more difficult.

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Despite this and good enemy supply, the Poles had the numbers and initiative. The assault made good early progress, with victory on the afternoon of the 6th and occupation of the battlefield the next afternoon.

Securing the southern bank of the Bug River, west of Mykolaiv, completed the sealing off of south-western Ukraine and Bessarabia by land. But the Soviets could still maintain supply through the ports of Cetatea Alba and Odessa. It was unclear what their capacity was or whether the Allies in the Black Sea were doing anything to interdict it.

On the home front, a new civilian factory was queued in Łódz on 6 March, to follow the completion of the three infrastructure projects designed to support the general offensive.

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In the air, the Allies had slight air superiority over Ukraine on the morning of 6 March, maintaining superiority over Belarus and the Eastern Balkans. In Ukraine, interestingly Germany, Turkey and the UK were the three largest contributors, followed by France, Czechoslovakia and Hungary.

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Allied troop shipping dominated the Black Sea, but there was little evidence of active Allied naval operations. A single submarine at port in Romania and a dozen German U-Boats based in eastern Turkey seemed to be the only military vessels currently in the region.

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As the battle for the Bug estuary ended on the morning of 7 March, it was observed that all the defending Soviet divisions had retreated south, within the new encirclement, rather than over the river to the east. In the west, Romania had made gains in Bessarabia in recent days and were beginning to further constrict the Soviet enclave.

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In northern Belarus, one of the militia divisions sent to secure the bridgehead north-west of Vitebsk had run into two Soviet divisions that had arrived there first, losing a quick encounter battle that morning as they trudged through deep snow. They would hold with Polish and Allied casualties to lick their wounds and establish a new defensive line in that sector.

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In the Vinnytsia-Cherkasy Pocket, Allied scouts reported Soviet supply holdings had fallen significantly over the last week. But Polish supply was even worse among the three armoured divisions that had assembled to help eliminate the pocket. Any new assault was delayed.

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On the Bug estuary, the newly arrived Polish advance guard was subject to a large scale and vicious counter-attack at 1800hr on 7 March by Soviet forces from both sides of the river. Their position had deteriorated a little a couple of hours later as it became a race to see if they could hold out until their comrades could reinforce. The encirclement was in immediate peril of being wrenched open again.

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As the day ended, a couple more Polish divisions had arrived but the Soviets had also reinforced the attack. While the situation had improved a little, the Soviets still had the upper hand. Elsewhere in the sector, other Allied attacks were having mixed success. The Romanians seemed to be doing fairly well in the west, but attacks from the north on Chisinau and Tiraspol were meeting heavier resistance.

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The Rest of the World: 1-15 March 1947

In western Mexico, the slowly shrinking Polish enclave was still holding strongly and causing its TRA attackers – dominated by Philippine units – heavy casualties. From 1-5 March at least three attacks on the port of Culiacán were heavily defeated with minimal Allied casualties.

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While on the 6th a long attack on the mountain stronghold in Durango saw over 6,000 enemy soldiers killed.

In Borneo, though Brunei was surrounded, the Allies may be landing some troops again and – in a familiar pattern to many other theatres – the toehold remained in place and in this case the MAB appeared unable or unwilling to complete their final dislodgement.

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Up in Sinkiang a second Allied pocket had been cut off but both resisted strongly and the northernmost seemed to be holding as strongly as ever while both the 4thInt and MAB launched a flurry of attacks against both sides of the narrow Allied salient.

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On 8 May, it was decided to begin the final deliberate withdrawal of the GMK from the Culiacán enclave. The ‘ordinary’ infantry division would be pulled out of Durango first, leaving the specialist mountain troops to hold the outpost for as long as possible.

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An interesting development in eastern Canada saw a British breakthrough to Hudson Ba6y by 8 March and apparently more Allied divisions landing in Labrador again. Though as before, they seemed unable (or willing) to move out of the port to reinforce the front lines.

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The phased withdrawal from Durango was delayed by another enemy attack but resumed after it was defeated (at heavy enemy cost) on the afternoon of 9 March.

The Luftwaffe division had reached Culiacán by 13 March and was soon embarked for the unescorted and uncertain trip across the Pacific, this time routed even further south to Wellington in New Zealand. By that time, 3. Gebirgs-Division was under attack again, this time by the JPR, which they would again repel three days later.

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But to the north, the Allies had catastrophically lost their port of escape. Eight divisions (including Koreans withdrawing from the port) were now doomed to slow reduction and surrender without any realistic hope of evacuation. The Poles were determined the same would not happening to the three remaining divisions of the Mexico Korps.

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Pocket and Enclave: 8-15 March 1947

The desperate fighting in the Bug Estuary continued into 8 March without respite. The snowfalls and blizzards now resulted in an intimidating environment of deep snow and mud, even as the blizzard continued across the sub-sector. Despite this good defensive weather, the defence remained under severe pressure and outnumbered as the atrocious conditions also delayed the arrival or Polish reinforcements. Therefore at 0200hr, a strong spoiling attack was launched on the north bank of the Bug River towards Mykolaiv to help disrupt the Soviet divisions attacking from there across the river into the southern bank.

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Even then, although it improved things a little, the Polish defence remained in trouble by 1100hr. They would not emerge victorious until late that afternoon when more reinforcements arrived. The conditions had slowed the combat down somewhat, so casualties on either side were not as heavy as they might have been, though organisation and resupply suffered on both sides. Further west, the Romanians were finding difficulty in pressing their northern attacks, though these persisted.

Wanting to free up more divisions for the savage fighting around Odessa, the Poles augmented the latest attack by two Romanian divisions on the Cherkasy half of the pocket at 0400hr on 9 March. This rapidly improved the odds at first, but the advantage would flow back and forth during the morning, before settling in the attackers’ favour by 1300hr.

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A hard-fought victory eventually came early on the 11th, forcing the four Soviet divisions to retreat north-west into the Vinnytsia end of the pocket, which they still held by then.

Polish infantry advancing to attack the Vinnytsia-Cherkasy Pocket, 9 March 1947. [Leonardo Phoenix 1.0, text prompt]​

The securing of the Bug estuary persuaded the Poles to continue pressing on with the spoiling attack towards Mykolaiv, which was won by midday on the 9th. Again, the Soviets would not easily concede this widening of the ‘plug’ in the south-west Ukraine ‘bottle’.

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The counter-attack was pressed hard from early on 10 March and, like other fighting nearby, ebbed and flowed until a third Polish division arrived later that morning. It would not end until the evening of the 11th, where again casualties were lighter than the length of the battle might have otherwise indicated.

As noted previously, the Romanians had retaken ground in Bessarabia some days before but by 10 March had been unable to push any further east yet, despite trying. As the defence of the Mykolaiv bridgehead was progressing, the guns had temporarily fallen silent to the west of the enclave as storms lashed southern Bessarabia.

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As, as both the Mykolaiv and Cherkasy Pocket battles were still in progress at midnight on the 10th, supply remained difficult all through the southern region of the Eastern Front, and indeed in the north as well.

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As the grim early spring (more like a continuation of winter) fighting raged in Ukraine, the second Polish strategic bomber design, the PZL.61 Osa (Wasp) was completed. This was just an operational prototype, with no construction begun as design work on the next model, the PZL.72 Szerszeń (Hornet), was begun straight away. Greater range and air defence in particular were desired, given the very singular proposed use to which the aircraft may one day be put …

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After some preparation, concentration and resupply, the next phase of the Polish Odessa Offensive was ready to begin on the evening of 12 March. The ultimate aim was the port itself, but first its northern approaches had to be secured. After a day of fighting the enemy were dislodged and the ground occupied by the morning of the 14th.

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Then just as that operation was completed, the latest hoped-for faux pas by Trotsky came to pass: he declared war on Finland, which was quickly admitted into the Allies – even as the British-led Archangelsk lodgement was beginning to expand again. The continuous revolution had become the gift that kept on simultaneously giving and taking.

[Trotsky picture from Leonardo AI, using 1939 picture 'updated' to 1947.]​

The general troops strengths in southern Finland – which directly bordered the Soviet capital of Petrograd – seemed about even. The map below shows how relatively close the western edge of the Archangelsk lodgement was at that time.

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And that lodgement had expanded a little in recent days and absorbed a lot of Soviet divisions, who nonetheless seemed to have left a gap on the western edge on the White Sea coast.

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For Poland, this brought a feeling of cautious optimism, but then knew their enemy was tough and tenacious and that this new diversion was far to their north. The main game in March for the Poles was in Ukraine: wiping out the Vinnytsia-Cherkasy Pocket and pushing onto Odessa and bagging as many Soviet divisions as they could, in tandem with Romania and the other Allies assisting.

The first of these priorities was the coup de gras in Vinnytsia, where the Soviets had briefly broken south-west into a gap left by the incautious Romanians. The final advance started with a night attack on 13 March. The Romanians usefully retook the southern province early on the afternoon of 14 March.

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Following that, there were three separate surrenders of Soviet troops until 0400hr the following day, with only the first of these involving actual fighting. In total, another 60,000 Soviets were taken into captivity, freeing up the participating units to regroup and redeploy.

With the weather and supply conditions meaning there were no further short-term offensive plans in Belarus, more reserve divisions were diverted south, to fill in defensive gaps due to Allied thinning out and to be ready for operations in Ukraine if called for.

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After another day of preparation, the next phase of the offensive began with an assault on Odessa itself, at that time garrisoned by just four Soviet divisions. Initial progress was good, complemented by Allied operations restarting to the west with some good results. Despite the progress up to the early hours of the 16th and the defeat of a spoiling attack from Tiraspol on the assaulting Polish divisions by 0500hr, things ebbed and flowed in favour of one side and then the other over the next two days.

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Although the Poles were able to rotate out worn divisions and reinforce fresh ones into the assault, the Soviets were able to use the conditions and terrain to their advantage. Even though the casualties were not inordinately heavy on either side, the attack became disorganised and would eventually fail by 0500hr on the 17th. The bold attempt to take one of the Soviets’ two ports in the region had failed for now. Poland would need to regroup and ponder next steps.

 

[Bullfilter]

Chapter Ninety-five: Thunder Over Odessa
(16-31 March 1947)

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Polish troops pushing towards Odessa, 16 March 1947. They would once again meet fierce resistance. [Leonardo AI, from reference image]

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Eastern Front: 16-27 March 1947

Polish operations on the Eastern Front continued to focus principally on south-west Ukraine for Polish forces, with preparations for a new assault on Odessa finalised over 16-17 March. Supplies and replacements were provided as best they could be, who tried to rest ahead of the trial lying before them. Snow to deep snow conditions persisted in the Belarus and central sectors throughout the period 16-27 March with little combat taking place there.

Following the Soviet declaration of war on Finland on 12 March, no serious fighting was recorded up to the morning of 17 March, where the two sides faced off against each other in the southern sector. North of Lake Ladoga, strengths seemed roughly even. But the Soviets were seen to be massing troops in Petrograd with only light Finnish defences to oppose them.

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In the centre and northern border areas, no fighting was apparent, both sides evenly matched except in the north, where the Finns, with some German support, looked to have the advantage in numbers.

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On the afternoon of 18 March, the Poles were ready for their second attack on Odessa, this time more deliberately prepared. Four Polish divisions attacked four somewhat more disorganised Soviet divisions from the north and met with some initial success. However, the momentum had swung back in favour of the Reds by midnight the following day. More Polish divisions were fed into the attack as they became available, with the Poles evening up the odds by 0400hr on the 20th after achieving a slight advantage in numbers.

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The problems for the attack grew from that point, however: even as more Polish divisions were thrown into the fight and worn divisions were rotated out, the Soviets were bringing many divisions of their own to reinforce the defence. From midnight on the 20th the numbers turned in the enemy’s favour as did the momentum. By the time the attack was abandoned on the evening of 22 March, 12 Polish divisions were attacking 24 Soviet formations; an unsustainable effort. Polish casualties were heavy as the great prize once again fell from their grasp.

Even though this second attempt to take the key port had failed – and expensively – the Romanian-led Allied offensive in Bessarabia had succeeded in caving in the Soviet line and were now pressing on the other remaining Soviet port in Cetatea Albă. This was part of the reason the attack on Odessa had been pressed so hard. Taking both ports would have doomed the Soviets, trapping them in a pocket with no resupply or hope of escape.

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Having failed again to crash through into Odessa, the Poles switched their efforts to opening up a second line of approach from its north-east almost as soon as the attack on the city itself was called off. Five fresh divisions led the initial attack, which actually received some occasional naval gunfire support (without confirmed sightings of who was providing it).

This time, the attack met with more success, with the fighting lasting for more than two and a half days until victory was eventually won on the morning of the 25th. Both sides had paid a heavy cost in casualties, but north-east Odessa was secured by the Polish advance guard by 1600hr that day, as the ground became muddy. This would not protect them much from the fierce Soviet counter-attack that followed.

In Finland, the Soviet offensive had begun, pushing into Finnish territory on the Karelian Isthmus by the night of the 23rd. But in better news for the Finns, a large number of Allied divisions had been shipped into the south-west of the country, with some already having fanned out into the countryside. In Estonia, the Soviets had counter-attacked along the coast to once more occupy Narva. Yet another large-scale diversionary campaign now looked likely.

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In Ukraine, by the evening of the 24th the fight for south-east Odessa was still in progress, while the Romanians had crucially reclaimed Cetatea Albă in great news for the Allied cause. The Soviets in the Odessa Enclave were being hemmed in to an ever-shrinking perimeter. But they were still in supply (if overcrowded), largely spread between Odessa and Tiraspol.

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As mentioned previously, the Polish advance guard arrived to the east of Odessa on the afternoon of 25 March. However, they were so exhausted a quick Soviet counter-attack forced them to retreat. The same happened a day later when their replacements slipped in to hold the hard-won ground.

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The six attacking Soviet divisions kept up the pressure as Polish divisions would arrive piecemeal as the battle ebbed and flowed for two days to the afternoon of the 27th with neither side being able to clinch it.

As the battle dragged on, Polish scientists completed the first round of atomic research. Even with the assistance of the Atomic Physics Institute, the research to build Poland’s first nuclear reactor would still take another seven months.

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The battle in eastern Odessa saw the Poles rotate in new or rested divisions as their comrades were forced out under the desperate Soviet onslaught. Five fresh ones were on their way as the battle still tipped in the Reds’ direction.

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More divisions started to be diverted south into the cauldron from the north on the evening of the 27th as the cycle of combat continued.

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North America: 16-31 March 1947

The thinning out of the 7th Army – the German Mexiko Korps – continued on 17 March as 198. Division shipped out for New Zealand and the mountaineers in Durango hinterland began to fall back to Culiacán.

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On 19 March, 3. Gebirgs-Division’s withdrawal was halted when attacked by three Philippine divisions. General Sosabowski was forward with the division (as was his wont) when he was injured in an artillery barrage on the divisional HQ on 21 March.

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As he was being evacuated to Culiacán, 3. Gebirgs was able to break contact on the 22nd and continue their withdrawal after once again inflicting heavy casualties on their attackers. Another attack on Culiacán was eventually repulsed with heavy enemy casualties on the 24th, as the Allied enclave to the north fought on with bravery, but no hope of relief.

Another attack on Culiacán was then pressed and not defeated until the evening of the 25th, delaying the naval evacuation of 340. And 3. Gebirgs. This happened yet again as they and a German (non-EF) division sought to escape as a lone Dutch division tried to keep the enemy at bay.

The last few GMK troops of 340. Division preparing to embark on troop transports on 27 March 1947, with some other Allied stragglers making their own escape.​

The last two GMK divisions were at sea later on the 27th, when the Dutch surrendered that night. All remaining 7th Army divisions were now being routed to Wellington in New Zealand. By the 29th they were well out to sea, while Culiacán had not yet been fully secured by the Mexicans.

As the month ended, only two small Allied enclaves remained in Mexico – only one of which (in the east) was still serviced by working ports.

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In Canada, the Allies maintained a precarious corridor through to Hudson Bay. Many more Allied divisions had landed but, as in the past, seemed unwilling or unable to push further out to the front lines.

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Eight divisions in the Allied enclave in western Mexico continued to resist for now against the Mexican (possibly a good number of EFs among them) and Philippine forces surrounding them.

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While the recently evacuated divisions of the GMK made their way across the Pacific in unescorted troop transports, taking the southern route to New Zealand in the hope of avoiding enemy interception.

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Asia-Pacific: 16-31 March 1947

Throughout the whole second half of March, the Allied forces trapped in the north of the Sinkiang sector continued their resistance, even as groups became increasingly isolated in what were now three separate pockets. So far, despite days of being cut off and under attack, very few formations had surrendered as they continued to tie down many 4thInt and MAB divisions. He defences around Kashgar remained intact.

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There had been little action to note involving Polish 4th Army units in Iraq and Iran and the Turkey-Kurdistan front remained locked up and little changed on the ground, while the key Himalayan passes between Nepal and Bhutan to the Raj had not yielded to the MAB.

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Things had been a little more changeable in the Indonesian-Australasian theatre, with new US landings in several areas and continued fighting in northern Borneo.

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The Allies seemed to have decided to reinforce their beachhead around Brunei after all, while the US were attempting coordinated opposed landings (so far being resisted strongly enough) in the same area in support of apparently thinned-out MAB forces on the ground.

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The MAB had landed again in northern Malaya, seizing a port and putting eight divisions ashore. The US had landed three more on their flank but it could be they were not being supplied by the MAB through Kota Bahru. The Allies were yet to mount a full defence against these landings though did have more divisions in the area.

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While the Americans again had at least three divisions ashore in the remote tip of Northern Australia, where the Allies seemed to have removed all their defences. Once more it would be a race to see whether the US could secure the port of Darwin (where they should have landed in the first place).

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From these recent developments it seemed clear that a good proportion of the US units withdrawn from the mainland had been redeployed into this theatre for use in a range of amphibious operations.

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Eastern Front: 28-31 March 1947

The fighting east of Odessa had devolved into a desperate defence where recently arrived Polish units could not seem to establish a steady defence as the Soviets kept up their remorseless attack with seemingly bottomless resolve. Through 28 March the Poles could maintain only two defending divisions at a time as new formations – often not properly recovered from previous efforts – tried to relieve them.

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This cycle persisted until the early hours of the 29th, when resistance finally buckled and the battle was lost with terrible Polish casualties and little Soviet loss. It was one of the most one-sided defeats the Poles had been on the receiving end of for the whole campaign so far.

By 0400hr that morning the Soviets had retaken eastern Odessa. but they just had just the one division to hold the ground; they were tired and on the receiving end of a new Polish attack, which had defeated them by 0700hr with the Poles slipping the one division back in by 0900hr. Other exhausted formations were sent further north to better recover and resupply away from the immediate front lines

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The desperate cycle continued as the Soviets, reduced now to four and then three divisions by the evening of the 29th, once more defeated the latest Polish holding force, forced to withdraw by 1900hr before the rest of their colleagues could reinforce.

However, the Poles did get two more divisions in place before the Soviets could retake the hotly contested positions. At first, the new Polish defence was on the back foot at 0900hr on the 30th, but by 1100hr two more divisions had arrived while the Soviets began to fall off and the tide of the battle turned once more.

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By 0100hr on 31 March the Poles had seven divisions in place and the Soviets had finally run out of steam, unwilling it seems to send in more forces from Odessa. The Poles won out at 0900hr that morning. This time, the defence would hold.

As the battle was winding up, another five Polish divisions (one infantry, two militia and two cavalry) were sent down from the sector around Mozyr in southern Belarus, where deep snow still discouraged either side from launching new attacks, to the Odessa Meatgrinder.

And around this time, reports of large numbers of Allied and a few Soviet divisions moving through the Black Sea were received. It was not possible to determine yet which direction the Soviet divisions were travelling: escaping from Odessa or reinforcing it. There was no evidence of any naval combat to intercept these troop movement by either side.

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With cold but clear weather along the Black Sea coast, for now the Poles were happy to secure their recent gain. Any renewed attack on Odessa would require further build-up and better supply. By that point, two Romanian-Allied attacks on Tiraspol and Odessa were petering out.

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It was unknown whether the Soviets might suffer any supply shortages due to only having the single port to support an estimated 38 divisions now trapped in the enclave but there was no direct evidence of that yet.

As the tumultuous month of March ended, the Polish Winter Offensive had made significant territorial advances and captured many tens of thousands of Soviet prisoners, knocking the Byelorussian SSR out of the war. Finland was now another significant diversion for the Soviets and Romania was performing well, with wider Allied support, in the south. But the Soviets showed no sign yet of any imminent collapse.

Eastern Front - Faction Map.​

Trotsky remained unbowed and as crazily committed to the Permanent Revolution as ever. The anticipated muddy conditions of the spring thaw may hamper Allied offensive operations across much of the front in April and aid the Soviet defence of the Eastern Front, where active theatres in Archangelsk, Finland and Estonia also remained open.

Eastern front - Political Map. [Trotsky picture from Leonardo AI, previous spare image]​

In Estonia, the Soviets had extended their narrow breakthrough from Narva but the Allies (as they often seemed to do here and elsewhere) had a lot of divisions camped back in port at Tallinn. While the Finns seemed to have pushed back in Karelia, retaking the approaches to Petrograd, where a stand-off now obtained.

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Supply for the Poles outside Odessa remained tenuous for now: some were getting through but not yet enough for a sustained attack. Estimates of the Soviet logistical situation indicated they retained plenty of stocks for a long and bitter defence, though average unit organisation and strengths looked weaker. Any Polish Spring Offensive would certainly start in that sector: that enclave must be eliminated!

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Despite the recent ferocious fighting around Odessa, Polish equipment stockpiles seemed to be holding up reasonably well from a mixture of local production and some lend lease shipments. The only current deficits were in AT guns, light tanks and light SP artillery.

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Overall Polish casualties for the whole of March were not noticeably elevated from the previous months. While some heavy battles around Odessa had cost dearly, this had been offset by less combat occurring over the rest of the front in the late winter snows. Overall Polish manpower reserves had only decreased in net terms by about 20,000 from the end of February.

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For the Soviets, the estimated losses in March were far higher, both against Polish forces and overall, boosted by the seven divisions lost in the Vinnytsia-Cherkasy Pocket. In all theatres, the Allies believed the Soviets had lost 170,000 troops while their net manpower reserves were about the same – and clearly not enough to replace all their losses on the ground, as evidenced by the recent strength estimates of their divisions in the Odessa Enclave alone.

Across the whole conflict, it appeared the Allies had lost around 240,000 men during March, the combined Communist and TRA factions approximately 310,000. Almost 34 million combatants alone had lost their lives in this phase of the ‘Soviet-German War’.

 

[Bullfilter]

Chapter Ninety-six: To the Dnieper
(1-13 April 1947)

Polish infantry attacking Soviet positions south of Cherkasy, 1 April 1947. [Leonardo Phoenix 1.0 from reference picture]

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Eastern Front: 1-7 April 1947

The Black Sea was dominated by the Allies in April 1947, though it was unclear if they were doing anything much to either disrupt Soviet resupply to Odessa [I don’t know how that dynamic works in HOI4]. At least two Soviet divisions were observed being transported by sea (it was not clear whether it was to, from or past the enclave).

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Brief consideration was given to sending Polish subs to the area, but with so many Allied ships there it didn't seem necessary.

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The continued chronic supply problems in south-east Ukraine were in part due to throughput restrictions to Vinnytsia and through to the south-eastern front but also the lack of branch lines to the provinces immediately north of Odessa. Construction priorities were temporarily changed to elevate new rail line construction to help remedy this. It would eventually prove useful, but any beneficial effect was was yet some way off.

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With the weather cold but clear, in northern Mykolaiv a new attack was launched at 0200hr on 1 April that gave a solid victory by that afternoon. Three Polish heavy infantry divisions occupied the field soon after and defeated an enemy counter attack by midnight to secure the gain.

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To their north, a complementary attack began at 1300nr the following day but in muddy conditions against stronger opposition. By the evening of 3 April the British ha reinforced the attack while the Soviets had also added another division. By that time the attackers were on top, however the battle would continue. Down in the Odessa Enclave, Soviet supply remained high but some depletion was being noted. 35 divisions remained enclosed there.

More widely, early on 3 April the Allies had launched attacks all across the Belarus sector.

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On that day, the Allies retained air superiority over Belarus, though the Soviets had attained air superiority over Ukraine, which was now the principal focus of Polish offensive operations in what was becoming the de facto 1947 Spring Offensive. The PAF reorganised its wings, bring those up to 100 aircraft establishment that weren’t yet, disbanding the under-strength 13. DM so its (now discontinued) heavy fighters could be used to top up 7. DM in Nowogródek and 12. DM in Lwów. The jet fighter wing (14. DM) would also be brought up to full establishment now that plenty of spare aircraft were available, as would the TAC bombers of 3 DB.

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The next probe by the Poles was to test conditions up near Smolensk in northern Belarus, where the deep snow had now yielded to clear conditions. An existing British attack was reinforced at 0400hr on 4 April. However though the odds had improved, the enemy still had the advantage. It would prove to be a bitter and hotly contested fight, with the Poles shifting more divisions from the north-west of the line to reinforce the battle.

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At the same time, the battle to the west of Cherkasy continued, with the Poles gradually gaining momentum during the day. And a weakness was observed to its south, with four divisions striking a single weakened Soviet formation that buckled within three hours, then again that afternoon when another Soviet division tried to mount a quick defence.

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That same morning, the reorganised PAF was deployed en masse to the skies over Ukraine to contest enemy ground attacks, assist the Spring Offensive with air support and wrest back control of the airspace from the Soviets. While they couldn’t specifically target the port facilities of Odessa, they could at least make a difference across the zone. Supplementary ground crews were also sent in to support the wings.

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Within two hours, the first effects of the Polish intervention were apparent: new Polish offensive and defensive air missions had commenced, with rough air parity (though still to the Soviets’ advantage) achieved.

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In the far north of the Eastern Front, the attempted Allied breakthrough towards Finland had been halted and cut off. And the Allies seemed to have (rather unwisely) pulled troops out of the enclave just when some progress might have been made, denuding the front line in the west. The Finnish and Estonian sectors remained fairly inactive.

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The Smolensk attack had taken on something of a totemic struggle for both sides, neither of which wanted to back down. From midday on the 5th the momentum would shift from one side to the other until it turned slightly in the Allies favour at 0300hr on the 6th.

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In the Odessa Enclave, Soviet supply levels in Tiraspol had lowered to 93% and 95% in Odessa. By the afternoon of the 5th. But the Poles, assessing any major assault on the Enclave would be better conducted when enemy supply was much lower, diverted its recovering divisions in reserve north-east to reinforce the emerging breakthrough in the Cherkasy-Mykolaiv region.

​

The work to improve supply distribution in the southern sector had not yet born fruit, with supply status opposite Mykolaiv still minimal to the extent offensive options there were limited. On the morning of the 6th, the tough battle east of Cherkasy was won, giving two axes of assault on the town itself.

At 1500hr on the 6th, a new attack was launched to expand the breakthrough towards Krivoi Rih, which met solid opposition. Three hours later, a strong attack on Cherkasy began. It would gain ground quickly and victory was won by late the following morning. Four hours later, a heavy division was able to occupy the province to the east of Cherkasy was occupied unopposed.

​

Supply remained difficult at the front for the Allies on the evening of the 6th, though was improving near Mykolaiv. In the Odessa Enclave, Soviet supply seemed to be degrading fairly steadily.

​

The first detailed analysis of Polish air operations over Ukraine was provided by the PAF on 7 April. The PAF had lost 14 aircraft (mainly fighters) in the days since the intervention, the Soviets a massive 117. However, most of those were due to AA fire, though 18 had been shot down in aerial combat.

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The Rest of the World

In Central Asia, Iran remained largely quiet in the first part of April. But in Sinkiang the fighting raged on. Only the two northern pockets remained in play, doomed but even by 12 April still showing surprising persistence.

​

In Malaya, the Japanese had established a strong beachhead around Kota Bharu however the American landing had been isolated, the remaining division cut off inland and soon to be destroyed.

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News from Borneo was mixed. Some progress had been made south from Brunei, but the Japanese had occupied much of the eastern flank of the Allied enclave.

​

There was worse news from Northern Australia, where the US had finally realised that getting a port was crucial to success. By the 12th, Darwin had been seized by a large American lodgement.

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In the Southern Pacific, in recent weeks and months the US had taken a wide range of small and larger Allied islands, including the Australian Solomon Islands, the UK’s Fiji and New Zealand’s Samoa.

Over in Canada, the Allies had shipped in a large number of multi-national divisions, the narrow corridor to Hudson Bay looked precarious, a major battle was in progress in the centre of the line and in the south, the Allies were trying to eliminate the long-surrounded pocket of three US divisions.

​

In addition to the extra troops in eastern Canada, at this time there was a very large number of Allied divisions traversing the North Atlantic at that time. As usual, it was difficult to tell conclusively which direction(s) they were going. What it did mean was that, as before, a large portion of the Allied ground forces were uselessly swanning around at sea or sitting in Canadian ports to little or no practical effect.

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Eastern Front: 8-13 April 1947

There was some increased activity in southern Ukraine on 8 April. A new line of attack was opened north of Mykolaiv that met with early success, reinforced by the first mobile division to arrive from the Odessa sector as two more began to near the front.

​

In the Enclave, the Romanians had launched two quite substantive simultaneous attacks on Tiraspol and Odessa. Which also seemed to be depleting their supplies at an increased rate. Neither of these attacks would ultimately succeed but the Poles were happy to see their partners exert more pressure on the Soviets holed up there.

The battle for western Smolensk was finally won on the morning of the 8th, with heavy casualties on both sides (not all Polish for the Allies, given the UK’s earlier involvement). A Soviet counter-attack ensued but was defeated easily that afternoon. The ground was taken but the cost had been too high for any further attacks north of the river to be contemplated any time soon.

​

However to the south, general Soviet thinness along the line continued to be exploited. Cherkasy had been taken on 7 April and then was counter-attacked heavily on the 8th and 9th. At first, with just one division of Czech EF cavalry in place, the defenders had been in trouble. But things evened up with the arrival of a Polish heavy division on the 9th and by midday one Soviet division had fallen out, evening up the odds for the closely contested battle.

​

To help relieve some pressure on Cherkasy, a new Polish attack to its north-west went in at 0800hr on the 9th and by midday the Soviet defence was beginning to crumble. And to the south, in the north of the Mykolaiv sector, a corps-sized attack launched at the same time saw a short but intense battle won by 1500hr that afternoon.

​

The afternoon of the 9th saw a new attack in the Chernigov sector by eight divisions. Despite rain that hampered air support and logistics, the attack had overpowered the defending Soviets by early the following morning, inflicting heavy casualties for minimal Polish loss.

​

At the same time, despite a seemingly positive prognosis in Cherkasy, the defence suddenly collapsed at 1900hr. The most likely cause was the Polish heavy division, though present, being unable to reinforce the defending Czech cavalry in time and getting caught up in the retreat. A subsequent Polish counter-attack would take another two days to retake it after a brief Soviet reoccupation.

By 0100 on the 11th, Cherkasy had still not been occupied by the Soviets but would be soon after, for the Polish counter-attack to throw them out again. But to the south, improved supply levels near Mykolaiv allowed a probe to be made against it, with early success apparent.

​

Then in the afternoon, a fresh attack north-west of Krivoi Rih sought to exploit local Soviet weakness and expand the breakthrough zone. The key was to keep the enemy off-balance and unable to re-establish a solid and well-entrenched line.

As the Romanian attacks into the Odessa Enclave petered out that morning, Soviet supply levels were down to 62-64%. By that night they would decrease to 57% in Odessa but up slightly to 65% in Tiraspol.

Up near Chernigov, with the first objective taken, on the afternoon of the 11th the Poles sought to extend their local advance to the north-east with an attack that started with four divisions and was doubled in size a day later. Progress was being made but Soviet resistance was substantial.

​

In the north a powerful Polish attack into clear terrain at the same time would see victory by the morning of 13 April. The Poles hoped to both ensure the Soviets had a number of distractions to contend with during the main Spring Offensive in the south, while also seeing if a local encirclement might be developed in coming days.

The direct attack on Mykolaiv would come to nothing by 12 April [no battle report captured] but a new one south-west of Krivoi Rih would start that morning and produce a victory a day later. To the north, the attack north-west of Krivoi Rih was won as the Poles now pushed to occupy the whole area west of the Dnieper River from Kiev to the Black Sea. In Odessa, Soviet supply was suffering the effects of recent Romanian attacks and Soviet divisions starting to retreat from Tiraspol.

​

In the north, there seemed to be no movement along the Finnish border. In Archangelsk, the lead British division remained surrounded but holding, while the rest of the enclave had not yet been compressed despite the withdrawal of some Allied divisions earlier.

​

The Cherkasy province north-west of Krivoi Rih fell to the Poles on the morning of the 13th, after which they spent the rest of the day seeing off a Soviet counter-attack. After some initial trouble, the Poles had steadied the ship by 1100hr and three hours later began to dominate after the heavy 97 DP reinforced.

​

To the south, the previous Polish victory saw the south-western approaches to Krivoi Rih, splitting the defensive line between Mykolaiv and that city. The Poles would continue to seek weak spots to extend the breakthrough with mobile divisions and isolate Soviet strong points. In the north, Cherkasy had been strongly re-secured by that point.

This was just as well, as a new Soviet attack there soon began, defeated by the late morning of 13 April. That night, an already strong attack by the British on the last local Soviet bridgehead over the Dnieper River was reinforced by another eight Polish divisions as the Allies looked to better secure both Kiev and Cherkasy.

​

By the end of the day, the Soviet defence was weakening and the Allies were hoping to secure the southern bank and then force a crossing to continue the advance east of Kiev.

In the air, the PAF’s involvement had helped shift the balance of air superiority modestly in the Allies’ favour. The combination of air interdiction and AA fire had led to far heavier Soviet losses than Polish. Soviet CAS were suffering the most heavily as Polish bombing began to have some effect as the Soviets’ efforts appeared to have flat-lined.

​

Over Belarus, the 150 shorter-range Polish CAS based there continued to operate in ground support tasks, with the Allies retaining strong air superiority.

Of some interest, the Soviets now fielded only 11 divisions in Tiraspol, with 24 in Odessa – still 35 in total. Two Romanian attacks on both were just in their last stages by the evening of 13 April.

​

The Poles were closing in on Krivoi Rih, but a Soviet counter-attack from Mykolaiv would need to be dealt with first, where the Soviets were having some supply problems of their own.

Up in the Belarus sector, the two Polish pincer attacks were progressing well enough. The one near Chernigov would result in a hard-fought victory the following afternoon. That to the north would take longer, still in progress by midnight. And the British had launched a useful attack of their own in between these two, which may weaken the Soviets there and keep them pinned.

​

In all, the first 13 days of April 1947 had seen some steady progress made in the Polish theatre of the Eastern Front and the Odessa Enclave remained unbowed but perhaps weakening. Elsewhere in the north and in the Asia-Pacific and Canada, the Allied fortunes were mixed and some of their strategic decision-making [if it can be called that] very dubious.

 

[Bullfilter]

Chapter Ninety-seven: Spring has Sprung
(14-22 April 1947)

Polish troops on the attack in the ‘Dnieper Salient’, west of Krivoi Rih, 14 April 1947. [Leonardo Phoenix 1.0, from reference picture]

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Eastern Front: 14-17 April 1947

In southern Ukraine, the supply map clearly identified where breakthroughs were punching out by early on 14 April, while Allied supply around the Odessa Enclave was improving a little even as the planned Polish rail extension to its northern flank had not yet been built.

​

East of Chernigov, another British attack (another Chinese EF) across the Dnieper was reinforced by three Polish divisions that afternoon. The battle would swing back and forth for the next day as British commander General Claude Auchinleck retained the lead and both sides committed air support to the battle.

​

Meanwhile, to the north of the river, the Poles pushed forward in the forests of the Chernigov sector, winning a hard battle there on the 14th and defeating the inevitable enemy counter-attack by the morning of the 15th.

Taking the wider view of the line all the way from Kiev to Odessa, the Poles were pushing ahead at multiple locations. The last Soviet bridgehead across the Dnieper south-east of Kiev was taken and Soviet attacks beaten off either side of Cherkasy on the 15th.

​

A British attack was reinforced and won on the near bank of the Dnieper north of Krivoi Rih and the western approach to that town cleared the same day in an attack that had begun the previous afternoon, while the British also attacked Mykolaiv alone. The Odessa Enclave remained dormant for the time being as both sides prepared for the coming maelstrom.

By the morning of 15 April, reports did indicate that the Soviets had rebuilt some of their supply holdings, with 94% stocked in Tiraspol and 91% in Odessa. However, average organisation in Tiraspol (55%) was far lower than in Odessa (90%).

By 2100hr on the 15th, the Anglo-Polish attack north of Krivoi Rih was bogging down, later redeemed when another Polish division was able to attack from the south. By 0700hr, the tide of battle had turned in the Allies’ favour.

​

In the early hours of 16 April, the Poles were advancing up to the western outskirts of Krivoi Rih and making a supporting attack east of Mykolaiv to assist the continuing British attack on the town itself.

The attack near Mykolaiv and the northern battle along the Dnieper would be won on the afternoon of the 16th. The advance guard approaching Krivoi Rih from the west was counter-attacked and was able to prevail the following morning after further reinforcements bolstered the defence.

​

This set the scene for the next objective: a drive to take Dnipropetrovsk to secure the entire Dnieper salient and to cross the Dnieper east of Kherson for a drive on Crimea.

In the air, the Allies maintained air superiority over both Belarus and Ukraine by the afternoon of 17 April. 4thInt TAC and CAS bomber losses to Polish fighters and AA in Ukraine were really beginning to pile up.

Polish jets and Russian fighters clash in the skies over Ukraine, 17 April 1947. [Leonardo Phoenix 1.0]​

In ominous news for the enemy, the Allies currently had around 14,000 aircraft deployed over the Ukraine air zone!

The Polish rail branch on the northern edge of the Odessa Enclave was still under construction as engineering resources now became available to work on it. Allied supply there remained difficult.

​

With the southern bank of the Dnieper now secured near Kiev, a massive operation by 2nd and 5th Army divisions commenced on the afternoon of 17 April to force a crossing of the great river. Finding a weak spot in the line where only one division defended, the battle would be won almost exactly a day later.

​

Balanced against this was news an expansion of the river crossing east of Chernigov had run into trouble. It would be lost on the morning of the 20th. Plans for another encirclement in the sector east of Kiev with both branches of the rail lines serving the Soviets being cut off early would have to wait.

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The Rest of the World: 14-22 April 1947

By 15 April the Allies seemed to have stabilised their defence of the last two ports in eastern Yucatan. The TRA was attacking in the south but the Allies seemed to be holding on. A familiar pattern in the Americas over recent months.

​

The last Allied remnants in Western Mexico were in the process of being liquidated. The four divisions holding inland were now retreating to the coast, which was also under attack by Mexican forces with no hope of victory or rescue.

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The Japanese lodgement in northern Malaya was holding, but the American landing to its south had been liquidated.

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The Allies hung on in northern Borneo, but their position still looked precarious.

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Bad news came from Australia, where the two US landings had linked up, allowing them to resupply and threaten the single French division in location from both sides.

​

The factional view of the Pacific Theatre showed that by 18 April, the Allies had been restricted to a series of island enclaves from Java and Borneo through New Guinea and the south-western Pacific islands. Australia’s northern approach had been breached at Darwin with New Zealand perhaps also now in some danger.

​

In Malaya, the Japanese had expanded their beachhead south of Kota Bharu and were trying to break out from the main position in the north, though the Allied defence there was holding up for now.

Communist Japanese infantry advance through the jungles of northern Malaya, 18 April 1947. [Leonardo Phoenix 1.0]​

And things were deteriorating in northern Australia, where that sole French division was now in danger of being surrounded by the advancing Americans.

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Eastern Front: 17-22 April 1947

A Polish officer (clearly unafraid of snipers!!) encourages his men forward as they advance during street fighting in Krivoi Rih, 17 April 1947. The fighting would last for almost three days as the fortunes of either side ebbed and flowed. [Leonardo Phoenix 1.0]​

With Polish formations now able to attack from three directions. The major set-piece attack on Krivoi Rih kicked off on the evening of 17 April, with four divisions attacking four Soviet defenders. Solid initial progress was made.

​

In the far north, despite apparently low-balling their defence, screening British divisions seemed to be holding against the latest Soviet offensive in the Archangelsk sector.

​

In the Dnieper salient, the attack on Krivoi Rih see-sawed throughout 18-19 April as the Poles were forced to add in divisions to maintain or regain the momentum of the assault. A hard-fought and quite expensive victory would be won by 1100hr on the 20th and the town occupied that afternoon.

​

To its north, the Poles reinforced a Czech attack towards Dnipropetrovsk on 19 April and would find victory there at the same time the battle for Krivoi Rih was won. While to the south, Polish infantry and cavalry exploited towards the near bank of the Dnieper north-east of Kherson on the evening of the 19th.

In the Kiev-Chernigov sector, the Dnieper was being crossed at two points. Closer to Kiev, the battle had already been won previously and late on 18 April the Poles were in the process of getting across the river. Directly east of that, a British cross-river attack was in progress (actually by a Nationalist Chinese EF) that the Poles added to at midnight. It became clear more divisions would be needed, so two more were added soon afterwards.

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By 0400hr on the 19th things seemed to be going well, however the Chinese troops were tiring by the afternoon of the 20th and British commander General Claude Auchinleck reported that the balance of the battle had swung back to the defenders. But all the Polish troops were now committed and they would not be giving up yet.

Polish engineers assemble a pontoon bridge for the crossing of the Dnieper south-east of Kiev, 18 April 1947. [Leonardo Phoenix 1.0]​

In the Odessa Enclave, Allied preparations were ready for the next phase of the assault by early on 21 April. In both Tiraspol and Odessa, Romanian attacks were backed up by heavy Polish reinforcement. In both cases the Polish help improved the odd but neither battle shifted into the Allies’ favour to start with.

​

The Soviets had managed to recover some of their supply status in the last few days, even as the Allies also improved theirs. In Odessa, both sides had more than three full corps committed to the battle. In Tiraspol, only six Allied divisions faced 15 Soviet counterparts, though the defenders there were more disorganised.

By 0900hr it was clear the attack on Tiraspol was faring better as Roman Abraham took command and added another division to the fray. But in Odessa, the city fighting was increasingly favouring the defenders, with the Poles ending the battle that evening (many of the 2,900 Allied casualties were likely Romanian troops).

Polish troops fight through the town of Tiraspol in the Odessa Enclave, 21 April 1947. [Leonardo Phoenix 1.0]​

And judging by the numbers of Soviet divisions, a couple may have slipped away by sea in the last couple of days before the attacks began. In any case, the victory in Tiraspol came on the morning of the 22nd, with the Soviets suffering very heavy casualties (over 5,000 killed).

East of Kiev, the first bridgehead over the Dnieper was seized by the evening of the 21st with at least eight Polish (or EF) divisions across. Four advanced north-west along the far bank of the Dnieper towards Kiev where another Allied river crossing was in progress.

​

And two divisions reinforced the struggling river crossing to the south-east. Even so, the fighting there remained hard and another two Polish divisions had to be added and it wasn’t until the evening of the 22nd that the battle began to turn in the Allies’ favour.

Tiraspol was occupied by Polish advance guard troops on the morning of the 22nd and were immediately counter-attacked from Odessa even as eight enemy divisions were still retreating from Tiraspol.

​

The Soviet attempt did not have the strength to prevail, especially as further Allied reinforcements began to arrive that afternoon, with an easy victory won by the evening. In Odessa, under attack and becoming overcrowded again with those withdrawing from Tiraspol, supply, organisation and unit strengths were all falling by the afternoon of 23 April.

With the Odessa Enclave being squeezed shut and the earlier transfer of divisions to the Dnieper salient now complete, the Poles would push up to the Dnieper north-east of Kherson by the night of 22 April. This set the scene for a general sector offensive at 1000hr of 23 April.

​

Two attacks were made towards Dnipropetrovsk against weakening Soviet resistance and a single cavalry division made an opportunistic attempt to cross the Dnieper in the Kherson sector against a single unprepared Soviet division. All these attacked would be won between early on the 24th through to the morning of the 25th.

In just eight days, more significant progress had been made in the Allies' Polish-led offensive to break the Eastern Front wide open. Whether that could actually be achieved remained unclear, however, as Trotsky's power of resilience were not to be underestimated.