Der Unteroffizier

Poland

The Invasion of Poland, 1st September 1939. The spark that caused 60 million people to die in the span of the next six years. This was the beginning of World War II.

In the early morning of the 1st of September, 1939, we broke the Polish border and drove into Poland. The Invasion of Poland had begun.

The Tenth Army, in which the 1. Panzer-Division was part of, all drove into the enemy's land. The experience was the complete opposite of what we had gone through in the past two annexations.

Polish soldiers were all shooting at us, and although all their rifle bullets bounced off harmlessly, their anti-tank bolt action rifles did quite a lot of damage to our units. I poked my head out of the Kommandant hatch and saw a Panzer I burst in flames, which I assume had been hit by an anti-tank gun.

I spotted some Polish soldiers lying in the bushes and called for an HE shell on their position.

"I know what I'm doing!" Friedrich shouted and loaded the HE shell into the 37mm gun. Hans had gone all quiet, as he focused on lining up his shot.

BAM! Went the gun; shell falling out. I poked my head out of the hatch again, and the bush had been completely vaporized along with the soldiers.

"Nice shot!" I patted him on the back. He smiled back, then proceeding to turn the turret back to the front. There was suddenly a loud screech on our Panzer III's right that scared all of us.

"Gottverdammit, that must be one of them anti-tank guns!" Friedrich cursed, and kicked Schmidt to call the radio to ask the status. But I cut in, saying, "No, don't. I'll check it myself."

Friedrich glared at me, but I glared back before climbing up the hatch to check out the situation. Most of the Polish soldiers were gone, either having retreated or had been killed by us. Our Panzer column, although having lost some Panzers, was still in high spirits.

I re-entered my Panzer and announced that we had won this skirmish. Peter, who had been silent this while, suddenly said, "Town up ahead!"

We entered the town of Krippitz, and the few Panzer IIIs in front of us stopped. The rest of followed suit and climbed out of our Panzers. I caught glimpse of some civilians, who showed fear in their eyes. A panicky mother ushered her trembling children back into their wooden cottage and hid in it.

An old man came out of his cottage and came over to greet us. Although he was stopped by a Richtschuetze from another Panzer in front, Friedrich, upon noticing him, went up and started chatting with the man.

It appeared that the man was once a soldier of the Deutsches Reich in World War I, who fought with Friedrich on the Ostfront against the Russians.

The 31. Infanterie-Division soon caught up to us and they started rounding up the civilians. They barged into houses and dragged its inhabitants out. A couple of soldiers barged into the house in which the mother and children were hidding in, but later came out without them. They must have done a good job hiding.

Friedrich suddenly asked me whether his friend could join the Panzer crew for a bit. I pondered for a bit, then asked him to go confirm when the commander. He came back and declared the commander said yes, and I just shrugged.

Soon, about all of the inhabitants of Krippitz had been rounded up. We were given the order to split up the Tenth Army, 1. Panzer-Division was to drive to the city of Klobutzko, while the 4. Panzer-Division was further split up into groups to outflank the retreating Polish troops.

As I rested in the hatch of my Panzer III, there suddenly was a loud explosion. I turned around, and was horrified to see what was going on.

The 31. Infanterie-Division had set fire to the town, and the inhabitants were streaming out hurriedly, right to the front. I suddenly remembered the still hiding mother and her children, and froze.

"Is that the enemy?" Hans shouted up.

"Nein, they're burning down the town!" I replied, trembling. Friedrich's friend sighed, and said, "It's a pity I didn't pack my things."

Credits:
Invasion of Poland, German Order of Battle, picture from Wikipedia.
Thanks to CristoAlDantes for the support!