Article
I, Lilith, is back to bring more articles within this busy evening.
Yesterday i made an article containing an idea about how i will make a series of articles about events that had occured during World War 2 and majority of people who responded to my article supported me to do it. So today, for the first epsiode of this series, i will bring you an event which is also called the Polish Thermopylae, The Battle of Wizna.
Stolen from Polandballwiki
The Battle of Wizna took place in Wizna, near Lomza, 7-10 September 1939 just 1 week after the outbreak of the war. It was part of the initial operation by the Wehrmarcht after both Nazi Germany and Soviet Union agreed to split Poland into two pieces under the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact. The battle was fought by the Osowiec Fortress Force under Captain Wladyslaw Raginis and the XIX Army Corps under Heinz Guderian
Pre-battle
The Polish actually had had some plan to build a fortified line fearing the rising Nazi Germany just few kilometers from them. The plan consisted of a 35 kilometers of defensive line, running from East Prussian border along the higher banks of Narew and Biebrza river. This line would overlook the river and the roads to Warsaw.
Polish positions during the Battle (S:Wikipedia)
The bunkers and trenches were starting to be made on June. There were 60 planned bunkers to defence the line. But at 1 September, only 16 were made with only 6 bunkers were reinforced by concrete, there rest were light bunkers and boxes for machine gun nests. Though this was not even half of the planned bunkers, the Polish were well-prepared since all of the bunkers' positions were chosen carefully and were on high grounds, overlooking a wide area of incoming enemies.
Defence of Wizna
The Polish, according to Polish historian Leszek Moczulski, had 720 men supported by 42 machine guns, few artillery guns and 2 anti tank rifles. While on the other side, the Wehrmarcht brought in 42.200 men, 350 tanks, hundres of mortars and howitzers and was also supported by the Luftwaffe(German Air Force). Although the Polish were consisted of fresh conscript soldiers, they didn't lose morale.
Polish artillery during Battle of Wizna
Before the fighting, the Germans had dropped leaflets ordering the remaining Polish forces to surrender, claiming that the Wehrmacht had annexed most of Poland, and that any form of resistances would be useless. This had an impact on troops morale, which led to Capt. Wladyslaw Raginis swore to hold his position to the point of not capable of fighting anymore.
Captain Wladyslaw Raginis
The Germans began artillery and aerial bombardment to weaken the Polish position along the line. The Polish was soon forced to retreat. The Germans attacked the northern flank from three sides and took high infantry casualties. The offensive on the southern part of the Polish fortified area also had met a stalemate. But, the Polish was forced to leave their trenches to their bunkers by German armors. The German tanks succeded on breaking the Polish line, however the infantry was still pinned down by well-positioned machine gun nests.
The Polish troops at Wizna could not hope for any reinforcements. Actually, the Marshal of Poland, Edward Śmigły-Rydz, had ordered for the reserve troops for Wizna to be withdrawn from Warsaw. But when the reserves arrived at Osowiec, they couldn't do anything to help the trapped Poles at Wizna.
Polish bunkers are now isolated. The Germans launched several attacks on each bunkers and were repelled by the Poles. The attrition continued until the German managed to occupy all but 2 bunkers. At that point, most of the Polish troops were wounded, most of their machine guns destryoed, and were running out of ammunition. Capt. Wladyslaw Raginis, realizing that his men could not fight anymore, ordered his men to surrender. Himself did not want to surrender and suicided with a grenade.
Post-battle
Polish destroyed bunker, now a commemoration site
The Germans, after the battle, continued their offensive towards Wysokie Mazowieckie and Zambrów. Although the Germans outnumbered the Poles heavily, they still took higher casualties (900 killed) compared to those of the Poles (700 killed). Moreover, the Polish had halted the Germans for 3 days against all the odds. The heroic act of the Polish was considered as a symbol in the Polish Defensive War and was nicknamed The Polish Thermopylae.
The battle was made into a song by a Swedish metal band, sabaton, in the title of 40:1 ,based on the outnumbered 720 Polish troops against the 42.200 Wehrmacht soldiers (should have been 59:1). The song compared the Polish troops to the Spartan warriors during the Persian invasion of Thermopylae.
I enjoyed writing this article, tho i did a little research for the subject. If you meet any mistakes, please do tell me so i can learn more. I will do more of this in the future, so vote and subscribe for further articles like this one.
Regards,
Previous article:
Events of World War 2 (7 years ago)
Next article:
Battle of Britain (7 years ago)
About the game:
USA as a world power? In E-Sim it is possible!
In E-Sim we have a huge, living world, which is a mirror copy of the Earth. Well, maybe not completely mirrored, because the balance of power in this virtual world looks a bit different than in real life. In E-Sim, USA does not have to be a world superpower, It can be efficiently managed as a much smaller country that has entrepreneurial citizens that support it's foundation. Everything depends on the players themselves and how they decide to shape the political map of the game.
Work for the good of your country and see it rise to an empire.
Activities in this game are divided into several modules. First is the economy as a citizen in a country of your choice you must work to earn money, which you will get to spend for example, on food or purchase of weapons which are critical for your progress as a fighter. You will work in either private companies which are owned by players or government companies which are owned by the state. After progressing in the game you will finally get the opportunity to set up your own business and hire other players. If it prospers, we can even change it into a joint-stock company and enter the stock market and get even more money in this way.
In E-Sim, international wars are nothing out of the ordinary.
Become an influential politician.
The second module is a politics. Just like in real life politics in E-Sim are an extremely powerful tool that can be used for your own purposes. From time to time there are elections in the game in which you will not only vote, but also have the ability to run for the head of the party you're in. You can also apply for congress, where once elected you will be given the right to vote on laws proposed by your fellow congress members or your president and propose laws yourself. Voting on laws is important for your country as it can shape the lives of those around you. You can also try to become the head of a given party, and even take part in presidential elections and decide on the shape of the foreign policy of a given state (for example, who to declare war on). Career in politics is obviously not easy and in order to succeed in it, you have to have a good plan and compete for the votes of voters.
You can go bankrupt or become a rich man while playing the stock market.
The international war.
The last and probably the most important module is military. In E-Sim, countries are constantly fighting each other for control over territories which in return grant them access to more valuable raw materials. For this purpose, they form alliances, they fight international wars, but they also have to deal with, for example, uprisings in conquered countries or civil wars, which may explode on their territory. You can also take part in these clashes, although you are also given the opportunity to lead a life as a pacifist who focuses on other activities in the game (for example, running a successful newspaper or selling products).
At the auction you can sell or buy your dream inventory.
E-Sim is a unique browser game. It's creators ensured realistic representation of the mechanisms present in the real world and gave all power to the players who shape the image of the virtual Earth according to their own. So come and join them and help your country achieve its full potential.
Invest, produce and sell - be an entrepreneur in E-Sim.
Take part in numerous events for the E-Sim community.