Szary Wilk

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The captured Sd.Kfz. 251 in passing on Tamka Street, which has not yet been destroyed. The officer in front with the MP 40 is the first commander of the captured vehicle, Adam Dewicz (pseudonym Szary Wilk ). After his death, the van was named after him. The scene was taken by AK photographer Sylwester Braun (1909–1996), who took around 3000 photos of the uprising.

As Szary Wilk ( German  Gray Wolf ) was an armored personnel of the armed forces referred to the during the Warsaw Uprising in the hands of the Polish Home Army fell (AK) and has been used by it in subsequent fighting. The capture and use of the enemy vehicle by the poorly equipped AK was of great importance during the uprising and was also discussed after the end of the war.

history

In the course of the fighting during the Warsaw Uprising, various German combat vehicles fell into the hands of the insurgents. On August 2, 1944, their units captured two V Panther armored vehicles of the 19th Panzer Division in the Wola district at the intersection of Mirecki and Okopowa Streets. After repair , the two vehicles were used by the AK-Bataillon Zoska under the battle names Magda and WP . Also on August 2nd, a Hetzer tank destroyer belonging to the Army Tank Hunter Division 743 of the 9th Army was initially incapacitated and then taken over in Szpitalna Street . The tank was used in combat operations under the name Chwat after repair .

In fighting in the city two were armored personnel carriers Sd.Kfz. 251 (version D). These vehicles were used by the Wehrmacht to support infantry attacks or to transport the wounded. One of the transporters was captured on August 5th in Warsaw's old town and was therefore given the name Starowka (German: Old Town). After the fire caused by incendiary bottles was extinguished, the vehicle was taken to Kanonia Street. It was not used in the narrow, barricaded streets, but stood in a bell tower on St. John's Cathedral , where it was part of a barricade until the last days of the fierce fighting there.

The armored personnel carrier on August 14 in a garden on Okólnik Street with journalists from the AK press and the commander of the Krybar combat group, Captain Cyprian Odorkiewicz
Transport of AK soldiers in the Sd.Kfz. in their area of ​​operation, here at a barricade in Kopernik Strasse

Szary Wilk

A second half -track vehicle (registration number SS-946114) belonged to the 5th SS Panzer Division "Wiking" ; it was lost on August 14 in fighting in Kopernik Street ( Powiśle district ). The German vehicle was supposed to make contact with the separated German crew of the University of Warsaw ; the driver accidentally turned into Tamka Street, which had been captured by the AK; After a short battle the vehicle fell into the hands of the 2nd Company of the VIII Krybar Combat Group under Lieutenant Jan Jasieński (pseudonym: Jasia ). It was then assigned to the motorized division of Lieutenant Wacław Jastrzębowski (pseudonym: Aspira ), also part of the Krybar group.

The armored personnel carrier was slightly modified by the insurgents: the open interior was covered with two armored, sloping roof halves so that handguns could be fired through the resulting gaps. At the AK, the vehicle was first given the name Wiking , shortly afterwards Jaś (pseudonym of the conquering company commander) and, after the death of its first commander, his battle name, Szary Wilk . Successor as commander was Lieutenant Jerzy Łęczycki (pseudonym: Niesobi ).

Together with the Kubuś armored car built by the insurgents , the armored personnel carrier was stationed in the garden behind the then music conservatory on Okólnik Street. Both vehicles took part in attacks on the building complex of the University of Warsaw that was fortified by the Germans on August 23 and September 2, 1944, both of which had to be demolished without success. After the attacks, the van did not return to Okólnik Street, but stayed on Konopczyński Street. It was used by the AK until September 6th. During the retreat from Powiśle, the insurgents damaged the van, which they could not take with them. The fate of the wreck is unknown; it was later probably removed by German troops.

Crybar

The Krybar combat group (Polish: Grupa Bojowa Krybar ) was a battalion-strength unit fighting in the Warsaw Uprising in the Powiśle area in District I of the AK area Śródmieście from August 5 to September 3, 1944 . The combat group was formed on August 5, 1944 in the form of the merger of the previous parts of the III and VIII groups and the WSOP unit Elektrownia . The leadership was given to Captain Cyprian Odorkiewicz; the battle name he chose , Krybar , was based on the first letters of the names of his daughters Krystyna and Barbara. From September 3, she was integrated into the Powiśle fighting group of Major Stanisław Błaszczak (pseudonym: Róg ) fighting in the old town . On September 6th, after the fall of Powiśle, this unit was disbanded.

meaning

The capture of the enemy combat vehicles by the insurgents, who were far inferior in technical equipment, was of considerable symbolic importance; they were proudly presented to their own troops and the population. Due to the small number of units, these vehicle takeovers are not representative of the fighting, but rather as outstanding individual successes.

The photo of the troop transport Szary Wilk with the white and red Polish flag is one of the most symbolic images of the Warsaw Uprising today. It is shown regularly at exhibitions, reports and in books and served as a template for a 50- zloty Polish postage stamp from the “Poczta Solidarność” series from the “Warszawa 1944” series. The background and crew were changed; the vehicle on the stamp should look more combative than the one in the photo.

Web links

Commons : Szary Wilk  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Michał Pawlik: 14. dzień Powstania Warszawskiego. In: warszawa.pl. August 14, 2014, accessed August 17, 2019 (Polish).
  2. ↑ Tadeusz Zawacki: Broń powstańczej Warszawy. In: Polityka . August 3, 2010, accessed August 17, 2019 (Polish).
  3. ↑ a b Janusz Wałkuski: Pancerna broń niemiecka i lotnictwo podczas Powstania Warszawskiego. In: Website of the Stowarzyszenia Pamięci Powstania Warszawskiego 1944. 2011, accessed on August 17, 2019 (Polish).
  4. ↑ a b Marek Cieciura: Pojazdy Armii Krajowej w Powstaniu Warszawskim. (pdf, 28.5 MB) In: Historia Armii Krajowej Leksykon krzyżówkowy. April 1, 2015, pp. 259–260 , accessed on August 17, 2019 (Polish).
  5. ↑ Reference to Borkiewicz: Powstanie Warszawskie 1944 , p. 383 ff., 449 ff. And 703. In: Florian Peters: "The great adventure of her life": Historical images and symbolism of the Armia Krajowa and the Warsaw Uprising in the Polish "Second Circulation" (1980-1989). (pdf, 2.5 MB) Research Center for Eastern Europe , Bremen, working papers and materials, 106; ISSN 1616-7384 , December 2009, p. 44, footnote 12 , accessed on August 17, 2019 . 
  6. ↑ Wojskowa Służba Ochrony Powstania (WSOP)
  7. ↑ Sierpniowy szturm na UW: Codzienne bolączki. In: Robert Gawkowski: Krybar: Uniwersytet w cieniu powstańczych walk. Warsaw University Publishing House (WUW), Warsaw 2014, ISBN 978-83-235-1459-6 , p. 130 (Polish).
  8. ↑ a b Florian Peters: "The great adventure of her life": Historical images and symbolism of the Armia Krajowa and the Warsaw Uprising in the Polish "Second Circulation" (1980–1989). (pdf, 2.5 MB) Research Center for Eastern Europe , Bremen, working papers and materials, 106; ISSN  1616-7384 , December 2009, p. 44 and p. 74, Figure 29 , accessed on August 17, 2019 .
  9. ↑ Further use of the photo in the mass media in the 2010s (exemplary):
    Powstanie Warszawskie na zdjęciach. In: Wirtualna Polska . July 31, 2012, accessed on August 17, 2019 (Polish, German: "The Warsaw Uprising in Pictures"). Tak upadało Powstanie Warszawskie. Zdjęcia z roku 1944. In: Dziennik . October 2, 2014, accessed August 17, 2019 (Polish). 69. rocznica wybuchu Powstania Warszawskiego. In: Newsweek Polska . August 1, 2013, accessed August 17, 2019 (Polish).