Arys Training Area
The Arys military training area ( Polish Poligon Orzysz ) is a military training area in the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship in Poland .
history
The training area was in the small town 1891 Arys ( circle Johannesburg , Region Allenstein in) Prussia applied.
Nearby garrisons
Around 1893, Masuria belonged to the replacement and garrison district of the 2nd Division (to the I. Army Corps in Königsberg ), but the Neidenburg district was part of the 17th Army Corps in (Danzig).
The 1st Battalion of Infantry Regiment No. 45 was in Lötzen and the II. And III. Battalion in Elk . There was also the Uhlan Regiment "Graf zu Dohna" (East Prussian) No. 8 in garrison.
The East Prussian Jäger Battalion No. 1 was in Ortelsburg and the 1st Battalion of Infantry Regiment No. 146 in Sensburg . These associations were moved to Allenstein in 1908 . For this the Infantry Regiment No. 151 came to Sensburg.
Imperial times
Arys was connected to the railway network relatively late. First, in 1905, the route to the district town of Johannisburg ( Pisz ) was opened, a year later the connection to Lötzen was completed and in 1915 the connection between Sensburg and Lyck was added. With the opening of the railway line the importance of the military training area increased. Finally, heavy equipment and weapons could now also be transported. In addition, more distant units, such as those from Königsberg, could use the training area. From 1913, Angerburg was again a garrison town.
First World War
From September 7th to 8th 1914 there was a battle of Arys at the military training area . The numerous dead on both sides make the construction of a cemetery of honor in Arys necessary.
On December 14, 1916, the painter Waldemar Rösler , mentally and physically shattered by the war, took his own life there.
Second World War
On January 1, 1929, November 15, 1938 and July 10, 1940, the municipality of Arys handed over further manor districts to expand the military training area by about 20,000 hectares. Masuria , like East Prussia, were the armed forces' deployment area during the attack on Poland and in the war against the Soviet Union . The military training area was used accordingly. Many units were put together here and trained for military service. B.
- 161st Infantry Division , formed December 1, 1939
- 371 Infantry Regiment, established January 4, 1940
- 389th Infantry Division , set up on January 26, 1942 as the “Rheingold” division
- 504th Infantry Regiment, established February 1, 1940
- 383rd Infantry Division , established in early 1942
- 9th Air Force Field Division , established October 1942
But Arys was also a testing ground for new weapons. The Wehrmacht and Hitler were shown the Sturmpanzer VI and a true-to-scale wooden model of the Jagdpanzer VI Jagdtiger on October 20, 1943. Voluntary Flemish and Dutch SS units were also trained here during the Second World War . Arys was not very popular with the soldiers because of its remote location in the farthest corner of the empire. In Hans-Joachim Anderson's book: The foxes say: "Good night!" is alluded to. The statement will probably refer to the so-called "Fuchsberg", a hill on the military training area (along Johannesburger Chaussee), which was probably included in some exercises. Many soldiers' and field postcards had the motif of an inhospitable area where a fox and a rabbit say goodnight.
post war period
After 1945, an internment camp of the Soviet secret service NKVD was set up on the site of the military training area .
After being taken over by the Polish Army , the military training area is still used for military purposes as Poligon Orzysz .
Trivia
For most of the compatriots , the wasteland of the Masurian landscape was marked by the following saying, which was also often reproduced on postcards:
Here the wolves keep the watch,
the foxes say good night.
Therefore, the wolf and the fox were often depicted on postcards.
Postcards from the Arys Training Area
Payday in Arys
Military training area around 1900
Military training area around 1902
Skirmish at Arys, awaiting attack
The newly created cemetery of honor in Arys
The newly created cemetery of honor in Arys
After the Russian invasion in 1914
The military training area in the 1920s
Web links
- Postcards
- Postcards from the military training area
- Photos of the Arys, the military training area and the military cemetery
Individual evidence
- ↑ Anderson, Jans-Joachim: The foxes say: "Good night!". The Arys Training Area and its Post Office, 2001 p. 21.
literature
- Anderson, Jans-Joachim: The foxes say: "Good night!". The Arys Training Area and its Post Office, 2001.
- Jähnig, Bernhart: Arys became a town. A contribution to the 550th anniversary on March 3, 1993.
- Peylo, Dietrich: Arys / East Prussia, the small Masurian town with the large military training area in picture documents, 2009.
Coordinates: 53 ° 45 ′ 18 ″ N , 21 ° 58 ′ 46 ″ E