XVI Panzer Corps: Army Łódź: Army Krakow: Baltic coast 4–10 September Northern Front Southern Front The Battle of Mokra took place on 1 September 1939 near the village of Mokra, 5 km north of Kłobuck and 23 km north-west of Częstochowa, Poland.

It was one of the first battles of the Invasion of Poland, during the Second World War, and was one of the few Polish victories of that campaign and the first German defeat of the conflict.

Because of that, the main purpose of the army was to gain time and offer delaying actions and harsh resistance in order for the mobilization to be accomplished.

The terrain chosen by the Polish commander was ideal for defence: a railroad earthwork and a forest formed the main defensive line while the foreground was hilly, with a large number of ditches, streams and other obstacles.

After breaking through small Border Guard and National Defence detachments, the German units seized the towns of Krzepice and Starokrzepice, directly in front of the main Polish positions.

At 0630 in the morning the motorcycle reconnaissance squads of the 4th Panzer Division made contact with the 12th company of the 84th Infantry Regiment under Stanisław Radajewicz.

However, although the regiment lost many horses and approximately five ammunition cars, the bombs mostly missed the Polish defensive positions and the advancing tanks were welcomed at 150 metres by well-positioned Polish-made 37mm Bofors antitank guns.

They were forced to retreat by a Polish cavalry attack that caused heavy losses and resulted in a number of prisoners being taken by the Poles.

The German group, divided into three columns, was advancing towards the village of Rębielice Szlacheckie in order to outflank the 21st Regiment from the north.

Fifteen minutes later the German 4th Panzer Division repeated the attack, this time with artillery support and air cover.

Colonel Filipowicz ordered the 19th Regiment to withdraw to the other side of the railway, but the way was already held by German tanks and the unit was effectively surrounded.

The German column was dispersed and retreated with heavy losses, losing a number of Panzer I and II tanks, while the 19th Regiment crossed the railroad under cover of the armoured train.

The Germans lost four tanks to the Polish 2nd Artillery Battalion firing from across the railway, but the 4th Squadron was in retreat, fighting for almost every house in the village and suffering heavy losses.

It arrived in the area at the height of the battle and opened fire from a distance of almost 2.5 km, which was beyond the effective range of all German tank guns of the time, in the end destroying or knocking out several more Panzer I and IIs.

The 21st Armoured Battalion under Maj. Stanisław Gliński, equipped mostly with Polish TKS tankettes was ordered to counter-attack the village, along with the cavalry squadron of Captain Jerzy Hollak.

In the clouds of smoke of the burning village, the Polish units accidentally drove right into the middle of a German tank column.

The Polish units managed to break through the German column with negligible losses and seized the forest to the northwest of Mokra.

The main assault broke the lines of the 4th squadron of the 21st Regiment and the tanks managed to charge the AT artillery nests, destroying two of the guns and breaking through to the central part of the village.

However, the rest of the artillery positions were covered with smoke from the burning houses the Germans had set afire, and were successfully hidden.

At 1500, the Germans repeated the frontal assault with heavy artillery fire, tactical air attacks and almost 180 tanks from Wilkowiecko.

Colonel Filipowicz had no further reserves and the German tanks were nearing the railway crossing, while the Polish cavalry was being pushed back with heavy losses.

The German 4th Panzer Division was forced back to its initial positions in Opatów and Wilkowiecko, and only the 12th Schützen Regiment managed to reach the rail road crossing at Izbiska.