Piłsudczyk (armoured train)

In early November 1918, during the final collapse of Austria-Hungary, Polish troops captured an intact Austro-Hungarian train at the station in Prokocim near Kraków.

Both were then accepted into the new Polish Army and took part in the Battle of Lwów, where they were crucial in lifting the Ukrainian siege of the city.

1914/1919 howitzers and 19 heavy machine guns, and was reinforced with a TK-3 tankette and a Renault FT tank (both refitted as draisines).

[2] Mobilised on 25 August 1939 in preparation for invasion by Nazi Germany, the train was additionally refitted with another unarmoured engine, and then attached for armed operations, to the Army Łódź,[3][2] to reinforce the 30th Infantry Division in the area of Działoszyn.

As the German motorised units outflanked the Polish defenders and captured both Mińsk and Siedlce, the train was caught in the resulting traffic jam in a large operational "cauldron" to the east of Warsaw.

[6] Later, armoured train was captured by Soviet NKVD troops, repaired, and put in service as NKVD armoured train №77 http://nkvd.borda.ru/?1-17-0-00000028-000-0-0-1158599937 The crew of "Piłsudczyk" tried unsuccessfully to reach Warsaw on foot, but joined the Independent Operational Group Polesie instead, and fought-on against the Germans and Soviets until the battle of Kock, at the end of the Polish defensive war of 1939.