Tanks of the Polish Armoured Forces

The 1st Tank Regiment consisted of four tank companies organised into two Battalions and saw fighting during the Polish–Ukrainian War after the dissolution of Austria-Hungary in a Polish offensive in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia carried out by units of the Polish Army aided by the newly arrived Blue Army of General Józef Haller de Hallenburg.

They were delivered in August 1929 and after divisional manoeuvres in September 1929, it was evaluated, that the tankettes fulfilled the needs of a reconnaissance vehicle for both infantry and cavalry.

The Military Institute of Engineering Research (Wojskowy Instytut Badań Inżynierii, WIBI) sent Captain Ruciński to the United States to legally acquire a Christie M1928 tank, its blueprint and license.

Despite the fact that in 1936 the vehicle design was not completely finished, it was included in the programme of Armoured Forces that was a part of a general projection of growth and upgrade for the Polish Army for 1936-1942.

[3] Assembly of the first tank prototype was commenced in 1937 in the Experimental Workshop (WD) located within the area of the State Engineering Plants (PZInż.)

It was driven by an experienced military specialist Sergeant Polinarek under personal supervision of the Chief of the Trial and Experiment Department in the Bureau of Technical Studies on Armored Weapons (Biuro Badań Technicznych Broni Pancernych, BBT Br.

After this trip, when a total of nearly 2000 km were logged, the vehicle was sent again to the WD where it was nearly completely stripped down to check the wear on particular parts and assemblies, identify causes of malfunctions and to repair the damage.

[6] The designers, having analysed their experiences came to the conclusion that a tank of this type should be a purely tracked vehicle and any equipment needed for driving it on wheels was just an unnecessary weight.

[7][8] Before the tank could enter mass production, German invasion of Poland in September 1939 ended the independent existence of the Second Polish Republic.

Due to the outbreak of the war, only a limited number of early prototypes and development versions took part in battles of the Invasion of Poland.

The unit joined the task force "Dubno" and lost all of its tanks during the marches and fighting with German and Soviet armies and Ukrainian insurgents.)

The Polish military had fewer armored forces than the Germans, and these units, dispersed within the infantry, were unable to effectively engage the enemy.

The army, created as the main operational reserve of Polish commander in chief Marshall Edward Rydz-Śmigły was also the last to be mobilised in the summer of 1939.

What did the damage was the constant onslaught of all parts of the blitzkrieg, including large numbers of tanks, that never allowed the Polish Army to gather its breath and re-group.

Poland also raised the 2nd Polish Armoured Regiment in France on 29 January 1940 as the 2nd Tank Battalion and fought under this title in the French campaign of 1940.

At the outbreak of World War Two in September 1939, the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany divided Poland in a twin invasion agreed in the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.

An agreement between Stalin, Churchill, Eden and the Polish government-in-exile in London led by General Sikorski was signed on 30 July 1941 whereby all Poles held by the Soviet Union were to be freed so as to form an army to help the fight against Hitler.

In the second half of 1942, during the big German offensive in the Caucasus, Stalin agreed that the Polish formation could be used on the Middle Eastern front in Persia (Iran).

The division twice suffered serious casualties from Allied aircraft which accidentally bombed friendly troops, but yet it achieved a victory against the Wehrmacht in the battles for Mont Ormel,[15] and the town of Chambois.

In the last month of the war the 1st Polish Armoured Corps equipped with 195 T-34-85 tanks fought in eastern Germany during the battle of Bautzen.

As the operation against Czechoslovakia, columns of tanks and motorized rifle troops of the LWP headed toward Prague and other major centers, meeting no resistance.

The successful conversion convinced the General Staff that similar modernization could also be applied to other Soviet-designed tanks made in Poland and used by the Polish Armed Forces.

The Gliwice-based Research and Development Centre of Mechanical Systems OBRUM (Polish: Ośrodek Badawczo-Rozwojowy Urządzeń Mechanicznych) was chosen as the main design bureau.

However, initially the work progressed at a very slow pace, mainly because the Polish General Staff was also considering the purchase of a newer version of T-72 (T-72S) or the modern T-80.

The main battle tank's protection from high-explosive anti-tank (HEAT) projectiles and missiles was increased by new Erawa dynamic armor developed by the Poland Military-Technical Institute which consists of 394 tiles with explosives, detonating in case of a direct hit.

Experiments showed that the Erawa dynamic defense decreased the high-explosive jet impact depth by 50 - 70% and penetrator (APFSDS) projectiles by 30 - 40%.

Furthermore, explosive containers do not detonate when hit by shot of up to 30 mm calibre, shell or mine fragments, or when covered in burning napalm or petrol.

The procurement also covers related military equipment, including transportation vehicles, machine guns, training and radio location systems.

[20] Poland then signed a $14.5 billion arms deal in March 2023 for potentially a total of 1,000 South Korean-designed K-2 Black Panther main battle tanks.

[22] The Polish Army in late March 2023 held live fire exercises to train on the South Korean-built K2 Black Panther tanks.