This is coolbert: The Poles do not have a great military tradition.

At least this is the image held by many Americans.

I remember when I was a boy the joke was, "what is this?", as a kid puts his hands in the air as if to show surrender. "Polish war hero", is the response, to mirthful laughter.

And of course the story is remembered that during the First World War, Poles fighting against Americans as part of the German Army, were supposed to have surrendered to American forces, coming forward with hands up and saying, "me Polski, me shoot high". This story was also recounted to laughter.

Well, is this image true??

Well, not exactly. The Poles actually have a very proud and long military tradition. The image as held by most Americans is not true, rather, contrary to popular belief, the opposite is true.

On three occasions, the Poles saved western Europe from foreign invasion and conquest.

One time was in the 1200's, when the Mongols, fresh from their conquest of Russian, made a concerted effort to conquer all of Europe all the way to what the Mongols called the "western" or "other" sea [the Atlantic]. One of several Mongol armies thrust westward from Russia through Poland toward Teutonic Germany. This army was opposed by the Poles with help from the Teutonic knights. The Poles fought six battles with the Mongols, losing all six, but causing severe casualties to the Mongols. Casualties to the point where the Mongol army turned south and did not proceed further west.

A second occasion where the Poles defended western Europe from invasion and conquest was at the siege of Vienna in the 1600's. A Polish army under the command of the Polish King, John Sobieski, attacked and defeated the besieging army of the Grand Turk. This defeat was thorough and save the Viennese from probably certain defeat [to this day, an important export of the Poles is Arabian horses bred from horses captured from the Turk]. Defeat of the Austrians would have meant that all of western Europe would have open to further attack by the "terrible" Turk.

The third time the Poles saved western Europe was in the year 1920. The newly created Polish state was under attack by the invading Red Army of General Mikhail Tuchachevsky. The Red Army had as it's purpose the imposition of Soviet control over Poland and a further campaign to spread communism to the very much weakened post-World-War-One Germany [Red Army cavalry rode forward singing a song that went in part, "we're taking Warsaw, take Berlin too". The Poles were victorious over the invading Red Army and maintained their newly won sovereignty for decades afterwards. This victory is referred to as the "Miracle on the Vistula".



There was a recent exhibition in Chicago of Polish cavalry uniforms from the 1600's, the same period when John Sobieski led his army to victory over the Turk. Not only was this victory significant, but all throughout the period, Polish cavalry fought sporadically against slave raiders from the realm of the Grand Turk. The Poles are defenders of Christianity and all of Europe. A little known fact. This exhibit featured uniforms of the "winged Hussars" [cavalry]. Read about this at this site, click here.

coolbert.