Polish 6th Pomeranian Airborne Division

[Tegyrius]

How were the Poles fixed for transport aircraft? Would they have ever had the lift for a combat drop of all four battalions (without relying on Soviet support)?

- C.

[Raellus]

@Ursus: I wasn't suggesting that the Polish airborne formation, whether a brigade or a division, would be sent to China- only that global tensions and concern that Polish troops would be ordered by Moscow to join the fight in the east would prompt the Polish military to begin upscaling its elite formations (including the 6th Pomeranian) as a readiness measure.

Re demographics and manpower, I may be oversimplifying this, but it doesn't seem too difficult to simply recall veterans of the division, ages 25-40 or so to add an extra battalion or two.

@Teg: I don't think so. AFAIK, the only heavy transports the Polish AF had were the AN-24, replaced by the AN-26. There were only about a dozen transports available at any one time. I'll have to look up their respective paratroop carrying capacities, but I doubt it was much more than a platoon or so.

According to Osprey publishing, the 6th Pomeranian was fixing to transition from parachute to airmobile (i.e. helicopter) operations in the IRL late 1980s. And with their SKOT APCs and SU-85 assault guns, they were probably always intended to function more as elite light mechanized infantry than proper airborne troops.

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[Nyrond24]

Most Warsaw pact airborne forces were designed to be helicopter inserted, with fixed wing used to bring in 2nd wave support, mass parachute drops were only a capability not a primary insertion.

[ToughOmbres]

Originally Posted by Tegyrius

How were the Poles fixed for transport aircraft? Would they have ever had the lift for a combat drop of all four battalions (without relying on Soviet support)?

- C.

According to John Weeks The Airborne Soldier (1982 copyright) Poland as of 1981 had two airborne battalions and a "modern, although small transport fleet" backed up by 100 or so transport helicopters.

WP Armed Forces weren't exactly an open book in the 1980's so your guess is as good as mine how accurate this was in 1981-Poland's airborne certainly evolved by the late Cold War and would have evolved even more in the Twilight War.

[Homer]

You’d also have aircraft from the Polish state airlines (LOT) available, to include AN-24s and some additional AN-26s. Both can be fitted with anchor line cables for static line jumps. AN-26 can carry 30 paratroopers and exit them off the ramp, which also allows for the potential to drop outsized items. The AN-24 was not purpose designed for tactical transport and must be converted. Lacking a ramp, it is limited to personnel and bundles out the door.

An26 jump speed is around 100kt, so lower than that for a C-130. I think the 24 is a little higher but not as high as a C-130. Jumping a Curl is pretty similar to a CASA in that you can use smaller DZs and have less dispersion on your stick for faster assembly on the ground. This also complicates the issue for anti landing forces by opening more areas into potential DZs.

[chico20854]

I have the 6th being raised from a brigade to a full(ish) division in 1996 by recalling reservists, veterans of the brigade from the prior four years of conscription. This is similar to the East German planning, where the elite 40th Willi Sanger Airborne Battalion was to be expanded to a full brigade.

On the 12th, I have the 12th Mechanized Division sent by sea to Vladivostok over the winter of 1995-6 and thrown into the 1996 Soviet spring offensive, where it takes heavy losses. The remnants are returned to Poland in the summer, where it is re-formed as a tank Division, which uses less troops than a mechanized division. The Soviets hand over 275 T-62s for the unit, held in reserve in East Germany and last used by GSFG's independent Training tank Regiments. Its just getting itself together when the war in Germany breaks out in December, and since its stationed in Szczecin it finds itself in action pretty quickly. It gets converted to a cavalry division later in the war.

On the Podhale Brigade, it was formally the 5th Internal Defense Brigade, an Army formation with territorial defense and internal security duties (part of the WOW Internal Troops), assigned to the Polish Internal Front's Warsaw Military District and not assigned to the Warsaw Pact command structure. I don't have any particular unit history for it; it was stationed near Krakow and potentially would have fought in southern Poland. GDW totally missed the WOW's existence, so I could see how many of the references to the ORMO are actually militias built upon the framework of WOW command structures.

[Ursus Maior]

Originally Posted by chico20854

On the Podhale Brigade, it was formally the 5th Internal Defense Brigade, an Army formation with territorial defense and internal security duties (part of the WOW Internal Troops), assigned to the Polish Internal Front's Warsaw Military District and not assigned to the Warsaw Pact command structure. I don't have any particular unit history for it; it was stationed near Krakow and potentially would have fought in southern Poland. GDW totally missed the WOW's existence, so I could see how many of the references to the ORMO are actually militias built upon the framework of WOW command structures.

Yes, WOW wasn't well known in the West. More detail here:

Structure of the 5th Podhale Brigade of Internal Defense Troops
- command and staff
- three motorized infantry regiments (in each three battalions, a mortar battery and a gun battery)
- tank battalion
- a 76 mm cannon battalion
- a 120 mm mortar battalion
- a 37 mm AA cannon battalion
- a reconnaissance company
- a sapper company
- a chemical company
- a communications company
- a traffic regulation company
- a medical company

[https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/5_Podh...n%C4%99trznej]

So, it's basically a reduced motorized rifle division in which all infantry regiments lack their tank battalions and the tank regiment is reduced to a tank battalion. Presumably, "motorized rifle regiment" means BTR-152 at best, but I find trucks more plausible. Poland never bought BTR-60s for its armed forces and just fielded some in the riot police forces. All equipment is likely obsolete by 1989 and I presume the tanks to be T-34, probably T-34-85M1 or M2, which were similar to the Soviet Models of 1960 and 1969. I don't know if the Polish ever got around adding infrared for their drivers.

In addition, Krakow had - until the end of the Cold War - it's own Territorial Defense Force regiment named in the name of "Bartosz Głowacki". Its forces were organized as such:

Regimental Organization
- command and staff
- 4-6 infantry companies with each:
• 3 infantry platoons and
• a heavy machine gun platoon
- special company:
• sapper platoon
• communications platoon and
• chemical platoon
-supply platoon

The Territorial Defense Forces were subject to the armed forces, but not integrated into Warsaw Pact command structures, similar to how the German Territorialheer was organized (and others in Western and Eastern Europe).

[Ursus Maior]

Originally Posted by Tegyrius

How were the Poles fixed for transport aircraft? Would they have ever had the lift for a combat drop of all four battalions (without relying on Soviet support)?

- C.

As @Nyrond24 explained, helicopters were the method of insertion for 6 ABD, but 12 Antonov An-26 were fielded by Poland as well as numerous An-2. But that was that.

@Raellus
They could of course recall veterans, but it comes at a cost. First of all: As I explained, there were no airborne battalions to reconstitute, so new battalions formed would be new battalions indeed, with no weapons - especially heavy - available, unless pilfered from other units or newly produced. Second, there would be hardly any officers available. A battalion needs warrant officers and commissioned officers in a good number. Those don't get retired after conscription service, but have a career. Reassigning them from somewhere else, means crosstraining them and likely not getting the best.

But the biggest question would be: Why? A tenser atmosphere in international security isn't well countered by adding completely new battalions that never existed and re-drafting older personnel into it. These "old guards" are out of shape and hardly motivated to do underpaid, hard work once more. If one recalls reserves in such an environment, one mobilizes a powerful force - i. e. an armored or mechanized division - or, in case of Pact militaries, a border guard brigade. They pack more punch, are harder to kill and have their equipment in storage.

[Raellus]

Originally Posted by Ursus Maior

They could of course recall veterans, but it comes at a cost. First of all: As I explained, there were no airborne battalions to reconstitute, so new battalions formed would be new battalions indeed, with no weapons - especially heavy - available, unless pilfered from other units or newly produced. Second, there would be hardly any officers available. A battalion needs warrant officers and commissioned officers in a good number. Those don't get retired after conscription service, but have a career. Reassigning them from somewhere else, means crosstraining them and likely not getting the best.

You make a good point about a recall of personnel not including many (if any) officers, but I don't think that's an insurmountable obstacle. Active duty officers could be shifted around as needed and internal promotion could make up a lot of the difference.

Originally Posted by Ursus Maior

But the biggest question would be: Why?

Why? Because if a country wants to expand its military in a hurry, it's much easier to raise light infantry/light motorized formations than motor rifles or tank formations. That's true in terms of training and equipment. It takes time to pull reserve AFVs out of storage and get them into operational condition. That's going to prolong the raising of motor rifles and tank formations; it's not going to delay the raising of primarily leg infantry formations.

Also, in the v1 timeline, the Soviets wanted its Warsaw Pact allies to contribute mechanized forces for service in China. The timeline indicates reluctance on the part of most WTO nations to send any of their forces to China. Maybe the Poles started their military expansion with a nominally air mobile formation so that they could pretend to comply with Soviet demands for increased military readiness while still claiming to be shorthanded on motor rifles and tank formations, thus excusing delays in compliance.

Originally Posted by Ursus Maior

A tenser atmosphere in international security isn't well countered by adding completely new battalions that never existed and re-drafting older personnel into it.

I'm not sure what you mean. The 6th Pomeranian was a division, albeit a smallish one, before it was a downsized to a brigade. We're talking about a relatively small expansion, almost just a backfill. And we're not talking about recalling 40 and 50 year-old former paratroopers. We're talking about a few hundred men that had been discharged 1-5 years before re-expansion (they'd be in their mid-to-late twenties, mostly, maybe early 30s). And elite units almost always have a greater esprit de corps than regular units. Even in mostly conscript armies, those elite units are made up of volunteers. There'd be grumbling, of course, but ultimately, acquiescence.

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