Sixty years ago, on

1 September 1939, the

world was plunged into
what evolved into six years
of global conflict.

Neil Robinson
briefly describes the short
and bloody air war ovel
Poland, and the
camouflage schemes and
markings used by the
opposing sides.

Originally,

the invasion of Poland

by

Germany, codenamed Fall Weiss (Case

White), was planned for the early hours of
26 August, but Hitler postponed it at the
last minute on the evening of the 25th, to
allow for further Wehrmacht troop
concentrations to build up, causing not a
little chaos as Army Corps and Luftwaffe
Geschwader commanders frantically tried
to contact their units at their fonrvard 'war'
positions with orders to stand down.

All but a small Assault

Detachment

from the 46th lnfantry Division failed to get

the news, and at 04.30 hrs its thirty or so

members crept forward

into

'hostile'

territory and opened fire on Polish

emplacements at Lublintz. The
Detachment was shot to pieces for its
troubies, and lost the invaders the element

of total surprise, but finally alerted the

Polish High Command to the actual
situation and dispelled any lingering doubts
they may still have had as to whether the
Germans were really in ernest.

of 3

Staffel,
StukaGeschwader
1, in company with
two other I Gruppe
Ju 8781s, flew in
low out of the f

to bomb

and
destroy detonation

control

cable
points prepared by
Polish engineers
to blow up the

Tczew/Di rschau
railway bridge over

the Vistula

River,

which would have

otherwise caused
a bottleneck for

the German 3rd

Army in their initial

push into Poland.

Under
codeword

Ostmarkflug

almost 650 medium bombers comprising

Do 17E and a7Z sub-types and He lllPs;
over 2OO Ju 878-1 Stukasi 40 or so
obsolete but still capable ground-attack Hs
123 biplanes; 2aO twin and singleengined fighters, including Bf 11OBs and
Cs, and Bf 1O9Ds from units still awaiting
to be re-equipped with the new Bf 109E;
and over 4OO long-range reconnaissance

aircraft in a mixture of Do 17E Do 17P and

Do 2A5 sub-types, burst into Polish air

space with the aim

of achieving aerial

superiority as quickly as possible.

For the first two days of the campaign,
Polish air bases were the primary targets,

and although many of the aircraft

had

been moved from their peace-time homes

and dispersed to specially prepared

Oberleutnant Bruno Dilley who dropped

the first bombs of World War Two.

Six days later, on 1 September, at

04.45 hrs, World War Two began when
Oberleutnant Bruno Dilley, Staffelkapitan

343

airfields and landing grounds,

communications were so disrupted from

the start, that the Polish Air

Force

Lotnictwo Woiskowe (Military Aviation)

never recovered sufficiently to mount any
co-ordinated defensive strategy, and
fighters, bombers and reconnaissance
aircraft were picked-off almost piecemeal

in vain attempts to stem the

German

tide.
The first aerial combats, and losses,
occurred just after dawn on 1 September

P.37 bombers, continued but were costly

in both aircraft and crews, and by 17

September the air war had reached a

position whereby

Command felt able

lhe Luftwaffe High

to start withdrawing

individual Gruppen back to protect

Germany from any possibility of
retaliatory action by France or the United
Kingdom.

fhe Luftwaffe did continue to sustain

further losses, mainly due to Polish anti-

when Capt. Miec4rslaw Medwecki and his

wingman S u b-Lie utena nt Wladyslaw Gnys
of L27 Eskadry were scrambled in their
PZL P.11cs from their temporary base at
Balice to intercept German bombers
attacking nearby Krakow.
Almost immediately after take-off,

whilst still climbing, the two gull-winged

fighters were intercepted by several Ju
87B-1s of 1./StG 2 who were returning
from their bombing mission to Krakow.
The pilot of one, Leutnant Frank Neubert,
with his gunner Feldwebel Franz Linger,
opened fire on the lead PZL 11c and shot
Medwecki down in flames to claim the

first aerial victory of World War

communications and lack

of

sufficient

serviceable replacement aeroplanes and crews to man them - eventually

ground the Lotnictwo Wojskowe down,
and by the middle of September many of

the surviving Polish aircraft were being

flown to airfields in then neutral
Rumania.

Sporadic raids, mainly unescorted,

the advancing Wehrmacht

Divisions, by the few remaining P.23 and

against

aircraft fire, (and some Wehrmacht

'friendly fire'), but not to any worrying
degree. On 24 September the main
centres of Polish resistance, around
Warsaw and the fortress of Modlin,
became surrounded, and were heavily
bombed by Ju 87s, He 111s, Do 17s and
even some Ju 52 transports. Warsaw
capitulated on the 27th and Modlin gave
in on the 29th.
The capitulation of these last two
strongholds effectively brought the Polish
Campaign, (or September Campaign as it
is known in Polish circles), to an end,
although individual pockets of resistance
continued fighting until 7 October 1939.

Two.

Taking violent evasive action which

almost caused him to stall, Gnys dropped
down to ground level where he no doubt
tried to recover his composure!

After a few moments Gnys began

climbing again, spotted a He 111 which
he attacked with inconclusive results,

and then found himself above two

Dornier Do 17Es, of 7./KG 77, which he

dived upon and shot down, (albeit

claiming them as Ju 87s at the time!), to

become the first 'allied' victories of the
war.

(Wladyslaw Gnys escaped to Rumania

and then to France where he fought in the
Battle of France. He was evacuated to
the UK where he fought in the Battle of

Britain and survived the

war.

He

emigrated to Canada after the war where

he still lives).
From 3 September the main efforts

of the

Luftwaffe were transferred to

attack road and rail targets, and flying in
direct support of lhe Wehrmacht ground
forces. Polish aerial opposition, whilst
always spirited, was never applied in
sufficient numbers to really affect the

inevitable outcome of the invasion,

although it did inflict some telling losses
on the invaders.
Over the following two weeks the
poor Polish tactics, rapidly eroding
344

There were three sub-types of PZL P.37 in serviee with the Lotnictwo Wojskowe in
September 19Q9,Jhe P.37A, shown here, which had mainly been relegated to Training
Units, the P.37Abis, and the twin-finned PZL P.378.

-orl
wavy bar or vertical bar

A Bf

109C, or possibly an E, (the Werke

Nummer could be 87 81, ol the G ruppenstab.
The horizontal bar denotes ll Gruppe, whilst

the chevron and small numeral '2' could

indicate the Gruppe Adjutant.

coloured numeral system initially

introduced on the He 51 and Ar 68
biplanes in 1936.

These coloured numerals, in white,

red or yellow, to reflect the Starfel within

lhe

Gruppe, and often outlined

in

contrasting colour, were generally placed

in front of the fuselage balkenkreuze.

'Behind' lhe balkenkreuze on the rear

fuselage appeared a system of 'bars'

which identified the Gruppe within the
Geschwader. (see Table 2).

Sfab (Staff) machines sported

system of chevrons and bars in the same

place as the Sfaffel numerals in front of the
fuselage balkenkreuze. (see 'lnside Story:
Symbols of Command' in this issue).

Luftwaffe national markings of this

period consisted of a narrow whitebordered black cross (balkenkreuze)

itself thinly outlined in black, in six
positions. fhe hakenkreuze (swastika)
was invariably placed centrally across the
fin and rudder hinge line.
On the 67/62/63 finished aircraft
which originally featured a broad red (Rof
23) band across the fin(s) and rudde(s)
with a white circle upon which the

swastika was placed, all the red and

most of the white circle, except for a thin

to the swastika, was
painted out - usually in Dunkelbraun 6L.
The use of tactical markings does
not appear to have been widely used by
the invading Luftwaffe aircraft. However
many of the Do 17Es of KG 77 and the
Do LTZs of KG 3 appear to have a fairly
broad yellow (Gelb 04) band around their
noses, but this 'marking' may have been
a left-over from manoeuvres undertaken
in the weeks leading up to the invasion.

white outline

Polish colours

Polish aircraft of the period were

primarily painted in an Browny/Olive Drab
colour, generally referred to as Polish
Khaki. The actual shade appears to have
varied quite considerably, possibly due to
different manufacturers or perhaps the
surface material it was applied to, but is
generally accepted as being near to FS
30097 - more of an earth brown than a

green shade. Humbrol 155 Matt Olive

Drab is a close match.
Undersurfaces of wings, and where

the undersurfaces of the

fuselage, were a pale blue-grey,
apparently very similar to Humbrol 65
applicable

Matt Aircraft Blue, (FS 35525).

Serial numbers were applied in

8 inch high characters to
the rear fuselage just in front of the
approximately

346

tailplanes, but generally only on the port

side.

On PZl-built aircraft the first

number indicated the aircraft type - (e.9.

PZL P.tac; 7 = P.LAa:. 6 = P.7a),
followed by a two or three digit production
block number.
A separate alpha-numerical call sign was

8=

applied under the

wings. The

letter,

usually under the port wing, indicated the

parent organisational unit, e.g: N = First Air Force Brigade eaa, La2,
aL3, A1-4 and !23 Eskadry)
K = Army Krakow (a21, and I22 Eskadrll
P = Army Poznam (131 and L32 Eskadrl)

T=

Army Pomorze (1-41- and

1-42

Eskadry)

S = Army L6dz' (LGt and 762 Eskadry)

Most aircraft, (fighters, bombers,

reconnaissance machines etc.),

displayed a one or two digit, individual
aircraft identification number, usually in
white, on the fuselage or the fin.
Squadron and Flight Leaders stripes,
again usually in white but sometimes in
pale blue or red, were painted diagonally

the rear fuselage and often

across the uppersurfaces of the
mainplanes, with many aircraft
around

the
too.

prominently displaying
insignia on the fuselage

Eskadry