Jabłonków Incident - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Jabłonków Incident refers to the events of the night of August 25/26, 1939, along the Polish

Second Polish Republic

The Second Polish Republic, Second Commonwealth of Poland or interwar Poland refers to Poland between the two world wars; a period in Polish history in which Poland was restored as an independent state. Officially known as the Republic of Poland or the Commonwealth of Poland , the Polish state was...

- Slovak

Slovak Republic (1939-1945)

The Slovak Republic , also known as the First Slovak Republic or the Slovak State , was a fascist state which existed from 14 March 1939 to 8 May 1945 as a puppet state of Nazi Germany. It existed on roughly the same territory as present-day Slovakia...

border. On that night, a group of German

Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...

Military Intelligence

Military intelligence

Military intelligence is a military discipline that exploits a number of information collection and analysis approaches to provide guidance and direction to commanders in support of their decisions....

(Abwehr
Abwehr
The Abwehr was a German military intelligence organisation from 1921 to 1944. The term Abwehr was used as a concession to Allied demands that Germany's post-World War I intelligence activities be for "defensive" purposes only...

) armed agents attacked a rail station in Mosty

Mosty u Jablunkova

is a village in the Moravian-Silesian Region of the Czech Republic, located in the Jablunkov Pass. It has 3,997 inhabitants, 18.3% of the population are the Poles. 83.9% of the population are religious, of whom 93.8% are Catholic...

. The main purpose of the attack was to capture the Jablunkov Pass

Jablunkov Pass

Jablunkov Pass is a mountain pass in the Beskids, located in the elevation of 553 m above sea level, in the Czech Republic, near the border with Poland and Slovakia....

, with its strategic railroad tunnel, until the arrival of the German armed forces. The attackers were repelled by units of the Polish Army, and the incident is regarded as a prelude to the German invasion of Poland. The Jabłonków Incident has been named the first commando operation of the Second World War.

Prelude

According to Adolf Hitler

Adolf Hitler

Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...

's order, the invasion of Poland was planned for 4:25 a.m., on August 26, 1939. However, on August 25, the attack was delayed because on that day the German Chancellor learned that Britain had signed a new treaty with Poland, in which it promised military support if Poland was attacked.

Part of Germany's plan to invade Poland, Fall Weiss (Case White), involved small groups of Germans dressed in Räuberzivil ("robbers' civvies" - inconspicuous, rugged casual

Casual

In the European tradition, casual is the dress code that emphasizes comfort and personal expression over presentation and uniformity. It includes a very wide variety of costume, so it is perhaps better defined by what it isn't than what it is...

clothing) crossing the border the night before and seizing key strategic points before dawn on the day of the invasion. The secret Abwehr

Abwehr

The Abwehr was a German military intelligence organisation from 1921 to 1944. The term Abwehr was used as a concession to Allied demands that Germany's post-World War I intelligence activities be for "defensive" purposes only...

battalion detailed to undertake these operations was given the euphemistic title of "Construction Training Company 800 for Special Duties". A group under the command of Lieutenant Dr Hans-Albrecht Herzner of Abwehrstelle Breslau, who later became commandant of the Nachtigall Battalion

Nachtigall Battalion

The Nachtigall Battalion , officially known as Special Group Nachtigall, was the subunit under command of the Abwehr special operation unit Lehrregiment "Brandenburg" z.b.V. 800...

, the first foreign legion of the Wehrmacht
Wehrmacht
The Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...

, was instructed to prepare the way for the assault of the 7th Infantry Division by infiltrating the border. They were to capture a railway station at Mosty

Mosty

Mosty may refer to:* Dlouhé Mosty, part of Františkovy Lázně, Czech Republic* Mosty u Českého Těšína, village near Český Těšín, Czech Republic, now part of that town* Mosty u Jablunkova, village in Frýdek-Místek District, Czech Republic...

in the Jablunka Pass in the Carpathian Mountains to prevent the destruction of the single-track railway tunnel which was the shortest connection between Warsaw

Warsaw

Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...

and Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

.

The Jabłonków Pass, which separates mountain ranges of Moravian-Silesian Beskids

Moravian-Silesian Beskids

The Moravian-Silesian Beskids is a mountain range in the Czech Republic with a small part reaching to Slovakia. It lies on the historical division between Moravia and Silesia, hence the name...

and the Silesian Beskids

Silesian Beskids

Silesian Beskids is one of the Beskids mountain ranges in Outer Western Carpathians in southern Silesian Voivodeship, Poland and the eastern Moravian-Silesian Region, Czech Republic.Most of the range lies in Poland...

, is one of the most important transport routes in the Western Carpathians

Western Carpathians

The Western Carpathians are a mountain range and geomorphological province that forms the western part of the Carpathian Mountains.The mountain belt stretches from the Low Beskids range of the Eastern Carpathians along the border of Poland with Slovakia toward the Moravian region of the Czech...

. In October 1938 together with the territory of Zaolzie

Zaolzie

Zaolzie is the Polish name for an area now in the Czech Republic which was disputed between interwar Poland and Czechoslovakia. The name means "lands beyond the Olza River"; it is also called Śląsk zaolziański, meaning "trans-Olza Silesia". Equivalent terms in other languages include Zaolší in...

, it was annexed by the Second Polish Republic

Second Polish Republic

; therefore, Poland controlled a key railroad connection, the Košice-Bohumín railway line

Košice-Bohumín Railway

The Košice–Bohumín Railway can refer to:*originally: A private railway company established in 1869 in Austria-Hungary. In 1924 the company was nationalised and put under the Czechoslovak State Railways....

. The rail tunnel and the station at Jabłonków are part of the line. The Germans knew that failure to capture the line and the tunnel would seriously affect Wehrmacht

Wehrmacht

The Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...

moves in southern Poland.

The attack

The task of the Abwehr

Abwehr

detachment under Lieutenant Hans Albrecht Herzner of Abwehrstelle Breslau was to capture both the rail station at Mosty and the strategic tunnel to prevent it from destruction by Polish forces. The Abwehr detachment was given the task of occupying the Jabłonków Pass before the actual hostilities. The German agents were ordered to disable demolition systems and make way for the 7th Infantry Division from Munich

Munich

Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...

, stationed nearby. The German agents included mostly volunteers, members of the German minority of Zaolzie

Zaolzie

, some of whom belonged to the Kampf-Organisation in Jabłonków

Jablunkov

Jablunkov is a town in Frýdek-Místek District, Moravian-Silesian Region of the Czech Republic. It has a population of 5,750 , 23% of the population are Poles. Jablunkov lies between the Silesian and Moravian-Silesian Beskids mountain ranges, in the historical region of Cieszyn Silesia, and is the...

.

Polish Army headquarters were fully aware of the strategic importance of the tunnel and it was mined as early as June 1939 by soldiers of the 21st Sapper Battalion from Bielsko

Bielsko

Bielsko was until 1950 an independent town situated in Cieszyn Silesia, Poland. In 1951 it was joined with Biała Krakowska to form the new town of Bielsko-Biała. Bielsko constitutes the western part of that town....

, under reserve Colonel Witold Pirszel, who was a mining engineer. The tunnel was guarded by soldiers of the local post of the Border Guard

Border Guard (Poland)

Border Guard is a Polish state security agency tasked with patrol of the Polish border. It existed in the Second Polish Republic from 1928 to 1939 and was recreated in Third Polish Republic in 1990.- 1928-1939 :...

from the village of Świerczynowiec

Svrcinovec

Svrčinovec is a village and municipality in Čadca District in the Žilina Region of northern Slovakia.- History :In historical records the village was first mentioned in 1658....

, and an infantry platoon of the 4th Regiment of Podhale Rifles

Podhale rifles

Podhale Rifles is the traditional name of the mountain infantry units of the Polish Army. Formed in 1918 out of volunteers of the region of Podhale, in 1919 the smaller detachments of Podhale Rifles were pressed into two mountain infantry divisions, the 21st Mountain Infantry and 22nd Mountain...

. The nearest National Defense

National Defense (Poland)

National Defense was a volunteer military formation of the Second Polish Republic.Its units were subordinated to various Polish corps and armies....

outpost was stationed in Trzyniec. In summer of 1939, every day after the last train, Polish sappers armed the explosives for the night on both sides of the 300-meter long tunnel.

The German detachment of some 70 agents dressed in civilian clothes (some sources put the number at 24), set off from Čadca

Cadca

Čadca is a district town in northern Slovakia, near the border with Poland and the Czech Republic.-Geography:It is located south of the Jablunkov Pass, surrounded by the Javorníky, Kysucké Beskydy and Turzovská vrchovina mountain ranges. It lies in the valley of the Kysuca river, around 30 km...

on August 25 late in the evening. During the night, it crossed the Polish - Slovak border near the mountain of Velký Polom and reached the station at Mosty at around 4 a.m. on August 26, not knowing that Adolf Hitler had cancelled his order and delayed the attack on Poland for September 1. The agents set their positions on a hill near Mosty station and began shooting at the station building, as well as at a house where the principal of a local Polish school lived. In the following minutes, the Germans captured the station after some fighting, and took prisoner a group of workers on their way to the Třinec Iron and Steel Works

Trinec Iron and Steel Works

Třinec Iron and Steel Works is a producer of long rolled steel products in Třinec, Moravian-Silesian Region, Czech Republic. TŽ produces over a third of all steel produced in the Czech Republic . Since its establishment, Třinecké železárny's plants have produced more than 150 million tons of...

. Franz Kurowski writes that Lieutenant Hans Albrecht Herzner persuaded a Polish lieutenant at Mosty station to talk to other Polish soldiers to stop fighting, because Germany had been at war with Poland since 4:24 a.m., and the bloodshed was unnecessary. However, they had no idea that the station was equipped with a military communication system, located in the basement. A female telephonist managed to call Polish units guarding the tunnel, and the alarm was raised. Polish sentries armed with machine guns took positions on both sides of the tunnel and an observation post was established. A chaotic exchange of fire took place after which the Germans realised that the operation was a failure and scattered in the nearby woods. Some agents managed to capture a locomotive and tried to enter the tunnel, but were repelled by Polish police. The Germans remained under heavy fire, while trying to withdraw to Slovakia. They managed to return to Slovakia at around midday of August 26, with two wounded.

The German writer Franz Kurowski, in his book "The Brandenburger Commandos", presents the Jabłonków incident in a different way than Polish-language sources. While Polish historian Doctor Tomasz Chinciński of the Institute of National Remembrance

Institute of National Remembrance

Institute of National Remembrance — Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation is a Polish government-affiliated research institute with lustration prerogatives and prosecution powers founded by specific legislation. It specialises in the legal and historical sciences and...

accepts that the Germans captured the station at Mosty, he writes that the agents did not manage to capture the tunnel. Kurowski writes that the Germans captured both the tunnel and the station. Furthermore, he writes that the agents managed to take prisoner 2,000 Polish soldiers of an unknown unit.

Aftermath

After the incident, Generalmajor Eugen Ott

Eugen Ott (general)

Eugen Ott was a highly decorated General der Infanterie in the Wehrmacht during World War II who commanded several corps. He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross...

, commander of the 7th Infantry Division, which was then concentrated in the area of Žilina

Žilina

Žilina is a city in north-western Slovakia, around from the capital Bratislava, close to both the Czech and Polish borders. It is the fourth largest city of Slovakia with a population of approximately 85,000, an important industrial center, the largest city on the Váh river, and the seat of a...

, apologised to General Józef Kustroń

Józef Kustroń

Józef Rudolf Kustroń was a Brigadier General of the Polish Army in the Second Polish Republic, commandant of the 21st Mountain Infantry Division.-Early life:Kustroń spent his childhood in the southern town of Nowy Sącz, where his family had settled...

, commander of the 21st Mountain Infantry Division, which was stationed in nearby cities, and which was responsible for protection of the border. Ott claimed that the action had been staged by an "insane" individual, who was acting on his own.

The tunnel in Jabłonków was blown up by Colonel Witold Pirszel on September 1, 1939, at 6 a.m., a few minutes before German troops arrived. Rail communication in one part was reintroduced in February 1940, and in the other part in 1941.

Prelude

The attack

Aftermath

See also