Towarzysz pancerny
Encyclopedia
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, named for his chainmail
Chainmail
Mail is a type of armour consisting of small metal rings linked together in a pattern to form a mesh.-History:Mail was a highly successful type of armour and was used by nearly every metalworking culture....
armor ("pancerz"). These units were the second-most-important cavalry
Cavalry
Cavalry or horsemen were soldiers or warriors who fought mounted on horseback. Cavalry were historically the third oldest and the most mobile of the combat arms...
arm in the Polish Army, after the Hussars
Polish Hussars
The Polish Hussars were the main type of cavalry of the first Polish Army, later also introduced into the Army of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, between the 16th and 18th centuries...
.
Most pancerni were recruited from the middle or lower classes of szlachta
Szlachta
The szlachta was a legally privileged noble class with origins in the Kingdom of Poland. It gained considerable institutional privileges during the 1333-1370 reign of Casimir the Great. In 1413, following a series of tentative personal unions between the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of...
(nobility). They were organized into companies (singular: chorągiew pancerna) of 60-200 horsemen.
In the medieval times, during Mieszko I and Bolesław I Chrobry rules, pancerni were members of prince own force, as they only in whole army wore mail armours.
In modern Polish, "pancerni" also means "tank
Tank
A tank is a tracked, armoured fighting vehicle designed for front-line combat which combines operational mobility, tactical offensive, and defensive capabilities...
men," as in the title of the book and TV series, Czterej pancerni i pies
Czterej pancerni i pies
Czterej pancerni i pies was a Polish black and white TV series based on the book by Janusz Przymanowski. Made between 1966 and 1970, the series is composed of 21 episodes of 55 minutes each, divided into three seasons. It is set in 1944 and 1945, during World War Two, and follows the adventures of...
(Four Tank Men and a Dog). The word "pancerny" is seldom used in that context, however, the common word being "czołgista" (from "czołg," "tank").
See also
- Polish cavalryPolish cavalryThe Polish cavalry can trace its origins back to the days of Medieval mounted knights. Poland had always been a country of flatlands and fields and mounted forces operate well in this environment...
- TowarzyszTowarzyszA Towarzysz was sort of a junior cavalry officer or rather knight-officer in the autorament narodowy Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth National army, both in cavalry and infantry, from the 16th century until 1794 AD....
- Towarzysz husarskiTowarzysz husarskiTowarzysz husarski or Husarz , was the name of a type of heavy cavalryman in Poland....
- PoczetPoczetPoczet was the smallest organized unit of soldiers in Kingdom of Poland and Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth from the 15th until the 18th century. The name of a medium or heavy-cavalry soldiers in poczet was pocztowy.In the cavalry, each poczet was commanded by a towarzysz husarski or towarzysz...
- Pocztowy
- Offices in the Polish-Lithuanian CommonwealthOffices in the Polish-Lithuanian CommonwealthThis article discusses the organizational and administrative structure of the Polish-Lithuanian CommonwealthThe Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth This article discusses the organizational and administrative structure of the Polish-Lithuanian CommonwealthThe Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth This article...
- PetyhorcyPetyhorcyPetyhorcy was a type of 16-18th century medium-armoured cavalry in Great Duchy of Lithuania and Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Initially it was formed from Circassians which came to Lithuania from under the rule of the Russian Tsardom...