When the Bzura River battle lasted
Majority of exhibits shown on this exposure are infantry and cavalary weapons, equipment, uniforms, photos and documents of Polish troops fought in the Bzura River Battle in 1939. These artefacts, hidden on the battlefield by soldiers and local citizens were found many years after the war by museum’s funcionaries or were given by families of the fallen troops.
Unique exhibits are:
- mk. 30 Browning heavy machine gun on an anti-aircraft tripod
- mk.1908 Maxim heavy machine gun on a sledge base
- mk.25 Hotchkiss heavy machine gun, probably dismounted from a polish armoured car
- mk.1915 Chauchat light machine gun with a viewfinder
- cal. 37mm mk.36 Bofors anti-tank gun
- cal. 81mm mk.1931 Stockes Brand infantry mortar
- mk.35 anti-tank rifle
- 7th Mounted Regiment capitan’s uniform
- horse tack mk 36.
There are also documents from fighting connected with the defence of Sochaczew from 13th to the 16th of September 1939. The city was defended by the 2nd Battalion of the 18th Infantry Regiment, commanded by major Feliks Kozubowski, who was killed in action on the 15th of September during the fighting in Sochaczew. Keepsakes and mementos of the defenders and photographs of the destuction of Sochaczew are exhibited, especially a unique collection of equipment of the Hospital Corps of the Polish Army. This equipment was used in the field hospital no 802 in Sochaczew.
Our most valuable finds
In one of the rooms you can see the most valuable exhibits acquired over many years of searching conducted by the museum in the area of the battlefield of the Bzura River. You can find there:
- the standard of the 59th Infantry Regiment of the Pommeranian Army
- the eagle from the standard of the 68th Infantry Regiment of the Poznan Army
- the bugle, banner and eagle from the standard of the 2nd Cavalry Regiment
- a small box with seals from the 26th Artillery Regiment
- an equipment and identity disks of “Vistula” River Navy Special Unit marines
- mementos of generals: Roman Abraham, commander of Wielkopolska Cavalry Brigade; Stanislaw Grzmot-Skotnicki, commander of Cavalry Operation Group, who died of wounds on the 19th of September 1939
- a 46mm grenade launcher with an inscription indicating that it was purchased from the Fund for the National Defence.
Occupation Time
Apart from mementos from the Battle of the Bzura River, there are items and documents of the local history of the Sochaczew Region from 1940 to 1944 shown on the exhibition. Documents and photographs regarding the orders of the Nazi Occupation are exhibited as well as the activities of the Resistance, especially those of the “Skowronek” district of the AK (Home Army) and the AK “Kampinos” group. In one glass exhibit case there are mementos of the paratroop commandos of the “Dark and Quiet” unit, who were airdropped into the Sochaczew Region at the end of 1941. Interesting part of this exhibition is wreckage of German Me-109 fighter, which was found and excavated from the ground by museum workers in Kampinos Forest near Warsaw.
The Warsaw Uprising 1944
Worth seeing are also mementos connected with the Warsaw Uprising, which broke out on the 1st of August 1944. There are mannikens of Resistnce fighters and their weapons, documents and photos of the fighting Warsaw.
Paths to Victory 1945
The final exposition room shows “Paths to Victory 1945” exhibit where mementos, uniforms and weapons of Polish soldiers who fought on both the Western front (Monte Cassino, Bolonia and Wilhelmshaven) and the Eastern front (Berlin) in the final phase of WWII are presented.