Jabłonków Incident

Jablunkov Pass seen from the old fortifications

Jabłonków Incident (Polish: Incydent jabłonkowski, Czech: Jablunkovský incident) refers to the events of the night of August 25/26, 1939, along the Polish - Slovak border. On that night, a group of German Military Intelligence (Abwehr) armed agents attacked a rail station in Mosty. The main purpose of the attack was to capture the Jablunkov Pass, with its strategic railroad tunnel, until the arrival of the German armed forces.^[1] The attackers were repelled by units of the Polish Army, and the incident is regarded as a prelude to the German invasion of Poland.^[2] The Jabłonków Incident has been named the first commando operation of the Second World War.^[3]

Prelude

According to Adolf Hitler's order, the invasion of Poland was planned for 4:25 a.m., on August 26, 1939.^[1] 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.^[4]

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 clothing) crossing the border the night before and seizing key strategic points before dawn on the day of the invasion. The secret Abwehr 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. de:Hans-Albrecht Herzner of Abwehrstelle Breslau, who later became commandant of the Nachtigall Battalion, the first foreign legion of the Wehrmacht, 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 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 and Vienna.^[5][6][7]

The Jabłonków Pass, which separates mountain ranges of Moravian-Silesian Beskids and the Silesian Beskids, is one of the most important transport routes in the Western Carpathians. In October 1938 together with the territory of Zaolzie, it was annexed by the Second Polish Republic; therefore, Poland controlled a key railroad connection, the Košice-Bohumín railway line. 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 moves in southern Poland.^[8]

The attack

The task of the 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, stationed nearby.^[9] The German agents included mostly volunteers, members of the German minority of Zaolzie, some of whom belonged to the Kampf-Organisation in Jabłonków.^{[citation needed]}

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, under reserve Colonel Witold Pirszel, who was a mining engineer.^[10] The tunnel was guarded by soldiers of the local post of the Border Guard from the village of Świerczynowiec, and an infantry platoon of the 4th Regiment of Podhale Rifles. The nearest National Defense 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. ^{[citation needed]}

The German detachment of some 70 agents dressed in civilian clothes (some sources put the number at 24),^[11] set off from Čadca 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.^{[citation needed]} 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.^[12] 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.^[13] 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.^[14] 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.^[11]

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 accepts that the Germans captured the station at Mosty, he writes that the agents did not manage to capture the tunnel.^[15] 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.^{[citation needed]}

Aftermath

After the incident, Generalmajor Eugen Ott, commander of the 7th Infantry Division, which was then concentrated in the area of Žilina, apologised to General Józef Kustroń, 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.^[16]

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.^[17]

See also

• Operation Himmler
• Gleiwitz incident
• Tarnów rail station bomb attack
• Brandenburgers
• Selbstschutz

References

Coordinates: 49°30′38″N 18°45′05″E / 49.5106°N 18.7514°E / 49.5106; 18.7514