The German invasion of Poland, which began on September’s first day in 1939, wasn’t originally scheduled for that date. It had been set to start nearly a week earlier, on the 26th of August. But it was delayed at the last minute when Adolf Hitler got wind of a new pact that Britain had signed with Poland, one which promised military assistance should Poland be attacked. So the German Chancellor slammed the brakes hard on Fall Weiss (Case White) to evaluate this new development. And almost everybody got the message.
Lt. Albrecht Herzner did not.
Lt. Herzner’s small band of 24 commandos, which was officially called “Construction Training Company 800 for Special Duties”, were charged with capturing a railroad station at Mosty, Poland. Located on the border with Czechoslovakia (which had been taken over by Germany earlier in the year), this target was important not so much for the station itself, but for the railroad tunnel to which the tracks led. He and his men didn’t hear anything about a delay.
At 4:00am on August 26, 1939, Herzner’s band of men arrived at the station. Within minutes, they had captured the station and taken a few prisoners. He convinced the Polish Lieutenant on duty that Germany was invading Poland and that bloodshed was unnecessary. What Herzner didn’t know was that the station had a basement with a fully functioning military phone…and someone was frantically dialing for help. The alarm had been sounded.
Polish soldiers arrived on scene to protect the tunnel and drive back the invaders. Herzner wisely realized that his raid wasn’t going well (and reinforcements hadn’t arrived) and he and his men scattered to the surrounding forests, suffering two wounded, and requiring half a day to extricate themselves.
And then the Germans had a lot of explaining to do. Herzner had given away not only his team’s objective for Fall Weiss, but he had told Polish officers that an invasion was at hand. The Polish military may have been out-manned, out-gunned, out-tanked, and out-planed, but they certainly were not out-brained. They knew something was up. The Germans tried to cover over their huge communications gaffe by saying one of their low-level officers had gone insane, made up the invasion story, and launched an attack on his own. They hoped the Poles bought it.
When the actual invasion was launched, that railroad tunnel near Mosty was one of the first things the Polish army blew up, so I’m guessing the story of an insane office didn’t pass muster.
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That’s a fabulous story! It really highlights the difference between the command and control systems of then and now. I would also like to know what became of our good private..uh I mean Lieutenant!
Richard,
Thanks for reading and for the comments.
Herzner actually remained a Lieutenant and went on to command forces in Operation Barbarossa…I believe a foreign legion-type force called the Nachtigall (or something like that, I’m typing from memory).
He survived the war, but I need to do some digging to find out the rank at which he finished service.
Regards,
Joel
Herzner did not survive the war. He was wounded in his spinal backbone and his death was by drawning during the convalescence on Sept 3rd, 1942. For the incident he recieved the iron cross IInd class, which in fact at first was an administrative problem, because soldiers could be only decorated for actions which took place after Sept 1st, 1939.
Whoa!! Then my searches for his “post-war” status were a false road. I did not know he died in the war. Thanks for the correction…it’s very much appreciated!
Regards,
Joel
For further information I recommend the newest edition of the german book “Mosty und Dirschau 1939” by Herbert Schindler. The author compares several official and transferred versions of the story and tries to find out the truth and falsificates several myths.
I just read in a book of short stories of ww2 the opposite. He was given credit for firing the first shots of war. I’m going to try and contact author of book and do some more research. Herzner name is in my family. It also said he was anti Nazi.