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The following is the Order Of Battle of the Polish Air Force prior to the outbreak of the Polish Defensive War of 1939 . During the mobilization waves of March and August of that year, all peace-time units were deployed to airfields throughout the country and attached to respective commands of Air Force, Naval Air Service and squadrons supporting each of the Polish armies. In the last stages of the air campaign, whole units coordinated all actions in the fight against the invaders. The Polish fighters claimed 134 air victories, including 7 enemy aeroplanes shot down by Polish PZL P.7 a fighters, 125 by PZL P.11 fighters of all types (PZL P.11a through PZL P.11g), and 2 downed by PZL P.24 f. In addition, the Polish air forces had a number of PZL.37 Łoś and PZL.23 Karaś bombers, as well as a number of non-combat planes used for reconnaissance, observation, communications, army cooperation and transport. Among the latter were Lublin R.XIII , LWS-3 Mewa , RWD-5 , RWD-8 , RWD-14 Czapla , PWS-10 and PWS-26 . COMMAND STRUCTURE The Polish war-time command structure was based on inter-war structure of the air forces. Apart from two air brigades held in reserve by the Commander in Chief (one of them being the Bomber Brigade , the other - Pursuit Brigade ), Polish forces were divided onto the following units:
Each escadrille was given a respective number and a proper name, depending on its main tasks. Hence the escadrilles were divided onto:
The name of each of the squadrons was usually preceded by the number of the air regiment the unit was attached to in the peace time. Hence the ''III/1 dywizjon myśliwski'' (composed of '' 111 Eskadra Myśliwska '' and ''112 eskadra myśliwska'') was in fact the ''1st Fighter Squadron of the 3rd Air Regiment''. RESERVE OF THE COMMANDER IN CHIEF The strategic reserve of the commander in chief of the Polish Army consisted of two air brigades stationed around Warsaw and additional communications squadrons used for easier handling of orders from the headquarters to respective armies. Altogether, on September 1 , 1939 Edward Rydz-Śmigły had 146 combat aeroplanes and 60 non-combat planes at his disposal. HQ units
Pursuit Brigade See Also: Pursuit Brigade
Bomber Brigade See Also: Bomber Brigade
ARMY AVIATION In addition to the above mentioned units, the gros of the Polish aviation was attached to land units of corps- and army-size. They were to provide necessary support in all roles. In all, various units of the Polish Army had 288 planes at their disposal, including 246 combat planes and 42 support planes. Aviation of the Modlin Army See Also: Modlin Army
Aviation of the Pomorze Army See Also: Pomorze Army
Aviation of the Poznań Army See Also: Poznań Army
Aviation of the Łódź Army See Also: Łódź Army
Aviation of the Kraków Army See Also: Kraków Army
Aviation of the Karpaty Army See Also: Karpaty Army
Aviation of the Narew Independent Operational Group
NAVAL AVIATION
AIRCRAFT IN ACTIVE SERVICE IN SEPTEMBER 1939 Combat aircraft
Support aircraft
SEE ALSO REFERENCES
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