"...Tonight our eternal enemy has begun hostile actions against the Polish State... The entire Polish Nation, blessed by God in the struggle for a sacred and just cause, united with the army, will march shoulder to shoulder into battle and to a just victory..." This is an excerpt from the address to the nation of 1 September 1939, signed by the President of the Republic of Poland, Professor Dr Ignacy Mościcki.
The 1939 defensive war was one of the most terrible wars in our history. Within 35 days, one of Europe’s larger states was destroyed. Poland was crushed by the blows of invading armed forces, the most powerful in the world at that time, created by two inhuman states: Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia. After just 20 years of independent existence, Poland fell. In September 1939, the entire nation fought, chiefly its citizens in uniform: one million soldiers. They did not know that their resistance, against the overwhelming superiority of both aggressors, would last so briefly. That million Poles in uniform were not seeking to shine through courage or daring. They were truly fighting for the independence regained at such a high price. They were fighting for their country.
The Polish soldier fought alone. Abandoned by Western allies who failed to fulfil their commitment to launch a powerful offensive in the West immediately after 1 September, they handed Poland over to Moscow’s guardianship several years later. On the morning of 17 September, Soviet troops, Germany’s allies, carried out a treacherous aggression against our country. Their aim was to finish off, in the words of the Soviet premier, the “grotesque bastard of the Treaty of Versailles”—that is, Poland. Thus, the Fourth Partition took place. Due to known circumstances, the course of the Soviet aggression against our country remains a great blank “spot.” I refer readers to the booklet “Kodziowice 1939,” about an unknown episode of this aggression. Here, the heroic lancers of the 101st Regiment on the Niemen destroyed 17 Soviet tanks in battle using... bottles filled with petrol. The undersigned is a co-author of the booklet, which can be purchased at the bookshop in the Market Square.
Today, only about a hundred soldiers of the September 1939 campaign still live in our town and municipality. The youngest of them are about 75 years old.
On ceremonial occasions, they pin medals to their jackets, hanging from a grey ribbon bearing the inscription “For Participation in the 1939 Defensive War—Homeland.” They are very proud of these medals.
In the first years after 1945, when we were raising our town from the ruins, they were always first, everywhere. We cannot present all of them here. Let us therefore mention only the surviving Knights of the War Order of Virtuti Militari, awarded in 1939, who have lived in the town on the Bóbr for more than 40 years. Here they are: Captain Władysław Gołąb—now 90 years old—commander of the sapper platoon of the 79th Infantry Regiment. He fought from Mława to the fall of the capital. Senior Sergeant Otto Zych, a non-commissioned officer of the 2nd Squadron of Horse Artillery of the Wołyń Cavalry Brigade. He is now 78. He fought from the famous border battle near the village of Mokra, close to Częstochowa, all the way to Lviv. Other Knights of this Order were the late Colonel Dr Józef Kłosowski and the late Colonel Bolesław Dziubek. When we encounter the Soldiers of the September Campaign, recognizing them by the aforementioned Medal, let us bow our heads before them.