The Polish Armed Forces consisted of only two service branches - the Army and Navy. No independent Air Force existed; rather, air units were incorporated into each of the two services. The peacetime army airforce was organized into a system of Air Divisions, Regiments, and Groups. In war, however, the various squadrons would be combined into mixed Air Commands as dictated by the tactical situations, with independent brigades of fighters and bombers.

At the time of the German invasion, the Polish Army Air Force contained some 15 fighter squadrons, 9 bomber, 7 ground attack, 1 transport, and 12 reconnaissance squadrons. In addition, there were some 12 liaison platoons on active duty with the operational commands. The Army Air Force contained some 6,300 officers and men. The Naval Air Force was considerably smaller, containing only 2 squadrons (1 torpedo squadron and 1 training squadron) and a liaison platoon. While 828 planes would appear to constitute a considerable air force, approximately half those planes were woefully overage and obsolescent, having already been designated for replacement with modern craft which were only then coming out of the Polish factories.

Navy

The Polish Navy of 1939 consisted of 4 destroyers, 5 submarines, 2 sloops, 6 minesweepers, and 1 minelayer. The destroyers Grom and Blyskawica were British-built 2,144 ton ships, armed with seven 120mm and four 40mm guns. The destroyers Wicher and Burza were French- built 1,450 ton ships, armed with four 130mm and two 37mm guns. The minelayer Gryf was also French built, weighing 2,250 tons and armed with six 120mm and four 40mm guns. On August 30, two days before the beginning of the campaign, the destroyers Grom, Blyzkawica, and Burza sailed for England, thus avoiding the German blockade of the Polish ports. The Wicher and Gryf remained behind to aid in the defense of the ports, only to be sunk by German aircraft and naval fire.

The Polish submarines Orzel and Sep were British-built, 1,490 ton boats, armed with one 105mm gun and two 40mm guns each. The submarines Rys, With, and Zbik were French-built 1,250 ton boats, armed with one 100mm gun and two machine guns. At the time of the invasion, all five submarines were at sea, and they tried for several days to either break the German blockade or to disrupt the German convoys to East Prussia. The Polish submarines, upon the capture of the main naval base at Gdynia, were forced to seek other harbors. The Orzel and Wilk eventually made it to England, while Sep, Rys, and Zbik were forced to seek internment in Sweden.

The two Finnish-built sloops, Kommendant Pilsudski and General Haller, had a displacement of 349 tons, and were armed with two 75mm guns. The General Haller was sunk during the campaign, while the Kommendant Pilsudski was captured and taken into German service. The six minesweepers were all Polish-built, displacing 180 tons each and armed with a single 75mm gun. The Jaskolka and Czapla were sunk during the campaign, while the Mewa, Czajka, Rybitwa, and Zuraw were captured by the Germans.

In addition to naval units, the Polish navy maintained its own air command, consisting of a naval torpedo squadron equipped with ten R-XIII and two R-VIII Polish-built seaplanes, a naval training squadron with five R-XIII seaplanes and one Italian-built Cant Z-506B seaplane, and a naval reconnaissance platoon of three RWD- 8's and an R-XIII. At the time of the invasion, 30 Cant Z-506B seaplanes were on order from Italy to re-equip the entire Naval Air Command; however, the planes did not arrive before the start of the campaign.

The Polish Navy High Command was also responsible for the defense of its three main installations: the ammunition depot of Westerplatte in the Danzig harbor, the naval installation at Oksywiu (just north of Gdynia), and the Hel Peninsula. To accomplish this task, the navy had two marine infantry battalions, an additional two marine infantry battalions which were being formed at the time of the invasion, the "Sienkiewicze" Frontier Guards Battalion, and a six-battalion brigade of the National Guard. The two new marine battalions were operationally combined into a single battalion once the fighting began.

For artillery support, the navy command included three units: the Marine Light Artillery Battalion, containing four 75mm guns and four 105mm guns; one fixed artillery section of three 75mm guns in the border fortifications; and a coastal artillery battery of four 152mm guns. For anti-aircraft defense, the "Coastal" Operational Group was provided with two heavy flak battalions, containing a total of fourteen 75mm guns, two flak batteries on the Hel Peninsula, with four 40mm guns each, and one battalion equipped with eighteen 13.2 Hotchkiss machine guns.

Planes	Number Operational	Reserves Training
PZL P-11 A	13	43
PZL P-11 C	116	-
PZL P-7A	30	75
PZL P-23 A "Karas "	-	35
PZL P-23 B "Karas "	118	50
PZL P-24 A	-	2
PZL P-37 A "Los"	-	25
PZL P-37 B "Los"	36	5
PZL P-43 B	-	8
Lublin R-VIII	2	-
Lublin R-XIII "Czapla"	53	5
RWD-8	52	95
RWD-14	35	20
Fokker F-VI	9	-
Cant Z-506B	1	-
Totals	465	363

More Polish Army 1939

Introduction
Cavalry
Mechanized
Artillery
Anti-Air Defense
Air Force
Order of Battle