In the ranks of the Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler was the fledgling tank ace Michael Wittmann. The Leibstandarte Motorised Regiment fought hard in Poland from the first day of the campaign. On that day the armoured scout platoon was soon in action, and Wittmann had received his baptism of fire. The campaign in Poland was brief (only 30 days in duration) but, nonetheless, his experiences had whetted his appetite for combat. In the following year Wittmann and his armoured car again saw action in the rapid campaign that led to the fall of France.
The Polish campaign demonstrated the speed and power possessed by Panzers and the excellence of the Panzer Divisions. It also demonstrated that the time of large armies made up of infantry marching on foot and cavalry was over. At the same time, it provided the Germans with real experience of using armour in combat conditions.
Above all the Germans learned that tanks were not suited for combat in built up areas: heavy losses had been suffered in the direct assault on Warsaw. They also discovered that well organised anti-tank defences are very costly for tank forces to assault in the absence of proper preparation. What the Polish Campaign also proved beyond doubt was that PzKpfw I and II were unsuitable to be used as front-line combat tanks and should be completely replaced with the heavier PzKpfw III and IV. The other sobering lesson was that during the course of the campaign the Light Divisions had proved to be unsuccessful, being too weak to perform the tasks of either Cavalry or motorised infantry.
A war artist’s impression of German tanks moving through a burning Russian village published in the April 1942 edition of Signal, the propaganda magazine.