Windmills on the Eastern Front - Windmühlen im Osten

[TabsTabs1964]

So in 1939 there was no miracle as in 1920. Poland was defeated by two powerful invaders and their spoils were distributed among the victors.


1939 Defensive Campaign Medal




Two images of a Polish windmill in 1939


Near Lublin, 1940.


Somewhere in Poland




Siedlce the midpoint between Warsaw and Brest Litovsk, 50 km. of each city. A windmill next to a field hospital. Look at the large red cross on the central esplanade and others on the roofs of the barracks







The territory of Poland will very soon become the "Generalgouvernement" and the friends of September 1939 will be mortal enemies in June 1941.

But we'll talk about that another day.

[Danmark]

They made good snipers perches I'm sure ........... for a short while

[TabsTabs1964]

Just a moment before continuing with the story.
As Dan says. A windmill is a good position for a sniper.


This photo from 1915 is an example.


My son gives me this screenshot of one of his favorite games a few years ago Battlefield 1- Eepisode Windmill sniper.

[TabsTabs1964]

Two more pre-war images.

On the first one, from 1915, its owner wrote in German: Slupca, Russia. Although this population is located in Poland.



The second image is taken in 1936. In it we can see three Polish officers, with a windmill in the background. The one on the right is wearing a Krzyż Walecznych 1920. (Cross of Valor)





Cross of Valour (Krzyż Walecznych) It was awarded to an individual who "has demonstrated deeds of valour and courage on the field of battle." It may be awarded to the same person up to four times. The medal is given only in wartime or shortly after. The medal was introduced by the Council of National Defensein 1920 at the height of the Polish-Soviet War, shortly before the climactic Battle of Warsaw. Through 29 May 1923, when the last medal for the Polish-Soviet War was awarded, the Cross of Valour had been granted to some 60,000 soldiers.

[TabsTabs1964]

After the Polish capitulation at the beginning of October 1939, the former border with the German Reich ceased to exist.




A windmill at the very edge of the border



The Polish territory conquered in 1939 would be called Generalgouvernement, formally the General Governorate for the Occupied Polish Region
(Generalgouvernement für die besetzten polnischen Gebiet) Obviously this administrative territory was expanded in 1941 after the attack on the USSR


Document of the official proclamation of the General Government.
Its capital will be in Carcovia, it will cover more than 94,000 square km and will have about ten million inhabitants.



Below is a modern map in which the German administrative division of the conquered territories in the east can be better appreciated.

[TabsTabs1964]

In 1939 Poland was a fundamentally agricultural country, producing enormous quantities of cereals (that was one of the reasons why Germany coveted its territory)

As we have said, throughout Poland there were thousands of water, electric and wind mills (windmills there were about 7.000) whose purpose was to transform cereal into flour.


A Polish hydraulic mill

The basic idea of German agrarian policy in the General Government was the desire to completely seize agricultural products and leave local farmers only those quantities that would allow them to survive and, above all, continue to farm and cultivate.


Another Polish windmill (Wiatrak)

In general, the processing and distribution of food was only permitted if it remained under strict German supervision. First of all, it was about cereals. And, therefore, the special attention that the Germans paid to the mills and millers.






A group of three images in which we can see some Polish peasant women receiving a "courtesy" visit from a German official

The occupier divided the General Government's milling industry into two categories of factories: commercial factories and economic factories. The largest mills were designated as commercial mills, which ground grain to supply the urban and non-agricultural population with a basic bread.



An annual quota for grinding bread-making grain was determined for each commercial mill. Grinding above this quota was prohibited.

[TabsTabs1964]

Mills were strategically important facilities for the Germans. Therefore, partisan units destroyed them or disrupted their work, especially those that worked directly for the occupier's needs or when the owners charged too high prices for grain milling, contrary to the admonitions of the resistance movement. In this battle for bread, BCh (*) units destroyed many mills in the Kielce region in 1943-1944.


Cadets of peasant battalions of the Krasnystaw district in the Stasin forest, May 1944.

(*) Peasant Battalions (Polish: Bataliony Chłopskie, abbreviated BCh) was a Polish resistance movement, guerrilla and partisan organization, during World War II. The organization was created in mid-1940 by the agrarian political party, People's Party and by 1944 was partially integrated with the Armia Krajowa (Home Army). At its height, in summer 1944 the organización had 160,000 members

The images found of these peasant battalions are generally from 1944 (and somewhat idealized). It is easy to assume that their existence in the first years of occupation must have been terrible, given the intensity of the German occupation of Polish territory and the tight control over the population....


Medal of the Peasant Battalions


An image from 1943. The German platoon marches with a windmill in the background

Actually, the massive destruction of windmills (and many more public infrastructures) occurred with the German withdrawal (1944-45) from Polish territory and the advance of the Red Army.

[TabsTabs1964]

During World War II, approximately 60% of windmills in Poland were destroyed, the rest were progressively abandoned due to lack of post-war maintenance, progressive electrification and disinterest in them on the part of the communist authorities.

A group of four post-war photographs (1948) of Polish officers with a young girl, perhaps the miller's daughter. Fans of post-war Polish uniforms will especially enjoy these images










In 1954 there were still 3,280 windmills, of which only 63 were considered operational. For these reasons, the centuries-old tradition of windmills in Poland came to an end.




Two current images of Polish windmills

Well friends, in the next posts we will continue moving east and go back to June 1941.

[Chopperman]

Great thread Santi.
Very interesting indeed.

[TabsTabs1964]

Throughout the territory of the former USSR invaded by the Germans in 1941 and 1942 and today occupied by the three Baltic Republics, Belarus, Ukraine and Western Russia, although it is not something that is widely known, there were many, many windmills.


Map of the huge area of the USSR that came under German occupation in World War II

From north to south. From the outskirts of Leningrad, the Novgorod plains, from Minsk to Smolensk; on both sides of the Pipryat swamps, in Roslavl and in Bryansk. Entering Ukraine, in the Dnieper basin, in the Dniester basin, on the banks of the Donets, throughout the Crimean Peninsula; on the shores of the Azov Sea…. And also, further and further east, in Orel, on the banks of the Don and advancing to Stalingrad to the Volga and beyond….

Below are some photos that mark a series of places on that route from north to south....


Kurland


Derlo, next river Bug, near Janow Podlaski, Brest 1941


Orel Photograph of a German soldier 1942


Another from Orel area


Motronovka, now Bortniansky district, Chernihiv region


In the Don. Mill in the village of Ilyinka, Egorlyk district


Next to Járkov


Khorol district, Poltava province


Ukraine. Kupychiv village of the former Turiiskyi district, now Kovelskyi district. circa 1915


Mills southeast of Yeysk from the cathedral. Circa 1919, on the shores of the Sea of Azov