The first visit

In the home garrisons, the brigade units trained soldiers intensively, especially as many reservists who reached a high level of proficiency in summer and autumn left after partial demobilisation.

    Photo number DRM 1901_39 comes from 1938–1939. Photo DRM 1901_39 shows the first visit to 10th Mounted Riflemen Regiment by Colonel Stanisław Maczek, commander of 10th Mounted Brigade, and Major Franciszek Skibiński, chief of brigade headquarters. Brigade officers are wearing black berets model 37, leather jackets, breeches and high boots. Col. W. Cieślinski (as well as his riflemen) are wearing German helmets model 1916, cloth coats and high boots. It is worth paying attention to the standing rifleman (2nd from the right) where the spurs are visible. The motorcyclist (first from the right) is wearing a leather jacket, a model 16 helmet and has motorbike goggles hanging at his neck. He uses a Sokół 1000 motorcycle with a sidecar with a mounted light machine gun model 28. The Sokół 1000 M 111 motorcycle was developed for the army by Eng. Tadeusz Rudowski in 1936. Those motorcycles came in two versions, i.e. solo and with a sidecar. The solo version was intended for messengers, officers and was used as liaison vehicles, whereas the version with the sidecar was used in reconnaissance units as support vehicles after fitting a light machine gun (rkm model 28 Browning) in the sidecar. At the same time, a special platform (instead of the sidecar) was developed to allow the installation of a heavy machine gun enabling, among other things, air defence fire. The design assumptions and price (around 4,200 Polish zloty) meant that most produced vehicles were sent to military units, where they became basic motorcycle equipment. The light machine gun (RKM) model 28 was developed in the first half of 1920s and its creation was necessitated by the use of several types of obsolete models on the one hand and the army's switch to 7.92 Mauser ammunition on the other. The beginnings of independence and the struggle for the borders were characterised by the variety of models of weapons, their ammunition, but also by the variety of close combat weapons and uniforms. It is not hard to imagine that a single unit could have different types of light machine guns with different ammunition that fitted only one model which resulted from the inheritance of weapons and ammunition from the partition armies or bringing weapons of French and allied design by the Blue Army. In such circumstances, logistics must have been a real challenge for the quartermaster services trying to keep the various divisions and formations in top fighting condition. The driving force behind the creation of new individual and team weapon models was the decision to standardise the calibre of the ammunition used to the 7.92 Mauser cartridge. Following numerous competitions, the Browning design was chosen (delivery of 10,000 weapons plus a licence for documentation to enable later production) manufactured at the FN plant. Since 1930, light machine guns (rkm) were produced at the Gun Factory in Warsaw where, by 1939, 13,000–14,000 guns were made, the price of which, with a toolbox and a set of spare parts, was 2060 zloty.

Przemysław Kucia