It’s September 18th,1939, in the Polish countryside near the village of Pociecha.
Section Commander Edmund Roman Orlik leads three TKS tankettes as they scour the land for the enemy.
“Stój!”
The tankettes come to an abrupt halt as Orlik hears something…
He listens closer, it sounds like tanks, it is tanks and they’re coming in from the right.
It has to be the enemy.
He orders 2 machine gun tankettes to stand back as he knows they can’t do anything against armor…
It’s all up to him.
Orlik orders his driver to take them off road to the left and the little tank hunter springs into action,
forcing its way through the weeds and bushes.
The small engines rev loudly inside the fighting compartment,
and the small size makes them buckle violently backward and forth with every bump.
Unfazed Orlik makes it to a position overlooking the crossroads with a bush for concealment.
The tankettes are tiny two man vehicles with a machine gun.
Orlik’s TKS has replaced the machine gun with the 20mm autocannon capable of firing 5 round magazines in less than a second.
Orlik has his attention forward, peeking through his sight, waiting in ambush.
Before him is an empty crossroads, the sounds of engines and tracks ominously growing ever louder.
The German tanks are on a routine patrol and are “buttoned up” with the hatches closed.
No Polish forces have been spotted here for at least a few days.
Inside the lead tank is Platoon commander, Victor IV Albrecht von Ratibor.
He’s German nobility and the eldest son and heir to the Duke of Ratibor.
He’s in a Panzer IV B and has good frontal armor and even the sides can hold off small arms and sometimes anti-tank shells.
Despite being in the biggest tank on the Polish battlefield, Von Ratibor is careful when approaching the crossroads.
The German tanks slow.
“Nobody’s here”. Forward!
Orlik’s eyes widen as the German war machine rolls into view.
Their ambush has worked.
The Germans don’t know they’re there.
With nerves of steel and under the concealment of the bush,
Orlik calmly takes aim for the white cross emblazoned on the side of the Panzer’s turret and fires a single shot.
A bang breaks the natural calm and a single 20mm shell zips for its target.
It strikes square on the tank’s turret side, piercing clean through.
There’s chaos inside the German tank as it stops in its tracks.
The hatches open and smoke streams from the hatches of the stricken Panzer.
The driver and a member of the turret crew rush out of the wreck leaving their commander behind.
A TKS hidden in the bushes doesn’t wait for orders and opens fire with its machinegun.
The 2 crewmen fall, never to rise.
Now, behind the smoking wreck of the Panzer IV the rest of the patrol consisting of two Panzer 35Ts rolls into view.
Orlik rapidly orders his driver to pull back as the Panzer 35(t)’s emerge with their guns aimed directly towards him.
Inside the 35T the gunners take aim.
With their low profile they can hardly see the Polish tankettes hidden in the foliage.
The gunner mutters under his breath “Verdammte Kakerlaken”.
Damned Cockroaches.
One Panzer fires then the other and 2 shells scream towards the tiny form.
Their shells rip through the foliage around the TKS, but fortunately they miss.
Orlik tells the driver to stop as he opens fire on the first German,
but with the enemy’s turret aimed at them there is no weak spot for them to exploit.
The two men watch in horror as bullet after bullet pings off harmlessly from the Panzer’s turret and angled hull sides.
But fortunately the German keeps driving forward and the hull loses its valuable angle.
Orlik slams another magazine into the gun and fires mercilessly upon the hull side ...
until one finally goes in.
The 20mm pierces the Panzer and strikes square in the ammunition stowage,
lighting the powder and setting off a catastrophic chain reaction.
The 35(t)’s hatch blows open, spewing a column of fire and smoke into the air.
The last 35(t) carries on forward, driving ahead of the burning machine while firing shell after shell in the Poles’ general direction,
their shots rip tree branches apart and lift dirt into the air, but fortunately miss the small profile tankettes.
Inside the 35(t) they hurl insults at the tiny tanks ‘Kakerlaken !’.
So difficult to kill and so hard to spot… just like cockroaches.
Seeing his 2 allies already destroyed, the commander decides to make a run for it.
Let’s get support! Run for the village!
If the crew can make it to Pociecha they can alert the other German forces that Polish forces of yet unknown strength are in the area.
But the determined Pole won’t let the invader go.
He orders his driver to chase after him and the TKS rapidly stumbles through the forest in pursuit.
They burst through a bush and spot the Panzer fleeing away.
Orlik opens fire, he strikes the 35(t) across its rear with a volley of 20mm, and taking it out of commission.
Orlik’s tank rolls up to the wreck 35(t) just as two crewmembers stumble out.
Rapidly exiting his TKS Orlik aims his handgun at the two men.
‘Hande Hoch !’ he shouts.
They lift their hands in surrender.
“Who are you?”
“Where’s your Commander?”
The two Germans look at one another and then point towards the smoldering Panzer IV in the distance.
Together they head for the panzer and check within as smoke pours from its open hatches.
Battling the fumes they manage to find
the badly injured commander and nobleman Victor IV Albrecht von Ratibor still alive.
They bravely drag him out of the rapidly growing flames.
But is to no avail as he would succumb to his injuries just a few minutes later.
The 2 surviving Germans are crestfallen.
Through watery eyes one of them hurls the insult once again
‘‘We would have hit you with our guns if you weren’t in those damned cockroaches.”
The Poles took the name with pride and going forward referred to themselves proudly as Cockroaches.
It wasn’t the first or last time Orlik would claim victories upon the far superior German Panzers.
He would rise to the occasion again the very next day, participating in a hard defense in the town of Sieraków
where the defenders struck down 7 more German war machines.
The true details of this engagement have been lost to the sands of time.
We took the liberty of trying to recreate it as best we could.
Orlik was awarded the Cross of Valour (after the war) for his incredible actions and is credited as Poland’s first ever tank ace.
But tragically it would all be in vain.
Despite the Polish forces’ best efforts and incredible skill, they couldn’t defy their lack of equipment and resources.
Orlik fought to the last and beyond, participating in the defense of Warsaw and then joining the resistance upon Polish surrender.
Orlik was captured but managed to escape and survived the war.
He became a successful architect in peace time, finishing his degree in what today is the Academy of Fine Arts in Lodz,
at the same time that Władysław Strzemiński from the Attack of the Dead Men was working in the Academy as a teacher.
While we can’t be sure, we would like to think the men met and maybe even were friends.
Tank Ace Edmund Roman Orlik passed away on the 8th of April 1982.
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