Warsaw Armoured Motorized Brigade The Warsaw Armoured Motorized Brigade ( , WBP - M , WBPanc - Mot ) was a motorized unit of the Polish Army during the interbellum period . The brigade was one of two such units in Poland ( the other being the 10th Motorized Cavalry Brigade ( Poland ) ; several more were planned ) . Not fully formed by September 1 , it was nonetheless partially combat ready and immediately rushed into battle during the Polish September Campaign . Following heavy loses during the Battle of Tomaszów Lubelski , it was disbanded on September 20 , 1939 . History . The Brigade was formed in early June 1939 , when the Polish Minister of Military Affairs , General Tadeusz Kasprzycki , gave order to transform the 1st Regiment of Mounted Rifles from the Garwolin garrison into a motorized unit . On June 10 , 1939 , Colonel Stefan Rowecki was named commandant of the Brigade ( later , with a pseudonym " Grot " , which means the spearhead , he became the first commander of Home Army , and was killed by Germans ) . The new unit was also based on other regiments , such as the 1st Rifle Regiment from Rembertów , the sapper battalion from Puławy and the 2nd Motorised Artillery Battalion from Stryj ( 8×75mm guns ) , which joined it on September 6 . The unit was equipped with Polish - made tankette s TKS ( 13 × TKS tankettes , 2 of them with 20mm guns , 11th Reece Tank Company ) , and British - made light tank s Vickers E ( 17 machines , 12th Light Tank Company ) . The tankette s ( except for the tankettes equipped with 20mm AT MG 38FK ) , were no match even to German PzKpfw II , and the Vickers E were outclassed by PzKpfw III and PzKpfw IV . On September 1 , 1939 , the Brigade left the barracks and concentrated its forces around Garwolin . It stayed there until September 3 as a reserve of the Commander - in - Chief of the Polish Army , then was ordered to prepare the defence of the Vistula river line between Dęblin and Solec . On September 5 , it became part of freshly created Army Lublin , under General Tadeusz Piskor . The first contact with the enemy took place on September 8 : the Brigade delayed the German advance and covered the retreat of the Polish forces . In the course of time , it absorbed remains of other Polish armoured units . On September 10 Brigade ' s positions were attacked by the 4th and 14th Infantry Divisions of the Wehrmacht . The Poles defended themselves , three days later counterattacked and the Germans retreated towards the Vistula river . However , the Polish offensive was stopped by the Army Headquarters and the Brigade began withdrawal towards Lwów ( Lviv ) . On September 15 , Rowecki ordered to destroy all unnecessary equipment and divided the Brigade into two columns . On September 16 , the Brigade , together with other Polish units , was surrounded in the area of Tomaszów Lubelski ( see : Battle of Tomaszów Lubelski ) . The Polish forces decided to attack the town of Tomaszów Lubelski ; the offensive was carried out in the morning of September 17 by Warsaw Armoured Motorized Brigade , which managed to catch the German XXII Corps by surprise . However , the Germans quickly organized a defence and the Polish attack failed , with the Brigade losing half of the equipment . On September 19 , another Polish attack did not succeed , and one day later , after fierce fighting and destruction of large part of equipment , General Piskor decided to surrender . Rowecki ordered the destruction of remaining heavy equipment and all soldiers to try to break through the German encirclement on his own . He himself was not caught by the Germans , also hundreds of Brigade ' s soldiers managed to escape to Hungary and later to Great Britain , where they joined the Polish 1st Armoured Division of General Stanisław Maczek .