Health service of the "Kraków" Army in the 1939 campaign

The paper discusses the organizational structure, equipment, members of the medical staff and activity of the "Kraków" Army Health Service during the defensive war in 1939. The Army fought on the main direction of attack of the German forces that were prevailing in number, equipment and new types of weapon, and applied the strategy of total destruction of both Polish soldiers and the civilian population. The German aviation was bombing cities, towns, villages, groups of runaways on the roads and also medical establishments. Accordingly the number of casualties among soldiers and civilians was quickly growing and hospitals were overcrowded. The "Kraków" Army held out the attacks only during two days and afterwards it retreated to the East without stopping to fight. In retreat it was extremely difficult to provide medical help to injured soldiers. Nevertheless physicians were ready to make the greatest sacrifices and they did not stop to perform their duties even if many of them were killed or wounded. The "Kraków" Army suffered the greatest casualties in the battle of Tomaszów Lubelski on 18-20th September 1939. 3000 soldiers were wounded there. The medical staff of the "Kraków" Army organized for them the "Zamośc" Medical Center that worked up to 20th December 1939, i.e. much longer than the Polish defensive actions lasted.