I remembered this time when our history teacher was telling us about this moment, when Germany invaded Poland with a huge and advanced army, they were rolling all over Poland, who tried to fight them still riding horses, like hundreds of years ago.
It was hilarious, and probably he was saying so just for the sake of proportion difference, but how advanced was Germany compared to their quick conquests at the start of the war?
The Poles did indeed fight on horses. But since Germany was basically also a horse army, it wasn’t as if they weren’t in good company. https://nationalinterest.org/sites/default/files/styles/desktop__1486_x_614/public/main_images/5432d.jpg?itok=scXsJTWb Indeed, the German Army was still very horse dependent all the way though the war.
They did have a very good PR manager, though, so they made sure to advertise, not the horses which were doing sterling work and the vast bulk of the lifting, https://i.pinimg.com/originals/bd/b8/c5/bdb8c5da402ec81086ee5933d483f24e.jpg , but the Panzers, which were modern, impressive, and very few in number.
That’s not to say that the Panzers were not instrumental, they absolutely were, but they weren’t a whole hell of a lot better, on average, than the armored vehicles the Poles had. They were much better handled, though.
Further, having AFVs of their own and having a vague idea what they were about, the Poles were not so stupid as to try to attack German Armored units with horse units. There were plenty enough non-armor units that that Poles could attack, such as those ones themselves reliant on, well, horesepower. Those they did engage, not ineffectively.
There is a myth of Polish cavalry attacking German tanks. There is a very, very loose backstory to this. What did happen was a small clash at Kronanty. A Polish cavalry unit charged some German infantry caught resting. This worked out well enough, the Infantry were scattered, and the Poles held the ground. A nearby reconnaissance unit, equipped with armored cars, presumably hearing the commotion and deciding to investigate, came around the corner and engaged the Polish cavalry. As you can imagine, the Poles didn’t hang around, and were driven off. Since Panzer is “armor”, technically, yes, the Polish cavalry did engage Panzers. Not by choice.
Well... Cavalry was still quite common in the 2nd World War. All major powers in the war employed horseborne Cavalry, which they worked on motor- and mechanising.
As a matter of fact, the German army(the Heer brach of the Wehrmacht), was, contrary to popular belief, at its peak was only 20% motor- and mechanised.^1
But I digress! Now, on the 1st of September 1939 only 10% of the Polish army consisted of Cavalry units. But while they were equipped with horses, they acted rather as mobile infantry, than as cavalry units.^2
There was however the Battle of Krojanty, where the Poles mounted an effective classical Sabre-charge against German infantry.^3
So to answer your question: Yes. The Poles did fight back on horses, though not against armored units.
1: Haskew, M.; The Wehrmacht: 1935–1945; 2011
2: Smaczny, H; The Book on Polish cavalry; 1989
3: Zaloga, S; The Polish Army 1939-1945; 1982
