other anti-aircraft machine guns. The latter was composed mostly of fire-fighter brigades and volunteers and was supervised by Colonel Tadeusz Bogdanowicz and Julian Kulski, the deputy president Initially the air defence of Warsaw was fairly successful and by September 6, 1939, the Pursuit Brigade had shot down 43 enemy aircraft, while anti-aircraft artillery had shot down a similar number of enemy bombers. There were also 9 unconfirmed victories and 20 damaged enemy planes. However, the brigade also suffered heavy losses, and by September 7 it had lost over 38 pieces of equipment, or approximately 70% of its initial strength, which greatly contributed to an early surrender. The AA defence started to crumble when on September 5 by order of the military authorities 11 AA batteries were withdrawn from Warsaw towards the eastern cities of Lublin, Brześć and Lwów. Furthermore, as the war progressed, the German high command redirected more bombers to attack the city, especially the historical old town, the Warsaw Royal Castle and other iconic monuments, significant to the Polish nation and its capital. At the peak of the initial bombing campaign on September 10, there were more than 70 German bombers above Warsaw. During that day, nicknamed "Bloody Sunday", there were 17 consecutive bombing raids. Eve of the battle On September 3, the forces of German 4th Panzer Division under Major General Georg-Hans Reinhardt managed to break through positions of the Polish Łódź Army near Częstochowa and started their march towards the river Vistula and Warsaw. The same day Polish Commander in Chief, Marshal of Poland Edward Rydz-Śmigły ordered the creation of an improvised Command of the Defence of Warsaw (Dowództwo Obrony Warszawy). General Walerian Czuma, the head of the Border Guard (Straż Graniczna), became its commander and Colonel Tadeusz Tomaszewski its Chief of Staff. Initially the forces under the command of General Czuma were very limited. Most of the city authorities withdrew together with a large part of the police forces, fire fighters and the military garrison. Warsaw was left with only four battalions of infantry and one battery of artillery. Also, the spokesman of the garrison of Warsaw issued a communique in which he ordered all young men to leave Warsaw. To coordinate civilian efforts and counter the panic that started in Warsaw, Czuma appointed the president of Warsaw Stefan Starzyński as the Civilian Commissar of Warsaw. Starzyński started to organize the Civil Guard to replace