Armed with weapons and ammunition smuggled from Germany, they fought on the German side of the Polish/German conflict already in 1921.[3] Both Selbstschutz and Freikorps mercenaries were sent to fight Polish partisans in the Third Silesian Uprising for political control of Upper Silesia. The Selbstschutz fifth column worked to indoctrinate ethnic Germans locally, while preparations were under way elsewhere, especially in the late 1930s.