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27-715: The First Army was formed in the Soviet Union in 1944, from the previously existing Polish I Corps as part of the People's Army of Poland (LWP). On 10 August 1943, the Soviets gave permission for enlarging the Polish 1st Tadeusz Kościuszko Infantry Division into a Corps ( Polish I Corps ). The new formation was to be composed of two infantry divisions, one artillery and one armor brigade, one support and one air regiment, four independent battalions, and support units. On 29 July 1944

54-650: A good mix of infantry units and artillery together with other support arms. Its armor capability was considerably weaker, and consisted of only one organic tank brigade. In manpower it was broadly equivalent to an American infantry corps , having a strength of 74,530 men on May 1, 1945. At the end of the war in 1945, it consisted of the following large units ( honorific names given in brackets) Organization as of May 1, 1945 People%27s Army of Poland Aftermath of World War II The Polish People's Army ( Polish : Ludowe Wojsko Polskie , pronounced [luˈdɔvɛ ˈvɔjskɔ ˈpɔlskʲɛ] ; LWP ) constituted

81-468: A tributary of the Elbe , near Berlin . It is 82.8 kilometres (51.4 mi) long, and 33 metres (36 yd) wide. In 1934 a ship lift was built on the canal, near Niederfinow . It vertical lift was 36 metres (118 ft). The dimensions of the caisson are 85 x 12 x 2.5 m. It could lift vessels of up to 1000 tonnes displacement. The assumed start of the actual Oder–Havel Canal is the current mouth of

108-841: Is a German canal built between 1908 and 1914, originally known as the Hohenzollern Canal , mostly replacing the Finow Canal . Together with Hohensaaten-Friedrichsthaler Wasserstraße, the Oderhaltung and the Schwedter Querfahrt it forms the Havel-Oder-Wasserstraße . It runs from the town of Cedynia near the city of Szczecin on the Oder River between Germany and Poland to the Havel ,

135-671: The Polish government-in-exile and by that time had moved to Iran . The communist-led Polish forces soon grew beyond the 1st Division into two major commands – the First Polish Army (initially under Zygmunt Berling) and the Second Polish Army (commanded by Karol Świerczewski ). The First Polish Army participated in the Vistula–Oder Offensive , the Battle of Kolberg and the final Battle of Berlin . After

162-673: The Soviet Union by Wanda Wasilewska and Zygmunt Berling . The official name of those formations were: Armia Polska w ZSRR (Polish Army in the USSR ) from 1943 to 1944, Wojsko Polskie (Polish Troops) and Siły Zbrojne Rzeczpospolitej Polskiej (Armed Forces of the Republic of Poland) from 1944 to 1952 and from 1952 Siły Zbrojne Polskiej Rzeczypospolitej Ludowej (Armed Forces of the Polish People's Republic). On 7 October 1950,

189-608: The Technical University and the southwestern side of the Tiergarten close to the Berlin Zoo . The army was disbanded after the war on August 22, 1945. Its constituent units went on to serve in the armed forces of the newly created Polish People's Republic . The 1st Polish Army was very similar in organisation to other standard general purpose armies making up the bulk of Red Army's order of battle. It had

216-650: The First Army took part in the Vistula–Oder Offensive , and afterwards it moved towards Bydgoszcz . The Polish First Army then fought in Pomerania, breaking through the Pomeranian Wall ( Pommernstellung ) fortified line and capturing Fortress Kolberg , a heavily fortified city, in March. Its units advanced northeast as far as Gdańsk and Kępa Oksywska.  [ pl ] During the battles to penetrate

243-562: The First Army was commanded by Lt. Gen. Zygmunt Berling . His second-in-command was Lt. Gen. Karol Świerczewski . Col. Włodzimierz Sokorski was the chief political officer. The corps took part in combat from September 1943. Operating under the auspices of the Red Army , it first entered combat in the summer of 1944 as part of the 1st Belorussian Front on the right wing of the Lvov-Sandomierz Operation , fighting in

270-722: The First Army, including 39% of officers and technical specialists, while for senior officers the proportion reached 75%. As the Red Army moved into Polish areas west of the Curzon Line , draftees from those areas also became available for the First Polish Army (and Second Polish Army ) in accordance with the August 15, 1944, decree of the Polish Committee of National Liberation (the Lublin government ). Until October 1944,

297-696: The First Polish Army's strength was over 74,000, thus making up 7.5% of the strength of the Soviet 1st Belorussian Front, which counted over 980,000 men when the Polish First Army is included in the total. During the Berlin Offensive, the Polish First Army sustained casualties of over 10,400 men. The troops of the 1st Infantry Division supported by the 2nd Howitzer Artillery Brigade and the 1st Independent Mortar Brigade, fought in Berlin around

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324-771: The Oranienburger Havel. It leads through the Lehnitzsee , which previously did not belong to the Havel, and reaches the Lehnitzschleuse . Most of the canal follows the former Malz Canal and then replaces the older Finow Canal up to its eastern end. Its top parting extends from the headwater of the Lehnitz lock to the Niederfinow boat lift. The natural resources of the catchment areas of the Havel and

351-809: The Polish Rogatywka , modeled on the pattern from 1935, were restored in the Polish Army's Representative Company . Throughout the entire period of the existence of the Polish People's Army, its officers and soldiers were provided with pastoral care. Such a service was provided by the General Dean's Office of the Polish Army. In the 1980s, the Polish People's Republic had 4 military academies and 11 higher officers' schools, which trained auxiliary corpsmen and corresponded in rank to higher educational institutions. In 1954, judo instructors from

378-706: The Polish units were reorganized into the 1st Polish Army. From October 12 to 14, 1943, the First Polish Infantry Division made an assault on Lenino near Smolensk and sustained twenty-five percent losses. Later, the 1ST Kosciuszko Infantry Division fought in Berlin around the Reich Chancellery and the Reichstag. At this stage of the war, the Polish role in the Soviet drive westward was fairly substantial, contributing 200,000 troops; this

405-569: The Pomeranian fortifications, the 1st "Warsaw" Cavalry Brigade made the last mounted charge of Polish cavalry at the village of Schoenfeld. In the spring of 1945 the army, now numbering 78,556 soldiers, was redeployed to the front on the Oder river in preparation for the final Soviet offensive of the war in Europe. The Polish Second Army also entered the line of battle at this time, and together

432-483: The Soviet Union. The Sovietization of the armed forces structure was phased out altogether and thus the combat and service support structures were integrated once more into regular combat formations following the old Polish model. An anti-Zionist purge in the Polish Army took place in 1968 to systematically remove soldiers of Jewish origin, following the Six-Day War between Israel and Arab countries. In 1949,

459-640: The Warsaw and Kraków institutes of physical culture, participated in the training program for border guards and military personnel of the airborne units of the Polish army. AKMS [REDACTED]   Polish People's Republic [REDACTED]   Polish People's Republic [REDACTED]   Polish People's Republic [REDACTED]   Polish People's Republic [REDACTED]   Russian Empire [REDACTED]   Soviet Union [REDACTED]   Polish People's Republic [REDACTED]   Polish People's Republic In 1985,

486-617: The anniversary of the Battle of Lenino was declared the official "Day of the Polish People's Army" by the authorities of the People's Republic. What became the LWP was formed during World War II , in May 1943, as the 1st Tadeusz Kościuszko Infantry Division , which developed into the First Polish Army , unofficially known as Berling's Army . Because of the shortage of Polish officers and

513-518: The battles during the Soviet crossing of the river Vistula around Dęblin and Puławy . In September 1944, units of the First Army were involved in heavy fighting during the latter stages of the Warsaw Uprising after crossing the river Vistula following the capture of Warsaw 's eastern Praga district, but suffered heavy losses. After eventually taking control of Warsaw in January 1945,

540-483: The first fundamental uniform reform after the war was made. The "Dress Rules for the Soldiers of the Polish Army" were introduced and were to apply from January 1, 1951. In the Polish People's Army, a soft field cap modeled on the pre-war one was introduced. After the war, the pre-war garrison caps were used again. Stiffened caps were only worn until around 1950 when they were completely replaced by round caps. In 1982,

567-546: The late 1940s and early 1950s, the Polish Army was under the command of Marshal of the Soviet Union , Marshal of Poland and Minister of Defense of Poland Konstantin Rokossovsky . It was increasingly integrated into Soviet military structure and organization. This process was mitigated in the aftermath of the Polish October of 1956, when Władysław Gomułka formalized aspects of Poland's military relationship with

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594-582: The military had 417 pieces of M1, M2 versions. [REDACTED]   Polish People's Republic [REDACTED]   Polish People's Republic [REDACTED]   Polish People's Republic [REDACTED]   Soviet Union [REDACTED]   Polish People's Republic [REDACTED]   Polish People's Republic [REDACTED]   Polish People's Republic [REDACTED]   Polish People's Republic 2 500 total production form Polish Army Towed anti-aircraft gun Oder%E2%80%93Havel Canal The Oder–Havel Canal

621-505: The policies of the Soviet Union, in March 1945 Soviet Red Army officers accounted for nearly 52% of the officer corps (15,492 out of 29,372). Around 4,600 of them remained in the LWP by July 1946. It was not the only Polish formation that fought on the Allied side, nor the first one formed in the East. The earlier Polish force formed in the Soviet Union, known as Anders' Army , was loyal to

648-676: The second formation of the Polish Armed Forces in the East in 1943–1945, and in 1945–1989 the armed forces of the Polish communist state ( from 1952 , the Polish People's Republic ), ruled by the Polish Workers' Party and then the Polish United Workers' Party . The communist -led Polish armed forces, allowed and facilitated by Joseph Stalin , were the result of efforts made in the early 1940s in

675-487: The two armies contributed about 10% of the total forces involved in the operation. During the offensive it crossed the river on April 16 and joined the Battle of Berlin . In this, among other actions, Polish units of the 1st Army crossed the Hohenzollern Canal and advanced on Kremmen , Flatow , Paaren and Nauen . They ended their campaign by participating in the Battle of Berlin . In the Berlin Offensive ,

702-1168: The war the Polish Army was reorganized into six (later seven) military districts . These were the Warsaw Military District , headquartered (HQ) in Warsaw, the Lublin Military District, HQ in Lublin, the Kraków Military District, HQ in Kraków, the Łódź Military District, HQ in Łódź, the Poznań Military District, HQ in Poznań, the Pomeranian Military District , HQ in Toruń , and the Silesian Military District , HQ in Katowice . In

729-518: Was approximately ten percent of the force taking part in Zhukov's and Konev's drive on Berlin. Initially, the Polish personnel of the First Polish Army were recruited from Polish soldiers taken prisoner during the 1939 Soviet invasion of Poland (after Germany conquered western Poland), and from Poles deported from Soviet-occupied Poland in 1939–1941. They were nearly all of the First Army's front-line combat troops. However, many Soviet personnel served in

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