The
European theater ofThe European Theatre of World War II was a huge area of heavy fighting across Europe from Nazi Germany's invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939 until the end of the war with the German unconditional surrender on May 8, 1945...
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
opened with the
GermanNazi Germany and the Third Reich are the common English names for Germany between 1933 and 1945, while it was led by Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Worker's Party . The name Third Reich refers to the state as the successor to the Holy Roman Empire of the Middle Ages and the German...
invasion of PolandThe Invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign or 1939 Defensive War in Poland and the Poland Campaign in Germany, was an invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, and a small Slovak contingent that marked the start of World War II...
on September 1, 1939. The Polish Army was pushed back.
After Poland had been overrun, a government-in-exile, an
armed forcesThe armed forces of a country are its government-sponsored defense, fighting forces, and organizations. They exist to further the foreign and domestic policies of their governing body, and to defend that body and the nation it represents from external and internal aggressors. In some countries...
, and an intelligence service were established outside of Poland. These organisations contributed to the Allied effort throughout the war. Polish Army was recreated in the West, as well as in the East (after German invasion of the Soviet Union).
Poles provided some important help to the
AlliesIn general, allies are people, groups, or nations that have joined together in an association for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose. In English usage, those who share a common goal and whose work toward that goal is complementary may be viewed as allies for various purposes even when...
throughout the war. Polish soldiers fought on land, on the seas and in the air. Notable was the service of the
Polish Air ForcePolish Air Force is the air force branch of the Polish Armed Forces. Until 1 July 2004 it was officially known as Wojska Lotnicze i Obrony Powietrznej...
, not only in the Allied victory in the
Battle of BritainThe Battle of Britain is the name given to the air campaign waged by the German Air Force against the United Kingdom during the summer and autumn of 1940. The objective of the campaign was to gain air superiority over the Royal Air Force , especially Fighter Command...
but also the subsequent war in the air; the
defense of TobrukThe Siege of Tobruk was a lengthy confrontation between Axis and Allied forces in North Africa during the Western Desert Campaign of World War II...
; the capture of the German-held monastery hill of
Monte CassinoThe Battle of Monte Cassino was a costly series of four battles during World War II, fought by the Allies with the intention of breaking through the Winter Line and seizing Rome.In the beginning of 1944, the western half of the Winter Line was being anchored by Germans holding the Rapido, Liri and...
; a role in the battle of the
Falaise pocketThe battle of the Falaise Pocket, fought during the Second World War from 12–21 August 1944, was the decisive engagement of the Battle of Normandy...
; and an
airborneAirborne forces are military units, usually light infantry, set up to be moved by aircraft and 'dropped' into battle. Thus they can be placed behind enemy lines, and have an ability to deploy almost anywhere with little warning...
brigadeA brigade is a military unit that is typically composed of two to five regiments or battalions, depending on the era and nationality of a given army. Usually, a brigade is a sub-component of a division, a larger unit consisting of two or more brigades; however, some brigades are classified as a...
parachuteA parachute is a device used to slow the motion of an object through an atmosphere by creating drag. Parachutes are made out of cloth, most commonly nylon....
drop during
Operation Market GardenOperation Market Garden was an Allied military operation, fought in the Netherlands and Germany in World War II...
. Some Polish contributions were less visible, and most notably included the prewar and wartime decyphering of German
Enigma machineAn Enigma machine is any of a family of related electro-mechanical rotor machines used for the encryption and decryption of secret messages. The first Enigma was invented by German engineer Arthur Scherbius at the end of World War I...
codes by cryptologists
Marian RejewskiMarian Adam Rejewski was a Polish mathematician and cryptologist who in 1932 solved the plugboard-equipped Enigma machine, the main cipher device used by Germany...
and his colleagues. The Polish intelligence network also proved to be of much value to the Allied intelligence.
As Poland never made a general surrender or produced a collaboratory puppet government, it was directly governed by a purely German administration known as the
GeneralgouvernementThe General Government refers to a part of the territories of Poland under German military occupation during World War II and that were a separate part of "Greater Germany"...
. This administration was in turn opposed by the Polish Underground State, which not only fielded one of the largest partisan forces in existence, but was a unique underground government, a phenomenon not witnessed in other occupied countries.
Invasion of Poland
The
Invasion of PolandThe Invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign or 1939 Defensive War in Poland and the Poland Campaign in Germany, was an invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, and a small Slovak contingent that marked the start of World War II...
by the military forces of
Nazi GermanyNazi Germany and the Third Reich are the common English names for Germany between 1933 and 1945, while it was led by Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Worker's Party . The name Third Reich refers to the state as the successor to the Holy Roman Empire of the Middle Ages and the German...
, the Soviet Union and a small German-allied Slovak contingent marked the beginning of
World War II in EuropeThe European Theatre of World War II was a huge area of heavy fighting across Europe from Nazi Germany's invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939 until the end of the war with the German unconditional surrender on May 8, 1945...
.
In keeping with the terms of the
Secret Additional Protocol of the
Molotov-Ribbentrop PactThe Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, colloquially named after the Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov and the German foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, was an agreement officially titled the Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and signed in...
Germany informed the Soviet Union that its forces were nearing the Soviet interest zone in Poland and so urged the Soviet Union to move into its zone. The Soviets had been taken by surprise by the speed of the German advance as they had expected to have several weeks to prepare for an invasion rather than merely a few days. They did promise to move as quickly as possible. On September 17 the Soviets
invaded eastern PolandThe 1939 Soviet invasion of Poland was a military operation that started without a formal declaration of war on 17 September 1939, during the early stages of World War II, sixteen days after the beginning of the Nazi German attack on Poland...
, forcing the Polish government and military to abandon their plans for a long-term defense in the
Romanian bridgeheadThe Romanian Bridgehead was an area in southeastern Poland, now located in Ukraine. During the Polish Defensive War of 1939 , on September 14 the Polish Commander in Chief Marshal of Poland Edward Rydz-Śmigły ordered all Polish troops fighting east of the Vistula to withdraw towards Lwów, and...
area. The last remaining Polish Army units
capitulatedCapitulation or Capitulations may have the following special meanings.*Capitulation **Stock market capitulation*Capitulation **Capitulations of the Ottoman Empire...
in early October.
In accordence with their treaty obligations, the United Kingdom and France
declared warA declaration of war is a formal performative speech act or signing of a document by an authorized party of a government in order to initiate a state of war between two or more nations. The legality of who can declare war varies between nations and forms of government. In many nations power is...
on Germany on September 3. Hitler had gambled incorrectly that France and Britain would allow him to annex parts of Poland without military reaction. The campaign began on September 1, 1939, one week after the signing of the
Molotov-Ribbentrop PactThe Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, colloquially named after the Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov and the German foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, was an agreement officially titled the Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and signed in...
containing a secret protocol for the division of
NorthernNorthern Europe is the northern part or region of Europe. The United Nations defines Northern Europe as including the following countries and dependent regions:** ** ** Ireland** Svalbard and Jan Mayen** ** Channel Islands: and...
and
Central EuropeCentral Europe is the region lying between the variously defined areas of Eastern and Western Europe. The term and widespread interest in the region itself came back into fashion after the end of the Cold War, which, along with the Iron Curtain, had divided Europe politically into East and West,...
into German and Soviet
spheres of influenceIn the field of international relations, a sphere of influence is an area or region over which a state or organization has significant cultural, economic, military or political influence....
. It ended on October 6, 1939, with Germany and the Soviet Union occupying the entirety of
PolandPoland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe . Poland is bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
.
German losses included approximately 16,000
Killed in ActionKia may refer to:* Kia, Kia is a Persian male name meaning "The Great King". It was also the name of the ruler of the ancient northern Persian state of Tabarestan.* Kia Motors, Automobile manufacturer...
, 28,000 wounded, over 200 aircraft, and 30% of their armored vehicles. The Polish
casualtiesA casualty is a person who is the victim of an accident, injury, or trauma. The word casualties is most often used by the news media to describe deaths and injuries resulting from wars or disasters...
were around 66,000 dead and 694,000 captured. Though the German attack was successful, losses were greater than expected. Because of this, Germany was forced to postpone war operations in the West until the spring of 1940 to replenish its losses. It has been estimated that, during the September campaign in Poland, the Wehrmacht needed to use more than twice the ammunition they used in France the following spring.
Polish resistance
The main resistance force in
German-occupied PolandThe General Government refers to a part of the territories of Poland under German military occupation during World War II and that were a separate part of "Greater Germany"...
was the
Armia KrajowaThe Armia Krajowa , abbreviated "AK", was the dominant Polish resistance movement in World War II German-occupied Poland. It was formed in February 1942 from the Związek Walki Zbrojnej . Over the next two years, it absorbed most other Polish underground forces...
("Home Army"; abbreviated "AK"), which numbered some 400,000 soldiers at its peak as well as many more sympathizers. The AK coordinated its operations with the
exiled Polish Government in LondonThe Polish government-in-exile was the government of Poland after the country had been occupied by Germany and the Soviet Union at the start of World War II...
and its activity concentrated on sabotage, diversion and intelligence gathering
http://encyklopedia.pwn.pl/3802_1.html. Its combat activity was low until 1943
http://books.google.com/books?ie=UTF-8&vid=ISBN0850454174&id=AAdYFeW2fnoC&vq=communist&dq=isbn:0850454174&lpg=PA22&pg=PA23&sig=EhCtexiNNMx4PfUnWfaqA7Tjw6c as the army was avoiding suicidal warfare and preserved its very limited resources for later conflicts that sharply increased when the Nazi war machine started to crumble in the wake of the successes of the
Red ArmyThe Red Army The Red Army The Red Army was the Soviet government’s revolutionary militia beginning in the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the USSR. Since 1946, after the Second World War, it was called the Soviet Army.The 'Red...
in the
Eastern FrontThe Eastern Front of World War II was a theatre of war between the European Axis powers, Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Croatia and Finland , and the Soviet Union which encompassed central and eastern Europe from 22 June 1941 to 9...
. Then the AK started a nationwide uprising (
Operation TempestOperation Tempest was a series of uprisings conducted during World War II by the Polish Home Army ....
) against Nazi forces
http://encyklopedia.pwn.pl/3802_1.html. Before that, AK units carried out thousands of raids, intelligence operations, bombed hundreds of railway shipments, participated in many clashes and battles with the German police and Wehrmacht units and conducted tens of thousands of acts of sabotage against German industry The AK also conducted "punitive" operations to assassinate Gestapo officials responsible for Nazi terror. Following the
1941 German attack on the USSROperation Barbarossa was the code name for Nazi Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that began on 22 June 1941. Over 4.5 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a 2,900 km front...
, the AK assisted the Soviet Union's war effort by sabotaging the German advance into Soviet territory and provided intelligence on the deployment and movement of German forces After 1943, its direct combat activity increased sharply. German losses to the Polish partisans averaged 850-1700 per month in early 1944 compared to about 250-320 per month in 1942.
In addition to the Home Army, there was an underground ultra-nationalist resistance force called Narodowe Siły Zbrojne (NSZ or National Armed Forces), with a fiercely anti-communist and chauvinist stance. It participated in fighting German units, winning many skirmishes. From 1943 onwards, some units took part in battling the
Gwardia LudowaGwardia Ludowa was a communist armed organisation in Poland, organised by the Soviet created Polish Workers Party. It was the largest military organization which refused to join the structures of the Polish Underground State...
, a communist resistance movement. From 1944, the advancing
Red ArmyThe Red Army The Red Army The Red Army was the Soviet government’s revolutionary militia beginning in the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the USSR. Since 1946, after the Second World War, it was called the Soviet Army.The 'Red...
was also seen as a foreign occupation force, prompting skirmishes with the Soviets as well as Soviet-backed partisans. In the later part of the war, when
Soviet partisans started attacking Polish partisans, sympathizers and civiliansPoland was annexed and partitioned by Germany and the Soviet Union in the aftermath of the Invasion of Poland of 1939. In the pre-war Polish territories annexed by the Soviets the first Soviet partisan groups were formed in 1941, soon after Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet...
, all non-communist Polish formations were (to an increasing extent) becoming involved in actions against the Soviets.
The
Armia LudowaArmia Ludowa was a pro-Communist partisan force set up by the Polish Workers' Party during World War II. Its aims were to support the Soviet Union military against the German forces and aid the creation of a Soviet-controlled communist regime in Poland...
, a Soviet proxy fighting force was another resistance group that was unrelated to the
Polish Government in ExileThe Polish government-in-exile was the government of Poland after the country had been occupied by Germany and the Soviet Union at the start of World War II...
, allied instead to the Soviet Union. As of July, 1944 it incorporated a similar organization, the
Gwardia LudowaGwardia Ludowa was a communist armed organisation in Poland, organised by the Soviet created Polish Workers Party. It was the largest military organization which refused to join the structures of the Polish Underground State...
, and numbered about 6,000 soldiers(although estimates vary).
There were separate resistance groups organized by Polish Jews: the right-wing Jewish Fighting Union (ŻZW) and the more Soviet-leaning
Jewish Combat OrganizationThe Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa was a World War II resistance movement, which was instrumental in engineering the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. ŻOB took part in a number of other resistance activities as well...
(ŻOB). These organisations cooperated little with each other and their relationship with the
Polish resistanceThe Polish resistance movement fought against the occupation of Poland during World War II. The fight against the Nazi occupation of Poland was an important part of the European anti-fascist resistance movement and had the largest partisan army in occupied Europe...
varied between occasional cooperation (mainly between ZZW and AK) to armed confrontations (mostly between ŻOB and NZS).
Other notable Polish resistance organizations included the Bataliony Chłopskie (BCh), a mostly peasant-based organization allied to the AK. At its height the BCh included 175,000 members.
On the other hand the role of the Polish Police force ('Granatowa Policja') in the illegal General Gouvernment ('Generalna Gubernia', a semi-state under the full control of Nazi Germany) remains a debatable issue. There was some co-operation between the Polish Police and the Nazis in persecuting the Jewish community while at the same time some officers secretly supported the underground resistance movement.
There were single instances of military and political co-operation between the Polish ultra-nationalist resistance movement and the Nazis ('Brygada Swietokrzyska', the attempts of professor Wladyslaw Studnicki etc.).
Throughout the war the German state was forced to divert a substantial part of its military forces to keep control over Poland:
Number of Wehrmacht and police formations stationed in General Gouvernment(does not include annexed territories of Poland and parts of KresyThe term Kresy, meaning "Outskirts" or "Borderlands", is used to define the Polish eastern frontier. The term referred to the eastern frontiers of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. During the period of the Second Polish Republic, these territories roughly equated with the lands to the east of...
Timeperiod |
WehrmachtWehrmacht was the name of the unified armed forces of Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe ....
|
Police and SS
(includes German forces only) |
Together |
| October 1939 |
550.000 |
80.000 |
630.000 |
| April 1940 |
400.000 |
70.000 |
470.000 |
| June 1941 |
2.000.000
(high number due to imminent invasion of Soviet Union) |
50.000 |
2.050.000 |
| February 1942 |
300.000 |
50.000 |
350.000 |
| April 1943 |
450.000 |
60.000 |
510.000 |
| November 1943 |
550.000 |
70.000 |
620.000 |
| April 1944 |
500.000 |
70.000 |
570.000 |
| September 1944 |
1.000.000 |
80.000 |
1.080.000 |
Intelligence
During a period of over six and a half years, from late December 1932 to the outbreak of World War II, three mathematician-cryptologists (
Marian RejewskiMarian Adam Rejewski was a Polish mathematician and cryptologist who in 1932 solved the plugboard-equipped Enigma machine, the main cipher device used by Germany...
,
Henryk ZygalskiHenryk Zygalski was a Polish mathematician and cryptologist who worked at breaking German Enigma ciphers before and during World War II.-Life:...
and
Jerzy RóżyckiJerzy Witold Różycki was a Polish mathematician and cryptologist who worked at breaking German Enigma-machine ciphers....
) at the Polish General Staff's
Cipher BureauThe Biuro Szyfrów was the interwar Polish General Staff's agency charged with both cryptography and cryptology .The agency that would become the "Cipher Bureau" was created in May 1919 during the Polish-Soviet War...
in
WarsawWarsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River roughly from both the Baltic Sea coast and the Carpathian Mountains. Its population as of 2009 was estimated at 1,709,781, and the Warsaw metropolitan area at approximately 2,785,000...
had developed a number of techniques and devices including the "
grill-In food:* Barbecue grill, a device or surface used for cooking food, usually fueled by gas or charcoal.* Grilling, a form of cooking that involves direct heat.* A restaurant that serves grilled food, such as a "bar and grill".-Music:...
" method, Różycki's "
clockA clock is an instrument used to indicate, measure, keep, and co-ordinate time. The word clock is derived ultimately from the Celtic words clagan and clocca meaning "bell"...
", Rejewski's "
cyclometerThe cyclometer was a cryptologic device designed, "probably in 1934 or 1935," by Marian Rejewski of the Polish Cipher Bureau's German section to facilitate decryption of German Enigma ciphertext.-History:...
" and "card catalog", Zygalski's "
perforated sheetsThe method of Zygalski sheets was a cryptologic technique used by the Polish Cipher Bureau before and during World War II, and during the war also by British cryptologists at Bletchley Park, to decrypt messages enciphered on German Enigma machines....
", and Rejewski's "cryptologic bomb" (Polish term:
bomba, precursor to the later British "
BombeThe bombe was an electromechanical device used by British cryptologists to help break German Enigma-machine-generated signals during World War II...
", named after its Polish predecessor) to facilitate decryption of messages produced on the German "
EnigmaAn Enigma machine is any of a family of related electro-mechanical rotor machines used for the encryption and decryption of secret messages. The first Enigma was invented by German engineer Arthur Scherbius at the end of World War I...
" cipher machine. A few weeks before the outbreak of World War II, on July 25, 1939, near
PyryPyry is one of the southernmost neighborhoods of the city of Warsaw. Administratively part of the Ursynów district, it was originally a separate village located along ulica Puławska , which links downtown Warsaw with the town of Piaseczno...
in the
KabatyKabaty is the southernmost neighborhood of the city of Warsaw, located in its Ursynów district. Until the late 1980s it was a small village located south of Warsaw, between Warsaw and the Kabaty Woods...
Woods just south of
WarsawWarsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River roughly from both the Baltic Sea coast and the Carpathian Mountains. Its population as of 2009 was estimated at 1,709,781, and the Warsaw metropolitan area at approximately 2,785,000...
, Poland disclosed her achievements to France and the United Kingdom, which had, up to that time, failed in all their own efforts to crack the German military Enigma cipher.
Had Poland not shared her
EnigmaAn Enigma machine is any of a family of related electro-mechanical rotor machines used for the encryption and decryption of secret messages. The first Enigma was invented by German engineer Arthur Scherbius at the end of World War I...
-decryption results at Pyry, the United Kingdom would have been delayed at the least a year or two in its reading of the Enigma cyphers or might even have been unable to read them at all. In the event, intelligence gained from this source, codenamed
ULTRAUltra was the name used by the British for intelligence resulting from decryption of encrypted German radio communications in World War II. The term eventually became the standard designation in both Britain and the United States for all intelligence from high-level cryptanalytic sources...
, was extremely valuable in the
AlliedThe Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . The involvement of the Allies in World War II was either natural and inevitable they were invaded or under the direct threat of invasion by the Axis or compelled by concerns that the Axis powers...
prosecution of the war, though the exact influence of ULTRA on its course remains a subject of debate. Some have argued that
ULTRAUltra was the name used by the British for intelligence resulting from decryption of encrypted German radio communications in World War II. The term eventually became the standard designation in both Britain and the United States for all intelligence from high-level cryptanalytic sources...
decided the very outcome of the war, though a view has also found broad acceptance that ULTRA hastened Germany's defeat by between 6 months and 4 years.
Home Army (Polish:
Armia KrajowaThe Armia Krajowa , abbreviated "AK", was the dominant Polish resistance movement in World War II German-occupied Poland. It was formed in February 1942 from the Związek Walki Zbrojnej . Over the next two years, it absorbed most other Polish underground forces...
) AK
intelligenceIntelligence refers to discrete information with currency and relevance, and the abstraction, evaluation, and understanding of such information for its accuracy and value...
was vital in locating and destroying (18 August 1943) the German rocket facility at
PeenemündePeenemünde is a village in the northeast of the German part of Usedom island. It stands near the mouth of the Peene river, on the easternmost part of the German Baltic coast. The area includes the 1992 :commons:Historisch-technisches Informationszentrum Peenemünde, an Anchor Point of the...
and in gathering information about Germany's
flying bombThe Fieseler Fi 103, better known as V-1 , colloquially know in Britain as the 'Doodlebug', was an early cruise missile used during World War II. The V-1 was developed at Peenemünde by the German Luftwaffe during the Second World War. Between 13 June 1944 and 29 March 1945, it was fired at...
and V-2
rocketA rocket or rocket vehicle is a missile, spacecraft, aircraft or other vehicle which obtains thrust by the reaction of the rocket to the ejection of a jet of fast moving fluid exhaust from a rocket engine. Chemical rockets create their exhaust by the combustion of rocket propellant...
. The Home Army delivered to the United Kingdom key V-2 parts, after a V-2 rocket, fired on 30 May 1944, crashed near a German test facility at
SarnakiSarnaki is a village in Łosice County, Masovian Voivodeship, in east-central Poland. It is the seat of the gmina called Gmina Sarnaki. It lies approximately north-east of Łosice and east of Warsaw....
on the
Bug RiverThe Bug or Buh River , sometimes called the Western Bug to distinguish it from the Southern Bug, flows from central Ukraine to the west, forming part of the boundary between Ukraine and Poland, passes along the Polish-Belarusian border and into Poland, and empties into the Narew river near Serock...
and was recovered by the Home Army. On the night of 25-26 July, 1944, the crucial parts were flown from occupied Poland to the United Kingdom in an RAF plane, along with detailed drawings of parts too large to fit in the plane (see
Home Army and V1 and V2Aside from the military operations, the Polish Home Army was also heavily involved in intelligence work, including work done with regard to the German "Wunderwaffe" - the V-1 flying bomb and the V-2 rocket...
). Analysis of the German rocket became vital to improving Allied anti-V-2 defenses (see
Operation Most IIIOperation Most III or Operation Wildhorn III was a World War II operation in which Poland's Armia Krajowa provided the Allies with crucial intelligence on the German V-2 rocket....
).
Polish intelligence cooperated with the other Allies in every European country and operated one of the largest intelligence networks in
NaziNazism, known officially in German as National Socialism , is the totalitarian ideology and practices of the Nazi Party or National Socialist German Workers’ Party under Adolf Hitler, and the policies adopted by the dictatorial government of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945.Nazism is often considered...
Germany. Many Poles also served in other Allied intelligence services, including the celebrated
Krystyna SkarbekKrystyna Skarbek, GM, OBE, Croix de guerre was a Polish-born World War II British Special Operations Executive agent.In 1941 she began using the name Christine Granville, which she legally adopted after the war....
("Christine Granville") in the United Kingdom's
Special Operations ExecutiveThe Special Operations Executive was a World War II organisation of the United Kingdom. It was officially formed by Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Minister of Economic Warfare Hugh Dalton on 22 July 1940, to conduct warfare by means other than direct military engagement...
. 43 per cent of all the reports received by the British secret services from continental Europe in 1939-45 came from Polish sources.Until 1942, most of British intelligence from Germany came from AK reports; until the end of the war AK would remain the main British source for news from Central and Eastern Europe. Among other topics, Armia Krajowa intelligence provided the Allies with information on German concentration camps, as well as intelligence concerning the V-1 flying bomb and the V-2 rocket. As early as 1940, Polish agents (see
Witold PileckiWitold Pilecki was a soldier of the Second Polish Republic, the founder of the Secret Polish Army Polish resistance group and a member of the Home Army...
) penetrated German concentration camps, including Auschwitz, and informed the world about Nazi atrocities.
Army
After the country's defeat in the 1939 campaign, the Polish government in exile quickly organized in France a new army of about 80,000 men. In 1940 a Polish Highland Brigade took part in the Battle of Narvik (Norway), and two Polish
divisionsA division is a large military unit or formation usually consisting of between ten to thirty thousand soldiers. In most armies, a division is composed of several regiments or brigades, and in turn several divisions make up a corps...
(First Grenadier Division, and
Second Infantry Fusiliers DivisionPolish 2nd Fusilier Division or 2nd Rifle Division was part of the recreated Polish Army in France in 1940....
) took part in the
defense of FranceIn World War II, the Battle of France, also known as the Fall of France, was the German invasion of France and the Low Countries, executed from 10 May 1940, which ended the Phoney War. The battle consisted of two main operations...
, while a Polish motorized
brigadeA brigade is a military unit that is typically composed of two to five regiments or battalions, depending on the era and nationality of a given army. Usually, a brigade is a sub-component of a division, a larger unit consisting of two or more brigades; however, some brigades are classified as a...
and two infantry divisions were in process of forming. A Polish Independent Carpathian Brigade was formed in
French-mandatedA League of Nations mandate refers to a legal status for certain territories transferred from the control of one country to another following World War I, or the legal instruments that contained the terms for administering the territory on behalf of the League...
SyriaSyria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south and Israel to the southwest....
, to which many Polish troops had escaped from
RomaniaRomania is a country located in Southeastern and Central Europe, North of the Balkan Peninsula, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea. Almost all of the Danube Delta is located within its territory...
. The
Polish Air ForcePolish Air Force is the air force branch of the Polish Armed Forces. Until 1 July 2004 it was officially known as Wojska Lotnicze i Obrony Powietrznej...
in France comprised eighty-six aircraft in four squadrons, one and a half of the squadrons being fully operational while the rest were in various stages of training.
After the fall of France, numbers of Polish personnel had died in the fighting or been interned in
SwitzerlandSwitzerland , officially the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 states named cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities...
. Nevertheless, General Władysław Sikorski, Polish
commander-in-chiefA commander-in-chief is the commander of a nation's military forces or significant element of those forces. In the latter case, the force element may be defined as those forces within a particular region or those forces which are associated by function. As a practical term it refers to the...
and
prime ministerA prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. The position is usually held by, but need not always be held by, a politician. In many systems, the prime minister selects and can dismiss other members of the cabinet, and...
, was able to evacuate many Polish troops to the United Kingdom. In 1941, following an agreement between the
Polish government in exileThe Polish government-in-exile was the government of Poland after the country had been occupied by Germany and the Soviet Union at the start of World War II...
and Joseph Stalin, the
SovietsThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
released Polish citizens, from whom a 75,000-strong army was formed in the
Middle EastThe Middle East is a region that spans southwestern Asia, southeastern Europe, and northeastern Africa. It has no clear boundaries, often used as a synonym to Near East, in opposition to Far East...
under General Władysław Anders (
"Anders' Army"Polish II Corps , 1943–1947, was a major tactical and operational unit of the Polish Armed Forces in the West during World War II. It was commanded by Lieutenant General Władysław Anders and by 1945 it grew to well over 75,000 soldiers.-History:...
).
The Polish armed forces in the west fought under the British command and numbered 195,000 in March 1944 and 165,000 at the end of that year, including about 20,000 personnel in the
Polish Air ForcePolish Air Force is the air force branch of the Polish Armed Forces. Until 1 July 2004 it was officially known as Wojska Lotnicze i Obrony Powietrznej...
and 3,000 in the
Polish NavyThe Polish Navy is the branch of Poland's Armed Forces responsible for naval operations. It has 60 ships and about 14,300 commissioned and enlisted personnel...
. At the end of World War II, the
Polish Armed ForcesWojsko Polskie is the national fighting defence force of Poland. The name has been used since the early 19th century, but can also be applied to earlier periods...
in the west numbered 195,000 and by July 1945 had increased to 228,000, most of the newcomers being released prisoners of war and ex-labor-camp inmates.
Air Force
The
Polish Air ForcePolish Air Force is the air force branch of the Polish Armed Forces. Until 1 July 2004 it was officially known as Wojska Lotnicze i Obrony Powietrznej...
fought in the
Battle of FranceIn World War II, the Battle of France, also known as the Fall of France, was the German invasion of France and the Low Countries, executed from 10 May 1940, which ended the Phoney War. The battle consisted of two main operations...
as one fighter squadron GC 1/145, several small units detached to French squadrons, and numerous flights of industry defence (in total, 133 pilots, who achieved 53-57 victories at a loss of 8 men in combat, what was 7,93% of allied victories).
Later, Polish pilots fought in the
Battle of BritainThe Battle of Britain is the name given to the air campaign waged by the German Air Force against the United Kingdom during the summer and autumn of 1940. The objective of the campaign was to gain air superiority over the Royal Air Force , especially Fighter Command...
, where the Polish 303 Fighter Squadron claimed the highest number of kills of any Allied squadron. From the very beginning of the war, the
Royal Air ForceThe Royal Air Force is the United Kingdom's air force, the oldest independent air force in the world. Formed on 1 April 1918, the RAF has taken a significant role in British military history ever since, playing a large part in World War II and in more recent conflicts.The RAF operates almost 1,109...
(RAF) had welcomed foreign pilots to supplement the dwindling pool of British pilots. On 11 June 1940, the
Polish Government in ExileThe Polish government-in-exile was the government of Poland after the country had been occupied by Germany and the Soviet Union at the start of World War II...
signed an agreement with the British Government to form a Polish Army and Polish Air Force in the United Kingdom. The first two (of an eventual ten) Polish fighter squadrons went into action in August 1940. Four Polish squadrons eventually took part in the Battle of Britain (
300No. 300 "Land of Masovia" Bomber Squadron was a Polish World War II bomber unit. It was fighting alongside the Royal Air Force and operated from airbases in the United Kingdom.- History :...
and
301No. 301 Polish Bomber Squadron "Land of Pomerania" was a Polish World War II bomber unit. It was fighting alongside the Royal Air Force and operated from airbases in the United Kingdom and Italy.-History:...
Bomber Squadrons;
302No. 302 Polish Fighter Squadron RAF was a Polish fighter squadron formed in Great Britain as part of an agreement between the Polish Government in Exile and the United Kingdom in 1940...
and
303No. 303 Polish Fighter Squadron was one of 16 Polish squadrons in the Royal Air Force during World War II. It is the RAF unit which scored the highest number of enemy kills during the Battle of Britain....
Fighter Squadrons), with 89 Polish pilots. Together with more than 50 Poles fighting in British squadrons, a total of 145 Polish pilots defended British skies. Polish pilots were among the most experienced in the battle, most of them having already fought in the 1939 September Campaign in Poland and the 1940 Battle of France. Additionally, prewar Poland had set a very high standard of pilot training. The 303 Squadron, named after the Polish-American hero, General
Tadeusz KościuszkoAndrzej Tadeusz Bonawentura Kościuszko was a Polish-Lithuanian military leader. He is a national hero in Poland, Belarus, Lithuania, and the United States...
, claimed the highest number of kills (126) of all fighter squadrons engaged in the Battle of Britain, even though it only joined the combat on August 30, 1940 These 5% of Polish pilots were responsible for 12% of total victories in the Battle.
The
Polish Air ForcePolish Air Force is the air force branch of the Polish Armed Forces. Until 1 July 2004 it was officially known as Wojska Lotnicze i Obrony Powietrznej...
also fought in 1943 in
TunisiaTunisia , officially the Tunisian Republic , is a country located in North Africa. It is bordered by Algeria to the west and Libya to the southeast. Tunisia is located southwest of the island of Sicily and south of Sardinia. Its size is almost 165,000 km² with an estimated population of just...
(
Polish Fighting Team, so called "Skalski's Circus"The Polish Fighting Team , also known as "Skalski's Circus" , was a Polish unit which fought with the British Commonwealth Desert Air Force in the North African Campaign of World War II, during 1943...
) and in raids on Germany (1940-45). In the second half of 1941 and early 1942, Polish bomber squadrons were the sixth part of forces available to
RAF Bomber CommandRAF Bomber Command was the organisation that controlled the RAF's bomber forces from 1936 to 1968. During World War II, the command destroyed a significant proportion of Nazi Germany's industries and many German cities, and in the 1960s was at the peak of its postwar power with the V bombers and a...
(later they suffered heavy losses, with little replenishment possibilities). Polish aircrew losses serving with Bomber Command 1940-45 were 929 killed.
Ultimately 8 Polish fighter squadrons were formed within the RAF and had claimed 629 Axis aircraft destroyed by May 1945.
By war's end, there were 14,000 Polish airmen in 15 RAF squadrons and in the
United States Army Air ForcesThe United States Army Air Forces was the military aviation arm of the United States of America during and immediately after World War II. It was a component of the United States Army, divided functionally by executive order in 1942 into three autonomous forces: the Army Ground Forces, the...
(
USAAFThe United States Army Air Forces was the military aviation arm of the United States of America during and immediately after World War II. It was a component of the United States Army, divided functionally by executive order in 1942 into three autonomous forces: the Army Ground Forces, the...
).
|
1940 |
1941 |
1942 |
1943 |
1944 |
1945 |
total |
| destroyed |
266 1/6 |
202 |
90 |
114 3/4 |
103 |
38 1/2 |
769 5/12 |
| probable |
38 |
52 |
36 |
42 |
10 |
2 |
177 |
| damaged |
43 2/3 + 3/5 |
60 1/2 |
43 |
66 |
27 |
18 |
252 1/6 |
Polish squadrons in the United Kingdom:
- No. 300 "Masovia" Polish Bomber Squadron (Ziemi Mazowieckiej)
- No. 301 "Pomerania" Polish Bomber Squadron (Ziemi Pomorskiej)
- No. 302 "City of Poznań" Polish Fighter Squadron (Poznański)
- No. 303 "Kościuszko" Polish Fighter Squadron (Warszawski imienia Tadeusza Kościuszki
Andrzej Tadeusz Bonawentura Kościuszko was a Polish-Lithuanian military leader. He is a national hero in Poland, Belarus, Lithuania, and the United States...
)
- No. 304 "Silesia" Polish Bomber Squadron (Ziemi Śląskiej imienia Ksiecia Józefa Poniatowskiego)
- No. 305 "Greater Poland" Polish Bomber Squadron (Ziemi Wielkopolskiej imienia Marszałka Józefa Piłsudskiego)
- No. 306 "City of Toruń" Polish Fighter Squadron (Toruński)
- No. 307 "City of Lwów" Polish Fighter Squadron (Lwowskich Puchaczy)
- No. 308 "City of Kraków" Polish Fighter Squadron (Krakowski)
- No. 309 "Czerwien" Polish Fighter-Reconnaissance Squadron
No. 309 Polish Fighter-Reconnaissance Squadron was a Polish squadron formed in Great Britain as part of an agreement between the Polish government-in-exile and the United Kingdom in 1940...
(Ziemi Czerwieńskiej)
- No. 315 "City of Dęblin" Polish Fighter Squadron (Dębliński)
- No. 316 "City of Warsaw" Polish Fighter Squadron (Warszawski)
- No. 317 "City of Wilno" Polish Fighter Squadron (Wileński)
- No. 318 "City of Gdańsk" Polish Fighter-Reconnaissance Squadron (Gdański)
- No. 663 Polish Artillery Observation Squadron
- Polish Fighting Team
The Polish Fighting Team , also known as "Skalski's Circus" , was a Polish unit which fought with the British Commonwealth Desert Air Force in the North African Campaign of World War II, during 1943...
(Skalski's Circus){attached to No. 145 Squadron}
- No. 138 Special Duty Squadron Polish Flight "C"
- No. 1586 Polish Special Duty Flight
Navy
Just on the eve of war, three destroyers - representing most of the major
Polish NavyThe Polish Navy is the branch of Poland's Armed Forces responsible for naval operations. It has 60 ships and about 14,300 commissioned and enlisted personnel...
ships - had been sent for safety to the British Isles (
Operation PekingThe Peking Plan was an operation in which three destroyers of the Polish Navy, the Burza , Błyskawica , and Grom , were evacuated to the United Kingdom in late August and early September of 1939 prior to the outbreak of war...
). There they fought alongside the
Royal NavyThe Royal Navy of the United Kingdom is the oldest of HM Armed Forces . From the beginning of the 18th century until well into the 20th century, it was the most powerful navy in the world, playing a key part in establishing the British Empire as the dominant world power from 1815 until the early...
. At various stages of the war, the
Polish NavyThe Polish Navy is the branch of Poland's Armed Forces responsible for naval operations. It has 60 ships and about 14,300 commissioned and enlisted personnel...
comprised two cruisers and a large number of smaller ships. The Polish navy was given a number of British ships and submarines which would otherwise have been unused due to the lack of trained British crews. The Polish Navy fought with great distinction alongside the other Allied navies in many important and successful operations, including those conducted against the German battleship,
BismarckThe German battleship Bismarck is one of the most famous warships of the Second World War. The lead ship of her class and named after the 19th century German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, Bismarck displaced more than 50,000 tonnes fully loaded and was the largest warship then commissioned.Bismarck...
. During the war the Polish Navy, which comprised a total of 27 ships (2 cruisers, 9 destroyers, 5 submarines and 11 torpedo boats, sailed a total of 1.2 million nautical miles, escorted 787 convoys, conducted 1,162 patrols and combat operations, sank 12 enemy ships (including 5 submarines) and 41 merchant vessels, damaged 24 more (including 8 submarines)) and shot down 20 aircraft. 450 seamen out of the over 4,000 who served with the Navy lost their lives in action.
- Cruiser
A cruiser is a large type of warship, which had its prime period from the late 19th century to the end of the Cold War. The first cruisers were intended for individual raiding and protection missions on the seas...
s:
- ORP Dragon (British Danae class
The Danae or D-class was a class of light cruiser built for the Royal Navy at the end of World War I and that survived to see service in World War II.-Design:...
)
- ORP Conrad (British Danae class)
- Destroyer
In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast and maneuverable yet long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against smaller, short-range but powerful attackers .Before World War II, destroyers were light vessels without the endurance...
s:
- ORP Wicher Gale (Wicher class
Wicher-class destroyers served in the Polish Navy during World War II. Two ships of this class were built for the Second Polish Republic by Chantiers Naval Français during the late 1920s...
) sunk September 1939
- ORP Burza
ORP Burza was a of the Polish Navy which saw action in World War II.-History:ORP Burza was ordered on 2 April 1926 from the French shipyard Chantiers Naval Francais together with her sister ship Wicher...
Storm (Wicher class)
- ORP Grom
ORP Grom was the lead ship of her class of destroyers serving in the Polish Navy during World War II. She was named after the Polish word for "thunderclap".-History:...
Thunder (Grom class) sunk 1940
- ORP Błyskawica Lightning (Grom class)
- ORP Garland
HMS Garland , also known by her Polish designation ORP Garland, was a G-class destroyer of the Royal Navy. She was the 14th ship to bear that name since 1242...
(British G classThe G and H class destroyers were a class of twenty-four destroyers of the Royal Navy launched in 1935–1939. They served in World War II and sixteen were lost, with a seventeenth being written off as a constructive total loss...
)
- ORP Orkan
ORP Orkan formerly HMS Myrmidon was an L and M class destroyer in the Polish Navy during World War II. The name translates as "hurricane"....
(British M class destroyer MyrmidionThe L and M class was a class of sixteen destroyers which served in the British Royal Navy during World War II. The ships of the class were launched between 1939 and 1942.-Design details:...
) sunk 1943
- ORP Ouragan
The Ouragan was a French Bourrasque class destroyer, commissioned in 1927. During World War II, she served with a Polish crew from 18 June 1940 until 30 April 1941....
, sometimes called Huragan Hurricane (French Bourrasque class)
- ORP Piorun
ORP Piorun was an N class destroyer used by the Polish Navy during the Second World War. The name is Polish for "Thunderbolt".The ship was built by John Brown & Company of Clydebank, Glasgow. She was laid down in July 1939, launched on 7 May 1940 and completed on 4 November 1940...
Thunderbolt (British N classThe J, K and N class was a class of 24 destroyers of the Royal Navy launched in 1938. They were a return to a smaller vessel, with a heavier torpedo armament, after the Tribal class that emphasised guns over torpedoes. The ships were built in three flotillas or groups, eight each of ships with...
)
- Escort destroyer
A Escort Destroyer is a US Navy post World War II classification for destroyers modified for and assigned to a fleet escort role. These destroyers retained their original hull numbers...
s:
- ORP Krakowiak
ORP Krakowiak was a British Hunt II-class destroyer escort, used by the Polish Navy during World War II. Initially built for the Royal Navy, it bore the name of HMS Silverton.-History:...
Cracovian (British Hunt classThe Hunt class was a class of escort destroyer of the Royal Navy. The first vessels were ordered early in 1939, and the class saw extensive service in World War II, particularly on the British East Coast and Mediterranean convoys. They were named after British fox hunts...
) 1941-1946
- ORP Kujawiak
The ORP Kujawiak was a British Hunt-class destroyer escort, formerly named the HMS Oakley. It was laid down on 22 November 1939 and launched on 30 October 1940. It was commissioned to the Polish Navy in June 1941. The destroyer was sunk on 16 June 1942 after running into a mine near Malta while...
Kujawian (British Hunt class)
- ORP Ślązak
The ORP Ślązak was a World War II Hunt II-class destroyer escort. Initially laid down in 1940 for the Royal Navy as HMS Bedale, in 1942 she was commissioned by the Polish Navy....
Silesian (British Hunt class)
- Submarine
A submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a submersible, which has only limited underwater capability...
s:
- ORP Orzeł Eagle (Orzeł class) lost 1940
- ORP Sęp Vulture (Orzeł class) interned Sweden
- ORP Jastrząb
ORP Jastrząb was a Holland-type S-class submarine, originally of the United States Navy, in Polish service between 1941 and 1942, when she was lost to friendly fire.She was laid down in October 1918 as USS S-25, and launched in 1922...
Hawk (British S classThe S-class submarines of the Royal Navy were originally designed and built during the modernisation of the submarine force in the early 1930s to meet the need for smaller boats to patrol the restricted waters of the North Sea and the Mediterranean Sea replacing the H class submarines...
)
- ORP Wilk
ORP Wilk was the lead boat of her class of mine-laying submarines of the Polish Navy. The ship saw service in the Polish Navy from 1931 to 1951. Her name meant "Wolf" in Polish.-History:...
Wolf (Wilk class) to reserve 1942
- ORP Ryś
ORP Ryś was a which saw service in the Polish Navy from 1931 to 1955. Her name meant Lynx in Polish.-History:Ryś was laid down in 1927 in Nantes, France; launched in 1929; and entered service in 1932. When World War II began on September 1, 1939, she took part in the Worek Plan for the defense...
Lynx (Wilk class) interned Sweden
- ORP Żbik
ORP Żbik was a which saw service in the Polish Navy from 1932 to 1955. Her name meant Wildcat in Polish.Żbik was laid down in 1927 in Caen, launched in 1930, and entered service in 1932. When World War II began on 1 September 1939, she took part in the Worek Plan for the defense of the Polish coast...
Wildcat (Wilk class) interned Sweden
- ORP Dzik
ORP Dzik was a U-class submarine built by Vickers-Armstrong at Barrow-in-Furness. She was laid down on 30 December 1941 as P-52 for the Royal Navy, but was transferred to the Polish Navy during construction. Launched on November 11 1942, ORP Dzik was commissioned into the Polish Navy on December...
Boar (British U classThe British U class submarines were a class of 49 small submarines built just before and during the Second World War...
) 1942-1946
- ORP Sokół Falcon (British U class) 1941-1945
- heavy minelayer
Minelaying is the act of deploying explosive mines. Historically this has been carried out by ships, submarines and aircraft. Additionally, the term minelayer refers specifically to a naval ship used for deploying sea mines...
s:
- ORP Gryf
ORP Gryf was a large Polish Navy minelayer, sunk during the 1939 German invasion of Poland. She was one of two large Polish ships that were not evacuated to Great Britain during Operation Peking prior to the outbreak of the Polish Defensive War...
Griffin (Gryf class) sunk 1939
- Light minelayer
Minelaying is the act of deploying explosive mines. Historically this has been carried out by ships, submarines and aircraft. Additionally, the term minelayer refers specifically to a naval ship used for deploying sea mines...
s ("ptaszki" "Birds"):
- ORP Jaskółka Swallow, sunk 1939
- ORP Mewa Seagull
- ORP Rybitwa Tern
- ORP Czajka Lapwing
- ORP Żuraw Crane
- ORP Czapla Heron
- Polish River Fleet
The above list does not include a number of minor ships, transports, merchant-marine auxiliary vessels, and patrol boats.
Polish Merchant NavyThe Polish Merchant Navy was created in the interwar period when the Second Polish Republic regained independence.During World War II, many ships of the Polish Navy joined the Allied merchant navy and its convoys, as part of the Polish contribution to World War II.After the war, the Polish...
contributted about 137 Brutto Register Tonnages to Allied shipping; losing 18 ships (with capacity of 76 BRTs) and over 200 sailors during the war.
Polish Forces (East)
Broadly speaking, there were two formations among the Polish Armed Forces in the East. First was the Polish government-in-exile-loyal
Anders ArmyAnders Army refers to the Polish Armed Forces in the East in the period of 1941-1942, which got its name from its commander Władysław Anders. The formation, created in USSR, would grow over the two years following its formation in 1941, and provide the bulk of the units and troops of the Polish II...
, created in the second half of 1941 after
German invasion of the USSROperation Barbarossa was the code name for Nazi Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that began on 22 June 1941. Over 4.5 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a 2,900 km front...
. In 1943 this formation was transferred to the
Western AlliesThe term Western Allies refers to a certain political and geographic grouping among the Allied Powers of the Second World War. It generally includes the United Kingdom and British Commonwealth, the United States, France and various other European and Latin American countries, but excludes China,...
and became known as the
Polish II CorpsPolish II Corps , 1943–1947, was a major tactical and operational unit of the Polish Armed Forces in the West during World War II. It was commanded by Lieutenant General Władysław Anders and by 1945 it grew to well over 75,000 soldiers.-History:...
. Additionally, remaining Polish forces in USSR were reorganized into Soviet-controlled
Polish I Corps in the Soviet UnionPolish I Corps in the Soviet Union was a formation of the Polish Armed Forces in the East.On 10 August 1943, The Soviets gave permission for enlarging the Polish 1st Tadeusz Kościuszko Infantry Division into a Corps...
, which in turn was reorganized in 1944 into
Polish First ArmyThe Polish First Army was a Polish Army unit formed in the Soviet Union in 1944, from previously existing Polish I Corps as part of the Ludowe Wojsko Polskie.-Composition:...
(
Berling Army) and
Polish Second ArmyThe Polish Second Army was a Polish Army unit formed in the Soviet Union in 1944 as part of the Ludowe Wojsko Polskie. The organization begun in August under the command of generals Karol Świerczewski and Stanislav Poplavsky, and the formation under command of general Świerczewski entered active...
, both part of
Polish People's ArmyLudowe Wojsko Polskie ; lit: People's Army of Poland, LWP) was the second formation of the Polish Armed Forces in the East and later the armed force of the Polish communist government of Poland .-Name:The name Ludowe Wojsko Polskie was commonly used by communist propaganda, although...
(
Ludowe Wojsko Polskie, LWP). In 1944, following the takeover of Poland by Soviets from Nazi Germany, the Polish People's Army was reorganized into a Poland-based military formation.
In the aftermath of the
Operation BarbarossaOperation Barbarossa was the code name for Nazi Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that began on 22 June 1941. Over 4.5 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a 2,900 km front...
, Stalin agreed (
Sikorski-Mayski AgreementThe Sikorski-Mayski Agreement was a treaty between the Soviet Union and Poland signed in London on 30 July 1941. Its name was coined after the two most notable signatories: Polish Prime Minister Władysław Sikorski and Soviet Ambassador to the United Kingdom Ivan Mayski.- Details :After signing...
) to release tens of thousands of Polish prisoners-of-war held in Soviet camps from whom a military force was formed. The
Anders ArmyAnders Army refers to the Polish Armed Forces in the East in the period of 1941-1942, which got its name from its commander Władysław Anders. The formation, created in USSR, would grow over the two years following its formation in 1941, and provide the bulk of the units and troops of the Polish II...
, as the formation became known, was loyal to the
Polish government in exileThe Polish government-in-exile was the government of Poland after the country had been occupied by Germany and the Soviet Union at the start of World War II...
, and as such its formation was obstructed by the Soviets. Eventually, with about 40 000 combatants and 70 000 civilians, it was transferred to the British command in the
Middle EastThe Middle East is a region that spans southwestern Asia, southeastern Europe, and northeastern Africa. It has no clear boundaries, often used as a synonym to Near East, in opposition to Far East...
, becoming the
Polish II CorpsPolish II Corps , 1943–1947, was a major tactical and operational unit of the Polish Armed Forces in the West during World War II. It was commanded by Lieutenant General Władysław Anders and by 1945 it grew to well over 75,000 soldiers.-History:...
and part of the
Polish Armed Forces in the WestPolish Armed Forces in the West refers to the Polish military formations formed to fight alongside the Western Allies against Nazi Germany and its allies. The formations, loyal to the Polish government in exile, were first formed in France and its Middle East territories following Polish defeat and...
.
To utilize the potential of the remaining Polish soldiers in USSR, without actually allowing them to become independent from Soviet control, a fact which allowed Anders Army to leave USSR, the Soviet Union created a
Union of Polish Patriots Union of Polish Patriots was a political body created by Polish communists and Stalin in Soviet Union in 1943...
(ZPP) in 1943 as communist puppet counter-government
http://encyklopedia.pwn.pl/84252_1.html to the
Polish government in exileThe Polish government-in-exile was the government of Poland after the country had been occupied by Germany and the Soviet Union at the start of World War II...
. At the same time a parallel army (
Polish People's ArmyLudowe Wojsko Polskie ; lit: People's Army of Poland, LWP) was the second formation of the Polish Armed Forces in the East and later the armed force of the Polish communist government of Poland .-Name:The name Ludowe Wojsko Polskie was commonly used by communist propaganda, although...
or LWP) was created which, by the end of the war, numbered about 200,000 troops. The Soviet created guerilla force called
Armia LudowaArmia Ludowa was a pro-Communist partisan force set up by the Polish Workers' Party during World War II. Its aims were to support the Soviet Union military against the German forces and aid the creation of a Soviet-controlled communist regime in Poland...
was integrated with the Polish People's Army at the end of the war. These Soviet controlled units on the
Eastern FrontThe Eastern Front of World War II was a theatre of war between the European Axis powers, Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Croatia and Finland , and the Soviet Union which encompassed central and eastern Europe from 22 June 1941 to 9...
included the
FirstThe Polish First Army was a Polish Army unit formed in the Soviet Union in 1944, from previously existing Polish I Corps as part of the Ludowe Wojsko Polskie.-Composition:...
, the
SecondThe Polish Second Army was a Polish Army unit formed in the Soviet Union in 1944 as part of the Ludowe Wojsko Polskie. The organization begun in August under the command of generals Karol Świerczewski and Stanislav Poplavsky, and the formation under command of general Świerczewski entered active...
and the Third Polish Armies (the latter was later merged with the second), and
Air Force of the Polish ArmyThe Air Force of the Polish Army , unofficially known as the People's Polish Air Force was the name of the Soviet-controlled Polish Air Force in the USSR between 1943 and 1947 created alongside the Polish People's Army , a subordinate to the Red Army...
with 10
infantryInfantrymen are soldiers who are specifically trained for the role of fighting on foot to engage the enemy face to face and have historically borne the brunt of the casualties of combat in wars. As the oldest branch of the Combat Arms they are the backbone of armies...
divisions, 5 armored brigades and 4 divisions of air force.
The Polish First Army was integrated in the
1st Belorussian FrontThe 1st Belorussian Front was a Front of the Soviet Army during World War II. As such it was a Soviet formation equivalent to a Western Army group....
with which it entered Poland from Soviet territory in 1944. Ordered to hold position by the Soviet leadership, it did not advance towards Warsaw as Germans suppressed the
Warsaw UprisingThe Warsaw Uprising was a struggle by the Polish Home Army to liberate Warsaw from Nazi German occupation during World War II. The Uprising began on 1 August 1944, as part of a nationwide rebellion, Operation Tempest. It was intended to last for only a few days until the Soviet Army reached the...
. It took part in battles for
BydgoszczBydgoszcz is a city currently located in northern Poland, on the Brda and Vistula rivers, with a population of 360,142 , agglomeration more than 400 000, which makes it the 8th biggest city in Poland...
,
KolobrzegKołobrzeg is a city in Middle Pomerania in north-western Poland with some 50,000 inhabitants . Kołobrzeg is located on the Parsęta River on the south coast of the Baltic Sea...
(Kolberg),
GdańskGdańsk, also known by its German name Danzig , is a city on the Baltic coast in northern Poland, at the centre of the country's fourth-largest metropolitan area....
(Danzig) and
GdyniaGdynia is a city in the Pomeranian Voivodeship of Poland and an important seaport at Gdańsk Bay on the south coast of the Baltic Sea....
losing 20,000 people in the winter of 1944-45 battles. In April-May 1945 the 1st Army fought in the
final capture of BerlinThe Battle of Berlin was the final major offensive of the European Theatre of World War II and was designated the Berlin Strategic Offensive Operation by the Soviet Union.
[The last offensive of the European war was the Prague Offensive on 6–11 May 1945, when the Red Army, with the help...]
. The Polish Second Army fought as part of the Soviet
1st Ukrainian FrontThe 1st Ukrainian Front was a front—a force the size of a Western Army group—of the Soviet Union's Red Army during the Second World War.-Wartime:...
and took part in the
Prague OffensiveThe Prague Offensive was the last major Soviet operation of World War II in Europe. The offensive, and the battle for Prague, was fought on the Eastern Front from 6 May to 11 May 1945. This battle for the city is particularly noteworthy in that it ended after the Third Reich capitulated on 8 May...
. In the final operations of the war the losses of the two armies of the LWP amounted to 32,000.
Battles
Major battles and campaigns in which Polish regular forces took part:
- Invasion of Poland
The Invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign or 1939 Defensive War in Poland and the Poland Campaign in Germany, was an invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, and a small Slovak contingent that marked the start of World War II...
(1939)
- Battle of Kock
The Battle of Kock, was the final battle in the Invasion of Poland at the beginning of World War II. It took place between 2 October and 5 October, 1939, near the town of Kock, in Poland....
(1939)
- Battle of Mokra
The Battle of Mokra took place on September 1, 1939 near the village of Mokra, north-west of Częstochowa, Poland. It was one of the first battles of the Invasion of Poland, of the Second World War and one of the few Polish victories of that campaign....
- Battle of the Bzura River
- Battle of Tomaszów Lubelski
Battle of Tomaszów Lubelski took place from 17 September to 26 September 1939 near the town of Tomaszów Lubelski. It was the second largest battle of the Invasion of Poland and also the largest tank battle of the campaign...
- Battle of Warsaw
The 1939 Battle of Warsaw was fought between the Polish Warsaw Army garrisoned and entrenched in the capital of Poland and the German Army...
(1939)
- Battle of Wizna
Battle of Wizna was fought between September 7 and September 10, 1939, between the forces of Poland and Germany during the initial stages of Invasion of Poland.-Eve of the Battle:...
- British campaign in Norway (Battle of Narvik)
- French Campaign
- Battle of Britain
The Battle of Britain is the name given to the air campaign waged by the German Air Force against the United Kingdom during the summer and autumn of 1940. The objective of the campaign was to gain air superiority over the Royal Air Force , especially Fighter Command...
- Battle of the Atlantic
- Battle of Tobruk
- Operation Jubilee (Battle of Dieppe)
- Battle of Lenino
The Battle of Lenino was a tactical World War II engagement that took place from 12 October to 13 October 1943 as part of the Spas-Demyansk offensive operation in the Duki-Ilovets direction near the town of Dribin, north of the village of Lenino in the Mogilev region of the Byelorussian SSR...
- Battle of Normandy (D-Day
D-Day is a term often used in military parlance to denote the day on which a combat attack or operation is to be initiated. "D-Day" often represents a variable, designating the day upon which some significant event will occur or has occurred; see Military designation of days and hours for similar...
)
- Battle of Monte Cassino
The Battle of Monte Cassino was a costly series of four battles during World War II, fought by the Allies with the intention of breaking through the Winter Line and seizing Rome.In the beginning of 1944, the western half of the Winter Line was being anchored by Germans holding the Rapido, Liri and...
- Battle of Falaise
- Battle of Arnhem
The Battle of Arnhem was a famous Second World War military engagement fought in and around the Dutch towns of Arnhem, Oosterbeek, Wolfheze, Driel and the surrounding countryside from the 17–26 September 1944....
(part of Operation Market GardenOperation Market Garden was an Allied military operation, fought in the Netherlands and Germany in World War II...
)
- Battle of Ancona
The Battle of Ancona was a battle involving forces from Poland serving as part of the British Army and German forces that took place between 16 June–18 July 1944 during the Italian campaign in World War II...
- Battle of Bologna
The Battle of Bologna was fought in Bologna, Italy from 9–21 April 1945 during the Second World War, as part of the Spring 1945 offensive in Italy. The Allied forces were victorious, with the Polish 2nd Corps and supporting Allied units capturing the city on 21 April.-Background:In March 1945 the...
- Battle of Bydgoszcz
- Battle of Kolobrzeg (Kolberg),
- battle of Gdańsk (Danzig)
Battles near or Sieges of Danzig took place several times in the history of Danzig. The most notable are:* Teutonic takeover of Danzig in 1308. This event involved several parties...
- Battle of Gdynia
Battle of Gdynia was one of the major battles in northern Poland during the Invasion of Poland of 1939. The Germans' main push towards Gdynia began on 8 September and they captured Gdynia less than a week later on 14 September.- Before the battle :...
- Battle of Berlin
The Battle of Berlin was the final major offensive of the European Theatre of World War II and was designated the Berlin Strategic Offensive Operation by the Soviet Union.
[The last offensive of the European war was the Prague Offensive on 6–11 May 1945, when the Red Army, with the help...]
- Prague Offensive
The Prague Offensive was the last major Soviet operation of World War II in Europe. The offensive, and the battle for Prague, was fought on the Eastern Front from 6 May to 11 May 1945. This battle for the city is particularly noteworthy in that it ended after the Third Reich capitulated on 8 May...
- Polish underground actions:
- Operation Tempest
Operation Tempest was a series of uprisings conducted during World War II by the Polish Home Army ....
(Burza)
- Operation Ostra Brama
- Lwów Uprising
The Lwów Uprising was the armed struggle started by the Polish Home Army against the Nazi occupiers in Lwów, during World War II. It started on July 23, 1944 as a part of a plan of all-national uprising codenamed Operation Tempest. The fights lasted until July 27 and resulted in liberation of the...
- Warsaw Uprising
The Warsaw Uprising was a struggle by the Polish Home Army to liberate Warsaw from Nazi German occupation during World War II. The Uprising began on 1 August 1944, as part of a nationwide rebellion, Operation Tempest. It was intended to last for only a few days until the Soviet Army reached the...
Technologies
- Replicas of the German Enigma
An Enigma machine is any of a family of related electro-mechanical rotor machines used for the encryption and decryption of secret messages. The first Enigma was invented by German engineer Arthur Scherbius at the end of World War I...
cipher machine had been produced at the start of 1933 to the specifications of Polish mathematicianMathematics is the science and study of quantity, structure, space, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns, formulate new conjectures, and establish truth by rigorous deduction from appropriately chosen axioms and definitions....
-cryptologist Marian RejewskiMarian Adam Rejewski was a Polish mathematician and cryptologist who in 1932 solved the plugboard-equipped Enigma machine, the main cipher device used by Germany...
, and two machines of the current model were given to the British and French just before the outbreak of war in 1939. Rejewski and his two cryptologist colleagues also invented the cryptological bomb, perforated Zygalski sheets, and other techniques and devices for breaking Enigma ciphers.
- Józef Kosacki invented the Polish mine detector
The Mine detector Mark I was a metal detector for landmines developed during World War II in the winter of 1941/1942 by Polish lieutenant Józef Kosacki.- History :...
, which would be used by the Allies throughout the war.
- The Vickers Tank Periscope MK.IV
The Vickers Tank Periscope MK.IV, invented by Polish engineer Rudolf Gundlach, was first patented in 1936 as Gundlach Peryskop obrotowy. It was the first device to allow the tank commander to have a 360-degree view from his turret, with a single periscope...
was invented by engineerEngineering is the discipline, art and profession of acquiring and applying technical, scientific and mathematical knowledge to design and implement materials, structures, machines, devices, systems, and processes that safely realize a desired objective or inventions.The American Engineers' Council...
Rudolf GundlachRudolf Gundlach was a Polish engineer, inventor and tank designer. He headed the design division of the Armored Weapons Development Office .He was the chief designer of the Ursus wz...
and patented in 1936 as the Gundlach Peryskop obrotowy. Initially it was mounted in Polish tanks such as the 7TPThe 7TP was the Polish light tank of the Second World War. A development of the British Vickers 6-ton, it was significantly better armed than its most common opponents, the German Panzer I and Panzer II. A standard tank of the Polish Army during the Polish Defensive War of 1939, its production...
and TKSThe TK and TKS were Polish tankettes during the Second World War.-Design and development:The TK tankette was a Polish design produced from 1931 that was based upon an improved chassis of the British Carden Loyd tankette. The TKS was an improved model with a new hull and a more powerful engine. The...
. Subsequently the design was copied by the British and used in most tankA tank is a tracked, armoured fighting vehicle designed for front-line combat which combines operational mobility and tactical offensive and defensive capabilities...
s of WW II, including the Soviet T-34The T-34 was a Soviet medium tank produced from 1940 to 1958. Although its armour and armament were surpassed by later tanks of the era, it has been often credited as the most effective, efficient and influential design of World War II...
, the British CrusaderThe Tank, Cruiser, Mk VI Crusader was one of the primary British cruiser tanks of the Second World War and perhaps the most important British tank of the North African Campaign. However, due to its reputation for unreliability and relatively thin armour, it was replaced by American tanks for the...
, ChurchillThe Tank, Infantry, Mk IV was a heavy British infantry tank used in the Second World War, best known for its heavy armour, large longitudinal chassis with all-around tracks with multiple bogies, and its use as the basis of many specialist vehicles...
, ValentineValentine may refer to:*One of 3 recognized Catholic Saint Valentines or one of 11 recognized martyrs named Valentine.*The legendary Saint Valentine as particularly associated with Valentine's Day.*A card or gift given on Valentine's Day....
and CromwellThe Tank, Cruiser, Mk VIII, Cromwell , named after the English Civil War leader Oliver Cromwell, was one of the most successful series of cruiser tanks fielded by Britain in World War II. It was the first tank in the British arsenal to combine a dual-purpose gun, high speed, and reasonable armour...
tanks, and the American M4 ShermanThe M4 Sherman, formally Medium Tank, M4, was the primary tank used by the United States during World War II. It was also distributed to the Allies via lend lease. Evolved from previous medium and light tanks, it was the first American medium tank with a fully traversing turret for the main gun...
. The main advantage of the periscope was that the tank commander no longer had to turn his head in order to look backwards. The design was also later used extensively by the Germans.
- VIS
Vis is a 9 mm caliber, single-action, semi-automatic pistol...
(Polish designation pistolet wz. 35 Vis, German designation 9 mm Pistole 35(p), often simply called the Radom in English sources) is a 9 mm caliber, single-action, semi-automatic pistol. Originally designed by Piotr WilniewczycPiotr Wilniewczyc was a Polish engineer and arms constructor. Among his most successful constructions were the Vis-35 pistol, commonly known as the Radom for the arsenal in which it was made, and the Mors submachine gun.- Biography :...
and Jan Skrzypiński in 1930, it was adopted in 1935 as the standard handgun of the Polish Army. Between 1939-1945, 312,000 - 380,000 VIS pistols were produced and used by the German paratroopers and police. The Radom was very accurate, stable and generally regarded as one of the best military pistols of that period. After the war the Soviet TT-33The TT-30 is a Russian semi-automatic pistol developed by Fedor Tokarev as a service pistol for the Soviet military to replace the Nagant M1895 revolvers in use since tsarist times....
pistol, considered by many to be inferior to the Vis.
- UR - Anti-tank rifle, model 35 was a Polish 7.92 mm anti-tank rifle used by the Polish Army during the Polish Defensive War of 1939. It was also known by its code name, kb Urugwaj (kb Ur), or by the name of its designer, Józef Maroszek.
- BŁYSKAWICA- a submachine gun produced by the Armia Krajowa- Polish resistance movement fighting the Germans in occupied Poland. An invention of engineer Wacław Zawrotny and Seweryn Wielanier it was based on the design of the British Sten submachine gun.
- The Mors was a Polish submachine gun
A submachine gun is a firearm that combines the automatic fire of a machine gun with the cartridge of a pistol, and is usually between the two in weight and size...
designed by Piotr Wilniewczyc and Jan Skrzypiński between 1936 and 1938. It was to have become the standard SMG of the Polish Army some time in the 1940s. However, its production was halted by the 1939 invasion of Poland and World War II.
- Browning wz.1928
The Browning wz.1928 / IMG 28 is a Polish version of the M1918 BAR. It was a light machine gun used by the Polish and German infantry in World War II.The Wehrmacht captured a number of Polish-made Browning wz...
is a Polish version of the FN BAR. It was a light machine gun used by the Polish infantry in World War II.
- Granatnik 46 mm wz.30 and granatnik 46 mm wz.36 was a polish grenade launcher
A grenade launcher is a weapon that launches a grenade with more accuracy, higher velocity, and to greater distances than a soldier could throw it by hand....
. In September 1939 Polish Army used 3850 p. of this weapon.
- PZL.37 Łoś was a Polish twin-engine medium bomber designed in the mid-1930s at the PZL factory in Warsaw by Jerzy Dąbrowski
Jerzy Dąbrowski was a Polish aeronautical engineer. He was the lead designer of the famed PZL.37 Łoś medium bomber....
, and used operationally in the Invasion of Poland in 1939. Thanks to the laminar-flow wing it was one of the most modern bombers in the world before World War II.
- 7TP
The 7TP was the Polish light tank of the Second World War. A development of the British Vickers 6-ton, it was significantly better armed than its most common opponents, the German Panzer I and Panzer II. A standard tank of the Polish Army during the Polish Defensive War of 1939, its production...
was the Polish light tank of the Second World War. A development of the British Vickers 6-ton, it was significantly better armed than its most common opponents, the German Panzer IThe Panzer I is a light tank which was produced in Germany in the 1930s. The name is short for the German , abbreviated . The tank's official German ordnance inventory designation was SdKfz 101 .Design of the Panzer I began in 1932 and mass production in 1934...
and Panzer IIPanzer II is the common name of a German tank used in World War II. The official German designation was Panzerkampfwagen II . Designed as a stopgap while other tanks were developed, it played an important role in the early years of World War II, during the Polish and French campaigns...
. A standard tank of the Polish Army during the Polish Defensive War of 1939, its production never exceeded 140 vehicles. Its chassis was used as the base for C7P artillery tractor.
- TKS
The TK and TKS were Polish tankettes during the Second World War.-Design and development:The TK tankette was a Polish design produced from 1931 that was based upon an improved chassis of the British Carden Loyd tankette. The TKS was an improved model with a new hull and a more powerful engine. The...
was a Polish tankette produced from 1931 that was based upon an improved chassis of the British Carden Loyd tankette. The TKS was an improved model with a new hull and a more powerful engine. In 1939, a re-arming of the tankettes with 20 mm guns began, but only about 24 were completed before the outbreak of World War II.
- Samochód pancerny wz. 34
Samochód pancerny wz. 34 , was a standard light armored car used by the Polish Army during the September Campaign of 1939....
("armored car 1934 pattern"), was a standard light armored car used by the Polish Army during the September Campaign of 1939.
- Samochód pancerny wz. 29 ("armoured car 1929 pattern"), commonly known as Ursus or CWS, it was a Polish interwar heavy armored car. A handful of these vehicles saw combat during the Polish-German War of 1939.
- C7P
C7P was a Polish tracked artillery tractor, used by the Polish Army before and during World War II...
was a Polish tracked artillery tractor, used by the Polish Army before and during World War II. The tractor was developed by the design bureau of Witold Jakusz of the PZInż company between 1931 and 1934.
- Kubuś
The Kubu or Orang Rimba are an indigenous people inhabiting the foothills of Bukit Barisan in central Sumatra, Indonesia, in the vicinity of the cities of Palembang and Jambi...
was a Polish World War II armoured car and Armoured personnel carrier (APC), made by the Home Army during the Warsaw UprisingThe Warsaw Uprising was a struggle by the Polish Home Army to liberate Warsaw from Nazi German occupation during World War II. The Uprising began on 1 August 1944, as part of a nationwide rebellion, Operation Tempest. It was intended to last for only a few days until the Soviet Army reached the...
. It was the only armoured car that was manufactured by an underground movement during the Second World War.
- KIS
Kis was the name of a Polish machine pistol from the time of the Second World War. It was designed and manufactured by engineers in Jan Piwnik's "Ponury" guerrilla unit that was operating in Holy Cross Mountains region...
- A Polish machine pistol designed and manufactured by engineers in the Jan PiwnikJan Piwnik was a Polish World War II soldier, a cichociemny and a notable leader of the Home Army in the Świętokrzyskie Mountains. He used the noms de guerre Ponury and Donat.-Biography:...
's "Ponury" ("Grim") guerrilla unit that was operating in Holy Cross Mountains region. It was probably the only kind of modern firearm that could be manufactured in the forest without the need for sophisticated tools and factory equipment during the Second World War.
- A bomb-release system was invented by Władysław Świątecki in the 1930s and was used in the pre-war Polish PZL.37 Łoś (Elk) bomber. In 1940 Świątecki's invention was taken over by the British, who used it in the Avro Lancaster bomber. In 1943, an updated version was created by Jerzy Rudlicki
Rudlicki Jerzy was a Polish aerospace engineer who invented the V-tail configuration for aircraft combining the ailerons and elevators in one system. He both worked in the World War I and World War II on aircraft. He was the main designer of the Polish Plage i Laśkiewicz works, designing aircraft...
for the American B-17 Flying FortressThe Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is a four-engine heavy bomber aircraft developed for the United States Army Air Corps , introduced in the 1930s. Competing against Douglas and Martin for a contract to build 200 bombers, the Boeing entry outperformed both competitors and more than met the Air Corps'...
.
- In World War II, there was an important need to take bearings on the high frequency radio transmissions used by the German Kriegsmarine. The engineering of such high frequency direction finding systems for operation on ships presented severe technical problems, mainly due to the effects of the superstructure on the wavefront of arriving radio signals. However, solutions to these problems were proposed by the Polish engineer Waclaw Struszynski, who also led the team which developed the first practical system at the Admiralty Signal Establishment, England. These systems were installed on convoy escort ships, and were very effective against the U-boats in the Battle of the Atlantic. The father of Wacław Struszyński was Professor Marceli Struszyński
Marceli Struszyński was a Polish chemist. Professor of Warsaw University of Technology from 1938-1939 and 1945-1959....
, a member of the Polish resistance, who analysed the fuel used in the V2 rocket, the formula being subsequently sent to England.
- A rubber
Natural rubber is an elastomer that was originally derived from a milky colloidal suspension, or latex, found in the sap of some plants. The purified form of natural rubber is the chemical polyisoprene, which can also be produced synthetically...
windshield wiper was invented by the Polish pianistThe piano is a musical instrument which is played by means of a keyboard. Widely used in Western music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music, and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
Józef HofmannJózef Kazimierz Hofmann was a Polish-American virtuoso pianist and composer. Many connoisseurs consider him one of the greatest pianists of all time.-Biography:...
.
- Sokół 1000 (also known as CWS 1000 and M 111) was the heaviest Polish pre-war motorcycle manufactured by the PZInż works, both for civilian and military use in the Polish Army.
- Henryk Magnuski
Henryk Władysław Magnuski was a Polish telecommunications engineer who worked for Motorola in Chicago. He was the inventor of one of the first Walkie-Talkies and one of the authors of his company success in the fields of radio communication....
, a Polish engineer working for MotorolaMotorola, Inc. is an American, multinational, Fortune 100, telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois. It is a manufacturer of wireless telephone handsets, and also designs and sells wireless network infrastructure equipment such as cellular transmission base stations and signal...
, in 1940 invented the SCR-300 radio, the first small radio receiver/transmitter to have manually-set frequencies. It was used extensively by the American Army and was nicknamed the walkie-talkieA walkie-talkie is a hand-held, portable, two-way radio transceiver. Its development during the Second World War has been variously credited to Canadian Donald L. Hings, radio engineer Alfred J. Gross, and engineering teams at Motorola...
.
- The Polish Home Army was probably the only World War II resistance movement to manufacture large quantities of weaponry and munitions. In addition to pre-war designs like Vis
Vis is a 9 mm caliber, single-action, semi-automatic pistol...
pistol, there were also the Błyskawica, Bechowiec, KISKis was the name of a Polish machine pistol from the time of the Second World War. It was designed and manufactured by engineers in Jan Piwnik's "Ponury" guerrilla unit that was operating in Holy Cross Mountains region...
and Polski Sten machine pistols, designed and produced by the underground facilities. In addition, large amounts of filipinkaFilipinka was an unofficial, yet common name for the ET wz. 40 hand grenade produced for the Armia Krajowa during World War II in occupied Poland....
and sidolówkaSidolówka was an unofficial, yet common, name of the R wz. 42 hand grenade, produced by the Polish resistance organization Armia Krajowa in occupied Poland during World War II....
hand grenadeA hand grenade is an anti-personnel weapon that explodes a short time after release. The French military term grenade probably comes from the shape of the pomegranate fruit, which is also called grenade in French....
s were developed and manufactured in the underground. Finally, during the Warsaw UprisingThe Warsaw Uprising was a struggle by the Polish Home Army to liberate Warsaw from Nazi German occupation during World War II. The Uprising began on 1 August 1944, as part of a nationwide rebellion, Operation Tempest. It was intended to last for only a few days until the Soviet Army reached the...
Polish engineers built several armoured car which also took part in the fighting.
See also
- History of Poland (1939–1945)
The history of Poland from 1939 to 1945 encompasses the German invasion of Poland through to the end of World War II. On 1 September 1939, without a formal declaration of war, Germany invaded Poland. Germany's pretext was that Polish troops had allegedly committed "provocations" along the...
- List of Polish armies in World War II
- List of Polish divisions in World War II
- Polish resistance movement in World War II
The Polish resistance movement fought against the occupation of Poland during World War II. The fight against the Nazi occupation of Poland was an important part of the European anti-fascist resistance movement and had the largest partisan army in occupied Europe...
- Western betrayal
Western betrayal or Yalta betrayal are terms often used in some Eastern and Central European countries, which refer to the foreign policy of several Western countries between 1919-1968, which violated allied pacts and agreements made during the period from the Treaty of Versailles through World...
- Many books and articles on Soviet and Polish tanks and armor by author and military historian Janusz Magnuski
__FORCETOC__Janusz Magnuski was a Polish author and military historian. His principal works document the development and deployment of Polish and Soviet armor utilized during World War II and he has been called "the world's most noted historian of Soviet tank history"...
- Blackhawk (comics)
Blackhawk, a long-running comic book series, was also a film serial, a radio series and a novel. The comic book was published first by Quality Comics and later by National Periodical Publications, the primary company of those that evolved to become DC Comics...
External links