Polish contribution to World War II

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Main engagements of Polish forces
1939 poster.
1939 poster.

The European theater of World War II opened with the German invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939. The Polish Army was quickly pushed back. In keeping with the terms of the Secret Additional Protocol of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact 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.[1] On September 17 the Soviets invaded eastern Poland, forcing the Polish government and military to abandon their plans for a long-term defense in the Romanian bridgehead area. The last remaining Polish Army units capitulated in early October.

After Poland had been overrun, a government-in-exile, an armed forces, and an intelligence service were established outside of Poland. These organisations contributed to the Allied effort throughout the war. As Poland never made a general surrender or produced a collaboratory puppet govenment, it was directly governed by a purely German administration know as the Generalgouvernement. This administration was in turn opposed by the underground Polish Secret State.

Poles provided important help to the Allies throughout the war. Some of these actions included the prewar and wartime decyphering of German Enigma machine codes by cryptologists Marian Rejewski and his colleagues; the service of the Polish Air Force, not only in the Allied victory in the Battle of Britain but also the subsequent war in the air; the defense of Tobruk; the capture of the German-held monastery hill of Monte Cassino; a role in the battle of the Falaise pocket; and an airborne brigade parachute drop during Operation Market Garden.

Contents

[edit] Invasion of Poland

For more details on this topic, see Invasion of Poland (1939).

The Invasion of Poland by the military forces of Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union and a small German-allied Slovak contingent marked the beginning of World War II in Europe. In accordence with their treaty obligations, the United Kingdom and France declared war 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 Pact containing a secret protocol for the division of Northern and Central Europe into German and Soviet spheres of influence. It ended on October 6, 1939, with Germany and the Soviet Union occupying the entirety of Poland.

German losses included approximately 16,000 Killed in Action and 30% of their armored vehicles. The Polish casualties 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.

[edit] Polish resistance

This article is part
of the series:
Polish Secret State
Kotwica
History of Poland
Further information: Polish resistance movement in World War II and Polish Underground State

The main resistance force in Nazi-occupied Poland was the Armia Krajowa ("Home Army"; abbreviated "AK"), which numbered some 200,000-300,000 soldiers at its peak as well as many more sympathizers.[2] The AK coordinated its operations with the exiled Polish Government in London and its activity concentrated on sabotage, diversion and intelligence gathering [1]. Its combat activity was low until 1943[2][2] 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 Army in the Eastern Front. Then the AK started a nationwide uprising (Operation Tempest) against Nazi forces [3]. 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[3] The AK also conducted "punitive" operations to assassinate Gestapo officials responsible for Nazi terror. Following the 1941 German attack on the USSR, 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 [4] 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[2] 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 Ludowa, a communist resistance movement. From 1944, the advancing Red Army 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, symphatisers and civilians, all non-communist Polish formations were (to an increasing extent) becoming involved in actions against the Soviets.[5]

The Armia Ludowa, a Soviet proxy fighting force[6] was another resistance group that was unrelated to the Polish Government in Exile, allied instead to the Soviet Union. As of July, 1944 it incorporated a similar ogranization, the Gwardia Ludowa, and numbered about 6,000 soldiers(although estimates vary).[7]

There were separate resistance groups organized by Polish Jews:[2] the right-wing Jewish Fighting Union (ŻZW) and the more Soviet-leaning Jewish Combat Organization (ŻOB). These organisations cooperated little with each other and their relationship with the Polish resistance 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.).

[edit] Intelligence

Further information: Cipher Bureau and Operation Most III
Cyclometer. Diagram from Marian Rejewski’s papers. 1: Rotor lid closed. 2: Rotor lid open. 3: Rheostat. 4: Glowlamps. 5: Switches. 6: Letters.
Cyclometer. Diagram from Marian Rejewski’s papers. 1: Rotor lid closed. 2: Rotor lid open. 3: Rheostat. 4: Glowlamps. 5: Switches. 6: Letters.

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 Rejewski, Henryk Zygalski and Jerzy Różycki) at the Polish General Staff's Cipher Bureau in Warsaw had developed a number of techniques and devices — including the "grill" method, Różycki's "clock," Rejewski's "cyclometer" and "card catalog," Zygalski's "perforated sheets," and Rejewski's "cryptologic bomb" (Polish term: bomba, precursor to the later British "Bombe," named after its Polish predecessor) — to facilitate decryption of messages produced on the German "Enigma" cipher machine. A few weeks before the outbreak of World War II, on July 25, 1939, near Pyry in the Kabaty Woods just south of Warsaw, 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.[8]

Had Poland not shared her Enigma-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 ULTRA, was extremely valuable in the Allied prosecution of the war, though the exact influence of ULTRA on its course remains a subject of debate. Some have argued that ULTRA 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.

As early as 1940, Polish agents (see Witold Pilecki) penetrated German concentration camps, including Auschwitz, and informed the world about Nazi atrocities.

AK members recovering V-2 from the Bug River.
AK members recovering V-2 from the Bug River.

Home Army (Polish: Armia Krajowa) AK intelligence was vital in locating and destroying (18 August 1943) the German rocket facility at Peenemunde and in gathering information about Germany's flying bomb and V-2 rocket. 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 Sarnaki on the Bug River 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 V2). Analysis of the German rocket became vital to improving Allied anti-V-2 defenses (see Operation Most III).[8]

Polish intelligence cooperated with the other Allies in every European country and operated one of the largest intelligence networks in Nazi Germany. Many Poles also served in other Allied intelligence services, including the celebrated Krystyna Skarbek ("Christine Granville") in the United Kingdom's Special Operations Executive. 43 per cent of all the reports received by the British secret services from continental Europe in 1939-45 came from Polish sources.[8]

[edit] Polish Forces (West)

For more details on this topic, see Polish Armed Forces in the West.

[edit] Army

Polish Armed Forces in the West
at the height of their power
Deserters from the German Wehrmacht 89,300 (35.8%)
Evacuees from the USSR in 1941 83,000 (33.7%)
Evacuees from France in 1940 35,000 (14.0%)
Liberated POWs 21,750 (8.7%)
Escapees from occupied Europe 14,210 (5.7%)
Recruits in liberated France 7,000 (2.8%)
Polonia from Argentina, Brazil and Canada 2,290 (0.9%)
Polonia from United Kingdom 1,780 (0.7%)
Total 249,000
Note: Until July 1945, when recruitment was halted, some 26,830 Polish soldiers were declared KIA or MIA or had died of wounds. After that date, an additional 21,000 former Polish POWs were inducted.

Source:[9]

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 divisions (First Grenadier Division, and Second Infantry Fusiliers Division) took part in the defense of France, while a Polish motorized brigade and two infantry divisions were in process of forming. A Polish Independent Carpathian Brigade was formed in French-mandated Syria, to which many Polish troops had escaped from Romania. The Polish Air Force 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 Switzerland. Nevertheless, General Władysław Sikorski, Polish commander-in-chief and prime minister, was able to evacuate many Polish troops to the United Kingdom. In 1941, following an agreement between the Polish government in exile and Joseph Stalin, the Soviets released Polish citizens, from whom a 75,000-strong army was formed in the Middle East under General Władysław Anders ("Anders' Army").

This image is a candidate for speedy deletion. It may be deleted after Thursday, 10 January 2008.

This image is a candidate for speedy deletion. It may be deleted after Thursday, 10 January 2008.

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 Force and 3,000 in the Polish Navy. At the end of WWII, the Polish Armed Forces 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.

[edit] Air Force

Further information: Polish Air Forces in France and Great Britain

The Polish Air Force fought in the Battle of France 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)[10].

Later, Polish pilots fought in the Battle of Britain, 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 Force (RAF) had welcomed foreign pilots to supplement the dwindling pool of British pilots. On 11 June 1940, the Polish Government in Exile 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 (300 and 301 Bomber Squadrons; 302 and 303 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 Kościuszko, 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[11] These 5% of Polish pilots were responsible for 12% of total victories in the Battle.

126 German aeroplanes shot down by the 303 squadron during the Battle of Britain. Painted on a Hurricane.
126 German aeroplanes shot down by the 303 squadron during the Battle of Britain. Painted on a Hurricane.

The Polish Air Force also fought in 1943 in Tunisia (Polish Fighting Team, so called "Skalski's Circus") 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 Command (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 Forces (USAAF).

Polish squadrons in the United Kingdom:

[edit] Navy

Just on the eve of war, three destroyers - representing most of the major Polish Navy ships - had been sent for safety to the British Isles (Operation Peking). There they fought alongside the Royal Navy. At various stages of the war, the Polish Navy 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, Bismarck.[12] Overall, Polish Navy during the war sailed total twelve hundred thousand nautical miles, escorted 787 convoys, conducted 1,162 patrols and combat operations, sunk 12 enemy ships (including 5 submarines) and 41 merchant vessels, damaged 24 more (including 8 submarines)) and shot down 20 aircraft; all of that on 26 ships (2 cruisers, 9 destroyers, 5 submarines and 11 torpedo boats). 450 seamen out of over 4,000 lost their lives in action.[13][14]

ORP Sokól.
ORP Sokól.

The above list does not include a number of minor ships, transports, merchant-marine auxiliary vessels, and patrol boats. Polish Merchant Navy contributted about 137 Brutto Register Tonnages to Allied shipping; losing 18 ships (with capacity of 76 BRTs) and over 200 sailors during the war.[15]

[edit] Polish Forces (East)

Further information: Polish Armed Forces in the East and Air Force of the Polish Army
Residents of Warsaw[citation needed] meet the soldiers of the Red Army and the Polish First Army[citation needed]. January, 1945
Residents of Warsaw[citation needed] meet the soldiers of the Red Army and the Polish First Army[citation needed]. January, 1945
Polish flag over Berlin.
Polish flag over Berlin.

Broadly speaking, there were two formations among the Polish Armed Forces in the East. First was the Polish government-in-exile-loyal Anders Army, created in the second half of 1941 after German invasion of the USSR. In 1943 this formation was transferred to the Western Allies and became known as the Polish II Corps. Additionally, remaining Polish forces in USSR were reorganized into Soviet-controlled Polish I Corps in the Soviet Union, which in turn was reorganized in 1944 into Polish First Army (Berling Army) and Polish Second Army, both part of Polish People's Army (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 Barbarossa, Stalin agreed (Sikorski-Mayski Agreement) release tens of thousands of Polish prisoners-of-war held in Soviet camps from whom a military force was formed. The Anders Army, as the formation became known, was loyal to the Polish government in exile, 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 East, becoming the Polish II Corps and part of the Polish Armed Forces in the West.

To utilize the potential of the remaining Polish soldiers in USSR, without actually allowing them to become independent from Soviet conrol, a fact which allowed Anders Army to leave USSR, the Soviet Union created a Union of Polish Patriots (ZPP) in 1943 as communist puppet counter-government[16][4] to the Polish government in exile. At the same time a parallel army (Polish People's Army or LWP) was created which by the end of the war numbered about 200,000 troops.[16] There Soviet created guerilla force called Armia Ludowa was integrated with Polish People's Army at the end of the war. These Soviet controlled units on the Eastern Front included the First, the Second and the Third Polish Armies (the latter was later merged with the second), and Air Force of the Polish Army with 10 infantry divisions, 5 armored brigades and 4 divisions of air force.

The Polish First Army was integrated in the 1st Belorussian Front with which it entered Poland from the Soviet territory in 1944. Ordered to hold position by the Soviet leadership, it did not advance towards Warsaw as Germans suppressed the Warsaw Uprising. It took part in battles for Bydgoszcz, Kolobrzeg (Kolberg), Gdańsk (Danzig) and Gdynia losing 20,000 people in the winter of 1944-45 battles.[16] In April-May 1945 the 1st Army fought in the final capture of Berlin. The Polish Second Army fought within the Soviet 1st Ukrainian Front and took part in the Prague Offensive. In the final operations of the war the losses of the two armies of the LWP amounted to 32,000.

[edit] Battles

In Polish (top): "Thank you, Poles." in Dutch (bottom): "Freed by the Poles." Liberation of Breda, Netherlands, 1944.
In Polish (top): "Thank you, Poles." in Dutch (bottom): "Freed by the Poles." Liberation of Breda, Netherlands, 1944.

Major battles and campaigns in which Polish regular forces took part:

[edit] Inventions

Mine detector (Polish) Mark I
Mine detector (Polish) Mark I
  • Replicas of the German Enigma cipher machine had been produced at the start of 1933 to the specifications of Polish mathematician-cryptologist Marian Rejewski, 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, which would be used by the Allies throughout the war.
  • The Vickers Tank Periscope MK.IV was invented by engineer Rudolf Gundlach and patented in 1936 as the Gundlach Peryskop obrotowy. It was copied by the British and used in most tanks of WW II, including the Soviet T-34, the British Crusader, Churchill', Valentine tank and Cromwell, and the American M4 Sherman. The main advantage of this 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 (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 Wilniewczyc and Jan Skrzypiński in 1930, it was adopted in 1935 as the standard handgun of the Polish Army. Beetwen 1939-1945, 312,000 - 380,000 VIS pistols were produced and used by the German paratroopers and police. Radom was very accurate, stable and generally regarded as one of the best military pistols of that period. After the war the Soviet TT-33 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- submachine gun produced by the Armia Krajowa- Polish resistance movement fighting the Germans in occupied Poland. Invention of engineer Wacław Zawrotny and Seweryn Wielanier based on construction British Sten submachine gun.
  • KIS - Polish machine pistol designed and manufactured by engineers in Jan Piwnik'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 in II world war.
  • A bomb-release system was invented by Władysław Świątecki in the 1930s and was used in the prewar 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 for the American B-17 Flying Fortress.
  • 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.[17] The father of Waclaw Struszynski was Professor Marceli Struszynski, a member of the Polish resistance, who analysed the fuel used in the V2 rocket, the formula being subsequently sent to England.
  • A rubber windshield wiper was invented by the Polish pianist Józef Hofmann.
  • 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, a Polish engineer working for Motorola, 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-talkie.
  • The Polish Home Army was probably the only WWII resistance movement to manufacture large quantities of weaponry and munitions. In addition to pre-war designs like Vis pistol, there were also the Błyskawica, Bechowiec, KIS and Polski Sten machine pistols, designed and produced by the underground facilities. In addition, large amounts of filipinka and sidolówka hand grenades were developed and manufactured in the underground. Finally, during the Warsaw Uprising Polish engineers built several armoured cars which also took part in the fighting.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ The Avalon Project : Nazi-Soviet Relations 1939-1941
  2. ^ a b c d Steven J Zaloga (1982). "The Underground Army", Polish Army, 1939-1945. Oxford: Osprey Publishing. ISBN 0-85045-417-4. 
  3. ^ M. Ney - Krwawicz, The Polish Underground State and Home Army
  4. ^ Encyklopedia PWN
  5. ^ Sowjetische Partisanen in Weißrußland: SR, April 2006
  6. ^ Encyklopedia PWN
  7. ^ Encyklopedia PWN
  8. ^ a b c Kwan Yuk Pan, Polish veterans to take pride of place in victory parade, Financial Times, July 5 2005. Last accessed on 31 March 2006.
  9. ^ Dr Mark Ostrowski: To Return To Poland Or Not To Return" - The Dilemma Facing The Polish Armed Forces At The End Of The Second World War.Chapter 1
  10. ^ Bartłomiej Belcarz counts 53 victories, including 19 shared with the French, or 57 according to data given by Jerzy Cynk. 53 victories makes 7,93% of 693 allied victories - Bartłomiej Belcarz: Polskie lotnictwo we Francji, Stratus, Sandomierz 2002, ISBN 83-916327-6-8
  11. ^ Despite a number of 126 kills was overestimated, but according to recent British historians, 303 Squadron was fourth best fighter squadron with at least 44 kills, and the best Hawker Hurricane-equipped squadron. According to Jerzy Cynk, it however scored some 55-60 victories - see No. 303 Polish Fighter Squadron.
  12. ^ Peszke, Michael Alfred (February 1999). Poland's Navy, 1918-1945. Hippocrene Books, 37. ISBN 0781806720. 
  13. ^ 86 years of the Polish Navy. Retrieved on 31 July 2007.
  14. ^ The Battle of the Atlantic and the Polish Navy. Retrieved on 31 July 2007.
  15. ^ (Polish) Pod polską banderą na morzach i oceanach 1939-1945, Świat Polonii
  16. ^ a b c Steven J Zaloga (1982). "The Polish People's Army", Polish Army, 1939-1945. Oxford: Osprey Publishing. ISBN 0-85045-417-4. 
  17. ^ HF/DF An Allied Weapon against German U-Boats 1939-1945 © Arthur O. Bauer

[edit] References

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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