The

Pomerania Pomerania ( pl, Pomorze; german: Pommern; Kashubian: ''Pòmòrskô''; sv, Pommern) is a historical region on the southern shore of the Baltic Sea in Central Europe, split between Poland and Germany. The western part of Pomerania belongs to ...

n Military District (Polish acronym POW) was a

military district Military districts (also called military regions) are formations of a state's armed forces (often of the Army) which are responsible for a certain area of territory. They are often more responsible for administrative than operational matters, and ...

of the

Polish Armed Forces The Armed Forces of the Republic of Poland ( pl, Siły Zbrojne Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej, abbreviated ''SZ RP''; popularly called ''Wojsko Polskie'' in Poland, abbreviated ''WP''—roughly, the "Polish Military") are the national armed forces of ...

from 1945 to 2011. Formally it was subordinate to the Minister of National Defence in the operational matters of defense and detached government administration (Art. 14

Law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

of 21 November 1967 on the universal duty to defend the Polish Republic). The district command headquarters was at Torun (1945–1946),

Bydgoszcz Bydgoszcz ( , , ; german: Bromberg) is a city in northern Poland, straddling the meeting of the River Vistula with its left-bank tributary, the Brda. With a city population of 339,053 as of December 2021 and an urban agglomeration with more ...

Gdańsk Gdańsk ( , also ; ; csb, Gduńsk;Stefan Ramułt, ''Słownik języka pomorskiego, czyli kaszubskiego'', Kraków 1893, Gdańsk 2003, ISBN 83-87408-64-6. , Johann Georg Theodor Grässe, ''Orbis latinus oder Verzeichniss der lateinischen Benen ...

Koszalin Koszalin (pronounced ; csb, Kòszalëno; formerly german: Köslin, ) is a city in northwestern Poland, in Western Pomerania. It is located south of the Baltic Sea coast, and intersected by the river Dzierżęcinka. Koszalin is also a county-sta ...

, and then at

. From 1947 to 2007 1 Gen. J. Dwernicki Street, from 2007 to December 2011 105th Szubinska Street. Since 1999, the POW is one of the two

s in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

. After 92 years, in accordance with the decision of the Minister of National Defence, in December 2011 the Pomeranian Military District was deactivated.

First Combined Arms Army

The First Combined Arms Army ( pl, Pierwsza Armia Ogólnowojskowa; see :pl:1 Armia Ogólnowojskowa WP (1955-1990)) was a

military formation Military organization or military organisation is the structuring of the armed forces of a state so as to offer such military capability as a national defense policy may require. In some countries paramilitary forces are included in a nation ...

of the Polish Land Forces created in 1955. It was intended to guard the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from ...

shores as part of the

Polish Front Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...

( :pl:Front Polski (1950)) and capture the

Danish straits The Danish straits are the straits connecting the Baltic Sea to the North Sea through the Kattegat and Skagerrak. Historically, the Danish straits were internal waterways of Denmark; however, following territorial losses, Øresund and Fehmarn Be ...

in case the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

turned hot. Unlike the 2nd Polish Army (raised and using after the

Prague Spring The Prague Spring ( cs, Pražské jaro, sk, Pražská jar) was a period of political liberalization and mass protest in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. It began on 5 January 1968, when reformist Alexander Dubček was elected First Sec ...

of 1968), it was never mobilised and made operational. It was disbanded as soon as Poland regained her independence from the

Soviet bloc The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc and the Soviet Bloc, was the group of socialist states of Central and Eastern Europe, East Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America under the influence of the Soviet Union that existed du ...

and left the

Warsaw Pact The Warsaw Pact (WP) or Treaty of Warsaw, formally the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, was a collective defense treaty signed in Warsaw, Poland, between the Soviet Union and seven other Eastern Bloc socialist republic ...

. Although all armies of the Polish Army were disbanded in 1945, already in 1950 a need arose to re-create war-time structure of the armed forces in case of a conflict with

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

. For that purpose in 1950 a Polish Front (also known as Coastal Front) was created from Polish units, as part of Soviet war preparations. In 1955 the front was further subdivided into armies. Each of three Polish Military Districts created a separate army: the Pomeranian Military District created the 1st All-Arms Army, the

Silesian Military District Silesian Military District ( pl, Śląski Okręg Wojskowy) was one of three military districts in Poland, the other two being the Pomeranian Military District and the Warsaw Military District. All three were disbanded by the end of 2011 due to the ...

created the 2nd Army while

Warsaw Military District The Warsaw Military District ( pl, Warszawski Okręg Wojskowy, WOW) was one of three military districts in Poland, the other two being the Pomeranian Military District and the Silesian Military District. It was the regional executive body of the ...

created the 4th. All air assets were to be joined into the 3rd Air Army in case of mobilisation. The 1st Army included all units under command of the Pomeranian Military District, among them the Headquarters, the

8th 8 (eight) is the natural number following 7 and preceding 9. In mathematics 8 is: * a composite number, its proper divisors being , , and . It is twice 4 or four times 2. * a power of two, being 2 (two cubed), and is the first number of t ...

12th 12 (twelve) is the natural number following 11 and preceding 13. Twelve is a superior highly composite number, divisible by 2, 3, 4, and 6. It is the number of years required for an orbital period of Jupiter. It is central to many systems ...

and 15th Mechanised Divisions,

16th 16 (sixteen) is the natural number following 15 and preceding 17. 16 is a composite number, and a square number, being 42 = 4 × 4. It is the smallest number with exactly five divisors, its proper divisors being , , and . In English speech, ...

and 20th Armoured Divisions, as well as 2nd Special Battalion (

deep reconnaissance A long-range reconnaissance patrol, or LRRP (pronounced "lurp"), is a small, well-armed reconnaissance team that patrols deep in enemy-held territory.Ankony, Robert C., ''Lurps: A Ranger's Diary of Tet, Khe Sanh, A Shau, and Quang Tri,'' revised ...

), two artillery brigades, one anti-tank regiment, engineering brigade, two engineering regiments and numerous other smaller units. The army was never activated and was disbanded in 1990.

Formations and units in 1985

Army Command and Headquarters (Dowództwo i sztab armii) * 4th Signals Regiment (''4 Pułk Łączności'') * 12th Radio Relay Cable-Laying Regiment (''12 Pułk Radioliniowo-Kablowy'') * 12th Radioelectronic Intelligence Battalion (''12 Batalion Rozpoznania Radioelektronicznego'') * 10th Radiotechnical irspace surveillanceBattalion (''10 Batalion Radiotechniczny'') * 2nd Special orcesBattalion (Long Range Reconnaissance) (''2 Batalion Specjalny'' (''dalekiego rozpoznania'')) * 8th Mechanised Division (''8 Dywizja Zmechanizowana'') * 12th Mechanised Division (''12 Dywizja Zmechanizowana'') * 15th Mechanised Division (''15 Dywizja Zmechanizowana'') * 16th Armored Division (''16 Dywizja Pancerna'') * 20th Armored Division (''20 Dywizja Pancerna'') * 2nd Operational-Tactical ntermediate range SSMMissile Brigade (''2 Brygada Rakiet Operacyjno-Taktycznych'') * 6th Gun Artillery Brigade (''6 Brygada Artylerii Armat'') * 14th Anti-Tank Artillery Regiment (Poland) (''14 Pułk Artylerii Przeciwpancernej'') * 5th Combat Engineer Brigade (''5 Brygada Saperów'') * 3rd Pontoon Bridgelaying Regiment (''3 Pułk Pontonowy'') * 16th Road-Building Engineer Regiment (''16 Pułk Inżynieryjno-Drogowy'') * 2nd Chemical BCBrigade (''2 Brygada Chemiczna'') * 5th Supply Regiment (5 Pułk Zabezpieczenia)

District commanders

* 21 April 1945 – 15 May 1945 – acting ppłk Mikołaj Iwanow * 16 May 1945 – 24 September 1945 – płk (gen. bryg.)

Wacław Szokalski Wacław is a Polish masculine given name. It is a borrowing of cz, Václav, Latinized as Wenceslaus. For etymology and cognates in other languages, see Wenceslaus. It may refer to: *Wacław Leszczyński (disambiguation), Wacław Leszczyński *W ...

; * 25 September 1945 – 10 October 1945 – gen. bryg. Wiaczesław Jakutowicz; * 11 October 1945 – 25 June 1947 – gen. bryg. Jan Jośkiewicz; * 26 June 1947 – 15 October 1947 – gen. bryg. Jan Rotkiewicz; * 19 November 1947 – 21 January 1953 – gen. dyw. Bronisław Półturzycki; * 21 March 1953 – 29 May 1953 – acting (partly) gen. bryg. Antoni Władyczański; * 30 May 1953 – 22 October 1954 – acting gen. bryg. Antoni Władyczański; * 31 December 1954 – 5 November 1956 – gen. dyw. Jan Rotkiewicz; * 6 November 1956 – 14 November 1964 – gen. dyw. Zygmunt Huszcza; * 15 November 1964 – 18 May 1971 – gen. dyw. Józef Kamiński; * 19 May 1971 – 26 February 1978 – gen. dyw. Wojciech Barański; * 27 February 1978 – 14 March 1983 – gen. dyw. Józef Użycki; * 1 April 1983 – 22 September 1989 – gen. dyw. Zbigniew Blechman; * 23 September 1989 – 3 September 1992 – gen. dyw. Zbigniew Zalewski; * 4 September 1992 – 8 September 2000 – gen. dyw. Tadeusz Bazydło; * 9 September 2000 – 11 December 2003 – gen. dyw.

Leszek Chyła Leszek () is a Slavic names, Slavic Polish language, Polish male given name, originally ''Lestko'', ''Leszko'' or ''Lestek'', related to Lech (name), ''Lech'', ''Lechosław'' and Czech language, Czech ''Lstimir''. Individuals named Leszek celebrat ...

; * 12 December 2003 – 5 October 2006 – gen. dyw. Zbigniew Głowienka * 6 October 2006 – 11 January 2007 – acting gen. bryg. Zygmunt Duleba * 12 January 2007 – 28 December 2011 – gen. bryg. Zygmunt Duleba

References for First Army

* * {{coord missing, Poland Military districts of Poland Military units and formations established in 1945 Military units and formations disestablished in 2011 1945 establishments in Poland 2011 disestablishments in Poland