9th Legions Infantry Regiment (Polish: 9 Pulk Piechoty Legionow, 9 pp Leg.) was an infantry regiment of the

Polish Army The Land Forces () are the Army, land forces of the Polish Armed Forces. They currently contain some 110,000 active personnel and form many components of the European Union and NATO deployments around the world. Poland's recorded military histor ...

. It existed from 1918 until 1939. Garrisoned in

Zamość Zamość (; ; ) is a historical city in southeastern Poland. It is situated in the southern part of Lublin Voivodeship, about from Lublin, from Warsaw. In 2021, the population of Zamość was 62,021. Zamość was founded in 1580 by Jan Zamoyski ...

, and belonged to the 3rd Legions Infantry Division from Zamość. During the 1939

Invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign, Polish Campaign, and Polish Defensive War of 1939 (1 September – 6 October 1939), was a joint attack on the Second Polish Republic, Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany, the Slovak R ...

, the 9th Regiment (without its 1st Battalion) belonged to the reserve 39th Infantry Division. Commanded by General Bruno Olbrycht, this division was part of

Prusy Army The Prusy Army () was one of the Polish armies to fight during the Invasion of Poland in 1939. Created in the summer of 1939 as the main reserve of the Commander in Chief, it was commanded by Gen. Stefan Dąb-Biernacki. The word ''Prusy'' in the ...

. The 1st Battalion of the 9th Regiment was part of the 12th Infantry Division. The history of the unit dates back to early November 1918, when the 3rd Infantry Regiment of Polska Siła Zbrojna was formed in Komorow near

Ostrów Mazowiecka Ostrów Mazowiecka (; ) is a town in eastern Poland with 23,486 inhabitants (2004). It is the capital of Ostrów Mazowiecka County in Masovian Voivodeship. History Ostrów was granted town rights in 1434 by Duke Bolesław IV of Warsaw. Its name ...

. Soon after its creation, the regiment took part in disarming German soldiers, stationed in the area (see

Ober Ost The Supreme Commander of All German Forces in the East (), also known by its German abbreviation as , was both a high-ranking position in the armed forces of the German Empire as well as the name given to the occupied territories on the German s ...

). On February 16, 1919, the unit was renamed into the 9th Legions Infantry Regiment. In the

Second Polish Republic The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 7 October 1918 and 6 October 1939. The state was established in the final stage of World War I ...

, the regiment was stationed in Zamość, with its 3rd Battalion garrisoned in

Tomaszów Lubelski Tomaszów Lubelski is a town in south-eastern Poland with 19,365 inhabitants (2017). Situated in the Lublin Voivodeship, near Roztocze National Park, it is the capital of Tomaszów Lubelski County. History The town was founded at the end of the ...

, and belonged to the elite 3rd Legions Infantry Division. It celebrated its holiday on Jule 29. Regimental flag, funded by the residents of Zamość, was handed to it by

Józef Piłsudski Józef Klemens Piłsudski (; 5 December 1867 – 12 May 1935) was a Polish statesman who served as the Chief of State (Poland), Chief of State (1918–1922) and first Marshal of Poland (from 1920). In the aftermath of World War I, he beca ...

, in Zamość on October 17, 1922. The badge, approved in 1928, was in the shape of the Cross of Valour, with the inscription 9 P.P.LEG. 1918. Among the commandants of the regiment were such names, as

Mieczysław Smorawiński Brigadier General Mieczysław Makary Smorawiński (1893–1940), was a Polish military commander and officer of the Polish Army. He was one of the Polish generals identified by forensic scientists of the Katyn Commission as the victim of the Sovi ...

(1919), Wacław Scaevola-Wieczorkiewicz (1920), and

Stanisław Sosabowski Stanisław Franciszek Sosabowski (; 8 May 1892 – 25 September 1967) was a Polish general in World War II. He fought in the Polish Campaign of 1939 and at the Battle of Arnhem (Netherlands), as a part of Operation Market Garden, in 1944 as c ...

(January 1937 – March 1939).

Sources

* Kazimierz Satora: ''Opowieści wrześniowych sztandarów''. Warszawa: Instytut Wydawniczy Pax, 1990 * Zdzisław Jagiełło: ''Piechota Wojska Polskiego 1918–1939''. Warszawa: Bellona, 2007

Sources

See also