The Polish First Army (, 1 AWP for short, also known as Berling's Army) was an army unit of the Polish Armed Forces in the East. It was formed in the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

in 1944, from the previously existing Polish I Corps in the Soviet Union, as part of the

People's Army of Poland The Polish People's Army (, ; LWP) was the second formation of the Polish Armed Forces in the East during the latter stages of the World War II, Second World War (1943–1945), and subsequently the armed forces of the History of Poland (1945 ...

(LWP). The First Army fought westward, subordinated to the Soviet

1st Belorussian Front The 1st Belorussian Front (, ''Pervyy Belorusskiy front'', also romanized " Byelorussian"), known without a numeral as the Belorussian Front between October 1943 and February 1944, was a major formation of the Red Army during World War II, bein ...

, during the offensive against

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

that led to the capture of Warsaw in January 1945, and the capture of Berlin in May 1945.

Formation

The First Army was formed in the Soviet Union in 1944, from the previously existing Polish I Corps as part of the

(LWP). On 10 August 1943, the Soviets gave permission for enlarging the Polish 1st Tadeusz Kościuszko Infantry Division into a

Corps Corps (; plural ''corps'' ; from French , from the Latin "body") is a term used for several different kinds of organization. A military innovation by Napoleon I, the formation was formally introduced March 1, 1800, when Napoleon ordered Gener ...

( Polish I Corps).Grzelak, p. 101 The new formation was to be composed of two infantry divisions, one artillery and one armor brigade, one support and one air regiment, four independent battalions, and support units. On 29 July 1944 the Polish units were reorganized into the 1st Polish Army. From October 12 to 14, 1943, the First Polish Infantry Division made an assault on Lenino near Smolensk and sustained twenty-five percent losses. Later, the 1ST Kosciuszko Infantry Division fought in Berlin around the Reich Chancellery and the Reichstag. At this stage of the war, the Polish role in the Soviet drive westward was fairly substantial, contributing 200,000 troops; this was approximately ten percent of the force taking part in Zhukov's and Konev's drive on Berlin.

Personnel

Initially, the Polish personnel of the First Polish Army were recruited from Polish soldiers taken prisoner during the 1939

Soviet invasion of Poland The Soviet invasion of Poland was a military conflict by the Soviet Union without a formal declaration of war. On 17 September 1939, the Soviet Union invaded Second Polish Republic, Poland from the east, 16 days after Nazi Germany invaded Polan ...

(after Germany conquered western Poland), and from Poles deported from Soviet-occupied Poland in 1939–1941. They were nearly all of the First Army's front-line combat troops. However, many Soviet personnel served in the First Army, including 39% of officers and technical specialists, while for senior officers the proportion reached 75%. As the Red Army moved into Polish areas west of the Curzon Line, draftees from those areas also became available for the First Polish Army (and Second Polish Army) in accordance with the August 15, 1944, decree of the

Polish Committee of National Liberation The Polish Committee of National Liberation ( Polish: ''Polski Komitet Wyzwolenia Narodowego'', ''PKWN''), also known as the Lublin Committee, was an executive governing authority established by the Soviet-backed communists in Poland at the la ...

(the Lublin government). Until October 1944, the First Army was commanded by Lt. Gen.

Zygmunt Berling Zygmunt Henryk Berling (27 April 1896 – 11 July 1980) was a Polish general and politician. He fought for the independence of Poland in the early 20th century. Berling was a co-founder and commander of the First Polish Army (1944–1945), First ...

. His second-in-command was Lt. Gen. Karol Świerczewski. Col.

Włodzimierz Sokorski Włodzimierz Sokorski (2 July 1908 – 2 May 1999) was a Polish Communism, communist official, writer, military journalist and a brigadier general in the People's Republic of Poland. He was the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage (Poland), ...

was the chief political officer. The corps took part in combat from September 1943.

Operational history

Operating under the auspices of the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

, it first entered combat in the summer of 1944 as part of the

on the right wing of the

Lvov-Sandomierz Operation The Lvov–Sandomierz offensive or Lvov–Sandomierz strategic offensive operation () was a major Red Army operation to force the German troops from Ukraine and Eastern Poland. Launched in mid-July 1944, the operation was successfully completed ...

, fighting in the battles during the Soviet crossing of the river

Vistula The Vistula (; ) is the longest river in Poland and the ninth-longest in Europe, at in length. Its drainage basin, extending into three other countries apart from Poland, covers , of which is in Poland. The Vistula rises at Barania Góra i ...

around

Dęblin Dęblin is a town at the Confluence (geography), confluence of Vistula and Wieprz rivers, in Lublin Voivodeship, Poland. Dęblin is the part of the agglomeration with adjacent towns of Ryki and Puławy, which together have over 100,000 inhabitan ...

and

Puławy Puławy (, also written Pulawy) is a city in eastern Poland, in Lesser Poland's Lublin Voivodeship, at the confluence of the Vistula and Kurówka River, Kurówka Rivers. Puławy is the capital of Puławy County. The city's 2019 population was Cen ...

.''Polish Army, 1939–1945'' by Steven J Zaloga
p.27
/ref> In September 1944, units of the First Army were involved in heavy fighting during the latter stages of the

Warsaw Uprising The Warsaw Uprising (; ), sometimes referred to as the August Uprising (), or the Battle of Warsaw, was a major World War II operation by the Polish resistance movement in World War II, Polish underground resistance to liberate Warsaw from ...

after crossing the river Vistula following the capture of

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

's eastern Praga district, but suffered heavy losses. After eventually taking control of

in January 1945, the First Army took part in the Vistula–Oder Offensive, and afterwards it moved towards

Bydgoszcz Bydgoszcz is a city in northern Poland and the largest city in the historical region of Kuyavia. Straddling the confluence of the Vistula River and its bank (geography), left-bank tributary, the Brda (river), Brda, the strategic location of Byd ...

. The Polish First Army then fought in Pomerania, breaking through the Pomeranian Wall (''Pommernstellung'') fortified line and capturing Fortress Kolberg, a heavily fortified city, in March. Its units advanced northeast as far as

Gdańsk Gdańsk is a city on the Baltic Sea, Baltic coast of northern Poland, and the capital of the Pomeranian Voivodeship. With a population of 486,492, Data for territorial unit 2261000. it is Poland's sixth-largest city and principal seaport. Gdań ...

and During the battles to penetrate the Pomeranian fortifications, the 1st "Warsaw" Cavalry Brigade made the last mounted charge of Polish cavalry at the village of Schoenfeld. Polish Army 1945

In the spring of 1945 the army, now numbering 78,556 soldiers, was redeployed to the front on the

Oder river The Oder ( ; Czech and ) is a river in Central Europe. It is Poland's second-longest river and third-longest within its borders after the Vistula and its largest tributary the Warta. The Oder rises in the Czech Republic and flows through west ...

in preparation for the final Soviet offensive of the war in Europe. The Polish Second Army also entered the line of battle at this time, and together the two armies contributed about 10% of the total forces involved in the operation. During the offensive it crossed the river on April 16 and joined the

Battle of Berlin The Battle of Berlin, designated as the Berlin Strategic Offensive Operation by the Soviet Union, and also known as the Fall of Berlin, was one of the last major offensives of the European theatre of World War II. After the Vistula–Od ...

. In this, among other actions, Polish units of the 1st Army crossed the Hohenzollern Canal and advanced on Kremmen, Flatow, Paaren and

Nauen Nauen is a small town in the Havelland (district), Havelland district, in Brandenburg, Germany. It is chiefly known for Nauen Transmitter Station, the world's oldest preserved radio transmitting installation. Geography Nauen is situated within t ...

. They ended their campaign by participating in the

. In the Berlin Offensive, the First Polish Army's strength was over 74,000,Grzelak, p. 120 thus making up 7.5% of the strength of the Soviet 1st Belorussian Front, which counted over 980,000 men when the Polish First Army is included in the total. During the Berlin Offensive, the Polish First Army sustained casualties of over 10,400 men. The troops of the 1st Infantry Division supported by the 2nd Howitzer Artillery Brigade and the 1st Independent Mortar Brigade, fought in Berlin around the

Technical University An institute of technology (also referred to as technological university, technical university, university of technology, polytechnic university) is an institution of tertiary education that specializes in engineering, technology, applied science ...

and the southwestern side of the Tiergarten close to the

Berlin Zoo The Berlin Zoological Garden (, ) is the oldest surviving and best-known zoo in Germany. Opened in 1844, it covers and is located in Berlin's Tiergarten. With about 1,380 different species and over 20,200 animals, the zoo presents one of the ...

. The army was disbanded after the war on August 22, 1945. Its constituent units went on to serve in the armed forces of the newly created

Polish People's Republic The Polish People's Republic (1952–1989), formerly the Republic of Poland (1947–1952), and also often simply known as Poland, was a country in Central Europe that existed as the predecessor of the modern-day democratic Republic of Poland. ...

Organization

The 1st Polish Army was very similar in organisation to other standard general purpose

armies An army, ground force or land force is an armed force that fights primarily on land. In the broadest sense, it is the land-based military branch, service branch or armed service of a nation or country. It may also include aviation assets by ...

making up the bulk of Red Army's order of battle. It had a good mix of

infantry Infantry, or infantryman are a type of soldier who specialize in ground combat, typically fighting dismounted. Historically the term was used to describe foot soldiers, i.e. those who march and fight on foot. In modern usage, the term broadl ...

units and

artillery Artillery consists of ranged weapons that launch Ammunition, munitions far beyond the range and power of infantry firearms. Early artillery development focused on the ability to breach defensive walls and fortifications during sieges, and l ...

together with other support arms. Its armor capability was considerably weaker, and consisted of only one organic tank brigade. In manpower it was broadly equivalent to an American infantry

corps Corps (; plural ''corps'' ; from French , from the Latin "body") is a term used for several different kinds of organization. A military innovation by Napoleon I, the formation was formally introduced March 1, 1800, when Napoleon ordered Gener ...

, having a strength of 74,530 men on May 1, 1945. At the end of the war in 1945, it consisted of the following large units (

honorific An honorific is a title that conveys esteem, courtesy, or respect for position or rank when used in addressing or referring to a person. Sometimes, the term "honorific" is used in a more specific sense to refer to an Honorary title (academic), h ...

names given in brackets)Grzelak, p. 121

Notes

Sources

* Czesław Grzelak and others, ''Armia Berlinga i Żymierskiego'', Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Neriton, 2002. * G. F. Krivosheev, ''Soviet casualties and combat losses in the Twentieth Century'', London: Greenhill Books, 1997. * Steven J. Zaloga, ''The Polish Army 1939–45'', Oxford: Osprey, 1998.

External links

Polish Army in the East 1943–1945
{{DEFAULTSORT:First Polish Army (1944-1945) Military history of Poland during World War II Military units and formations established in 1944 1 Polish armies Military units and formations disestablished in 1945 Poland–Soviet Union relations