1 Warszawska Dywizja Piechoty

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The 1 Warszawska Dywizja Piechoty ( German  1st Polish Infantry Division "Tadeusz Kościuszko" ) was a large Polish unit in World War II , which was set up by the Soviet Union as the core of the so-called Berling Army (later 1st Army ) formed and under the Command of the Red Army from 1943 to 1945 on the Eastern Front was mainly used in the context of the large association Belarusian Front against the German Wehrmacht . The Polish People's Army (Polish: Ludowe Wojsko Polskie ) was created in 1945 from this first Polish infantry division under the control of the Soviet Union .

history

According to a directive from Joseph Stalin , Colonel Zygmunt Berling, arrested by Soviet troops in September 1939 and captured in the Starobelsk special camp , took command of the newly formed Polish division named after Tadeusz Kościuszko on May 9, 1943 at Sielce an der Oka . On October 12 and 13, 1943, the division's first major combat mission took place during the Battle of Lenino ( Smolensk area ) on the Western Front . Deployed as part of the Soviet 33rd Army (under General WN Gordow ), the defensive positions of the German XXXIX. Panzer Corps in cooperation with the Soviet 42nd and 290th Rifle Divisions are breached. The offensive was supported by the 233rd Panzer Brigade. During the two days of fighting, the places Trigubowo and Polschukha could be occupied. The 42nd Rifle Division was able to take the village of Sukino, while the 290th Rifle Division was able to reach and occupy the place Lenino. The losses of the Polish division were particularly heavy and reached 25% of the nominal strength deployed (502 dead, 1,776 wounded and 663 missing); then she was pulled from the front on October 14th.

On November 20, Brigadier General Wojciech Bewziuk was entrusted with the management of the reorganized division. In March 1944, the division was part of the Polish 1st Army Corps and was deployed in the Shitomir and Berdychiv area. From April 29, 1944, the division was subordinated to the Belarusian Front and crossed the Bug River on July 23, 1944 while advancing west . As a result of Operation Bagration , the division reached the Vistula near Dęblin at the end of July 1944 and took part in the battles for the Warsaw suburbs on the right bank of the Vistula between 10 and 15 September 1944 as part of the Polish 1st Army (Lieutenant General Stanisław Popławski ) Praga .

Division memorial in the Powązki Military Cemetery in Warsaw

On January 16 and 17, 1945 the division fought in the Vistula-Oder operation together with the Soviet 47th and 61st armies in the liberation of Warsaw.

About 180,000 Polish soldiers took part in the Berlin operation and the preceding battles against the Army Group in mid- 1945. In the north, the Polish 1st Army shielded the outer wing of the 1st Belarusian Front against General Hasso von Manteuffel's 3rd Panzer Army and then overcame the Steiner Army Group. The Polish 2nd Army fought in the south at the 1st Ukrainian Front against Army Group Center under General Field Marshal Ferdinand Schörner .

The "Tadeusz Kościuszko" division took part in the Battle of Berlin at the end of April 1945 as the only Polish formation alongside the Red Army . After General Bewziuk let his division advance in the direction of Oranienburg , it was diverted to the center of Berlin in support of General Semyon Bogdanov's Soviet 2nd Guards Tank Army . The "Kościuszko" division fought its way along Neue Kantstrasse to Karl-August-Platz. She took part in the capture of the Technical University, the Tiergarten S-Bahn station and four other subway stations.

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