Polish Legions (1914-1918)

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Routes of the Polish Legions in World War I

The Polish Legions were almost independently operating formations in the First World War ; at the beginning of the war in 1914 they were subordinate to the Austro-Hungarian Army , from 1916 to the German army and fought on the Eastern Front against the troops of Tsarist Russia .

1.Komp.1.Rgt.1.Poln.Legion Brigade near Sobovice

Lineup

The Polish Legions ( Polish : Legiony Polskie ) were founded in Galicia on August 16, 1914 on the initiative of the Provisional Commission of the Confederate Independence Parties (Komisja Tymczasowa Skonfederowanych Stronnictw Niepodległościowych) and the Polish members of the Austrian Parliament . The association was an independent formation of the Austro-Hungarian Army and initially consisted of two, later of three brigades .

Józef Piłsudski with his soldiers in front of the governor's palace in Kielce (1914)

Calls

From August 1914 the legions were under the command of Field Marshal Lieutenant Durski at Sandomir as a reserve in the Austro-Hungarian 1st Army . During the Battle of the Vistula , the 1st Brigade (under Pilsudski) of the Polish Legion was assigned to the Imperial and Royal I. Corps in the Ivangorod area, with major battles taking place on October 22nd at Anielin and October 26th at Laski.

The other legions were meanwhile with the Army Group Planter-Baltin in the fight against the Russian 8th and 9th Armies on the Dniester and in the Carpathians . In mid-October 1914, the brigade under Lieutenant Colonel Haller in the area of ​​the FML Attem group (56th Honved Division) covered the entrance to the Pantyr Pass in the Rafailowa area against Russian forces near Nadworna . On October 22nd, the 2nd Brigade under FML Durski in the area of Army Group Planter-Baltin received the order to start a relieved advance in the direction of Dolina and Stryj . On October 29th there was an unfortunate battle near Mołotków , after which the 2nd Brigade had to retreat. On December 10, the laid in the Beskidy 1st Brigade under Pilsudski led during the Battle of Limanowa in the Austro-Hungarian 4th Army by an advance on Kamienica, but was between 22 to 25 December 1914 battle of Łowczówek of the Russian troops pushed back, losing 128 dead and 342 wounded.

At the end of June 1915, as a result of the Austro-German offensive, there was a general withdrawal of Russian troops from the Sandomierz region . Among the pursuers was the 1st Brigade of the Polish Legion, which crossed the Vistula on July 4th and advanced to the Lublin region . From July 31 to August 3, 1915 there was a major clash in the battle of Jastków between units of the Polish legions and the Russian army in the area 12 km northwest of Lublin, which enabled the neighboring Austro-Hungarian 2nd Infantry Division to succeed Krasienin proceed.

The Polish Legions came during the Great retreat in the fall of 1915 near Kostiuchnówka and went there on 27 September 1915 at the Association of the Austro-Hungarian 4th Army back in the trench warfare over. In June 1916 the Polish Legions had a total of 25,000 soldiers.

During the opening phase of the Brusilov Offensive , the Legion fought between July 4 and 6, 1916 in the Battle of Kostiuchnówka near Rawalowka on the Styr Sector against the Russian 8th Army . The Polish armed forces (around 6,500 infantrymen and 800 cavalrymen) faced half of the Russian 46th Corps. As a result of the collapse of the Imperial and Royal Fath Corps Group in the Kolki area near Czartorysk , the Polish armed forces also had to withdraw with the loss of 2,000 dead and wounded.

On September 19, 1916, the so-called Polish Aid Corps was formed - including the previous legions - under the leadership of Stanisław Szeptycki . After the establishment of the reign of Poland in November 1916, the Polish Legions were placed under German command. On January 14, 1917, Józef Piłsudski joined the Provisional State Council of the Regency Kingdom, but opposed the German wish to integrate the Polish troops into the German Army. In mid-July 1917, the legions were disbanded and their soldiers interned because they had refused to take the fiefdom of the German emperor in the so-called oath crisis (Polish: Kryzys przysięgowy) . After the war and the restoration of Poland, the officers of the legions formed the backbone of the Polish army .

post war period

In the political culture of the newly independent now Poland of the interwar period , the Legion occupied a prominent position. Pilsudski took power in 1926 through a coup by his legionary veterans. You should keep this until 1939. The Legion's tradition was massively promoted by state media and education. The popular song of the Legion We, the First Brigade , played the role of a second, unofficial national anthem in the Second Republic. It was banned with the other elements of the Legion tradition in communist Poland . After the fall of the communist dictatorship, the memory of the Legion became part of the official political culture of Poland again.

Commanders

The commanding officers of the Polish Legions were:

Known relatives (selection)

Prominent officers of the Polish Legions included:

Other (later) known relatives included:

Museum reception

In the permanent exhibition on World War I in the Museum of Military History in Vienna, a separate area is dedicated to the Polish Legion. Uniforms, equipment and awards are displayed there.

literature

  • Riccardo Altieri: “Dying under foreign banners”. Polish soldiers in World War I. In: Riccardo Altieri, Frank Jacob (Hrsg.): Spielball der Mächte. Contributions to Polish history. minifanal, Bonn 2014, ISBN 978-3-95421-050-3 , pp. 184-207.
  • Wacław Lipiński: Legiony Polskie 1914–1918. Białystok 1990.
  • Piotr J. Wróbel: The Revival of Poland and Paramilitary Violence, 1918–1920. In: Rüdiger Bergien, Ralf Pröve (ed.): Spießer, Patrioten, Revolutionär. Military Mobilization and Social Order in Modern Times. Göttingen 2010, ISBN 978-3-89971-723-5 , pp. 281-303.
  • Hartmut Kühn : Poland in the First World War: The struggle for a Polish state up to its re-establishment in 1918/1919 , Peter Lang Verlag Berlin 2018, ISBN 9783631765302

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Piotr Szlanta: The First World War of 1914/1915 as an identity factor in Gerhard P. Large (eds.): The Forgotten Front. The East 1914/1915 - event, effect, aftermath , Paderborn, 2006, p. 163
  2. ^ Army History Museum / Military History Institute (ed.): The Army History Museum in the Vienna Arsenal . Verlag Militaria , Vienna 2016, ISBN 978-3-902551-69-6 , p. 115

Web links

Commons : Polish Legions  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files