Polish armed forces

Polish Wehrmacht uniform

The Polish Wehrmacht ( Polish Polska Siła Zbrojna ) was an association of the Regency Kingdom of Poland , which was subordinate to the German Army from 1917 to 1918 . The core of the units were members of the former Polish legions .

history

On September 19, 1916, the Polish Legions were transferred to the Polish Aid Corps . This corps - formally belonging to the regency kingdom - should be subordinate to the Supreme Army Command of the German Empire. The ally Austria-Hungary , in whose army the legions were previously integrated, placed the association under the leadership of the German Generalgouvernement Warsaw .

On July 9, 1917 the oath crisis broke out in which large parts of the auxiliary corps - under Józef Piłsudski's influence - refused to take the oath on the troops of the Central Powers . As a result, thousands of legionaries were interned or demoted. Soldiers loyal to Austria were transferred to an association also known as the Polish Aid Corps .

The 1100 or so legionaries (mainly from the 1st and 3rd Legion Brigade) who had taken the required oath and came from the areas of Poland that belonged to the German or formerly Russian territory (and thus also had their nationalities) were transferred to the newly established Polish Wehrmacht incorporated. By April 1918, the association was expanded to include 2,700 soldiers. Until then, the troops were mainly trained to form the core of a future Polish army under German leadership. Some combat missions did not take place until the end of the war.

After the Regency Council declared independence from the German Reich on October 7, 1918, a few days later it also took over the supreme command of the Polish Wehrmacht . This should prevent a feared uprising by Polska Organizacja Wojskowa . On October 12, the members of the association took an oath on the Regency Council. After the transfer of command to the council, the number increased to 9,000 soldiers. Legionnaires who had previously been interned in the POW camps in Szczypiorno and Beniaminów near Nieporęt and who had refused to take the oath of July 9, 1917, now reported to the Polish Wehrmacht. In November the Polish Wehrmacht was integrated into the newly established Polish Army .

The commander-in-chief of the Polish Wehrmacht was, after its establishment, the Warsaw Governor General Hans von Beseler . De facto, the General of the Infantry Felix Barth decided on missions . Polish officers (chiefs of staff) were General Tadeusz Rozwadowski and Colonel Marian Januszajtis-Żegota , the former commander of the 1st Legion Brigade.

The expression “Polish Wehrmacht” as a name for the Polish army was used in German until the Second World War .

Individual evidence

^ RF Leslie: The History of Poland since 1863. In: Soviet and East European Studies. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1980, p. 123
↑ ^a ^b ^c Julia Eichenberg: Fighting for peace and care. Polish WWI veterans and their international contacts. 1918-1939. Volume 27 of Studies in International History. ISBN 978-3-486-70457-0 , Oldenbourg Verlag, 2011, p. 29
↑ Ralf Pröve , Rüdiger Bergien: Spiesser, patriots, revolutionaries. Military Mobilization and Social Order in Modern Times. V & R Unipress, Göttingen 2010, p. 291
^ ^A ^b Heinrich August Winkler: History of the West. The time of the world wars 1914–1945. CH Beck, 2011, ISBN 978-3-406-62186-4 , The Great Catastrophe of the 20th Century: The First World War
^ ^A ^b ^c George J Lerski, Piotr Wróbel, Richard J. Kozicki: Historical dictionary of Poland. 966–1945 , ISBN 978-0-313-26007-0 , Greenwood Press, Westport / CT 1996, Polish Wehrmacht, p. 462
↑ R. Dyboski, William Fiddian (ed.): The Cambridge History of Poland. Volume 2, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, p. 479
^ Rudolf Absolon: February 5, 1938 to August 31, 1939. In: Schriften des Bundesarchivs. 16, Volume 4, Wehrmacht in the Third Reich , Boldt, Boppard am Rhein 1998, p. 150
↑ Thorsten Heber: The Atlantic Wall 1940-1945. The fortification of the coasts of Western and Northern Europe in the field of tension between National Socialist warfare and ideology. Dissertation at the University of Düsseldorf (2003), Norderstedt Books on Demand, Norderstedt 2008, p. 61

literature

Bernhard Chiari: The Polish Home Army. Oldenbourg, Munich 2003, ISBN 978-3-486-56715-1 .

[1] RF Leslie: The History of Poland since 1863. In: Soviet and East European Studies. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1980, p. 123

[je-2] Julia Eichenberg: Fighting for peace and care. Polish WWI veterans and their international contacts. 1918-1939. Volume 27 of Studies in International History. ISBN 978-3-486-70457-0 , Oldenbourg Verlag, 2011, p. 29

[3] Ralf Pröve , Rüdiger Bergien: Spiesser, patriots, revolutionaries. Military Mobilization and Social Order in Modern Times. V & R Unipress, Göttingen 2010, p. 291

[haw-4] A ^b Heinrich August Winkler: History of the West. The time of the world wars 1914–1945. CH Beck, 2011, ISBN 978-3-406-62186-4 , The Great Catastrophe of the 20th Century: The First World War

[dictionary-5] A ^b ^c George J Lerski, Piotr Wróbel, Richard J. Kozicki: Historical dictionary of Poland. 966–1945 , ISBN 978-0-313-26007-0 , Greenwood Press, Westport / CT 1996, Polish Wehrmacht, p. 462

[6] R. Dyboski, William Fiddian (ed.): The Cambridge History of Poland. Volume 2, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, p. 479

[7] Rudolf Absolon: February 5, 1938 to August 31, 1939. In: Schriften des Bundesarchivs. 16, Volume 4, Wehrmacht in the Third Reich , Boldt, Boppard am Rhein 1998, p. 150

[8] Thorsten Heber: The Atlantic Wall 1940-1945. The fortification of the coasts of Western and Northern Europe in the field of tension between National Socialist warfare and ideology. Dissertation at the University of Düsseldorf (2003), Norderstedt Books on Demand, Norderstedt 2008, p. 61