Opium Wars: the tragedy of Guangzhou, the tragedy of China In the 18th century, China, as now, was among the world's largest exporters. Tea, silk and porcelain triumphantly marched through European markets. At the same time, the self-sufficient economy of the Celestial Empire practically did not need reciprocal

The Treaty of Versailles extremely limited Germany's military capabilities. In the spring of 1922, an international conference was held in the northern Italian city of Rapallo, the main topic of which was the mutual refusal to advance demands for compensation for damage caused during the fighting in the First World War. The result of the conference was the conclusion of the Treaty of Rapallo on April 16, 1922 between the RSFSR and the Weimar Republic. The agreement provided for the immediate restoration in full of diplomatic relations between the USSR and Germany. For Soviet Russia, this was the first international treaty in its history. For Germany, which until now had been an outlaw in the field of international politics, this agreement was of fundamental importance, since it thereby began to return to the number of states recognized by the international community.

Shortly after the signing of the Treaty of Rapallo, on August 11, 1922, a secret cooperation agreement was concluded between the Reichswehr and the Red Army. Germany and Soviet Russia now have the opportunity, at least slightly, to maintain and mutually develop the military-technical potential accumulated during the First World War. As a consequence of the Rapallo Accords and subsequent secret agreements, an aviation training center was created in Lipetsk in 1925, in which German instructors trained German and Soviet cadets. Near Kazan in 1929, a center for training commanders of tank formations was created (the secret training center “Kama”), in which German instructors also trained German and Soviet cadets. During the operation of the school, 30 Reichswehr officers were trained for the German side. In 1926-1933, German tanks were also tested in Kazan (the Germans called them “tractors” for secrecy). A center for training in the handling of chemical weapons was created in Volsk (the Tomka facility). As a result of cooperation, the Red Army gained access to the technical achievements of the German military industry and the working methods of the German General Staff, and the Reichswehr could begin training pilots, tank crews and specialists in chemical weapons in three schools on the territory of the USSR, and on the basis of subsidiaries of the German military industry, to introduce future Wehrmacht officers to new models of weapons prohibited in Germany.

With the coming to power of the National Socialist Workers' Party led by Adolf Hitler in 1933, Germany, without encountering any special objections from England and France, and in some places with their support, soon began to ignore many of the restrictions of the Treaty of Versailles - in particular, it restored conscription into the army and rapidly increasing the production of weapons and military equipment. On October 14, 1933, Germany withdraws from the League of Nations and refuses to participate in the Geneva Disarmament Conference.

In October 1938, as a result of the Munich Agreement, Germany annexed the Sudetenland that belonged to Czechoslovakia. Consent to this act is given by England and France, and the opinion of Czechoslovakia itself is not taken into account. On March 15, 1939, Germany occupied the Czech Republic in violation of the agreement. The German protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia is created on Czech territory. Hungary and Poland participate in the division of Czechoslovakia, and Polish troops enter the vicinity of the city of Cesky Tesin.

Until now, Germany’s aggressive actions have not met serious resistance from Great Britain and France, who do not dare to start a war and are trying to save the system of the Versailles Treaty with reasonable, from their point of view, concessions (the so-called “policy of appeasement”). However, after Hitler violated the Munich Treaty, both countries began to realize the need for a tougher policy, and in the event of further German aggression, Great Britain and France gave military guarantees to Poland.

On March 21, 1939, Ribbentrop issued an ultimatum demanding that his Polish colleague Beck satisfy all German demands, and then “carry out a joint anti-Soviet policy with Germany.” Poland categorically rejected German demands, and on March 31 Chamberlain announced on behalf of England and France the provision of guarantees to Poland in the event of aggression. On April 6, these guarantees were formalized into the Polish-British Military Convention. In a speech to the Reichstag on April 28, Hitler announced the rupture of the German-Polish Non-Aggression Pact of January 26, 1934 and the Anglo-German Naval Convention. It was again noted that Hitler in his speech “avoided the traditional attacks on the Soviet Union.” On May 23, Hitler announced to the military elite his firm intention to attack Poland and gain “living space in the East.” At the same time, England was called the main enemy of Germany, the fight against which is “a matter of life and death.” As for Russia, Hitler did not rule out that “the fate of Poland will remain indifferent to it.

Poland was important to Hitler. Influenced by unpleasant memories of the First World War, he decided to avoid a two-front war with the help of a non-aggression pact concluded with Poland in 1934. Hitler thought that Poland, in fear of Soviet Russia, would willingly become a German satellite.

However, there was one obstacle: in the minds of the Germans there lived a discontent much deeper than that associated with independent Austria or the German-speaking population of Czechoslovakia. According to the Treaty of Versailles, Gdansk (German: Danzig) became a free city and the so-called Polish corridor separated East Prussia from the Reich. Hitler had to remove this dissatisfaction in order to maintain his prestige, especially in front of the German generals. He hoped that the Poles would voluntarily make concessions in the hope of subsequently gaining Ukraine.

He was very mistaken because the leaders of Poland considered their country a sovereign power and wanted to maintain independence from both Soviet Russia and Germany and not yield to anyone. When Poland became stubborn, Hitler tried to influence the negotiations in the usual way - with the help of a vague threat of military action.

Hitler expected that England and France would do with Poland the same as they had done with Czechoslovakia the previous year—they would force it to make concessions. This time his expectations were in vain. The Poles did not want to give up an inch. They learned a lesson from the Czech crisis: the only way to avoid conceding too much is to concede nothing.

During the political crisis of 1939, two military-political blocs emerged in Europe: Anglo-French and German-Italian, each of which was interested in an agreement with the USSR.

Poland, having concluded alliance treaties with Great Britain and France, which were obliged to help it in the event of German aggression, refuses to make concessions in negotiations with Germany (in particular, on the issue of the Polish Corridor). Undoubtedly, Poland overestimated its strength. In addition, of course, the Poles thought that the Western powers would honor their obligations, and this would ensure victory.

On August 23, 1939, Joachim Ribbentrop, Foreign Minister of the German Reich, flew to Moscow and reached an agreement with Stalin on the same day. The USSR and Germany sign the Non-Aggression Pact. The secret additional protocol to the treaty provided for the division of spheres of interest in Eastern Europe, including the Baltic states and Poland. The secret protocol precisely defined the areas of interest. Finland, Estonia and Latvia were part of the Soviet sphere of interest, Lithuania - in the German one. If, as stated, changes occur in Poland, the division of spheres of interest should roughly correspond to the ethnic division.

Hitler believed that now the resistance of England and France to the seizure of Poland would cease, that they had lost all hope of Soviet help. Encouraged by the success achieved, he set the date for the attack on Poland on August 26, even though Germany could not complete military preparations by this date. On August 25, he postponed the start of hostilities. Perhaps he was stopped by the official signing of the alliance agreement between England and Poland. But most likely he simply understood that the army was not ready yet. Six days of energetic negotiations followed, the British tried to extract concessions from Poland, but the Poles refused to concede. Hitler couldn't wait any longer. On August 31, Hitler ordered the offensive to begin at dawn the next day.

On September 1, 1939, the troops of the Third Reich invade Poland. On September 1, dawn in Eastern Europe came at 4:45 am. The German ship, the battleship Schleswig-Holstein, which arrived in Gdansk on a friendly visit and was greeted with enthusiasm by the local population, opens fire on the Polish fortifications on Westerplatte. German armed forces invade Poland. Slovak troops are taking part in the fighting on the side of Germany.

Geographically and militarily, Germany had all the prerequisites for a quick victory over Poland. The German lands - East Prussia, Pomerania and Silesia surrounded most of Poland from the north and west. The collapse of Czechoslovakia expanded the strategic deployment areas of the German armed forces, allowing the use of Slovakia, which was friendly to Germany.

In total, 44 German divisions were deployed for the war against Poland (including 6 tank and 2 motorized), the 1st air fleet(General of Aviation Kesselring) and the 4th Air Fleet (General of Aviation Lehr) - a total of about 2 thousand aircraft.

The German Army Group South (Colonel General von Rundstedt) consisted of the 8th, 10th and 14th Armies. It was supposed to advance from Silesia in the general direction of Warsaw (10th Army - 2 tank, 8 infantry, 3 light divisions, Colonel General von Reichenau). 14th Army (2 tank, 6 infantry, 1 light, 1 mountain division, Colonel General List) - in the direction of Krakow, it was supposed to be supported by the armed forces of Slovakia. The 8th Army (4 infantry divisions, 1 SS regiment, Colonel General Blaskowitz) had the goal of Lodz.

The German Army Group North (Colonel General von Bock) consisted of the 3rd (1 tank, 5 infantry divisions, Colonel General von Küchler) and the 4th (1 tank, 2 motorized, 6 infantry divisions, Colonel General von Kluge) armies. Its goal was to defeat Polish forces in the northern Vistula region with a simultaneous strike from East Prussia and Pomerania.

In total, the Polish armed forces included 39 infantry divisions, 2 motorized brigades, 11 cavalry brigades, 3 mountain brigades. The commander-in-chief of the Polish forces was Marshal Rydz-Smigly. His plan is to defend the western border of Poland and conduct offensive operations in East Prussia.

The Modlin army (4 infantry divisions and 2 cavalry brigades), as well as in the Suwalki area - 2 infantry divisions and 2 cavalry brigades were stationed on the border with East Prussia. In the Polish corridor - the Pomorie army (6 infantry divisions).

Against Pomerania - the Army of Lodz (4 infantry divisions and 2 cavalry brigades).

Against Silesia - the Army of Krakow (6 infantry divisions, 1 cavalry and 1 motorized brigade).

Behind the Krakow and Lodz armies is the Prussian army (6 infantry divisions and 1 cavalry brigade).

The southern border of Poland was to be defended by the Karpaty Army (from reserve formations).

Reserves - 3 infantry divisions and 1 cavalry brigade - at the Vistula in the area of ​​​​Warsaw and Lublin.

On August 31, the German press reported: “...on Thursday at approximately 20 o’clock the premises of the radio station in Gleiwitz were captured by the Poles.” No data was provided to support these accusations, either then or since. In fact, they were SS men (terrorist police of the Blackshirts) dressed in Polish uniforms, led by Otto Skorzeny.

On September 1 at 10 o'clock in the morning, Hitler addressed the Reichstag in a military uniform, and, as usual, in the role of a victim. He sought a peaceful settlement through negotiations with the Poles, but they allegedly ignored his proposals. To justify the attack on Poland, Hitler refers to the incident in Gleiwitz. At the same time, he carefully avoids the term “war”, fearing the entry into the conflict of England and France, which gave Poland the appropriate guarantees. The order he issued spoke only of “active defense” against Polish aggression. Hitler and his entourage hoped until the last day that the Allies would not dare to enter the war and the matter would end with a second Munich.

The invasion of Poland provokes a declaration of war on Germany by England, France and other countries that had an alliance with Poland. On September 3 at 9 o'clock England, at 12:20 France, as well as Australia and New Zealand declared war on Germany. Within a few days they will be joined by Canada, Newfoundland, the Union of South Africa and Nepal. The Second World War has begun.

The offensive of the German troops developed according to plan. Polish troops turned out to be a weak military force compared to the coordinated tank formations and the Luftwaffe. However, on the Western Front, the allied Anglo-French troops do not take any active action. “There is a Strange War going on” on the Western Front. Only at sea did the war begin immediately: on September 3, the German submarine U-30 attacked the English passenger liner Athenia without warning.

Thus the Poles were left to fight alone. The delay in mobilization to please the Western powers led to the fact that over half of the Polish divisions were never completed. In addition, the Germans had 6 armored divisions and 2 thousand aircraft, while the Poles had few tanks and aircraft. The Poles, to protect their industrial areas, located mainly in the west, positioned their armies in forward positions. Two German armies, one from East Prussia and the other from Silesia, penetrated the rear of the Polish positions and disrupted communications. The German armored divisions rushed forward, relying more on their speed than on their firepower. The infantry only consolidated what had been achieved. Chaos arose in the Polish armies.

On September 7, German troops under the command of Heinz Guderian begin an attack on the Polish defensive line near Wizna. 720 Polish soldiers and officers held back the enemy force of forty thousand until September 10.

On September 8, Polish troops retreating to the east encountered the German flank near the Bzura River. Until September 14, a difficult battle lasted for six days. The Battle of Bzura is the largest battle in Europe since the German attack on Soviet Russia in 1941. The German command was greatly alarmed: this was an indication of how a tank attack could fail if the momentum of the advance was lost.

In Poland, during the first week of fighting, German troops cut through the Polish front in several places and occupied part of Mazovia, western Prussia, the Upper Silesian industrial region and western Galicia. By September 9, the Germans managed to break down Polish resistance along the entire front line and approach Warsaw.

On September 10, the Polish commander-in-chief Edward Rydz-Smigly gives the order for a general retreat to southeastern Poland, but the bulk of his troops, unable to retreat beyond the Vistula, find themselves surrounded. By mid-September, having never received support from the West, the Polish armed forces ceased to exist as a single whole; only local centers of resistance are preserved.

September 14, Guderian's 19th Corps captures Brest from East Prussia. Polish troops under the command of General Plisovsky defend the Brest Fortress for several more days. On the night of September 17, its defenders left the forts in an organized manner and retreated beyond the Bug.

On September 16, the Polish Ambassador to the USSR was told that since the Polish state and its government had ceased to exist, the Soviet Union was taking under its protection the lives and property of the population of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus.

On September 17 at 6 a.m., fearing that Germany would refuse to comply with the terms of the secret additional protocol to the non-aggression treaty, the USSR began sending troops into the Eastern regions of Poland. Soviet troops in two military groups cross the state border and occupy Western Belarus and Ukraine. On the same day, Molotov sent congratulations to the German Ambassador to the USSR Schulenburg on the “brilliant success of the German Wehrmacht.”

On September 19, Polish President Ignacy Moscicki and the Polish government, who fled to Romania on the night of September 18, were interned.

On September 28, the Germans occupy Warsaw. On the same day, the Treaty of Friendship and Border between the USSR and Germany was signed in Moscow, establishing the demarcation line between German and Soviet troops in the territory of the former Poland approximately along the “Curzon Line”.

On October 2, in the Kock area, the last large Polish formation - the group of General Kleeberg - entered into battle with the Germans (13th and 29th motorized divisions) and Soviet troops approaching from the east. Although these battles were generally successful for the Poles, a lack of food and ammunition forced them to capitulate to the Germans on October 5.

But that was not the last battle of the regular units of the Polish army. Until April 30, 1940, the “Special Detachment of the Polish Army” under the command of Major Henryk Dobrzanski (pseudonym “Hubal”) was actively fighting. One of the first (if not the very first) partisans of the Second World War.

Continuing to fight, Dobzhansky inflicted significant losses on the Germans. In March 1940, he defeated an infantry battalion of the Wehrmacht near Khutsiski, and a few days later he severely battered another German unit near Shalasy. To destroy the “mad major” detachment, the Germans formed a special anti-partisan group of SS, infantry and tank units. In the operation against the partisans, of whom there were no more than 300, the Germans involved 8,000 soldiers. At the end of April 1940, Dobzhansky’s detachment was surrounded and, after a difficult battle, defeated, and Dobzhansky died with a weapon in his hands. The remnants of Dobzanski's detachment fought until June 25, after which they were disbanded.

The German occupation of Poland was particularly brutal. Part of the western Polish lands that were previously part of Prussia (Poznan, Pomerania) was directly annexed to the Third Reich. These lands are subject to “Germanization”. The Polish population is deported from here to the central regions of Poland, where a General Government is created in which the occupation administration is organized.

All industrial and agricultural production in Poland was subordinated to the military needs of Germany. Polish higher educational establishments were closed and the intelligentsia were persecuted. Hundreds of thousands of people were forced into forced labor or imprisoned in concentration camps. Massive repressions are being carried out against the Polish people. In the former territories of Poland, completely occupied by the Germans, the Polish language was banned, the entire Polish press was closed, almost all the clergy were arrested, all Polish universities and secondary schools were closed, Polish cultural institutions were liquidated, a systematic policy was carried out to replace Polish names, and the Polish intelligentsia and civil servants was persecuted and methodically destroyed. The Poles lost about 2 million people who were not military personnel, including 45% of doctors, 57% of lawyers, 40% of university teaching staff, 30% of engineers, 18% of priests, and almost all journalists. It is believed that during the Second World War, Poland lost more than 20% of its population - about 6 million people.

Polish Jews were subjected to particular cruelty, who were initially concentrated in several large ghettos. When the leaders of the Reich made the “Final Solution” to the Jewish Question in 1942, Polish Jews were deported to death camps. The largest and most notorious Nazi death camp in Poland was the camp near the city of Auschwitz, where more than 4 million people died.

The territories that became part of the zone of influence of the USSR were included in the Ukrainian SSR and the Byelorussian SSR (also partially independent Lithuania at that time). In the occupied territories included in the USSR, Soviet power is established, “socialist transformations” are carried out (nationalization of industry, collectivization of the peasantry), which is accompanied by deportation and repressions against the Polish population. The ethnic Poles living in these territories in 1939 - 1941. were partially deported to Kazakhstan and Siberia.

Struggle in occupied Poland

The Polish people offered both civil disobedience and military resistance to the Nazi occupiers. The Polish resistance began from the first days of the German occupation. The “Secret Combat Organization”, the “Polish Organization of the Fight for Freedom”, and the “White Eagle Organization” arose. Later, the People's Battalions (PB) and the People's Military Organization (PWO) were created by the underground People's Party. People's battalions attacked economic targets in occupied Poland, destroyed the German administrative apparatus, and set up ambushes on the roads. The maximum number of fighters of the People's Battalions reached 100 thousand. In February 1942, General Sikorski ordered the creation of the Home Army, under the command of General Rowecki. It was assumed that the AK would include the NB and NVO, but partial unification with them took place only in 1943.

Active operations of the Home Army (AK) began in 1943. AK carried out sabotage on railways, passed on information about the German Peenemünde missile site to the Western Allies (as a result, the Allies bombed the site), freed prisoners from a prison in Warsaw, killed high-ranking Germans, including killing the German general Kucera.

The Polish Home Army became the strongest resistance movement in Nazi-occupied Europe.

In addition to the AK, during the Second World War, other resistance organizations operated in Poland, which often had opposing goals and were subordinate to different leadership centers. The Ludow's Guard (from 1944 - the Ludow's Army) was created as a military organization of the Polish Communist Party, and the Chlopske Battalions were created by the peasant party. There were also Jewish militant organizations that organized the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. When the deportation of Warsaw Jews to death camps began in April 1943, the Warsaw ghetto (350 thousand Jews) rebelled. After a month of hopeless fighting without any outside help, the uprising was crushed. The Germans destroyed the ghetto, and the surviving Jewish population was deported to the Treblinka extermination camp.

Warsaw Uprising

The largest military action of the AK was the Warsaw Uprising in 1944. When parts of the Red Army were already approaching Warsaw, on the orders of the “London government,” an uprising began, led by the Home Army and headed by its commander, General Bur-Komorowski, with the goal of liberating the capital of Poland before the arrival of Soviet troops.

Meanwhile, the Germans launched a counterattack near Warsaw, and Rokossovsky (a few hours before the start of the uprising in Warsaw) was forced to order the 2nd Panzer Division, which was advancing on the city, to go on the defensive. For his part, Stalin ignored the Zhukov-Rokossovsky plan, which envisaged resuming the offensive after a regrouping, and after an appeal from Churchill, who supported the “London government,” he did not allow the use of Soviet airfields to help the rebels.

The uprising began on August 1, 1944. The AK had approximately 50 thousand fighters in the Warsaw area, but due to difficulties with mobilization at the beginning of the uprising, about 25 thousand took part, of which about 10% had weapons. By the beginning of the uprising, the German garrison in Warsaw numbered about 20 thousand. On August 4, German forces in Warsaw were increased to 50 thousand, due to units of the German 9th Army, which occupied the defense in the east of Warsaw, as well as the Russian SS division, Cossack and Azerbaijani Osttruppen units. The commander of the German forces in Warsaw was SS-Obergruppenführer Erich von dem Bach.

The rebels managed to capture a number of German objects in Warsaw and some areas of the city. However, the Germans retained their barracks and control of transport hubs. On August 5, the Germans began to recapture areas of Warsaw. Soon the rebels were isolated in several separate pockets (Old Town, center, Mokotów, Żoliborz). The fighting continued, the number of civilian casualties grew, and there was a shortage of food, medicine and water.

On October 2, 1944, Bur-Komorowski signed the surrender. Those who surrendered to the uprising were guaranteed the status of prisoners of war. The Germans brutally suppressed the uprising. Most of the city was destroyed (later special German brigades destroyed the surviving buildings). During the 63 days of the uprising, 10 thousand rebels died, 6 thousand went missing, 20 thousand were wounded (5 thousand seriously), 15 thousand were captured (including 2 thousand women). In addition, about 150 - 250 thousand civilians died, about 500 - 550 thousand residents of the city and 100 thousand residents of the surrounding area were expelled from their homes, and about 150 thousand of them ended up in concentration camps or were sent to forced labor to Germany. The Germans also suffered significant losses, about 10 thousand soldiers were killed, about 7 thousand were missing, and 9 thousand were wounded, German troops also lost 300 tanks, guns and armored vehicles.

The uprising achieved neither military nor political goals, but became for the Poles a symbol of courage and determination in the struggle for independence. Soviet propaganda interpreted these events as a poorly prepared adventure. All responsibility for the failure of the uprising was placed on the émigré government in London. The Red Army offensive resumed on January 12, 1945, and on January 17 Warsaw was liberated by the Red Army.

Polish units in France

Polish military units in France began to form after the signing of the Franco-Polish protocol on September 21, 1939. In total, at the end of June 1940, the Polish armed forces in France numbered about 85 thousand. General Wladyslaw Sikorski became the commander-in-chief of the Polish forces in France. At the end of 1939, the Polish 1st and 2nd Infantry Divisions were formed. In February 1940, a separate mountain rifle brigade was formed (commander - General Zygmunt Bohusz-Szyszko). In early May 1940, the brigade was sent as part of the Anglo-French Expeditionary Force to Norway for the war against the Germans. There, the Polish brigade successfully stormed the German-occupied villages of Ankenes and Nyborg in the Battle of Narvik; the Germans were pushed back to the Swedish border. However, due to the German advance in France, Allied forces, including Poles, left Norway.

While the separate mountain rifle brigade was sent to Norway, the Polish 1st Infantry Division (renamed 1st Grenadier Division on 3 May 1940) under the command of General Bronislaw Duch was sent to the front in Lorraine. On June 16, the Polish division was almost surrounded by the Germans and received an order from the French command to retreat. On June 19, General Sikorsky ordered the division to retreat to the south of France or, if possible, to Switzerland. However, this order was difficult to carry out, and therefore only 2 thousand Poles managed to reach the south of France; about a thousand went to Switzerland. The exact losses of the division are still unknown, but at least a thousand Poles were killed and at least 3 thousand more were wounded. The Polish 2nd Infantry Division (renamed 2nd Infantry Division) under the command of General Prugar-Ketling also fought in Lorraine. On June 15 and 16, this division covered the retreat of the French 45th Corps to the Swiss border. The Poles crossed into Switzerland on June 20 and were interned there until the end of World War II.

In addition to the infantry, the Polish armed forces in France included the 10th Armored Cavalry Brigade under the command of General Stanislaw Maczko. She was stationed at the Champagne front. From June 13, the brigade covered the withdrawal of two French divisions. Then, by order, the brigade retreated, but on June 17 it was surrounded. Managing to break through the German lines, the brigade was then evacuated to Britain.

In addition to the above-mentioned Polish units, several Polish anti-tank companies attached to French infantry divisions took part in the fighting in France. The Polish 3rd and 4th Infantry Divisions were in the formation stage in June 1940 and did not have time to take part in the battles.

When France's defeat became obvious, the commander-in-chief of the Polish forces decided to evacuate them to Britain. On June 18, 1940, General Sikorsky flew to England. At a meeting in London, he assured British Prime Minister Winston Churchill that Polish troops were not going to surrender to the Germans and wanted to fight until complete victory. Churchill ordered the organization of the evacuation of Polish troops to Scotland.

While Sikorski was in England, his deputy, General Sosnkowski, asked the French General Denin to help the Poles evacuate. The Frenchman replied that “the Poles need to hire evacuation ships themselves, and they have to pay for it in gold.” He also suggested that Polish troops surrender to the Germans, just like the French. As a result, 17 thousand Polish soldiers and officers managed to evacuate to Britain.

Polish units in the Middle East

In April 1940, the Polish Carpathian Rifle Brigade was formed in Syria under the command of Colonel Stanislaw Kopanski (from Polish soldiers and officers who fled through Romania). After the surrender of French troops in Syria to the Germans, the French command ordered the surrender of German captivity and the Poles, but Colonel Kopansky did not obey this order and took the Polish brigade to British Palestine. In October 1940, the brigade was redeployed to Egypt. In October 1941, the Polish Carpathian Brigade was landed in the Libyan town of Tobruk, besieged by the Germans, to help the 9th Australian Infantry Division defending there. In December 1941, Allied forces attacked German and Italian troops, and on December 10 the siege of Tobruk was ended. On December 14-17, 1941, the Polish brigade took part in the battle in the Ghazala region (in Libya). Of the 5 thousand soldiers, the Poles lost more than 600 killed and wounded.

Polish units in Britain

In August 1940, British Prime Minister Churchill signed a Polish-British military agreement allowing Polish troops to be stationed in Britain. Polish armed forces in Britain received the same status as the troops of the British Commonwealth countries, and received the right to form new Polish units. By the end of August 1940, Polish ground forces in Britain consisted of 5 rifle brigades (3 of them were staffed almost exclusively command staff, due to a lack of privates). On September 28, 1940, the Polish commander-in-chief, General Sikorski, gave the order to form the 1st Polish Corps. In October 1941, the 4th Rifle Brigade was reorganized into the 1st Separate Parachute Brigade (under the command of Colonel Sosnovsky). In February 1942, the formation of the Polish 1st Panzer Division (under the command of General Maczka) began. After the death of General Sikorski in a plane crash on July 4, 1943 near Gibraltar, General Sosnowski became commander-in-chief of the Polish troops.

Anders Army

On July 30, 1941, General Sikorski and the Soviet ambassador in London, Maisky, signed a Polish-Soviet agreement on joint military operations against Germany. On August 4, 1941, Polish General Wladislaw Anders, appointed by Sikorsky as commander of the Polish troops in the USSR, was released by the Soviet authorities from imprisonment in the Lubyanka prison. On August 12, 1941, the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the USSR, by its decree, declared an amnesty for all Polish citizens imprisoned in the USSR. The USSR agreed to the formation of units of the Polish armed forces - 2 divisions with a total number of 25 thousand. Then, at the request of Sikorsky, the numerical restrictions were lifted. By November 1941, the number of Poles gathered in training camps reached 44 thousand. On December 3, 1941, General Sikorsky, who flew to the USSR, met with Stalin in the Kremlin. As a result of their negotiations, the strength of the Polish army in the USSR was established at 96 thousand, and permission was received to evacuate 25 thousand Poles outside the USSR. In March 1942, the chief of logistics of the Red Army, General Khrulev, informed General Anders that the Polish army in the USSR would receive only 26 thousand food rations in a day. At a meeting with Stalin, Anders achieved 44 thousand food rations per day and permission to evacuate Polish military personnel from the USSR. By April 1942, 33 thousand Polish military personnel, as well as almost 11 thousand civilian Poles, including 3 thousand children, were transported to Krasnovodsk for evacuation to Iran. The second stage of the evacuation of Poles from the USSR took place in August 1942. In total, 78.6 thousand military and 38 thousand civilian Poles were evacuated from the USSR.

In September 1942, Polish units evacuated from the USSR were stationed in northern Iraq. They were consolidated into 3 infantry divisions and 1 tank brigade, which formed the 2nd Polish Corps. In July 1943, the corps was redeployed to Palestine. On December 7, 1943, the British command decided to send the 2nd Polish Corps to Italy.

On March 24, 1944, the commander of the 2nd Polish Corps, General Anders, received an order from the British command to break through German positions in the Monte Cassino area, storm the monastery and occupy the town of Piedimonte and thereby clear the road to Rome. By this point, Allied forces had unsuccessfully stormed Monte Cassino three times. In April 1944, the 2nd Polish Corps consisted of the 3rd Carpathian Rifle Division (commanded by General Dukh), the 5th Kresovo Infantry Division (General Sulik), the 2nd Tank Brigade (General Rakovsky) and the 2nd Artillery Group. The number of corps is 46 thousand soldiers and officers. The 4th Battle of Monte Cassino began on May 11. After fierce battles with the defending German 1st Parachute and 5th Mountain Divisions, on the morning of May 18, the Poles took the monastery and raised the regimental banner of the 12th Podolsk Lancers and the flag of Poland over it (later, by order of General Anders, the British flag was hoisted) . On the morning of May 19, the entire Monte Cassino massif was cleared of German troops. The Polish victory ensured passage to the Liri Valley for the British 13th Corps. On May 25, Canadian, British and Polish units broke through the German "Hitler Line". In total, during the battle in the Monte Cassino area, the 2nd Polish Corps lost a thousand people killed and 3 thousand wounded. After a short rest, General Anders received orders to move the Polish corps along the Adriatic coast to capture the port city of Ancona. Heavy fighting in this direction began on June 21. On July 17, the Poles began their assault on Ancona. On July 18, the 2nd Tank Brigade cut off Ancona in the northwest, then the Carpathian Uhlan Regiment entered the city. The port, as required by the command, was taken undamaged. In the battle for Ancona, the Poles lost more than 600 killed and almost 2 thousand wounded. The capture of the port allowed the British 8th Army to continue its advance towards Bologna. The Polish corps was then ordered to break through the German Gothic Line, which was completed in August 1944. By the end of 1944, the Polish 2nd Corps was reinforced with two infantry brigades, the 2nd Tank Brigade was reorganized into the 2nd Warsaw Tank Division. In January 1945, the American commander of the 15th Army Group, General Clark, ordered allied units to prepare for a final offensive in Italy. Since General Anders was appointed to the post of supreme commander of the Polish armed forces, General Bohusz-Szyszko became the commander of the Polish 2nd Corps. The offensive began on April 9, 1945. On April 21, the Poles stormed Bologna, losing more than 200 killed and more than 1,200 wounded.

1st Panzer Division under General Maczka

The Polish 1st Panzer Division, under the command of General Stanislaw Maczko, was landed in Normandy in July 1944 and took an active part in the liberation of Belgium and Holland. The main combat mission of the Canadian corps in August 1944 was to capture the area around the city of Falaise and connect with the American units advancing from Argentan. During the Battle of Falaise, the Polish 1st Panzer Division helped the Allied forces encircle significant German forces (the division itself captured more than 5 thousand Germans). Poles' losses amounted to more than 400 killed and 1 thousand wounded. At the end of August 1944, the Polish division advanced, with heavy fighting, to the east. On September 6, the Poles crossed the Franco-Belgian border and took the city of Ypres. Then the Poles took the cities of Tilt, Ghent, Lokeren, and St. Nicholas. On September 16, the Poles crossed the Belgian-Dutch border. General Maczek received orders to take Antwerp. The task was completed, but then the Polish division fought for three weeks against the Germans who launched a counteroffensive. Then, in October, the Poles advanced into Holland and took the city of Breda (the Breda city council declared all members of the Polish division honorary citizens of the city, and after the end of World War II many veterans of the Polish 1st Panzer Division settled there). On November 8, 1944, the Poles reached the banks of the Meuse River. There, the advance stopped until April 14, 1945, when the Polish division, after five days of fighting, broke through the German defenses and entered German territory. On May 6, 1945, the Poles captured the German naval base in Wilhelmshaven.

Operation Market Garden

On September 17, 1944, the Allies launched Operation Market Garden, an airborne landing in Holland. On September 18, part of the Polish 1st Parachute Brigade was landed on the northern bank of the Rhine to help the British 1st Airborne Division besieged in Arnhem. However, due to bad weather conditions, only a little more than 1 thousand Polish paratroopers were able to land. The rest of the brigade was landed on September 23, but 30 km from the first landing. Only a small part of the Poles managed to connect with the British. Overall, this Allied operation was unsuccessful. The Poles lost there more than 200 dead and missing and more than 200 wounded.

Polish fleet in the Battle of the Atlantic

Polish naval forces continued to fight in the west after September 1939, since even before the start of World War II, 3 (out of four) Polish destroyers - Bliskawica, Grom and Buza - were sent to Britain. After the outbreak of war, two of the five Polish submarines - Wilk and Orzel - broke through from the Baltic to Britain. Cooperation between the Polish navy and the British fleet was established by a naval agreement of November 1939. Soon after this, the Polish navy leased several ships from Britain - 2 cruisers (Dragon and Conrad), 6 destroyers Garland ", "Piorun", "Krakowiak", "Kujawiak", "Szlenzak", "Orkan") and 3 submarines ("Falcon", "Yastszemb", "Dzik"). In April 1940, the submarine Orzhel sank the German transport Rio de Janeiro, which participated in the landing of German troops in Norway. The destroyer Piorun, together with a flotilla of British destroyers, participated in the pursuit of the German battleship Bismarck in 1941. In 1942, the destroyer Schlenzak provided artillery support for the Canadian-British landing in Dieppe. The submarines "Falcon" and "Dzik" operated in the Mediterranean Sea and received the nickname "Terrible Twins". Polish warships supported the landing of Allied troops in the Narvik operation (1940), the North African operation (1942), the Sicilian operation (1943) and the Italian operation (1943). They also escorted Allied caravans delivering weapons, food and other materials to the USSR. In total, Polish sailors sank several enemy warships (German and Italian), including 2 German submarines, shot down about 20 aircraft and sank about 40 transport ships. About 400 (out of a total number of about 4 thousand) Polish sailors died. Most of the survivors of the Second World War remained to live in the West.

Polish aircraft in the Battle of Britain

After the September 1939 campaign, many Polish military pilots tried to move to France. During the defense of France, Polish pilots shot down about 50 German planes, and 13 Polish pilots were killed. Then the Polish pilots flew to Britain. 145 Polish fighter pilots took part in the Battle of Britain (July-October 1940). 2 Polish squadrons were formed as part of the RAF (302nd and 303rd, Poles also served in other British squadrons). Polish pilots achieved great success - 303 Squadron became one of the most productive among the British Air Force, having shot down 125 German aircraft. In total, during the Battle of Britain, the Poles shot down 201 enemy aircraft. In the summer of 1940, 2 Polish bomber squadrons were formed, soon the total number of Polish squadrons in Britain reached 15: 10 fighter squadrons, 4 bomber squadrons and 1 artillery guidance squadron. A group of Polish pilots fought in North Africa in 1943 (the so-called “Skalski Circus”). Polish pilots bombed Germany (15 kilotons of bombs), including Berlin, Ruhr and Hamburg, and dropped weapons and ammunition for partisans in Poland (426 sorties) and other countries (909 sorties). In total, during the war, Polish pilots flew 73.5 thousand combat missions from Britain. They shot down 760 German planes and 190 V-1 missiles, and sank 2 submarines. The most successful Polish pilots were Stanislaw Skalski, Witold Urbanowicz, Eugeniusz Horbaczewski and Boleslaw Gladysz, who each shot down 15 or more enemy aircraft. The losses of the Polish Air Force amounted to 2 thousand dead.

Winston Churchill, in a speech to the British Parliament on August 20, 1940, said this about the Polish pilots defending England: “Never before in the history of human conflicts have so many owed so much to so few.” (Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few). After the end of World War II, most of the Polish flight technical personnel (in total in May 1945 there were more than 14 thousand of them) remained to live in the West.

Polish army on the eastern front

In March 1943, the Soviet command decided to create new (pro-Soviet) Polish troops. In May 1943, Headquarters appointed retired (since June 1939) Lieutenant Colonel Zygmunt Berling as commander of this Polish army (consisting of one infantry division), and Wanda Wasilewska, who was awarded the rank of colonel, as political commissar. (Berling was a prisoner of war, released under an amnesty in August 1941 from a Soviet prison, enlisted in the Polish army of General Anders, was appointed chief of staff of the division, and in 1942 (when Anders left for the Western allies) remained in the USSR. Vasilevskaya, daughter of the minister of pre-war Poland, after occupation of Lvov by the Red Army in 1939, she accepted Soviet citizenship, joined the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks), was elected as a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR and became a Soviet writer).

1st Polish Infantry Division named after Tadeusz Kosciuszko ( Polish 1 Polska Dywizja Piechoty im.Tadeusza Kościuszki) was formed in June 1943. On August 10, the Supreme Commander-in-Chief (Stalin) ordered the formation of a Polish corps consisting of 2 infantry divisions, a tank brigade, an artillery brigade, an aviation regiment and corps units. On the same day, the command awarded Berling the rank of general and appointed him commander of the Polish corps.

As of July 5, 1943, the division numbered 14,380 people (of which 13,520 Poles, 439 Jews, 209 Ukrainians, 108 Belarusians and 112 Russians). On July 15, 1943 (on the anniversary of the Battle of Grunwald), the division’s fighters took the military oath, and on the same day the Union of Polish Patriots presented the division with a battle banner (red and white, with the motto “For your and our freedom!”).

On August 10, 1943, the 1st Polish Corps was created, which included existing Polish military units (including the 1st Polish Infantry Division) and the formation of new Polish units began. On September 1, 1943, the 1st Polish Infantry Division was sent to the front. On October 12 - 13, 1943, near Lenino in the Mogilev region, the first battle of the 1st Polish Infantry Division took place. During the two-day battles, units of the Polish division inflicted significant damage on the enemy. Three soldiers of the Polish division were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, 247 were awarded orders and medals. The division's own losses in the "Battle of Lenino" reached 25% of its personnel.

On March 13, 1944, the Headquarters decided to deploy Polish units on the territory of the USSR into the 1st Polish Army. The strength of the Polish army was increased to 78 thousand. On July 20, 1944, units of the army crossed the Western Bug and entered Polish territory. On July 21, 1944, the 1st Polish Army was united with the partisan Army of Ludowa into a single Polish People's Army. In the Polish Army there were deputy commanders for political affairs and political agencies, but at the same time there were also chaplains in the units. As of July 22, 1944, the total strength of the 1st Army of the Polish Army was 100 thousand military personnel. At the end of July - beginning of August, the Polish 1st Army took part in the liberation of Dęblin and Puławy. The 1st Polish Armored Brigade took part in the defense of the Studzian bridgehead on the western bank of the Vistula south of Warsaw.

On September 14, 1944, the Polish 1st Army liberated the right bank suburb of Warsaw - Prague and then made an unsuccessful attempt to cross the Vistula to help the Warsaw Uprising. In January 1945, the Polish 1st Army took part in the liberation of Warsaw, and then the Polish Army took part in the breakthrough through central Poland. On January 28, 1945, Bydgoszcz was liberated. The Polish 1st Army was then moved north, and the main forces of the army took part in the assault on Kolobrzeg (German: Kolberg), while the Polish 1st Armored Brigade advanced on Gdańsk (East Pomeranian Operation). In April 1945, the 2nd Polish Army was organized. In 1945, the strength of the Polish Army reached 200,000 people (1st and 2nd Polish Armies, 1st Tank Corps, 1st Air Corps and other units), amounting to approximately 10% of the total number of forces participating in the Berlin War. operations on the Soviet side. By June 1945, the Polish Army numbered about 400,000 people. It was the largest regular military force fighting alongside the Soviet forces.

Poland became the first target of attack in World War II.

Poland's participation in World War II consisted of three components:

Defensive military actions against Germany September 1 - October 6, 1939;

Combat operations of regular units of the Polish army in Western Europe, North Africa, Southern Europe, Eastern Europe (1939-1945);

Struggle under occupation (1939-1945).

September–October 1939

Plans and strengths of the parties

Geographically and militarily, Germany had all the prerequisites for a quick victory over Poland. The German lands - East Prussia, Pomerania and Silesia surrounded most of Poland from the north and west. The collapse of Czechoslovakia expanded the strategic deployment areas of the German armed forces, allowing the use of Slovakia, which was friendly to Germany.

The German Army Group South (Colonel General von Rundstedt) consisted of the 8th, 10th and 14th armies. She was supposed to advance from Silesia in the general direction of Warsaw (10th Army - 2 tank, 8 infantry, 3 light divisions, Colonel General von Reichenau). 14th Army (2 tank, 6 infantry, 1 light, 1 mountain division, Colonel General List) - in the direction of Krakow, it was supposed to be supported by the armed forces of Slovakia. The 8th Army (4 infantry divisions, 1 SS regiment, Colonel General Blaskowitz) had Lodz as its target.

The German Army Group North (Colonel General von Bock) consisted of the 3rd Army (1 tank, 5 infantry divisions, Colonel General von Küchler) and the 4th Army (1 tank, 2 motorized, 6 infantry divisions, General -Colonel von Kluge). Its goal is to defeat Polish forces in the northern Vistula region with a simultaneous strike from East Prussia and Pomerania.

In total, 44 German divisions (including 6 tank and 2 motorized), the 1st Air Fleet (General of Aviation Kesselring) and the 4th Air Fleet (General of Aviation Lehr) were deployed for the war against Poland - a total of about 2 thousand aircraft.

The commander-in-chief of the Polish forces was Marshal Rydz-Smigly. His plan is to defend Poland's western border and conduct offensive operations in East Prussia.

The Modlin army was stationed on the border with East Prussia (4 infantry divisions and 2 cavalry brigades, as well as 2 infantry divisions and 2 cavalry brigades in the Suwalki area). In the Polish corridor - the Pomorie Army (6 infantry divisions).

Against Pomerania - Army "Lodz" (4 infantry divisions and 2 cavalry brigades).

Against Silesia - the Krakow army (6 infantry divisions, 1 cavalry and 1 motorized brigade).

Behind the Krakow and Lodz armies is the Prussian army (6 infantry divisions and 1 cavalry brigade).

The southern border of Poland was to be defended by the Karpaty Army (from reserve formations).

Reserves - 3 infantry divisions and 1 cavalry brigade - at the Vistula in the area of ​​​​Warsaw and Lublin.

In total, the Polish armed forces included 39 infantry divisions, 2 motorized brigades, 11 cavalry brigades, 3 mountain brigades.

Fighting

September 1, 1939, at 4:45 am, the German battleship " Schleswig-Holstein" began shelling the Polish outpost of Westerplatte. One Polish security company was stationed there, and its week-long defense became a symbol of Polish resistance.

However, already in the first three days of the campaign, the Polish armed forces lost several battles in the border areas. German motorized units broke through the defensive positions of the Polish armies Lodz and Krakow.

As a result of German air strikes, the Polish army "Modlin" was disorganized and began to chaotically retreat to the eastern bank of the Vistula. The Lodz Army was unable to hold its position on the Warta and Widawka rivers. The position of the Prussia and Krakow armies also became critical.

On September 6, the Polish High Command ordered the armies of Pomerania, Poznan, Lodz and Prussia to retreat to positions near the Vistula.

On September 8, German tanks approached Warsaw. On the same day, Marshal Rydz-Smigly ordered all Polish troops to withdraw east if possible in order to establish a defense against the Germans near the Romanian border. The Marshal hoped that in this forested region, in the conditions of the coming autumn, the rapid advance of German motorized units would slow down. In addition, the marshal hoped that arms supplies from the Western allies would go through Romania.

On September 10, the Polish armies "Poznan" and "Pomerania", under the command of General Kutrzeba, launched a counter-offensive from the line of the Bzura River. Initially this was a success for the Poles, but on September 12 the Germans again went on the offensive and inflicted heavy losses on the Poles. Kutrzeba's troops tried to retreat to Warsaw, but were surrounded by the Germans. On the night of 17 September, the remnants of the Poznań Army tried to break through the German positions, but only a few managed to reach Warsaw and Modlin.

On September 12, German troops reached Lvov. On September 14, fighting began in the Brest Fortress (the Germans took this fortress on September 17). On September 16, Polish forces were surrounded in the Lublin area.

At dawn on September 17, Soviet troops crossed the eastern border of Poland. Marshal Rydz-Smigly ordered the Polish troops located on the border with the USSR (17 infantry battalions and 6 cavalry squadrons) to retreat to the border with Romania, without engaging in battles with the Red Army, except in cases of attack from its side. Contrary to this order, the defense of Grodno lasted until September 22, Lvov until September 23.

On September 18, the president, government and commander-in-chief of the armed forces left Polish territory. However, the fighting continued.

The Warsaw garrison ceased resistance on September 28, after heavy airstrikes and artillery shelling. On 29 September the fighting in Modlin ceased. On October 2, Polish resistance on the Hel Peninsula ended. On October 6, the battles waged against the Germans by the Polesie task force ended.

During this campaign, the Poles lost about 70 thousand people killed, the Germans - about 14 thousand killed.

However, Poland did not capitulate; its government and part of the armed forces continued their service in exile.

Polish armed forces in exile

Polish units in France and Norway

Polish military units in France began to form after the signing of the Franco-Polish protocol on September 21, 1939.

General Wladyslaw Sikorski became the commander-in-chief of the Polish forces in France. At the end of 1939, the Polish 1st and 2nd Infantry Divisions were formed.

In February 1940, a separate mountain rifle brigade was formed (commanded by General Zygmunt Bohusz-Szyszko). This brigade was included in the Anglo-French expeditionary forces scheduled to be sent to Finland for the war against the USSR. However, on March 12, 1940, peace was concluded between Finland and the USSR, and the brigade was sent in early May 1940 as part of the Anglo-French Expeditionary Force to Norway for the war against the Germans.

There, the Polish brigade successfully stormed the German-occupied villages of Ankenes and Nyborg, the Germans were pushed back to the Swedish border. However, due to the German advance in France, Allied forces, including Poles, left Norway.

While the separate mountain rifle brigade was sent to Norway, the Polish 1st Infantry Division (renamed 1st Grenadier Division on 3 May 1940) under the command of General Bronislaw Duch was sent to the front in Lorraine. On June 16, the Polish division was almost surrounded by the Germans and received an order from the French command to retreat. On June 19, General Sikorsky ordered the division to retreat to the south of France or, if possible, to Switzerland. However, this order was difficult to carry out, and therefore only 2 thousand Poles managed to reach the south of France; about a thousand went to Switzerland. The exact losses of the division are still unknown, but no less than a thousand Poles, at least 3 thousand more were wounded.

The Polish 2nd Infantry Division (renamed 2nd Infantry Division) under the command of General Prugar-Ketling also fought in Lorraine. On June 15 and 16, this division covered the retreat of the French 45th Corps to the Swiss border. The Poles crossed into Switzerland on June 20 and were interned there until the end of World War II.

In addition to the infantry, the Polish armed forces in France had the 10th armored cavalry brigade under the command of General Stanisław Maczek. She was stationed at the Champagne front. From June 13, the brigade covered the withdrawal of two French divisions. Then, by order, the brigade retreated, but on June 17 it was surrounded. Managing to break through the German lines, the brigade was then evacuated to Britain.

In addition to the above-mentioned Polish units, several Polish anti-tank companies attached to French infantry divisions took part in the fighting in France.

The Polish 3rd and 4th Infantry Divisions were in the formation stage in June 1940 and did not have time to take part in the battles. In total, at the end of June 1940, the Polish armed forces in France numbered about 85 thousand.

When France's defeat became obvious, the commander-in-chief of the Polish forces decided to evacuate them to Britain. On June 18, 1940, General Sikorsky flew to England. At a meeting in London, he assured British Prime Minister Winston Churchill that Polish troops were not going to surrender to the Germans and wanted to fight until complete victory. Churchill ordered the organization of the evacuation of Polish troops to Scotland.

While Sikorski was in England, his deputy, General Sosnkowski, asked the French General Denin to help the Poles evacuate. The Frenchman replied that “The Poles need to hire evacuation ships themselves, and they have to pay for it in gold”. He also suggested that Polish troops surrender to the Germans, just like the French.

As a result, 17 thousand Polish soldiers and officers managed to evacuate to Britain.

Polish units in Syria, Egypt and Libya

In April 1940, the Polish Carpathian Rifle Brigade was formed in Syria under the command of Colonel Stanislaw Kopanski (from Polish soldiers and officers who fled through Romania).

After the surrender of French troops in Syria to the Germans, the French command ordered the Poles to surrender to German captivity, but Colonel Kopansky did not obey this order and took the Polish brigade to British Palestine.

In October 1940, the brigade was redeployed to Egypt.

In October 1941, the Polish Carpathian Brigade was landed in the Libyan town of Tobruk, besieged by the Germans, to help the 9th Australian Infantry Division defending there. In December 1941, Allied forces attacked German and Italian troops, and on December 10 the siege of Tobruk was ended. On December 14-17, 1941, the Polish brigade took part in the battle in the Ghazala region (in Libya). Of the 5 thousand soldiers, the Poles lost more than 600 killed and wounded.

Polish units in Britain

In August 1940, British Prime Minister Churchill signed a Polish-British military agreement allowing Polish troops to be stationed in Britain. Polish armed forces in Britain received the same status as the troops of the British Commonwealth countries, and received the right to form new Polish units.

By the end of August 1940, Polish ground forces in Britain consisted of 5 rifle brigades (3 of them were staffed almost exclusively by command personnel, due to a lack of privates).

On September 28, 1940, the Polish commander-in-chief, General Sikorski, gave the order to form the 1st Polish Corps.

In October 1941, the 4th Rifle Brigade was reorganized into the 1st Separate Parachute Brigade (under the command of Colonel Sosnovsky). In February 1942, the formation of the Polish 1st Panzer Division (under the command of General Maczek) began.

After the death of General Sikorski in 1943, General Sosnkowski became the commander-in-chief of the Polish troops.

Polish units in the USSR (1941-1942)

On July 30, 1941, General Sikorski and the Soviet ambassador in London, Maisky, signed a Polish-Soviet agreement on joint military operations against Germany.

On August 4, 1941, Polish General Wladislaw Anders, appointed by Sikorsky as commander of the Polish troops in the USSR, was released by the Soviet authorities from imprisonment in the Lubyanka prison.

On August 12, 1941, the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the USSR, by its decree, declared an amnesty for all Polish citizens imprisoned in the USSR.

The USSR agreed to the formation of units of the Polish armed forces - 2 divisions with a total number of 25 thousand. Then, at the request of Sikorsky, the numerical restrictions were lifted. By November 1941, the number of Poles gathered in training camps reached 44 thousand.

On December 3, 1941, General Sikorsky, who flew to the USSR, met with Stalin in the Kremlin. As a result of their negotiations, the strength of the Polish army in the USSR was established at 96 thousand, and permission was received to evacuate 25 thousand Poles outside the USSR.

In March 1942, the chief of logistics of the Red Army, General Khrulev, informed General Anders that the Polish army in the USSR would receive only 26 thousand food rations per day. At a meeting with Stalin, Anders achieved 44 thousand food rations per day and permission to evacuate Polish military personnel from the USSR.

By April 1942, 33 thousand Polish military personnel, as well as almost 11 thousand civilian Poles, including 3 thousand children, were transported to Krasnovodsk for evacuation to Iran.

The second stage of the evacuation of Poles from the USSR took place in August 1942.

In total, 78.6 thousand military and 38 thousand civilian Poles were evacuated from the USSR.

Polish units in the Middle East

In September 1942, Polish units evacuated from the USSR were stationed in northern Iraq. They were consolidated into 3 infantry divisions and 1 tank brigade, which formed the 2nd Polish Corps. In July 1943, the corps was redeployed to Palestine.

On December 7, 1943, the British command decided to send the 2nd Polish Corps to Italy.

Polish units in Italy

On March 24, 1944, the commander of the 2nd Polish Corps, General Anders, received an order from the British command to break through German positions in the Monte Cassino area, storm the monastery and occupy the town of Piedimonte and thereby clear the road to Rome. By this point, Allied forces had unsuccessfully stormed Monte Cassino three times.

In April 1944, the 2nd Polish Corps consisted of the 3rd Carpathian Rifle Division (commanded by General Dukh), the 5th Kresovo Infantry Division (General Sulik), the 2nd Tank Brigade (General Rakovsky) and the 2nd Artillery Group. The strength of the corps is 46 thousand soldiers and officers.

The 4th Battle of Monte Cassino began on May 11. After fierce battles with the defending German 1st Parachute and 5th Mountain Divisions, on the morning of May 18, the Poles took the monastery and raised the regimental banner of the 12th Podolsk Lancers and the flag of Poland over it (later, by order of General Anders, the British flag was hoisted) .

On the morning of May 19, the entire Monte Cassino massif was cleared of German troops. The Polish victory secured passage for the British XIII Corps into the Liri Valley.

On May 25, Canadian, British and Polish units broke through the German "Hitler Line".

In total, during the battle in the Monte Cassino area, the 2nd Polish Corps lost a thousand people killed and 3 thousand wounded.

After a short rest, General Anders received orders to move the Polish corps along the Adriatic coast to capture the port city of Ancona.

Heavy fighting in this direction began on June 21. On July 17, the Poles began their assault on Ancona. On July 18, the 2nd Tank Brigade cut off Ancona in the northwest, then the Carpathian Uhlan Regiment entered the city. The port, as required by the command, was taken undamaged. In the battle for Ancona, the Poles lost more than 600 killed and almost 2 thousand wounded. The capture of the port allowed the British 8th Army to continue its advance towards Bologna.

The Polish corps was then ordered to break through the German Gothic Line, which was completed in August 1944.

By the end of 1944, the 2nd Polish Corps was reinforced with two infantry brigades, and the 2nd Tank Brigade was reorganized into the 2nd Warsaw Tank Division.

In January 1945, the American commander of the 15th Army Group, General Clark, ordered allied units to prepare for a final offensive in Italy. Since General Anders was appointed to the post of supreme commander of the Polish armed forces, General Bohusz-Szyszko became the commander of the Polish 2nd Corps.

The offensive began on April 9, 1945. On April 21, the Poles stormed Bologna, losing more than 200 killed and more than 1,200 wounded.

Polish units in Normandy, Belgium and Holland

1st Panzer Division

The Polish 1st Armored Division, under the command of General Stanislaw Maczek, was landed in Normandy in July 1944 and incorporated into the Canadian 2nd Corps of the Canadian 1st Army.

The main combat mission of the Canadian Corps in August 1944 was to capture the area around the city of Falaise and link up with American units advancing from Argentan.

During the Battle of Falaise, the Polish 1st Panzer Division helped the Allied forces encircle significant German forces (the division itself captured more than 5 thousand Germans). Poles' losses amounted to more than 400 killed and 1 thousand wounded.

At the end of August 1944, the Polish division advanced, with heavy fighting, to the east. On September 6, the Poles crossed the Franco-Belgian border and took the city of Ypres. The Poles then took the cities of Tilt, Ghent, Lokeren, St. Nicholas.

On September 16, the Poles crossed the Belgian-Dutch border. General Maczek received orders to take Antwerp. The task was completed, but then the Polish division fought for three weeks against the Germans who launched a counteroffensive. Then, in October, the Poles advanced into Holland and took the city of Breda (the Breda city council declared all members of the Polish division honorary citizens of the city, and after the end of World War II, many veterans of the Polish 1st Panzer Division settled there).

On November 8, 1944, the Poles reached the banks of the Meuse River. There, the advance stopped until April 14, 1945, when the Polish division, after five days of fighting, broke through the German defenses and entered German territory. On May 6, 1945, the Poles captured the German naval base in Wilhelmshaven.

1st Separate Parachute Division

On September 17, 1944, the Allies launched Operation Market Garden - an airborne landing in Holland.

On September 18, part of the Polish 1st Parachute Brigade was landed on the northern bank of the Rhine to help the British 1st Airborne Division besieged in Arnhem. However, due to bad weather conditions, only a little more than 1 thousand Polish paratroopers were able to land. The rest of the brigade was landed on September 23, but 30 km from the first landing. Only a small part of the Poles managed to connect with the British.

Overall, this Allied operation was unsuccessful. The Poles lost there more than 200 dead and missing and more than 200 wounded.

Polish fleet abroad

The Polish naval forces continued to fight in the west after September 1939, since even before the outbreak of World War II, 3 (out of four) Polish destroyers - Bliskawica, Grom and Buza - were sent to Britain. After the start of the war, 2 (out of five) Polish submarines broke through from the Baltic to Britain - “Wilk” and “Orzel”.

Cooperation between the Polish navy and the British navy was established by a naval agreement of November 1939. Soon after this, the Polish naval forces leased several ships from Britain - 2 cruisers (Dragon and Konrad), 6 destroyers Garland, Piorun, Krakowiak, Kujawiak, Szlenzak, Orkan ") and 3 submarines ("Falcon", "Yastszemb", "Dzik").

In April 1940, the submarine "Orzhel" sank the German transport "Rio de Janeiro", which participated in the landing of German troops in Norway.

The destroyer Piorun, together with a flotilla of British destroyers, participated in the pursuit of the German battleship Bismarck in 1941.

In 1942, the destroyer Schlenzak provided artillery support for the Canadian-British landing in Dieppe.

The submarines "Falcon" and "Dzik" operated in the Mediterranean Sea and received the nickname "Terrible Twins".

Polish warships supported the landing of Allied troops in the Narvik operation (1940), the North African operation (1942), the Sicilian operation (1943) and the Italian operation (1943). They also escorted Allied caravans delivering weapons, food and other materials to the USSR.

In total, Polish sailors sank several enemy warships (German and Italian), including 2 German submarines, shot down about 20 aircraft and sank about 40 transport ships.

About 400 (out of a total number of about 4 thousand) Polish sailors died. Most of the survivors of the Second World War remained to live in the West.

Polish aviation abroad

After the September 1939 campaign, many Polish military pilots tried to move to France. During the defense of France, Polish pilots shot down about 50 German planes, and 13 Polish pilots were killed.

Then the Polish pilots flew to Britain. 145 Polish fighter pilots took part in the Battle of Britain (July-October 1940). 2 Polish squadrons were formed as part of the RAF (302nd and 303rd, Poles also served in other British squadrons).

Polish pilots achieved great success - the 303rd squadron became one of the most productive among the British Air Force, having shot down 125 German aircraft. In total, during the Battle of Britain, the Poles shot down 201 enemy aircraft.

In the summer of 1940, 2 Polish bomber squadrons were formed, soon the total number of Polish squadrons in Britain reached 15: 10 fighter squadrons, 4 bomber squadrons and 1 artillery guidance squadron.

A group of Polish pilots fought in North Africa in 1943 (the so-called “Skalski Circus”).

Polish pilots bombed Germany (15 kilotons of bombs), including Berlin, Ruhr and Hamburg, and dropped weapons and ammunition for partisans in Poland (426 sorties) and other countries (909 sorties).

In total, during the war, Polish pilots flew 73.5 thousand combat missions from Britain. They shot down 760 German planes and 190 V-1 missiles, and sank 2 submarines.

The most successful of the Polish pilots were Stanislaw Skalski, Witold Urbanowicz, Eugeniusz Horbaczewski and Boleslaw Gladysz, who shot down 15 or more enemy aircraft each.

The losses of the Polish Air Force amounted to 2 thousand dead. After the end of World War II, most of the Polish flight technical personnel (in total in May 1945 there were more than 14 thousand) remained to live in the West.

Struggle in occupied Poland

The Polish resistance began from the first days of the German occupation. The “Secret Combat Organization”, the “Polish Organization of the Fight for Freedom”, and the “White Eagle Organization” arose. Several units of the regular Polish army began to wage guerrilla warfare. The most significant of them are the detachment of Major Henryk Dobrzanski in the Kielce area and the detachment of Lieutenant Colonel Jerzy Dabrowski in the Augustow area.

Later, the People's Battalions and the People's Military Organization were created by the underground People's Party. People's battalions attacked economic targets in occupied Poland, destroyed the German administrative apparatus, and set up ambushes on the roads. The maximum number of fighters of the People's Battalions reached 100 thousand.

In February 1942, General Sikorski ordered the creation of the Home Army, under the command of General Rowecki. It was assumed that the AK would include the NB and NVO, but partial unification with them took place only in 1943.

Active operations of the AK began in 1943. AK carried out sabotage on railways, passed on information about the German Peenemünde missile site to the Western Allies (as a result, the Allies bombed the site), freed prisoners from a prison in Warsaw, killed high-ranking Germans, including killing the German general Kucera.

The largest military action of the AK was the Warsaw Uprising in 1944.

The uprising began on August 1, 1944. The AK had approximately 50 thousand fighters in the Warsaw area, but due to difficulties with mobilization at the beginning of the uprising, about 25 thousand took part, of which about 10% had weapons. By the beginning of the uprising, the German garrison in Warsaw numbered about 20 thousand. From August 4, German forces in Warsaw were increased to 50 thousand, due to units of the German 9th Army, which occupied the defense in the east of Warsaw, as well as the Russian SS division, Cossack and Azerbaijani units of the Osttruppen. Commanded German forces in Warsaw Obergruppenführer SS Erich von dem Bach.

The rebels managed to capture a number of German objects in Warsaw and some areas of the city. However, the Germans retained their barracks and control of transport hubs. On August 5, the Germans began to recapture areas of Warsaw. Soon the rebels were isolated in several separate pockets (Old Town, center, Mokotów, Żoliborz).

By September 30, the Germans had crushed resistance in all major pockets. The rebels lost 18 thousand killed and 25 thousand wounded. German losses - 17 thousand killed and 9 thousand wounded.

Polish army created in the USSR (1943-1945)

In March 1943, Stalin decided to create a new Polish army for the subsequent establishment of a pro-Soviet regime in Poland. In May 1943, Stalin appointed retired (from June 1939) Lieutenant Colonel Zygmunt Berling as commander of this Polish army (consisting of one infantry division), and Wanda Wasilewska as political commissar, to whom Stalin awarded the rank of colonel. ( Berling was released under an amnesty in August 1941 from a Soviet prison, enlisted in the Polish army of General Anders, was appointed chief of staff of the division, but in 1942 he deserted from the Polish army and remained in the USSR. Vasilevskaya, the daughter of the minister of pre-war Poland, after the occupation of Lvov by the Red Army in 1939, accepted Soviet citizenship, joined the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks), was appointed a member of the Supreme Council of the USSR and became a Soviet writer.)

In June 1943, the Polish infantry division named after Tadeusz Kosciuszko was formed. On August 10, Stalin ordered the formation of a Polish corps consisting of 2 infantry divisions, a tank brigade, an artillery brigade, an aviation regiment and corps units. On the same day, Stalin awarded Berling the rank of general and appointed him commander of the Polish corps.

On September 1, 1943, the 1st Polish Infantry Division was sent to the front, at the disposal of the Soviet 33rd Army. On September 7, Berling received orders to break through the German defense line. On October 10, his division made a breakthrough (against one German regiment). The division advanced several kilometers, but the next day the Germans drove it back to its original positions. Part of the division's personnel (mostly Silesians) went over to the German side. The so-called “Battle of Lenino” cost the Kostsyushko division 510 killed and 765 missing.

In January 1944, the Polish corps was sent to the Smolensk area. On March 13, 1944, Stalin decided to deploy the Polish corps into the army. For this purpose, the corps was redeployed to Ukraine, to Sumy. There the strength of the Polish army was increased to 78 thousand.

On July 28, 1944, the Polish 1st Army took up combat positions on the eastern bank of the Vistula and received orders from Marshal Rokossovsky to cross the river. On the night of August 1, the 2nd Polish Division tried to do this. As a result, one company crossed the Vistula, another company was able to reach one of the islands in the middle of the river. All units attempting to cross the Vistula suffered heavy losses.

On the afternoon of August 1, the 1st and 2nd Polish infantry divisions tried to cross the Vistula. As a result, the 2nd Regiment of the 1st Division was almost completely destroyed. On August 2, the army did not attempt to advance, since all 9 attempts to cross the Vistula ended in failure. On August 3, the 2nd Division's attempts to cross were stopped by German artillery.

In mid-September 1944, the Polish army numbered about 60 thousand. On September 16, attempts to cross the Vistula were resumed. In 4 days, about 900 Poles managed to cross to the west bank. On September 19, the Polish bridgehead was destroyed by the Germans. On September 22, Marshal Rokossovsky ordered Berling to stop trying to cross the Vistula.

On January 12, 1945, a new Soviet offensive began, in which the 1st Polish Army took part. On January 17, the ruins of Warsaw were liberated.

At the end of January 1945, the Polish army (93 thousand people) was stationed in Pomerania. In February, she went on the offensive. In February-March 1945, the Polish army fought heavy battles with the goal of capturing the city of Kolberg (after being included in Poland, renamed Kolobrzeg).

In April 1945, the Polish 2nd Army was organized under Soviet command - mainly from Home Army units. She was transferred to the Neisse River, which she crossed on April 17. The next day, German troops under the command of Field Marshal Schörner, marching to defend Berlin, partially drove back and partially surrounded units of the 2nd Polish Army.

On April 13, 1945, units of the 1st Polish Army reached the Oder River. On April 20, German troops abandoned their positions on the western bank of the Oder and began to retreat to the west.

Literature:

The Poles on the Battlefronts of the Second World War.Warsaw, 2005.

Note: I wrote this article in December 2009 and published it on Russian Wikipedia. But since anyone can rule there (whether with good or evil intentions), I decided to publish it on my website for safety.

It’s a shame to read and hear from Russia’s ill-wishers who claim that we “monopolized” and “privatized” the victory over Nazism in World War II. And this is at a time when there is a flurry of articles and broadcasts in the Russian media about the fight against Nazism together with our allies.

The position of the Polish leadership is completely incomprehensible. The refusal to let the “Night Wolves” pass through Polish territory can be perceived as an attempt to disown the participation of the Polish Army in the Victory. It’s good that not everyone accepts this position, and there were people who picked up the baton of the bikers of the Night Wolves club and continued their route to the places of military glory of their grandfathers and great-grandfathers.

By the way, did you know that during the capture of Berlin, a Polish flag was installed on the Brandenburg Gate along with the Soviet one?

“For your and our freedom!” How Poland became the main ally of the Red Army

The largest regular force of a foreign state that fought alongside the Red Army on the Soviet-German front was the Polish Army.

Unfriendly neighbors

After Poland de facto ceased to exist as an independent state by mid-September 1941 following the German attack, and its government fled abroad, Red Army units occupied territories taken from Soviet Russia as a result of the Soviet-Polish War of 1919-1920.

It is clear that what was perceived in the USSR as restoration historical justice, the Poles themselves viewed it completely differently.

At this moment, hardly anyone could have believed that just a few years later, Polish units, together with units of the Red Army, would storm the capital of the Third Reich. But in the end this is what happened...

After the annexation of Western Belarus and Western Ukraine, hundreds of thousands of Poles ended up on the territory of the USSR. Some were refugees, others were captured, and others, officials of Polish government agencies, were arrested for participating in punitive activities against underground communists operating in Poland.

In modern Poland, when speaking about the fate of compatriots who found themselves in the USSR in 1939-1940, they immediately remember the word “Katyn”.

Lieutenant Colonel Berling's project

That is why, when the Soviet Union started thinking about creating Polish military units to fight the Nazis, there were no problems with personnel.

This idea first surfaced in the fall of 1940, when war with Germany remained a prospect, albeit not the most distant, but still a future.

The NKVD assembled a group former officers Polish army, with whom they discussed the issue of possible participation in the war with Germany as part of forces not controlled by the Polish government in exile. Among those who were ready to fight on such terms was Lieutenant Colonel Zygmunt Berling, future commander of the 1st Army of the Polish Army.

London Memorandum

With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the plans of the Soviet government regarding the Poles underwent changes. The USSR entered into allied relations with Great Britain, and through it, relations with the Polish government in exile in London improved.

On July 3, 1941, the USSR government decided to allow the formation of national committees and national military units from Czechoslovaks, Yugoslavs and Poles on the territory of the USSR, as well as to provide assistance in arming and equipping these national units.

On July 11, 1941, a Soviet-Polish-English memorandum was signed in London on the creation of a Polish army in the USSR in the form of an autonomous unit, operationally subordinate to the Supreme Command of the USSR.

Thus, it was decided that the Polish army in the Soviet Union would be linked to the Polish government in exile.

On August 12, 1941, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR issued a decree on amnesty for Polish citizens on the territory of the USSR, finally removing barriers to the beginning of the formation of Polish formations in the Soviet Union.

Dissenting opinion of General Anders

A week before this, the future Polish army received its commander - he became General Vladislav Anders.

General Anders was extremely negative towards the USSR and, to put it mildly, did not welcome the idea of ​​fighting the Nazis side by side with the Red Army. He saw his task as having formed military units from the Poles who were on the territory of the USSR, and to bring them out of the country to join the British forces. Anders was convinced that the real struggle for Poland would begin when the Soviet Union was defeated by Hitler. General Anders had no doubt about the defeat of the Red Army.

Of course, while in the USSR, Anders tried not to voice his thoughts out loud.

The equipment and armament of the Polish troops, called “Anders’ Army,” was carried out jointly by the USSR, Great Britain and the USA. Only in September and October 1941, the USSR transferred weapons to the “Anders Army” for one infantry division: 40 artillery pieces, 135 mortars, 270 heavy and light machine guns, 8451 rifles, 162 submachine guns, 1022 pistols and revolvers.

In December 1941, an agreement was reached to increase the “Anders Army” from 30 to 96 thousand people.

We want to go to Palestine!

For the leadership of the USSR, Polish formations began to turn into headache. Large funds were required for the maintenance, training, and armament of these units. And this happened at a time when the enemy stood at the walls of Moscow.

In February 1942, the USSR government requested the Polish side to commit the fully trained and equipped Polish 5th Infantry Division to battle on the Soviet-German front. General Anders strongly protested, saying that the Poles would be able to enter the battle only when the formation of the army as a whole was completed.

The Soviet side agreed with this decision, despite the difficult situation at the front. Meanwhile head of the NKVD Lavrentiy Beria reported that anti-Soviet sentiment reigned in the “Anders Army”; officers refused to fight the Nazis along with the Red Army.

Since the end of 1941, Great Britain and the USA began to offer the Soviet Union to transfer the “Anders Army” through Iran to the Middle East. Representatives of the Polish government in exile began to insist on the same thing.

You can imagine what was going on in the souls of the Soviet leaders. While the most difficult battles are going on at the front, and every division, every regiment is in conflict, several tens of thousands of equipped and trained Polish soldiers are sitting in the rear and setting the conditions for where they will fight and where they will not.

"We'll do without you"

By March 1942, the “Anders Army” included more than 70 thousand Polish military personnel and about 30 thousand civilians. When at a meeting with Stalin On March 18, 1942, General Anders once again began to talk about the need to transfer the Poles to the Middle East, Joseph Vissarionovich gave vent to his feelings: “If the Poles don’t want to fight here, then let them say directly: yes or no... I know where the army is is being formed, so it will remain there... We can do without you. We can give everyone away. We can handle it ourselves. We will retake Poland and then we will give it to you. But what will people say to this..."

The evacuation of the “Anders Army” from the USSR began in March 1942 and was completed by September 1. In parting, the overjoyed Anders thanked Stalin and stated that “the strategic center of gravity of the war is currently moving to the Near and Middle East.” The general also asked to continue the conscription of Poles into the army in the USSR and send them to him as reinforcements.

If Stalin expressed his feelings about what happened with restraint, then lower-ranking military leaders who were involved in helping to form the “Anders Army” sent after the Poles selected tirades from that part of Russian folklore, which is also called “obscene language.”

"Anders' Army" as part of the British army, after being in the Middle East in 1944, managed to make its mark in battles in Italy. In modern Poland, where the “Anders Army” is ranked above all other Polish formations of the Second World War, the so-called “assault on Monte Cassino” is considered a cult event, although this battle in a secondary theater of operations cannot be compared with the same assault on Berlin , in which other Poles showed themselves.

However, enough about “Anders’ army” - we’ve already given it more attention than it deserves.

Division of Polish Patriots

Among the Polish military and civilians who were in the USSR, there were a huge number of those who considered the behavior of General Anders a real betrayal and disgrace for the Polish nation.

On March 1, 1943, the “Union of Polish Patriots” was created in the USSR, the backbone of which was made up of Polish communists and representatives of other leftist forces, as well as public figures and representatives of Polish culture who advocated friendly relations between Poland and the USSR. This organization became a counterweight to the Polish government in exile located in London.

In May 1943, the “Union of Polish Patriots” put forward the idea of ​​​​forming new Polish units that would fight shoulder to shoulder with the Red Army. On May 6, 1943, the State Defense Committee of the USSR issued Resolution No. 3294 “On the formation of the 1st Polish Infantry Division named after Tadeusz Kosciuszko.” Already on May 14, 1943, the formation of a division began near Ryazan.

In fact, it was a return to the unrealized idea of ​​1941. The division commander was the same Colonel Zygmunt Berling. He managed to visit the “Anders Army” as the head of a military camp, but refused to leave with the “Andersites” to the Middle East.

By July 5, 1943, the division included about 14,400 soldiers and officers. On July 15, 1943, on the anniversary of the historic Battle of Grunwald for the Poles, the division’s fighters took the military oath, and on the same day the “Union of Polish Patriots” presented the division with a red and white battle banner, with the motto “For your and our freedom!”

Baptism of fire and blood

Due to a shortage of technical personnel, at the first stage more than 300 Soviet officers were included in the division.

The formation of Polish units proceeded rapidly. Already on August 10, 1943, the formation of the 1st Polish Corps was announced, which, in addition to the Kosciuszko Division, included the 1st Polish Tank Regiment named after Heroes of Westerplatte and the 1st Fighter Aviation Regiment "Warsaw".

The baptism of fire for the Poles on the Soviet-German front took place on October 12-13, 1943 in the Battle of Lenino, which was part of the Orsha offensive operation.

Became part of the 33rd Army General Gordov The 1st Polish Division clashed with units of the 337th Wehrmacht Infantry Division.

In the two-day battles near Lenino, the Polish division, faced with a well-armed enemy, lost up to a third of its personnel killed, wounded and missing. At the same time, the German losses in killed and wounded amounted to about 1,500 people, more than 320 Nazis were captured.

For the operation near Lenino, Polish soldiers were awarded 239 Soviet and 247 Polish orders and medals.

Three Polish soldiers became Heroes of the Soviet Union - captains Juliusz Hibner And Vladislav Vysotsky, and Private Anela Kzhiwon. Vladislav Vysotsky and submachine gunner of the women's company Anelya Kzhivon received the high award posthumously.

Despite the losses, a start had been made. Now the Poles fought the Nazis not somewhere on the outskirts of the world, but where the fate of the war was being decided.

They fought for their homeland

By March 1944, the 1st Polish Corps was deployed into the 1st Polish Army, or 1st Army of the Polish Army. Not only Polish citizens, but also Soviet citizens of predominantly Polish origin were enlisted in the army.

The commander of the unit was the same Zygmunt Berling, who now wore the shoulder straps of a lieutenant general.

In July 1944, a historical moment arrived - the 1st Polish Army, as part of the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front, crossed the Western Bug and entered Polish territory.

It was the soldiers of General Berling, who fought shoulder to shoulder with the Soviet soldiers, who liberated their native country from the Germans, and not the escaped army of Anders.

On the territory of Poland, the army was replenished by fighters of the Ludowa partisan Army, which acted from ideological positions similar to those expressed by the “Union of Polish Patriots”.

On July 26, 1944, having replaced units of the 8th Guards Army, the 1st Polish Army reached the eastern bank of the Vistula in the area of ​​Dęblin and Puławy and began fighting to capture the bridgehead on the left bank. Subsequently, the army took part in the battles on the Magnushevsky bridgehead.

In September 1944, the Polish 1st Army liberated Prague, a suburb of Warsaw.

In January 1945, Polish troops played a vital role in the liberation of Warsaw, which was captured on January 17.

In total, more than 10 thousand soldiers of the 1st Polish Army were killed in the battles for the liberation of Poland, and about 27 thousand were injured.

To Berlin!

By 1945, the number of Polish forces fighting on the Soviet-German front reached 200,000 people, which was almost three times the size of Anders’ Army. In addition to the 1st Army of the Polish Army, the 2nd Army was also formed, which became part of the 1st Ukrainian Front.

The 1st and 2nd armies of the Polish Army participated in the Berlin offensive operation, and units of the 2nd army were also involved in the Prague operation.

In the battles for Berlin, the Polish Army lost 7,200 people killed and 3,800 missing.

The Polish Army became the largest regular foreign force fighting alongside the Red Army on the Soviet-German front. The actions of the Polish Army were noted 13 times in the gratitude orders of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the USSR, more than 5 thousand military personnel and 23 formations and units of the Polish Army were awarded Soviet orders.

The best Polish soldiers, together with soldiers of the Red Army, took part in the Victory Parade on Red Square on May 24, 1945.

Friendship that will never exist again

More than a dozen Poles who fought in the ranks of the Polish Army were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Among them General Stanislav Poplavsky, a Pole born in Ukraine, who served in the Red Army and was sent to serve in the Polish Army in 1944.

It was under his command that the 1st Army of the Polish Army broke through the German defenses on the Oder and stormed Berlin. For skillful command and control of troops in the Berlin operation, on May 29, 1945, Colonel General Poplavsky was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

During the capture of Berlin, the Polish flag was installed on the Brandenburg Gate along with the Soviet one.

One of the favorite films of both Soviet and Polish children for many years was the film “Four Tankmen and a Dog,” which told about the soldiers of the Polish Army who went through the war alongside the soldiers of the Red Army.

The fighting of Soviet troops on the Vistula began at different times. The 1st Ukrainian Front went on the offensive on January 12, the 1st Belorussian Front on January 14, and the 38th Army of the 4th Ukrainian Front on January 15, 1945.

At 5 o'clock in the morning on January 12, the forward battalions of the rifle divisions of the 1st Ukrainian Front attacked the enemy, immediately destroyed his military guards in the first trench and in some places captured the second trench. Having recovered from the blow, the enemy units put up stubborn resistance. However, the task was completed: the enemy’s defense system was opened, which allowed the front’s artillery to suppress the enemy’s most important targets during the period of artillery preparation for the attack.

Artillery preparation began at 10 o'clock. Thousands of guns, mortars and rocket launchers rained their deadly fire on the fascist defenses. Powerful artillery fire destroyed most of the enemy's manpower and military equipment defending the first position. Enemy reserves suffered losses from long-range artillery fire. Many German soldiers, distraught with fear, came to their senses only in Soviet captivity. The commander of the 575th Infantry Regiment of the 304th Infantry Division, captured on January 12, testified: “At about 10 o’clock the Russians on this section of the front opened strong artillery and mortar fire, which was so effective and accurate that in the first hour Regimental control and communication with division headquarters were lost. The fire was directed mainly at observation and command posts and headquarters. I was amazed at how accurately the Russians knew the location of our headquarters, command and observation posts. My regiment was completely paralyzed."

At 11:47 a.m., Soviet artillery shifted its fire into the depths, and the assault battalions, supported by tanks, moved into the attack, accompanied by a double barrage of fire. In a short time, the troops of the front's strike group broke through the first two positions of the enemy's main defense line and in some places began fighting for the third position.

After overcoming the first and second positions, the front commander brought both tank armies into battle, and the commander of the 5th Guards Army - the 31st and 4th Guards Tank Corps in order to complete the breakthrough of the main line of defense and, together with the combined arms armies, defeat the operational reserves enemy The actions of tank units and formations were distinguished by swiftness and maneuverability. The soldiers and officers of the 63rd Guards Tank Brigade of the 10th Guards Tank Corps of the 4th Tank Army showed determination and courage. The brigade was commanded by Hero of the Soviet Union, Colonel M. G. Fomichev. In three hours, the brigade fought 20 kilometers. The enemy stubbornly tried to stop its further advance. But the tankers, boldly maneuvering, continued the offensive. The fascist German units, having suffered heavy losses, were forced to abandon counterattacks and hastily abandon their positions.

By the end of the first day of the offensive, the front forces had broken through the entire main defense line of the 4th German Tank Army to a depth of 15 - 20 kilometers, defeated several infantry divisions, reached the second line of defense and started fighting with the enemy’s operational reserves. Soviet troops liberated 160 settlements, including including the cities of Szydłów and Stopnica, and cut the Chmielnik-Busko-Zdrój highway. Difficult meteorological conditions greatly limited the combat activities of the aviation units, so during the entire day they carried out only 466 sorties

According to K. Tippelskirch, “the blow was so strong that it knocked over not only the first echelon divisions, but also quite large mobile reserves, pulled up by Hitler’s categorical order very close to the front. The latter suffered losses already from the artillery preparation of the Russians, and later, as a result of the general retreat, they could not be used at all according to plan.”

On January 13, the front’s strike group undertook an enveloping maneuver in a northern direction towards Kielce. The fascist German command, trying to stop the advance of the Soviet troops and prevent a breakthrough of the entire tactical defense zone, hastily pulled up reserves from the depths in order to launch a counterattack in the Kielce area. The 24th Tank Corps received the task of striking the northern flank of the wedged Soviet troops, defeating them and throwing them back to their original position. At the same time, part of the forces was preparing a strike from the Pinchuv region in the direction of Khmilnik. But these plans did not come true Quick exit front troops to the areas where the enemy's operational reserves were located prevented him from completing preparations for a counterattack. The Nazis were forced to bring their reserves into the battle in parts, which made it easier for Soviet troops to crush and encircle scattered enemy groups.

On this day, the 4th Tank Army continued its offensive under the command of Colonel General D. D. Lelyushenko, interacting with the 13 Army, commanded by Colonel General N. P. Pukhov. Soviet tank crews, together with infantry, in fierce battles successfully repelled attacks by the enemy tank corps, which involved about 200 tanks and assault guns, and crossed the Charna Nida River.

3rd Guards Tank Army under the command of Colonel General P. S. Rybalko in cooperation with the 52nd Army under the command of Colonel General K. A. Koroteev and the 5th Guards Army, commanded by Colonel General A. S. Zhadov , having repelled attacks by enemy tanks and infantry in the Khmilnik area, advanced 20-25 kilometers. By the end of the day, Soviet troops captured the cities and important road junctions of Chmielnik and Busko-Zdrój and crossed the Nida River in the Chęciny area in a 25-kilometer wide area.

Using the success of the front's strike group, the left-flank 60th Army under the command of Colonel General P. A. Kurochkin went on the offensive in the direction of Krakow.

The 2nd Air Army, whose commander was Colonel General of Aviation S.A. Krasovsky, played a major role in the defeat of the enemy reserves. Despite the unfavorable weather, aviation, which attacked concentrations of enemy troops, especially in areas south of Kielce and Pinczow, carried out 692 sorties during the day.

On January 14, Soviet troops in the Kielce area continued to repel counterattacks by the German 24th Tank Corps. Together with units of the 3rd Guards Army, the 13th Combined Arms and 4th Tank Armies fought intense battles at the turn of the Charna Nida River. Having repelled counterattacks from tank and motorized units, front troops reached the approaches to Kielce and surrounded the enemy group south of the river Charna Nida. In the Pinczow area, four divisions and several separate regiments and battalions were defeated, which tried to counterattack and push back the advancing troops beyond Nida.

Expansion of the breakthrough area could lead to a weakening of the strike force and a slowdown in the pace of the offensive. To prevent this, Marshal I. S. Konev brought the 59th Army, which was in the second echelon of the front, into battle from the line of the Nida River, reassigning the 4th Guards Tank Corps to it. The army received the task of developing an offensive on Dzyaloszyce in the zone between the 5th Guards and 60th armies.

Due to poor meteorological conditions, front aviation carried out only 372 sorties on January 14. But the main forces of the front, even without air support, overcame the enemy line of defense on Nida, cut the Warsaw-Krakow railway and highway in the Jedrzejow region and, having covered 20-25 kilometers, occupied 350 settlements, including the cities of Pinczow and Jedrzejow.

On January 15, troops of the 3rd Guards, 13th and 4th Tank Armies defeated the main forces of the 24th German Tank Corps, completed the liquidation of units surrounded south of the Charna Nida River, and captured a large administrative and economic center of Poland, an important communications and the enemy's stronghold was the city of Kielce. Having destroyed the enemy in the Kielce area, Soviet troops secured the right flank of the front’s strike group.

In the Czestochowa direction, troops of the 3rd Guards Tank, 52nd and 5th Guards Armies, successfully pursuing the enemy, covered a distance of 25-30 kilometers and, on a wide front, reached the Pilica River and crossed it. The 2nd Tank Battalion of the 54th Guards Tank Brigade of the 3rd Guards Tank Army acted especially boldly. Being in the lead detachment, the battalion under the command of Hero of the Soviet Union, Major S.V. Khokhryakov, rapidly moved forward. Soviet soldiers bypassed enemy strongholds, skillfully maneuvered on the battlefield and destroyed German soldiers and officers along the way. Operating in the offensive zone of the 5th Guards Army, the 31st Tank Corps under the command of Major General of Tank Forces G. G. Kuznetsov crossed Pilitsa and captured a bridgehead on its left bank.

The 59th Army, under the command of Lieutenant General I.T. Korovnikov, together with the 4th Guards Tank Corps, commanded by Lieutenant General of Tank Forces P.P. Poluboyarov, led an attack on Krakow. By the end of January 15, they approached the city by 25-30 kilometers. Front aviation, which supported ground troops, was still unable to fully utilize its forces due to bad weather.

On the same day, the 38th Army of the 4th Ukrainian Front, commanded by Colonel General K. S. Moskalenko, launched an attack on Nowy Sacz Krakow.

Over the four days of the offensive, the strike force of the 1st Ukrainian Front advanced 80-100 kilometers; the flank groups remained in their previous positions. When they reached the Pilica River line, Soviet troops found themselves 140 kilometers west of the enemy’s Opatow-Ostrowiec grouping, which at that time began to be bypassed from the north by the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front, which had gone on the offensive. As a result of a deep breakthrough of the enemy’s defenses and the defeat of his forces in the Kielce region, a real threat of encirclement of units of the 42nd German Army Corps operating north of Sandomierz was created.

In this regard, the commander of the 4th German Tank Army on January 15 ordered the withdrawal of units of the 42nd Army Corps to the Skarzysko-Kamienna area. The next day, the corps received permission to further retreat to the Konskie area. During the retreat of the corps, contact with the army was lost, and on the morning of January 17, the commander and headquarters of the corps lost control of the subordinate troops. Having destroyed the corps headquarters, Soviet tank crews captured many staff officers, including the corps chief of staff, and Polish partisans who interacted with Soviet troops captured the corps commander, Infantry General G. Recknagel. The 10th Motorized Division, brought into the battle from the reserve of Army Group A, was also completely destroyed. The division commander, Colonel A. Fial, with his staff and many other soldiers and officers of the division surrendered to the Soviet troops. Colonel A. Fial said the following about the defeat of the division: “On the second or third day of the offensive, control of the troops was lost. Communication was lost not only with division headquarters, but also with higher headquarters. It was impossible to inform the high command by radio about the situation in the front sectors. The troops retreated randomly, but were overtaken by Russian units, surrounded and destroyed. By January 15... the 10th Motorized Division's combat group was largely defeated. The same fate befell the rest of the German divisions.”

Having established that Soviet troops intended to break into the Upper Silesian industrial region, the fascist German command decided to strengthen this direction. On January 15, Hitler ordered the immediate transfer of the Grossdeutschland Panzer Corps from East Prussia to the Kielce area. But it was already too late. Assessing the situation at the front created as a result of the Soviet troops breaking through the defenses in southern Poland, Tippelskirch writes: “Deep wedges into the German front were so numerous that it turned out to be impossible to eliminate them or at least limit them. The front of the 4th Tank Army was torn apart, and there was no longer any way to hold back the advance of the Russian troops."

On January 16, the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front continued to pursue the enemy, retreating in the directions of Kalisz, Czestochowa and Krakow. The front group, operating in the center, advanced westward by 20-30 kilometers and expanded the bridgehead on the Pilitsa River to 60 kilometers. The 7th Guards Tank Corps of the 3rd Guards Tank Army, commanded by Major General of Tank Forces S.A. Ivanov, broke into the city of Radomsko from the east on the night of January 17 and began fighting to capture it. The troops of the 59th Army, after stubborn fighting, overcame a heavily fortified enemy defense zone on the Szrenjawa River, occupied the city of Miechów and approached Krakow by 14-15 kilometers.

On the same day, the flank armies of the front began to pursue the retreating enemy. The right-flank 6th Army under the command of Lieutenant General V.A. Gluzdovsky broke through the enemy rearguard defenses on the Vistula, advanced 40-50 kilometers and occupied the cities of Ostrowiec and Opatow. The left-flank 60th Army, having launched a rapid offensive along the entire front and marched 15-20 kilometers with stubborn battles, captured the cities of Dombrowa-Tarnovska, Pilzno and Jaslo.

Taking advantage of the improved weather, front aviation carried out 1,711 sorties. She smashed the columns of Nazi troops retreating to the west in disarray. The fascist German command, which did not have strong reserves to cover the Upper Silesian industrial region, hastily withdrew the 17th Army, which was operating south of the Vistula, to the Czestochowa-Krakow line.

The advancing troops achieved great success on January 17. Developing an offensive along the entire front, they fought through the enemy’s defenses on the Warta River and stormed the large military-industrial and administrative center of Poland, the city of Czestochowa. The 3rd Guards Tank Army, the 5th Guards Army and units of the 31st Tank Corps took part in the battles for Czestochowa. During the capture of the city, the 2nd Tank Battalion under the command of Hero of the Soviet Union, Major S.V. Khokhryakov, again distinguished itself. The battalion was the first to break into the city and, together with a motorized rifle battalion of machine gunners, started fighting there. For decisive and skillful actions and personal courage shown in the battles for Czestochowa, Major S. V. Khokhryakov was awarded the second Gold Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union. Then an advance detachment under the command of Colonel G. S. Dudnik broke into the city as part of the 42nd Infantry Regiment of the 13th Guards Division, as well as units of the 2nd Motorized Rifle Battalion of the 23rd Guards motorized rifle brigade, commanded by Hero of the Soviet Union Captain N.I. Goryushkin. Hot battles ensued. Soon, Soviet soldiers completely cleared Czestochowa of the enemy.

Units of the 6th Guards Tank Corps of the 3rd Guards Tank Army, commanded by Major General V.V. Novikov, in cooperation with the 7th Guards Tank Corps, occupied the military-industrial center and communications hub of the city of Radomsko, cutting off the Warsaw - Częstochowa.

After repelling enemy counterattacks, troops of the 59th and 60th armies began fighting on the northern defensive perimeter of Krakow. Having reached the city, they secured the left flank of the front's strike force. On this day, aviation of the 2nd Air Army flew 2,424 combat sorties.

The 38th Army of the 4th Ukrainian Front, fighting on the line of the Dunajec River, broke through the enemy defenses on a 30-kilometer front and reached the approaches to Nowy Sacz.

Thus, in six days of offensive, the 1st Ukrainian Front broke through the enemy’s defenses on a 250-kilometer front, defeated the main forces of the 4th Tank Army, drew the operational reserves of Army Group A into the battle, located opposite the Sandomierz bridgehead, and inflicted a serious defeat on 17 1st Army, crossed the rivers Vistula, Wisłoka, Czarna Nida, Nida, Pilica, Warta. Having advanced 150 kilometers in the direction of the main attack, Soviet troops reached the Radomsko - Częstochowa line - north of Krakow - Tarnów. This created favorable conditions for striking Breslau, cutting off the communications of the Krakow enemy group and capturing the Upper Silesian industrial region.

The troops of the 1st Belorussian Front went on the offensive simultaneously from the Magnuszew and Pulawy bridgeheads on the morning of January 14. The advance battalions began the offensive after a powerful artillery fire attack that lasted 25 minutes. The attack was supported by a well-organized barrage of fire. The leading battalions broke through the first enemy defense position and began to successfully advance forward. Following them, the main forces of the front’s strike group were brought into the battle, whose attack was supported by a double barrage of fire to a depth of three kilometers. Thus, the actions of the forward battalions, without a pause or additional artillery barrage, developed into a general offensive by the troops of the front’s shock group.

The offensive took place in unfavorable weather conditions. Due to bad weather in the first two days of the operation, front aviation was unable to provide the necessary assistance to the advancing units. Therefore, the entire burden of fire support fell on the artillery and tanks of direct infantry support. Artillery and mortar fire was unexpected for the enemy and very effective. Individual enemy companies and battalions were almost completely destroyed. Having overcome the first positions of enemy defense, the front troops began to move forward.

The German command, trying to stop the Soviet troops, brought second echelons of infantry divisions and reserves of army corps into battle. In the breakthrough areas, the enemy launched numerous counterattacks, but all of them were repulsed.

By the end of the day, the troops advancing from the Magnuszew bridgehead crossed the Pilica River and penetrated 12 kilometers into the enemy’s defenses. Units of the 26th Guards Rifle Corps of the 5th Shock Army, commanded by Lieutenant General P. A. Firsov, broke through the first line of defense and wedged into the second. The success of the corps was ensured by the skillful use of artillery in the main direction.

The offensive from the Puła bridgehead developed even more successfully. Here, within a few hours, Soviet soldiers broke through the Nazi defense to the entire tactical depth. On the very first day, the 11th Tank Corps was brought into battle in the 69th Army zone, which dealt a strong blow to the enemy, crossed the Zvolenka River on the move, captured the Zvolen defense center and started fighting behind Radom. In the zone of the 33rd Army, the 9th Tank Corps entered the battle. The successful actions of the troops of the left wing of the 1st Belorussian Front were facilitated by the deep advance of the armies of the 1st Ukrainian Front.

On the very first day of the offensive, troops of the 1st Belorussian Front broke through the main enemy defense line in two sectors separated by 30 kilometers, inflicted a heavy defeat on four infantry divisions and created favorable conditions for the further development of the operation. The Lodz newspaper, published by the occupiers, wrote on January 17, 1945: “The deceptive, abnormal silence on the Eastern Front has finally passed. The hurricane of fire raged again. The Soviets threw their months of accumulated masses of men and materials into battle. The battle that has flared up since last Sunday may surpass all previous great battles in the East.”

The fighting of many units and formations of the front did not stop at night. The next day, after 30-40 minutes of artillery preparation, Soviet troops continued their offensive. The 5th Shock Army under the command of Lieutenant General N. E. Berzarin, having broken the stubborn resistance of the enemy, crossed Pilitsa and pushed the enemy back in a northwestern direction. In the zone of action of the 8th Guards Army, commanded by Colonel-General V.I. Chuikov, the 1st Guards Tank Army under the command of Colonel-General of Tank Forces M.E. Katukov was introduced into the breakthrough, receiving the task of advancing in the direction of Nova -Myasto. Tank forces, having crossed Pilica, they began to pursue the retreating enemy. Taking advantage of the success of the tanks, the rifle troops expanded the breakthrough to the north.

The command of the 9th German Army, trying to eliminate the success of the Soviet troops, brought into battle two tank divisions of the 40th Tank Corps, which was in reserve. But they were introduced into battle piecemeal on a wide front against both front groupings and were unable to stop the rapid advance of the Red Army.

In two-day battles, troops of the 1st Belorussian Front, operating from bridgeheads, defeated the troops of the 8th Army, 56th and 40th German Tank Corps, crossed the Radomka River and began fighting for the city of Radom. In the area of ​​the Magnuszew bridgehead, Soviet units and formations penetrated 25 kilometers into the enemy’s defenses, and in the area of ​​the Pulawy bridgehead - up to 40 kilometers. “By the evening of January 15,” Tippelskirch points out, “in the area from the Nida River to the Pilitz River there was no longer a continuous, organically connected German front. A terrible danger loomed over the units of the 9th Army still defending on the Vistula near Warsaw and to the south. There were no more reserves."

In the following days, the offensive of front troops from both bridgeheads reached great proportions.

On January 16, formations of the 1st Guards Tank Army, repelling numerous counterattacks of the 40th German Tank Corps, occupied the city of Nowe Miasto and quickly advanced in the Lodz direction. Following the tank units, rifle troops advanced. The 69th Army, commanded by Colonel General V. Ya. Kolpakchi, with the 11th Tank Corps on January 16 stormed the large enemy resistance center of the city of Radom, after which the tankers crossed Radomka in their offensive zone and captured a bridgehead on its left bank. The assault on Radom was carried out with effective air support. At the request of the ground command, pilots of attack and bomber aircraft carried out precise strikes on the most important centers of defense, destroyed fortifications, destroying enemy manpower and military equipment. Using the results of aviation actions, advancing troops from three directions burst into the city and cleared it of enemy remnants.

The 33rd Army under the command of Colonel General V.D. Tsvetaev with the 9th Tank Corps approached the city of Szydlowiec and, together with the right-flank armies of the 1st Ukrainian Front, eliminated the Opatow-Ostrowiec ledge.

The fascist German command tried in vain to organize defense at a previously prepared line along the Bzura, Ravka, and Pilica rivers, to delay the advance of Soviet troops and ensure the withdrawal of their defeated units. Soviet troops immediately broke through this line and developed a rapid offensive to the west.

16th Air Army under the command of Colonel General SI Aviation. Rudenko, having complete air supremacy, launched massive attacks on enemy strongholds, counterattacking groups and reserves, and on the railway and highway junctions of Lodz, Sochaczew, Skierniewice, and Tomaszow Mazowiecki. Aviation operated with the greatest intensity against the enemy columns, which began retreating from Warsaw. In just one day, January 16, front aviation carried out 34/3 sorties, losing 54 aircraft. During the day, only 42 sorties of enemy aircraft were recorded.

Over the course of three days of fighting, the armies of the 1st Belorussian Front, advancing from the Magnuszewski and Pulawy bridgeheads, united and advanced 60 kilometers, expanding the breakthrough to 120 kilometers along the front. In addition, together with the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front, they eliminated the enemy’s Opatow-Ostrowiec bulge.

By the end of January 17, the 5th Shock and 8th Guards armies were fighting in the areas of Skierniewice, Rawa Mazowiecka, and Gluchow. East of Nowe Miasto, Soviet troops encircled and destroyed the main forces of the enemy's 25th Tank Division, which did not have time to cross Pilica.

The 1st Guards Tank Army, pursuing the retreating enemy, reached the Olshovets area, the 69th and 33rd armies - to the Spala-Opochno area. On this day, cavalry formations were introduced into the battle in the direction of the main attack -

2nd Guards Cavalry Corps in the direction of Skierniewice Łowicz and 7th Guards Cavalry Corps in the direction of Tomaszów Mazowiecki. At the Skierniewice-Olszowiec line, the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front found themselves on the same line with the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front, advancing from the Sandomierz bridgehead.

Events in the Warsaw region developed successfully. On the morning of January 15, after a 55-minute artillery preparation, the 47th Army, operating on the right wing of the front north of Warsaw, went on the offensive. The army was commanded by Major General F.I. Perkhorovich. Soviet troops broke through the enemy's defenses, cleared the fascists between the Vistula and Western Bug rivers, liquidated the enemy bridgehead on the right bank of the Vistula and began crossing the river.

Having crossed the Vistula, the 47th Army occupied a bridgehead on its left bank on January 16 and, covering Warsaw from the northwest, approached the outskirts of the city. The first to cross the Vistula on the ice were a group of soldiers of the 3rd battalion of the 498th Infantry Regiment under the command of Lieutenant Zakir Sultanov and a company of machine gunners of the 1319th Infantry Regiment, commanded by Senior Lieutenant N.S. Sumchenko. For the heroic feat, all personnel who participated in crossing the river were awarded orders and medals, and the lieutenant. Sultanov was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

The 61st Army, operating south of Warsaw under the command of Colonel General P. A. Belov, approached the city and began to encircle the Warsaw group from the southwest.

On the morning of January 16, in the offensive zone of the 5th Shock Army from the bridgehead on Pilitz, the 2nd Guards Tank Army under the command of Colonel General of Tank Forces S.I. Bogdanov was introduced into the breakthrough. Tank troops, striking in a northwestern direction, captured the cities of Grojec and Zyrardow and by the end of the day approached Sochaczew. The next day they took this city by storm, reached the Bzura River and cut off the retreat routes of the Warsaw enemy group. Taking advantage of the success of the tankers, the rifle units of the 5th Shock Army began pursuing the retreating enemy. Having reached the Sochaczew area and enveloping the enemy’s Warsaw group from the north-west and south-west, Soviet troops put it in danger of encirclement. In this regard, on the night of January 17, German

The troops defending in the Warsaw area, contrary to Hitler's orders, began to retreat. Taking advantage of this, the 1st Army of the Polish Army went on the offensive, which was given the honor of being the first to enter the capital of Poland. The 2nd Infantry Division crossed the Vistula in the Jablonn area and launched an attack on Warsaw from the north. The main forces of the Polish army crossed the Vistula south of Warsaw and moved in a northwestern direction. Units of the 6th Infantry Division crossed the Vistula near Prague. The division's offensive was supported by the Soviet 31st special armored train division with its fire. Conducting continuous battles, the 1st Army of the Polish Army broke into Warsaw on the morning of January 17. At the same time, units of the 61st Army from the southwest and units of the 47th Army from the northwest entered Warsaw.

Active hostilities took place in the city. Heavy fighting took place on the streets of Podhorunzhikh, Marshalkovskaya, Jerusalem Alleys, on Dobroya Street, on Tamka, in the areas of city filters, the main station and Novy Svyat. At 12 o'clock on January 17, Polish and Soviet soldiers, having completed the liquidation of the enemy's rearguard units, completely liberated the capital of the Polish state. The commander of the 2nd Polish Infantry Division, Major General Jan Rotkiewicz, was appointed head of the garrison of liberated Warsaw, and Colonel Stanislaw Janowski was appointed commandant of the city. To the east of Sochaczew, Soviet tank crews and infantrymen fought to destroy the main forces of the enemy group, which was hastily retreating from Warsaw.

On this day, the Military Council of the 1st Belorussian Front reported to Headquarters that the front troops, “continuing the offensive, carried out a roundabout maneuver of the enemy’s Warsaw group with mobile troops and deep coverage by combined arms armies from the north and south and captured the capital of the Polish Republic, the city of Warsaw...”.

To commemorate the victory, Moscow saluted the formations of the 1st Belorussian Front and units of the 1st Army of the Polish Army, which liberated the capital of Poland, with 24 artillery salvoes from 324 guns. The formations and units that most distinguished themselves in the battles for the city received the name “Warsaw”. By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated June 9, 1945, the medal “For the Liberation of Warsaw” was established, which was awarded to participants in the battles for this city.

The defeat of Nazi troops on the Vistula line and the liberation of Warsaw came as a surprise to the fascist leadership. For leaving Warsaw, Hitler demanded that the General Staff of the Ground Forces and the commander of Army Group A be severely punished. To investigate the activities of the Chief of the General Staff, General G. Guderian, a commission was appointed, headed by the Deputy Chief of the Gestapo, SS man E. Kaltenbrunner. The commander of Army Group A, Colonel General I. Harpe, accused of the Vistula disaster, was replaced by Colonel General F. Schörner, and the commander of the 9th German Army, General S. Lüttwitz, was replaced by Infantry General T. Busse.

The liberated city was a terrible sight. The former flourishing Warsaw, one of the most beautiful European capitals, no longer existed. The Nazi occupiers destroyed and plundered the Polish capital with unprecedented cruelty. During their hasty retreat, the Nazis set fire to everything that could burn. Houses have survived only on Shukha Alley and in the quarter where the Gestapo was located. The Citadel area was heavily mined. Fascist vandals destroyed all medical and educational institutions, rich scientific and cultural values, destroyed St. John's Cathedral in the Old Town - the largest cathedral in Warsaw, the Royal Palace on Castle Square, the building of the Ministry of the Interior, the main post office on Napoleon Square, the city hall, and severely damaged the Staszyc Palace, where many scientific institutions of Warsaw were located, the National Museum, the Belvedere, the post office building, the Krasiński Palace, the Grand Theater The Nazis destroyed many churches

Almost all historical and cultural monuments of the Polish people were blown up in the city, including monuments to Copernicus, Chopin, Mickiewicz, the Unknown Soldier, and the column of King Sigismund III. The enemy inflicted enormous damage on city parks and public gardens. The Nazis destroyed the main public utilities of the capital, blew up a power plant, bridges , took away all the most valuable equipment from factories and factories. By destroying Warsaw, the Nazis sought to delete this city from the number of European capitals and offend the national feelings of the Poles

For more than five years, the occupiers exterminated hundreds of thousands of Warsaw residents in concentration camps and Gestapo dungeons. At the time of the liberation of the Polish capital, there were only a few hundred people hiding in basements and sewer pipes. The rest of the population of Warsaw was evicted by the occupiers from the city in the fall of 1944 after the suppression of the Warsaw uprising About 600 thousand Warsaw residents experienced the horrors of the Pruszkow concentration camp. The commander of the 1st Army of the Polish Army, Lieutenant General S Poplawski, writes: “Warsaw, barbarously destroyed by the Nazi troops, was a depressing sight. In some places, residents of the city flashed on the streets, having suffered so much from the hated enemy

Driving through Unia Lubelska Square, we met a large group of people. I don’t know where the women took the flowers (after all, Warsaw was destroyed and engulfed in flames) and presented them to me and Lieutenant Colonel Yaroshevich. We were hugged by these people who had suffered so much from the occupation and cried, but they were already tears of joy, not grief"

The report of the Military Council of the 1st Belorussian Front to the Supreme High Command and the State Defense Committee stated “Fascist barbarians destroyed the capital of Poland - Warsaw. With the cruelty of sophisticated sadists, the Nazis destroyed block after block. The largest industrial enterprises were razed to the ground. Residential buildings were blown up or burned. The city economy was destroyed. Tens of thousands of residents. destroyed, the rest were driven out. The city is dead."

The news of the liberation of Warsaw spread with lightning speed. As the front moved to the west, the population of Warsaw began to increase rapidly. By noon on January 18, residents of the capital returned from the surrounding villages and hamlets to their hometown. The hearts of Warsaw residents were filled with great sorrow and anger when they saw the ruins of their capital

The population of Poland greeted their liberators with jubilation. Soviet and Polish flags were hung everywhere, spontaneous demonstrations, rallies, and demonstrations arose. The Poles experienced a feeling of great joy and patriotic enthusiasm. Everyone sought to express gratitude to the soldiers of the Red Army and the Polish Army for returning their beloved to the Polish people. capital Resident of Warsaw, composer Tadeusz Szigedinski said, “How we waited for you, dear comrades. With what hope we looked to the East during the difficult, dark years of this terrible occupation. Even in the most tragic moments, the belief that you would come and that you would come with us did not leave us. the opportunity to work for the good of our people, to create, to live in peace, democracy, progress Personally, my wife Mira and I associate the arrival of the Red Army with a return to active, vigorous activity in the field closest to us - the field of art, which was locked up for almost six years German occupation"

On January 18, the capital of Poland was visited by the President of the Home Rada B. Bierut, the Prime Minister of the Provisional Government E. Osubka-Morawski, the Commander-in-Chief of the Polish Army Colonel General M. Rolya-Zhimierski and representatives of the Red Army command. They congratulated the people of Warsaw on their liberation from the Nazi occupiers.

On the evening of the same day, a meeting was held in the building of the city's People's Rada, which was attended by delegations from all districts of liberated Warsaw. Speaking at this rally, B. Bierut said: “The grateful Polish people will never forget who they owe their liberation to. With heartfelt fraternal friendship, which is sealed by jointly shed blood, the Poles will thank the freedom-loving Soviet people for the liberation of Poland from a terrible yoke, which has no equal in the history of mankind.”

The message of the Home Rada to the Soviet government on January 20 expressed its deepest and sincere gratitude to the entire Soviet people and their valiant Red Army. “The Polish people,” the message said, “will never forget that they received freedom and the opportunity to restore their independent state life thanks to the brilliant victories of Soviet weapons and thanks to the abundantly shed blood of heroic Soviet soldiers.

The joyful days of liberation from the German yoke that our people are now experiencing will further strengthen the unbreakable friendship between our peoples.”

In its response to this telegram, the Soviet government expressed confidence that the joint actions of the Red Army and the Polish Army would lead to the speedy and complete liberation of the fraternal Polish people from the yoke of the Nazi invaders. This statement once again confirmed that the Soviet Union sincerely strives to help the people of Poland liberate the country from fascism and create a strong, independent, democratic Polish state.

Later, in honor of the soldiers of the Red Army and the Polish Army who died in the battles for the liberation of Warsaw and other cities of Poland from the Nazi invaders, grateful Warsaw residents erected a monumental monument to the Brotherhood in Arms in one of the central squares of the capital.

In an effort to alleviate the plight of the residents of destroyed Warsaw, the Soviet people provided them with food and medical assistance. 60 thousand tons of bread were sent to the population of Warsaw free of charge. The Executive Committee of the Union of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies of the Soviet Union sent two shipments of medicines, dressings and medical instruments to Poland. The news of the help of the Soviet people to the population of Warsaw was greeted by the working people of Poland with great joy. Polska Zbroina, noting the generosity of the Soviet people of Belarus and Ukraine, wrote in those days: “Just a few months ago these peoples themselves were under German occupation, were devastated and robbed, and now they are helping the Polish people. We will never forget the fraternal help of the Soviet people."

Having liberated Warsaw, Soviet and Polish units, with the help of the population, began clearing the city of mines, rubble, barricades, broken bricks and garbage, as well as restoring public utilities. Sappers cleared mines from about a hundred government, scientific and cultural institutions, more than 2,300 different buildings, 70 public gardens and squares. In total, 84,998 different mines, 280 explosive traps, and about 50 landmines containing 43,500 kilograms of explosives were discovered and neutralized in the city. The length of the streets and avenues cleared by sappers was almost 350 kilometers. By the morning of January 19, sappers of the 1st Belorussian Front and the 1st Army of the Polish Army built a pontoon bridge across the Vistula, connecting Prague with Warsaw. By January 20, a one-way wooden bridge had been built; At the same time, a pontoon crossing across the Vistula north of Jablonna was established.

Despite the difficult situation of the city, the Polish Provisional Government soon moved from Lublin to the capital. It decided to completely restore the destroyed Warsaw and make it more beautiful than before.

The liberation of Warsaw ended an important stage of the Vistula-Oder operation. Troops of the 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian Fronts, with the assistance of the 2nd Belorussian and 4th Ukrainian Fronts, within 4-6 days, broke through enemy defenses in a zone of 500 kilometers to a depth of 100-160 kilometers and reached the Sochaczew-Tomaszow line -Mazowiecki-Czestochowa. During this time, they defeated the main forces of the Nazi Army Group A, liberated a number of cities, including Warsaw, Radom, Kielce, Czestochowa and over 2,400 other settlements. Exceptionally favorable conditions were created for the further development of the operation to great depths at a high pace.

On January 17, the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command clarified the tasks of the troops operating in Poland. The 1st Ukrainian Front was supposed to continue the attack on Breslau with its main forces with the goal of reaching the Oder south of Leszno no later than January 30 and seizing bridgeheads on the left bank of the river. The left-flank armies had to liberate Krakow no later than January 20-22, and then advance on the Dombrovsky coal region, bypassing it from the north and part of the forces from the south. It was proposed to use the army of the second echelon of the front to bypass the Dombrovsky region from the north in the general direction of Kozel. The 1st Belorussian Front was ordered to continue the attack on Poznan and, no later than February 2-4, to capture the Bydgoszcz-Poznan line.

Following these instructions, troops on both fronts launched a rapid offensive in all directions. It was distinguished by great courage and determination. The pursuit of the enemy did not stop day or night. The main forces of the tank and combined arms armies moved in forced marches in columns, with mobile detachments in front. If necessary, to repel flank counterattacks and fight large enemy groups remaining in the rear of the advancing troops, separate units and formations were allocated, which after completing the task joined the main forces. Average rate of Soviet advance tank armies was 40-45, and combined arms - up to 30 kilometers per day. On some days, tank troops advanced at a speed of up to 70, and combined arms - 40-45 kilometers per day.

During the operation, political bodies and party organizations tirelessly supported the high offensive impulse of the troops. This was favored by the situation on the entire Soviet-German front. The final victory over Nazi Germany was close. Newspapers wrote about enormous successes at the front and in the rear, announced the capture of cities by Soviet troops, and explained the liberation mission of the Red Army. At rest stops, during breaks between battles, in every free minute, political workers held conversations, introduced the soldiers to messages from the Soviet Information Bureau, orders of the Supreme High Command, read patriotic articles and combat correspondence of remarkable Soviet writers - Alexei Tolstoy, Mikhail Sholokhov, Ilya Ehrenburg, Boris Gorbatov, Konstantin Simonov, Alexander Tvardovsky, Boris Polevoy.

Calling on the soldiers to quickly move forward, the command and political authorities periodically informed the troops how many kilometers remained to the German border, to the Oder, to Berlin. On the pages of newspapers, in leaflets, in oral and printed propaganda, effective fighting slogans were put forward: “Forward to Germany!”, “Towards Berlin!”, “To the lair of the fascist beast!”, “Let us rescue our brothers and sisters, driven away by the Nazi invaders into the fascist captivity! All this increased the morale of the soldiers and commanders and mobilized them for new feats of arms. The offensive impulse of the Soviet soldiers was exceptionally high. They sought to fulfill the tasks facing them as best as possible, complete the liberation of Poland, quickly cross the German border and transfer military operations to enemy soil.

On January 18, the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front launched a fight for the Upper Silesian industrial region and approached the old Polish-German border. The next day, the 3rd Guards Tank, 5th Guards and 52nd armies crossed the border east of Breslau (Wroclaw). From January 20 to 23, other units and formations of the front entered German territory, that is, the old Polish lands captured by the Germans. The 21st Army under the command of Colonel General D.N. Gusev, entering the battle from the second echelon of the front, broke through the enemy’s defenses on the Warta River northeast of Katowice and struck the enemy’s Silesian group from the north.

Thus, the Silesian enemy group, operating to the west and southwest of Częstochowa, was deeply outflanked on both flanks. Having established the threat of encirclement, the fascist German command ordered the withdrawal of this group.

To thwart the enemy's plan and speed up the liberation of the Upper Silesian industrial region, Marshal of the Soviet Union I. S. Konev turned the 3rd Guards Tank Army and the 1st Guards Cavalry Corps from the Namslau area along the right bank of the Oder to Oppeln, from where these troops were supposed to attack Rybnik, deliver a flank attack on the Silesian enemy group operating in the offensive zone of the 5th Guards Army, and together with the latter complete the defeat of the retreating enemy troops.

On January 21, troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front began to reach the Oder. At the Oder line, Soviet troops encountered powerful structures. The fascist command concentrated large forces here, introduced Volkssturm battalions, reserve and rear units.

In preparation for crossing the Oder, a large political work in parts of both fronts. The troops were announced that all units, formations, and soldiers who were the first to cross the Oder would be presented with government awards, and the most distinguished soldiers and officers would be awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Active work was carried out at all levels of the party political apparatus - from the political department of the army to the party organizers of the units. Political workers quickly mobilized personnel to carry out the task of overcoming this water obstacle.

The fighting for the Oder, especially on the bridgeheads, became fierce. However, Soviet soldiers skillfully broke into the enemy's long-term defenses. In many areas, Soviet soldiers immediately crossed to the left bank of the river, taking advantage of the disorganization of the enemy. The troops of the 4th Tank Army broke through to the Oder before others. On the night of January 22, the 6th Guards Mechanized Corps of this army reached the river in the Keben area (north of Steinau) and crossed the river on the move, capturing 18 powerful three-story pillboxes of the Breslavl fortified area on its left bank. On January 22, the remaining forces of the army were transported across the river. The first in the corps to cross the river was the 16th Guards Mechanized Brigade under the command of Colonel V. E. Ryvzh. For his skillful actions and demonstrated courage, he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

On January 23, units of the 21st Army reached the Oder in the Oppeln area and approached Tarnowske Góry and Beyten. On the same day, the rifle troops of the 13th, 52nd and 5th Guards Armies reached the Oder and began crossing. In the 5th Guards Army, units of the 33rd Guards Rifle Corps, commanded by Lieutenant General N.F. Lebedenko, broke through to the Oder before others. Without waiting for the completion of the construction of pontoon crossings, the troops used improvised means, boats, dinghies. When crossing the river, communists and Komsomol members showed examples of heroism. Party organizer of the 1st rifle company of the 44th regiment of the 15th Guards Rifle Division of the 5th Guards Army, assistant platoon commander Sergeant Major AbdullaShaimov, having received the task of crossing the Oder, gathered the communists, and they decided to set an example in the upcoming battles. When the company began to carry out the order, the party organizer was the first in the unit to walk on thin ice. The company soldiers followed him one after another. Despite the enemy's machine-gun fire, Soviet soldiers crossed to the left bank of the Oder, broke into the Nazi trenches and quickly attacked them. Having captured a bridgehead, the company held it until the main forces of the regiment arrived. When the enemy launched a counterattack, trying to throw the brave men into the water, the Soviet soldiers showed exceptional tenacity, heroism and courage.

At the end of January, front formations reached the Oder in the entire offensive zone, and in the area of ​​​​Breslavl and Ratibor they crossed it, capturing important bridgeheads on the left bank of the river.

While the troops were approaching the Oder, the 59th and 60th armies, operating on the left flank of the front, overcame the defensive contours of Krakow in fierce battles and on January 19 stormed this important military-industrial, political and administrative center, the old capital of Poland . After the liberation of Krakow, the 59th and 60th armies, advancing in cooperation with the 38th Army of the 4th Ukrainian Front, bypassed the Silesian group from the south and on January 27 reached the city of Rybnik, almost closing the ring around the enemy troops.

On the same day, troops from these armies broke into the city of Auschwitz and occupied the territory of the Auschwitz concentration camp. The rapid advance of the Red Army prevented the Nazis from destroying the structures of this gigantic “death factory” and covering up the traces of their bloody crimes. Several thousand camp prisoners, whom Hitler’s monsters did not manage to destroy or evacuate to the west, saw the sun of freedom.

In Auschwitz, a terrible picture of the monstrous crimes of the German fascist government was revealed before the eyes of the people. Soviet soldiers discovered crematoria, gas chambers, various instruments of torture. In the huge warehouses of the camp, 7 thousand kilograms of hair were stored, taken by Hitler’s executioners from the heads of 140 thousand women and prepared for shipment to Germany, boxes with powder from human bones, bales with clothes and shoes of prisoners, a huge number of dentures, glasses and other items selected those sentenced to death.

The revelation of the dark secret of Auschwitz, which the Nazis carefully guarded, made a huge impression on the world community. The true face of German fascism appeared before all humanity, which, with devilish cruelty and methodicality, used science and technology to exterminate millions of people. The liberation of Auschwitz served to further expose the bloody ideology of fascism.

The offensive of the armies of the left wing of the front from the north and east and the entry of the 3rd Guards Tank Army and the 1st Guards Cavalry Corps into enemy communications put him in an extremely difficult situation. Finding themselves semi-encircled, the fascist German units began to hastily abandon the cities of the industrial region and retreat in a southwestern direction beyond the Oder. Pursuing the enemy, front troops occupied the Katowice center of Upper Silesia on January 28, and then cleared almost all of Silesia from the enemy. The Nazis, who escaped encirclement in the Upper Silesian industrial region, were defeated in the forests to the west of it.

As a result of the swift attack by the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front, the enemy failed to destroy the industrial facilities of Upper Silesia, which were of enormous economic and strategic importance. The Polish government was able to immediately put Silesian enterprises and mines into operation.

From February 1 to February 3, troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front With Through stubborn battles they crossed the Oder and captured bridgeheads on the left bank in the areas of Olau and north-west of Oppeln. Developing the offensive from both bridgeheads, they broke through the enemy’s heavily fortified long-term positions southwest of Brig and on the Neisse River and by February 4 advanced forward up to 30 kilometers, captured Olau, Brig, connecting both bridgeheads into a single bridgehead up to 85 kilometers wide and 30 kilometers deep. .

The 2nd Air Army, which destroyed enemy personnel and military equipment, provided great support to the advancing troops in the Upper Silesian industrial region. A squadron of Il-2 attack aircraft under the command of Hero of the Soviet Union, Captain V. I. Andrianov, delivered a sharp blow to the enemy’s echelons at the Tarnowiske Góry station. Nine aircraft of this squadron approached the target from the direction of the sun. When enemy anti-aircraft gunners opened fire, specially designated aircraft suppressed the enemy's air defense system. Soviet falcons attacked trains with Nazi troops and equipment and burned 50 wagons. For successful combat missions, the brave pilot Captain V.I. Andrianov was awarded the Gold Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union for the second time.

During the further offensive, the position of the Soviet troops became more complicated. Aviation combat operations were limited by the lack of airfields and the difficulties of preparing them in conditions of spring thaw, so Soviet pilots were forced to use highways for takeoff and landing. Thus, the 9th Guards Fighter Aviation Division, under the command of three times Hero of the Soviet Union, Colonel A.I. Pokryshkin, used the Breslau-Berlin highway as a runway. In cases where it was impossible to take off, the planes had to be dismantled and transported by car to airfields with a hard surface.

The offensive of the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front developed successfully. The fascist German command tried to use the remaining forces to hold certain lines and areas in order to slow down the advance of Soviet troops, gain time, tighten up strategic reserves and restore the defensive front. It placed great hopes on the Grossdeutschland tank corps, which, on Hitler’s personal orders, was transferred from East Prussia to Poland. However, according to Tippelskirch, this corps “spent precious days on the road, already during unloading in the Lodz area it encountered Russian troops and, involved in the general retreat, was never used.”

In addition to the Greater Germany tank corps, other formations and units arrived in Poland. By January 20, the Nazi command transferred five more divisions here, including two from the Western Front and three divisions from the Carpathian region. But nothing could stop the advance of the Red Army. Soviet troops continued to advance with active support from aviation, which intensified attacks on enemy railway targets.

On January 18, front troops completed the liquidation of the encircled troops west of Warsaw. The remnants of the defeated Warsaw fortress division, who fled north across the Vistula, became part of Army Group Center. Troops of the 1st Polish Army cleared the area southeast of Warsaw of the enemy and liberated a number of settlements, including the city of Pruszkow, where there was a transit concentration camp in which there were about 700 Polish prisoners, mostly residents of Warsaw. Before leaving the city, the Germans took the prisoners to Germany, and sent the sick and disabled to the so-called “hospitals” for extermination. After the liberation of the Warsaw and Pruszkow regions, the Polish army received the task of reaching the left bank of the Vistula west of Modlin and following the 47th Army in the second echelon of the front, protecting the right flank of the front from possible enemy attacks from the north.

On January 19, troops of the 1st Belorussian Front captured the large industrial city of Lodz. The Nazis did not have time to cause any destruction in the city and did not even evacuate valuable machines and equipment prepared for shipment to Germany. Most factories and factories had a supply of raw materials for two to three months. The main cadre of workers also remained in place.

The population of Lodz joyfully greeted the Soviet soldiers. Residents of the city took to the streets with red armbands and flags. Red flags were hung on houses. Shouts of “Long live the Red Army!” were heard from all sides. Rallies took place in different parts of the city.

During January 20-23, front troops advanced 130-140 kilometers. On the right wing of the front, as a result of a flanking maneuver carried out by part of the forces of the 2nd Guards Tank Army and the 2nd Guards Cavalry Corps, a large enemy stronghold, the fortress city of Bydgoszcz, which was part of the Poznan defense line system, was occupied.

Due to the fact that the main forces of the 2nd Belorussian Front turned north to encircle the East Prussian group, the right wing of the 1st Belorussian Front, stretching for 160 kilometers, remained open. The fascist German command decided to take advantage of this to strike at the northern flank of the front advancing in the Berlin direction. To this end, it hastily created a strong group of troops in Eastern Pomerania.

On January 26, the army groups on the Eastern Front were reorganized. The troops operating in East Prussia became part of Army Group North; The group defending in Pomerania received the name Army Group Vistula, Army Group A was renamed Army Group Center.

Taking into account the situation, the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command on January 27 ordered the commander of the 1st Belorussian Front to reliably secure his right flank from possible enemy attacks from the north and northeast. Marshal G.K. Zhukov decided to bring the second echelon armies into the battle here (3rd Shock Army and 1st Army of the Polish Army) and allocate part of the forces of the shock group (47th and 61st Armies). Later, the 1st and 2nd Guards Tank Armies, the cavalry corps and many reinforcement units were redeployed to the north. The remaining troops were able to continue advancing in the Berlin direction. Leading a rapid offensive, they freed prisoners from various concentration camps. For example, prisoners of concentration camps located in the Helin Forest of Kołowo County, in Lodz, in the Schneidemühl area and in many other places were released.

On the left wing, despite fierce enemy resistance, front troops broke through the Poznan defense line and on January 23 surrounded the Poznan group, numbering 62 thousand people.

On January 29, troops of the 1st Belorussian Front crossed the German border. In this regard, the Military Council of the front reported to the Supreme High Command and the State Defense Committee: “Your order - to defeat the enemy group opposing the front forces with a powerful blow and quickly reach the Polish-German border line - has been carried out.

During 17 days of offensive battles, front troops covered up to 400 kilometers. The entire western part of Poland in the zone of the 1st Belorussian Front has been cleared of the enemy, and the Polish population, oppressed by the Germans for five and a half years, has been liberated.

The rapid advance of troops prevented the Nazis from destroying cities and industrial enterprises, railways and highways, did not give them the opportunity to hijack and exterminate the Polish population, take out livestock and food...

Having carried out, together with the troops of the 1st Ukrainian and 2nd Belorussian Fronts, your order to rescue our Polish brothers from fascist captivity, the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front are determined to achieve complete and final victory in the shortest possible time, together with the entire Red Army over Hitler's Germany."

Crossing the German border was a great holiday for Soviet soldiers and officers. At rallies in the units, they said: “Finally, we have achieved what we strived for, what we dreamed about for more than three years, for which we shed blood.” The walls of houses, roadside billboards and cars were full of slogans: “Here it is, Nazi Germany!”, “We’ve waited!”, “The holiday has come on our street!” The troops were in high spirits. The fighters rushed forward. Soldiers and officers who were being treated in hospitals asked to be returned to their units as soon as possible. “We covered more than 400 kilometers in two weeks,” said F.P. Bondarev, a non-partisan soldier of the 83rd regiment of the 27th Guards Rifle Division, who was being treated in the hospital, “there is not much left to Berlin. And the only thing I want now is to recover as quickly as possible, get back into service and storm Berlin.” Party member private 246th regiment of the 82nd Guards Rifle Division A.L. Romanov said: “I am an old guardsman... I ask the doctors to quickly cure me and return me to my unit. I am sure that our guards will be the first to enter Berlin, and I should be in their ranks."

The victorious entry of the Red Army into German territory greatly reduced the political and moral state of the German population. Goebbels's propaganda about the “atrocities of the Bolsheviks” no longer gave the desired result. Defeatist sentiments undermined the combat effectiveness of the enemy army. Now the fascist German leadership increasingly had to resort to repression at the front and in the rear. The Chief of the General Staff of the Ground Forces, General G. Guderian, gave a special order to the soldiers of the German Eastern Front, in which he urged the troops not to lose heart and not lose the will to resist. He claimed that large reinforcements were approaching the front and the German command had a new plan for preparing for a counteroffensive.

The population of Germany initially feared the Red Army. Many Germans, frightened by false propaganda, expected mass repressions and executions of everyone, even the elderly, women and children. But they soon realized that the Red Army came to Germany not for revenge on the German people, but as their liberator from fascist oppression. Of course, there were individual instances of revenge by Soviet soldiers against the resisting Germans, which was a natural expression of the hatred that every Soviet person could not help but feel for the country and people who allowed the barbaric rampant of fascism. However, it was not these cases, fanned by propaganda hostile to the Soviet Union, that determined the behavior of the Red Army soldiers.

The population of Germany followed all the orders of the Soviet command, the Soviet military commandant's offices, carefully went to work to clear the streets of debris, repair bridges, roads and improve cities. The bulk of workers and engineering personnel willingly returned to production. Many Germans helped the Soviet authorities catch saboteurs, betrayed hiding leading figures of the Nazi Party, Gestapo executioners of concentration camps.

Upon entering German territory, political workers called on Soviet soldiers and officers to be vigilant, to treat the German population who were loyal to the Red Army humanely, to respect the honor and dignity of the Soviet people and not to allow the destruction of material assets, including industrial enterprises, raw materials, communications and transport, agricultural equipment, housing stock, household property.

Much explanatory work was carried out among German troops and the population. For this purpose, leaflets were scattered, broadcasts were organized in German through loudspeaker installations, and German anti-fascists were sent behind the front line - to the rear of Hitler's army. In the 1st Ukrainian Front alone, during the operation, 29 leaflets were published under different names with a total circulation of 3 million 327 thousand copies. All these leaflets were distributed in the army and among the population of Germany. Such work contributed to weakening the resistance of the Nazi troops.

At the end of January and beginning of February, the most intense battles took place on the right wing and in the center of the 1st Belorussian Front. The Germans showed particularly stubborn resistance in the positions of the Pomeranian Wall west of Bydgoszcz. Relying on engineering fortifications, German tanks and infantry continuously counterattacked the troops of the 47th Army and in some places drove them back south of the Notets River. On January 29, the 1st Army of the Polish Army was brought into battle here, and on January 31, the 3rd Shock Army under the command of Lieutenant General N.P. Simonyak.

On February 1, troops of the 47th and 61st armies, in cooperation with the 12th Tank Corps of the 2nd Guards Tank Army, surrounded an enemy group in the Schneidemühl area. The 1st Army of the Polish Army and the 47th Army and the 2nd Guards Cavalry Corps, which interacted with it, completed the breakthrough of the positions of the Pomeranian Wall and started fighting to the west of it. By February 3, the troops of the right-flank armies reached the line north of Bydgoszcz-Arnswalde-Zeden, turning their front to the north.

The 2nd Guards Tank and 5th Shock Armies, advancing in the center of the front, reached the Oder north of Küstrin and crossed the river, and by the end of February 3, the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front had completely cleared the right bank of the Oder from the enemy in the entire front offensive zone to south of Tseden. Only at Küstrin and Frankfurt did Nazi units hold small bridgehead fortifications. South of Küstrin, front troops captured a second bridgehead on the left bank of the Oder. At the same time, there were continuous fierce battles to eliminate the encircled Poznań and Przeidemühl enemy groups.

From February 2, enemy aviation sharply increased its activity, especially in the zone of action of the 5th Shock Army, which was fighting for the Kyustrin bridgehead. Nazi bombers in groups of 50-60 aircraft bombed infantry battle formations on the bridgehead and attacked mobile troops.

In just one day, Nazi aviation carried out about 2,000 sorties, and on February 3 - 3,080.

Hitler's command, trying at all costs to stop the advance of Soviet troops on the Oder, sent large forces here. In the last ten days of January, two armies of the newly formed Army Group Vistula began operating in the offensive zone of the 1st Belorussian Front. In addition, in Army Group Center ( former group armies "A") were completing the formation of two new corps departments, an infantry division and a tank brigade. The headquarters of the tank and army corps, two tank and one ski divisions arrived from the Carpathian region to the Oder line. In early February, other fascist German formations also approached the Oder. Enemy resistance intensified. The advance of the Soviet troops at the Oder River line gradually slowed down, and by February 3 it stopped for some time.

As the Soviet troops moved forward, difficulties in their material, technical and medical support increased. The retreating enemy destroyed railways, roads, bridges and other important objects between the Vistula and Oder. Therefore, from the very beginning of the offensive, supply bases began to be separated from the front troops. To ensure the uninterrupted supply of material resources, it was necessary to short time restore railways and dirt roads, build bridges across the Vistula. These works were entrusted to the railway and road troops.

Thanks to the good organization of work, the heroism of the personnel of the railway and road troops, and the high patriotic impulse of the restorers, the railway bridges across the Vistula were built in an exceptionally short time. On January 22, rail traffic began west of Sandomierz. On January 23, 12 days earlier than scheduled, train traffic across the bridge near Dęblin opened, and on January 29, the bridge near Warsaw was ready for trains to pass through. The soldiers of the 5th Railway Brigade especially distinguished themselves during the restoration of roads and bridges. Assessing the heroism of the personnel of the railway units, the Military Council of the 1st Belorussian Front in a telegram addressed to the commander of the 5th railway brigade, Colonel T. K. Yatsyno, noted: “Your soldiers, sergeants and officers, with their heroic work, provided an invaluable service to the front troops in providing them further rapid pursuit of the enemy."

Following the advancing troops, the railway units carried out a lot of work on re-lining and laying railway tracks, restoring switches, repairing and restoring bridges. However, the pace of restoration of railway traffic west of the Vistula sharply lagged behind the pace of troop advance. By the time railway traffic across the Vistula opened, the troops had advanced 300-400 kilometers. Therefore, the main supplies located on the right bank of the Vistula were delivered to the troops by road.

For the uninterrupted operation of road transport, road units cleared roads of rubble and broken equipment, cleared traffic areas, and built a large number of bridges. For example, the road troops of the 1st Belorussian Front served over 11 thousand kilometers of dirt roads during the operation. During the operation, the road units of the 1st Ukrainian Front built about 2.5 thousand and repaired more than 1.7 thousand linear meters of bridges.

By the end of the operation, road transport had to deliver cargo to troops over a distance of 500-600 kilometers. On the 1st Belorussian Front, over 900 thousand tons of cargo and 180 thousand people were transported, on the 1st Ukrainian Front - more than 490 thousand tons of cargo and about 20 thousand people.

The intensive work of vehicles caused increased fuel consumption. To ensure timely delivery of fuel, additional tanks were installed on railway platforms, a large number of trucks were used, and gasoline consumption was strictly limited. Thanks to the measures taken, interruptions in the supply of fuel were gradually eliminated.

The high pace of the offensive and the significant depth of the operation in the absence of railway communication to the west of the Vistula made it difficult to evacuate the wounded and required enormous stress in the work of evacuation road transport. The lack of tents made it difficult to set up hospitals outside populated areas in the winter. Hospitals did not have time to move after the rapidly advancing troops. In a number of cases, the provision of qualified and specialized medical care was delayed. But where hospitals were moved to the front line, assistance to the wounded was provided in a timely manner. Despite the difficult conditions of the offensive in Poland, the medical service coped with its tasks.

By reaching the Oder and capturing bridgeheads on its left bank, the Red Army completed one of the largest strategic operations of the Great Patriotic War. In the Vistula-Oder operation, the most important tasks of the final campaign of the third period of the Great Patriotic War were solved. Soviet troops defeated the main forces of the Nazi Army Group A, liberated a significant part of Poland with its capital Warsaw and transferred the fighting to German territory. Thanks to this, the Polish people, who suffered for five and a half years under the yoke of the Nazi occupiers, gained independence.

Units of the Polish Army took an active part in the liberation of Poland, making a valuable contribution to the victory over fascism. Fighting shoulder to shoulder with Soviet soldiers against a common enemy, Polish patriots showed high combat skill, courage and bravery. Poland was a loyal ally of the USSR in the selfless fight against Nazi Germany.

Invading the limits fascist Germany to the Oder River and having launched military operations on enemy territory, the Red Army troops approached Berlin 60-70 kilometers and thus created favorable preconditions for a successful offensive in the Berlin and Dresden directions.

During the operation, Soviet troops destroyed 35 enemy divisions and inflicted losses of over 60-75 percent on the other 25 divisions. They forced the Nazi command to transfer to the central direction of the Soviet-German front an additional 40 divisions and a large amount of military equipment from the Western and Italian fronts, from their reserve and from other sections of the Soviet-German front.

According to the headquarters of the 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian fronts, Soviet troops during the Vistula-Oder operation captured more than 147,400 soldiers and officers, captured 1,377 tanks and self-propelled guns, 8,280 guns of various calibers, 5,707 mortars, 19,490 machine guns, 1,360 aircraft and many other military equipment. An even larger amount of enemy manpower and military equipment was destroyed.

During the offensive, Soviet troops liberated tens of thousands of citizens of various nationalities from fascist captivity. By February 15, 49,500 liberated people were registered at the collection points of the 1st Ukrainian Front alone. In addition, many Soviet people, alone and in groups, made their way to their homeland.

In accordance with the current situation, the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command in the offensive between the Vistula and Oder used one of the most effective forms conducting strategic operations, which consisted of fragmenting the enemy front in various sectors with several powerful blows, merging in their development into one deep frontal blow aimed at the heart of Germany - Berlin. The attacks of the Soviet troops, carried out simultaneously in five directions, made it possible to quickly break through the enemy’s defenses and rapidly advance in depth on a wide front.

The Vistula-Oder operation reached enormous proportions. It unfolded on a front 500 kilometers long and 450-500 kilometers deep and lasted 23 days. The average rate of advance was 20-22 kilometers per day. By concentrating large forces in the offensive zones of the 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian fronts, the Soviet command achieved significant superiority over the enemy. Thanks to the skillful use of forces and means in the directions of the main attacks, high densities of troops and military equipment were created, necessary to successfully break through the enemy’s defenses and pursue them to great depths.

The deep echeloning of forces and assets, the allocation of second-echelon armies, mobile groups and the presence of reserves ensured a continuous increase in the power of attacks and a rapid offensive to overcome numerous fortified defense lines. The operation is also characterized by the high art of operational maneuver by large formations with the aim of bypassing, enveloping and defeating enemy groups in the areas of Warsaw, the Ostrowiec-Patow ledge, the Upper Silesian industrial region, in the fortresses of Schneidemühle, Poznan, Leszno, etc.

Tank armies, separate tank and mechanized corps, which had high mobility, played a major role in the operation. impact force and firepower. They participated in completing the breakthrough of enemy defenses in tactical depth, developed tactical success into operational success, contributed to a deep dissection of the defense, encircled Nazi troops, fought against the enemy’s operational reserves, pursued his retreating groups, captured and held important objects until the main forces of the fronts arrived. and boundaries. Tank troops advanced ahead of the combined arms armies, paving their way to the west.

The operation was also characterized by the massing of huge artillery weapons in the most important directions, especially when breaking through enemy defenses and introducing mobile formations into the breakthrough. In order to deliver a sudden and simultaneous fire strike throughout the entire breakthrough sector, artillery preparation planning was centralized on the scale of the fronts. During the period of artillery preparation, enemy defenses were suppressed to the depth of its main zone (5-6 or more kilometers). All armies skillfully organized artillery support for the penetration of tank armies, tank and mechanized corps. To provide artillery support for the offensive, several artillery corps and breakthrough divisions participated in the operation, which skillfully maneuvered on the battlefield.

Soviet aviation, continuously maintaining air superiority, provided direct support to ground forces throughout the entire operation and protected them from the impact of enemy aircraft. The main efforts of aviation were concentrated on the directions of the main attacks of the fronts. When developing a breakthrough and pursuing enemy troops, attack, bomber and fighter aircraft destroyed the enemy's retreating columns and disrupted the movement of his troops along important communications.

The activities of the military logistics took place in difficult conditions. As the troops moved westward, the distance between the troops and the unloading stations increased. Supply bases were cut off from the advancing troops, communications were stretched. The need arose for the simultaneous use of Soviet and Western European gauge railway transport. The armies did not have their own railway sections, and the entire supply of material supplies over vast distances occurred only by road transport. But, despite the non-stop offensive, the necessary supplies of ammunition, fuel, and food were delivered to the troops in a timely manner. The presence of a large number of mobile reserves in the fronts and armies medical institutions, free hospital beds, sanitary equipment, as well as the dedicated work of the medical service made it possible to successfully cope with the difficult task of providing medical support to troops on the offensive.

During the operation, active party political work was continuously carried out. Along with the ideological education of Soviet soldiers, mass political work among the population of Poland and Germany acquired great importance during this period. The morale of the Soviet troops was exceptionally high. The soldiers and commanders overcame any difficulties and showed massive heroism.

The powerful blow inflicted by Soviet troops on the enemy in January 1945 in Poland testified to the further growth of the power of the Red Army, the high level of military art of Soviet commanders and the combat skills of soldiers and officers.

The Vistula-Oder operation, grandiose in concept, scope and skill in execution, aroused the admiration of the entire Soviet people and was highly appreciated by both our allies and the enemy. W. Churchill’s message to J.V. Stalin dated January 27, 1945 said: “We are fascinated by your glorious victories over the common enemy and the powerful forces that you put up against him. Please accept our warmest gratitude and congratulations on the occasion of historical feats."

The foreign press, radio commentators and military observers paid great attention to the victorious offensive of the Red Army in January 1945, unanimously recognizing that it was superior to all offensive operations of the Second World War. The New York Times newspaper wrote on January 18, 1945: “... the Russian offensive is developing with such lightning speed that the campaigns of German troops in Poland in 1939 and France in 1940 pale in comparison... After breaking through the German lines, the Russians split the enemy troops retreating to the Oder..."

The famous American military observer Hanson Baldwin published an article “Russian offensive changes the strategic character of the war,” in which he stated that “the colossal winter offensive of the Russians in an instant changed the entire strategic face of the war. The Red Army is now advancing in battle to the borders of German Silesia... The war has reached a new critical moment, critical for Germany. A breakthrough of the German line on the Vistula could soon turn the siege of Germany into a campaign on German territory."

The English official The Times wrote on January 20, 1945: “The Germans are fleeing southern Poland... The enemy is faced with the question not of where he will gain a foothold on the open plains between the Vistula and Berlin, but whether he will be able to stop at all. The fact that this is highly doubtful is evidenced by the appeals with which the Nazi government addresses the army and the people. It admits that never before in the entire war has the German front experienced such pressure as it is now in the east, and declares that the continued existence of the Reich is at stake...”

The January offensive of the Red Army in 1945 is no less highly valued by West German military historians today. Former general of the fascist German army F. Mellenthin writes: “... the Russian offensive developed with unprecedented force and swiftness. It was clear that their High Command had completely mastered the technique of organizing the offensive of huge mechanized armies... It is impossible to describe everything that happened between the Vistula and Oder in the first months of 1945. Europe has not known anything like this since the fall of the Roman Empire.”