The Polish First Army (, 1 AWP for short, also known as Berling's Army) was an army unit of the Polish Armed Forces in the East. It was formed in the Soviet Union in 1944, from the previously existing Polish I Corps in the Soviet Union, as part of the People's Army of Poland (LWP). The First Army fought westward, subordinated to the Soviet 1st Belorussian Front, during the offensive against Nazi Germany that led to the capture of Warsaw in January 1945, and the capture of Berlin in May 1945.
Formation
The First Army was formed in the Soviet Union in 1944, from the previously existing Polish I Corps as part of the People's Army of Poland (LWP). On 10 August 1943, the Soviets gave permission for enlarging the Polish 1st Tadeusz Kościuszko Infantry Division into a Corps (Polish I Corps). The new formation was to be composed of two infantry divisions, one artillery and one armor brigade, one support and one air regiment, four independent battalions, and support units. On 29 July 1944 the Polish units were reorganized into the 1st Polish Army. From October 12 to 14, 1943, the First Polish Infantry Division made an assault on Lenino near Smolensk and sustained twenty-five percent losses. Later, the 1ST Kosciuszko Infantry Division fought in Berlin around the Reich Chancellery and the Reichstag. At this stage of the war, the Polish role in the Soviet drive westward was fairly substantial, contributing 200,000 troops; this was approximately ten percent of the force taking part in Zhukov's and Konev's drive on Berlin.
Personnel
Initially, the Polish personnel of the First Polish Army were recruited from Polish soldiers taken prisoner during the 1939 Soviet invasion of Poland (after Germany conquered western Poland), and from Poles deported from Soviet-occupied Poland in 1939–1941. They were nearly all of the First Army's front-line combat troops. However, many Soviet personnel served in the First Army, including 39% of officers and technical specialists, while for senior officers the proportion reached 75%. As the Red Army moved into Polish areas west of the Curzon Line, draftees from those areas also became available for the First Polish Army (and Second Polish Army) in accordance with the August 15, 1944, decree of the Polish Committee of National Liberation (the Lublin government).
Until October 1944, the First Army was commanded by Lt. Gen. Zygmunt Berling. His second-in-command was Lt. Gen. Karol Świerczewski. Col. Włodzimierz Sokorski was the chief political officer. The corps took part in combat from September 1943.
Operational history
Operating under the auspices of the Red Army, it first entered combat in the summer of 1944 as part of the 1st Belorussian Front on the right wing of the Lvov-Sandomierz Operation, fighting in the battles during the Soviet crossing of the river Vistula around Dęblin and Puławy. In September 1944, units of the First Army were involved in heavy fighting during the latter stages of the Warsaw Uprising after crossing the river Vistula following the capture of Warsaw's eastern Praga district, but suffered heavy losses.
After eventually taking control of Warsaw in January 1945, the First Army took part in the Vistula–Oder Offensive, and afterwards it moved towards Bydgoszcz. The Polish First Army then fought in Pomerania, breaking through the Pomeranian Wall (Pommernstellung) fortified line and capturing Fortress Kolberg, a heavily fortified city, in March. Its units advanced northeast as far as Gdańsk and During the battles to penetrate the Pomeranian fortifications, the 1st "Warsaw" Cavalry Brigade made the last mounted charge of Polish cavalry at the village of Schoenfeld.
