Polish Army in its organisation phase on the turn of 1944 and 1945 illustrated with an example of 4th Anti-aircraft Artillery Division and 8th Infantry Division

Abstract

In 1944, in line with the prepared plans of the extension of the Polish Army, the following military units were formed already in the course of military actions of World War II in the Siedlce area: the 8th Infantry Division, the 4th Anti-aircraft Artillery Division and the 1st Independent Mortar Brigade. Totally, the headcount of the formed tactical detachment was supposed to reach 15 thousand soldiers. Numerous organisational and logistic glitches could be seen in the formation stage of the military units mentioned above. They affected the quality of military service, leading to relaxation in the ranks of the Polish Army. Hostility of many lower rank servicemen (but not only them) towards Soviet officers, who joined the newly
organised Polish Army, was an additional factor which made this situation even worse. Raising this issue, the Author sets it in the context of political and social changes taking place in Poland after the Polish Committee for National Liberation was established. He also refers to military discipline, which remains one of the key threads of this paper, and which actually posed a serious problem to the General Command of the Polish Army.