Blue Army
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This article is about the army in Polish history. For the Catholic lay organisation, see Blue Army of Our Lady of Fatima.
Blue Army or Haller's Army are informal names for the Polish Army formed in France during the later stages of World War I. The army was created in June 1917 as part of the Polish units allied to the Entente. After the Great War ended, the units were transferred to Poland, where they took part in the Polish-Ukrainian War and the Polish-Bolshevik War. The earlier name comes from the French blue uniforms worn by the soldiers, while the latter was coined after the army's commander, General Józef Haller de Hallenburg.
Contents |
[edit] History
The first units started to be formed after the 1917 alliance signed between the president of France Raymond Poincaré and the Polish statesman and renowned pianist Ignacy Jan Paderewski. The recruits for the new unit came from all over the world. The main bulk of the recruits were Poles serving in the French army and former prisoners of war of the German and Austro-Hungarian armies (approximately 35 000 men). Additional 22 000 were Polish Americans. Another notable source of recruits was the former Russian Expeditionary Corps in France and the Polish diaspora in Brazil (more than 300 men).
The army was initially under French political control and military command of General Louis Archinard. However, on February 23, 1918, the political sovereignty was granted to the Polish National Committee and soon other Polish units were formed, most notably the 4th and 5th Rifle Divisions in Russia. On September 28 it signed an alliance with the Entente, which accepted the Polish units in France as the only, independent, allied and co-belligerent Polish army. On October 4, 1918 the National Committee appointed General Józef Haller de Hallenburg as the new commander.
The first unit to enter combat on the Western Front was the 1st Rifle Regiment (1 pułk strzelców), fighting from July 1918 in Champagne and the Vosges mountains. By October the entire 1st Rifle Division joined the fight in the area of Rambervillers and Raon-l'Étape.
The Great War ended on November 11, 1918, but the army continued to gather new recruits, many of them from among ethnic Poles who, while serving in the Austrian army, had been taken prisoners by the Allies. In early 1919 it already had 68 500 soldiers, fully-equipped by the French government and highly-trained. Between April and June of that year it was transported to the newly-reborn Poland through the port of the Baltic city of Danzig (present-day Gdańsk), together with all the heavy equipment. Immediately after its arrival, the army was transported to the fronts of the Polish-Ukrainian War for the control over eastern Galicia. Its elements fought bravely in eastern Lesser Poland and in Volhynia, and the arrival of the Haller's army allowed the Poles to repel the Ukrainians and establish a demarcation line at the river Zbruch.
In July 1919 the Blue Army was transferred to the border with Germany, where it prepared defences against possible German invasion. Finally, in September of that year it was completely incorporated into the Polish Army. The well-trained and highly-motivated troops of the Blue Army, as well as their aeroplanes and excellent FT-17 tanks formed the core of the Polish forces.
As most of the history related to the Polish-Soviet War, the information on the Blue Army was censored and repressed by the Soviets, especially in the communist dominated time of the People's Republic of Poland (1945-1989).
[edit] Order of battle
- I Polish Corps
- 1st Rifle Division
- 2nd Rifle Division
- 1st Heavy Artillery Regiment
- II Polish Corps - formed in Russia
- 4th Rifle Division
- 5th Rifle Division
- III Polish Corps
- 3rd Rifle Division
- 6th Rifle Division
- 3rd Heavy Artillery Regiment
- Independent Units
- 7th Rifle Division
- Training Division - cadre
- 1st Tank Regiment
