The Blue Army, or Haller's Army, are informal names given to the Polish Army units formed in France during the later stages of World War I. The nicknames come from the soldier's French blue uniforms and the name of the army's commander, General Józef Haller de Hallenburg. 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 Poland's Eastern conflicts. During the Polish-Ukrainian War the Blue Army helped to break the stalemate between Polish and Ukrainian forces in Poland's favor. During the Polish-Bolshevik War, the Blue Army played a critical role in Poland's successful defence against Soviet forces. While fighting in the East, soldiers from the Blue Army also engaged in antisemitic violence.
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The first units were formed after the signing of a 1917 alliance by French President Raymond Poincaré and the Polish statesman Ignacy Jan Paderewski. A majority of recruits were either Poles serving in the French army, or former prisoners of war from the German and Austro-Hungarian imperial armies (approximately 35,000 men). An additional 23,000 were Polish Americans. Other Poles flocked to the army from all over the world as well — these units included recruits from the former Russian Expeditionary Force in France and the Polish diaspora in Brazil (more than 300 men).
The army was initially under French political control and under the military command of General Louis Archinard. However, on February 23, 1918, 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 Russia formally signed an agreement with the Entente that 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 overall 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 army continued to gather new recruits after the end of The Great War on November 11, 1918, many of them ethnic Poles who had been conscripted into the Austrian army and later taken prisoners by the Allies. By early 1919 it numbered 68,500 men, fully equipped by the French government. After being denied permission by the German government to enter Poland via the Baltic port city of Danzig (Gdańsk), transport was arranged via train. Between April and June of that year the units were transported together intact to a reborn Poland across Germany in sealed train cars. Weapons were secured in separate cars and kept under guard to appease German concerns about a foreign army traversing its territory. Immediately after its arrival the divisions were integrated into the overall Polish Army and transported to the fronts of the Polish-Ukrainian War, then being fought over control of eastern Galicia.
The perilous journey from France, through revolutionary Germany, into Poland, in the spring of 1919 has been documented by those who lived through it:
Captain Stanislaw I. Nastal
Preparations for the departure lasted for some time. The question of transit became a difficult and complicated problem. Finally after a long wait a decision was made and officially agreed upon between the Allies and Germany.
The first transports with the Blue Army set out in the first half of April 1919. Train after train tore along though Germany to the homeland, to Poland.[1]
Major Stefan Wyczolkowski
On 15 April 1919 the regiment began its trip to Poland from the Bayon railroad station in four transports, via Mainz, Erfurt, Leipzig, Kalisz, and Warsaw, and arrived in Poland, where it was quartered in individual battalions;, in Chelm 1st Battalion, supernumerary company and command of the regiment; 3rd Battalion in Kowel; and the 2nd Battalion in Wlodzimierz.[2]
Major Stanislaw Bobrowski
On 13 April 1919 the regiment set out across Germany for Poland, to reinforce other units of the Polish army being created in the homeland amid battle, shielding with their youthful breasts the resurrected Poland.[3]
Major Jerzy Dabrowski
Finally on 18 April 1919 the regiment’s first transport set out for Poland. On 23 April 1919 the leading divisions of the 3rd Regiment of Polish Riflemen set foot on Polish soil, now free thanks to their own efforts.[4]
Lt. Wincenty Skarzynski
Weeks passed. April 1919 arrived – then plans were changed: it was decided irrevocably to transport our army to Gdansk instead by trains, through Germany. Many officers came from Poland, among them Major Gorecki, to coordinate technical details with General Haller.[5]
. Haller's Army changed the balance of power in Galicia and in Volhynia, and its arrival allowed the Poles to repel the Ukrainians and establish a demarcation line at the river Zbruch. on May 14, 1919. Haller's army was well equipped by the Western allies and partially staffed with experienced French officers specifically in order to fight against the Bolsheviks and not the forces of the Western Ukrainian People's Republic. Despite this obligation, the Poles dispatched Haller's army against the Ukrainians rather than the Bolsheviks in order to break the stalemate in eastern Galicia. The allies sent several telegrams ordering the Poles to halt their offensive as using of the French-equipped army against the Ukrainian specifically contradicted the conditions of the French help, but these were ignored[6] with Poles claiming that "all Ukrainians were Bolsheviks or something close to it".[7]
In July 1919 the Army was transferred to the border with Germany in Silesia, where it prepared defences against any possible German invasion.
Haller's well trained and highly motivated troops, as well as their airplanes and excellent FT-17 tanks, formed part of the core of the Polish forces during the ensuing Polish-Bolshevik War.
After the war, the Polish-American volunteers who served within Haller's Army were not recognized as veterans by either the American or Polish governments. This led to friction between the Polish community in the United States and the Polish government, and subsequent refusal by Polish Americans to again help the Polish cause militarily. [8]
The 15th Infantry Rifle Regiment of the Blue Army was the basis for the 49th Hutsul Rifle Regiment of the 11th Infantry Division (Poland)
As with most of the history related to the Polish-Soviet War, information on the Blue Army was censored, distorted and repressed by the Soviet Union during its communist oppression of the 1945-1989 People's Republic of Poland.
Although the Blue Army is highly regarded by the Poles; many Ukrainians and Jews generally see it's actions in a negative light. [9] Those officers and soldiers from the Blue Army who targetted the local Jews believed that they were acting in Poland's defence, because they assumed that the victims were collaborating with Poland's enemies, either West Ukrainian forces, Bolsheviks, or Lithuanians [10] even though many of the civilians killed were not hostile to the Polish military in any way. [11]
After their arrival in Western Ukraine, Haller's troops engaged in acts of violence against the Jews.[12] As a result of such actions, Jews perceived Haller's Army as particularly harmful. [13] [14][15] As the army traveled further East, Haller's soldiers in particular looted Jewish houses, pushing local Jews off moving trains, and with their bayonets cut off the beards of Orthodox Jews. The latter act was referred to by Haller's soldiers as "civilizing" the Jews. [13] Among the worst offenders within Haller's army were the 23,000 Polish-American volunteers, who were relatively late in joining the unit, and thus poorly disciplined. In an effort to curb the abuses, Haller himself issued a proclamation demanding that his soldiers cease cutting off beards of elderly Orthodox Jews, [16] and complained about the violent antisemitism of the Polish-American soldiers to an American envoy.[17] Isolated reports also accuse Haller's soldiers of engaging in the rape of Jewish women and girls. [18] Some Polish government officials, supported by their French allies, claimed that the Germans published antisemitic tracts and falsely attributed them to Haller's army in order to weaken Polish claims in eastern Europe. Polish sources furthermore claimed that the Jews were grateful that the Poles had liberated them. [12]
Haller's troops have been mistakenly accused of committing the Lwów Pogrom of 1918. Historian William W. Hagen states that after helping to capture Lwów, some army units together with Polish civilians, engaged in three days of violence against the Jewish and Ukrainian inhabitants of the city, resulting in hundreds of civilian deaths .[19] But, the Blue Army's participation in the pogrom is highly disputed, and according to the Cambridge History of Poland, when the Lwów Pogrom actually took place the Blue Army was still in France fighting on the Western Front. Also, it is noted that the first units did not reach Poland until the spring of 1919, nearly five months after the actual pogrom happened.[20] The Kronika Polski lists April 14th, 1919 as the start of the first troop transports form France to Poland,[21] and historian Kay Lundgreen-Nielsen stated in that the first units of the army did not leave France until April 15th, 1919, its departure having been delayed by opposition from Britain and United States,[22] requiring a special protocol before the Blue Army was allowed to return home.[23]
Despite examples of antisemitic behavior exhibited by some troops within the ranks of the Blue Army, [13][14][24] many Polish Jews enlisted and fought within its ranks, some even received a commission and were entrusted with leadership positions. Jews serving in the Blue Army's 43rd Regiment of Eastern Frontier Riflemen were listed as combat fatalities, and historian Edward Goldstein identified approximately 5% of the unit's battle casualties as being Jewish.[24]
From the Ukrainian perspective the army's arrival was a significant factor that that led to the eventual demise of the independent West Ukrainian People's Republic, and it's ultimate incorporation into the new Polish state.