| Władysław Anders | |
|---|---|
| Born | 11 August 1892 Krośniewice-Błonie, Kingdom of Poland, Russian Empire |
| Died | 12 May 1970 (aged 77) London, England |
| Years of service | 1913-1946 |
| Rank | Lt. General (Polish – Generał Broni) |
| Battles/wars | World War I, PBW, PDW, World War II, Monte Cassino |
| Awards | |
Lieutenant-General Władysław Anders CB (11 August 1892 – 12 May 1970) was a General in the Polish Army and later in life a politician with the Polish government-in-exile in London.
Anders was born on 11 August 1892 to his Baltic-German father Albert Anders and his mother Elizabeth, born Tauchert,[1] in the Polish village of Krośniewice–Błonie, near Kutno which at that time was part of the Russian Empire (Partitions of Poland). He was baptized as a member of the Protestant Evangelical-Augsburg Church in Poland; but while being kept in Soviet prisons he made a promise that if he survived and regained strength in his legs (he was seriously injured) he would convert to Roman Catholicism. He did survive, and did indeed convert.[1]
While an undergraduate at Riga Technical University Anders became a member of the Polish student fraternity Arkonia. As a young officer, he served Tsar Nicholas II in the 1st Krechowiecki Lancer's Regiment during World War I, later joining the Polish Army and again serving in cavalry as a commanding officer in 15th Poznań Uhlans Regiment.
Anders was in command of a cavalry brigade at the time of the outbreak of World War II. The Polish army at that time had not yet had a chance to fully modernise, having been resurrected only 20 years earlier, in 1918–19, following Polish independence from German, Austrian and Russian rule. Polish forces were not matched with the larger German forces and their Blitzkrieg tactics, and the Polish forces were forced to retreat to the east. During the fighting and retreat he was wounded a number of times. Anders was later taken prisoner by Soviet forces and was jailed, initially in Lvov (then Lwów) and later in Lubyanka prison in Moscow. During his imprisonment Anders was tortured.[2]
Shortly after the attack on the Soviet Union by Germany on 22 June 1941, Anders was released by the Soviets with the aim of forming a Polish Army to fight alongside the Red Army. Continued friction with the Soviets over political issues as well as shortages of weapons, food and clothing, led to the eventual exodus of Anders' men – known as the Anders Army – together with a sizeable contingent of Polish civilians via the Persian Corridor into Iran, Iraq and Palestine. Here, Anders formed and led the 2nd Polish Corps, fighting alongside the Western Allies, while agitating for the release of Polish nationals still in the Soviet Union.
Anders was the commander of the 2nd Polish Corps in Italy 1943–1946, capturing Monte Cassino in the Battle of Monte Cassino.
After the war the Soviet-installed communist government in Poland in 1946 deprived him of Polish citizenship and of his military rank. Anders had, however, always been unwilling to return to a Soviet-dominated Poland where he probably would have been jailed and possibly executed, and remained in exile in Britain. He was prominent in the Polish Government in Exile in London and inspector-general of the Polish forces-in-exile. He died in London on 12 May 1970, where his body lay in state at the church of Andrzej Bobola, where many of his former soldiers and families came to pay their last respects. He was buried, in accordance with his wishes, amongst his fallen soldiers from the 2nd Polish Corps at the Polish War Cemetery at Monte Cassino in Italy.
After the war Anders wrote a book covering his thoughts and experiences. An Army in Exile was published originally by MacMillan & Co., London, in 1949. The book has been recently re-issued under the same title.
In 1948 he married the actress Irena Anders.
After the collapse of Communist Poland in 1989, his citizenship and military rank were posthumously reinstated.
Contents |
Czechoslovakia
France
Italy
Knights of Malta
Persia
Russia (Imperial Russia)
United Kingdom
United States of America
Yugoslavia (Royal)
| Military offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by none |
Commanding General of the Polish II Corps 1943–1945 |
Succeeded by Zygmunt Bohusz-Szyszko |
| Preceded by Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski |
General Inspector of the Armed Forces 1946–1954 |
Succeeded by Michał Karaszewicz-Tokarzewski |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by none |
Member of the Council of Three Alongside: Tomasz Arciszewski, Edward Raczyński, Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski, Roman Odzierzyński, Stanisław Mglej, Alfred Urbański 1954–1970 |
Succeeded by Stanisław Kopański |
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