Berling's Army. Following the evacuation of
Anders's Army from the Soviet Union during 1942, tens of thousands of Poles remained on Soviet soil. The break in diplomatic relations in April 1943 over the
Katyń massacre provided Stalin with the opportunity to go ahead with the creation of further Polish units without consulting the Polish government in London. The new force was formed at Sielce, between the rivers Don and Oka, and was known as the Kościuszko Division (ironically after the 18th-century Polish hero of an abortive rising against Russian rule). It was formally under the direction of the Union of Polish Patriots, the pro-communist group of Poles in the Soviet Union headed by
Wanda Wasilewska. Command of the division fell to Lt-Colonel Zygmunt Berling (1896–1980). Berling had been Chief of Staff of General Anders' 5th Division and had supervised evacuation arrangements for Anders' forces at the Caspian port of Krasnovodsk. However, at the last moment he refused to leave the Soviet Union, thus effectively deserting from the Polish Army.
Formation of the Kościuszko Division, which began in May 1943, progressed rapidly, and there were soon sufficient recruits to form a reserve Polish unit (the Dbrowski Division). Further units were foreseen and in August the two divisions were transformed into a corps. However there was a shortage of officers which was made good by drafting in Soviet officers, some of whom were of Polish origin but not all of whom could speak Polish. In October 1943 Berling—promoted to maj-general by a Soviet decree—led his division into battle against the Germans at Lenino, near Mogilev, where they formed part of the Thirty-third Soviet Army. The division was ill-prepared, poorly supplied, and insufficiently trained. It suffered heavy losses, failed in its objective to reach the River Dnieper, and was withdrawn from the front line to undergo further training.
In April 1944 Berling's force was transformed once more, becoming the Polish Army in the USSR (it was eventually to number six divisions) and was transferred to the Ukraine. On 29 April it was placed under the operational command of
General Rokossovsky, commander of the Belorussian
front (army group). On 21 July, Rokossovsky's
front crossed the River Bug, the partition line agreed in the
Nazi–Soviet Pact, and within days had reached the outskirts of the Polish capital. When the
Warsaw rising broke out on 1 August, Rokossovsky scrupulously observed Stalin's order that the Red Army was not to intervene. During the seventh week of the rising, however, on 15 September, Berling sent a group of his men across the Vistula to establish contact with the insurgents. When Rokossovsky's Belorussian
front resumed its advance in January 1945, Berling had been removed from his command of the First Polish Army. The new commander was General S. Popławski.
The First Army, comprising some five infantry divisions and 78,000 men, continued in the direction of Bydgoszcz and the Baltic coast (Kołobrzeg, Stettin), eventually taking part in the
fall of Berlin. In the south, in the closing weeks of the war a Second Polish Army of five infantry divisions (numbering eventually 90,000 men) took part in Ukrainian
front operations, including the
liberation of Prague.
In the post-war period, the army of the Polish People's Republic was largely created by former ‘Berling's Army’ officers, several of whom rose to political prominence. Berling himself subsequently studied at the General Staff Academy in Moscow, and in 1948 was appointed commandant of the equivalent Polish institution in Warsaw. He retired in 1953.
Keith Sword
Bibliography
Biegański, W. (ed.), Polski Czyn Zbrojny w 11 Wojnie Swiatowej. Ludowe Wojsko Polskie, 1943–45 (Warsaw, 1973).
Muś, W. , W Słuz˙bie Boga Wojny (memoir, Warsaw, 1983).
Sokorski, W. , Polacy pod Lenino (Warsaw, 1971).
