Military history of Poland during World War II

1939 poster.

The European theater of World War II opened with the German invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939. Polish Army was pushed back, and on September 17 the Soviet Union at the request of Nazi Germany[1][2][3] invaded eastern Poland, forcing the Polish government and military to abandon plans for a long-term defense in the Romanian bridgehead area. Last Polish Army units capitulated in early October.

After Poland had been overrun, a government-in-exile, armed forces and an intelligence service were established outside Poland, contributing to the Allied effort throughout the war. Poland never made a general surrender or produced a puppet government that collaborated with the Germans; instead, it was directly governed by a purely German administration, the Generalgouvernement, opposed by the underground Polish Secret State.

The Poles provided important help to their Allies throughout the war, including (in the West alone) the prewar and wartime reading of German Enigma ciphers by cryptologist Marian Rejewski and his colleagues, the contributions of Polish Air Force squadrons to victory in the Battle of Britain, the heroic defense of Tobruk, the capture of the strategic German-held monastery hill in the Battle of Monte Cassino, and a major role in the battle of the Falaise pocket.

Invasion of Poland

Further information: Invasion of Poland (1939)

The Invasion of Poland was the start of World War II with the aggression against Poland by the military forces of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union and by a small German-allied Slovak contingent. The invasion of Poland marked the start of World War II in Europe as Poland's western allies, the United Kingdom and France, declared war on Germany on September 3. Hitler had gambled wrong that France and Britain would let him annex parts of Poland without military reaction. The campaign began on September 1 1939, one week after the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact containing a secret protocol, and ended on October 6 1939, with Germany and the Soviet Union occupying the entirety of Poland.

German personnel losses were approximately 16,000 Killed in Action, while losing about 30% of their armored vehicles. The Polish suffered around 65,000 Killed. Though the German attack was a success, losses were higher than expected.

Polish resistance

Further information: [[:Polish resistance movement in World War II and Polish Underground State]]

The main resistance force in Nazi-occupied Poland was the Armia Krajowa ("Home Army"; abbreviated "AK"), which numbered some 200,000-300,000 soldiers at its peak as well as many more sympathizers. The AK coordinated its operations with the exiled Polish Government in London and its activity concentrated on sabotage, diversion and intelligence gathering [4]. Its combat activity was low until 1943 [5] as the army was avoiding suicidal warfare and preserved its very limited force for the later conflicts that sharply increased when the Nazi war machine started to crumble in the wake of the successes of the Red Army in the Eastern Front. Then the AK started a nationwide uprising (Operation Tempest) against Nazi forces [6]. Before that AK units carried out thousands of raids, intelligence operations, bombed hundreds of railway shipments, participated in many clashes and battles with the German police and Wehrmacht units and conducted tens of thousands of acts of sabotage against German industry [7]. The AK also conducted "vengeance" operations to assassinate Gestapo officials responsible for Nazi terror. Following the 1941 German attack on the USSR, the AK assisted the Soviet Union's war effort by sabotaging German advances into Russian territories and provided intelligence on the deployment and movement of German forces [8]. After 1943 its direct combat activity increased sharply. German losses to the Polish partisans averaged 850-1700 per month in early 1944 compared to about 250-320 per month in 1942.

Distinct from the Home Army was an underground ultra-nationalist resistance force called Narodowe Siły Zbrojne (NSZ or National Armed Forces), with a fiercely anti-communist and chauvinist stance. It participated in fighting German units, winning many skirmishes. From 1943 onwards, some units took part in battling the Gwardia Ludowa, a communist resistance movement. From 1944, the advancing Red Army was also seen as a foreign occupation force, prompting skirmishes with the Soviets as well as Soviet-backed partisans. In the later part of the war, when Soviet partisans started attacking Polish partisans, symphatisers and civilians, all non-communist Polish formations were (to a growing extent) becoming involved in actions against the Soviets. [9]

The Armia Ludowa, a Soviet proxy fighting force [10] was another group that was unrelated to the Polish Government in Exile, allied instead to the Soviet Union. As of July, 1944 it incorporated a similar ogranization, the Gwardia Ludowa, and numbered about 6,000 soldiers[11] (although estimates vary).

There were separate resistance groups organized by Polish Jews : the right-wing Jewish Fighting Union (ŻZW) and the more soviet-leaning Jewish Combat Organization (ŻOB). These organisations cooperated little with each other and their relationship with the Polish resistance varied between occasional cooperation (mainly between ZZW and AK) to armed confrontations (mostly between ŻOB and NZS).

Other notable Polish resistance organizations included the Bataliony Chłopskie (BCh), a mostly peasant-based organization allied to the AK. At its height the BCh included 175,000 members.

Intelligence

Further information: [[:Cipher Bureau and Operation Most III]]

File:Cyclometer machine Drawing from M Rejewski’s papers.jpg

Cyclometer. Diagram from Marian Rejewski’s papers. 1: Rotor lid closed. 2: Rotor lid open. 3: Rheostat. 4: Glowlamps. 5: Switches. 6: Letters.

During a period of over six and a half years, from late December 1932 to the outbreak of World War II, three mathematician-cryptologists (Marian Rejewski, Henryk Zygalski and Jerzy Różycki) at the Polish General Staff's Cipher Bureau in Warsaw had developed a number of techniques and devices — including the "grill" method, Różycki's "clock," Rejewski's "cyclometer" and "card catalog," Zygalski's "perforated sheets," and Rejewski's "cryptologic bomb" (Polish term: bomba, precursor to the later British "Bombe," named after its Polish predecessor) — to facilitate decryption of messages produced on the German "Enigma" cipher machine. A few weeks before the outbreak of World War II, on July 25, 1939, near Pyry in the Kabaty Woods just south of Warsaw, Poland disclosed her achievements to France and the United Kingdom, which had, up to that time, failed in all their own efforts to crack the German military Enigma cipher.

Had Poland not shared her Enigma-decryption results at Pyry, the United Kingdom would have been delayed at the least a year or two in reading Enigma and might have been unable to read it at all. In the event, intelligence gained from this source, codenamed ULTRA, was extremely valuable in the Allied prosecution of the war, though the exact influence of ULTRA on its course remains a subject of debate. Some have argued that ULTRA decided the very outcome of the war, though a view has also found broad acceptance that ULTRA hastened Germany's defeat by between 6 months and 4 years.

As early as 1940, Polish agents (see Witold Pilecki) penetrated German concentration camps, including Auschwitz, and informed the world about Nazi atrocities.

AK members recovering V-2 from the Bug River.

Home Army (Polish: Armia Krajowa) AK intelligence was vital in locating and destroying (18 August 1943) the German rocket facility at Peenemunde and in gathering information about Germany's flying bomb and V-2 rocket. The Home Army delivered to the United Kingdom key V-2 parts, after a V-2 rocket, fired 30 May 1944, crashed near a German test facility at Sarnaki on the Bug River and was recovered by the Home Army. On the night of 25-26 July, 1944, the crucial parts were flown from occupied Poland to the United Kingdom in an RAF plane, along with detailed drawings of parts too large to fit in the plane (see Home Army and V1 and V2). Analysis of the German rocket became vital to improving Allied anti-V-2 defenses (see Operation Most III).

Polish intelligence cooperated with the other Allies in every European country and operated one of the largest intelligence networks in Nazi Germany. Many Poles also served in other Allied intelligence services, including the celebrated Krystyna Skarbek ("Christine Granville") in the United Kingdom's Special Operations Executive. 43 per cent of all the reports received by the British secret services from continental Europe in 1939-45 came from Polish sources.

Polish Forces (West)

Further information: Polish Armed Forces in the West

Army

Polish Armed Forces in the West
at the height of their power

Deserters from the German Wehrmacht	89,300	(35.8%)
Evacuees from the USSR in 1941	83,000	(33.7%)
Evacuees from France in 1940	35,000	(14.0%)
Liberated POWs	21,750	(8.7%)
Escapees from occupied Europe	14,210	(5.7%)
Recruits in liberated France	7,000	(2.8%)
Polonia from Argentina, Brazil and Canada	2,290	(0.9%)
Polonia from United Kingdom	1,780	(0.7%)
Total	249,000
Note: Until July 1945, when recruitment was halted, some 26,830 Polish soldiers were declared KIA or MIA or had died of wounds. After that date, an additional 21,000 former Polish POWs were inducted.

Source: Reference #4

After the country's defeat in the 1939 campaign, the Polish government in exile quickly organized in France a new army of about 80,000 men. In 1940 a Polish Highland Brigade took part in the Battle of Narvik (Norway), and two Polish divisions (First Grenadier Division, and Second Infantry Fusiliers Division) took part in the defense of France, while a Polish motorized brigade and two infantry divisions were in process of forming. A Polish Independent Carpathian Brigade was formed in French-mandated Syria, to which many Polish troops had escaped from Romania. The Polish Air Force in France comprised eighty-six aircraft in four squadrons, one and a half of the squadrons being fully operational while the rest were in various stages of training.

After the fall of France, numbers of Polish personnel had died in the fighting or been interned in Switzerland. Nevertheless, General Władysław Sikorski, Polish commander-in-chief and prime minister, was able to evacuate many Polish troops to the United Kingdom. In 1941, following an agreement between the Polish government in exile and Joseph Stalin, the Soviets released Polish citizens, from whom a 75,000-strong army was formed in the Middle East under General Władysław Anders ("Anders' Army").

A Polish flag flying over the ruins of the Monte Cassino monastery.

The Polish armed forces in the west fought under the British command and numbered 195,000 in March 1944 and 165,000 at the end of that year, including about 20,000 personnel in the Polish Air Force and 3,000 in the Polish Navy. At the end of WWII, the Polish Armed Forces in the west numbered 195,000 and by July 1945 had increased to 228,000, most of the newcomers being released prisoners of war and ex-labor-camp inmates.

Air Force

Further information: [[:Polish Air Forces in France and Great Britain]]

The Polish Air Force fought in the Battle of France as one fighter squadron GC 1/145, several small units detached to French squadrons, and numerous flights of industry defence (in total, 133 pilots, who achieved 55 victories at a loss of 15 men).

Later, Polish pilots fought in the Battle of Britain, where the Polish 303 Fighter Squadron achieved the highest number of kills of any Allied squadron. From the very beginning of the war, the Royal Air Force (RAF) had welcomed foreign pilots to supplement the dwindling pool of British pilots. On 11 June 1940, the Polish Government in Exile signed an agreement with the British Government to form a Polish Army and Polish Air Force in the United Kingdom. The first two (of an eventual ten) Polish fighter squadrons went into action in August 1940. Four Polish squadrons eventually took part in the Battle of Britain (300 and 301 Bomber Squadrons; 302 and 303 Fighter Squadrons), with 89 Polish pilots. Together with more than 50 Poles fighting in British squadrons, a total of 145 Polish pilots defended British skies. Polish pilots were among the most experienced in the battle, most of them having already fought in the 1939 September Campaign in Poland and the 1940 Battle of France. Additionally, prewar Poland had set a very high standard of pilot training. The 303 Squadron, named after the Polish-American hero, General Tadeusz Kościuszko, achieved the highest number of kills (126) of all fighter squadrons engaged in the Battle of Britain, even though it only joined the combat on August 30, 1940: these 5% of pilots were responsible for a phenomenal 12% of total victories in the Battle.

126 German airplanes shot down by the 303 squadron during the Battle of Britain. Painted on a Hurricane.

The Polish Air Force also fought in 1943 in Tunisia (Polish Fighting Team, so called "Skalski's Circus") and in raids on Germany (1940-45). In the second half of 1941 and early 1942, Polish bomber squadrons were the sixth part of forces available to RAF Bomber Command (later they suffered heavy losses, with little replenishment possibilities). Polish aircrew losses serving with Bomber Command 1940-45 were 929 killed. Ultimately 8 Polish fighter squadrons were formed within the RAF and had claimed 629 Axis aircraft destroyed by May 1945. By war's end, there were 14,000 Polish airmen in 15 RAF squadrons and in the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF).

Polish squadrons in the United Kingdom:

• No. 300 "Masovia" Polish Bomber Squadron (Ziemi Mazowieckiej)
• No. 301 "Pomerania" Polish Bomber Squadron (Ziemi Pomorskiej)
• No. 302 "City of Poznań" Polish Fighter Squadron (Poznański)
• No. 303 "Kościuszko" Polish Fighter Squadron (Warszawski imienia Tadeusza Kościuszki)
• No. 304 "Silesia" Polish Bomber Squadron (Ziemi Śląskiej imienia Ksiecia Józefa Poniatowskiego)
• No. 305 "Greater Poland" Polish Bomber Squadron (Ziemi Wielkopolskiej imienia Marszałka Józefa Piłsudskiego)
• No. 306 "City of Toruń" Polish Fighter Squadron (Toruński)
• No. 307 "City of Lwów" Polish Fighter Squadron (Lwowskich Puchaczy)
• No. 308 "City of Kraków" Polish Fighter Squadron (Krakowski)
• No. 309 "Czerwień" Polish Fighter-Reconnaissance Squadron (Ziemi Czerwieńskiej)
• No. 315 "City of Dęblin" Polish Fighter Squadron (Dębliński)
• No. 316 "City of Warsaw" Polish Fighter Squadron (Warszawski)
• No. 317 "City of Wilno" Polish Fighter Squadron (Wileński)
• No. 318 "City of Gdańsk" Polish Fighter-Reconnaissance Squadron (Gdański)
• No. 663 Polish Artillery Observation Squadron
• Polish Fighting Team (Skalski's Circus)

Navy

Just on the eve of war, three destroyers - representing most of the major Polish Navy ships - had been sent for safety to the British Isles (Operation Peking). There they fought alongside the Royal Navy. At various stages of the war, the Polish Navy comprised two cruisers and a large number of smaller ships. the Polish navy was given a number of British ships and submarines which would otherwise have been unused due to the lack of trained British crews. The Polish Navy fought with great distinction alongside the other Allied navies in many important and successful operations, including those conducted against the German battleship, Bismarck. Overall, Polish Navy during the war sailed total twelve hundred thousands nautical miles, escorted 787 convoys, conducted 1162 patrols and combat operations, sunk 12 enemy ships (including 5 submarines) and 41 merchant vessels, damaged 24 more (including 8 submarines)) and shot down 20 aircraft; all of that on 26 ships (2 cruisers, 9 destroyers, 5 submarines and 11 torpedo boats). 450 seamen out of over 4,000 lost their lives in action.

File:ORP Sokol 1.jpg

ORP Sokól.

• Cruisers:
  • ORP Dragon (British Danae class)
  • ORP Conrad (British Danae class)
• Destroyers:
  • ORP Wicher — Gale (Wicher class) sunk September 1939
  • ORP Burza — Storm (Wicher class)
  • ORP Grom — Thunder (Grom class) sunk 1940
  • ORP Błyskawica — Lightning (Grom class)
  • ORP Garland (British G class)
  • ORP Orkan (British M class destroyer Myrmidion) sunk 1943
  • ORP Ouragan, sometimes called Huragan — Hurricane (French Bourrasque class)
  • ORP Piorun — Thunderbolt (British N class)
• Escort destroyers:
  • ORP Krakowiak — Cracovian (British Hunt class) 1941-1946
  • ORP Kujawiak — Kujawian (British Hunt class)
  • ORP Ślązak — Silesian (British Hunt class)
• Submarines:
  • ORP Orzeł — Eagle (Orzeł class) lost 1940
  • ORP Sęp — Vulture (Orzeł class) interned Sweden
  • ORP Jastrząb — Hawk (British S class)
  • ORP Wilk — Wolf (Wilk class) to reserve 1942
  • ORP Ryś — Lynx (Wilk class) interned Sweden
  • ORP Żbik — Wildcat (Wilk class) interned Sweden
  • ORP Dzik — Boar (British U class) 1942-1946
  • ORP Sokół — Falcon (British U class) 1941-1945
• heavy minelayers:
  • ORP Gryf — Griffin (Gryf class) sunk 1939
• Light minelayers ("ptaszki" — "Birds"):
  • ORP Jaskółka — Swallow, sunk 1939
  • ORP Mewa — Seagull
  • ORP Rybitwa — Tern
  • ORP Czajka — Lapwing
  • ORP Żuraw — Crane
  • ORP Czapla — Heron
• Polish River Fleet

The above list does not include a number of minor ships, transports, merchant-marine auxiliary vessels, and patrol boats.

Polish Forces (East)

Further information: [[:Polish Armed Forces in the East and Air Force of the Polish Army]]

File:Polska Flaga Berlin.jpg

Polish flag over Berlin.

Broadly speaking, there were two formations among the Polish Armed Forces in the East. First was the Polish government-in-exile-loyal Anders Army, created in the second half of 1941 after German invasion of the USSR. In 1943 this formation was transferred to the Western Allies and became known as the Polish II Corps. Additionally, remaining Polish forces in USSR were reorganized into Soviet-controlled Polish I Corps in the Soviet Union, which in turn was reorganized in 1944 into Polish First Army (Berling Army) and Polish Second Army, both part of Polish People's Army (Ludowe Wojsko Polskie, LWP). In 1944, following the Poland's being liberated from the Nazi occupation and communist take over of the country, the Polish People's Army was reorganized into a Poland-based military formation.

In the aftermath of the Operation Barbarossa, Stalin agreed (Sikorski-Mayski Agreement) release tens of thousands of Polish prisoners-of-war held in Soviet camps from whom a military force was formed. The Anders Army, as the formation became known, was loyal to the Polish government in exile, and as such its formation was obstructed by the Soviets. Eventually, with about 40 000 combatants and 70 000 civilians, it was transferred to the British command in the Middle East, becoming the Polish II Corps and part of the Polish Armed Forces in the West.

To utilize the potential of the remaining Polish soldiers in USSR, without repeating the previous mistake which allowed Anders Army to leave USSR, the Soviet Union created a Union of Polish Patriots (ZPP) in 1943 as communist puppet counter-government[12] to the Polish government in exile. At the same time a parallel army (Polish People's Army or LWP) was created which by the end of the war numbered about 200,000 troops. There pro-Soviet Polish resistance Armia Ludowa was integrated with Polish People's Army at the end of the war. These Soviet-created Polish army units on the Eastern Front included the First, the Second and the Third Polish Armies (the latter was later merged with the second), and Air Force of the Polish Army with 10 infantry divisions, 5 armored brigades and 4 divisions of air force.

The Polish First Army was integrated in the 1st Belorussian Front with which it entered Poland from the Soviet territory in 1944. Ordered to hold position by the Soviet leadership, it did not advance towards Warsaw as Germans suppressed the Warsaw Uprising. It took part in battles for Bydgoszcz, Kolobrzeg (Kolberg), Gdańsk (Danzig) and Gdynia losing 20,000 people in the winter of 1944-45 battles. In April-May 1945 the 1st Army fought in the final capture of Berlin. The Polish Second Army fought within the Soviet 1st Ukrainian Front and took part in the Prague Offensive. In the final operations of the war the losses of the two armies of the LWP amounted to 32,000.

Battles

File:Dziekujemy Wam Polacy.jpg

In Polish (top): "Thank you, Poles." in Dutch (bottom): "Freed by the Poles." Liberation of Breda, Netherlands, 1944.

Major battles and campaigns in which Polish regular forces took part:

• Invasion of Poland (1939)
  • Battle of the Bzura River
  • Battle of Tomaszów Lubelski
  • Battle of Kock (1939)
  • Battle of Warsaw (1939)
• British campaign in Norway (Battle of Narvik)
• French Campaign
• Battle of Britain
• Battle of the Atlantic
• Battle of Tobruk
• Operation Jubilee (Battle of Dieppe)
• Battle of Lenino
• Battle of Normandy (D-Day)
• Battle of Monte Cassino
• Battle of Falaise
• Operation Market Garden (Battle of Arnhem: "A Bridge Too Far")
• Battle of Ancona
• Battle of Bologna
• Battle of Berlin
• Prague Offensive
• Polish underground actions:
  • Operation Tempest (Burza)
    • Wilno Uprising
    • Lwów Uprising
    • Warsaw Uprising

Inventions

File:MK III Polish Mine Detector.jpg

Mine detector (Polish) Mark I

• Replicas of the German Enigma cipher machine had been produced at the start of 1933 to the specifications of Polish mathematician-cryptologist Marian Rejewski, and two machines of the current model were given to the British and French just before the outbreak of war in 1939. Rejewski and his two cryptologist colleagues also invented the cryptological bomb, perforated Zygalski sheets, and other techniques and devices for breaking Enigma ciphers.
• Józef Kosacki invented the Polish mine detector, which would be used by the Allies throughout the war.
• The Vickers Tank Periscope MK.IV was invented by engineer Rudolf Gundlach and patented in 1936 as the Gundlach Peryskop obrotowy. It was copied by the British and used in most tanks of WW II, including the Soviet T-34, the British Crusader, Churchill, Valentine and Cromwell, and the American M4 Sherman. The main advantage of this periscope was that the tank commander no longer had to turn his head in order to look backwards. The design was also later used extensively by the Germans.
• A bomb-hatch system was invented by Władysław Świątecki in the 1930s and was used in the prewar Polish PZL.37 Łoś (Elk) bomber. In 1940 Świątecki turned his invention over to the British, who used it in most British bombers. In 1943, an updated version was created by Jerzy Rudlicki for the American B-17 Flying Fortress.
• A rubber windshield wiper was invented by the Polish pianist Józef Hofmann.
• Henryk Magnuski, a Polish engineer working for Motorola, in 1940 invented the SCR-300 radio, the first small radio receiver/transmitter to have manually-set frequencies. It was used extensively by the American Army and was nicknamed the walkie-talkie.
• The Polish Home Army was probably the only WWII resistance movement to manufacture large quantities of weaponry and munitions. In addition to pre-war designs like Vis pistol, there were also the Błyskawica, Bechowiec, KIS and Polski Sten machine pistols, designed and produced by the underground facilities. In addition, large amounts of filipinka and sidolówka hand grenades were developed and manufactured in the underground. Finally, during the Warsaw Uprising Polish engineers built several armoured cars which also took part in the fighting.

References

• Władysław Anders: An Army in Exile: The Story of the Second Polish Corps, 1981, ISBN 0-89839-043-5.
• Margaret Brodniewicz-Stawicki: For Your Freedom and Ours: The Polish Armed Forces in the Second World War, Vanwell Publishing, 1999, ISBN 1-55125-035-7.
• Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski: Secret Army, Battery Press, 1984, ISBN 0-89839-082-6.
• George F. Cholewczynski (1993). Poles Apart. Sarpedon Publishers. ISBN 1-85367-165-7.
• George F. Cholewczynski (1990). De Polen Van Driel. Uitgeverij Lunet. ISBN 90-71743-10-1.
• Jerzy B. Cynk: The Polish Air Force at War: The Official History, 1939-1943, Schiffer Publishing, 1998, ISBN 0-7643-0559-X.
• Jerzy B. Cynk: The Polish Air Force at War: The Official History, 1943-1945, Schiffer Publishing, 1998, ISBN 0-7643-0560-3.
• Robert Gretzyngier: Poles in Defence of Britain, London 2001, ISBN 1904943055
• Norman Davies: Rising '44: The Battle for Warsaw, Viking Books, 2004, ISBN 0-670-03284-0.
• Norman Davies, God's Playground, Oxford University Press, 1981
• Lynne Olson, Stanley Cloud: A Question of Honor: The Kosciuszko Squadron: Forgotten Heroes of World War II, Knopf, 2003, ISBN 0-375-41197-6.
• Józef Garliński: Poland in the Second World War, Hippocrene Books, 1987, ISBN 0-87052-372-4.
• Jan Karski: Story of a Secret State, Simon Publications, 2001, ISBN 1-931541-39-6.
• Jan Koniarek, Polish Air Force 1939-1945, Squadron/Signal Publications, 1994, ISBN 0-89747-324-8.
• Stefan Korboński, Zofia Korbońska, F. B. Czarnomski: Fighting Warsaw: the Story of the Polish Underground State, 1939-1945, Hippocrene Books, 2004, ISBN 0-7818-1035-3.
• Władysław Kozaczuk, Enigma: How the German Machine Cipher Was Broken, and How It Was Read by the Allies in World War Two, edited and translated by Christopher Kasparek, University Publications of America, 1984, ISBN 0-89093-547-5. (This remains the standard reference on the Polish part in the Enigma-decryption epic.)
• Władysław Kozaczuk, Jerzy Straszak: Enigma: How the Poles Broke the Nazi Code, Hippocrene Books; February 1 2004, ISBN 0-7818-0941-X.
• Michael Alfred Peszke, Battle for Warsaw, 1939-1944, East European Monographs, 1995, ISBN 0-88033-324-3.
• Michael Alfred Peszke, Poland's Navy, 1918-1945, Hippocrene Books, 1999, ISBN 0-7818-0672-0.
• Michael Alfred Peszke, The Polish Underground Army, the Western Allies, and the Failure of Strategic Unity in World War II, foreword by Piotr S. Wandycz, Jefferson, NC, McFarland & Company, 2005, ISBN 0-7864-2009-X. Google Print
• Polish Air Force Association: Destiny Can Wait: The Polish Air Force in the Second World War, Battery Press, 1988, ISBN 0-89839-113-X.
• Harvey Sarner: Anders and the Soldiers of the Second Polish Corps, Brunswick Press, 1998, ISBN 1-888521-13-9.
• Stanisław Sosabowski: Freely I Served, Battery Press Inc, 1982, ISBN 0-89839-061-3.
• E. Thomas Wood, Stanislaw M. Jankowski: Karski: How One Man Tried to Stop the Holocaust, Wiley, 1996, ISBN 0-471-14573-4.
• Steven J. Zaloga: Poland 1939: The Birth of Blitzkrieg, Osprey Publishing, 2004, ISBN 1-84176-408-6.
• Steven J. Zaloga: The Polish Army 1939-1945, Osprey Publishing, 1982, ISBN 0-85045-417-4.
• Adam Zamoyski: The Forgotten Few: The Polish Air Force in the Second World War, Pen & Sword Books, 2004, ISBN 1-84415-090-9.

See also

• History of Poland (1939–1945)
• List of Polish armies in World War II
• List of Polish divisions in World War II
• Polish Secret State
• Polish government in Exile
• Western betrayal
• Many books and articles on Soviet and Polish tanks and armor by author and military historian Janusz Magnuski
• Blackhawk (comics)

External links

• Military contribution of Poland to World War II, Polish Ministry of Defence official page
• Polish contribution to the Allied victory in World War 2 (1939-1945), PDF at the site of Polish Embassy (Canada)
• The Poles on the Fronts of WW2
• Polish units in defence of France, 1939-1940
• Polish Squadrons Remembered
• Veterans Monument in Buffalo, NY
• The History Of Poland: The Second World War
• Gilbert J. Mros: This V-E Day say 'dziekuje' to the Poles
• Listen to Lynn Olsen & Stanley Cloud, authors of "A Question of Honor," speak about the "Kościuszko" Squadron and Polish contribution to World War II here.
• Captain Kazimierz DUDA - 1st Polish Armoured Division - C.K.M.