Polish People's Army

In spring 1943, after breaking off relations with the Polish government in London, Stalin agreed to the creation of a Polish army subordinate to Moscow. In May 1943 at Sielce on the Oka, under the auspices of the Union of Polish Patriots, the 1st Tadeusz Kościuszko Infantry Division began forming under Colonel Zygmunt Berling. Polish officers were in short supply, so many commanders came from the Red Army. The division first went into action at Lenino on 12–13 October 1943.

In 1944 the 1st and 2nd Polish Armies were formed; the 1st Army tried in September to help the insurgents in Warsaw, fought on the Pomeranian Wall and at Kołobrzeg, and both armies took part in the Berlin offensive. In 1945 this army numbered nearly 400,000 men. The ‘People’s’ label came from communist propaganda; to the London government it was a Polish-speaking formation at the side of the Red Army.