Anders' Army

General Wladyslaw Anders and the Polish Second Corps, 1941-46

Evan McGilvray

• Publisher: Pen & Sword Military
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781473889750
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: World War II
• Index: History

Along with thousands of his compatriots, Wladyslaw Anders was imprisoned by the Soviets when they attacked Poland with their German allies in 1939. They endured terrible treatment until the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 suddenly put Stalin in the Allied camp, after which they were evacuated to Iran and formed into the Polish Second Corps under Anders command.Once equipped and trained, the corps was eventually committed to the Italian campaign, notably at Monte Cassino. The author assesses Anders performance as a military commander, finding him merely adequate, but his political role was more significant and caused friction in the Allied camp. From the start he often opposed Sikorski, the Polish Prime Minister in exile and Commander in Chief of Polish armed forces in the West. Indeed, Anders was suspected of collusion in Sikorskis death in July 1943 and of later sending Polish death squads into Poland to eliminate opponents, charges that Evan McGilvray investigates. Furthermore, Anders voiced his deep mistrust of Stalin and urged a war against the Soviets after the defeat of Hitler.

Chapter 1

General Władysław Anders,
Origins and the Polish Army, 1892–1939

The future General Anders was born on 11 August 1892 near Warsaw. Anders, like a number of twentieth-century Polish military heroes actually had little Polish blood in him and, in his case, originated from German stock; hence his rather un-Polish family name. Furthermore, unlike most Poles he was born into a Protestant family rather than Catholic, as many Poles were and remain so. At the time of Anders’ birth there was no Polish state as it had been wiped from the world map in 1795, a result of annexation and division by the three east-central European empires of Austria, Prussia (after 1870 Germany) and Russia. Anders was born in the Russian sector of Poland. His family were unassuming people and there was nothing in his background which may have pointed towards the leader he became, or the controversy which he was to provoke. As Anders and Poland grew together, they were both shaped by the events of the twentieth century.

Anders’ father, Albert, was an estate manager and at the time of Anders’ birth was running an estate near Warsaw. He later moved to manage a large estate for Prince Vasilchikov at Taurogi, north of the river Niemen, today in Lithuania. During this period the young Władysław Anders remained in Warsaw where he was educated in a local grammar school. In 1909 at the age of 17 Anders had completed his secondary education. There was a slight shadow cast over the early years of Anders however, as under Imperial Russian rule, most young men who were subjects of the Russian Emperor, the Tsar (in 1909, the ruler was Tsar Nicholas II), were required to serve in the Russian Army once they reached the age of 21 years. Young men were conscripted to serve for a period of three years’ compulsory military service in the army, however this could be reduced by volunteering to serve immediately after leaving secondary education. If a youngster volunteered to serve the three-year compulsory term was reduced to a single year of military service. This meant that after completing their year of voluntary service young men were free to attend university without any interruption, having already completed their obligations regarding military service. Many young men from Polish families took this step and Anders was no exception.

At the end of September 1910 Anders, as a volunteer, joined a cavalry regiment, the 3rd Novorossiysk Dragoons in Kownie, close to where his father was working. Anders was quickly sent to the regimental school for the training of non-commissioned officers (NCO). In April 1911 he was promoted to the rank of corporal and by June 1911 he had finished his training at the school. During September 1911 Anders passed the examinations necessary to qualify as a reserve cadet officer in the 3rd Cavalry Division. On 1 October 1911 he was released from his obligations to serve in the Russian military and was placed on the army reserve list as a cadet officer. After this and for the next three years, Anders studied mechanical engineering at Riga Technical University. In 1912 however, an incident occurred which was to have a profound effect on the remainder of Anders’ life: he saved the lives of two generals when the horses pulling their coach bolted. As panic set in Anders stepped up to the plate and was able to get to the horses and bring them back under control. One of the generals in the coach, General Pavel Rennenkampf, a Russian general despite his clearly German surname, told Anders that if he was ever in any difficulty he was to get in touch with him.

When it became likely that Russia might go to war during the summer of 1914 Anders took Rennenkampf at his word. Anders was recalled to serve in the Russian Army on 23 July 1914, but instead of a chance of action he was told to report to a horse-drawn supply unit which brought provisions to Rennenkampf ’s Army. Anders immediately telegraphed Rennenkampf about his posting. Rennenkampf changed the order and Anders got what he desired: a posting to a front-line cavalry regiment, the 3rd Dragoon Regiment, IV Cavalry Corps of the Russian First Army which Anders joined on 23 September 1914. Very soon Anders was in the thick of the fighting of the 1914 Eastern Front and perhaps like many young men and soldiers, seeking glory.

Anders was wounded for the first time on 20 November 1914 when he received a head wound while on patrol at Szelnihem. He seems to have recovered quickly as by the beginning of 1915 he was back with his regiment on the Baltic coast operating on the northern flank of the eastern Front. However, from the middle of February 1915 until the beginning of May 1915, Anders was hospitalised. It is not clear why but as he had not been wounded again it can be assumed that he was ill.

Anders was wounded once more during an enemy artillery attack in the area of the village of Litowież. The exploding shells threw up earth and wrecked houses which showered Anders with debris including bricks; he suffered wounds to his head, chest and right leg. This time Anders was in hospital until the end of August 1915. During the period of May to August 1915 Anders was decorated three times for his services. This was the beginning of a rapid rise in his military career. In addition to being thrice decorated, Anders received further kudos when he captured the German general, Generalmajor Siegfried Fabarius (1853–1915) who was the Commander of 82nd Reserve Division, Imperial German Army. Anders’ capture of Fabarius was recognised and he was awarded the Order of Saint George. He was also yet again wounded. Fabarius died while in Russian captivity; clearly he was an elderly man for a soldier and should not have been at the Front at the age of 62 years, but during the First World War such elderly men were indeed serving as senior officers on both sides.

While Anders was away from the Front a combined Austrian–German offensive had begun in the east and by August 1915, much of what is today Poland, had fallen into the hands of the Germans and Austrians. The Polish towns and cities of Warsaw, Lublin and Brześć had been captured in August; in September both Grodno and Wilno (today Vilnius, capital of Lithuania) had fallen. After these losses the Eastern Front became more static and Anders became part of an operation that held a line which ran from Riga along the Dzwiny River to Dyneburg, crossing Lake Narocz around Baranowicz and Pińsk along the Styr River and finishing around Czerniowiec. This represented the Eastern Front until February 1918. However life and events were about to prove more fruitful and interesting for Anders who, after three wounds and being promoted to the rank of captain, left the frontline to attend staff college in St Petersburg, or Petrograd as it was known by 1916.

It was rare for a Pole to be allowed to attend staff college while serving in the Russian Army as there were certain discriminations practised within the Russian Army and Russian society in general. As we have seen however, Anders was hardly a Pole and was Protestant not Catholic, so he could attend staff college. The Russian Empire itself was in turmoil owing to the War and in March 1917 the monarchy collapsed with the abdication of Nicholas II; the first revolution in Russia of 1917 served both Anders and Poland well as separate Polish units were formed within the Russian Army at that time. As a result, Anders joined First Polish Corps in Bobruisk and was given the command of 1st Krechowicki Lancers. Following the second Russian revolution of 1917, the Bolshevik revolution during November, and the subsequent peace treaty signed between the new Russian state and Germany in March 1918, which saw Russia leave the war, First Polish Corps was disbanded. Anders, as with other officers, now more or less unemployed, made their way to Warsaw (which was still in German hands) during Spring 1918.1

Luckily Polish historiography puts some flesh on the bare bones of Anders’ career between 1918 and 1920. Anders, as we have seen, joined First Polish Corps which had actually grown out of the Dowbór-Muśnicki Corps which was basically a formation of Polish troops serving in the Russian Army even before the February 1917 Revolution in Russia. Its founder, a Pole but a senior commander of the Russian Army, General Józef Dowbór-Muśnicki, took full advantage of the weaknesses of the Russian state as war and revolution took their toll, and gathered Polish troops around him in preparation to strike a blow for Polish independence. On 23 August 1917 this formation had developed and was established and named as First Polish Corps. By January 1918 it had evolved into three divisions based in modern Belarus.2

1918 was a pivotal year for Poland as it led to the creation of the modern Polish state. Once Russia had withdrawn from the war however, it seemed unlikely that this would actually happen. The Russian withdrawal allowed the Germans to move troops from the Eastern Front and commence operations on the western Front in France. The timely arrival of American forces in France prevented a German breakthrough, while in both Germany and Austria domestic discontent blew into full-blown revolts and mutinies. The Bolsheviks may have been put out of the war during Spring 1918, but as winter beckoned that year, cold and hungry people in Germany and Austria threatened the perceived stability in those two lands while the spectre of Bolshevik revolution was never far away. During late autumn 1918 both the Austrian and German monarchies collapsed and on 11 November 1918 fighting on the Western Front stopped. Out of the shambles of the First World War emerged new east-central European states including Poland, which declared its independence on 11 November 1918.

A consequence of the rapid collapse of traditional authority in east-central Europe was a free-for-all as the newly emerging nations began to make land grabs as they tried to establish their frontiers before peace treaties dictated where new boundaries might actually lie. Poland was no exception and fought a war against Ukraine, which was also trying to establish its own western borders at the expense of Poland. During the period of late 1918 and early 1919, Poland, as with most east-central European states, did not have a formal army but instead relied on local militias as well as troops returning from the various fronts of the 1914–1918 War.

On the whole Polish forces were quite successful and during 1920 advanced into Ukraine as far as the capital, Kiev. Then the Soviets or Bolsheviks, sensing danger to their revolution as well as seeking an opportunity to spread their doctrine following the concept of ‘world revolution’, counter-attacked the invading Polish Army. The Soviet counter-offensive was so effective that by August 1920, the Red Army was at the gates of Warsaw itself. It seemed that the fledgling Polish state was doomed to return to Russian or Soviet rule once more. It is at Warsaw that once more we can pick up the traces of Anders’ career because he was seriously wounded in his legs while leading an attack against a Bolshevik offensive on 29 July 1920. For his actions on that day Anders was awarded the Virtuti Militari.3

The Virtuti Militari is often touted by some Poles as the ‘Polish Victoria Cross’ – it is not and is far from it, it has five classes of award with the top award often granted to senior officers for service rather than bravery. It was awarded so often in the Second World War that its value is of little meaning when compared to the Victoria Cross. Indeed the illustrious Polish general, General Stanisław Maczek, was very critical of the devaluation of the decoration.4 Given that Anders was to win the Virtuti Militari (5th Class) once more in 1920, as well as twice receiving the Krzyż Waleczyna (Military Cross) for his actions on 29 July 1920, medal inflation in the Polish Army and later during that period is obvious.5

The Soviet counter-attack and the resulting Battle of Warsaw, against the expectations of the world, saw a Polish victory in August 1920. Soviet forces withdrew from Poland and returned to their own territories. The spread of Bolshevikism had been postponed for a generation. However the Polish victory at Warsaw had consequences which were to be disastrous for Poland and would be felt to at least 1989. But to return to the Anders’ story, by 1921, Anders, now a lieutenant-colonel, was sent on a two-year course at the Ecole de Guerre in Paris. This French military academy was considered to have been the best in the world at the time. The Polish Army had also re-organised along the lines of the French Army and trained under French guidance, so it was a natural step for the Polish High Command to send some of its more able officers to France to become fully conversant with French military doctrine.

Even though on the surface Poland looked as if it was at peace with itself and enjoying democracy, there was a simmering resentment among some of its officer corps who sympathised with Marshal Piłsudski, considered to be the founder of the resurrected Polish state. The consequences alluded to earlier in connection to the Polish victory at Warsaw finally flared up in May 1926 and are the roots of how the modern Polish state was established. The popular Polish myth is that the re-independence of Poland centres on a single figure: Marshal Józef Piłsudski. The title of ‘Marshal’ was honorific, as Piłsudski never received any military training. Indeed the historian, Adam Zamoyski observed that Piłsudski had led an interesting life, having been born a Lithuanian nobleman; he was to become by twists and chances of fate, a terrorist, a Socialist, a train robber and finally a self-appointed military commander.6 John Coutouvidis adds to this assessment of Piłsudski in writing, ‘Józef Piłsudski had personified independent Poland. Successively convicted terrorist, Socialist agitator, cavalry officer, Commander-in-Chief and vanquisher of Trotsky’s Red Army, democratic president and dictator, he became the embodiment of Polish statehood.’7 This was the problem with the post-1918 Polish state; it was founded on a myth.

It is true that Piłsudski, taking advantage of the relatively lax conditions of the Austrian sector of Poland between 1908 and 1914, did establish a paramilitary formation: the ‘riflemen’ or ‘Strzelcy’. However in many ways they were military clowns, poorly armed with out-dated weapons and drilling in the evenings and at weekends. When war broke out in 1914 they went on some farcical adventures worthy of Don Quixote before retreating back into Austrian held Poland. In 1917 Piłsudski was imprisoned by the Germans for refusing to swear an oath of allegiance to them and their allies. Therefore, when Poland achieved independence owing to the collapse of the east-central European imperial system Piłsudski had played very little part in it as he had been in prison in Magdeburg, Germany for the previous eighteen months. It was actually professional soldiers such as Anders and his comrades, who had played a larger part in fighting for Polish independence in 1918, who were responsible for the resurrection of the Polish state, but Piłsudski had charisma and that was what counted.

Piłsudski had schemed and plotted since the turn of the twentieth century to bring about Polish independence and it was only he who could bring the various factions in the re-born Poland together and then override them all. It was through him and the victory at Warsaw, with the belief that the Polish Army had established Polish frontiers, that the Polish Army managed to become the primary political force in Poland by the beginning of 1921. Many in the Polish Army considered that they were owed by the Polish people. Piłsudski and his most loyal supporters, his original comrades from the Strzelcy or the First Brigade, thought that their time had come, but they were to be disappointed.

A source of the disappointment of the First Brigade and for Piłsudski was the 1921 Polish Constitution which called for a democratic Poland, including democratic oversight of the Polish military as well as some restraints on presidential powers. It had been widely considered that Piłsudski would stand for election to the Polish presidency and if he had, without doubt he would have won. However Piłsudski did not like the restrictions imposed on the presidential office, refused to stand, and retreated from public life.

Within the Polish Army with French influence and training, the Polish officer corps began to become more professional. This meant that officers such as Anders, for example, were to have a more prominent role owing to their professional training, while those who had served in Piłsudski’s Brigades felt slighted as they lacked professional qualifications and training which were becoming increasingly important to the professional Polish soldier. A major problem was that a majority of Polish officers had come from the former Imperial Austrian Army and some considered that these ex-Austrian Army veterans had formed a clique within the Polish Army. Those who felt they had forf...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Map
• Chapter 1 General Władysław Anders, Origins and the Polish Army, 1892–1939
• Chapter 2 1939–1941: The Division of Poland and Relations with the Soviet Union
• Chapter 3 Amnesty and Evacuation
• Chapter 4 The Formation of Second Polish Corps
• Chapter 5 Anders and Sikorski, 1942–1943
• Chapter 6 Italy and Monte Cassino
• Chapter 7 Italy after Monte Cassino
• Chapter 8 1945–1948: A New Poland and a Divided Europe
• Chapter 9 Europe and Poland: Immediate Post-War Problems
• Chapter 10 The End: 1947–1970
• Endnotes