Anders' Army

Popular name given to the 2nd Polish Corps which fought in the Italian campaign under the command of General Wladyslaw Anders (1892–1970).

After the German attack on the Soviet Union in June 1941, the signing of the Polish–Soviet Treaty (, 2) provided for the release of all Polish citizens (an estimated 1.5 million) held captive by the Soviet authorities and for the formation of Polish military units on Soviet soil. To command the new force the Polish C-in-C, General Sikorski, chose Anders, a cavalry officer, who had been wounded and captured during the Polish campaign and later held in Moscow's Lubianka prison. Only army units were to be organized on Soviet soil (navy and air force personnel were to be sent to the UK). It was agreed that these would owe allegiance to the Polish government-in-exile in London (, 2(e)) but would be under Soviet operational control. They were to be armed and supplied by the Soviets, partly using Lend-Lease supplies. A full military agreement was signed in Moscow on 14 August and a Polish headquarters established at Buzuluk on 18 August.

Once news spread that the army was forming, Poles began to flood from all parts of the Soviet Union to join up. Most were in the last stages of hunger and exhaustion, and many did not survive the long journeys. By mid-October 1941 some 25,000 officers and men had enlisted. Recruits were directed to the 5th Infantry Division forming at Tatishchevo on the River Volga, and the 6th Division at Totsk. In the early part of 1942 the Polish forces moved to locations near the Chinese and Afghan borders. Most of the camps they occupied were in the Uzbek Republic, with headquarters at Jangi-Jul, situated between Samarkand and Tashkent.

Towards the end of 1941 Polish–Soviet relations began to sour. Anders insisted that he would not send any of his units to the Russian front unless they were fully armed and supplied. The Soviet government for its part refused to allow recruitment to the Polish units of Ukrainians, Belorussians, and Jews from the Polish eastern provinces occupied by the Red Army in 1939. Evidence reached the Polish authorities of Soviet reluctance to release Poles in some areas. Moreover, there was great concern about the non-appearance of several thousand Polish officers known to have been captured by the Red Army in 1939.

In December 1941 Sikorski, as head of the Polish government-in-exile, visited Moscow to discuss these and other difficulties with Stalin. It was agreed that the Poles could form six divisions of some 11,000 men each, with a reserve of 30,000 (i.e. some 96,000 men in all). Subsequently, however, Soviet attitudes hardened. On 18 March 1942 when the strength of the army had reached 72,000, Stalin told Anders that owing to supply difficulties the Polish force would have to be cut to 44,000 men. As a result of this decision, a partial evacuation of some 33,000 troops was made to British control in Persia, transports crossing the Caspian Sea from Krasnovodsk to Pahlevi. When it became clear that the Soviets were not going to arm more than one division, Anders, who had never trusted Stalin's good intentions, evacuated the remaining 44,000 troops, plus large numbers of civilian dependants, in August. This exodus brought further evidence of the GUlag and the system of forced labour it employed.

Once they had crossed the border into Persia, Anders' units were merged with Polish units in the Middle East and came under the command of the British Persia and Iraq Force. A corps was formed which incorporated General Kopański'sCarpathian Brigade. The 2nd Polish Corps was structured along British lines and during 1942–3, as part of Paiforce, took on the role of defending the Iraqi oilfields, whilst engaging in intensive training and manoeuvres. In August 1943 the corps was transferred to Palestine where more than 3,000 out of the 4,000 soldiers of Jewish origin became deserters. Many of them, including Menachem Begin, joined underground terrorist organizations. In November it moved to Egypt, where it made final preparations for taking part in the Italian campaign. At this point the corps included the 3rd Carpathian Rifle Division, the 5th Border Infantry Division, two armoured brigades, an artillery group, and a reconnaissance regiment, with communications, sapper battalions, and so on. It numbered some 52,000 men.

During the first weeks of 1944, the 2nd Polish Corps became involved in the Italian campaign, where it came under the operational command of the British Eighth Army. It was based initially in the River Sangro area and in May, along with the British 10th and 13th Corps, took part in the final, successful Monte Cassino battle. After a week of fighting, Polish troops eventually stormed the monastery, moving on to dislodge a further German stronghold at Piedimonte. The defeat of the German stronghold at Cassino opened the road north to Rome, but in June the Poles were directed east to the Adriatic coast. They took a leading part in the battles for Ancona (July 1944), against the Gothic Line, and for Pescara and Faenza, and in April 1945 they took Bologna, in the last major battle of the Italian campaign. In a tribute to the Poles, Lt-General McCreery pointed out that the corps had faced three of the Germans' best divisions and had pushed them back. In the process, though, they suffered more than 11,000 casualties.

At the end of the war General Anders' troops were engaged in occupation duties in Italy. Their presence proved something of a magnet for the many displaced Poles and released Polish prisoners-of-war who found themselves in Austria or southern Germany. Anders and the majority of his men were bitterly opposed to the Teheran–Yalta accords, under which Poland was apportioned to the Soviet sphere of influence. They refused to return to Poland under communist rule, and in late 1946 were transported to the UK where they were demobilized. In September 1946 the provisional government in Warsaw stripped Anders and 75 other officers of their Polish citizenship—in Anders' case, for ‘conducting abroad activities detrimental to the Polish State’.