Blue Army (Poland)

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For other uses, see Blue Army (disambiguation).

Blue Army
Haller's Army
Błękitna Armia
Armée bleue
Józef Haller von Hallenburg
GeneralLouis Archinard

The Blue Army (

Józef Haller von Hallenburg himself to represent all newly organized Polish Legions
fighting in western Europe.

The army was formed on 4 June 1917, and was made up of Polish volunteers serving alongside allied forces in France during World War I. After fighting on the Western Front, the army was transferred to Poland where it joined other Polish military formations fighting for the return of Poland's independence. The Blue Army played a pivotal role in ensuring Polish victory in the Polish–Ukrainian War, and later Haller's troops took part in Poland's defeat of the advancing Bolshevik forces in the Polish–Soviet War.

History

Color portraits on front cover of a magazine
The leaders of the Polish armies

Background

Canadian origins

Beginning in 1914, the Polish community in North America began to organize in hopes of setting up a military organization with an end-goal of an independent Poland. In late 1914 a delegation was sent by the Polish-American group PCKR (Polski Centralny Komitet Ratunkowy / Polish Central Relief Committee) to

Americans viewed it as a threat to their neutrality.[4]

America enters the war

The emergence of the Blue Army was closely associated with the

Polish National Committee formed in France (led by Dmowski) as Poland's interim government, with Wilson's written promise (issued on 8 January 1918) to recreate a sovereign Polish state after their victory. Poland's long-term occupier, Tsarist Russia, got out of the war, overrun by the Bolsheviks who signed a treaty in Brest-Litovsk on 3 March 1918, which was voided after Imperial Germany was overthrown in November 1918 and the successor revolutionary government surrendered in the 11 November 1918 armistice.[7]

Komitet Narodowy Polski (Polish National Committee) sanctioned by France and other Western Allies
as a provisional Polish government in Paris, 1918
Flag offered to the Polish Army in France from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The Blue Army was formally merged into the Polish Army after

Lemberg, and the battle for the control of the city erupted against Piłsudski's legionaries.[9] It was a high-stakes gamble with all sides attempting to establish a new regime ahead of the European peace conference in Versailles of January 1919. Similar Polish uprisings erupted in Poznań on 27 December 1918,[9] Upper Silesia in August 1919 then again in 1920 and May 1921 — separated by the ad-hoc (or outright illegitimate) plebiscites with trainloads of German agents acting as local inhabitants.[7] In the spring of 1919, the Blue Army (no longer needed in the West) was transported to Poland by train. The German forces were very slow to withdraw.[9] In all, some 2,100 soldiers of the Blue Army who enlisted in France from the Polish diasporas died in the fighting, including over 50 officers serving with Haller. Over 1,600 men were wounded.[6] Haller's army included 25,000 ethnic Poles drafted against their will by the German and Austrian armies, out of 50,000 conscripts from across partitioned Poland. They joined Haller from the POW camps in Italy in 1919.[9] The final borders of Poland were set only in October, 1921 by the League of Nations.[7]

World War I

Western Front

Soldiers of the 5th Rifle Division in Siberia, c.1919

The first divisions were formed after the official signing of a 1917 alliance by French President

Polish-American volunteers and former troops of the Russian Expeditionary Force in France. Members of the Polish diaspora community in Brazil
joined the army, with more than 300 men volunteering as well.

The Blue Army was initially placed under direct French military control and commanded by General

Vosges mountains. By October, the entire 1st Rifle Division had joined the campaign around the area of Rambervillers and Raon-l'Étape
.

Transfer to Poland

American recruitment poster for the Polish Army in France by W.T. Benda.

The army continued to gather recruits after the end of World War I. Many of these new volunteers were ethnic Poles who were conscripted into the German, Austrian and Russian armies, and later discharged following the signing of the

armistice agreement on 11 November 1918. By early 1919, the Blue Army numbered 68,500 men and was fully equipped by the French government. After being denied permission by German officials to enter Poland via the Baltic port city of Danzig (Gdańsk
), transportation was arranged via rail.

Between April and June of that year, all the army units were moved to a

Galicia
. The perilous journey from France (through revolutionary Germany) to Poland in the spring of 1919 was documented by those who lived through it.

Captain Stanisław I. Nastal: Preparations for the departure lasted for some time. The question of transit became a difficult and complicated problem. Finally after a long wait a decision was made and officially agreed upon between the Allies and Germany. The first transports with the Blue Army set out in the first half of April, 1919. Train after train tore along though Germany to the homeland, to Poland.[10]

Major Stefan Wyczółkowski: On 15 April 1919 the regiment began its trip to Poland from the Bayon railroad station in four transports, via Mainz, Erfurt, Leipzig, Kalisz, and Warsaw, and arrived in Poland, where it was quartered in individual battalions; in Chełm 1st Battalion, supernumerary company and command of the regiment; 3rd Battalion in Kowel; and the 2nd Battalion in Wlodzimierz.[11]

Major Stanisław Bobrowski: On 13 April 1919 the regiment set out across Germany for Poland, to reinforce other units of the Polish army being created in the homeland amid battle, shielding with their youthful breasts the resurrected Poland.[12]

Major Jerzy Dąbrowski: Finally on 18 April 1919 the regiment's first transport set out for Poland. On 23 April 1919 the leading divisions of the 3rd Regiment of Polish Riflemen set foot on Polish soil, now free thanks to their own efforts.[13]

Lt. Wincenty Skarzyński: Weeks passed. April 1919 arrived – then plans were changed: it was decided irrevocably to transport our army to Gdańsk instead by trains, through Germany. Many officers came from Poland, among them Major Gorecki, to coordinate technical details with General Haller.[14]

Polish–Ukrainian War

Lwów (Lviv); Polish–Ukrainian War
, c.1919

Haller's troops changed the balance of power in

Western Ukrainian People's Republic specifically contradicted the status of the French military advisors, but the demands were ignored.[15][16] The offensive by the Blue Army succeeded in breaking the stalemate and brought about a collapse of the West Ukrainian army. In July 1919, after securing victory on the Ukrainian front, the Blue Army was transferred to the border with Germany in Silesia
, where it prepared defensive positions against a possible German invasion of Poland from the west.

Polish–Bolshevik War

During the

FT-17 tanks, also played a significant role in the war. The Polish-American first engaged the Bolshevik forces near the town of Rivne (Równe in Polish) on 18 June 1919. After pushing the Bolsheviks east, the Blue Army advance halted and the troops engaged in small skirmishes until the end of the war. Haller's troops would try to entrap small units of Bolshevik soldiers as well as raid garrisons for food, ammunition and to spread panic amongst the enemy.[17]

Post-war

Blue Army's monument in the Żoliborz district of Warsaw
Uniform of a Blue Army officer (right)

The Blue Army's 15th Infantry Rifle Regiment formed a basis for the 49th Hutsul Rifle Regiment (part of the 11th Carpathian Infantry Division) after the end of World War I.

During the

Polish-Soviet War and the Blue Army was censored, distorted and repressed by the Soviet authorities
.

Anti-Jewish violence

Throughout the fighting on the Ukrainian front, soldiers from the Blue Army assaulted local Jews, believing that some of them were cooperating with Poland's enemies.[18][19][20] In eastern Galicia this included fighting a Jewish battalion of the Ukrainian Galician Army under the leadership of Solomon Leinberg.[21][22]

On 27 May 1919 a soldier by the name of Stanisław Dziadecki who served in one of the Blue Army's rifle divisions in Częstochowa, was shot and wounded while on patrol. A Jewish tailor was suspected of the shooting, and was promptly executed by Haller's soldiers and accompanying civilians, who proceeded to loot Jewish homes and businesses, killing 5-10 Jews and injuring several dozen more.[23][24] Pavel Korzec wrote that as the army traveled further east, some of Haller's soldiers, as a way to exact retribution, continued to loot Jewish properties and engage in violence.[25] Willian Hagen described Haller's troops together with civilian mobs as assaulting Jewish policemen, beating worshipers and destroying Jewish prayer books in synagogues in eastern Chełm. Polish police and regular army soldiers were occasionally able to restrain Haller's troops.[26]

According to Howard Sachar, in the year and a half prior to the Blue Army's arrival, the total number of Jewish casualties in the region was between 400 and 500; Haller's troops' violence caused this number to double.[27] The Morgenthau Report estimated that the total number of Jews killed as a result of actions made by the Polish military (including the Blue Army) did not exceed 200–300.[28] As a result of the Blue Army's activities, General Haller's visit to the United States was met with protests from American Jewish and Ukrainian communities.[29][30] Tadeusz Piotrowski wrote that in most cases it's impossible to disentangle gratuitous antisemitism from commonplace looting and soldier brutality. He claims that the term "pogrom" in the accepted sense of the deliberate killing of Jewish civilians could not be applied to the great majority of the incidents in which the Blue Army was involved.[31]

Causes

According to Alexander Prusin there were a number of causes for the anti-semitic acts of the Polish forces. Socioeconomic tensions regarding land reforms and conflation of Jews with the landed class led to the feelings of hostility. Also, the lack of appropriate government compensation to the Polish soldiers led to soldiers viewing the looting of Jews as partial re-compensation for their service. For soldiers from Western Poland who remembered how many Jews have previously collaborated with Germany during a recent Polish-German conflict in 1919, this allowed framing of anti-semitic attacks as retribution on enemies of the Polish nation. Further, for many Poles Jews were associated with Bolshevism, and the Endeks in particular promoted the stereotype of Jewish Bolshevism.[32] Likewise, according to Joanna Michlic, some perpetrators of anti-Jewish violence legitimized their actions in the name of national self defense. Officers and soldiers in the Blue Army expressed these tendencies, and often treated all Jews as communists, despite the traditional religious character and political diversity of Jewish communities.[33] Some of the more significant incidents of abuse were inflicted by the Polish-American volunteers. It is likely that the cultural shock of finding themselves confronted by a multitude of unfamiliar ethnic, political and religious groups that inhabited Western Ukraine led to a feeling of vulnerability, that in turn provoked the violent outbursts. Encyclopaedia Judaica writes that because of its French ties the Blue Army enjoyed independence from the main Polish command, and some of its soldiers exploited this when engaging in undisciplined action against Jewish communities in Galicia.[34]

Personnel

Veteran status of Polish-American volunteers

After the war, the

Polish-American volunteers who served within Haller's Army were not recognized as veterans by either the American or Polish governments. This led to friction between the Polish community in the United States and the Polish government, and resulted in the subsequent refusal by Polish-Americans to again help the Polish cause militarily.[35]

  • Polish Veterans Association Convention Cleveland Ohio 1921
    Polish Veterans Association Convention Cleveland Ohio 1921
  • Polish Veterans Association Elizabeth City New Jersey 1928
    Polish Veterans Association Elizabeth City New Jersey 1928
  • Polish-Americans who fought in the Blue Army. Image taken in Detroit, Michigan (1955) and featured in Life Magazine
    Life Magazine

Jewish volunteers

Polish Jews enlisted and fought alongside ethnic Poles within the Blue Army, serving as soldiers,[36][37] doctors and nurses.[38][25][39] According to Edward Goldstein writing in The Galitzianer, on examining a list of 1,381 casualty names compiled by Paul Valasek, he identified 62 (or approximately 5%) Jewish sounding names in the list.[38]

Notable persons

Ludwik Marian Kaźmierczak the paternal grandfather of the German chancellor Angela Merkel, in Blue Army uniform, 1919
  • Ludwik Marian Kaźmierczak, the paternal grandfather of the German chancellor Angela Merkel,[40] and an ethnic Pole born in Posen (Poznań), German Empire served in the Blue Army. During World War I, he was drafted into the German Army in 1915 and fought on the western front. After being taken as a prisoner of war in France, he joined the Blue Army, and subsequently fought in the Polish-Ukrainian and Polish-Soviet wars. After ending his service Kaźmierczak emigrated back to Germany.[41][42]
  • Stanislaw Jackowski, Commander of the II Batallon of the 1st Tank Regiment.

Order of battle

The order of battle shows the hierarchical organization of an armed force participating in a military operation or campaign. The Blue Army order of battle was as follows:

  • I Polish Corps
    • 1st Rifle Division
    • 2nd Rifle Division
    • 1st Heavy Artillery Regiment
  • II Polish Corps
    • 4th Rifle Division
    • 5th Rifle Division
  • III Polish Corps
    • 3rd Rifle Division
    • 6th Rifle Division
    • 3rd Heavy Artillery Regiment
  • Independent Units
    • 7th Rifle Division
    • 1st Tank Regiment
    • Training Division – cadre
Panoramic picture of men standing to attention
1st Depot Battalion Polish Contingent, Niagara Camp in Ontario Canada, 16 November 1917
Panoramic picture of men standing to attention
'E' Company, 1st Depot Battalion Polish Contingent, Niagara Camp in Ontario Canada, 16 November 1917
Black and white people of people standing in snow
Jan 11, 1918, Polish Blue Army 2nd Depot Battalion Polish Contingent at the Canadian Niagara Camp

See also

Bibliography

Notes

  1. ^ a b Skrzeszewski 2014, p. 3
  2. ^ Skrzeszewski 2014, p. 4
  3. ^ Biskupski 1999, p. 339
  4. ^ a b Hind 2015
  5. ^ Ruskoski 2006
  6. ^
    ISBN 978-0-306-48321-9
    . Retrieved 22 July 2017.
  7. ^
    ISBN 978-0-674-06816-2
    . Retrieved 23 July 2017.
  8. ISBN 9780739188736
    .
  9. ^ a b c d e Reddaway, William Fiddian; Penson, J. H.; Halecki, O.; Dyboski, R., eds. (1971). The Cambridge History of Poland: From Augustus II to Pilsudski (1697–1935). Cambridge University Press Archive. p. 477. GGKEY:2G7C1LPZ3RN.
  10. ^ The Blue Division, Stanislaw I. Nastal, Polish Army Veteran's Association in America, Cleveland, Ohio 1922 [page needed]
  11. ^ Outline of the Wartime History of the 43rd regiment of the Eastern Frontier Riflemen, Major Stefan Wyczolkowski, Warsaw 1928 [page needed]
  12. ^ Outline of the Wartime History of the 44th Regiment of Eastern Frontier Riflemen, Major Stanislaw Bobrowski, Warsaw 1929 [page needed]
  13. ^ Outline of the Wartime History of the 45th Regiment of Eastern Frontier Infantry Riflemen, Major Jerzy Dabrowski, Warsaw 1928 [page needed]
  14. ^ The Polish Army in France in Light of the Facts, Wincenty Skarzynski, Warsaw 1929 [page needed]
  15. ^ Watt, R. (1979). Bitter Glory: Poland and its fate 1918–1939. New York: Simon and Schuster. [page needed]
  16. ISBN 978-0-8020-8390-6
    . Retrieved 23 July 2017.
  17. ^ "The Polish Army in France, Haller Army, Blue Army - Battles in France". www.hallersarmy.com.
  18. ^ Landau, Moshe. "Haller's Army". Encyclopedia Judaica. Archived from the original on 17 July 2011. Retrieved 5 October 2015. Haller's army ("Blue Army"), force of Polish volunteers organized in France during the last year of World War I, responsible for the murder of Jews and anti-Jewish pogroms in Galicia and the Ukraine... Attacks on individual Jews on the streets and highways, murderous pogroms on Jewish settlements, and deliberate provocative acts became commonplace.
  19. ^ Heiko Haumann (2002), A History of East European Jews. Central European University Press; pg. 215, via Google Books. Notes not included.
  20. ^ Carole Fink (2006), Defending the Rights of Others: The Great Powers, the Jews, and International Minority Protection, 1878–1938. Cambridge University Press; pg. 227, via Google Books.
  21. ^ Alexander Victor Prusin (2005). Nationalizing a Borderland: War, Ethnicity, and Anti-Jewish Violence in East Galicia, 1914–1920. Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama
  22. ^ The Ukrainian Quarterly. Ukrainian Congress Committee of America. 1987.
  23. ^ Carole Finke. (2006). Defending the Rights of Others The Great Powers, the Jews, and International Minority Protection, 1878–1938. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pg. 230
  24. ISBN 978-3-643-90287-0
    .
  25. ^ a b Strauss 1993, pp. 1034–1035 footnote 20
  26. ^ William W. Hagen. (2018). Anti-Jewish Violence in Poland, 1914–1920. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp.316-322
  27. ^ Howard M. Sachar. (2007). Dreamland: Europeans and Jews in the Aftermath of the Great War, Random House LLC: page 25.
  28. ^ "The Jews in Poland: official reports of the American and British Investigating Missions". Chicago : National Polish Committee of America. 8 October 2018 – via Internet Archive.
  29. ^ "General Haller's Visit to Boston Curtailed". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. 27 November 1923. Retrieved 22 July 2017.
  30. ^ "Bnai Brith of Boston Decry Reception to Haller". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. 13 November 1923. Retrieved 22 July 2017.
  31. ^ Tadeusz Piotrowski. (1998). Poland's Holocaust: Ethnic Strife, Collaboration with Occupying Forces and Genocide in the Second Republic, 1918–1947, McFarland: page 43.
  32. ISBN 0817314598. Note: the exact phrase 'Blue Army' is not being used
    inside this book. It refers to it as Haller's Army
  33. ^ Joanna B. Michlic. (2006). Poland's threatening other: the image of the Jew from 1880 to the present . University of Nebraska Press, pg. 117
  34. ^ Moshe Landau (2007). Encyclopaedia Judaica. Macmillan Reference Detroit, USA. Volume 8.
  35. ^ Martin Conway, José Gotovitch. (2001). Europe in exile: European exile communities in Britain, 1940–1945. Berghahn Books pg. 191
  36. ISBN 9788391666333
    .
  37. ISBN 9788362076246
    .
  38. ^ a b Goldstein, Edward. Jews in Haller's Army. [1] The Galitzianer, the quarterly journal of Gesher Galicia, May 2002.
  39. ^ Heiko Haumann. (2002). A history of East European Jews Central European University Press, pg. 215
  40. ^ Kanzlerin Angela Merkel ist zu einem Viertel Polin, Die Welt
  41. ^ All in the Family: Chancellor Merkel's Heritage Pleases Poles, Der Spiegel
  42. ^ Merkel's Polish roots emerge in new book, The Local

References

External links
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