The Polish contribution to World War II reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Jul-2004 (provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

Polish contribution to World War II

Beginning the World War II, Poland was invaded and occupied in the Polish September Campaign by the German forces. Poland managed to establish an exile government, an intelligence service and an army outside Poland, contributing to the side of the Allies throughout the war.

Table of contents

1 Army 2 Navy 3 Intelligence 4 Underground 5 Battles 6 Technical inventions 7 See also:

Army

After the defeat in the 1939 campaign, the Polish government in exile immediately organised a new army in France. In 1940 two divisions and a motorized brigade took part in the defense of France, while a mountain brigade took part in the Battle of Narvik. A large contingent of personnel were either interned in Switzerland or died during the fighting; nevertheless Władysław Sikorski was able to evacuate many Polish soldiers to England. In 1941, after an agreement with Stalin, the Soviets released many former Polish citizens, from which a 75,000-strong army was formed in the Middle East under General Wladyslaw Anders, (the so-called Anders' Army).

The Polish army in the west numbered in total 165,000 at the end at the 1944 - including about 20,000 in Polish air forces and 3,000 in the navy. At the end of WWII, the Polish army in the west numbered 195,000 soldiers and increased to 225,000 by July 1945, most of newcomers being released prisoners of war and from labour camps. The communist government organised its own army, the Polish People's Army, which at the end of the war numbered close to 500,000 soldiers. In addition, the Armia Krajowa ("Home Army"; abbreviated "AK"), the Polish resistance forces in Poland itself, at their peak numbered around 200,000 regular soldiers and many more conspirators and sympathizers.

Polish air forces fought in the Battle of France (133 pilots - they achieved 55 victories and lost 15 men). Later Polish pilots fought in the Battle of Britain where the Polish 303 Fighter Squadron would have the highest number of kills of any Allied squadron; the Polish Air Force fought also in Tunisia (Skalski circus), and during raids on Germany. At the end at the war there were about 12,000 Polish airmen in the RAF (15 squadrons in total) and USAAF.

Polish army units on the Eastern Front included the 1st Polish Army and the 2nd Polish Army, with 10 infantry divisions and 5 armoured brigades.

Navy

A large portion of the Polish Navy was destroyed during the September campaign. However, the majority of large ships in the Polish Navy continued to fight in cooperation with the British Fleet. At different stages of the war, it consisted of 2 cruisers and large number of smaller ships, including 3 destroyers and 2 submarines, that escaped from the Baltic Sea in 1939.

• Cruisers:
  • ORP Dragon
  • ORP Conrad
• Destroyers:
  • ORP Blyskawica (Lightning)
  • ORP Grom (Thunder)
  • ORP Burza (Storm)
  • ORP Garland
  • ORP Orkan
  • OF Ouragan (Hurricane)
  • ORP Piorun (Thunderbolt)
• Escort destroyers
  • ORP Krakowiak
  • ORP Kujawiak
  • ORP Ślązak
• Submarines:
  • ORP Orzeł (Eagle)
  • ORP Wilk (Wolf)
  • ORP Dzik (Warthog)
  • ORP Jastrząb (Hawk)
  • ORP Sokół (Falcon)

This list does not include several other minor ships, transport ships, merchant marine auxiliary vessels and reconnaissance boats.

The Polish navy fought alongside the allied navies, including fighting against the Bismarck.

Intelligence

Polish cryptographers were able to decrypt early versions of Enigma and gave the results of their work to British.

Armia Krajowa intelligence was vital to destroying the rocket factory at Peenemunde, and gathering information about V-1 and V-2 rockets, including delivery of a complete V-2 rocket via an air bridge from occupied Poland.

Polish intelligence services cooperated with the Allies in every European country and they operated one of the largest intelligence networks in Nazi Germany.

Underground

• Polish Underground State
• Armia Krajowa aka Home Army
  • sabotage and intelligence tasks
  • Operation Tempest
• Polish Intelligence

See also: History of Poland (1939-1945), 27th Home Army Infantry Division

Battles

Major battles and campaigns in which Polish regular soldiers fought:

• Polish September Campaign
• British campaign in Norway (Battle of Narvik)
• Campaign in France
• Battle of Britain
• Battle of the Atlantic (1940)
• Battle of Tobruk
• Battle of Lenino
• Battle of Monte Cassino
• Battle of Falaise
• Operation Market Garden (Battle of Arnhem)
• Battle of Ancona
• Battle of Bologna
• Battle of Berlin

Technical inventions

• A copy of the Enigma ciphering machine was created by a group of Polish mathematicians (Jerzy Różycki, Marian Rejewski and Henryk Zygalski) and handed over to the Allies in 1939.
• Józef Kosacki invented the Polish mine detector which was used throughout the war by Allied armies.
• The Vickers Tank Periscope MK.IV was invented by engineer Rudolf Gundlach and patented in 1936 as Gundlach Peryskop obrotowy. It was then copied by the British and used in most tanks of WWII, including the Soviet T-34, British Crusader, Churchill, Valentine, Cromwell and 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 copied and used extensively in the armies of Germany.
• A bomb hatches system was invented by Wladyslaw Swiatecki in the 1930s and was used, among others, in the Polish PZL P.37 Elk bomber. In 1940 Swiatecki handed over the plans of his invention to the British authorities, who used it in most British bombers of WWII. In 1943 a modernized version was created by Jerzy Rudlicki for the American B-17 Flying Fortress.
• A rubber windscreen wiper was invented by Polish pianist Józef Hofman.
• Henryk Magnuski, a Polish engineer working for Motorola, invented in 1940 the SCR-3 radio, the first small radio receiver/transmitter to have manually-set frequencies. It was used extensively in the American Army and was nick-named the walkie-talkie.

See also:

• List of Polish divisions in WWII
• Many books and articles on Soviet and Polish tanks and armor by author and military historian Janusz Magnuski.

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