Zemská armáda

Armia Krajowa (AK)
Home Army


- was formed in 1942 by the merger of several resistance organisations and was subordinate to the London government-in-exile


- in 1944 under the command of gen. Bór-Komorowski reached a strength of 380,000, including 10,000 officers


- 60 thousand members of the Land Army fought in the Warsaw Uprising


- officially disbanded on 19 January 1945


- part of the Land Army went underground and continued to operate until 1948, 50,000 of its members were deported to Soviet labour camps
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Armia Krajowa (AK)


During the occupation in World War II, a large underground state was established in Poland, which had its own schools, authorities, courts and armed forces. Although the Polish resistance was politically very fragmented, the vast majority of its democratic groups respected and cooperated with this underground state. The Land Army, Armia Krajowa (AK) in Polish, was the most important representative of the resistance and became one of the largest underground armed organisations in the whole of occupied Europe. It formed an integral part of the Polish armed forces and was subordinate to the London government in exile. Its organisation, discipline, training and the number of combat actions confirmed that it was a significant resistance force - a true army of the Polish underground state.


1939 - 1942, the beginning of the military conspiracy and the period of the ZWZ.


Preparations for the organization of the underground army had already begun during the September campaign, and as early as September 27, 1939, the resistance organization Służba Zwycięstwu Polski (Polish Victory Service[/url], SZP) was established. This organization was established in November 1939, with the government-in-exile headed by General Władysław Sikorski, was reorganized into the Union of Armed Struggle (Związek Walki Zbrojnej ZWZ), which operated on Polish territory occupied by both Germany and the Soviet Union. The ZWZ was to be nationwide, non-partisan, strictly apolitical and, unlike the SZP, was to organize combat and sabotage actions.


1942 - 1943, AK in conspiratorial struggle.


In 1942, the ZWZ merged with other resistance organizations to form the Home Army (AK). The commander-in-chief of the AK was General Stefan Rowecki, alias Grot. Another change of the name of the underground army did not change its main tasks, strategic goals and its subordination to the London government. The AK remained an army benefiting from the organisational network of the ZWZ, only it grew considerably and by the end of 1942 it already numbered around 200,000 soldiers. The construction of its regional and command structure was also completed, and its fighting intensified. The main task of the AK was to fight for independence by means of sabotage, reprisals, open warfare, liquidation of confederates, elimination of dangerous members of the apparatus of terror of the occupiers, propaganda and assistance to victims of repression. In the second phase, it was to be the organisation and preparation of an underground army for a national uprising, which was to aim at the liberation of Poland by its own forces and was to be launched during the period of Germany's military collapse.


The organisation of the Land Army consisted of seven departments:
I. Organizational - planned and organized actions, worked on personnel matters, maintained liaison with the government-in-exile. The AK clergy was under him.
II. Information-intelligence - was in charge of security, intelligence, counter-intelligence, legalization and liaison.
III. Operational-training - planned and prepared combat actions, coordinated the work of inspectors of different types of weapons.
IV. Accommodation - coordinated the work of the services: weapons, medical, intendantury, and others. Directed the work of conspiracy production.
V. Liaison - was in charge of the technical provision of communications, planned the reception of Allied drops and took care of the courier service.
VI. Information and Propaganda - managed the propaganda and information activities of the AK.
VII. Financial - was in charge of financial administration and control of the economy. He organized conspiracy apartments.


In addition, in January 1943, special units Kedyw(from the Polish words kierownictwo dywersji - subversive headquarters) were created to plan subversive and special actions.


The AK was a mass organization from its inception, swelling its ranks by recruiting volunteers and continuing the merger process begun by its predecessor, the Union of Armed Struggle of the ZWZ. Between 1940 and 1944, the following resistance organizations, among others, joined the AK: Secret Polish Army (Tajna Armia Polska), Polish Armed Organization "Znak" (Polska Organizacja Zbrojna "Znak"), People's Guard (Gwardia Ludowa), Secret Military Organization (Tajna Organizacja Wojskowa), Armed Confederation (Konfederacja Zbrojna), Socialist Combat Organization (Socjalistyczna Organizacja Bojowa), Polish Fighting Union Independence (Polski Związek Bojowy Niepodległość) and also partly Narodowa Organizacja Wojskowa (National Military Organization), Peasant Battalions (Bataliony Chłopskie) and Narodowe Siły Zbrojne (National Armed Forces).
Outside of the AK, this left mostly pro-Soviet organisations not recognising the London government, such as People's Army (Armia Ludowa), Polish People's Army (Polska Armia Ludowa) and other smaller underground organisations.


The number of Home Army soldiers who took the military oath was around 100,000 at the beginning of 1942, by the beginning of 1943 already around 200,000, and at the time of maximum combat capability (summer 1944) the Home Army forces amounted to about 380,000 people, including 10,000 officers. The pre-war officer cadre was supplemented by graduates of secret courses and paratroopers (so-called cichociemni). These were 316 selected officers of the Polish Army in the West, who were airlifted to Poland and became an extremely important and high-quality reinforcement for the subversive headquarters.


The territorial organization of the AK was divided into 17 regions, corresponding to the 17 pre-war voivodeships. The districts were divided into separate circuits - at the beginning of 1940 there were 280 of them. Further connecting links were sub-districts, districts and inspectorates.


The leadership of the AK was entrusted to its commander, who used the title Commander of the Provincial Armed Forces. When on 30 June 1943, the first commander, General Stefan Rowecki, alias Grot, was arrested by the Gestapo, he was replaced in the post by General Tadeusz Komorowski, alias Bór, who held the post until 2 October 1944, when he went into German captivity after the surrender of the Warsaw Uprising. The third and last commander of the Home Army was General Leopold Okulicki, alias Niedźwiadek - from October 1944 until the dissolution of the Home Army on 19 January 1945.
The armament of the AK came partly from supplies buried and variously hidden by Polish troops after September 1939. Later, the AK acquired weapons and equipment through combat actions (German armaments) and its own clandestine production. Weapons were secretly manufactured in private workshops or in their own underground factories, which produced Blyskawica and Sten submachine guns, flamethrowers, mortars, bombs, grenades and other armaments for the AK.


1944 - 1945, action "Storm", Warsaw Uprising, dissolution of AK.


The commander-in-chief, General Kazimierz Sosnkowski, sent instructions to Poland in October 1943, ordering the local underground government to prevent the Red Army's entry into Poland by sabotage and increased AK activity, and recommending that they continue to remain in conspiracy. The leaders of the Polish underground state, however, insisted on the need to clearly declare the fact that there was a legal authority in Poland, which fell under the government in London. From 1943 onwards, companies and battalions were formed in units subordinate to the AK headquarters, including the famous battalions with the code names : Zośka, Parasol, Miotła, Czata. In 1944, the structure of the AK is formed for the upcoming nationwide uprising, following the model of the pre-war Polish army, thus creating the first AK regiments, brigades and divisions.


By early 1944, more than 54 large AK units were already actively fighting in all regions of Poland. During the German retreat under the onslaught of Soviet troops, the AK fought in the rear of the German troops. This entire large-scale action was codenamed Storm and was to be conducted independently of the Red Army. However, the order of the General Staff envisaged the AK acting as an ally and cooperating with the Red Army on a tactical level. This cooperation involved declassifying the units of the underground organization and appearing before the Red Army as the main representative of the Polish government. The Storm action lasted on Polish territory from January 1944, when Soviet troops crossed the 1939 Polish-Soviet border on the Volyn. Its intensity decreased or increased according to the situation on the German-Soviet front until January 1945.


The Soviets behaved with hostility and distrust towards the AK command. Even when they fought together against the Germans, the AK units were surrounded and disarmed after the action was over. Officers were arrested and many were later executed. The rank and file AK soldiers had the choice of joining Berling's Polish People's Army or deportation. The AK was an enemy organisation in the eyes of the Soviets, controlled by the government-in-exile in London, and so they decided to destroy it.
The military objectives of the Storm action were essentially met, which cannot be said of the political objectives.
The Western Allies had sufficient information from AK intelligence about NKVD actions in liberated Polish territory, but they made no effort to change Soviet policy towards Poland and its population.
Stalin persistently and falsely convinced the Allies of the AK's inability to conduct combat actions and of its minimal support among the population, which, on the contrary, allegedly linked its hopes for independence with the Polish left. In total, as a result of the NKVD's actions, some 50,000 members of the AK were imprisoned, mainly for refusing to join the Berling army under the USSR. The repression did not escape the civilian population, especially in the territories that came under Soviet control thanks to the Yalta Agreement.


The culmination of the AK's fighting efforts was the Warsaw Uprising, which was not originally included in Operation Storm. With the Red Army approaching Warsaw and under the impression of information about its terror and war crimes in eastern Poland, it was decided on 25 July 1944 to include the Warsaw Uprising in the Storm action.


The leadership of the Provincial Army set the "W-hour" - or the beginning of the Warsaw Uprising at 17:00 on 1 August 1944. Unfortunately, already before the W-hour, armed clashes and shootings broke out in many places of Warsaw, partly due to the activities of the German armed forces, partly due to carelessness or excessive hot-headedness of some insurgents. An important moment of surprise was thus lost. Warsaw was divided into seven districts (Śródmieście, Mokotów, Żoliborz, Wola, Ochota, Praga, Obroża, Okęcie). 38,000 soldiers were mobilized to fight in the city itself and another 11,000 in the suburban district. The command reckoned that the Red Army fighting in the Warsaw suburb of Praga would enter the left bank of the Vistula within a few days. The usual estimates envisaged 3-5 days of insurrection; 10 days was generally considered the maximum the insurrection must last. The fatal situation with armaments, which consisted mostly only of small arms, did not give the insurgents much chance against the well-armed German troops, possessing air support and tank units. The insurgents, however, took this risk believing in the rightness of fighting to liberate the capital with their own forces.
After 63 days of unequal fighting, without outside help, the Warsaw Uprising had to fall. On the basis of the surrender agreement signed on October 2, 1944, the fighting stopped. Twenty thousand AK soldiers and their commanders went into captivity. The civilian population, who had fought alongside the AK members in the uprising, had to leave the ruins of the city. Before going into captivity, Gen. Tadeusz Komorowski took command of the Home Army from Gen. Leopold Okulicki alias Niedźwiadek. He led the AK during sporadic battles against the Germans until 19 January 1945, when he signed the order to disband the AK. The losses of the AK amounted to almost 100,000 dead, 50,000 deported to the USSR and imprisoned in camps and prisons there.


Some of the members of the Home Army refused to demobilize and continued to fight as part of the Home Army Resistance Movement (Ruch Oporu Armii Krajowej), Association of Freedom and Independence (Zrzeszenia Wolność i Niezawisłość) and other organizations until 1948.


Members of the Land Army were massively persecuted by the communist authorities after the war, especially during the Stalinist period. In connection with a certain siege in 1956, convicted members of the AK were released from prison. However, this did not mean a return to normal life - most of them were discriminated against until 1989, establishing a disenfranchised group of the population even though they outwardly possessed most of the civil rights ...


Sources:
Armia Krajowa: sketches from the history of the Armed Forces of the Polish Underground State
Andrzej Chmielarz, Krzysztof Komorowski
Oficyna Wydawnicza Rytm, 1999
ISBN 8387893455
Home Army in documents, 1939-1945
P.C.A. Publications Ltd (Księgarnia SPK), 1989
pl.wikipedia.org
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Velitelé Zemské armády 1940 – 1945


Jméno Pseudonym Funkční období
Michał Karaszewicz-TokarzewskiTorwid27.9.1939 - 3. 1940
Stefan Rowecki Grot 14.2.1940 – 30.6.1943
Tadeusz Komorowski Bór 30.6.1943 – 2.10.1944
Leopold Okulicki Niedźwiadek 3.10.1944 – 19.1.1945



Zdroje uvedené v předchozím příspěvku.
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The common grave of four commanders of the resistance organizations : Służba Zwycięzství Polska (Służba Zwycięstwu Polski SZP), Zemská armáda - Armia Krajowa (AK) and Svaz zbrojeného boje (Związek Walki Zbrojnej ZWZ) at the Warsaw Military Cemetery (Cmentarz Wojskowy na Powązkach).


From left: Michał Karaszewicz-Tokarzewski - Torwid, Stefan Rowecki - Grot, Tadeusz Komorowski - Bór, Leopold Okulicki - Niedźwiadek.


Source: own photo.
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Overview of the larger units of the Land Army established for the "Storm" action


Unit: Created within the AK Circle:
2nd Infantry Division of the AK Legions "Pogoń"
2nd Infantry Division of the Legions
Radom-Kielce AK District
3rd Infantry Division of the Home Army Legions
3rd Legion Infantry Division
AK Lublin District
5th AK Infantry Division "Children of Lwów"
5th Infantry Division
AK Lviv District
6 AK Infantry Division of the Cracow Region "Odwet"
6th Infantry Division
AK Krakow District
7 AK Infantry Division "Orzeł"
7th Infantry Division
AK Radom-Kielce District
8 AK Infantry Division im. Romuald Traugutt
8th Infantry Division
AK Warsaw-East sub-circle
9 Podlaska AK Infantry Division
9th Infantry Division
AK Lublin District
10 Dywizja Piechoty AK im. Maciej Rataja
10th Infantry Division
AK Lodz District
11 Karpacka AK Infantry Division
11th Infantry Division
AK Lvov District - Stanislavov Subdistrict
12 AK Infantry Division
12th Infantry Division
AK Lvov District - Tarnopol Subdistrict
21 AK Infantry Division
21st Infantry Division
AK Cracow District
22 AK Infantry Division "Jaroslawska"
22nd Infantry Division
AK Kraków District - Rzeszów Subdistrict
24 AK Infantry Division "Rzeszowska"
24th Infantry Division
AK Kraków - Rzeszów subdistrict
26 AK Infantry Division
26th Infantry Division
AK Lodz District
27 Wołyńska Dywizja Piechoty AK
27th Infantry Division
AK Volyn District
28 AK Infantry Division im. Stefan Okrzei
28th Infantry Division
AK Radom-Kielce District
29 AK Infantry Division
29th Infantry Division
AK Białystok District
30 AK Infantry Division "Twierdza"
30th Infantry Division
AK Polesie District
106 AK Infantry Division "Dom"
106th Infantry Division
AK Krakow District
Krakowska Brygada Kawalerii Zmotoryzowanej AK
Krakow Motorised Cavalry Brigade
AK Krakow District



Sources mentioned in the previous post.
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