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| Polish Armed Forces |
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| Branches |
Land Forces Air Force Navy Special Forces Territorial Defence Force |
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| Senior officers Rank insignia Awards Oaths |
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| Land Forces Navy |
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ThePolish Army (Polish:Wojsko Polskie) is the name applied to the military forces ofPoland. The name has been in use since the early 19th century, although it can be used to refer to earlier formations as well. Polish Armed Forces consist of theArmy (Wojsko Lądowe),Navy (Marynarka) andAir Force (Lotnictwo) branches and are under the command of the Ministry of National Defense (Ministerstwo Obrony Narodowej).
The first Polish Army was created in the10th-century kingdom of Poland, under thePiast dynasty. The prince's forces were composed of a group of armed men, usually mounted, named drużyna. Their key role was the protection of the monarch and supporting the taxation effort. Their organisation was similar to other such armed units of otherSlavic rulers, and were often of foreign origin.
With time, the earlytribalwarriors gave rise toknights and eventually, by the 15th century, the wholesocial class of theszlachta or Polish gentry. The Polish gentry formed a distinct element within the ancient tribal groupings. This is uncertain, however, as there is little documentation on the early history of Poland, or of the movements of the Slavonic people into what became the territory so designated.
Around the 14th century, there was little difference between those called knights and those referred to as szlachta in Poland. Members of the szlachta had the personal obligation to defend the country (pospolite ruszenie), and thereby became the kingdom's privileged social class. It was they who were obliged to build and support castles as well as to keep peace and order on territory they were assigned.
The armies of thePolish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, or the First Polish Republic, were commanded by fourhetmans. The armies comprised:
Some units of the Commonwealth used fairly unusual tactics. These units included:
Afterpartitions of Poland, during the period from 1795 until 1918, Polish military was recreated several times in Poland during uprisings like theNovember Uprising of 1830 and theJanuary Uprising in 1863, and outside Poland like duringNapoleonic wars (Polish Legions in Italy). TheCongress Kingdom of Poland, ruled byRussian Tsars with a certain degree of autonomy, had anArmy in the years 1815-1830 which was disbanded after the unsuccessful insurrection.
Large numbers of Poles also served in the occupiers' armies:Austro-Hungarian (before 1867Imperial Austrian),Imperial Russian andGerman armies (before 1871Prussian). However, these powers took care to spread Polish soldiers all over their armies and as a rule did not form predominantly Polish units.
DuringWorld War I, thePolish Legions were set up inGalicia, the southern part of Poland under Austrian occupation. They were both disbanded after theCentral Powers failed to provide guarantees of Polish independence after the war. GeneralJózef Haller, the commander of theSecond Brigade of the Polish Legion, switched sides in late 1917, and viaMurmansk took part of his troops toFrance, where he created theBlue Army. It was joined by several thousand Polish volunteers from theUnited States. It fought valiantly on the French front in 1917 and 1918.
When Poland regained independence in 1918, it recreated its military which participated in thePolish–Soviet War of 1919-1922 and inWorld War II, 1939–1945. During theGerman occupation of Poland, a number of resistance movements were created, of which theHome Army was the most significant.
The Polish armed forces, then known asPolish People's Army, were part of the Soviet-controlledWarsaw Pact. Polish units took part in occupyingCzechoslovakia in response to thePrague Spring in 1968. The command post for the invasion was actually located on Polish soil, atMarshalIvan Yakubovsky'sLegnica headquarters.[1]
After January 1990 the name of the armed forces was changed to 'Armed Forces of theRepublic of Poland,' to accord with the Polish State's new official name.
In March 2003 the Polish Armed Forces took part in the2003 invasion of Iraq, deploying 1500 personnel, special forces and a support ship (seePolish involvement in the 2003 invasion of Iraq).[2]
Following the destruction of Saddam's regime thePolish Land Forces supplied a brigade and a division headquarters for the 17-nationMultinational Division Central-South, part of the U.S.-ledMulti-National Force – Iraq. At its peak, Poland had 2,500 soldiers in the south of the country. Poland deployed about ten attack and transport helicopters as part of its force in Iraq between 2004 and 2008.[3]
The troop number was reduced to 900 in 2006. Of the 900 soldiers, only 80 ever left theirForward operating base to conduct operations.
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