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, 1944.]] The European theater of World War II opened with the Invasion of Poland by German Armed Forces in the 1939 Polish September Campaign . After Poland had been overrun, she managed to establish a Government-in-exile , Armed Forces and an Intelligence Service outside Poland, contributing to the Allied effort throughout the war. Poland never made a general surrender and was the only German-occupied country which did not produce a Puppet Government that collaborated with the Nazis. Instead her people provided crucial assistance to the Allies throughout the War, including the cracking of the Enigma Machine by cryptologist Marian Rejewski , the assistance given by Polish pilots to the United Kingdom in the Battle Of Britain , and their costly victory over German forces at the Battle Of Monte Cassino , to name a few. POLISH SEPTEMBER CAMPAIGN The Polish September Campaign was the World War II invasion of Poland by military forces of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union and by a small German-allied Slovak contingent. The invasion of Poland marked the start of World War II In Europe as Poland's western allies, the United Kingdom and France , Declared War on Germany on September 3 . The campaign began on September 1 1939 , one week after the signing of the secret Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact , and ended on October 6 1939 , with Germany and the Soviet Union occupying the entirety of Poland. German personnel losses were about ~16,000 KIA , and the loss of over ~30% of armored vehicles during the campaign was one of the reasons the plans for an immediate attack west were discarded. UNDERGROUND RESISTANCE IN POLAND The main resistance force in the Nazi occupied Poland was the , the Home Army assisted Soviet Union's war effort by sabotaging German advance into Soviet territories and providing intelligence about deployment and movement of German forces {Link without Title} . Following 1943 its direct combat activity increased sharply. German losses to the Polish partisans ranged at 850-1700 per month in early 1944 compared to about 250-320 per months in 1942. .]] A distinct from the Home Army there was an underground ultra-nationalist resistance force called Narodowe Siły Zbrojne (NZS or National Armed Forces) The ultra-chauvinist and anti-Semite stance of this army,2[http://books.google.com/books?ie=UTF-8&vid=ISBN0786403713&id=A4FlatJCro4C&num=10&vq=national+armed+forces&dq=holocaust+in+Poland&lpg=PA90&pg=PA90&sig=jhvzO-t8PuyoYDCnCHoyeJ_avBI is well established and remains an issue of a painful debate (as well as the degree of complicity of the Home Army in the fate of Jews during the Holocaust events in Poland''"Organized murders of Jews committed by varios underground formations began toward the end of 1942, and occurred quite frequently thereafter... The largest number of such murders were perpetrated by the units of National Armed Forces but some groups of the Home Army also shared this guilt. Obviously most of these units may have belonged to that part of the National Armed forces which joined the Home Army...."'' from Piotrowski, same chapter[http://books.google.com/books?ie=UTF-8&vid=ISBN0786403713&id=A4FlatJCro4C&num=10&pg=PA90&lpg=PA90&dq=holocaust+in+Poland&vq=%22were+extremely%22&sig=6wXjIU3xa5VvtLvquNZcIXLi2VA ). At different times NZS was fighting the Nazi forces as well as the forces of the pro-Soviet communist resistance''"Clearly the NSZ attacked and killed GL-AL members and took pride in these "patrotic" actions. Since these units contained Jews, Jews were also killed."'', from Piotrowski, same chapter (see below), the Jewish resistance''" Relations reached a peak of tensions when a report was received that a unit of the Jewish Combat Organization [... had been attacked by the "Eagle" unit of the NSZ or AK and eleven of its twenty-four memmers killed. The Jewsih Combat Organization learnt that similar bands had murdered 200 Jews who had been in hiding. Further facts were also uncovered later conserning the collaboration of NSZ bands with the ''Gestapo'' [... in an "action" to kill "Jews and Communists". NSZ bandits even murdered Dmocratic personalities connected with AK, especially those of Jewish origin. The NSZ-men organized a special group [...] to hunt down the Jews and kill them off."'', from Piotrowski, same chapter and the Red Army. . As of July, 1944 it numbered about 6,000 soldiers {Link without Title} (estimates vary). There were separate resistance groups organized by the Polish Jews {Link without Title} : the right-wing zionist Jewish Fighting Union (ZZW) and the more left-leaning Jewish Combat Organization (ZOB). These organizations cooperated little with each other and their relationship with Polish resistance varied between occasional cooperation (mainly between ZOB and AK) to the armed collisions (mostly between ZZW and NZS). INTELLIGENCE . Diagram from During a period of over six and a half years, from late December 1932 to the outbreak of World War II, three mathematician-cryptologists (," named after its Polish predecessor) — to facilitate Decryption of messages produced on the German " Enigma " cipher machine. A few weeks before the outbreak of World War II, on July 25 , 1939 , near Pyry in the Kabaty Woods just south of Warsaw , Poland disclosed her achievements to France and the United Kingdom, which had, up to that time, failed in all their own efforts to crack the German military Enigma cipher. Had Poland not shared her results at Pyry, the United Kingdom would, at the very least, have been delayed by one or two years in reading Enigma, and could well have been unable to read it at all. In the event, intelligence gained from this source, codenamed ULTRA , was extremely valuable in the Allied prosecution of the war, although the exact influence of ULTRA on the course of the war has been a subject of debate. Some have argued that it decided the very outcome of the war itself, but more recently the view that ULTRA hastened the defeat of Germany by a period of time (between 6 months and 4 years) has found widespread acceptance. As early as 1940, Polish agents (see Witold Pilecki ) penetrated German Concentration Camp s, including Auschwitz , and informed the world about Nazi atrocities. recovering the V-2 from the Bug.]] ) Intelligence was vital in locating and destroying ( 18 August 1943 ) the German rocket facility at Peenemunde and in gathering information about Germany's V-1 Buzzbomb and V-2 Rocket . The Home Army delivered to the United Kingdom key V-2 parts, after a V-2 rocket, fired 30 May 1944, crashed near a German test facility at Sarnaki on the Bug River and was recovered by the Home Army. On the night of 25- 26 July , 1944, the crucial parts were flown from occupied Poland to the United Kingdom in an RAF plane, along with detailed drawings of parts too large to fit in the plane (see '' Home Army And V1 And V2 ''). Analysis of the German rocket became vital to improving Allied anti-V-2 defenses (see Operation Most III ). Polish intelligence cooperated with the other Allies in every Europe an country and operated one of the largest intelligence networks in Nazi Germany . Many Poles also served in other Allied intelligence services, including the celebrated Krystyna Skarbek (" Christine Granville ") in the United Kingdom's Special Operations Executive . POLISH ARMED FORCES IN THE WEST Army After the country's defeat in the 1939 campaign, the Polish Government In Exile quickly organized in France A New Army of about 80,000 men. In 1940 a Polish Highland Brigade took part in the Battle Of Narvik (Norway), and two Polish Divisions ( First Grenadier Division , and Second Infantry Fusiliers Division ) took part in the Defense Of France , while a Polish motorized Brigade and two infantry divisions were in process of forming. A Polish Independent Carpathian Brigade was formed in French-mandated Syria , to which many Polish troops had escaped from Romania . The Polish Air Force in France comprised eighty-six aircraft in four squadrons, one and a half of the squadrons being fully operational while the rest were in various stages of training. monastery.]] After the fall of France, many Polish personnel had died in the fighting or been interned in Switzerland . Nevertheless, General Władysław Sikorski , Polish Commander-in-chief and Prime Minister , was able to evacuate Many Polish Troops to the United Kingdom . In 1941 , pursuant to an agreement between the Polish Government In Exile and Joseph Stalin , the Soviets released many Polish citizens, from whom a 75,000-strong army was formed in the Middle East under General Władysław Anders ( "Anders' Army" ). The Polish armed forces in the west fought under the British command and numbered 195,000 in March 1944 and 165,000 at the end of that year, including about 20,000 personnel in the Polish Air Force and 3,000 in the Polish Navy . At the end of WWII, the Polish Armed Forces in the west numbered 195,000 and by July 1945 had increased to 228,000, most of the newcomers being released Prisoners Of War and ex- Labor-camp inmates. Air Force . Painted on a Hurricane .]] The Polish Air Force fought in the Battle Of France as one fighter squadron GC 1/145, several small units detached to French squadrons, and numerous flights of industry defence (in total, 133 pilots, who achieved 55 victories at a loss of 15 men). Later, Polish pilots fought in the Battle Of Britain , where the Polish 303 Fighter Squadron achieved the highest number of kills of any Allied squadron. From the very beginning of the war, the Royal Air Force (RAF) had welcomed foreign pilots to supplement the dwindling pool of British pilots. On 11 June 1940 , the Polish Government In Exile signed an agreement with the British Government to form a Polish Army and Polish Air Force in the United Kingdom. The first two (of an eventual ten) Polish fighter squadrons went into action in August 1940. Four Polish squadrons eventually took part in the Battle of Britain ( 300 and 301 Bomber Squadrons ; 302 and 303 Fighter Squadrons ), with 89 Polish pilots. Together with more than 50 Poles fighting in British squadrons, a total of 145 Polish pilots defended British skies. Polish pilots were among the most experienced in the battle, most of them having already fought in the 1939 September Campaign in Poland and the 1940 Battle of France. Additionally, prewar Poland had set a very high standard of pilot training. The 303 Squadron, named after the Polish-American hero, General Tadeusz Kościuszko , achieved the highest number of kills (126) of all fighter squadrons engaged in the Battle of Britain, even though it only joined the combat on August 30 , 1940 : these 5% of pilots were responsible for a phenomenal 12% of total victories in the Battle. The Polish Air Force also fought in 1943 in Tunisia ( Polish Fighting Team, So Called "Skalski's Circus" ) and in raids on Germany (1940-45). In the second half of 1941 and early 1942 , Polish bomber squadrons were the sixth part of forces available to RAF Bomber Command (later they suffered heavy losses, with little replenishment possibilities). Polish aircrew losses serving with Bomber Command 1940-45 were 929 killed. Ultimately 8 Polish fighter squadrons were formed within the RAF and had claimed 629 Axis aircraft destroyed by May 1945. By war's end, there were 14,000 Polish airmen in 15 RAF squadrons and in the United States Army Air Forces ( USAAF ). Polish squadrons in the United Kingdom:
Navy Just on the eve of war, most of the major Polish Navy Ships had been sent for safety to the British Isles. There they fought alongside the Royal Navy . At various stages of the war, the Polish Navy comprised two cruisers and a large number of smaller ships, including three destroyers and two submarines that had left the Baltic Sea in late August 1939 . ]]
The above list does not include a number of minor ships, transports, Merchant-marine auxiliary vessels, and patrol boats. The Polish Navy fought with great distinction alongside the other Allied navies in many important and successful operations, including those conducted against the German battleship, Bismarck . POLISH ARMED FORCES IN THE EAST The they consisted 60% of officers and engineers, and in the 1st 40%. In the command staff and training the percentage of Soviets and Russians was about 70 to 85%. Special political officers, that almost exclusively consisted out of the Soviets , were overseeing the Polish soldiers. {Link without Title} . The Soviets created also political military police, based on thousands of secret informants called in Polish Główny Zarząd Informacji Wojska Polskiego . The , Kolobrzeg (Kolberg), Gdańsk (Danzig) and Gdynia loosing 20,000 people in winter 1944-45 battles. In April-May 1945 the 1st Army fought in the Final Capture Of Berlin . The 2nd Polish Army fought within the Soviet 1st Ukrainian Front and took part in the Prague Offensive . In the final operations of the war the losses of the two armies of the LWP amounted to 32,000. BATTLES Major battles and campaigns in which Polish regular forces took part:
TECHNICAL INVENTIONS (Polish) Mark I]]
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