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Blue Army Haller's Army
Blue Army troops and General Józef Haller, c.1918
Active	1917–21
Country	France Poland
Branch	Polish Legions
Size	68,500
Engagements	World War I Polish–Ukrainian War Polish–Soviet War
Commanders
General	Józef Haller von Hallenburg
General	Louis Archinard

The Blue Army (Polish: Błękitna Armia), or Haller's Army was a Polish military contingent created in France during the latter stages of World War I. The name came from the French-issued blue military uniforms worn by the soldiers. The symbolic term used to describe the troops was subsequently adopted by General 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 subsequently took part in Poland's defeat of the advancing Bolshevik forces in the Polish–Soviet War.

History

Background

Canadian origins

Starting 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 Canada in hopes of setting up a Polish unit there made up of North Americans of Polish ancestry, they were rebuffed by the Canadian government. As the war dragged on they tried again and found a supporter in Quebec industrialist, William Evan Price. With his contacts the Polish delegation met Sam Hughes, the Canadian Minister of Militia and Defence, and pitched a "Polish Legion of Canada" composed of three battalions. This time there was considerable interest and the Canadians sought and were given permission by British high command to start setting up a Polish Army Camp in Niagara-on-the-Lake. With permission granted the Polish army-in-exile called its camp "Camp Tadeusz Kosciuszko", honouring Tadeusz Kościuszko (a Polish patriot who led the 1794 Kościuszko Uprising aimed at freeing the country from Imperial Russia and the Kingdom of Prussia). Over 20,000 men trained in Canada, equipped and paid by France. Yet even though the camp was in Canada and supported financially by the French, the Americans viewed it as a threat to their neutrality.

America enters the war

The emergence of the Blue Army was closely associated with the American entry into World War I in April, 1917. A month earlier, Ignacy Paderewski submitted a proposal in the U.S. House of Representatives to accept Polish-American volunteers for service on the Western Front in the name of Poland's independence. Some 24,000 Poles were taken in (out of 38,000 who applied) and after a brief military training, they were sent to France to join General Haller, including many women volunteers (PSK). Polish-Americans were eager to fight for freedom and the American-style democracy because they themselves escaped persecution by the empires who partitioned Poland a century earlier. When the war erupted, the American Polonia created the Polish Central Relief Committee to help with the war effort, although ethnically Polish volunteers arrived in France from all Polish diasporas at the same time numbering over 90,000 soldiers eventually. The Entente responded in kind by recognizing 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. Imperial Germany surrendered in the 11 November 1918 armistice.

The Blue Army was formally merged into the Polish Army after the Armistice between the Allies and Germany. Meanwhile, three interim Polish governments emerged independently of one another. A socialist government led by Daszyński was formed in Lublin. The National Committee emerged in Kraków. Daszyński (lacking support) decided to join forces with Piłsudski who was just released by the Germans from Magdeburg. On 16 November 1918, Poland declared independence. A decree defining the new republic was issued in Warsaw on 22 November 1918. A month later, Paderewski joined in from France. At about the same time, heavily armed Ukrainians from the Sitchovi Stril'ci (Sich Riflemen) seized the city of Lemberg, and the battle for the control of the city erupted against Piłsudski's legionaries. 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, 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. 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. 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. 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. The final borders of Poland were set only in October, 1921 by the League of Nations.

World War I

Western Front

The first divisions were formed after the official signing of a 1917 alliance by French President Raymond Poincaré and the Polish statesman Ignacy Jan Paderewski. The majority of the recruits, approximately 35,000 of them, were either Poles serving in the French Army or former captured Polish prisoners of war, who were conscripted and forced to serve in the German Heer and Austrian Imperial-Royal Landwehr armies. Many other Poles also joined from all over the world—these units included recruits from the United States with an additional 23,000 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 Louis Archinard. However, on 23 February 1918, political and military sovereignty was granted to the Polish National Committee and soon thereafter the army was directly commanded by independent Polish authorities. Also, more units were formed, most notably the 4th and 5th Rifle Divisions in Russia. On 28 September 1919, Russian government officials formally signed an agreement with the Entente that officially recognized the Polish military units in France as "the only independent, allied and co-belligerent Polish army". On 4 October 1918, the National Committee appointed General Józef Haller von Hallenburg as chief commander of the Polish Legions in France. The first unit to enter combat on the Western Front was the 1st Rifle Regiment (1 Pułk Strzelców Polskich) fighting from July 1918 in Champagne and the 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

The army continued to gather new 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 newly independent Poland, across Germany in sealed train cars. Weapons were secured in separate compartments and kept under guard to appease German concerns about a foreign army traversing its territory. Immediately after its arrival, the divisions were integrated into the regular Polish Army and sent to the front lines to fight in the Polish–Ukrainian War, which was being contested in eastern Galicia.

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

Captain Stanislaw 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.

Major Stefan Wyczolkowski: 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.

Major Stanislaw 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.

Major Jerzy Dabrowski: 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.

Lt. Wincenty Skarzynski: 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.

Polish–Ukrainian War

Haller's troops changed the balance of power in Galicia and Volhynia. Their arrival allowed the Poles to repel the Ukrainians and establish a demarcation line at the river Zbruch on 14 May 1919. The Blue Army was equipped by the Western Allies, and supported by experienced French officers specifically ordered to fight against the Bolsheviks, but not the forces of the Western Ukrainian People's Republic. Despite the diplomatic conditions, the Poles dispatched Haller's Army against the Ukrainians first, instead of the Bolsheviks. The tactical initiative was done in order to break the stalemate in eastern Galicia. In response, the allies sent several telegrams ordering the Polish government to halt its offensive, as using the allied-equipped army against the Western Ukrainian People's Republic specifically contradicted the status of the French military advisors, but the demands were ignored. 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 Polish-Bolshevik War several Blue Army formations were merged with the regular Polish army, and jointed together to form the 49th Hutsul Rifle Regiment and 18th Infantry Division. Haller's well trained and highly motivated troops, as well as their British build Bristol F.2 reconnaissance planes, Italian made Ansaldo A.1 Balilla fighter planes and French FT-17 tanks, also played a significant role in the war. The Polish-American first engaged the Bolshevik forces near the town of Rivne (Rowne 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.

Post-war

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 Communist crackdown in Poland after World War II, most of the history related to the Polish-Soviet War and the Blue Army was censored, distorted and repressed by the Soviet authorities.

Controversies

During the fighting on the Ukrainian front, soldiers within the ranks of the Blue Army were involved in acts of violence against segments of the local Jewish population in Eastern Galicia. The attacks ranged from individual acts of abuse and looting, to loosely organized pogroms carried out by units of the Blue Army. The Morgenthau Report drafted by an Anglo-American investigating committee 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.

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.

Notable persons

Ludwik Marian Kaźmierczak, the paternal grandfather of the German chancellor Angela Merkel, 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 immigrated back to Germany.

Order of battle

• 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

See also

• French Military Mission to Poland
• Polish Legions in World War I

Bibliography

Notes

1. ^ Skrzeszewski 2014, p. 3
2. Skrzeszewski 2014, p. 4
3. Biskupski 1999, p. 339
4. ^ Hind 2015
5. Ruskoski 2006
6. ^ Ember, Melvin; Ember, Carol R.; Skoggard, Ian, eds. (2004). Encyclopedia of Diasporas: Immigrant and Refugee Cultures Around the World. Volume I: Overviews and Topics; Volume II: Diaspora Communities. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 260. ISBN 978-0-306-48321-9. Retrieved 22 July 2017.
7. ^ Kochanski, Halik (2012). The Eagle Unbowed: Poland and the Poles in the Second World War. Harvard University Press. pp. 5–9. ISBN 978-0-674-06816-2. Retrieved 23 July 2017.
8. Anna D. Jaroszynska-Kirchmann (2013). Polish American Press, 1902–1969. Lexington Books. pp. 464–. ISBN 9780739188736.
9. The Blue Division, Stanislaw I. Nastal, Polish Army Veteran's Association in America, Cleveland, Ohio 1922
10. Outline of the Wartime History of the 43rd regiment of the Eastern Frontier Riflemen, Major Stefan Wyczolkowski, Warsaw 1928
11. Outline of the Wartime History of the 44th Regiment of Eastern Frontier Riflemen, Major Stanislaw Bobrowski, Warsaw 1929
12. Outline of the Wartime History of the 45th Regiment of Eastern Frontier Infantry Riflemen, Major Jerzy Dabrowski, Warsaw 1928
13. The Polish Army in France in Light of the Facts, Wincenty Skarzynski, Warsaw 1929
14. Watt, R. (1979). Bitter Glory: Poland and its fate 1918–1939. New York: Simon and Schuster.
15. Subtelny, Orest (2000). Ukraine: A History. University of Toronto Press. p. 370. ISBN 978-0-8020-8390-6. Retrieved 23 July 2017.
16. "The Polish Army in France, Haller Army, Blue Army - Battles in France". www.hallersarmy.com.
17. "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.
18. Martin Conway, José Gotovitch. (2001). Europe in exile: European exile communities in Britain, 1940–1945. Berghahn Books pg. 191
19. Kanzlerin Angela Merkel ist zu einem Viertel Polin, Die Welt
20. All in the Family: Chancellor Merkel's Heritage Pleases Poles, Der Spiegel
21. Merkel's Polish roots emerge in new book, The Local

References

• Biskupski, M. B. (1999). "Canada and the Creation of a Polish Army, 1914–1918". The Polish Review. 44 (3): 339–380. ISSN 2330-0841. JSTOR 25779141. LCCN 57034642. OCLC 260158745. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Hapak, Joseph T. (1991). "Selective service and Polish Army recruitment during World War I". Journal of American Ethnic History. 10 (4). University of Illinois Press on behalf of the Immigration & Ethnic History Society: 38–60. ISSN 0278-5927. JSTOR 27500870. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Hind, Andrew (27 January 2015). "Polish Patriots: in Niagara-on-the-Lake 1917-1918". Today Magazine. Retrieved 30 November 2017. {{cite web}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Pliska, Stanley R. (1965). "The 'Polish-American Army' 1917–1921". The Polish Review. 10 (3): 46–59. ISSN 2330-0841. JSTOR 25776612. LCCN 57034642. OCLC 260158745. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Ruskoski, David Thomas & First Advisor:Christine M. Skwiot - Co-Chair; Second Advisor: Gerald H. Davis - Co-Chair; Third Advisor: Hugh H. Hudson (28 July 2006). The Polish Army in France: Immigrants in America, World War I Volunteers in France, Defenders of the Recreated State in Poland (Thesis). Georgia State University. Retrieved 30 November 2017. {{cite thesis}}: |first= has generic name (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Skrzeszewski, Stan (2014). The Daily Life of Polish Soldiers Niagara Camp, 1917-1919 The Newspaper Columns of Elizabeth Ascher, St. Catharines Standard, 1917-1919 (PDF). Niagara Historical Museum. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help) - Total pages: 100
• Strauss, Herbert A. (1993). Current Research on Anti-Semitism: Hostages of Modernization, Volumes 2-3. Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 9783110137156. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help) - Total pages: 1427
• Valasek, Paul S. (2006). Haller's Polish Army in France. Whitehall Printing. ISBN 9780977975709. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help) - Total pages: 432

External links

• Haller Army Website

• France in World War I
• Poland in World War I
• Second Polish Republic
• Military history of Poland
• Polish armies
• Polish diaspora in Europe
• Polish–Soviet War
• France–Poland relations
• Military units and formations established in 1917
• Military units and formations of Poland in World War I
• Jewish Galician (Eastern Europe) history