Pomeranian Military District

Updated on Dec 18, 2023

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The Pomeranian Military District (Polish acronym POW) was a military district of the Polish Armed Forces from 1945 to 2011. Formally it was subordinate to the Minister of National Defence in the operational matters of defense and detached government administration (Art. 14 Law of 21 November 1967 on the universal duty to defend the Polish Republic). The district command headquarters was at Torun (1945–1946), Bydgoszcz, Gdańsk, Koszalin, and then at Bydgoszcz. From 1947 to 2007 1 Gen. J. Dwernicki Street, from 2007 to December 2011 105th Szubinska Street.

Since 1999, the POW is one of the two military districts in Poland. After 92 years, in accordance with the decision of the Minister of National Defence, in December 2011 the Pomeranian Military District was deactivated.

First Combined Army Army

The First All-Military Army (Polish: Pierwsza Armia Ogólnowojskowa; see pl:1 Armia Ogólnowojskowa WP (1955-1990)) was a military formation of the Polish Land Forces created in 1955. It was intended to guard the Baltic Sea shores as part of the Polish Front and capture the Danish straits in case the Cold War turned hot. Unlike the 2nd Polish Army it was never mobilised and was disbanded as soon as Poland regained her independence from the Soviet bloc and left the Warsaw Pact.

Although all armies of the Polish Army were disbanded in 1945, already in 1950 a need arose to re-create war-time structure of the armed forces in case of a conflict with NATO. For that purpose in 1950 a Polish Front (also known as Coastal Front) was created from Polish units, as part of Soviet war preparations. In 1955 the front was further subdivided into armies. Each of three Polish Military Districts created a separate army: the Pomeranian Military District created the 1st All-Military Army, the Silesian Military District created the 2nd Army while Warsaw Military District created the 4th. All air assets were to be joined into the 3rd Air Army in case of mobilisation.

The 1st Army included all units under command of the Pomeranian Military District, among them the Headquarters, the 8th, 12th and 15th Mechanised Divisions, 16th and 20th Armoured Divisions, as well as 2nd Special Battalion (deep reconnaissance), two artillery brigades, one anti-tank regiment, engineering brigade, two engineering regiments and numerous other smaller units.

The army was never activated and was disbanded in 1990.

District commanders

21 April 1945 – 15 May 1945 – acting ppłk Mikołaj Iwanow

16 May 1945 – 24 September 1945 – płk (gen. bryg.) Wacław Szokalski;

25 September 1945 – 10 October 1945 – gen. bryg. Wiaczesław Jakutowicz;

11 October 1945 – 25 June 1947 – gen. bryg. Jan Jośkiewicz;

26 June 1947 – 15 October 1947 – gen. bryg. Jan Rotkiewicz;

19 November 1947 – 21 January 1953 – gen. dyw. Bronisław Półturzycki;

21 March 1953 – 29 May 1953 – acting (partly) gen. bryg. Antoni Władyczański;

30 May 1953 – 22 October 1954 – acting gen. bryg. Antoni Władyczański;

31 December 1954 – 5 November 1956 – gen. dyw. Jan Rotkiewicz;

6 November 1956 – 14 November 1964 – gen. dyw. Zygmunt Huszcza;

15 November 1964 – 18 May 1971 – gen. dyw. Józef Kamiński;

19 May 1971 – 26 February 1978 – gen. dyw. Wojciech Barański;

27 February 1978 – 14 March 1983 – gen. dyw. Józef Użycki;

1 April 1983 – 22 September 1989 – gen. dyw. Zbigniew Blechman;

23 September 1989 – 3 September 1992 – gen. dyw. Zbigniew Zalewski;

4 September 1992 – 8 September 2000 – gen. dyw. Tadeusz Bazydło;

9 September 2000 – 11 December 2003 – gen. dyw. Leszek Chyła;

12 December 2003 – 5 October 2006 – gen. dyw. Zbigniew Głowienka

6 October 2006 – 11 January 2007 – acting gen. bryg. Zygmunt Duleba

12 January 2007 – 28 December 2011 – gen. bryg. Zygmunt Duleba

References

Pomeranian Military District Wikipedia

(Text) CC BY-SA

Contents

First Combined Army Army

District commanders

References