Victims of Soviet deportations from occupied Poland in 1939–40 had been processed by the NKVD and sent to prison or exile in Siberia. The
Nazi-Soviet pact of August 1939 effectively ended on 22 June 1941 when the German
Wehrmacht invaded the USSR. The release of many thousands of former citizens of Poland (including Ukrainians and Belarusians) from the Soviet
Gulags, following the signing of the
Polish-Russian Military Agreement on 14 August 1941, allowed for the creation of a Polish Army on Soviet soil. Its first commander, General
Michał Tokarzewski, began the task of forming this army in the Soviet village of
Totskoye on 17 August. The commander ultimately chosen by
Władysław Sikorski to lead the new army,
Lieutenant General Władysław Anders, had just been released from the
Lubyanka prison in Moscow, on 4 August, and did not issue his first orders or announce his appointment as commander until 22 August. This army grew over the following two years and provided the bulk of the units and troops of the Polish II Corps. The Polish II Corps was created in 1943 from various units fighting alongside the Allies in all theatres of war. The
3rd Carpathian Rifle Division was formed in the
Middle East from smaller Polish units fighting in Egypt and Tobruk, as well as the Polish Army in the East that was evacuated from the
Soviet Union through the
Persian Corridor. Its creation was based on the British
Allied Forces Act 1940, which allowed the
Allied units of the
exiled government of Poland to be grouped in one theatre of war. However, the British High Command never agreed to incorporate the exiled
Polish Air Force into the Corps. In February 1944, the Polish II Corps was transferred from Egypt to Italy, where it became an independent part of the
British Eighth Army, under
Lieutenant-General Sir Oliver Leese. During 1944–45, the Corps fought with distinction in the
Italian campaign, during the fourth and final
Battle of Monte Cassino in May 1944, the
Battle of Ancona during
Operation Olive (the fighting on the
Gothic Line in September 1944), and the
Battle of Bologna during the
final offensive in Italy in March 1945. cameraman, Sergeant Eric Deeming, wearing snow camouflage, filming troops of the 2nd Coy., 1st Battalion, 1st Carpathian Rifles Brigade, 3rd Carpathian Rifles Division, returning from a patrol. Height 1210, north of Rionero in Vulture. In 1944, the Polish II Corps numbered about 50,000 soldiers. During three subsequent battles, it suffered heavy losses (in the final stage of the Battle of Monte Cassino, even the support units were mobilised and used in combat) and it was suggested to General Anders that he withdraw his units. However, since the Soviet Union broke off diplomatic relations with the Polish government and no Poles were allowed out of the USSR, Anders believed that the only source of recruits lay ahead – in German
POW camps and concentration camps. During the fighting in Italy in June 1944, the II corps was considered to be the most determined formation in the entire British 8th Army as the British historian H.P. Willmott wrote: "in the Allied camp the Poles were probably unequalled in their willingness and determination to get to close quarters with the enemy". On 12 June 1944, the Polish 3rd Carpathian Division had replaced the 4th Indian Division along the Penne-Atri-Pineto line. The II corps was assigned to lead the Allied advance along the Adriatic Sea and by 20 June 1944 the Poles had reached Fermo and were closing in on Ancona. After advancing 60 miles over a four day period, the II corps was halted by a German counterattack which drove the Poles back to the Chienti river. By 1945, new units were added, composed mainly of freed POWs and Poles forcibly conscripted into the
Wehrmacht. This increased the Corps' strength to around 75,000 men, approximately 20,000 of whom were transferred to other Polish units fighting in the West. After the war, the divisions of the Corps were used in Italy until 1946, when they were transported to Britain and demobilised. The total establishment of the Polish II Corps in 1946 was 103,000. The majority of soldiers remained in exile and settled in
Britain, although some elected to settle in other countries such as Canada or Australia, either obtaining immigration visas there or relying on previous ties for repatriation. The Corps had a consistently high fighting reputation and was well-regarded by the American and Commonwealth troops with whom they fought. Those that settled in Britain were transported from many ports, including
Toulon, France. ==Composition==