The Course of Insurgent Fights

The Greater Poland Armies Involved in Battles outside of the Poznań Region

Marek Rezler

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In order to relieve Lviv from artillery fire from the South-East, the “East” command proceeded with the “Jazda” [Cavalry] offensive operation, which was supposed to defeat the Ukrainian forces concentrated south of the Velykyi Liubin– Bartativ-Skniliv line and south of Lviv. The main task was assigned to the Greater Poland group. On 19 April, at the cost of heavy losses, Glinna and Navarya were taken, also a Ukrainian armoured train was damaged. The task was accomplished and the soldiers of Colonel Konarzewski gained the recognition of command again. For the next three weeks Konarzewski’s troops held their positions along the Navarya– Valychkovytse– Nagoriany– Pasiky-Zubrytski line. In the May offensive in Eastern Galicia, commanded by General Józef Haller, an attack on Stryi was planned. The soldiers from Greater Poland attacked from the direction of Horodok towards the south east, liberating Buchyna, Uhry, Neuhof, Hodvyshnia, Sosnyna farm, Zavidovichi, Hoshany and Rudky. During the night of 15-16 May, the Greater Poland troops were concentrated in Koropuzh and Zavidovichi, from where they attacked Komarno. Two days later, Mykolaiv, Budnyky and Pesochnoe, were also in Polish hands and the military depots located there were seized. 800 prisoners-of-war were taken and seven cannons and twenty machine guns were captured. After conquering Stryi and taking about one thousand prisoners of war captive, the Greater Poland soldiers were sent to Lviv for a rest.

In the meantime, the preparations for the protection of Greater Poland moved into the culmination phase as a German invasion was expected. In turn, the situation in Lviv became clear enough, so the departure of Konarzewski’s group back to Greater Poland would not mean the reoccupation of the capital city of the Eastern Lesser Poland region by the Ukrainians. Thus, on 5 June 1919, a farewell ceremony to the troops of General Konarzewski (since 1 June) took place on the Lviv’s Citadel square. It ended with a military parade in front of the municipal authorities and members of the coalition mission. On 8 and 9 June, the Greater Poland troops reached Poznań. In recognition of their services, the Supreme People’s Council added a band, in the national colours and with the inscription “For the Defence of the Eastern Territories”, to the banner of the 1st Greater Poland Rifle Regiment, and the aeroplanes and cannons which participated in the Lviv expedition also received additional insignia: metal eagles with plates including the same inscription. On 14 June, General J. Haller officially thanked the chief commander of the Greater Poland Army for his attitude during the May offensive. On 3 April 1919, a field hospital was sent to Lviv under the command of Major Doctor Emanuel Twórz, and a wagon of beds and dressings was also delivered there. The departure of the National Defence Battalion (the former People's Guard) was also planned, but the implementation of this decision was suspended due to the German threat.

After the signing of the Treaty of Versailles (28 June 1919), another period of fighting in Eastern Galicia began for the soldiers from Greater Poland. On 25 June 1919, the Entente states agreed to the military occupation of these areas by Poland. After obtaining guarantees from the Allied command with regards to the impending German invasion, between 22 and 26 June General Konarzewski’s Group was sent to Eastern Lesser Poland, though it was at that moment composed of slightly different units: the 10th Greater Poland Rifle Regiment, the 1st Battalion of the 1st Greater Poland Field Artillery Regiment, the 9th Battery of the 1st Greater Poland Heavy Artillery Regiment, the 3rd Air Force Squadron, a sanitary company and signal troops, ammunition columns (light and heavy) – altogether 89 officers, 4353 privates, 1091 horses and 14 cannons. Konarzewski's troops were concentrated in the lower course of the Hnyla Lypa River, from which, during the night of 27-28 June, they initiated an attack with the task of breaking through the Ukrainian Front and occupying Narayovychi-Mesto and Berezhany. After 2 hours of fighting, Belka, Kostenev and Yanchin and then Narayowychi-Mesto were seized. On 3 July, the Greater Poland infantry seized Vyshnivchyk, Budaniv and Kopychyntsi at the Strypa River, with almost no resistance. On 15 July, with the support of artillery, the Greater Poland Group, having driven them out of their positions on the Siret River, pursued the Ukrainians and managed to conquer Budaniv on the same day, and then on 16 July – Kopychyntsi. The last day of the Polish offensive was 17 July 1919. Konarzewski’s Group, with support from five Greater Poland batteries, conquered Husiatyn in a daring attack. It stayed in this region until 6 August, and its command was taken over by Colonel Leon Billewicz. On 7 August, the Greater Poland Group was assigned to the Volhynian Front and subordinated to the command of the 3rd Rifle Division of the former army of General J. Haller. In marches through Khorostkiv, Skalat and Zbarazh, the Greater Poland soldiers reached Teofipol and Moskalevka.

On 25 June 1919, the 3rd Greater Poland Air Force Squadron, under the command of Second Lieutenant Pilot Józef Mańczak, was sent to Eastern Galicia. It carried out reconnaissance and bombardments of railway stations, e.g. the Tzhmelivka railway station was attacked and destroyed from the Berezhnytsia airport near Ternopil. On 19 August, the squadron returned to Greater Poland. On 2 September, General J. Dowbor-Muśnicki dismissed Colonel Billewicz’s Group to Poznań, and the activities of the Greater Poland Armies were focused on the Lithuanian-Belarusian Front until the end of 1919, where the Poznań Death Battalion, commanded by the veteran of the January Uprising - Lieutenant Colonel Feliks Józefowicz, remained active.

The Poznań Death Battalion

This unit was formed in March and April 1919 and consisted of volunteers and soldiers who caused disciplinary problems, along the lines of a similar troop formed by Gen. J. Dowbor-Muśnicki within the I Polish Corps. In spring 1919, a battalion consisting of 300 people, under the official command of Lieutenant Colonel Feliks Józefowicz, a veteran of the 1863 Uprising and a former soldier of the 1st Polish Corps in Russia, was formed. As previously mentioned, the unit was composed of soldiers who caused disciplinary problems and people with revolutionary views as well as a relatively small number of volunteers. In spring 1919, the soldiers of the Battalion were sent to Warsaw, where they participated in the symbolic establishment of brotherly bonds between the armies from three different partitions. Then they were sent through Białystok to the Lithuanian-Belarusian Front, near Vilnius. Even on their way, they caused disciplinary difficulties, and when they reached the place of their destination they were not in any way regarded as an elite unit. Finally in September 1919 the Battalion was dissolved, the soldiers were deployed in different regiments and some of them were sent to Poznań.

The soldiers of the Greater Poland Armies confirmed their organisational qualities as well as valour in battle during the Polish-Bolshevik war, where two infantry brigades commanded by officers with identical initials became famous. These were: the 33rd Infantry Brigade, with Colonel Stanisław Thiel (the commander of the Ostrzeszów battalion during the Uprising), and the 34 Brigade with Colonel Stanisław Taczak as its commander. Also Colonel Władysław Anders became famous as the commander of the 15th Poznań Uhlan Regiment; from among these three officers his achievements in the army were deemed the greatest. General Józef Dowbor-Muśnicki did not take part in the Polish-Bolshevik war himself. When the Command of the Greater Poland Front was dissolved in March 1920 after the repossession of the territories granted to Poland, he left the army and settled in his estate in Lusowo near Poznań.

The Greater Poland inhabitants in the 3rd Upper Silesia Uprising

The Commissariat of the Supreme People's Council controlled all the territories of the Prussian Partition, from Warmia up to Bytom. The possibility of exerting any impact on Pomerania was very limited for Greater Poland. Only Gdańsk Pomerania and Varmia would remain at stake – that is, those areas which had already been germanised to a great extent, and which did not have their own economic and ethnic base to commence a fight for annexation to the reborn Republic of Poland. In those territories, only propaganda activities could exert any sort of impact, especially in the period of the plebiscite. Completely different possibilities were available in the Upper Silesia region. The process of the organisation of Polish circles during the final period of the world war was similar there as in Greater Poland. However, the transfer of the structures of the Polish Military Organisation of the Prussian Partition failed. It was easier to organise covert civil structures, especially after the assembly of the Partition Sejm of Poznań, when the sub-commissariat of the Supreme People’s Council was established in Bytom. Silesia was represented by Wojciech Korfanty in the Poznań headquarters.

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