Władysław Anders

Władysław Albert Anders (11 August 1892 – 12 May 1970) was a general in the Polish Army and later in life a politician and prominent member of the Polish government-in-exile in London.

Before World War II

Anders was born on 11 August 1892 to his father Albert Anders and mother Elizabeth (maiden name Tauchert) in the village of Krośniewice–Błonie, sixty miles west of Warsaw, in what was then a part of the Russian Empire. At the time of his birth Poland did not exist as an independent state, as a result of the Partitions of Poland at the end of the eighteenth century.

Both his parents were of Baltic-German origin and he was baptised as a member of the Protestant Evangelical-Augsburg Church in Poland. Anders had three brothers – Karol, Tadeusz and Jerzy, all of whom also went on to pursue careers in the military. Anders attended a technical high school in Warsaw and later studied at Riga Technical University, where he became a member of the Polish student fraternity Arkonia. After graduation Anders was accepted into the Russian Military School for reserve officers. As a young officer, he served in the 1st Krechowiecki Lancers Regiment of the Imperial Russian Army during World War I.

When Poland regained independence in November 1918 he joined the newly created Polish Army. During the Polish–Soviet War he commanded the 15th Poznań Uhlans Regiment and was awarded the Silver Cross of the Virtuti Militari. After the war Anders continued his military education in France at the Ecole Superieur de Guerre and upon graduation he returned to Poland, where he served on the general staff of the Polish Army under General Tadeusz Jordan-Rozwadowski.

Anders opposed Józef Piłsudski's coup d'état in Poland in 1926 but unlike Jordan-Rozwadowski, he avoided persecution by the Sanation regime that assumed power after the coup. Piłsudski made him the commander of a cavalry brigade in 1931 and he was promoted to the rank of general three years later.

World War II

Anders commanded the Nowogródzka Cavalry Brigade during the German Army's invasion of Poland in September 1939 and was immediately called into action, taking part in the Battle of Mława. After the collapse of the Polish Northern Front the brigade withdrew towards Warsaw, and also fought heavy battles against the Germans around Minsk Mazowiecki and in the second phase of the Battle of Tomaszów Lubelski. After learning about the Soviet invasion of Poland, Anders retreated south in the direction of Lwów (now called Lviv), hoping to reach the Hungarian or Romanian border, but was intercepted by Soviet forces and captured on 29 September, after being wounded twice.

He was initially jailed in Lwów and subsequently transferred to the Lubyanka prison in Moscow on 29 February 1940. During his imprisonment Anders was interrogated, tortured and unsuccessfully urged to join the Russian Army.

A wartime picture of Anders.

After the launch of Operation Barbarossa and the signing of the Sikorski-Maisky agreement, Anders was released by the Soviets with the aim of forming a Polish Army to fight against the Germans alongside the Red Army. Continued friction with the Soviets over political issues as well as shortages of weapons, food and clothing, led to the eventual exodus of Anders' men – known as Anders Army – together with a sizeable contingent of Polish civilians who had been deported to the USSR from Soviet-occupied Poland, via the Persian Corridor into Iran, Iraq and Palestine. Here, Anders formed and led the Polish 2nd Corps, while continuing to agitate for the release of Polish nationals still in the Soviet Union.

The Polish 2nd Corps became a major tactical and operational unit of the Polish Armed Forces in the West. Anders commanded the Corps throughout the Italian Campaign, capturing Monte Cassino on 18 May 1944, later fighting on the Gothic Line and in the final spring offensive.

After World War II

After the war the Soviet-installed communist government of Poland deprived him of Polish citizenship and of his military rank. Anders had, however, always been unwilling to return to a Soviet-dominated Poland where he probably would have been jailed and possibly executed, and remained in Britain. He was prominent in the Polish Government in Exile in London and became inspector-general of the Polish forces-in-exile, as well as working on behalf of various charities and welfare organisations.

His book about his experiences during the Second World War, An Army in Exile, was first published by MacMillan & Co, London, in 1949.

He died in London on 12 May 1970, where his body lay in state at the church of Andrzej Bobola, and many of his former soldiers and their families came to pay their last respects. He was buried, in accordance with his wishes, amongst his fallen soldiers from the 2nd Polish Corps at the Polish War Cemetery at Monte Cassino in Italy.

After the collapse of communist rule in Poland in 1989, his citizenship and military rank were posthumously reinstated.

Many personal effects which once belonged to Anders are on display in the Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum in London.

Private life

Anders was married twice. He had two children with his first wife Irena Maria Jordan-Krąkowska (born 1894, died 1981) – a daughter, Anna (born 1919, died 2006) and a son, George (born 1927, died 1983).

In 1948 he married the actress and singer Irena Jarosiewicz, better known under her stage name Renata Bogdańska, with whom he had a daughter, Anna Maria (born in 1950).

The Władysław Anders room in the Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum, London

A bust of Władysław Anders in the Polish Army Museum in Warsaw

Anders pictured on the Monument to the Battle of Monte Cassino in Warsaw

Anders received numerous awards and decorations:

Poland

• Order of the White Eagle (awarded posthumously on 11 November 1995 by Lech Walesa)
• Virtuti Militari
  • Commander's Cross (2nd class)
  • Knight's Cross (3rd class)
  • Golden Cross (4th class)
  • Silver Cross (5th class)
• Order of Polonia Restituta
  • Commander's Cross (3rd class)
  • Officer's Cross (4th class)
• Cross of Independence
• Cross of Valour (four times: Polish-Soviet War (3) & Invasion of Poland)
• Gold Cross of Merit with Swords (four times)
• Army Medal (four times)
• Commemorative Medal for War 1918–1921
• Medal of the 10th Anniversary of Independence
• Medal of 3rd May
• Medal for Long Service
  • Silver (20 years)
  • Bronze (10 years)
• Home Army Cross
• Monte Cassino Commemorative Cross
• Wound Decoration, (eight times)

Foreign

• Order of the White Lion

• Commander of the Legion d'Honneur
• Croix de Guerre avec Palme
• Médaille Interalliée de la Victoire 1914–1918

• Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus (1st class)
• War Cross for Military Valor

• Grand Cross of Merit

• Order of Homayoun (1st class)

• Order of St. George (4th class, 1915)
• Order of St. Vladimir with Swords (4th class, 1915)
• Order of St. Anna with Swords (2nd, 3rd (1918) and 4th class)
• Order of Saint Stanislas with Swords (2nd and 3rd classes, 1918)

• Honorary Companion of the Order of the Bath
• 1939–1945 Star
• Italy Star
• Defence Medal
• War Medal

• Commander of the Legion of Merit
• Order of Lafayette

• Commander of the Order of St. Sava