Władysław Anders

{{short description|Polish general (1892–1970)}} {{Use British English|date=July 2023}} {{Use dmy dates|date=December 2018}} {{Infobox military person | honorific_prefix = Lieutenant general | name = Władysław Anders | nickname = | image = Wladyslaw Anders.jpg | image_size = | caption = | rank = Lieutenant General ({{langx|pl|Generał Broni}}) | birth_name = Władysław Albert Anders | allegiance = Russian Empire Second Polish Republic Polish Government in exile | birth_date = {{birth date|df=y|1892|8|11}} | birth_place = Krośniewice-Błonie, Warsaw Governorate, Congress Poland, Russian Empire | death_date = {{death date and age|df=y|1970|5|12|1892|8|11}} | death_place = London, United Kingdom | service_years = 1913–1946 | unit = Polish II Corps | battles = {{tree list}} * First World War * Polish–Soviet War * Second World War ** Invasion of Poland *** Battle of Tomaszów Lubelski *** Battle of Wladypol ** Italian campaign *** Battle of Monte Cassino *** Battle of Ancona *** Battle of Bologna {{tree list/end}} | awards = ''See list below'' | spouse = {{Plainlist| * Irena Maria Anders (Jordan-Krąkowska) * Irena Anders }} | relations = {{unbulleted list|Tadeusz Anders|Karol Anders}} | other_work = | signature = Władysław Anders signature 1968.svg }} [[File:Anders NKVD.jpg|thumb|Mug shot made by the secret police of the Soviet Union (NKVD) after his arrest in 1940]] [[File:WA tombstone.jpg|thumb|right|The tombstone of General Anders at the Polish War Cemetery at Monte Cassino in Italy.]] thumb|right|The Polish War Cemetery at Monte Cassino in Italy. '''Władysław Albert Anders''' ({{IPA|pl|vwaˈdɘ.swaf ˈan.dɛrs|lang}}; 11 August 1892 – 12 May 1970) was a Polish military officer and politician, and a prominent member of the Polish government-in-exile in London.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Wladyslaw-Anders|title=Władysław Anders | Polish officer |website=britannica.com|date=8 May 2023 }}</ref>

Born in Krośniewice-Błonie, then part of the Russian Empire, he served in the Imperial Russian Army during World War I and later joined the Polish Land Forces after Poland regained its independence in 1918.

During World War II, Anders was captured by Soviet forces and imprisoned, but he was later released to form a Polish Army to fight against the Germans alongside the Red Army. He led the Polish II Corps throughout the Italian campaign, including the capture of Monte Cassino.

After the war, Anders was deprived of his citizenship and military rank by the Soviet-installed communist government of Poland. He remained in Britain, working for the Polish government in exile and various charities. In 1989, after the collapse of communist rule in Poland, his citizenship and military rank were posthumously reinstated.

==Biography== ===Before World War II=== Anders was born on 11 August 1892 to his father, Albert Anders, and mother, Elżbieta (née Tauchert),<ref name="TechU">{{cite web |url= http://anders.wsiz.rzeszow.pl/varia.html |title= Generał Broni Władysław Anders |work= Rzeszów University of Technology |year= 2007 |access-date= 1 June 2015 |language= pl |archive-date= 3 March 2016 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20160303171308/http://anders.wsiz.rzeszow.pl/varia.html |url-status= dead }}</ref> in the village of Krośniewice–Błonie, {{convert|96|km}} west of Warsaw, then part of the Russian Empire. Both his parents were of Baltic German origin and had been polonized long before his birth. He was baptised as a member of the Protestant Evangelical-Augsburg Church in Poland.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://historia.gazeta.pl/historia/1,99429,6638224,Wladyslaw_Anders.html |author= Bogusz Szymański |title= Władysław Anders |work= Gazeta.pl |date= 28 October 2010 |access-date= 7 January 2016 |language= pl |url-status= dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20111106083310/http://historia.gazeta.pl/historia/1,99429,6638224,Wladyslaw_Anders.html |archive-date= 6 November 2011 }}</ref> He had three brothers – Karol, Tadeusz and Jerzy, all of whom also went on to pursue careers in the military.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://anders.wsiz.rzeszow.pl/varia.html|title=Wyższa Szkoła Informatyki i Zarządzania w Rzeszowie|access-date=31 March 2008|archive-date=3 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303171308/http://anders.wsiz.rzeszow.pl/varia.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Anders attended a technical high school in Warsaw and later studied at Riga Technical University,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://encyklopedia.pwn.pl/haslo/Anders-Wladyslaw;3869228.html|title=Anders Władysław - Encyklopedia PWN - źródło wiarygodnej i rzetelnej wiedzy|website=encyklopedia.pwn.pl}}</ref> where he became a member of the Polish student fraternity {{interlanguage link|Arkonia|pl|Arkonia (korporacja)}}.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.arkonia.pl/Czytelnia/Ksiegi_pamiatkowe/Ksiega_100lecia |title=Księga Pamiątkowa Arkonii 1879–1979|language=PL|website=www.arkonia.pl}}</ref> After graduation, Anders was accepted into a 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.<ref>{{cite book |last= Sarner |first= Harvey |title= General Anders and Soldiers of the Polish II Corps |page= xi |year= 2006 |isbn= 1-888521-13-9 |publisher= Brunswick Press}}</ref>

When Poland regained its independence in November 1918, Anders joined the newly formed Polish Land Forces. During the Polish–Soviet War of 1919–1921, 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 École spéciale militaire de Saint-Cyr, and upon graduation he returned to Poland, where he served on the general staff of the Polish Army under General Tadeusz Rozwadowski, Chief of the General Staff from 1920 to 1921.

Anders opposed Józef Piłsudski's May Coup in Poland in 1926, but unlike 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.<ref>{{cite book |last= Sarner |first= Harvey |title= General Anders and Soldiers of the Polish II Corps |page= xii |year= 2006 |isbn= 1-888521-13-9 |publisher= Brunswick Press}}</ref>

===World War II=== Anders commanded the Nowogródzka Cavalry Brigade during the German 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 Mińsk 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, hoping to reach the Hungarian or Romanian border, but was intercepted by Soviet forces and captured on 29 September, after being wounded twice.<ref>{{cite book |last=Anders |first=Władysław |title=An Army in Exile |pages=1–12 |year=1949 |publisher=MacMillan & Co}}</ref>

Anders was initially jailed in Lwów and subsequently transferred to the Lubyanka prison in Moscow on 29 February 1940. During his imprisonment, he was interrogated, tortured and unsuccessfully urged to join the Red Army.<ref>{{cite book |last=Sarner |first=Harvey |title=General Anders and Soldiers of the Polish II Corps |page=10 |year=2006 |isbn=1-888521-13-9 |publisher=Brunswick Press}}</ref>

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 evacuation 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 finally into Mandatory Palestine. The evacuation, which took place in March 1942, was based on the British-Soviet-Polish understanding. The soldiers involved were evacuated from the Soviet Union and made their way through Iran to British-ruled Palestine, where they passed under British command. Here, Anders formed and led the Polish II Corps, while continuing to agitate for the release of Polish nationals still in the Soviet Union.<ref>{{cite web|author=Levy, Mike|title=In the steps of the Polish Moses |url=https://www.thejc.com/lifestyle/features/in-the-steps-of-the-polish-moses-1.64019|publisher=Jewish Chronicle|date=2015|access-date=2020-12-12}}</ref>

[[File:The Battles of Monte Cassino, January - May 1944 NA15352.jpg|thumb|General Władysław Anders and the Commander of the Allied Armies in Italy, General Harold Alexander salute, after Alexander had invested Anders with the Order of the Bath in recognition of Polish services at Monte Cassino. Lieutenant Eugeniusz Lubomirski, Anders' adjutant, is standing behind his commander]]

The Polish II 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, Ancona on 18 July 1944; afterward his Corps took part in the breaking of the Gothic Line and in the final spring offensive.<ref>{{Cite book|author=Davies, Norman|title=Trail of Hope – The Anders Army, an Odyssey Across Three Continents|place=United Kingdom|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing|date=2016|isbn=978-1-4728-1605-4}}</ref>

The morale of the Polish forces was weakened by the outcome of the Yalta Conference which ended on 11 February 1945, where Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt, without consulting the Polish government-in-exile, accepted Soviet control over a major part of the 1921–1939 Polish territories.<ref name="Wawer8">Zbigniew Wawer, ''Zdobycie Bolonii'', p.8</ref><ref>Steven J. Zaloga, Richard Hook, ''The Polish army 1939–45'', Osprey Publishing, 1982, {{ISBN|0-85045-417-4}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=AAdYFeW2fnoC&dq=battle+of+Ancona+1944&pg=PA20 Google Print, p.20]</ref><ref name="ajj">Anthony James Joes, ''Urban guerrilla warfare'', University Press of Kentucky, 2007, {{ISBN|9780813124377}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=LPDb89mJXUYC&dq=Churchill+Anders+Yalta+blood&pg=PA37 Google Print, p.37]</ref> When Anders asked for his unit to be withdrawn from the front line, Churchill replied "you are no longer needed" though the Allied commanders Richard McCreery, Mark Wayne Clark and Harold Alexander requested Anders to order his units remain in their positions, as they had no troops to replace them. Anders eventually decided to keep the Polish units engaged, and they subsequently fought in the Battle of Bologna.<ref name="Wawer8" /><ref name="ajj" />

===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 General Inspector of the Armed Forces, 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.

thumb|left|Władysław Anders in 1969 at the commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the Battle of Monte Cassino in Italy

Anders died in London on 12 May 1970, where his body lay in state at St Andrew Bobola Church, 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. In June 2021, General Anders's bust designed by Andrzej Pitynski was officially unveiled at London's National Army Museum.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.thefirstnews.com/article/bust-of-wwii-hero-general-anders-unveiled-in-historic-ceremony-at-londons-national-army-museum-22821 |title=Bust of World War II hero General Anders unveiled in historic ceremony at London's National Army Museum |access-date=26 June 2021}}</ref>

===Private life=== Anders was married twice. He had two children with his first wife Irena Maria Jordan-Krąkowska.

In 1948, he married the actress and singer Irena Jarosiewicz,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Irena Anders buried at Monte Cassino |url=http://archiwum.thenews.pl/1/10/Artykul/24915 |access-date=2024-11-02 |website=Polskie Radio dla Zagranicy}}</ref> better known under her stage name Renata Bogdańska, with whom he had a daughter, Anna Maria.

==Medals== [[File:The Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum (23647113834).jpg|thumb|right|The Władysław Anders room in the Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum, London]] [[File:A bust of Władysław Anders, commander of the 2nd Polish Corps in WW2 (15032879603).jpg|thumb|right|A bust of Władysław Anders in the Polish Army Museum in Warsaw]] [[File:Monument to the Battle of Monte Cassino in Warsaw (16231712312).jpg|thumb|right|Anders pictured on the Monument to the Battle of Monte Cassino in Warsaw]] Anders received numerous awards and decorations:<ref>{{cite web |url=http://anders.wsiz.rzeszow.pl/odznaczenia.html |title=Odznaczenia Gen. Broni Władysława Andersa |trans-title=Medals of Lt. Gen. Władysław Anders |work=Rzeszów University of Technology |year=2007 |access-date=1 June 2015 |language=pl |archive-date=1 May 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080501140506/http://anders.wsiz.rzeszow.pl/odznaczenia.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>

===Poland=== *40px|Order of the White Eagle Order of the White Eagle (awarded posthumously on 11 November 1995 by Lech Wałęsa) * ''Virtuti Militari'' ** 40px|Virtuti Militari (II Class) Commander's Cross (2nd class) ** 40px|Virtuti Militari (III Class) Knight's Cross (3rd class) ** 40px|Virtuti Militari (IV Class) Golden Cross (4th class) ** 40px|Virtuti Militari (V Class) Silver Cross (5th class) * Order of Polonia Restituta ** 40px|Polonia Restituta (III Class) Commander's Cross (3rd class) ** 40px|Polonia Restituta (IV Class) Officer's Cross (4th class) * 40px|Cross of Independence Cross of Independence * 40px|Cross of Valour Cross of Valour (four times: Polish–Soviet War (3) & Invasion of Poland) * 40px|Cross of Merit (I Class with Swords) Gold Cross of Merit with Swords (four times) * 40px|Army Medal with 3 bars Army Medal (four times) * 40px|Commemorative medal for war of 1919–1921 Commemorative Medal for War 1918–1921 * 40px|10-lecia Odzyskania Niepodległości Medal of the 10th Anniversary of Independence * 40px Medal of 3rd May * Medal for Long Service ** 40px|Silver Long Service Medal Silver (20 years) ** 40px|Bronze Long Service Medal Bronze (10 years) * 40px|Armia Krajowa Cross Home Army Cross * 40px|Cross of Monte Cassino (Poland) Monte Cassino Commemorative Cross * 60px Wound Decoration, (eight times)

===Foreign=== ;Czechoslovakia * 40px|Order of the White Lion Order of the White Lion

;France * 40px|Légion d'honneur Commander of the Légion d'honneur * 40px|Croix de Guerre – Bronze Palm Croix de Guerre avec Palme * 40px|Médaille Interalliée Médaille Interalliée de la Victoire 1914–1918

;Italy * 40px|Cavaliere di gran Croce Regno SSML Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus (1st class) * 40px|Croce di guerra al valor militare War Cross for Military Valor

;The Sovereign Military Order of Malta * Grand Cross of Merit

;Persia * 40px|Order of the Lion and the Sun Order of Homayoun (1st class)

;Imperial Russia * 40px|Order of St. George IV class Order of St. George (4th class, 1915) * 40px|Order of St. Vladimir Order of St. Vladimir with Swords (4th class, 1915) * 40px|Order of St. Anna Order of St. Anna with Swords (2nd, 3rd (1918) and 4th class) * 40px|Order of Saint Stanislaus Order of Saint Stanislas with Swords (2nd and 3rd classes, 1918)

;United States of America * 40px|Legion of Merit (II Class) Commander of the Legion of Merit * Order of Lafayette

;Kingdom of Yugoslavia * 40px|Order of St.Sava Commander of the Order of St. Sava

==Notes== {{Reflist}}

==External links== * {{Commons category-inline}} * [https://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf0p3000tg/ Władysław Anders Collection] at the [https://www.hoover.org/library-and-archives/ Hoover Institution Archives] * {{PM20|FID=pe/000484}} * [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moKMLO7zBF8 Professor Norman Davies on his forthcoming book Trail of Hope and Anders' exodus from the USSR]

{{s-start}} {{s-mil}} {{succession box|title=Commanding General of the Polish II Corps|before=none|after=Zygmunt Bohusz-Szyszko|years=1943–1945}} {{succession box|title=General Inspector of the Armed Forces|before=Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski|after=Michał Karaszewicz-Tokarzewski|years=1946–1954}} {{s-off}} {{succession box |title=Member of the Council of Three Alongside: Tomasz Arciszewski, Edward Raczyński, Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski, Roman Odzierzyński, Stanisław Mglej, Alfred Urbański |before=none |after=Stanisław Kopański |years=1954–1970 }} {{end}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Anders, Wladyslaw}} Category:1892 births Category:1970 deaths Category:People from Krośniewice Category:People from Warsaw Governorate Category:Military personnel from Warsaw Category:Polish people of Baltic German descent Category:Polish Roman Catholics Category:Converts to Roman Catholicism from Lutheranism Category:Riga Technical University alumni Category:Rada Trzech Category:Imperial Russian Army officers Category:Russian military personnel of World War I Category:Polish I Corps in Russia personnel Category:Polish people of the Polish–Soviet War Category:Polish generals Category:People of the Polish May Coup (pro-government side) Category:Polish military personnel of World War II Category:Polish deportees to the Soviet Union Category:Polish anti-communists Category:Polish exiles Category:Recipients of the Cross of Valour (Poland) Category:Recipients of the Order of the White Eagle (Poland) Category:Commanders of the Virtuti Militari Category:Commanders of the Order of Polonia Restituta Category:Recipients of the Order of Saint Stanislaus (House of Romanov) Category:Recipients of the Croix de Guerre (France) Category:Recipients of the Order of St. Anna, 2nd class Category:Commanders of the Legion of Honour Category:Recipients of the Cross of Independence Category:Recipients of the Cross of Merit with Swords (Poland) Category:Commanders of the Legion of Merit Category:Recipients of the Order of the White Lion Category:Knights Grand Cross of the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus Category:Recipients of the War Cross for Military Valor Category:Commanders of the Order of St. Sava Category:Recipients of the Order of St. Vladimir, 4th class Category:Honorary companions of the Order of the Bath Category:Polish recipients of the Legion of Honour