Polish refugees as military potential: policy objectives of the Polish government in exile

Abstract

A puzzling feature of this situation is that large numbers of displaced people had not been attracted to Britain by any natural movement of populations when fleeing from hostilities or in search of safety. Geographically Britain does lie directly on the route of those who fled from German occupied Poland. Throughout the war the Polish governments in exile sought to find sources of manpower in order to form the army, replace casualties and finally to continue the army’s constant expansion. The German attack on the Soviet Union in the summer of 1941 opened a new source of manpower. The opening of the European front, primarily in the west, meant that the Poles were once more able to restart a period of impressive expansion of their armed forces. The position of the Polish soldiers and their dependents who at the end of the Second World War refused to return to Poland was unusual.