Which country’s troops helped the Red Army take Berlin?
You’d be surprised, but it wasn’t the Americans or the British.
In the battle for the capital of the Third Reich, about 200 thousand servicemen of the so-called Ludowe Wojsko Polskie (People’s Polish Army), created on the territory of the Soviet Union, took part. They accounted for a tenth of all the forces advancing on the “lair of the fascist beast”.
The USSR considered the formations of the Polish Army as allied and actively provided them with arms, equipment and military hardware. The personnel were recruited from the Polish public, as well as from the Soviet population of predominantly Polish origin. The formations were included in the Soviet fronts and subordinated to the Red Army command.
Tanks of the 1st Army of the Ludowe Wojsko Polskie in Berlin.
Units of the 1st Army of the Ludowe Wojsko Polskie successfully participated in street battles in Berlin, including the areas of the Reichstag and the Reich Chancellery. The 2nd Army, which came under strong enemy counterstrike in the Dresden direction, had a harder time. Severely damaged, it, nevertheless, carried out the mission to cover the left flank of the Soviet armies attacking the capital of Germany.
After the end of the war, the Polish formations, fighting side by side with the Red Army, became the basis of the Armed Forces of the Polish People’s Republic.
