Haller’s Blue Army

Centennial Commemortive Stamp for the Blue Army

By James Patton

During the Middle Ages the kingdom of Poland was a vibrant state, a bastion of power and Catholic enlightenment. The dynasty reached its zenith in 1683 when the Polish King Jan III Sobieski led the army that defeated the Ottomans in the Battle for Vienna, which proved to be the high water mark of the Ottoman incursion into Central Europe. The subsequent decline of the Polish state paralleled the rise of the Prussian state to the north, and beginning in 1764, Polish territory was nibbled away by Prussia, Russia and Austria, until in 1795 the entire nation had disappeared into the "partitions," the largest of which was the Russian and included the city of Warsaw. 

In the 19th century, disaffected Poles left the area in considerable numbers. It has been estimated that 5 million Poles migrated to North America and considerable numbers went to Western Europe as well. There was even substantial emigration from the Russian partition to the Austrian partition, where the regime was more lenient. Influential Poles in the west, such as the musician Ignacy Paderewski and the scientist Maria Sklodowska Curie, spoke up passionately and persuasively about the unjust treatment of their people, most particularly those under the tsar. 

In 1918 the Polish cause became a war aim. Woodrow Wilson devoted Point XIII of his Fourteen Points to Polish independence. When stating His Majesty’s war aims David Lloyd George said "An independent Poland is an urgent necessity…"

But even before these actions, in August 1916 the Germans and Austro-Hungarians had agreed to create an autonomous (but not quite independent) Kingdom of Poland (no king was ever crowned), and in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in early 1918 the Bolsheviks were required to renounce any claim to the Russian partition.

General Haller Honoring His Troops

Before the war, there were "Polish Legions" formed in the Austrian partition, ostensibly as sportsmen’s clubs. Among the leaders of this movement were the socialist Jósef Pilsudski (1867–1935), a long-time agitator against tsarist rule, and Jósef Haller von Hallenburg (1873–1960), a former cavalry captain in the Austrian army. These paramilitary units also included Polish refugees from the Russian partition as well as veterans of Austrian compulsory military service and, later on, Polish prisoners of war who had served in the Russian army. The real objective of these Legions was to permanently oust the Russians from a large swath of the ancestral Polish domain. In 1915, these units were accepted by the Austro-Hungarians as co-belligerents.

On the other side of the Atlantic, a group of Polish immigrants sought to start a different Polish Legion. American law made this problematic, so they set up shop in Canada. Neither the Canadians nor the British had much use for an all-Polish unit, but the French were much more welcoming.  In fact, they bankrolled the whole operation, and over 20,000 volunteers responded to the call. After the U.S. declared war in 1917, 24,000 more Polish-Americans signed up, and 35,000 Polish POWs held by Italy were recruited as well. Altogether nearly 90,000 men were assembled in France, and the overall command was given to Haller, who had escaped to the West after the Brest-Litovsk Treaty, when his Austro-Hungarian Polish Legion was ordered to stand down. The organization in France became known as Haller’s Army and under his command these soldiers fought on the Western Front from July to November 1918 and who, along with French colonials and the borrowed Americans of the 92nd and 93rd divisions, were among the few units the French Army had that were willing to mount frontal assaults.

After the Armistice, Lt. Gen. Haller and his army were shifted to the east, where they merged with units formerly in Russian service to form the first Polish Army in 124 years, under the overall command of Pilsudski. The French provided massive logistical assistance and an advisory mission led by Gen. Maxime Weygand (1867–1965). Since Haller’s Army still wore their "horizon blue" French uniforms, they became known as  the "Blue Army" but were still under the overall command of Haller. 

The Miracle on the Vistula

The feats of the Blue Army became legendary in the postwar wars, in the Polish-Ukrainian War of 1919, and at the Battle of Warsaw (12–25 August1920). There is a famous painting called The Miracle on the Vistula by Jerzy Kossack (1885–1955) that depicts the Polish soldiers spurred forward by an Apparition of the Virgin Mary leading a host of angelic knights, just as some believe she did at Vienna in 1683. Acting against the advice of Weygand, and significantly outnumbered, Haller’s Corps, including the Blue Army,  successfully turned the northern flank of the Soviet armies attacking Warsaw, forcing them into a chaotic withdrawal.

Pilsudski was a seasoned political infighter and emerged from the Soviet War as the most influential person in Poland. After staging the May 1925 coup d'état he ran the country until his death in 1935.   

Haller, on the other hand, was a great soldier but a poor politician. After he declined to participate in Pilsudki’s coup he was forced out of the army.  He moved to London, where he resided for rest of his life, with frequent visits to America. During WWII he was active in the Polish government in exile in London.

Click on Image to Enlarge

Cemetery for Soldiers of Haller's Corps Who Fell in the 1920 Battle of Warsaw (Photo by James Patton)

Many of those who served under Haller emigrated or returned to the U.S. after their service ended. They were the antecedents of the Polish Legion of American Veterans, which received a federal charter in 1984. Membership has always been restricted to veterans, but the requirement that they be of Polish ancestry was dropped in 1992.  There are currently about 75 posts in 12 states plus DC, mostly located in historically Polish neighborhoods.

Source: Article originally appeared in KansasWW1.org on 5/19/2018