Wladyslaw Anders

He was a General in the Polish Army and later in life a politician with the Polish government-in-exile in London. Anders was born on August 11, 1892, in the Polish village of Kroniewice-Blonie, near Kutno. As a young officer Anders served the Tsar Nicholas II in the 1st Krechowiecki Lancer's Regiment during World War I, later joining the Polish Army and again serving as an Commissioned officer in a cavalry regiment.

Anders was in command of an cavalry brigade at the time of the outbreak of World War II. The Polish Cavalry was no match for German Blitzkrieg tactics, tanks and motorised infantry, and the Polish forces were forced to retreat to the east. Anders was taken prisoner by Soviet forces and was jailed in Lubyanka Prison in Moscow.

After the attack on the Soviet Union by Germany, Anders was released by the Soviets with the aim of forming a Polish Army to fight alongside the Red Army. Continued friction with the Soviets led to the eventual exodus of Anders' men, together with a sizeable contingent of Polish civilians, along the Persian Corridor into Persia (Iran); where Anders formed and led the 2nd Polish Corps while agitating for release of Polish nationals still in the Soviet Union. It was during this time that large numbers of non-combat capable Polish men and women were sent to Britain. Many stayed, and made their way in the world after the end of the war.

Anders was the commander of the 2nd Polish Corps 1943-1946. After the war the Soviet installed communist government in Poland announced it was removing his Polish citizenship, he had however always been unwilling to return to a Soviet dominated Poland and stayed in exile in Britain. He was prominent in the Polish Government in Exile in London. He died in London on 12 May 1970, where his body lay 'in state' at the church of Andrzej Bobola, where many of his former soldiers and 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 Military Cemetery at Monte Cassino in Italy.

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