From Warsaw to Rome

Ebook

General Anders' Exiled Polish Army in the Second World War

A history of the contributions of the Polish II Corps on the Italian Front during World War II.

"An excellent study of one of the most unusual major formations on the Allied side." —History of War

In May 1944, forty thousand Polish soldiers attacked and captured the hilltops of Monte Cassino, ending the largest, bloodiest battle fought by the western Allies in the Second World War. Days later the Allied armies marched into Rome seizing the first Axis capital.

No one in 1939 could have foreseen an entire Polish Corps engaged on the Italian Front. Most had been held prisoner in the USSR following Poland's defeat and their release by Stalin was only achieved through the intense negotiations of British and Polish politicians generals, notably Sikorski and Anders. The Polish Army was evacuated to Iran in 1942 and subsequently incorporated into the British Army as the Polish II Corps. Their ultimate post-war fate was shamefully ignored until too late.

This book, which charts the extraordinary wartime story of the exiled Polish Army in the east, makes extensive use of undiscovered archive material. It reveals in depth the relations between the British and Polish General Staffs and the never-ending hardships of the Polish soldiers.