The Pomerania

Pomerania

Pomerania is a historical region on the south shore of the Baltic Sea. Divided between Germany and Poland, it stretches roughly from the Recknitz River near Stralsund in the West, via the Oder River delta near Szczecin, to the mouth of the Vistula River near Gdańsk in the East...

n Military District (Polish acronym POW) was a military district

Military district

Military districts are formations of a state's armed forces which are responsible for a certain area of territory. They are often more responsible for administrative than operational matters, and in countries with conscript forces, often handle parts of the conscription cycle.Navies have also used...

 of the Polish Armed Forces

Polish Armed Forces

Siły Zbrojne Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej are the national defense forces of Poland...

 from 1945 to 2011. Formally it was subordinate to the Minister of National Defence

Minister of National Defence

*Minister of National Defence *Ministry of National Defense of the People's Republic of China*Ministry of National Defense *Ministry of National Defense *Minister of National Defence *Minister of National Defence...

 in the operational matters of defense and detached government administration (Art. 14 Law

Law

Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...

 of 21 November 1967 on the universal duty to defend the Polish Republic). The district command headquarters was at Torun

Torun

Toruń is an ancient city in northern Poland, on the Vistula River. Its population is more than 205,934 as of June 2009. Toruń is one of the oldest cities in Poland. The medieval old town of Toruń is the birthplace of the astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus....

 (1945 -1946), Bydgoszcz, Gdańsk

Gdansk

Gdańsk is a Polish city on the Baltic coast, at the centre of the country's fourth-largest metropolitan area.The city lies on the southern edge of Gdańsk Bay , in a conurbation with the city of Gdynia, spa town of Sopot, and suburban communities, which together form a metropolitan area called the...

, Koszalin

Koszalin

Koszalin ; is the largest city of Middle Pomerania in north-western Poland. It is located 12 km south of the Baltic Sea coast. Koszalin is also a county-status city and capital of Koszalin County of West Pomeranian Voivodeship since 1999...

, and then at Bydgoszcz. From 1947 to 2007 1 Gen. J. Dwernicki Street, from 2007 to December 2011 105th Szubinska Street.

Since 1999, the POW is one of the two military district

Military district

Military districts are formations of a state's armed forces which are responsible for a certain area of territory. They are often more responsible for administrative than operational matters, and in countries with conscript forces, often handle parts of the conscription cycle.Navies have also used...

s in Poland

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

. After 92 years, in accordance with the decision of the Minister of National Defence, in December 2011 the Pomeranian Military District will be deactivated.

First Combined Army Army

The First All-Military Army ) was a military formation of the Polish Land Forces

Polish Land Forces

The Polish Land Forces are a branch of Poland's Armed Forces. They currently contain some 65,000 active personnel and form many components of EU and NATO deployments around the world.-History:...

 created in 1955. It was intended to guard the Baltic Sea

Baltic Sea

The Baltic Sea is a brackish mediterranean sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and...

 shores as part of the Polish Front and capture the Danish straits

Danish straits

The Danish straits are the three channels connecting the Baltic Sea to the North Sea through the Kattegat and Skagerrak. They transect Denmark, and are not to be confused with the Denmark Strait between Greenland and Iceland...

 in case the Cold War

Cold War

The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...

 turned hot. Unlike the 2nd Polish Army it was never mobilised and was disbanded as soon as Poland regained her independence from the Soviet bloc and left the Warsaw Pact

Warsaw Pact

The Warsaw Treaty Organization of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance , or more commonly referred to as the Warsaw Pact, was a mutual defense treaty subscribed to by eight communist states in Eastern Europe...

.

Although all armies of the Polish Army were disbanded in 1945, already in 1950 a need arose to re-create war-time structure of the armed forces in case of a conflict with the NATO. For that purpose in 1950 a Polish Front (also known as Seaside Front) was created out of Polish units, as part of Soviet war preparations. In 1955 the front was further subdivided into armies. Each of three Polish Military Districts created a separate army: the Pomeranian Military District created the 1st All-Military Army, the Silesian Military District

Silesian Military District

Silesian Military District with its headquarters in Wrocław is one of two current military districts in Poland ....

 created the 2nd Army while Warsaw Military District created the 4th. All air assets were to be joined into the 3rd Air Army in case of mobilisation.

The 1st Army included all units under command of the Pomeranian Military District, among them the Headquarters, the 8th, 12th and 15th Mechanised Divisions, 16th and 20th Armoured Divisions, as well as 2nd Special Battalion (deep reconnaissance

Reconnaissance

Reconnaissance is the military term for exploring beyond the area occupied by friendly forces to gain information about enemy forces or features of the environment....

), two artillery brigades, one anti-tank regiment, engineering brigade, two engineering regiments and numerous other smaller units.

The army was never activated and was disbanded in 1990.

District commanders

• 21 kwietnia 1945 – 15 maja 1945 – p.o. ppłk Mikołaj Iwanow
• 16 maja 1945 – 24 września 1945 – płk (gen. bryg.) Wacław Szokalski;
• 25 września 1945 – 10 października 1945 – gen. bryg. Wiaczesław Jakutowicz;
• 11 października 1945 – 25 czerwca 1947 – gen. bryg. Jan Jośkiewicz;
• 26 czerwca 1947 – 15 października 1947 – gen. bryg. Jan Rotkiewicz;
• 19 listopada 1947 – 21 stycznia 1953 – gen. dyw. Bronisław Półturzycki;
• 21 marca 1953 – 29 maja 1953 – cz.p.o. gen. bryg. Antoni Władyczański;
• 30 maja 1953 – 22 października 1954 – p.o. gen. bryg. Antoni Władyczański;
• 31 grudnia 1954 – 5 listopada 1956 – gen. dyw. Jan Rotkiewicz;
• 6 listopada 1956 – 14 listopada 1964 – gen. dyw. Zygmunt Huszcza;
• 15 listopada 1964 – 18 maja 1971 – gen. dyw. Józef Kamiński;
• 19 maja 1971 – 26 lutego 1978 – gen. dyw. Wojciech Barański;
• 27 lutego 1978 – 14 marca 1983 – gen. dyw. Józef Użycki;
• 1 kwietnia 1983 – 22 września 1989 – gen. dyw. Zbigniew Blechman;
• 23 września 1989 – 3 września 1992 – gen. dyw. Zbigniew Zalewski;
• 4 września 1992 – 8 września 2000 – gen. dyw. Tadeusz Bazydło;
• 9 września 2000 – 11 grudnia 2003 – gen. dyw. Leszek Chyła;
• 12 grudnia 2003 – 5 października 2006 – gen. dyw. Zbigniew Głowienka
• 6 października 2006 – 11 stycznia 2007 – p.o. gen. bryg. Zygmunt Duleba
• od 12 stycznia 2007 – gen. bryg. Zygmunt Duleba