1945 metų lietuviai sąjungininkai

Abstract

The paper discusses a war episode that has been unnoticed by Western historians. This event generally did not exist in the territories that have been recently governed by the USSR. A period of war is mention, when Great Britain was concerned with the provision of support to the USSR for its success in weakening the Third Reich. Meanwhile the Polish Government in emigration obtained Stalin’s consent to amnesty all Polish citizens who had been kept in Soviet prisons or exile since 1939. They also obtained the consent to form the Polish army from deportees. The objective of this army was to fight against attacking Germans together with the soldiers of the Red Army. Polish volunteers are said to come and stand under Polish flags. However, 20 000 officers who, as we now know, were killed at Katyn, Kharkov, and Kalinin were not among these volunteers. The paper more extensively discusses the events related to the formation of Polish regiments and further actions. The participation of Lithuanian soldiers in these events is also mentioned. It should be noted that a mixed allied commando unit was a novelty. It consisted of volunteers with high-level physical, psychological and moral properties. The paper picturesquely discusses the battles of the army, in which Lithuanians were also involved. In 1946, the second Polish corps was demobilised and sent to England. After the Yalta Conference, soldiers were deprived of hope to return to their homeland. This affected both Poles and Lithuanians. The paper presents Lt. Gecevičius, whose life story has not yet been fully disclosed.