Talk:Polish Military Organisation

Latest comment: 16 years ago by Piotrus in topic 1918

Numbers edit

Urbankowski (p.199-200) gives some figures: ~400 members in 1914, ~4000 in 1915, ~8000 in 1916, noting that POW was approximatly as large as the Legions (and much more independent, thus its growth was encouraged by Piłsudski, who disliked Austrian control over the Legions). P.252 gives ~15000 members for January 1917, and p.254 ~30000 for autumn 1918 (p.273 for similar period has ~50000).-- Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus | talk  01:01, 1 July 2007 (UTC)Reply

1918 edit

Several sources note that PMO did not exist after 1918 - for example, Davies ([1]) or PWN Encyklopedia ([2]). What happened, in reality, was that on 11 November Piłsudski transformed POW into official Polish intelligence, subordinate to the new Polish state (see History of Polish Intelligence Services#1918–1921 for organizational structure). But of course organizations - particulary intelligence ones - are hard to rapidly reorganize, and POW structure, particulary operational ones, remained unchanged for a long period. I will try to find out if the name POW was used in official Polish documents after 1918; it is certain that some scholars use POW to refer to Polish intelligence after 1918, but this may be an error. PS. POW should not be confused which pl:Polska Organizacja Wojskowa Górnego Śląska that existed from 1919-1921 or Polska Organizacja Wojskowa Zaboru Pruskiego (1918-1919).-- Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus | talk  23:04, 28 September 2007 (UTC)Reply