Pomeranian Military District

The Pomeranian Military District (Polish acronym POW) was a military district of the Polish Armed Forces from 1945 to 2011. Formally it was subordinate to the Minister of National Defence in the operational matters of defense and detached government administration (Art. 14 Law of 21 November 1967 on the universal duty to defend the Polish Republic). The district command headquarters was at Torun (1945–1946), Bydgoszcz, Gdańsk, Koszalin, 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 districts in Poland. After 92 years, in accordance with the decision of the Minister of National Defence, in December 2011 the Pomeranian Military District was deactivated. The First Combined Arms Army (Pierwsza Armia Ogólnowojskowa; see :pl:1 Armia Ogólnowojskowa WP (1955-1990)) was a military formation of the Polish Land Forces created in 1955. It was intended to guard the Baltic Sea shores as part of the Polish Front (:pl:Front Polski (1950)) and capture the Danish straits in case the Cold War turned hot. Unlike the 2nd Polish Army (raised and using after the Prague Spring of 1968), it was never mobilised and made operational. It was disbanded as soon as Poland regained her independence from the Soviet bloc and left the Warsaw Pact. 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 NATO. For that purpose in 1950 a Polish Front (also known as Coastal Front) was created from 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-Arms Army, the Silesian Military District 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.