On 15 July 1943, the newly trained and equipped Polish army was shown to the public and the audience included foreign war correspondents. After the parade a press conference was given by Berling and Wasilewska, who spoke on behalf of the ZPP. In October, the Polish army fought the Germans for the first time in the Battle of Lenino. According to Wasilewska, she herself pressed for early deployment of the force. There was a perception of the need to demonstrate, before the Tehran Conference of the Allies, that the Soviet-allied Polish army was already engaged in combat, ahead of the army of Władysław Anders, which had left the Soviet Union. At Lenino the Poles suffered heavy, but not unusual for the Soviet front casualties. Nevertheless, Wasilewska was appalled by the losses and had the division withdrawn from combat for further training and expansion, until the middle of 1944. Following the battle, the ZPP took it upon itself to award official military medals of the Polish state, such as the Virtuti Militari and the Cross of Valour.