page_title: Air Force of the Polish Army
section_title: Transformation
hierarchical_section_title: Air Force of the Polish Army / Transformation
caption_attribution_description: English: Polish WWII airforce memorial at St Clement Danes, London
context_page_description: The Air Force of the Polish Army, unofficially known as the People's Polish Air Force was the name of the Soviet-controlled Polish Air Force in the USSR between 1943 and 1947 created alongside the Polish People's Army, a subordinate to the Red Army. It was the primary Polish air force formation within the Polish Armed Forces in the East during World War II.
context_section_description: During the first days after the war, 67 of the oldest aircraft were immediately withdrawn from the service, for personnel safety. Those were mainly the Po-2s, Il-2s and Jak-1s. Another task was to reduce the number of active servicemen. The plan was to decrease the number of soldiers to 12,314, including the 3150 commissioned officers. The oldest privates, the non-commissioned officers, and about 300 Soviet officers that were serving in the Air Force of the Polish Army during the war, were first to be demobilized.
  On 11 July 1945 Lt. Gen. Połynin ordered that all national marks on aircraft be changed to Polish chessboards. Up to this time all machines were painted like aircraft of the Soviet Air Force with additional Polish chessboards on the sides of planes (the width of the Polish mark was between 300 mm and 350 mm so it was slightly bigger than marks used by the Polish Air Force in Great Britain).
  Also the structure was gradually changed. At the beginning of July 1945, the 2nd Night Bomber Regiment "Kraków" was rearmed changing the Po-2s to the Il-2m3s and renamed as the 2nd Ground-Attack Reg. "Kraków". The Headquarters of the 1 Mixed Air Force Corps and some auxiliary units were disbanded as of July 25, including: the 12th Medical Aviation Regiment, 2nd Saxonian Independent Headquarters Squadron, 3007th Field Post Office, 13th Transport Aviation Regiment, 1596th Regiment of Air Defence, 901st Company of Anti-Aircraft Machine Guns, 7th Technic and Technical Operationality Company, 22nd Company for Special Missions and the 5th Independent Camouflage Platoon. Meanwhile, some names were also changed: the 15th Independent Reserve Air Force Regiment became the 15th Education and Training Aviation Regiment (Polish: 15. Szkolno-Treningowy Pułk Lotniczy) and the 17th Liaison Aviation Regiment became the 17th Mixed Aviation Regiment. At this same time, a few training units were created that prepared the officers to replace the veterans of World War II: the 16th Independent Company of Preparations and Education (Polish: 16. Samodzielna Kompania Szkolno-Przygotowawcza) subordinated to the new Pilot's Officer's Air Force School (detached from the Officer's Air Force School), the 17th Independent Company of Preparations and Education subordinated to the other branch of the former Officer's Air Force School: Technician's Air Force School, the 2nd Independent Technical Airfield Company Polish: 2. Samodzielna Kompania Techniczno-Lotnicza subordinated to the 483rd Airfield Service Battalion and the 2nd Independent Technical Airfield Company subordinated to the 513th Airfield Service Battalion.
  Up to 25 September 1945, the following units were disbanded: the 4th Independent Liaison Aviation Squadron, the 5th Independent Liaison Aviation Squadron, the 1131st Company of Anti-Aircraft Machine Guns, the 5th Independent Photographic Company, the Section of Liaison Aviation of the 1st Armoured Corps, the 7th Field Laundry and the 7th Household Storage. Some units changed names: the 4th Pomeranian Mixed Air Force Division to the 1st Pomeranian Mixed Air Force Division, the 15th Education and Training Aviation Regiment to the 1st Education and Training Aviation Regiment, the 17th Mixed Aviation Regiment to the 2nd Mixed Aviation Regiment and the 7th Area of Air Bases to the 1st Area of Air Bases. In all other units, except training ones, the number of troops were decreased.
  These were disbanded in October 1945: the 338th Company of Telegraph Builders, the 14th Independent Engineer Airfield Construction Battalion and all the Independent Engineer Airfield Construction Battalions.
  These were disbanded in December 1945: the command of the 1st Area of Air Bases (some were subordinated to command units): the 3006th Cereal Storage, the 2003rd Main Air Force Field Storage and the 7th Field Military Household Storage (Polish: 7. Polowy Magazyn Wojskowo-gospodarczy). Also, the names of some units were changed: the 73rd Airfield Service Battalion became the 1st Airfield Service Battalion, the 74th Airfield Service Battalion became the 2nd Airfield Servic
caption: Polish Air Force of France and Great Britain memorial St Clements Church London
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