page_title: 12th Mechanised Division (Poland)
section_title: Interwar period
hierarchical_section_title: 12th Mechanised Division (Poland) / Interwar period
caption_attribution_description: Polski: 12 DP w 1938
context_page_description: The 12th Bolesław Krzywousty Szczecin Mechanised Division is a division of the Polish Armed Forces, headquartered in Szczecin.
  It traces its heritage back to the 1919 formation of the 6th Polish Rifle Division of the Blue Army in France. The division returned to Poland and was redesignated as the 12th Infantry Division later that year, fighting in the Polish–Soviet War. During the September 1939 Invasion of Poland, the division was part of the southern group of the Prusy Army and was surrounded and destroyed by German forces during the Battle of Radom. It was briefly reformed in 1944 as part of the Home Army, and later that year the Polish People's Army briefly formed a 12th Infantry Division as part of the abortive 3rd Polish Army, but it was quickly broken up. The Polish People's Army reformed the division in Poznań during the final weeks of World War II, and it was sent to Szczecin to secure the area and expel the German population in the immediate postwar period. The division has remained headquartered at Szczecin since then, and was converted into a mechanised division in 1958.
context_section_description: Between the wars, the division was stationed in Tarnopol. It consisted of several regiments, scattered in towns of Podolia:
  51st Giuseppe Garibaldi Kresy Rifles Infantry Regiment, stationed in Brzeżany and Czortkow,
  52nd Kresy Rifles Infantry Regiment, stationed in Zloczow,
  54th Kresy Rifles Infantry Regiment, stationed in Tarnopol,
  12th Kresy Light Artillery Regiment, stationed in Zloczow,
  12th Heavy Artillery Regiment, stationed in Tarnopol.
caption: Location of the 12th Infantry Division in 1938
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