7th Infantry Division (Poland)

The 7th Infantry Division ( _pl. 7. Dywizja Piechoty, 7 DP) was the name of several units of the Polish Army.

The original division was formed in 1918 and took part in shielding the Polish borders during the Polish-Ukrainian War. During the Polish-Bolshevik War it was commanded by Col. Szubert and reinforced to three brigades (13th Bde under Herman, 14th Bde under Pogórzelski and 7th Artillery Bde under Luberadzki). It took part in the Battle of the Niemen as part of the Polish 3rd Army. After the war the division was dispersed in several barracks in western Poland, among them in Częstochowa, Piotrków Trybunalski, Lubliniec and Łódź. Mobilized prior to the outbreak of World War II, it took fought in the Invasion of Poland during 1939 as part of the Kraków Army's northern wing. Dislocated on the main axis of the German panzer assault, the division was surrounded on September 3rd and almost destroyed the following day in the area of Potok Złoty, in a battle with three German panzer divisions. Only several battalions managed to escape from the pocket and continued their fight separately, as part of other divisions.

After the Sikorski-Mayski Agreement of 1941, in February of the following year the 7th Division was recreated in the Soviet Union as part of the Polish Army in the East. Withdrawn to Persia, it was disbanded and its units were attached to the 6th Division.

During the Operation Tempest, the division was recreated by the Radom-Kielce inspectorate of Armia Krajowa. Composed of two regiments (27th and 74th), it took part in heavy fights against the Germans. After central Poland had been taken over by the Soviet Army, the majority of its soldiers returned to the underground, risking arrest by the omnipotent NKVD.

At the same time one of the units of the Polish People's Army formed under guidance of the Soviet Union received the same number. Formed north of Lublin, it was formed of three infantry regiments and one artillery regiment. Insufficiently equipped and trained, the unit was attached to the Polish 2nd Army and dispatched to the front near Rothenburg, where it stormed the Nysa Łużycka river with heavy casualties. After several days of heavy fighting on a bridgehead to the west of the river, the division was levied and withdrawn to the rear.