Armies In Exile

Operating from outside their homelands, exile armies have been an understudied phenomenon in history and international politics. From avoiding the fate of being a mere tool for a patron power to facing issues regarding their military efficacy and political legitimacy, exiled armies have found their journey home a tortuous one. This collection of essays covers the experience of exiled forces in the Second World War, principally in Europe, and also covers their activities around the globe during the Cold War and beyond.

The author was a general and Commander of the Second Polish Corps during W.W. II.

Through three historical periods--the Napoleonic Wars, World War I, and World War II-- Poles were forced to fight in other nations' armies to defend a Poland that had been erased from the map. Stefancic addresses such questions as how the soldiers' maintained their national identity while serving in a foreign army and the ways in which they related to foreign cultures.

Paul Robinson traces the fate of the tens of thousands of soldiers of the anti-Bolshevik White Armies who fled Russia at the end of the Russian civil war. Even as the troops dispersed throughout the world, they continued to think of themselves as soldiers, kept their organization intact and in some cases even continued their military training. This book provides the first detailed history of this remarkable phenomenon. It outlines the activities of the White Army in exile, including its underground struggles against the Soviet Union, the humanitarian aid it supplied to its members, the ideological debates in which it participated, and its efforts to collaborate with Germany in the Second World War. The story of the afterlife of one of the largest combat forces ever dispersed in this way is a fascinating one, and Robinson's account gives due attention to several of the remarkable individuals who were involved. He sheds new light on the history of the White Movement in general, as well as on the personal histories of those Russians caught up in the mass emigration of the interwar years.

One day, in 1915, American journalist PAUL FORTIER JONES saw a newspaper article calling for men to assist in relief efforts in the far-flung land of Serbia. He signed up that day and changed his life forever. With Serbia into Exile is Jones's autobiography of his adventures. He worked in Serbia during the First World War and recounts his harrowing escape from the advancing armies as the Serbs were pushed toward the sea. Told in a personal, conversational style, Jones makes the plight of the Serbs a deeply affecting tale of suffering and hardship punctuated by moments of tender human kindness. This firsthand account is a unique history that students and scholars will find difficult to put down.

During World War II, London was transformed into a European city, as it unexpectedly became a place of refuge for many thousands of European citizens who through choice or the accidents of war found themselves seeking refuge in Britain from the military campaigns on the Continent of Europe. In this volume, an international team of historians consider the exile groups from Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Poland, Norway and Czechoslovakia, analysing not merely the relations between the plethora of exile regimes and the British government in terms of its military and social dimensions but also the legacy of this period of exile for the politics of post-war Europe. Particular attention is paid to the Belgian exiles, the most numerous exile population in Britain during World War II.