Talk:French Military Mission to Poland

Military history: European / French / Polish

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French? British? Allied? Entente? ...Mission[edit]

The Adrian Carton De Wiart article refers to this mission as the BRITISH Military Mission (to Poland). Some Internet sources call it the Allied or Entente Mission. I am begining to think that the current title (French mission...) is misleading and possibly erroneus, caused by our earlier debate centered about Maxime Weygand. What do you think? Should we move this article? --Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus Talk 21:37, 24 Jan 2005 (UTC)

As far as I can tell from Davies, the French Military Mission and the British Military Mission were independent entitities. However, for convenience they are sometimes referred to together in his book as "Allied military missions". There was no single Allied Military Mission as such. To me the best solution is to create a short article British Military Mission (to Poland), and then cross-reference, as needed.

It should also be noted that the purpose of this assistance was not only to aid Poland in the war against the Soviets. More important for France was the long term plan to strenghten Poland as a new ally in the East which would help her contain Germany.

On the other hand, there was the Interallied Mission to Poland, an ad-hoc, somewhat desperate effort by Lloyd George, launched on 21 July 1920 as the crisis before the Battle of Warsaw reached its height. This was improvised in the matter of days, and the purpose is not that clear. The best that I can describe it is that Lloyd George wanted to send a group of high level people to Poland to shake things up and change Polish diplomatic and military policy. Again quoting from Davies:

The political purposes of the mission were not confined to its formal and almost unintelligible terms of reference, namely "to proceed to Poland ... to advise as to the measures to be taken on questions arising out of the negotiations with regard to the conclusion of an armistice between Poland and Soviet Russia.

Davies goes on to suggest that the real purpose of the mission was to replace the existing Polish government with one more amenable to Allied interests. Of course the position of Pilsudski was so strong at the time that this was a hopeless task. Just about the only result of the Interallied Mission was the installation of Weygand as an advisor to the Polish staff, and the subsequent myth of his being the victor of Warsaw. From this it follows that in a real sense Weygand was not even a part of the French Military Mission to Poland :).

Balcer 23:40, 24 Jan 2005 (UTC)

As you seem to be most knowledgable about this, can you create/update the relevant articles? --Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus Talk 23:42, 24 Jan 2005 (UTC)

In progress. Balcer 00:00, 25 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Commander[edit]

The picture caption sais 'Louis Faury, head of the French Military Mission to Poland' and the text sais 'It was commanded by French General Paul Prosper Henrys'. This is confusing to say the least... Some references would be nice as well.--Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus ^Talk 04:51, 25 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The reason is that the mission had various commanders throughout its existence. Henrys was the one from 1920, Faury the guy from 1939. You know, the one to tell the fairy tales of a French offensive in the west... Halibu tt 01:17, 10 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

In that case that info needs to be added to the article, and some copyedit is in order too: the current version gives the impression that the Mission existed only during the PSW war.--Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus ^Talk 04:02, 16 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]