The Pomeranian Military District (Polish acronym POW) was a military district of the Polish Armed Forces from 1945 to 2011. Formally it was subordinate to the Minister of National Defence in the operational matters of defense and detached government administration (Art. 14 Law of 21 November 1967 on the universal duty to defend the Polish Republic). The district command headquarters was at Torun (1945–1946), Bydgoszcz, Gdańsk, Koszalin, and then at Bydgoszcz. From 1947 to 2007 1 Gen. J. Dwernicki Street, from 2007 to December 2011 105th Szubinska Street.
Since 1999, the POW is one of the two military districts in Poland. After 92 years, in accordance with the decision of the Minister of National Defence, in December 2011 the Pomeranian Military District was deactivated.
Although all armies of the Polish Army were disbanded in 1945, already in 1950 a need arose to re-create war-time structure of the armed forces in case of a conflict with NATO. For that purpose in 1950 a Polish Front (also known as Coastal Front) was created from Polish units, as part of Soviet war preparations. In 1955 the front was further subdivided into armies. Each of three Polish Military Districts created a separate army: the Pomeranian Military District created the 1st All-Arms Army, the Silesian Military District created the 2nd Army while Warsaw Military District created the 4th. All air assets were to be joined into the 3rd Air Army in case of mobilisation.
The 1st Army included all units under command of the Pomeranian Military District, among them the Headquarters, the 8th, 12th and 15th Mechanised Divisions, 16th and 20th Armoured Divisions, as well as 2nd Special Battalion (deep reconnaissance), two artillery brigades, one anti-tank regiment, engineering brigade, two engineering regiments and numerous other smaller units.
The army was never activated and was disbanded in 1990.
Formations and units in 1985
Army Command and Headquarters (Dowództwo i sztab armii)
4th Signals Regiment (4 Pułk Łączności)
12th Radio Relay Cable-Laying Regiment (12 Pułk Radioliniowo-Kablowy)
12th Radioelectronic Intelligence Battalion (12 Batalion Rozpoznania Radioelektronicznego)
10th Radiotechnical [airspace surveillance] Battalion (10 Batalion Radiotechniczny)
2nd Special [Forces] Battalion (Long Range Reconnaissance) (2 Batalion Specjalny (dalekiego rozpoznania))
8th Mechanised Division (8 Dywizja Zmechanizowana)
12th Mechanised Division (12 Dywizja Zmechanizowana)
15th Mechanised Division (15 Dywizja Zmechanizowana)
16th Armored Division (16 Dywizja Pancerna)
20th Armored Division (20 Dywizja Pancerna)
2nd Operational-Tactical [intermediate range SSM] Missile Brigade (2 Brygada Rakiet Operacyjno-Taktycznych)
6th Gun Artillery Brigade (6 Brygada Artylerii Armat)
Jerzy Kajetanowicz (2008). "Polskie wojska operacyjne w systemie bezpieczeństwa państwa w latach 1955-1975". Zeszyty Naukowe Akademii Obrony Narodowej (in Polish) (2). Warsaw: Akademia Obrony Narodowej.