Polish Chemical Brigades – organization, concept of operation and combat capabilities

The beginning of the Cold War as well as the recognition of nuclear weapons as new and decisive combat measures opened a new stage in the history of Polish chemical corps. In the face of another world war, this time with using weapon of mass destruction on both sides, chemical forces were not only restored but also intensely expanded and trained. The emergence of divisions’ and military districts’ chemical companies in the 1950s and independent battalions in the next decade resulted in several times increase in the number of manpower of these specialized troops, larger organizational structures and the adaption of the concept for their usage in the changing requirements of the battlefield. As a result, at the turn of 1960s and 1970s chemical forces achieved the biggest combat capabilities in their history, as they had four trained and fully manned chemical regiments at disposal, that after further mobilization development to Chemical Brigades supported the levels of two Armies and the Front. The main purpose of this article is to present secret until recently organizational structures of Chemical Brigades of the Army and the Front, their combat capabilities and the concept of operation. The article includes mainly collections of Archives of the Ministry of National Defense and sparsely occurring works and articles, which, moreover, present the issue of Polish chemicals troops only in an outline or a fragmented way.