1. THE OFFICERS' SCHOOL FOR ARMORED AND MECHANIZED FORCES IN POZNAN 2. MISCELLANEOUS MILITARY INFORMATION 3. TANK TRAINING FIELD AT BIEDRUSKO

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP81-01043R002500020006-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 19
• Document Creation Date: December 27, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 18, 2013
• Sequence Number: 6
• Publication Date: August 7, 1958
• Content Type: REPORT

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INFORMATION 'REPORT INFORMATION REPORT
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
This material contains information affecting the National Defense of the United States within the meaning of the Espionage Laws, Title
18, U.S.C. Secs. 793 and 794, the transmission or revelation of which in any manner to an unauthorized person is prohibited by law.
COUNTRY Poland. REPORT
SUBJECT 1. The Officers' School for Armored and. DATE DISTR. I ALIG-195E)
Mechnni zed. Forces in Poznan
2. Miscellaneous Military Information NO. PAGES 1
3. Tank Training Field at Biedrusko
REFERENCES RD
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DATE OF
INFO.
PLACE &
DATE ACQ
SOURCE
report on the Officers' School for Arrr50x7i-Fium
and Mechanized Forces in Poznan, miscellaneous military information and tne
tank training field. at Biedrusko (N52-33, E16-57). Attached. to the report
is a memory sketch of the layout of the tank training field at Biedrusko and a
sketch of the layout of the officers' Qrginol -
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STATE
(Note: Washington distribution indkated by "X"; Field distribution by "It")
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Officers' School for the Armored and Mechanized Forces
1. The Officers' School for the Armored and Mechanized Forces
(Oficerska askola Wojsk Pancernych i Zraechanizowanych) is
situated on Wojska Polaldego Street, Poznan-Golencin. The
school is accessible by taking a No. 9 streetcar to its terminus.
2. In 1956 personnel at the school totaled approximately 2,500
men in the following categories?
a. Of an estimated 1,000 men who were first-year recruits,
80 percent attended a course for noncommissioned tank of-
ficers. (kurs podoficerski), while the remainder were used
as service personnel.
Oi.n P. El 7.ilt
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b. About 200 men in the senior age group, who had also been
conscripted, formed the crews of the tanks used by the
school.
c. About 800 students of the three-year tank officers'
course, organized in three battalions, who were on regular
army service.
d. The teaching staff, which was also composed of regular
army personnel.
e. About 300 officers, all of whom were professional men
without previous compulsory service, who were on three-
month courses of combat and technical reserve training.
f. An unspecified number of civilian employees, who were
clerks and cooks.
3. The following details concerning the T/0 of the school com-
mand are reported:
a. Commanding officer of the school - colonel.
b. Chief of staff (szef sztab) - major.
c. Deputy in charge of political affairs (zca. apraw politycznych)
major.
d. Deputy for technical matters (zca. apraw technicznych) -
major.
e. Deputy for physical training (zca. wyszkolenia fizycznego) -
major.
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f. Director of training (dyrektor nauk) - colonel.
g. Commanders of three training battalions (dowodca bataljono
naukowego) - majors.
h. Officer in charge of the tank battalion (dowodca bataljono
czolgow) - major.
i. Quartermaster branch officer (kwatermistrz) - captain.
j. Officer in charge of the vehicle repair company (dowodca
kompanji remontowej) - captain.
4. The main equipment of the school consisted of 60 armored
vehicles, including 40 T-54 tanks, 10 IS (sic, JS) tanks and
10 85 mm., 100 mm., and 152 mm. self-propelled guns.
S. The following were the main subjects of the political course
for armored corps sergeants:
a. The establishment of the Polish Army in the Second World
War and its campaign from Lenin? to Berlin.
b. Partisan forces during World War II.
c. Topical subjects in politics, e.g., the rearmament of
West Germany, and the Korean problem.
d. Geocgraph,y of Poland.
e. Geographic position and features of Communist countries
and global geography.
f. The ideological basis of the Polish Army and the ideological
aspects of military organization.
PrraTare
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g. Political economy.
h. Dialectical materialism.
6. In 1956 four hours a week were devoted to political subjects
in the noncommissioned officerst course. Students who passed
the political examination were given preference even if they
failed in other subjects. Moreover, soldiers who belonged
neither to the Party nor to the Union of Polish Youth (DIP)
were regarded as inferior even if they distinguished them-
selves in their studies. During Party meetings they were as-
signed fatigue duty.
7. A GZI captain attached to the school, although not subordinate to
its commander, was responsible for the security surveillance
of the students. He presumably recruited a number of informants
whose identity remained concealed from most of the students
and staff.
8. in late 1956 a T-54 tank was demonstrated to the officers at
the school. It had the following special features:
a. There was no interior electric lighting, and illumination
was wholly biphosphorus (sic, the reference is probably
to luminous gauge dials.)
b. According to technicians at the school, the guns of the
T-54 had special aiming devices for night firing.
c. The driver could elevate his seat so that half of his
body was outside the hulls of the tank.
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Miscellaneous Military Information
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10. Tank ammunition was stored in the Cytadela Fortress, which was
located two and one-half or three kilometers from the aforemen-
tioned school.2
U. A school for quartermaster branch officers was situated on the
northern side of Grunewaldzka Street, Poznan. Its entrance
was from another street. Its compound was4about 200 meters
long, and comprised several four-story buildings. There were
military police barracks, which had been formerly occupied by
KBW (Internal Security Troops) units, opposite the school.
12. The Poznan garrison command was situated on a street which
branched off to the north of Fredy Street. It occupied several
three-story buildings, one of which was a prison.
13. Antiaircraft artillery units were billeted in barracks in Poznan.
14. A technical school for officers of the armored corps was located
in Gizycko.
15. A military supply depot was. on Poznanska Street, Wroclaw (Breslau),
where it occupied a site measuring 300 x 250 meters, next to
a civilian technical school.
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16. A school for engineer officers was situated about one kilometer
north of the Trzebnicka Street bridge in Wroclaw. here were
extensive barracks on the site, where an armored unit was
stationed.
17. The Wroclaw garrison command was located on the former Anger-
strasse, at the corner of the former Tauentzienstrasse.
18. The voivodship police and UB (Security Police) headquarters
were housed in a series of buildings on Muzealna Street, Wroclaw.
19. An aircraft engine factory was located 10 to 15 kilometers north-
west of Lesnica (not further identified) where it occupied the
site of a similar, prewar plant. There was a large airfield
where jet planes were observed near the factory.
20. A large explosives factory was situated in Bydgoszcz. In 1956
an explosion in the factory took the lives of 100 persons.
22. Attached for your information and action are sketches, with
legends, of the layout of the officers school for armored
and mechanized forces in Poznan
field in Biedrusko (B), as well
Cytadela Fortress.
rT?
(A), and the tank training
as seven photograPhs of the
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1. During 1957 the number of students in the school, especially
in the tank officers' course, was reduced.
2. On two successive nights in 1955 attackers opened fire upon
the Gytadela guard. The assaulters were never identified,
although reinforcements were called in from the nearby school.
Consequently a path which connected the fortress with other
fortifications was closed.
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Legend to Sketch A - Layout of the Officers' School of Armored and
Mechanized Forces in Poznan.
1. Main entrance, with two-winged iron gate.
2. Headquarters, a foirr-stmrtmilding about 30 meters long, which
contained the following:
a. Basement: guard room and detention cells.
b. First floor: school administration offices.
c. Second floor: offices of the commander, staff officers,
and school headquarters.
d. Third floor: communication offices and telephone exchange
of the school.
e. Fourth floor: storerooms for office equipment.
3. Officers' club, a one-story building about 25 meters long, with
a concert room and billiard room on the first floor and a library
and reading room on the second.
4. Guest house for visiting senior officers. Itliee a two-story
building with 12 rooms.
5. A two-story building about 25 meters long which housed the
officers mess and an area used by the school orchestra.
6. A three-story building, about 60 meters long, which accommodated
the following:
a. First floor: tank sergeants' quarters.
b. Second floor: tank mechanicd and drivers quarters.
c. Third floor: quarters for tank battalion soldiers.
7. Athletic field.
8. A one-story building, 300 meters long, which housed: the fire
fighting station, showers, laundry, gymnasium, students' dining
hall, dining hall for the teaching staff, and a storeroom for
tank parts.
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9. Building- 300 meters long containing: stables, storerooms
for furniture and utensils, and another for oil, gas and coal.
10e Firing range for small arms with moving targets, with safety
wall five meters high.
11. A three-story building, about 25 meters long, containing 12
rooms serving as living quarters for enlisted men of the staff.
12. A three-story building with 12 rooms used for political lectures.
13. Underground bunkers (dotted line indicates interconnecting
passage way), which were covered by a small needlewood grove.
14. Room of the guard officer and leave pass offices a two-stogy
building.
15. A two-story building, about 40 meters long, containing a secret
library, lecture hall for officers and map room on the first
floor, and the training department of the sdhool on the second
floor.
16. A three-story buildings about 40 meters long, for lecture rooms
of the technical departments.
17. A three-story building, about 60 meters in length, which housed
the following:
a. First floor: lecture rooms for weapon trAining.
b. Second floor: lecture rooms for elementary topography
and chemical warfare instruction.
c. Third floor: lecture rooms for communication training.
18. A two-story building, about 25 meters long, with the office
of the duty officer in charge of tank maintenance and stores.
19. Underground fuel stores.
20. Two gas stations, one for tanks and the second for other vehicles.
21. Garage, 60 meters long, one-half for tanks and the other for
automobiles.
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22. Open shed where 12 automobiles were parked (28 vehicles were
parked outside).
23. Open shed with eight or ten gates, with a capacity for 30 tanks.
24. Open shed for 12 to 15 heavy tanks and self-propelled guns, with
six gates. There was an empty lot where tanks were parked in
the open adjacent to the shed.
25. A three-story building, about 60 metc...e long serving as sergeants'
quarters.
26. A three-story hut, serving as TT lecture room.
27. A two-story building, About 20 meters long, which served as
school hospital.
28. A two-story building, about 5 meters long, a retail shop and
barber ship for the soldiers.
29. Wooden vehicle shed, about 40 meters long.
30. School workshops. (carpenter's blacksmith's and electrician).
31. Three-story-buildings, about 30 meters long, quarters for
married officers.
32. Hog pen.
33. Kitchen garden of the school.
34. Boiler plant for the whole school, a building about 5 meters
long.
35. Watch tower with telephone.
36. Medical unit, which did not belong to the school establishment,
and medical suppliers' stores.
37. Stores for the police and UB.
38. Railroad loading ramp for tanks.
39. Closed site with an embankment three meters high-, flanked by
two watch towers with search lights, which did not belong to
the school; function unknown.
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40. Large concrete garage, 70 meters long, where 40 to 50 ambulances
are parked.
41. Two-story building of the garrison guard platoon. jta personnel
- were exchanged at intervals, and came from various units in
the area;
42. The Cytadela Fortress, which was surrounded by a high rampart
and a 3-meter ditch with railip s on each side.
A. Sentry box.
B. Underground billets.
C. Store for empty ammunition boxes.
D. Store for artillery and small arms ammunition, 15 x 20 x 3i
meters in dimension.
E. Explosivestore.
F. Path leading to other fortifications, which was blocked
beyond the Cytadela. The area still contained World War
II nines in 1956.
43. Underground ammunition depot of the Kffii.
44. Military airfield:
A. Administration and billets' area of air force units.
B. Airfield with two or more runways. In 1956 About 10
FRESCO/MIG-17 aircraft were parked therein the open.
C. Hangars.
45. Training ground for tank driving, about four kilometers in the
direction of the arrow.
46. Service building of the above.
47. Parade ground.
48. Lake Rusalka.
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(10 Day and night watch. The guard stands in a sentry box.
0 Night guard only.
. Prowler's beat (from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m.)
MUT
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Legend to to Sketch B - Tank Training Area at Biedrusko.
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1. Bolechowo railroad station, where tanks used at the training
area were unloaded and loaded.
2. Concrete bridge, about 40 meters long, which was guarded by
troops. There was a military roadblock on the side facing
the training area.
3. Summer camp of Armored Brigade No4 16, which was closed in winter
and guarded by 10 to 12 soldiers.
4. Wooded area with garages and sheds for tanks and autoisobiles.
X This area contained quarters for married military personnel.
S. Garrison officers' club, where a general lived in the summer.
6. Permanent garrison headquarters.
7. Military offices (no details).
8. Garages for nkatyushasn, where about 20 RLS oocket launcher?
were observed. The areal*, also used for training with this
weapon.
9. Wooded area with bunkers under military guard. Around the
bunkers threwas a tank driving training area and an obstacle
course.
10. Check post on the road to the entrance of the trairing area
(poligon).
U. Parking area for 60 to 70 IS (sic, JS) tanks and self-propelled
guns, in addition to eight to ten recoilless (?) antiaircraft
guns. This equipment, whichwas kept greased and covered with
tarpaulins, belonged to the Sixth Heavy Armored and Antitank
Brigade.
12. Summer camp for the Officers' School of Armored and Mechanized
Forces in Poznan.
13. Training area of the Armored Corps Officers' School in Poznan:
A. Sheds for tanks.
B. Sheds for vehicles.
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C. Tank repair point.
D. Fuel depot.
E. Check post where tanks were examined for serviceability
prior to leaving for the training area.
14. Tank firing range. At the point marked with a dotted line
) tanks forded the river.
15. Garage for tanks of an unknown brigade.
16. Summer camp of an armored brigade from Opole (Oppeln).
17. Summer camp of an engineers' brigade from Klock?.
18. (Unlocated on sketch) Approximate site of the large firing
range belonging to the training area where katyushas and other
weaponSime also tested.
19. Repair shops for heavy and small arms.
20. Garrison laundry and bathhouse.
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