Polish Armed Forces (Polnische Wehrmacht)

After the Act of 5 November 1916 the Germans were counting on Polish recruits. On 10 April 1917 Austria-Hungary handed Beseler the Polish Auxiliary Corps, the former Legions, which was to be the core of the new army. Beseler was commander-in-chief, while in practice the German General Felix von Barth was in command. Volunteer recruitment went badly, and in July 1917 most legionnaires refused to swear brotherhood in arms with the Central Powers and were interned.

After the oath crisis the Polish Armed Forces numbered only between one and a few thousand men, mostly in and around Warsaw. The occupiers handed control of the army neither to the Provisional Council of State nor to the Regency Council. Only in October 1918 did the Regency Council take command of it, and in November its soldiers disarmed the Germans and joined the Polish Army.