The Land Forces () are the land forces of the Polish Armed Forces. They currently contain some 62,000 active personnel and form many components of the European Union and NATO deployments around the world. Poland's recorded military history stretches back a millennium – since the 10th century (see List of Polish wars and History of the Polish Army). Poland's modern army was formed after Poland regained independence following World War I in 1918. History 1918–1938 When Poland regained independence in 1918, it recreated its military which participated in the Polish–Soviet War of 1919–1921, and in the two smaller conflicts ( Polish–Ukrainian War (1918–1919) and the Polish–Lithuanian War (1920)). Initially, right after the First World War, Poland had five military districts (1918–1921): Poznań Military District (Poznański Okręg Wojskowy), HQ in Poznań Kraków Military District (Krakowski Okręg Wojskowy), HQ in Kraków Łódź Military District (Łódzki Okręg Wojskowy), HQ in Łódź Warsaw Military District (Warszawski Okręg Wojskowy), HQ in Warsaw Lublin Military District (Lubelski Okręg Wojskowy), HQ in Lublin. The Polish Land Forces as readied for the Polish–Soviet War was made up of soldiers who had formerly served in the various partitioning empires, supported by some international volunteers. There appear to have been a total of around thirty Polish divisions involved. Boris Savinkov was at the head of an army of 20,000 to 30,000 largely Russian POWs, and was accompanied by Dmitry Merezhkovsky and Zinaida Gippius. The Polish forces grew from approximately 100,000 in 1918 to over 500,000 in early 1920. In August 1920, the Polish army had reached a total strength of 737,767 people. Half of that was on the frontline. Given Soviet losses, there was rough numerical parity between the two armies. By the time of the Battle of Warsaw Poles might have even had a slight advantage in numbers and logistics. Among the major formations involved on the Polish side were a number of Fronts, including the Lithuanian-Belarusian Front, and about seven armies, including the First Polish Army. 1939–1945 The German invasion of Poland began on 1 September 1939. The Wehrmacht seized half of Poland quickly despite heavy Polish resistance. Among the erroneous myths generated by this campaign were accounts of Polish cavalry charging German tanks, which did not, in fact, take place. In the east, the Red Army took the other half of the country in accordance with the Nazi-Soviet Pact. Following the country's fall, Polish soldiers began regrouping