160 000 members grouped in 70 units. However, the full unification with the Armia Krajowa did not occur until the end of the war. After the Red Army entered Poland, elements of BCh started to cooperate with the communist-backed Armia Ludowa, while the majority remained loyal to the Polish government. However, the incoming end of the war, as well as information of the Yalta Conference made further resistance futile and on 2 April 1945 most of the Bataliony Chłopskie units came out from the underground. Some of the soldiers were arrested by the communists, while others joined the reestablished People's Party of Stanisław Mikołajczyk. Formally the Bataliony Chłopskie were dissolved in September 1945. Tasks and actions The main tasks of Bataliony Chłopskie were: Defense of the peasants against German economic exploitation Defense of peasants against expulsions Self-defense against German terror Aid to the expelled, Jews, the intelligentsia, and to the families of those enslaved by the Germans. The first major actions of armed resistance began in late 1942 when the Zamość area, due to its fertile black soil, was chosen for German colonization as part of Generalplan Ost. Polish farmers were expropriated and forcibly expelled from the farms with great brutality. Their farms were handed over to German settlers. A minority of the children were separated from their parents and after racial scrutiny sent over to Germany to be raised in German families, but thousands of those "not suitable for Germanization" were dispatched to perform slave labor for the Germans or were murdered by the Germans. After several major battles against German units (the most notable being the battles of Wojda, Róża and Zaboreczno), the Germans had to halt the expulsions and in the end very few German settlers were brought to the area (see Zamość Uprising). Other major actions included liberation of prisoners from prisons in Pińczów and Krasnystaw as well as the sinking of German river patrol ship Tannenberg on the Vistula. See also History of Poland (1939–45) Cichociemni References Kazimierz Przybysz, Bataliony Chlopskie, published by Ludowa Spóldzielnia Wydawnicza, Warszawa 1985. Wojciech Jekielek, Bataliony Chlopskie w Malopolsce i na Slasku. Kalendarium. Warszawa 1987. World War II resistance movements Military units and formations of Poland in World War II Polish underground organisations during World War II Guerrilla organizations 1940 establishments in Poland Military units and formations disestablished in 1945 Polish resistance during World War II