Border Protection Corps

The Border Protection Corps (Polish: Korpus Ochrony Pogranicza, KOP) was a military formation of the Second Polish Republic that was created in 1924 to defend the country's eastern borders against armed Soviet incursions and local bandits.

Initially KOP comprised 6 brigades and 5 regiments, each guarding part of the borders with the Soviet Union.

In 1940, some of its former officers formed an underground armed resistance organization fighting against the German occupiers, the Komenda Obrońców Polski.

Armed bands of saboteurs were crossing the border on a daily basis and the weak police forces in the area could not cope with the problem.

On August 8, the Council of Ministers decided that a special militarised border police be created for the defence of the eastern frontier.

It also granted significant amounts of money for construction of fortified barracks and police stations in the area.

In November 1924 the three first brigades of KOP arrived to the eastern border of Poland, in the areas of Volhynia and Polesie.

The soldiers of KOP were trained to combine the tactics of the army, police forces and border guards.

All the rear troops (including the engineers, artillery and cavalry) formed the second line of the defence and were to be used as a mobile reserve.

As the war was nearing and the crisis in Czechoslovakia exposed the Polish southern border to enemy threat, in 1939 two additional regiments were created.

Soon three additional mountain infantry brigades were formed ("Sanok", "Nowy Sącz", "Sucha") as well as the area command in Jasło.