[7] When Poland regained its independence in November 1918, Anders joined the newly formed Polish Land Forces.

[8] Anders commanded the Nowogródzka Cavalry Brigade during the German invasion of Poland in September 1939 and was immediately called into action, taking part in the Battle of Mława.

Continued friction with the Soviets over political issues as well as shortages of weapons, food and clothing, led to the eventual evacuation of Anders' men – known as Anders' Army – together with a sizeable contingent of Polish civilians who had been deported to the USSR from Soviet-occupied Poland, via the Persian Corridor into Iran, Iraq, and finally into Mandatory Palestine.

The soldiers involved were evacuated from the Soviet Union and made their way through Iran to British-ruled Palestine, where they passed under British command.

[13][14][15] When Anders asked for his unit to be withdrawn from the front line, Winston Churchill told him "you [the Poles] are no longer needed" but the American and British front line commanders—Generals Richard McCreery, Mark Wayne Clark and Field Marshal Harold Alexander—requested Anders that the Polish units remain in their positions, as they had no troops to replace them.

He was prominent in the Polish Government in Exile in London and became General Inspector of the Armed Forces, as well as working on behalf of various charities and welfare organisations.

Anders died in London on 12 May 1970, where his body lay in state at St Andrew Bobola Church, and many of his former soldiers and their families came to pay their last respects.

In June 2021, General Anders's bust designed by Andrzej Pitynski was officially unveiled at London's National Army Museum.

[17] In 1948, he married the actress and singer Irena Jarosiewicz,[18] better known under her stage name Renata Bogdańska, with whom he had a daughter, Anna Maria (born in 1950).