T-34-85, TANK COMPANY, 5TH COASTAL DEFENSE BRIGADE, LĘBORK, POLAND,
1956
In 1951, the Polish Army created the 2nd, 3rd and 5th Anti-Landing Brigades (Brygada
Przeciwdesantowa) for the defense of the Baltic coast, part of the later Anti-Landing Corps (Korpus
Przeciwdesantowy). The 5th Anti-Landing Brigade was stationed in the Gdansk area. In the mid-
1950s, the Soviet Army assigned these units more offensive tasks, such as amphibious missions in
the Danish straits. As a result, they were reorganized in the summer of 1958 as the 3rd and 5th
Coast Defense Brigades (BOW: Brygadę Obrony Wybrzeża). The new formations each had a tank
company equipped with T-34-85 tanks. In the early 1960s, these units were incorporated into the
23rd Landing Division (23 Dywizja Desantowa), which eventually evolved into the famous “Blue
Berets” of the 7th Lusatian Landing Division (7 Łużycka Dywizja Desantowa). In the 1950s, the tanks
of these units carried the usual Polish white eagle national insignia, but added an anchor to the
design, due to their mission.