The Second World War national conspiracy operating under the auspices of the National Party began to function as early as mid-October 1939. At that time, the National Army was established, which was later transformed into the National Party Military Organisation and the National Military Detachments, until finally, on 1 July 1941, the National Military Organisation was established. The first commander of NOW was General Marian Żegota-Januszajtis, who after a very short time was replaced by Aleksander Demidowicz-Demidecki alias „Aleksander”.
The National Party, by creating its own armed forces, intended to organise a military counterweight to the Union of Armed Struggle/Home Army. This was because they believed that the aforementioned organisation was controlled by the so-called Sanacja officers. At the same time, and this is extremely important, both representatives of the SN and NOW completely subordinated themselves to the Polish authorities in exile, including the President of the Republic Edward Raczkiewicz and Prime Minister General Władysław Sikorski.
Between 1940 and 1941, the structures of the SN and NOW were quite severely thinned by mass arrests carried out by the Germans. Nationalists from, among others, Małopolska, Mazovia, Pomerania and Wielkopolska found themselves in Nazi casemates. After these events, however, the leadership of the SN did not lay down its arms and decided to rebuild its structures. Lieutenant Colonel Jozef Rokicki, alias „Karol”, an ardent advocate of incorporating NOW into the structures of the Home Army, became the Supreme Commander of NOW. At the same time, those in the SN who believed similarly to Rokicki were increasingly vocal.
Finally, in May 1942, the SN leadership sent a signal to Home Army Commander General Stefan Rowecki, alias „Grot”, that it would like to merge NOW with the armed forces under his command. Rowecki agreed to this proposal. Thus, talks lasting several months began, which ended in the second half of August 1942. It was then agreed that the first phase of the merger of the two armies would take place in November 1942, on which day the oath of office was taken by the Commander-in-Chief of NOW, Lieutenant Colonel Rokicki.
In the meantime, there was a group of officers in NOW who were unequivocally opposed to the amalgamation agreement for political and ideological reasons. Leading the way in this kind of reasoning was a long-standing member of the SN Main Committee and head of NOW’s Organisational Branch I, August Michałowski alias „Roman”, and NOW’s Deputy Commander-in-Chief, Lt. Col. Ignacy Oziewicz alias „Czesław”. These activists managed to convince a part of NOW’s command staff and the heads of several NOW districts: Częstochowa, Kielce, Lublin, Łódź, Podlasie and Radom. Thus, a split occurred in the ranks of NOW. Some of its soldiers joined the structures of the Home Army. The others, staunch opponents of the unification, decided to form a new organisation: National Armed Forces.
Formally, the date of the formation of the NSZ is assumed to be 20 September 1942, as it was on this day that the aforementioned Ignacy Oziewicz issued an order, addressed to his soldiers, in which he announced that he had taken up the post of Commander-in-Chief of the NSZ. Importantly, in addition to a group of NOW soldiers, the newly-formed organisation was also joined by people affiliated with the Jaszczurczy Union – another underground organisation linked to the pre-war National Radical Camp.
The formation of the NSZ was not greeted with approval, either by the Home Army command or the most important political activists in the country. Quite the contrary. The high-ranking, rank and position politicians and soldiers just mentioned approached this fact with reluctance and even hostility. One piece of evidence for this was a text written by the former Government Delegate to Poland, i.e. the representative of the Polish Government in Exile in occupied Poland, Jan Piekałkiewicz alias „Juliański”, which bore the very telling title: Warcholstwo”. The article appeared in the „Biuletyn Informacyjny”, in April 1943. In the study, Piekałkiewicz unequivocally criticised the formation of the NSZ.
Despite negative opinions from the Home Army community, the new underground organisation took action. As early as the autumn of 1942, Oziewicz issued two special orders – No. 1 and No. 2 – in which he ordered that banditry be fought and that a number of reprisal actions be carried out against the Germans. In the following months, the activity of the NSZ continued to increase. For example, soldiers of the organisation liquidated the highest-ranking German officer to be killed by the Polish underground, Lieutenant General Kurt Renner. The action was carried out by soldiers of the NSZ, under the command of the commandant Tomasz Wójcicki alias „Tarzan”, on 26 August 1943 near Ożarów. A few months earlier, a unit of the NSZ, led by Lieutenant Feliks Kowalik alias „Zagłoba”, had smashed the Emission Bank in Częstochowa, capturing some three million zlotys.
Such armed operations, as well as intelligence, sabotage or propaganda actions, were definitely more to the NSZ soldiers’ credit. It is worth recalling at this point that, contrary to popular opinion, the activists of this organisation dreamt of liberating Poland from both occupations. And to this idea they devoted themselves mainly during almost the entire period of the Second World War, as well as after its end. In any case, the NSZ was eventually merged with the Home Army anyway. This took place in March 1944, and that event resulted from the military-political situation that had developed on the territory of occupied Poland. However, this is a completely different story.
