Training aircraft from the Polish Air Force Academy at Dęblin

During the first days after the war, 67 of the oldest aircraft were immediately withdrawn from the service, for personnel safety. Those were mainly the Po-2s, Il-2s and Jak-1s. Another task was to reduce the number of active servicemen. The plan was to decrease the number of soldiers to 12,314, including the 3150 commissioned officers. The oldest privates, the non-commissioned officers, and about 300 Soviet officers that were serving in the Air Force of the Polish Army during the war, were first to be demobilized.

On 11 July 1945 Lt. Gen. Połynin ordered that all national marks on aircraft be changed to Polish chessboards. Up to this time all machines were painted like aircraft of the Soviet Air Force with additional Polish chessboards on the sides of planes (the width of the Polish mark was between 300 mm and 350 mm so it was slightly bigger than marks used by the Polish Air Force in Great Britain).

Also the structure was gradually changed. At the beginning of July 1945, the 2nd Night Bomber Regiment “Kraków” was rearmed changing the Po-2s to the Il-2m3s and renamed as the 2nd Ground-Attack Reg. “Kraków”. The Headquarters of the 1 Mixed Air Force Corps and some auxiliary units were disbanded as of July 25, including: the 12th Medical Aviation Regiment, 2nd Saxonian Independent Headquarters Squadron, 3007th Field Post Office, 13th Transport Aviation Regiment, 1596th Regiment of Air Defence, 901st Company of Anti-Aircraft Machine Guns, 7th Technic and Technical Operationality Company, 22nd Company for Special Missions and the 5th Independent Camouflage Platoon. Meanwhile some names were also changed: the 15th Independent Reserve Air Force Regiment became the 15th Education and Training Aviation Regiment (Polish: 15. Szkolno-Treningowy Pułk Lotniczy) and the 17th Liaison Aviation Regiment became the 17th Mixed Aviation Regiment. At this same time, a few training units were created that prepared the officers to replace the veterans of World War II: the 16th Independent Company of Preparations and Education (Polish: 16. Samodzielna Kompania Szkolno-Przygotowawcza) subordinated to the new Pilot’s Officer’s Air Force School (detached from the Officer’s Air Force School), the 17th Independent Company of Preparations and Education subordinated to the other branch of the former Officer’s Air Force School: Technician’s Air Force School, the 2nd Independent Technical Airfield Company (Polish: 2. Samodzielna Kompania Techniczno-Lotnicza subordinated to the 483rd Airfield Service Battalion and the 2nd Independent Technical Airfield Company subordinated to the 513th Airfield Service Battalion.

Up to 25 September 1945, the following units were disbanded: the 4th Independent Liaison Aviation Squadron, the 5th Independent Liaison Aviation Squadron, the 1131st Company of Anti-Aircraft Machine Guns, the 5th Independent Photographic Company, the Section of Liaison Aviation of the 1st Armoured Corps, the 7th Field Laundry and the 7th Household Storage. Some units changed names: the 4th Pomeranian Mixed Air Force Division to the 1st Pomeranian Mixed Air Force Division, the 15th Education and Training Aviation Regiment to the 1st Education and Training Aviation Regiment, the 17th Mixed Aviation Regiment to the 2nd Mixed Aviation Regiment and the 7th Area of Air Bases to the 1st Area of Air Bases. In all other units, except training ones, the number of troops were decreased.

These were disbanded in October 1945: the 338th Company of Telegraph Builders, the 14th Independent Engineer Airfield Construction Battalion and all the Independent Engineer Airfield Construction Battalions.

These were disbanded in December 1945: the command of the 1st Area of Air Bases (some were subordinated to command units): the 3006th Cereal Storage, the 2003rd Main Air Force Field Storage and the 7th Field Military Household Storage (Polish: 7. Polowy Magazyn Wojskowo-gospodarczy). Also, the names of some units were changed: the 73rd Airfield Service Battalion became the 1st Airfield Service Battalion, the 74th Airfield Service Battalion became the 2nd Airfield Service Battalion, and following this rule: 129th Airfield Service Battalion was renamed as the 3rd Battalion, 130th as the 4th, the 483rd as the 5th, the 495th as the 6th, the 513th as the 7th and the 686th as the 8th. Also the 103rd Independent Liaison Aviation Squadron was renamed as the 9th Independent Liaison Aviation Squadron that was subordinated to Korpus Bezpieczeństwa Wewnętrznego. In 6 December 1945 all units of the Civilian Air Fleet were transferred from the Ministry of Defence to the Ministry of Communication as LOT Polish Airlines.

In January 1946 the next restructurisation in the chain of command was started. All commands of divisions were disbanded, and all regiments were directly subordinated to the command of the Air Force of the Polish Army. Also disbanded were: the 4th Bomb Regiment, the 5th Bomb Regiment, the 7th Ground-Attack Regiment, the 8th Ground-Attack Regiment, the 2nd Mixed Aviation Regiment, the 9th Fighter Regiment and some other units of backup. Some regiments changed names: the 2nd Ground-Attack Reg. “Kraków” to the 4th Ground-Attack Reg. “Kraków”, the 3rd Ground-Attack Regiment to the 5th Ground-Attack Regiment, the 10th Fighter Regiment to the 2nd Fighter Regiment, the 11th Fighter Regiment to the 3rd Fighter Regiment and the 3rd Bomb Regiment to the 7th Bomb Regiment. Also the 1st Education and Training Aviation Regiment was decreased to a Squadron.

In May and June 1946 military education was reformed. Military Pilots of the Polish Army School in Dęblin was renamed as the Polish Air Force Academy, while a few schools of junior specialists, the 16th and 17th Independent Companies of Preparations and Education were replaced by the Independent Educational Company of Junior Aviation Specialists (Polish: Samodzielna Szkolna Kompania Młodszych Specjalistów Lotniczych). Also one new unit was created: the Section of Liaison Aviation of Command of Polish Army. This unit had to secure communication between the command of the army and commands of military districts.

In December 1946 the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th Airfield Service Battalions were disbanded. At this same time the Temporary Storage of Preservation and Conservation of Reserve Aircraft (Polish: Tymczasowy Magazyn Przechowywania i Konserwacji Samolotów Rezerwowych) was created.

In 1947 some storage was closed: the Storage of Airfield Equipment and Building Materials, the Storage of Fuel and Greases, 2nd Air Force Repair Workshops of type “C” and Guarding Company of Central Air Force Storage.

In 1946 the last Poles that were educated in Aviation Schools in the Soviet Union returned to Poland. Others rejoining the service between 1945 and 1947 included 205 pre-war officers and non-commissioned officers that returned from POW camps, and disbanded units of Polish Air Forces in Great Britain including such famous pilots like Maj. Stanisław Skalski.

On March 13, 1947, the Air Force of the Polish Army was renamed as the Polish Air Force (Polish: Wojska Lotnicze), ending its transformation to a peacetime Air Force.

Despite reorganisation, some units (the 2nd Independent Mixed Air Force Regiment, 9th Independent Liaison Aviation Squadron, aviation sections of military districts and partially, units of the Air Force Academy) were used against Polish anti-communist guerillas and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, up to 14 November 1947. Mainly Po-2 aircraft were used in those fights, in reconnaissance, liaison, propaganda and sometimes in ground-attack missions. Il-2′s were also used in a few fights. Units of the Air Force of the Polish Army were also used in propaganda actions before the Polish people’s referendum, 1946.