In January 1944 after Henry Maitland Wilson expressed concern over the lack of Polish replacement troop, General Władysław Anders assured him replacements would be recruited at the front lines. In the II Corps, there were 2,500 ex-POWs by June 1944 which rose to 18,500 by 1945.[1] Anders optimism was founded, and the Polish army in the West ended the war as a larger formation, due to POW recruitment, than its size at the beginning of Italian campaign.[2]