Has anyone got a relative or ancestor who was in the AK or regular army? I'm interested to hear any stories and anecdotes about their exploits and campaigns. I look forward to your responses.
My great grandfather killed with his Ulan's sabre 5 Bolsheviks in the Battle of Warsaw 1920. 19 years later my Grandfather avoided Katyn becoming German POW. The rest of the family survived wading across the Bug river and escaping to the German zone (GG). Majority of their Polish neighbors were killed or deported by Soviets.
Majority of their Polish neighbors were killed or deported by Soviets.
My Grandfather escaped Soviets killing in "Katyn" made it home and was deported to Siberia. When amnesty was granted he helped organize Polish Army on USSR soil, met up with other troops, Anders Army 2nd Corps under British Command.
My great uncle fought for Poland in 1939 and escaped capture and joined the AK so did my grandfather [he was 15 in 1939]and my grandmother joined the peasants battalions then the AK at the age of 16 [in 1939].My great uncle fought against the soviets from 1944-1948 but was captured and went to jail.
My great uncle fought against the soviets from 1944-1948 but was captured and went to jail.
The anti-communist resistance (or some call it a civil war) is one of the great forgotten stories of Poland's early post-war struggle to gain independence from Stalinist control. Some anti-communist resistance cells were still fighting until 1956.
Its very hard for me to tell you,I asked my grandfather who was with him during ww2 but i think he didnt understand me over the phone,Maybe when i go to Poland he`ll understand.But i can tell you he fought around the Zamosc Krasnystaw Izbica and tarnogora,Tarnogora is just i village and so is izbica i think it was a Ghetto at the time.
EDIT:I cant ask my Great uncle because unfortunaly he died in communist times and my dad doesnt really remember scince he died when he was very little.Off that topic now are their any stories you would like to share?
This is a great memoir account from Cierniste drogi żołnierzy AK given to me by my good friend Mr. Zbigniew Zielinski former Secretary of State for veteran affairs in the Polish government and now an author:
Kazimierz Tkacz : A Polish resistance fighter who defends himself by shooting at the NKVD with a gun in each hand like a cowboy in a Western movie!
This is a real road of thorns story. Kazimierz Tkacz avoided capture at the hands of the Germans, the Soviets and the UB.
He was born in 1915 in Radomsko and came from a worker-peasant family with a tradition of freedom-fighters. His father served as a volunteer in 1920 during the war against the Bolsheviks. Brought up a patriot with a love for the army, the young Kazio joined the boy scouts, then the Rifleman organisation and the paramilitary Army Cadet Corps and PT Corps. He did his compulsory military service, completed NCO training school and, as a regular, was posted to the Frontier Defence Corps (KOP). He served on the southern Ukrainian sector of the frontier with the Soviet Union in Czortków, where initially the regimental commander was Lieutenant Colonel Stefan Rowecki psc.
When Sergeant Kazimierz Tkacz came home to his native Radomsko for a short leave in the second half of August 1939, his mother, who was concerned at the threat of war with Germany, gave him when he left a picture of Our Lady of Częstochowa saying: “Always keep this picture with you.” and she blessed him with a sign of the cross.
On his return to barracks in Czortków, Sergeant Tkacz learned that the KOP battalion in which he was serving was to be transferred from the eastern frontier to the frontier with Czechoslovakia in the area of Zwardoń and Istebna in order to reinforce the frontier guards there. This was a time of mobilisation and military preparation owing to continual German provocations.
The new area was somewhat similar to the eastern frontier, it was covered in spruce trees and was equally mountainous. The battalion was stationed somewhat behind the frontier which was guarded by the Border Patrol. The KOP was well equipped with automatic and armour-piercing weapons, additionally they had several all-terrain vehicles and horses for reconnaissance.
The night of the 31st of August/ 1st of September was peaceful and bright, with a full moon. There was complete silence, and only in the distance the sound of rutting deer and the occasional dog barking on the farms of the local highlanders could be heard. One could say that this was the proverbial calm before the storm.
So it was. At about 6.00 am it was announced on the radio that the little town of Wieluń between Częstochowa and £ódź had been bombed and that a German ship, the battleship Schleswig-Holstein, lying off the port of Gdańsk, had begun a furious bombardment of the Polish Hel peninsula. It was war. The KOP battalion was put on full alert.
The sound of aircraft engines could be heard coming from the west, but the aircraft themselves could not be seen in the blue sky. The platoon commanded by Sergeant Tkacz dug in on a hill overlooking the road from the frontier post at Zwardoń. At around 7.00 he gets a call from the Border Patrol that a column of armoured vehicles and a group of motorcyclists have crossed the national frontier and an exchange of single shots is about to take place. The KOP men can see the indicated column moving along the road. Sergeant Tkacz passes the order along the improvised line: “Look out, the enemy is in our sights.” When the column was about 150 metres away, the order “Fire” was given. The anti-tank gun fired and hit the leading armoured vehicle, blocking the road. Kazimierz Tkacz is next to a machine-gun. The battalion CO passes the order down the line: “Open machine-gun fire.” They have the motorcyclists following the armoured column in their sights. A quick squeeze on the trigger and a burst of rounds hits the motorcyclists. There is confusion in the German ranks and there are dead and wounded. Tkacz turns his weapon on the next group and the scene is repeated. But this did not last long. A German mortar battery opens up from over the hill and rounds hit the KOP positions. There are some initial dead and wounded, amongst whom is Sergeant Kazimierz Tkacz. A grenade splinter hits him in the leg. At first, the wounded man is unaware that he has been hit, but after a moment he notices a tear in his trousers with blood seeping through. A medic was close by and bandaged the wound. There was a splinter about 2 cms long stuck in the calf muscle and so the wound was several centimetres long. Tkacz hobbles up to the CO. He says: “I’ve been hit and it’s the first day of the war, but I want to go on.” The battalion commander receives an order from Cracow Army HQ to withdraw to the north and take up positions on the outskirts of Cracow.
The wounded Kazimierz Tkacz refused to be taken to the field hospital in Cracow. He rides on a supply wagon. The KOP battalion receives a further order to withdraw in the direction of Rzeszów and then to the area of Tomaszów Lubelski. It was already the 16th day of the war. Cracow Army was in a very bad strategic situation. On one side were the attacking German panzers, and on the other the threat from the east, the proverbial ‘knife in the back’, when Cracow Army and other units of the Polish Army were trying to regroup and launch a counter-attack before the Bug and the San as well as open up an evacuation route to Romania through Zaleszczyki.
Despite the critical situation, the men’s spirits were excellent. They counted on France and Great Britain eventually reacting and opening a front along the Maginot and Siegfried lines with the allied air forces bombing important German strategic points. Therefore, they had to stay at their posts. Kazimierz Tkacz jumps down from the wagon and runs over limping to a machine-gun post. The gunner is squeezing burst after burst into the advancing German infantry. Suddenly he is hit and falls over dead. Sergeant Tkacz pushes the dead man aside and himself pumps bullets in the direction of the enemy. He sees them fall convulsively one after another. Suddenly he is hit twice again. A round from a German field gun hits the machine gun and tears off three of the gunner’s fingers. A moment later a dive bomber drops a bomb and ‘Karol’, hit in the head by splinters, and losses consciousness.
This is how he recalls this incident:
All I can remember is that a medic ran over to me and grabbed me by my arm, which fell limp and that I could not say anything. He called out to the doctor: “He’s dead.” Then my screen went blank and I do not know what happened to me after that.
The next day, or the maybe it was the day after, I suddenly regained consciousness and saw a white canvas ceiling. I slowly look around me and see some figures in white gowns speaking German. A moment later I feel German doctors changing my dressings on several wounds, which they are sewing up. A nurse is putting a new dressing to my lips and I feel giddy. I do not know how many times I regained consciousness. When I came round a after a few days a German doctor said: “Die wunden werden heilen und Du wirst leben (The wounds will heal and you’ll live).” They brought a little bag and hung it next to the bed. These were the documents taken from my pocket. The picture of Our Lady of Częstochowa, which my mother had given me before the outbreak of war when I was saying goodbye in Radomsko, was also there. That’s a good sign, I thought. After a few days I could get up and move around on crutches. I had bandages on my leg, my head, my stomach and my arm. If I could have seen myself in a mirror, I would not have believed it was me. Fortunately, there was no mirror.
…One day an officer came to the field hospital and spoke in German, with an interpreter repeating in Polish: “Wounded German soldiers are being evacuated to a hospital in Cracow, but wounded Polish soldiers will come under the care of the Soviets who are occupying this area in accordance with border agreements. German forces are withdrawing to their zone.” A terrible fear gripped me - they did not know much medicine and even worse they might kill me, for rumours were flying that in Lwów they had murdered officers and innocent civilians who had not greeted them. There were several wounded Polish soldiers amongst the many Germans in the field hospital. As the Germans were packing their gear, we waited to see what would happen. Several Soviets arrived behaving boisterously. Some of them seemed to be tipsy. This was also the first time that we had seen the red star on caps. When the Germans were leaving the field hospital, one of them came back for something together with a nurse. I beckoned them over and got them to understand, using gestures and a few words of German, that I wanted to get away from the Soviets. The German said nothing and did not react. The German nurse, however, took me by the arm and led me out of the tent pushing aside the Soviet officers standing there. She said something to them in German. I am convinced that they did not understand, but at the time they had respect for their allies. When she put me into a vehicle with a red cross, she got me to understand that she too was a Catholic and that communists did not believe in God. Then I was put onto a train with wounded Germans. When the train started to move, I thought anything to bring me closer to my Radomsko.
Kazimierz Tkacz found himself in a hospital in Cracow where the staff was Polish and German. He thought to himself that this was a good situation, although the hospital was guarded by German sentries and the wounded Polish soldiers were still treated as prisoners of war. However, he began to think that when he had improved a bit and could move around on his own, he might manage to escape. This is how he recalls it:
The doctors and nurses in the hospital were mixed – Germans and Poles. Amongst the Polish nurses were some nuns, I no longer remember from which order. It was then that I thought that only they could help me escape. One day a number of doctors arrived and examined me, then I was brought a form filled out in German. I still have it. It contained a description of my wounds and a statement by a board that I had lost 75% of my health, in other words I was a war invalid. On the one hand, I was glad, on the other I kept wondering how to get away. One day when I was alone for a moment with a nursing sister I told her that I wanted to escape from this hospital, and could she help me by bringing some civilian clothes. I would change and walk out lost in the crowd of civilian hospital employees. So it came to pass. This nun also put a little money in my pocket. I immediately went to the railway station and took a train to Kielce. There I changed for Częstochowa, from where it was but a short distance to my native Radomsko. When I got home, my family at first burst into tears at my dreadful appearance and then started hugging and kissing me. I told my mother: “Mummy, I’ve had that religious picture with me all the time and I’ve still got it.” I took it out of my pocket and showed it to her.
He stayed at home for a dozen or so days telling his family and friends about his path of thorns from the very first days of the war. One could certainly say that he had survived by a miracle. But what would have happened, had he remained in the Soviet zone of occupation? The local doctor in the county hospital looked at his fortunately healing scars. He prescribed some medicines, peace and good food. Many acquaintances visited Kazimierz at this time, including some of his school friends Stanisław Janiszewski and Witold Piwoński. It was they who told him that a secret armed organisation called the Union for Armed Struggle (ZWZ) had been formed in Radomsko. Tkacz was so interested in this that he decided to make immediate contact. This was not difficult, since the ZWZ organisers in the area were also friends of his: Marian Nitecki (a pre-war officer in the 1st Regiment of Light Horse), Stanisław Sojczyński (before the war a teacher in the village of Rzejowice and then just before the war a school head in Bór Zajaciński near Częstochowa and a reserve officer in the 27th Infantry Regiment in Częstochowa.
They had a meeting in mid-1940. He was sworn in by Lieutenant Marian Nitecki ‘Pikador’ ] and Lieutenant Stanisław Sojczyński ‘Zbigniew’ (later ‘Warszyc’). Kazimierz Tkacz took the nom de guerre ‘Hardy’ (later ‘Karol’). Although he wanted to be active, he was told to let his wounds from September 1940 heal. At the beginning of 1941, Kazimierz Tkacz started recruiting proven people to the organisation. Weapons were stored and secured, and young people who had not yet ‘smelled gunpowder’ were trained. A sector, the equivalent of a county, was formed in Radomsko, with sub-sectors the equivalents of local districts, and outposts in the largest villages or forester’s lodges. The first underground organisation was formed: radio monitoring.
Meanwhile Nazi terror was growing and there were numerous arrests and even public executions. ‘Hardy’s’ hands were itching to avenge this human and material damage with a pistol. In 1942 he uncovers some agents, in other words Gestapo and field police informers. There was not long to wait before the sentences on these traitors were carried out. Various acts of sabotage were also organised. In 1943, in revenge for arrests and executions, an ambush was set up for the head of the German field police in Pławno, the infamous persecutor of Poles Schwarzmajer. The sentence was carried out on the main road between Radomsko and Pławno. ‘Hardy’ and some of his friends took part in this operation. In the attack on the head of the Gestapo Willy Berger and his deputy Johan Wagner the sentence was carried out by Second Lieutenant ‘Robotnik’ (Bronisław Skoczyński) and Officer Cadet ‘Staw’ (Zygmunt Czerwiński). Kazimierz Tkacz, that is ‘Hardy’, covered the operation and organised the withdrawal after the sentence had been carried out.
When in August 1943, on the basis of a tip-off, the Germans carried out a round-up in the village of Rzejowice, called by them Banditendorff and burned some homesteads and arrested several dozen peasants and Home Army members, the Kedyw commander ‘Zbigniew’ (Stanisław Sojczyński) immediately decided to rescue the prisoners. Therefore, he rounded up 105 partisans and 50 wagons to carry the partisans and the rescued prisoners. He split the partisans into 5 groups, of which 4 were to cover the German barracks and posts, while one was to make the direct attack on the prison. Second Lieutenant ‘Robotnik’ (Bronisław Skoczyński) commanded the assault team, while his 2 i/c, Officer Cadet ‘Hardy’, was entrusted with leading the team through the streets of Radomsko and the actual assault on the prison. ‘Hardy’ daringly overcomes every obstacle and, after they have blown up the gates, the partisans are inside. They then overpower the prison guards, open specific cells and release the prisoners. The Germans raise the alarm, but the covering detachments pin them down with machine-gun bursts. The prisoners are loaded onto the wagons and there follows an evacuation which is covered by ‘Hardy’. Altogether 56 prisoners were freed, including 46 Home army men and 11 Jews. The partisans suffered no casualties. A few days later the BBC in London carried a report on this daring large-scale operation. For the operation the commander, Lieutenant ‘Zbigniew’ (Stanisław Sojczyński), received the Virtuti Militari, while Second Lieutenants ‘Robotnik’ and ‘Postrach’ and Office Cadet ‘Hardy’ received the Cross of Valour.
In mid-1944 a re-organisation of the Home Army structure takes place. Two Home Army regiments, the 27th and the 74th, are formed in the Radomsko, Częstochowa and Włoszczowa sectors. Each had two battalions and each battalion had between 2 and 4 companies and so on. Kazimierz Tkacz, after completing Home Army officer training school, is promoted Second Lieutenant and becomes a platoon 2 i/c in the 74th Regiment. He takes part in a great many operations in the above-mentioned sectors.
When the march to relieve fighting Warsaw was ordered, the doctors checked the soldiers’ physical endurance ahead of such a long march of over 200 kilometres. Kazimierz Tkacz failed because he was not fully fit from his 1939 wounds. Despair followed; he could not imagine this march taking place without him, particularly after he had heard on the radio that the Germans had been murdering not only insurgents, but the civilian population. Eventually, after an intervention by Second Lieutenant ‘Robotnik’, Kazimierz Tkacz is allowed to take part in this difficult and dangerous march. When they reached the Kielce ‘Jodła’ Corps’ assembly-point in the area of Przysucha on the 26th of August 1944, they learned that the relief march had been called off by district HQ, for the Rising was dying down. Kazimierz Tkacz ‘Karol’ took this badly. He decided to avenge the damage inflicted on the inhabitants of Warsaw and take an active part in so-called Operation ‘Tempest’ in his own area.
He took part in a number of operations, including blowing up German trains on the Warsaw-Częstochowa and Częstochowa-Kielce lines. The high point of his struggle with the Occupier was the five-day battle in the Włoszczowa forests between the 25th and the 30th of October 1944 where the ‘Las’ battalion, supported by ‘Wojna’ battalion, including a company from the Peasant Battalions, forming the 74th Home Army Regiment moved from the defence to counter-attack causing the Germans considerable losses of men and materiel. Amongst other things, they took 99 prisoners, three wagons of arms and ammunition and an 81 mm mortar. Second Lieutenant ‘Karol’ received a bar to his Cross of Valour for his conduct in this action.
The winter of 1944/45 was approaching and many of the detachments were stood down for the duration of it. There remained a so-called skeleton detachment, which in the spring was to reconstitute the previous armed underground formations. Second Lieutenant ‘Karol’ (Kazimierz Tkacz) continued to be active and on the 3rd of January was present at the meeting with General ‘Niedźwiadek’ (Leopold Okulicki) the Home Army Commander-in-Chief which took place in the Zacisze forester’s lodge near Radomsko. Then, on the recommendation of the CO of the ‘Jodła’ District, Colonel ‘Mieczysław’ (Jan Zientarski), the general gave him his commission. He also decorated Kazimierz Tkacz and several other officers with the Virtuti Militari.
When the Soviets arrived in the area and Lieutenant ‘Robotnik’ and his 2 i/c were unaware of the Home Army Commander-in-Chief’s order disbanding the Home Army, they came across a retreating German unit in the forest. A firefight began and Lieutenant ‘Robotnik’ came within an inch of being killed, but beside him he had his reliable friend and first-rate riflemen Second Lieutenant ‘Karol’, who decimated the Germans with his automatic pistol.
The time came to come out into the open, for there was a threat of arrest by the NKVD and the UB. Despite being urged by ‘Robotnik’ to come into the open, ‘Karol’ decided to fight on, making contact with Lieutenant ‘Warszyc’ (Stanisław Sojczyński) who was forming a new armed partisan organisation called the Underground Polish Army (KWP).
It was at this time that ‘Karol’ learned of his mother’s death. He decided that he had to bid her farewell. His friends warned him not to do so assuming that the NKVD and the UB would take this opportunity to ambush him. To this ‘Karol’ said: “I must see my dead mother, even if it means my death.”
He loaded two Colt 12 pistols and headed home. He went inside and knelt down by his deceased mother, said a prayer and placed the picture of Our Lady of Częstochowa in her hands, then he kissed her forehead and left the house. There he saw men from the NKVD and the UB standing with weapons pointed at him. At the shout of “Hands up” in Russian ‘Karol’ slowly began to raise his hands. Then they lowered their barrels, confident that that they had in their hands a ‘bandit – a dwarf of reactionary filth’. In a fraction of a second, ‘Karol’s’ hands are inching inside his jacket. He shoots at them a gun in each hand, like a cowboy. The surprised attackers raise their weapons, but ‘Karol’ makes a lightning dart to the side behind one fence, then another. They shoot at him, but miss.
Recalling this incident, Kazimierz Tkacz says: “This symbol of our faith, the picture of Our Lady of Częstochowa, must have saved my life again. I resolved to continue hiding in the forests, for there was nothing else I could do. Once with my boys from the forests I ambushed a train with Soviets who were transporting requisitioned cattle from Germany. We stopped the train with bursts of automatic weapons fire. The Soviet soldiers surrendered. We told them that ‘We are free Polish soldiers and that we will not shoot at men surrendering, but we shall hold you until all the cows have been unloaded.’ We immediately informed all the neighbouring villages so that the peasants could take the cows. Some of the cows were not claimed and for some time wandered around the forest like deer, but were later caught by the peasants.”
Kazimierz Tkacz continued to be active, taking part in actions against the NKVD and the UB. He even wanted to mount a raid by a larger KWP detachment to rescue from prison in £ódź Captain ‘Warszyc’, who had been treacherously arrested in Częstochowa, but his friends, especially Lieutenant ‘Robotnik’, restrained him, for there would have bloodshed and loss of life, and it was unclear whether they could rescue ‘Warszyc’.
‘Karol’ continued to stay in hiding. He did not respond to announced successive amnesties to give himself up. He survived until the so-called ‘thaw’ and then came into the open. A UB officer told him: “You were lucky, for we made sweeps for you several times, but you always managed to get away.”
When, many years later, Kazimierz Tkacz applied for a war disability pension, the board turned him down. At that time former Home Army men were not normally granted disability rights. Eventually after further attempts, a board as a favour recognised a 30% loss of health. At that Kazimierz Tkacz produced the document from the German Military Medical Board of 1939 declaring a 75% loss of health, thus shaming his ‘fellow countrymen’ on the biased board, which at that time was awarding disability pensions to others for no real reason.
Starting in 1990 Kazimierz Tkacz nearly always took part in veterans’ events commemorating the battles of Home Army soldiers. He usually served as an altar boy or read the lesson in army uniform. He has been depicted in many books on the history of Home Army operations in that area. After successive promotions, he reached the rank of colonel in the Polish Army. He was also president of the Radomsko branch of the World Association of Home Army Soldiers working actively to erect monuments and memorial plaques and providing assistance for the poorest and sick comrades. He was well liked and valued not only in his circle. His last public appearance was the presentation of the 27th Home Army Regiment’s colours to the Knights’ Hall at Jasna Góra. This is what he said just before his own ‘final parade: “I tried to be faithful to my God and Country. God now is summoning me and maybe he will forgive me for my mistakes.”
Wow that is one of the best things i have ever read in my life time. That man was a true hero,Are you related to him or something?If you are you should be proud.
Wow that is one of the best things i have ever read in my life time.
Have you read the truly remarkable story of Captain Witold Pilecki?
That man was a true hero,Are you related to him or something?
Kazimierz Tkacz was just one of many such heroes. In late 1944 alone more than 40,000 such heroes were deported to Soviet slave labour camps by NKVD following the liberation of Poland by Red Army...their only crime was to be fighting for a free Poland.
Have you read the truly remarkable story of Captain Witold Pilecki
Yes i just cant belive how he risked his life like that.
their only crime was to be fighting for a free Poland
Yeah the Russians to hide this made up lies saying that we killed Jews etc.
Sjam i remember you posting something about your Father who fought in the Pulk 4 Pancerny,Do you know any stories about him that you would like to share?
My grandfather was in the AK, had escaped from being sent to Katyn as a cavalry officer, and led various missions against the Germans in the forests near the town of Wyszkow. I was also told by a friend of his, more recently, now a very aging old man, that my grandfather himself tied the noose on a German corporal who had murdered 3 young children in the town.
that my grandfather himself tied the noose on a German corporal who had murdered 3 young children in the town.
You should be proud i cant imagine that.
Heres a story of my grandma.She was in the AK and Peasants battalion during the war she was 16 when the war started and was training to be a medic or something like that.She worked in a pharmacy and after she learned about the AK she decided to join and sneak medications to them etc.One day their was a Jewish teenager and some SS men were chasing her she ran in the pharmacy yelling sister help me!But sadly she didnt make it and died right in front of my grand mothers eyes.She also remembers walking home from the forest when she was passing by the cemetry she heard gun shots soo she hid and look in the bushes germans were slaughtering Men,Women,Kids and even babies safely she managed to run away.And my grandfather told me that in 1940 he was 16 yrs old and his brother was in the AK scince late 1939,a couple of of SS men gave their house away to some Romanian Facist i think and made them slaves so they ran away and were wanted soo one night his brother and him and couple of more people from the resistance came to that house quietly whispering to each other we`ll show them soo they threw a couple of mockaloctie cock tails at the house while they were sleeping and a couple of them ran out while they were on fire but they tried shooting but missed and died,Im proud that he did this because those facists beat my grandfather and tied him up and even beat his dad.
Yeah the Russians to hide this made up lies saying that we killed Jews etc.
It was not all lies. Some factions mainly from NSZ did execute Jews but not because they were Jews but because they were communists or thought to have collaborated with NKVD against Polish independence movements. The NSZ were ruthless against anyone that supported the Soviet regime in Poland—Poles, Jews it did not matter if they were thought to have communist sympathies they were dealt with often harshly. This is what the Soviets were not telling. The NSZ were often against the authority of A.K who they saw as being willing to mediate with the Russians.
Thanks for correcting me i forgot about that,Today i was reading somewhere that some Jews welcomed soviets in 39.Sjam you know alot more about Poland in ww2 then me,Do you know if the Bielski brothers took part in the Naliboki forest massacre?
Sjam since your intrested in anti-communist resistance heres a nice site: doomedsoldiers.com/about-Jozef-Kuras.html its all about the so called
Aunt used to be a courier in AK in her teens - survived the war. Great gramps used to be a border corps officer - survived the war. Great gramps' brother was a an infantry captain in Lwów - murdered by Jews sometime in 39. Great Uncle ? Dunno really whether his my great gramps or uncle - bought it somewhere in France near Calais.
While i dont have a wartime story, the gramps who used to be a border guard had a few drinks with some german soldiers and officers and they played poker, of course he cheated and won them out of their pistols and rifles, they went back empty handed and dead drunk.
The next day an officer from the same unit ran back for the weapons scared as hell told them that local SS officer will be coming for questioning and to play dumb and pretend nothing happened, they did and gramps got away with his stupidity.
Sokrates you must be proud of having those relatives!Ugh im no nazi but some of the Jews really piss me off they betrayed us in 39 for the soviets we hide them from nazis and rat us out of the war for being in the AK....
Haha your great gramps cheated against germans in poker!LOL
I remember you posting somewhere about 1 of your relatives swords that you own,Do you have any pics you would like to share???
my grandmother from my dad's side is a German orphan. one of my relatives told me once she was a daughter of an SS man but i never dared asking her about that, they were probably taking the mickey :/. my mom's father (whom i never met because he died when my mom was 14) was in a gulag and the story of his escape is quite interesting. apparently, as my late nan told me, one of the female guards had a soft spot for him. she got some documents for him and they were going to escape together but he knocked her out and ran away, tied himself with his belt underneath a train and got away. i am not 100% sure on the details as my nan, my mom's mom, died 11 years ago and i vaguely remember this story.
Your Grandfather on your Moms side made an impressive escape!Tieing himself under a train!!!!
Brentthruster your probebly hiding behinde the computer screen if you ever said that to a Poles i think you wouldnt have front teeth anymore,And to let you know my GrandFather lived in a undrerground trench or something like that and survived the war your family survived the war hiding in a sub way station hearing bombs crushing there homes!
My first great grandfather was one of the first polish tank drivers. When he was 16 he join up the army to fight bolshevicks. Second one was also 16 yo when he enlisted. ( both lied about their age cause they were too young to join ). He was in the cavalry and took part in the greatest cavalry battle of XX century - battle of Komarow (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Komarów). He was wounded in the head and the story tells that his horse saved his live, tooking him away from the battleground and standing upon him till he was found after the battle was over. He got the medal of courage.
Other great grandpa was an officer in polish army. He was murdered in 1940 in Katyn. His older brother took part in Wielkopolskie uprising. His memories from the battle of nowe kramsko were published.
It is good to show that not only the British and Americans are fighting. but also the Polish people I am sure that they are just as good there are others to be recognized.
My father fought in the September 1939 Campaign. He was arrested in 1940 by the NKVD and placed in prison and then in labour camps. He was released and fought in Italy where he received a Virtuti Militari.
Also i remember seeing somewhere that you can get replacement medals of the ones awarded to the Poles that fought along side the British i think all you need are some of his documents as proof that he was awarded it and served with the britsh if i find it again ill post it
EDIT:Found it! home.golden.net/~medals/records.html scroll down to POLES WHO SERVED IN BRITISH UNITS IN WW II and theres a link of a site and the stuff you need to have in order to get a replacement
