Is there a list of those in the Polish Army during WWII?

I hope some one can help me. My father grew up in the Lemko region of Poland and during WWII my father joined the Polish Army in England. Much of my father's military past is a mystery, he never discussed it. Is there a list of those in the Polish Army. Not sure what division he was in but I do know that he was in Africa and Italy. Can some one help?

most likely but it sure would help to first know under who he served etc.. you ought to góógle around a bit, i bet you'll find something.

Try faxing your inquiry to the following military-research bureau: Prof. Krzysztof Komorowski, Wojskowe Biuro Badań Historycznych; tel. (+48 22) 682 5873.
Be sure to include as much vital data as you possess.

Africa and Italy will be 2 corps
served in england your best bet is the sikorski institute in london,sorry,I really must make a note of the address but a quick web search will find it.

The MoD will have his records but you may have to know what specific unit he was in. Other than that, you will also have to prove your relationship to him. A birth certificate should suffice but you can still enquire beforehand to determine what exactly they want to see.

Ministry of Defense
APC Polish Enquiries
Building 28 B, RAF Northolt
West End Road
Ruislip, Middlesex
HA4 6NG

Tel: 020 8833 8603
Fax: 020 8833 8866

Try the National Archives at the following link

nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/displaycataloguedetails.asp?CATID=24 62805&CATLN=6&accessmethod=5&j=1

Remember to prefix with www
They will send you the list for a small fee

Peter's answer is correct. All the information that is necessary to obtain your father's military records from The Ministry of Defence in England is Next of Kin application and photocopy of birth certificate or a photocopy of death certificate. The MoDs address listed is correct. Google Mod ... all the answers are there.

My name is stefan szkilnyk.I was born in lancashire England in 1953. MY father Ihor szkilnyk
came to england in 1945/46 and was demobbed somewere in scotland, My father once told me he'd been a polish paratrooper and left holding the rank of sgt, can anyone help me?

email. sz_kilnyk@ive.co.uk

If he came to the UK in 45/46 where / who was he serving from 39 - 45? If he was part of the Polish paratroops under British command he would have been in the UK before 1945. If so then you can follow the posts above and write to the MoD and make sure you have all the necessary documentation. If he served in the Polish regiments under Russian control I don't know where you can look. I would presume the Defense ministry in Warsaw.

Oh wow, I'm also trying to research my father and he was also a Polish paratrooper! I know that my father jumped into Germany and Holland and that he was also in Africa, Israel, and Italy, but I don't know if he jumped there or not...maybe they knew each other. So far from what I gathered he was in the Polish SOE (special operations executive). You should try contacting the spp-pumst or the archives at Kew, England. I've been trying to find information about my father and have learned a lot, but still haven't found his name anywhere.

There is a book entitled Historia Polskiego Znaku Spadochronowego J.Lorys (the Polish para brigade reference book). It lists all the names of troops that successfully completed the para-training. I'm still waiting to see if someone can look up my dad's name.

You should check out the War Relics Forum. There are a lot of knowledgeable people there and there are all kinds of cool photos too!

Good luck with your search!

If anybody is in the Manchester area, there is a presentation “Anders’ Army - the Polish 2nd Army Corps” on February 14th. Contact me privately for details.

fpby
Hi fpby do you have an email address that I could contact you on? I live in Manchester & I believe my Grand-Father served in the 2nd Polish Corps. I was wonder if you had any information that you could share with me. I'm gutted that I've only just found out about it :-(

I may be able to give you some information regarding his service in England.If you are able to give me your email ,I shall forward some information..Regards Mike.

my father was in a polish para brigade in scotland 1943/4 went to arnhem & demobbed to london. i have a spelling of his name problem (he had little education) cannot trace him. can someone please help? to make things worse no paperwk documents whatsoever.i do know in 1939 he was in warsaw & captured, escaped, got home to eastern poland, captured, spent a year or two or more in siberia & released stalin/roosevelt/churchill agreement.via goods train went south to the middle east to possibly iran,india egypt, unsure.then down to south africa. then up to scotland for possibly some 4 years with Sikorskys mob.i know that the americans were there because his friends were killed when 2 planes touched wings in manouvers,pilots were american. thats what he told me.i hope i am not too boring but his journey may be of interest to others.i do hav acap badge, silver polish war bracelet & a photo album which is small but contains lots of photos of his polish regiment in various places which could be identified. so to all his mates. i am unable to put in on line but perhaps i could pass it on to someone who might. they might recognize their dad.anyway,i sincerely wish we can all find out more about our dad's and what they did. regards paul.jedzinski@yahoo.co.uk

Hi Paul, please check back here tomorrow: I'll post the details of the British govt office which can help you out (am posting from my phone now and can't copy paste very well).

Was your father's name Jozef?

If so, the 1st independent Polish Parachute Brigade list of participants does indicate that his rank was Corporal in the 3rd Battalion. He was dropped into Driel under fire during the Battle of Arnhem from aircraft No 77 on 21.9.44. Which means that he have probably spent most of his time defending the Driel bridgehead over the Neder Rijn. Sorry, no other details other than his badge number (4335).

Michas

Merged: Looking for my family's Polish name- any army list of soldiers?

hello

Im looking for my polish name .I thing that I might have information with the history of the polish army during world lwar 2 in Italy .

My father serve in the infantry in the polish army .He was wounded in montecassino and return to poland after the war .He fled from poland in 1946 .He changes his name to a french name .He died 5 years ago without telling us his polish name .Now i've got a mission before ending my life ,is to find this name .He was from silesia was at the time the joungest polish soldier in 1943 a t the beginning of the campaign of Italy .Is there a possibility to have informations about files of the polish army in Italy .

My father was a simple soldier in the infantry .He was once the "aide de camp" of general anders . he was choose as "aide de camp" because of his youth .Perhaps ther is a list of soldier who was very near of general anders .Then maybe i could find a name which could be mine .

In advence thanks for your answer . Romain from a little town in france .

If he fought at Monte Cassino, he was in the Polish II Corps. If he was in infantry, he had to be in the 3rd Carpathian Rifle Division. The division was 29000 strong. Here's the list of all names, followed by birth date, rank, etc.:

stankiewicz.e.pl/index.php?kat=42&sub=644
I have no idea how to find your father's name there. There are many sites dedicated to the Polish soldiers who fought in the II Corps, at Monte Cassino, etc. (some in English) - with personal stories perhaps worth checking out.

hello astoria

Thanks a lot for your answer .Im looking a this list of soldier who fought in Montecassino . Perhaps the name of my father is among them .I know another thing ,this the date of birth of my father . It was in november 1927 and his forname was stanislaw . Could it be possible with this list to have only the ones born in 1927 ,1926 with the forname Stanislas?

Again i thank you again with your futur answer .

Romain from Champ romain ,Perigord france

Dont forget the 5th Kresowa Infantry Division too!!

Regards.

@vodopad
My mistake. Thanks.


No, the list is not searchable this way. You'd have go name by name. But when I randomly searched few hundred names on the list I noticed that there are very few young soldiers born in 1926, and I found only one born in 1927 (but not Stanisław). So there is a good chance you will find very few Stanisławs born in 1927, and luckily only one. Unforunately, vodopad is right and the 5th Kresowa Infantry Division was also a part of the II Corps and fought at MC. It was a huge division too, and I didn't find a list of its soldiers on the internet. Such lists are in books published long time ago.

yes I anderstand .It's going to be a long research and be patient with the number of name and dates . I have read the first letter B and there was about four stanislaw in 1927.and yet I must look at the other lettters .Nice job to do but would it be sucessful ,I don't know . again thanks for your advice .

Dziękuję bardzo Roman

Hey - I'm another one whose dad was with the 1st Parachute Brigade - somewhere up in Scotland.
Would love to find out more about what he did (he talked very little about it and has since passed away).
What I do know is that he served under a false name and it wasn't changed on his papers until demob. I wonder how many others had to do that.

I have lots of old photos too - would like to connect with anyone that might have known him (or whose dad might have known him).

Guess it would help if I gave a name! Rajmund Grzegorz Pellowski (served as Czarnecki).

Does anyone know where I can find out which regiment my grandfather fought for in WWII. His name was Marian Paszkowski and he lived in Nottingham.

I am not sure where to start to look?!?

Thanks,

Jenna Paszkowski
(grand-daughter)

Merged: Looking for father's WWII Polish Army service record

Interested in finding fathers Polish army ww2 service record Name was Zygmunt John Weber born October 1910 in northwest Poland Maybe Bydgoszcz area Landed in Scotland after war and moved to Syracuse - Utica NY area in early 50's Had no family in the States Died in Herkimer Ny 1975

try sending an email to caw.wp.mil.pl that is for the Centralne Archiwum Wojskowe located at 00-910 Warszawa 72. hope that helps.

Merged:Looking for information on my Grandfather (Edmund Henry Skibinski)

Looking for Edmund Henry Skibinski, what he did in the war and where he was based,he is my granddad and all i know is he was in the Polish army and ended in a camp in Italy, can anybody help

Where can I find list of Polish army during ww2 ?

The Polish Parachute Brigade was formed with the purpose of capturing airfields in Poland for use in the planned uprising. They were held in reserve for this purpose until the British brought political pressure for its use in liberating France and the Netherlands in June 1944. Since the Poles required support from the Brits for the planned uprising, they didn't feel they could decline the request. (In the event, British support for the uprising was inadequate, to say the least.) Subsequently, the Polish parachute brigade was committed to Montgomery's folly in the Netherlands in Operation Market Garden, which was an unmitigated disaster. One school of thought is that the Polish paratroopers were sent on that mission to keep them unavailable for service in Poland, and the political issues with Stalin which would have arisen from their activity with the AK. Another perspective is that they were sent to gain battle experience, although considering the high mortality rate of paratroopers, this seems unlikely. Understand that the Poles in exile had placed their hopes for liberation in their paratroopers.

To understand the prestige of the Polish paratroopers, only the U.S., Britain, and the Poles among the Allies had significant paratroop brigades. Canada and the rest of the Commonwealth nations had none worth mention. After D-Day, the British had only one functional airborne unit, and the Poles were needed to enhance them. However, the incompetence of the operation retarded progress on the battle front. The 2,000 Poles who served in the parachute brigades desperately wanted to fight in Poland, but were denied this by the politics of appeasing Stalin. For more about this see M. A. Peszke, The Polish Underground Army, the Western Allies, and the Failure of Strategic Unity in World War II (2009)

Hi Michas,

My Grandfather was called Jozef... (Lopacki) 1st independent Polish Parachute Brigade in 3rd Battalion. I wonder if that was him.

Would the British location for archives of Polish military have something on the signal corps? My grandfather never set foot in Britain when the WWII started. His service basically ended on Sept. 17, 1939 after his unit may have been captured by the Russians near Czortow, Poland (now in the Ukraine). I enquired through the CAW and was told that any records for my grandfather can not be found. At the same time, from a story that was related to me, the commissioned officers were segregated and may have eventually been summarily executed.

If that is the case, then his unit may be connected to the Katyn massacre. I heard that Russia declassified some of the material related to the Katyn massacre and handed it over to the Polish government. Can that materiel be accessed in order to (dis)prove a connection? Or do I have to go through a museum in SW Poland that may have POW information to find information. The museum is located in Lambowicz, I believe. Sorry if I have the spelling wrong since I do not have the correct spelling in front of me right now.