Polish military uniforms

Whatever you want, old or modern. Here are some pictures of Poland military uniforms / soldiers.

Polish Highland troops:

They look strange in traditional uniform but carrying AK 74s :)
Its sort of a good guys/bad guys vibe if you are from the West ;)

Recreated Uniform of AK junior officer around the mid point of the Uprising.
Civilian blue overalls under a waffen SS smock with black panzer cap bearing a *home made* Home Army Eagle badge and on the left side the national flag.

In the pre war Polish Army belt is a captured german *stick grenade* and hanging just below is an also captured german torch with coloured filters,essential for use in the sewers as is the black bandana worn around the soldiers neck.

Not clear in the picture is the officers ppk holster with attached Polish Scouts badge,recreated from an origional example,as is the cap badge,reproduced on one of the wartime home army metel press jobbies and given to me by a friend in Warsaw....Oh,yes,that ugly bu**er is me BTW :)

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Isthatu? Nice.

I remember that torch; my grandparents’ still had few of them around in a good working order when I was a kid. The potato masher is a nice touch to complete the look but I’m still partial to the Strzelec Podhalański uniform.

Still works a treat but the 12 volt batteries are hard to find :)
Ive not done any memorial events in a while but I still have the uniforms and kit in the attic .
When I get time I'll photo some of my origional bits of pre and wartime Polish militaria.

Your fascination is fascinating, indeed.


Just like British guards:



:):):):)


More of 1944 Warsaw Rising uniforms:

Isthatu, if you don't mind me asking, where does your fascination with the Polish militaria come from? You seem to know quite a lot about that and as far as I remember you've no Polish roots whatsoever.

Not at all.
Hard to explain,always had an interest in that period in history,was involved in recreated honour guards etc for memorial events in the UK and western Europe for years and always had an interest in Polish forces ,this only increased once Id visited Poland a few times and met a few Polish re enactors both here in the UK and then again in Warsaw . And you are right,no actual family connections at all with Poland.

I think part of it is I'm just in the last generation where growing up Poland was *over there*, behind the Iron Curtain so there was a ready curiosity and a willingness to learn what had maybe been hidden......oh,and Norman Davies Uprising 44 helped too :)

Small world Pawian, the top recreated photo you have shown includes the person who gave me my AK cap Eagle :)
If you notice we are wearing the same colour black bandana and more or less the same *style* of uniform....that was so I could join in with the group at Polish events ....unfortunately I have not yet managed to get involved in Poland but,maybe someday....with permission of some AK veterans I met I must add :)

About Parade uniforms, agreed, I find it odd when any soldiers in traditional style uniforms carry modern assault rifles.....its not like they are loaded and ready for use so why not carry a more traditional *long rifle*?

Isthatu2,what is your favorite era uniform?

Cool, I thought you have somehow rigged it to work with modern set of batteries. Keeping it original, very cool.


Interesting, perhaps my memory is failing me but growing up on this side of the Iron Curtain I never heard of reenactors participation or anyone actually sporting polish uniform beside the veterans and scouts in those days, the newspaper articles of that time neglected to mention that. The pictures that accompanied those articles usually depicted local Polonia, few of the veterans that is or scouts participating in those memorial events but not reenactors themselves, in any case it would be nice if you shared a story or two with us that would complement the pictures you post, perhaps we will all learn something new.

There's a company in Warsaw which specialise in reworking battery cases (i.e. taking old cells out of the battery case and replacing them with new cells of the same power). Want me to dig out their details? They could easily take an old case and build you a custom rechargeable battery or two.

Haha, I dont want to turn this thread into a me me me thread,I do that enough in other ones :)
There is a history of *re enactment* in a modern sense in the UK going back to the 1920s . In the 1990s I was waiting to join the armed forces and joined up with a group of people who collected uniforms and helped out at veterans days and also at summer fetes and Airshows.

There have been people *doing Polish* in the UK since the begining of ww 2 re enactment but most portrayed either Polish in the RAF or Polish Airborne at Driel/Arnhem. Early 00s a few of us,mostly *pure brits* (ie,like me,no Polish connections) started getting interested in other aspects. I *did* LWP for a while with a large group who specialised in Eastern front events and moved from that to portraying AK in various guises at some events in the UK. As I said,its been a while since Ive done anything but now there are plenty of real Poles to carry on the tradition :)

With regards to recreated wartime *soldiers* at memorial events,those are something that started in the 90s and certainly not at every event. I worked a lot with the Royal British legion (a veterans group/charity) as a teen and so was considered to be OK to have the honour of being involved as memorial *guards* etc. The old boys were always fun,you had to get everything right looks and uniforms wise or they let you know in no uncertain terms but most seemed touched that people their grandchildrens age were carrying their memory :)


Sticking strictly with Polish?
Hard choice between 1920s/30s or Duchy of Warsaw Era
1920s for the simple yet smart lines and Duchy period because all that Napoleonic stuff is some serious bling and Ive seen the female reaction to it enough times :)

(in a more general sense Im more interested in pre uniform era stuff,early medieval stuff these days :) )

Thanks for the offer Harry,its a consideration but they are still available,just not in every corner shop.....luckily this is yorkshire,you can still find,shock horror, non eco friendly light bulbs if you try ;)

The earliest Polish military uniform goes back to late 10 century AD. Some warriors of Prince Mieszko were allegedly Normans!



Norman warrior




eioba.pl/a/27sb/wojsko-polskie-czasy-mieszka-i-i-boleslawa-chrobrego

Vice versa too Pawian, there were *probably* Poles in Wiliam the Bastards invasion force in 1066.
But, Norsemen does not automatically make them *Normans* even though Normans got their name from being Norsemen,if that makes sense?
We had Norsemen in Yorkshire as well as Danes,all getting lumped together as Vikings , Basicaly those Scandanavians got everywhere :)

Better use Conqueror.

hmmm... I could agree, if you said so about Cnut the Great's invasion in 1015....

Why can you only agree if I include a topic we were not talking about ? :)
Yes,there were maybe people from within the borders of current Poland in Cnuts army too,there,happy? :)
Europe by that time was criss crossed with trade and pilgrim routes,we were far more mobile back then than the stereotype suggests.

( Dont worry, we like the Danes where Im from,we are proudly within Danelaw and to this day this part of England is different to the rest :) If you know our history you know we are only culturally anglo saxon/viking etc,its more or less a choice based on lifestyle rather than ethnicity so a Pole in Cnuts Army would soon just be another Englishman.)

The most colourful uniforms were those of early 19 century - Napoleonic storm in Europe and Polish troops in the centre.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Army_of_the_Duchy_of_Warsaw



Poland Battle

Complete review of cavalry units: jhdwodz.blogspot.com/2012/03/wojsko-polskie-gen-dabrowskiego-armia.html

Orkiestra Reprezentacyjną Wojska Polskiego - Musikschau der Nationen 2003

The famous winged riders - hussaria cavalry - 17 century.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_hussars



husaria.jest.pl

You can use that in class if you like but the name I was used was far more common at the time both amongst English and Normans (though whether anyone ever called him that to his face I couldnt say :) )

Yes, indeed, but:

1. We don't live in their times, we live1000 years later.

2. Saying Bastard suggests contempt. I think the patriotic British shouldn't treat their Founding Fathers so lightly.

1, No, he was a bastard. His father raped a girl,she had the baby out of wedlock ergo,William the bastard. It was very common in an age where no one had *last names* to call them such blunt names.

2, I will ignore the obvious trolling to the extent that only a dummy considers the Norman blip to be the founding fathers of England. They brought nothing new to these shores beyond a few poncey French terms for bits of animals.

As for "we don't live in those times" no,we don't, but it is still more historically correct and orthodox these days to refer to him as William the Bastard apart from in school books aimed at small children :)

Probably I should have started my thread with this material:

Krakow light cavalry from early 19 century:

Large scale images, paintings by Józef Brandt:





Wikipedia text:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Towarzysz_pancerny
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisowczycy

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  Towarzysz pancerny (Armoured companion)
  
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  Lisowczycy (Elears, Lisowski's Irregulars)
  

Totally agree and hav been saying the same for years.

Much more than that much more.

They certianly not one of the Founding Fathers of England, no more than Stalin was a Founding Father of Poland.

They are definitely founding fathers of the English Political and social system which evolved on the ground plow and sow by the revolutionary changes and institutions introduced by the Normans to the Anglo-Saxon subsoil.

Sorry, you cherish illusions like Isthatu. Normans, although a bit delayed, can be still classified as the Founding Fathers of England. Procrastinating Fathers, so called.

E.g., what do you know about Domesday Book?