Polish Uniforms, etc pre-39

[3mk]

Tony, if I ever have access to one, I'll be sure to examine every part of it and take plenty of photos!

As for the Sucharski's tunic, I also noticed the collar tabs to be out of place. The story behind the uniform is Marian Balcerzaka an AK soldier who was placed in over 3 concentration camps met Sucharski in Lübeck, where Polish soldiers were being grouped. There they received new uniforms. In a pile of junk and ruined things he noticed the Majors uniform and stuffed it into his suitcase and brought it him. He donated it to Gdansk WW2 Museum in 1986.

Heres a photo of Sucharski (seated in the middle of the bottom row with a VM) while in a POW camp. I'm not sure if this is his field or dress uniform in the photo but no sign of collar tabs.

My guess is these were added on post-war or they are original to the uniform, but re-sewn incorrectly post-war as the stiching might of gotten un-done.

[justin1939]

Hello,

What does everybody think about this Wz.36 Polish Artillery Captain's tunic which I posted, please ?

Wz.36 Polish Artillery Captain's tunic - 100% original pre-war ?

Apart from the collar patches/tabs, is it 100% pre-war, please ?

Please reply as soon as you can.

Thank You

justin1939

[A.J. Zawadzki]

Emil, it would be his field uniform worn during combat operations and at time of capture. The traditional collar tabs were deleted on the revised uniform regs introduced shortly before the war. Not all military personnel had yet been able to get into full compliance, as evidenced in the photograph you posted.

Justin, although I’ve answered your private query on this tunic, for the benefit of others, I’m not keen on some of the tailoring details. The collar tabs are not a good fit. The maker label should be machine sewn onto the liner, not hand stitched. That detail alone is sufficient to turn me off this one.

Regards,
Tony

[Hobbymoje]

Hi Emil,

Thanks for posting the pic. The collar tab area looks wrong. There should be no visible ‘spillover’ of the collar behind the tabs. The tailoring on genuine pre-war uniforms, especially for higher officers, was impeccable and the tabs should exactly fit the collar profile. Maybe this is a ‘restored’ tunic using parts of Sucharski’s original - ??

Regards,
Tony

Hi Tony and 3mk,
The photo of mjr. Sucharski' uniform is quite interesting. The six ribbons attached to the uniform seem to be in a slightly lower area than usual. Also those six ribbons don't quite represent the medals mjr. Sucharski was awarded with. I have another photo of this uniform that shows no ribbons attached (photo taken around 1989. If I figure how to attached few original photos of mjr. Sucharski I will post them for you. Mjr. Sucharski was given time to clean up and change his field uniform into a full uniform after which the offical surrender ceremony took place (Sept 7th, 1939). Wether mjr. Sucharski kept his field uniform or not (when taken to captivity) - it is likely he did.

Thanks. Pawel.

[3mk]

Hi Pawel,

Interesting. Why would the museum add the ribbon bar to his uniform. If you find the old picture of his uniform, please post it I would be very interested to see.

[Hobbymoje]

Hi Pawel,

Interesting. Why would the museum add the ribbon bar to his uniform. If you find the old picture of his uniform, please post it I would be very interested to see.

Hi 3mk,

I just scanned few pics from a magazine titled "After the Battle" Number 65 (The first shots of World War II - 50 Years ago) from 1989. Entire magazine is dedicated to Westerplatte. On that scan you can see Mjr. Sucharski's uniforms during surrender, and the one (supposibly Mjr. Sucharski's) that is now on display. As you can see this uniform does not have any ribbons. I am not sure why would the museum's curator attach any ribbons, especially if they do not match the actual decorations of Mjr. Sucharski. It does show those collar tabs that do not fit the uniform as well (previous discussion by others). To me it seems like the uniform on display today is none of the ones shows on Mjr. Sucharski during the surrender.

I am intersted to know how you came about the knowledge of how the uniform was acquired and later donated to the museum. I read description you provided above - very interesting.

Thanks, Pawel.

[3mk]

Thank you for posting these scans Pawel! You can see remains of a ribbon bar in the picture of the tunic. I found the info about how the tunic was acquired here NOC MUZEÓW 2012 – WESTERPLATTE theres also photos of Officer Szewczuk's case.

[ths]

Hi
ths

[Hobbymoje]

Thank you for posting these scans Pawel! You can see remains of a ribbon bar in the picture of the tunic. I found the info about how the tunic was acquired here NOC MUZEÓW 2012 – WESTERPLATTE theres also photos of Officer Szewczuk's case.

HI 3mk,

Thanks for the link. I read what's on the site. Very interesting.

Regards,
Pawel.

[pat15567]

Tunic which is on Westerplatte in modern times of course is not original tunic of mjr. Sucharski. It's a copy made on base of post-war "wz.36-like" uniform which was modify a bit to look like those worn by Sucharski. Almost 100% that this is not an original.