Certification PAL Brigade Dubois soldier

[StefanM]

Some references to Brygada PAL im. Stanisława Dubois at the Museum of the Warsaw Rising:

STANISŁAW BOMBAŁA "STANISŁAW"
...ia Ludowa (PAL) - Brygada Syndykalistów im. Stanisława Dubois - mp. ul. Hoża 27a. Ochotnik - dołączył 1 sierpnia 1944 r...

JANUSZ CZYŻEWSKI-ORKISZ "GARLAND"
...do Polskiej Armii Ludowej - Brygada PAL im. Stanisława Dubois / Szlak bojowy - Stare Miasto - kanały - Śródmieście / ...

WŁADYSŁAW DOMINO "OSTROWSKI"
...ia Ludowa (PAL) - Brygada Syndykalistów im. Stanisława Dubois / Szlak bojowy - Śródmieście Południe - mp. ul. Hoża 27...

It has been an interesting exercise to discover more about these little known smaller Polish underground groups and "brigades"

[dastier]

...the usefulness of the participation of any of the various units including AK and NSZ fighting in the Rising given the inevitability of the outcome—an outcome that Gen. Anders had foreseen and tried in vain to stop before the fatal decision was taken in Warsaw.

Please elaborate on General Anders actions...

BTW I am really enjoying this back and forth banter. As long as its civil, I find it both informative and interesting to read the different viewpoints. I really know very little about Polish resistance in Poland during WW2.

What would be some good books to read as an overview for both the political stances of the various resistance groups and an organizational/operational/effectiveness discussion of armed and unarmed resistance in occupied Poland?

Thanks in advance...

[StefanM]

General Anders vigourously opposed the planned uprising and tried desperately to get gen. Sosnowski to issue an order to prevent the Warsaw uprising from taking place, but Sosnowski took himself off to the Med in the middle of the unfolding crisis and for some inexplicable reason was uncontactable, so the order from Sosnowski never came.

Anders believed a battle over Warsaw was pointless, could not be won, and would cause untold suffering to the civilian population and signifacnt loss of life amongst civilian and military personnel alike.

However once the Rising got underway Anders, despite his anger at the events in Warsaw, did his utmost to lobby the Allies for all possible assistance to the Varsovians in their hopeless struggle. There is an excellent essay produced by the Polish university abroad in London that describes Anders position on the Rising. See attached book cover.




Also see:
The Polish Underground Army, the Western Allies, and the Failure of Strategic Unity in World War II [Paperback] Piotr Stefan Wandycz (Foreword), Michael Alfred Peszke (Author)
The Polish Underground Army, the Western Allies, and the Failure of Strategic Unity in World War II: Amazon.co.uk: Piotr Stefan Wandycz, Michael Alfred Peszke: Books

[Krakow1]

Here is my PAL document I had for a long time. It is a requisition form. From another PAL Brigade : The Haller "Brigade". Dated 2 September 1944, and for the place it gives M.P (miejsce postoju)
(location) as it is often given on some military documents. Brigade commanded by a captain...

[Krakow1]

Careful reading some of the references provided above as to the 104th Company has led me to a name Komorowski.
In the article quted earlier that is in Polish ;titled : "Wspomnienia Dowodcy" it says that the command post of the Dubois brigade was run by a single person : Keslin Szemley.
Re: the 104th Company, lets hear it for the horses mouth : a true Warsaw Uprising legend : Stanislaw Komornicki nom de guerre "Nalecz".

[Krakow1]

One of the earliest memoirs from the Warsaw Uprising.

[StefanM]

Also fighting at the so-called "Czerniakow bridgehead" was second lieutenant Janina Błaszczak, a commander of 3rd Pomeranian Infantry Division of Romuald Traugutt mortar company, Polish 1st Army....and a woman of great courage!

Janina and her whole family were deported by the Soviets to the Ural Mountains in February of 1940, she was aged 17. When the news about the formation of Berling's Army reached Siberia, Janina Błaszczak made her way to Seltsy on the Oka river in August 1943, and there she joined a women's battalion.

At the end of 1943 and beginning of 1944, Błaszczak underwent five months training at the Infantry School in Ryazan, where she was promoted to the rank of second lieutenant. Janina Błaszczak graduated as one the top students and was rewarded with command of a male mortar company - the largest front-line unit in the Second World War where a woman-officer of the Polish Army was in command!



Janina Błaszczak, 1946


Second lieutenant Janina Błaszczak headed for the front as a member of 3rd Pomeranian Infantry Division of Romuald Traugutt. The Division of Romuald Traugutt took part in fighting in Warecko-Magnuszewski bridgehead (09.08.1944 - 09.12.1944) Studzianki (09.08.1944 - 16.08.1944), Praga (10.09.1944 - 14.09.1944) as well as the Warsaw Rising (16.09.1944 - 23.09.1944) in the Czerniakow section, where Janina Błaszczak was wounded on September 21, 1944. Jania was wounded for a second time while she was making an attempt to evacuate to the east bank of the Vistula river. Declared to have been killed in action, Janina was decorated posthumously with the War Order of Virtuti Militari of V Class ...which she received in person after the war!

The mortar company and their commander, Second Lieutenant Janina Blaszczak, crossed to Czerniakow in the night of 15-16 September 1944. Unfortunately, they managed to rescue 4 mortars only; the remaining part of the hardware and its support sank during the crossing. The female officer who also was commander of male company, caused a sensation among the insurgents.

This is the account of the first contact with Second Lieutenant Blaszczak given by a soldier of "Zoska" Battalion - Andrzej Wolski "Jur": "The time is soon. Armour-piercing rifles, heavy machine guns, they are indeed old Maxim guns but they blast away, even anti-tank cannons, and plenty of people. Soldiers, major officer, the captain of artillery reconnaissance, two radio stations, telephonists, lads with Russian automatic pistols, and loads of ammunition. And the girl - the officer."

The mortar station was situated at Solec Street, behind the headquarters of 9 PP. From there, Second Lieutenant Blaszczak fired the German positions at Czerniakowska Street in daylight, and at night-time she fired the barricades along the riverbanks in order to reinforce the defence of the shore and to support the evacuation of the injured. When the German offensive threatened the staff of 9 pp directly, the continuous fire from the mortars of 3rd company halted the enemy. On the roof of the building at 41 Solec Street an observation point for correcting mortar fire was located.

Due to the unsuccessful attempt to get the all forces of 3 DP cross the river, the isolated insurgent units and units of 9 PP fought only in order to survive. Mortars without ammunition became useless, and the 3rd company fought with only carbines since then. Janina Blaszczak led the action to defend the barricade.

Henryk Baczko wrote in his book about the fighting in Czerniakow as follows: "They fought not only with bullets but also with butts and fists. Anyone who saw Second Lieutenant Blaszczak at that time, with fair hair flowing in the wind, leading her lads to counter-attack, or throwing grenades, will never forget this sight. It seemed as if a Greek goddess descended on the bank of the Vistula to defend the beautiful work of art."

Because she was wounded twice and owing to the broken resistance of the bridgehead as well as the failure of evacuation across the Vistula to Praga, Second Lieutenant Janina Blaszczak was taken prisoner by the Germans.
The German report from September 23 1944 said: " When the resistance at the last house in the southern encirclement in Warsaw was fought, 82 Polish legionaries, 57 soldiers of AK [...] were taken prisoners. Besides, there were 35 dead bodies. There is also a Polish woman among the prisoners-of-war, who was trained as a platoon commander in Ternopil".

The heavily wounded Blaszczak was transported by the German's to a hospital in Skierniewice, from where she was rescued in secret by orderlies working in the underground for the AK.. For several months she was sheltered by a railwayman's family in Skierniewice where she recovered from her wounds and stayed until February 1945. In 1946 Janina Błaszczak was a lecturer in an officers' school in Lodz, where she gave classes in weapon handling.

[StefanM]

One of the earliest memoirs from the Warsaw Uprising.

I am not sure it was that early as it was first published in 1964... but maybe one of the earliest published in Poland? First published as: Na barykadach Warszawy; pamiętnik z powstania 1944 r. by Stanisław Komornicki Publisher: Wydawn. Ministerstwa Obrony Narodowej, Warszawa 1964.




Below: Baczko Henryk's 8 dni na lewym brzegu (8 Days on the Left Bank), Warszawa 1946, was much earlier memoir account.



Komornicki also wrote: Poles in the battle of Berlin; published in English by Wydawnictwo Ministerstwa Obrony Narodowej, Warszawa 1967. Most of these Polish history books written and published under the Polish communist regime must be read with the understanding that the material was often self-censored by omission of "awkward facts" by the authors or officially censored before they could be published so the historical information is biased towards the communist regime's viewpoint.

The earliest memoir (in English) about the Warsaw Rising was the 1946 book by Irena Orska entitled Silent is the Vistula (New York, Longmans, Green, 1946) and translated from Polish by Marta Erdman. This book, for my money is still the best first-hand account of the Rising that has ever been written.

[Krakow1]

Well, on the back of the book it says that he tried to get it published in 1946, however the censorship did not alow it, it was published first in 1956 after the "October's Thaw". It was written in 1945 from his notes that he had taken.
So it would make one wonder about Henryk Baczko being able to publish in 1946....
Long story short on how Komornicki "Nalecz" became a commander of a assault platoon in the 104th Company.
He was AK, AK trained in secret Cadet school and on the day of Uprising he and his friend did not make it to where their unit was consolidating. All of the AK soldiers were told to just join the first unit they see and to try to get to their unit if it is possible.
They got stuck in a company that he says was just being formed, this is on the august 3rd 1944 and that was the 104th Company.
He spoke to some guys and they told him that on the first day there were about 60 of them, armed with 6 pistols and some grenades....
They were able to attack a german post and get some weapons.
Nalecz for his weapon was given a grenade without the safety pin with the spoon tied to the grenade...it was a dud, however he said it was better than nothing.
It would appear that the 104th Company was a mix of various formations with the syndicalist being a cadre.

[Krakow1]

A very good point as to the books published in Poland before 1989 that You have made, but one should also apply that that to books published past 1989. Being born and raised in Poland we learned how to read these books, however even in the West people writing books had an agenda. I have seen few professors writing books "to order ".