Help to identify partisan patch?

[StefanM]

I have not seen this arm patch before, can anyone help identify it and the AK (?) unit?

[StefanM]

Another arm patch with Fighting Poland symbol I have not seen worn before?

The soldier on the left is Lieutenant. Konrad Sigmund Suwalski ps. "Cichy" (Silent), "Mruk" in 1944, he served battalion Leg 2 pp. AK „Nurta”. Before that in 1942 he created „Barwy Białe” a unit of Narodowej Organizacji Wojskowej (NOW).

In February 1944, Suwalski conducted an 'unauthorised' raid against a unit of the People's Army (AL) in the Wolka Bodzechowskiej. As a consequence there were bloody reprisals on both sides including the taking of to take hostages, therefore Suwalski was removed from his command and his role was taken over by lieutenant. "Axe" (Wladyslaw Pietrzykowski). The change of command led to talks between the AK and AL as a result of which hostages from both sides were released, and relations improved.

April 27, 1945 in Kielce, Suwalski was recognised and arrested most likely by officers of the secret police who, were a year earlier, in the ranks of the AL. His trial at the Military District Court in Lodz lasted from late April to June 1945—the main prosecutor against Suwalskiemu was Head of Department for Combating Banditry WUBP in Kielce - Major Stefan Szymanski, "Osa" - "Góral" (formerly commander of the AL Division. Bartosz Glowacki, from Ćmielów). An important role in the judicial process was also played another AL partisan —Edmund Kwasek (notorious Kielce UB executuctioner.)

Konrad Suwalski "Mruk," was executed probably on 10 August 1945 and buried anonymously in the Jewish cemetery in Kielce. To this day, his final burial place is unknown.

In the early nineties Suwalski was "rehabilited" and the illegal military court verdict posthumously overturned and Suwalski was awarded the Cross of Valour and the Home Army Cross . Suwalski's symbolic grave is next to the grave of his commander, "Nurt".

[StefanM]

I haven't found out what the patch design is in the first photo but he is an officer of Narodowej Organizacji Wojskowej (NOW-NSZ) „Barwy Białe” 1944 : Obwód Opatów of Kedyw Okręgu Radomsko - Kieleckiego.

[StefanM]

So the penny finally dropped

The patch design is obvioulsy a sword with an inverted capital 'B' on the left of the blade and a normal capital 'B' on the right side thus signifying „Barwy Białe” of my earlier posts in this thread I would also say that there is a white/red banner wrapped across the lower part of the sword blade judging by the two tone appearance of this element.

[StefanM]

Another photo of the soldiers of „Barwy Białe” and later of „Nurta” (zgrupowania „Ponury”)


Left to right:
NN, Tadeusz Kosicki "Zduńczyk", Zygmunt Dudek "Poker", Tomasz Wójcik "Tarzan", "Lulek", Konrad Suwalski "Mruk", ppor. Zalewski "Lisek", Julian Materek "Lulek".

[StefanM]

A recent paper casts a dark stain over AK (Home Army) unit “Barwy Białe”:

“Barwy Białe” on their Way to Aid Fighting Warsaw.
The Crimes of the Home Army against the Jews

By Jerzy Mazurek, Alina Skibińska


Extract:

"Having received the order from "Zawisza", Jan Stec and I gathered our platoons, comprising about 60 members of the Home Army in total, then went to the designated location in the Siekierno forest in the Kielce county, where we were brought by one of the Jews staying in "Zawisza's" headquarters. Once there, we saw about 30 Jewish people, including several women, in forest huts. I then gave an order to assemble them all and take them to a clearing. Next, when they were brought to that clearing, I ordered NCO weapons sergeant "Bolrok" to execute those Jews, and I walked away about forty feet into the woods, not wishing to watch the execution. After other members of the Home Army had shot those people, I came back from the forest into the clearing and saw dead Jews lying on the ground, and the soldiers killed those who were still alive with a few more shots. We were meant to bury them in that clearing, but a messenger arrived from "Zawisza" and told us to return to the squad immediately, which we did, leaving the murdered Jewish people unburied in a forest clearing in the forest near Siekierno in the Kielce county."

Paper can be found at: Acadamia.eudu

Some of the perpetrators were tried after the war by the Polish authorities.

The “Barwy Białe” was detachment directly subordinate to the Opatów District commander, Witold Sągajłło "Sulima" who published his memoir "Man in the middle" which I just picked up in a local bookshop specialising in military books old and new.



Witold Sągajłło is buried in Hartley Parish Cemetery, Kent, England.

[StefanM]

In one of those strange coincidences in a "collectors" life I just picked up a really early propaganda book published in 1946 by the newly installed Polish communists in Warszawa which references the fight against the "fascist bandits" NSZ by the MO in particular "Tarzan" of „Barwy Białe” the independentist anti-communist unit mentioned earlier in this thread! Although the text does not give the unit correctly. In 1946 they may not have known exactly who was who and in what fighting unit as they were simply "fascist (or Hitlerite) bandits" in the communist propaganda campaign.


"MILICJA OBYWATELSKA W SLUZBIE NARODO" or "Citizens' Militia in the service of the nation".

Published by: Wydział Propagandy Zarządu Polityczno-Wychowawczego M.O.R.P. or Propaganda Department of the Board Political Education M.O.R.P. 1946.







Sadly some young child has scribbled in pencil and crayon over most of the pages in this real rarity but I am hoping that I will be able to rescue the defaced pages using specialist erasers and will add a few pages to thread if successful...or not.

[StefanM]

Worn on the left sleeve, this "Fighting Poland" unit patch was dark blue background with white embroidered symbol. Shirts were brown silk, made from parachute material. The unit wore a mix of German and Polish uniforms. The soldiers received forage caps made of light canvas and dyed blue.

I wonder if any of these uniform insignia survive?

[sandgroper]

Interesting thread Stefan!

[StefanM]

Interesting thread Stefan!

Thank you

It has taken sometime to get more of the backstory to this unit.