Discovery in Potenza Picena, former 4th Skorpion garrison.

[ChrisW01]

During a visit this May to research a Polish uncle who lived in this town from 1944 to 1946 was shown an interesting artifact. When I asked the owner, the town historian & my interpreter if they realized what they had their reply was 'we have no idea'. They had thought it was some old mannequin from a forgotten town parade or event. After showing them some old photos my excellent hosts were happily shocked to learn that what stood before them was a direct connection to Monte Cassino and the Skorpion regiment's monument erected in May 1946. According to the owner the Knight mannequin came with the house when he purchased it. The premises back in 1944/46 was the regiment's headquarters for that period. I've read that it's construction was overseen by Second Lieutenant (ppor) Mieczyslaw Bialkiewicz. Many soldiers had their photos taken with this Knight at Monte Cassino in May 1946. Have posted photos with the permission of the owner, last photo is from my album.

That it has survived this long was a completely unexpected discovery, the absolute last thing I expected to find, WOW!

Hope this is of interest to some.
Chris..........

[Adrian Stevenson]

What a great find!

Cheers, Ade.

[Gary J]

Amazing !

[Adrian]

That is a quite extraordinary find and lucky a person such as yourself recognised it for what it is!

[StefanM]

Great find Chris! Did your hosts say if there any "skorpions" still living in Potenza Picena? I know some were supposed to have married local girls and stayed in Italy when 2PolCorps were shipped out to the UK.

My father used to have a skorpion pennon slightly smaller than the one in your photo but sadly it was lost in one his frequent military service house moves

[ChrisW01]

Hey Stefan

Their historian told me that of the 35 + marriages there were only two soldiers and their wives that chose to stay. They were Kpr.Stanislaw Radziszewski & Ppor.Tadeusz Linke. Sadly Stanislaw passed away 30 years ago & Tadeusz within the last 10 years (I think?). I sat & spoke with Stanislaw's widow, she was very forthcoming with stories and had a sharp memory for her 90+ years. Her husband's photo album was facinating, she even id'ed her husband in my uncle's photo album copy that I brought. My hosts are going to forward me a list of all the couples who left and moved to other countries. Many of the older folks I met had very fond memories of the soldiers, everyone got on quite well. Sadly their were a few clashes with local communists sympathizers which resulted in the death of one soldier.

Chris........

[Cenowski]

Must be nice to buy a place that comes complete with Relics, just lot of old spiders and rubbish when buy place in the uk

[Dean]

What a fine find indeed! It appears that his sword is missing judging by the other photo from 46. It's probably hanging on the wall above the fireplace in the house next door! Well I bet you felt like Indiana Jones when you saw that! Well Thanks for sharing,friend.
~Dean

[SteveR]

Amazing find.

[GasMasksUK]

Fantastic find, thanks very much for sharing it and its story

Thanks

Danny