Question to the experts of the Polish Armed Forces in the West

[JacekMed]

I have question to the experts of the Polish Armed Forces in the West.

My neighbours have showed me the group of documents with decorations awarded to one of the family members. The problem is that all documents were issued for one name except for Monte Cassino Cross, which was issued to the man with the same forename – Pawel, the same rank – kapral podchor., from the same combat unit, but with different surname…??? Monte Cassino Cross number is 9173 and according to the document it was awarded to kpr. podchor. Pawel Malinowski but all other documents are awarded to kpr. podchor. Pawel Sornek. The family was very surprised with this finding and they are absolutely sure that he did not change the family name.

How it is possible??? Transcription error???

Thank you for your help in advance!

Kind regards,
Jacek

[andrzejku98]

Hi Jacek,

With regards to request for assistance the Monte Cassino Cross Numbered 9173 was awarded to Strzelec (Rifleman) Pawel Malinowski , Date of Birth: 1922, Army Number also found on his ID Tags : 1922-228-III, Unit 4BSK.

I couldnot at this moment find an entry for Pawel Sornek, so I decided to check the web site of Stankiewicz for his listing of 3DSK soldiers and found the following information.

His Pawel Malinowski is listed as being a St.Strz. Born in 1915, Army Number: 1915-125-III, Unit 3BSK

and his entry for Pawel Sornek was Kpr.pch. Born 1922, Army Number: 1922-537-III, Unit 4BSK with KW

So I then tried the list of Polish Soldiers Killed in Action during WW2 in the west and found the following entry for Pawel Malinowski:

Rank: St.Strz.

Date of Birth: 17th February 1915

Place of Birth: Jodlowa in Jaslo Province

Date of Death: 17th December 1944

Buried at Brisighella, Wlochy

Grave Number: II - B - 3

That has thrown up a question which unfortunately I cannot answer. the Date of Birth 1922 is the same listed by Stankiewicz for Sorneks Birth, but not the rest of his Army Number.

Best Wishes

Andrzejku

p.s. Definition of an Expert is as follows: An Ex is a has been and a spert is a drip under pressure

[JacekMed]

Thank you very much Andrzejku for your historical research and valuable help!!!

Unfortunately, the problem is still unsolved and all data are inconsistent. I have checked all documents and below you can find the results of my investigation:
- according to the documents Pawel Jozef Sornek was born on 24.03.1922 in Paprocany near Pszczyna - Silesia, Poland. His army numbers are different in particular documents: 345/III; 1922/345/III; 1922/537/III; 537/III; 1922/228/III. I assume that in this numbers 1922 means his birth year, majority of the documents have number 537/III, however 345/III is also frequent. His military unit was 4th Carpathian Inf. Bn. This unit is mentioned in all his documents and on unit stamps. He was wounded 17.05.1944 during the Monte Cassino Battle and awarded with Wound Badge with one star. All these data suggest that Pawel Jozef Sornek should be awarded with Monte Cassino Cross.
- as I said previously only Monte Cassino Cross with its document is issued to another soldier – Pawel Malinowski. The date of issue of the Monte Cassino Cross is 15.03.1945 and the unit 4th Carpathian Inf. Bn. from 3rd DSK. According to the data received from Andrzejku, Pawel Malinowski was killed in action on 17.12.1944. So, the Monte Cassino Cross was posthumous award and it should be stated in the Monte Cassino Cross document that śp. Pawel Malinowski was awarded with Monte Cassino Cross (I have seen some documents to Monte Cassino Cross, which were posthumous awards and all of them had śp. prior to the name of the recipient) .

I hope that above data will help to resolve this WW2 mystery.

Thank you in advance for help and co-operation.
With kind regards,
Jacek

[cichociemny]

Being from Silesia he might have been conscripted into the Wehrmacht, then joined the Polish Army during the war, to protect his original identity and his family he was given a fake surname. At the end of WW2 the original surname would start being used again.
You often see sets of documents like this, especially from people born in Silesia.

[andrzejku98]

Hi Jacek,

I would advise the family to write to the Polish Records Section of the Ministry of Defence requesting information on his service, there is a charge for this, but then it would answer the Familys questions.

Best wishes

Andrzejku

[JacekMed]

Thank you very much for your help Andrzejku. I will continue my research. Frankly speaking I thought that there is alphabetical list of Monte Cassino Cross recipients but it seems that only list in numerical order exists.

Regards,
Jacek

[JacekMed]

Cichociemny,
Thank you for your suggestion. I have to admit that I was also thinking about Wehrmacht and false surname as it was quite often in soldiers from Silesia but the family denied such a version. I have asked them to find and show me all the photos from WW2 and I am going to check this idea once again.

Thank you once again for your idea.

Cheers,
Jacek

[dh2z]

Cichociemny,
Thank you for your suggestion. I have to admit that I was also thinking about Wehrmacht and false surname as it was quite often in soldiers from Silesia but the family denied such a version. I have asked them to find and show me all the photos from WW2 and I am going to check this idea once again.

Thank you once again for your idea.

Cheers,
Jacek

I have received an old photograph of my father, (on the left in this photo) who was arrested by the Germans as a youth in Wilno, Poland, (now Vilnius) and, as story has it, was put into forced labour. Later in the war he was captured in Florence, Italy, as a member of the German Army, before switching to Anders Polish Army under British command - the bits in between are totally missing. I was hoping that somebody might be able to tell me what uniform is being worn in this photograph and what the arm band means?

[A.J. Zawadzki]

Hi dh2z and welcome. I am moving your question over to the pre-WW2 section of the forum where you stand a better chance of obtaining an answer to your question.

Is it possible to get a clear close up scan of the text on the armbands?

Regards,
Tony